Learning to love . . . .

Apparently love can only be experienced it cannot be taught. Is this true?

And anyway what is love?

From the point of view of living in this world that we live in we have to come to terms at some point with the dynamic of stress and tension. Has there ever been a time when we as humans haven't been under stress? I doubt it very much. Imagine living through the last war with children to bring up, or living during the black death or any other time in history.

The only thing that is different now is that we have perspective, we now know what it is like to be relaxed. In times gone by this was probably just a privilege of the wealthy. Maybe?

So here we are all suffering from stress and overwork. why? Why do we do that, what is this about?

Don't we have a choice now? Are we still slaves to the wealthy? I don't think so, but then again what is going on? I suppose we could just conclude that this is the natural state for us humans, and as we evolve into an unknown future there is bound to be anxiety, which of course leads to feelings of stress. But we have always been evolving into an unknown future, haven't we, therefore we have always been stressed?

Some of the wise guys from the past saw through the illusion and sat down and said hang on a minute what am I doing? In fact more to the point who am I to be doing what I am doing? As they went deeper into questioning the nature of their conditioned reality they came to some devastating conclusions. These people were labelled madmen, mystics, poets, artists and yogi's amongst other things.

Very few of them were born into this condition and most of them suffered for many years until one day like the Buddha they said ok that's it I want to see the truth. Some of them did and some of them went mad, others gave up and became charlatans and low level con artists making money form the little they had learned. But all of them had seen something that made them stop for a while and ask some important questions.

The stress you feel is a dynamic force, it is an energy that is useful for your personal evolution. Use this tension in your practise to help you see through the layers of illusion that surround you day by day. This illusion of course is all in your own head and buying into it will make you crazy.

You have a practise now. Use it!

Om

More prana - more peace!

You will find as your practise evolves that the relationship you have with yourself will grow deeper.

You will get a deeper appreciation for who you 'really' are and will then in all probability act accordingly.

I think it is an amazing thing to realise that 'you' hold the key to how 'you' want to be.

It is the commitment to the practise that will carry you through the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in a more graceful way.

Don't you think that is amazing!

Oh yes of course sometimes it can be a bit tricky at times but even then you will begin to see that this 'inertia' or 'anxiety' or whatever it is that we all feel from time to time is nothing more that a result of how we behaved yesterday - this is what is known as instant Karma!

In spite of what I have said in the past I know that we all of (seem) to have to do what we have to do at certain times. Even when the thing that 'we have to do' makes no rational sense to our ongoing relationship with ourselves and bigger picture.

The psychologists have name for this and it is called 'acting out'!

"If it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger" Famous quote.

"If it doesn't make you stronger it may kill you." Less famous quote.

What we (hopefully) begin to realise now is that 'we' are now (fully) responsible for how we behave (our actions) and what we choose to do with the information we receive from our actions (karma).

For example if you know that when you eat 'blue cheese' you will get a headache and then choose to eat cheese anyway. This is a decision you are making with your current state of consciousness and experience thereof. Tt isn't wrong it's just what you are choosing to do, probably because your love of cheese outweighs the suffering of the headache. As you evolve one day you may say 'no cheese please'.

Hmmmmm :) never mind . . . . .

Ommmmmmmmmmmzz

Pranic Confessions .........

Sometimes when I'm writing I have a feeling that perhaps some people may think I am a bit too hard line on the issue of practise of yoga as a process of healing and the practise of drinking and smoking as a process of the opposite of healing.

All I can say about that is that I myself do not drink alcohol and I do not smoke. I used to but don't anymore. So of course there is that old adage, 'judge not lest ye be judged'. Which to be honest I find annoying. When people tell me I am judging them it could well be true. But I am only judging them from the perspective of the idea that they are supposed to be practising yoga and I have never read anywhere in any of the yogic texts that you do your practise and then go and get 'wasted' on booze. Surely the true point of practise is to see beyond the constraints of the neurotic small mindedness of the current trends and see the underlying deeper reality.

When I went for a walk last summer and saw one of the main teachers from a nearby yoga center drinking a bottle of wine by the neck and smoking I did wonder if it was a joke! And on some level of course it was. But why would 'I' want to go to a so called yoga class taight by an idiot like that! This same person who the week before had been prattling on about Shiva and the mantra's thereof.

Give me a break!

It is very disappointing (on some level) for me to witness the vapidness of the yoga world today and the rubbish that is spoken about it.

A 'vested interest' in keeping the profits up are the main the drive of some of the yoga centers operating today, you've only got to look at the timetables to see the endless list of 'yoga teachers' to know full well that quality is certainly being compromised by quantity.

But hey we've got to earn a living right! Even for some if it means talking bollox and wasting people's time under the guise of teaching them something. Maybe it would be a better idea to go on the piss after all!

Hari Om Ananda

Pranic Earth/Brain.

'However unhappy a man (or woman) may be, the moment he knows the purpose of his life a switch is turned and the light is on...If he has to strive after that purpose all his life, he does not mind so long as he knows what the purpose is. Ten such people have much greater power than a thousand people working from morning till night not knowing the purpose of their life'. Hazrat Inayat Khan. Great Sufi Teacher.

Asana and Pranayama practise prepares us for meditation.




Brain Waves :
1. Beta - 13 - 30 cycles per second (cps). Wide awake.

2. Alpha - 7 *- 13 cps. Day dreaming.

3. Theta - 3.5 - 7 *cps. Highly meditative state.

4. Delta - 0.5 - 3.5 cps. Super learning and advanced memory.

The Schumann resonance 7.38 cps. low alpha/high theta. This is the vibratory of the planet Earth! Google it and read on.

So when we are in the 7 *cps mode of relaxation we are resonating with the Earth energy and as we surrender to and relax into this vibratory rate we absorb a lot of energy and WE FEEL GOOD.

'Unless you stand up for something you are going to fall'. Quote of someone.

So it would behove you to take some time out and learn to relax and get some of the lovely prana that is available.

If you don't feel good (for some reason) you will need to escape from that feeling and booze and drugs is an easy but in the long term damaging way to do it!

Going on the piss all weekend and doing yoga through the week does not a yogi make. All it really does is lead to a further split between mind and body. But hey what do I know ?

Ommmmmmmmzz

Prana is here now!

~ Get up ~

~Sit Down~

~And Breathe~

~As you do this notice what comes into your mind~

~Do not stop breathing~

~Or else you will suffocate~

~The inhale is your 'will to live'~

~The exhale is your surrender to the flow of life~

~This is not complicated is it?~

The one thing that blocks your connection to pranic input is your inability to notice it is there all the time - available all the time - ALL THE TIME!

Compulsive thinking is the block to receiving prana through the conscious breath . . . . . .

You are responsible for your own life and everything in it! This is a fact that you cannot escape.

All the information you need is right under your nose.

Who ARe You ?
What Do you want?
Where are you going?
And Why are you going there?

"Dive deep and drink"

Ommmmmmmm

A u m

Compulsive thinking is the problem.

How can you step back from the compulsive thinking mechanism?

There are many ways to do it!

One of them is to use a mantra - such as Aum.

Vibrating this sound into the forehead and visualising the symbol (above) will help you to detach from the thinking mechanism in order for you to realise that you are not your thoughts.

THIS IS A PROFOUND REALISATION -

because . . . . . .

It then begs the question . . . .

If I am not my thoughts then . . . . .

WHO?

AM

I?

You do not have to believe in God in the traditional sense to know that behind all of the layers of the mystery that we call life there is a universal matrix (call it what you like) that pulsates with radiant energy.

When you vibrate the AUM you are connecting to that 'one thing' and you will be infused with it!

The alternative is to think about some thing that will make you happy - or think about something that will make you sad/angry/ miserable/excited . . . . blah blah de blah . Well you know .

Ps the above practise seems to work better after doing pranayama . . . . . . . . . .

getting lost?

In days of yore the tradition of yoga meant that you would live within the vicinity of or even with the yoga guru teacher, and in the process of the unravelling of your-self through the various yogic practises and rituals you would be assisted by the guru teacher.

We now find ourselves in the position whereby you can be taught yoga in a gym by someone that knows nothing very much about yoga, but the powerful practise that you may undergo during a class or three every week may provoke some kind of crisis within you. It is highly probable that this will be the case.

The purpose of yoga is many fold - but essentially it is a dismantling and putting back together again of the whole person/psyche/body. Obviously this may take place over a long period of time but it is nevertheless still the case.

In other words you may need someone to talk to now and again . . . . .

What you going to do if the person teaching you is an idiot?

Ommmm

Get up and do it !

Get up in the morning and do yogic practises and you will start to find out who you are and what you want.

The other option is to get up in the morning and throw yourself into the day, the day that was very much like yesterday and on and on we go into an unknown future - waiting for something to happen that may change something, sometime.

Once you begin to understand that you are always creating (really always!) whether you like it or not. You may begin to appreciate the need to wake up the nervous system by means of psycho-spiritual exercises (yoga) in order that you can start to create something that 'you' really want and not what 'somebody' else wants or what a half-awake and half-cocked you 'thinks' it/you wants.

Blah de blah blah blah.

Well really it has all been said before hasn't it?

'Action speaks louder than words' Famous quote by somebody.

Is this it then?

Have we emerged through the primordial slime and evolved for millions of years into humans just to become slaves?

Freedom - is a word that needs to be examined a bit more closely and if 'we' take on board the idea given to us from the yogic philosophy that all is 'Maya' we may have to ask some even deeper questions.

BECAUSE; Just to stand behind a statement like 'it's all an illusion' without having to justify it is just not good enough really is it?

Quantum physics (apparently) have have gone so deep into the nature of 'matter' that there is now (apparently) some question as to where matter ends and consciousness begins. I am not a quantum physicist but this is what I glean from reading up on it as much as I have (so far).

So from this perspective it is or seems to be 'all an illusion' in other words there is more 'space' than 'matter' at large in our vast universe/s.

It is also (apparently) true that some experiments 'done' with 'minute' particles, i.e. sub, sub, molecular physics can be affected by the observer, observing the experiments!

So that is one way in which we could say it is all an illusion.

The other is, which I think is more likely what the yogi's had in mind, is that the 'mind' is a conditioned thing and it is not capable of being 'completely' objective. In other words our mind has been shaped by all of the experiences, educations, etc, that we have had in this precious life that you/we/ I have had so far.

So our impression of what is real or not real are affected by this conditioning - ahem!

So the question/s for the yogi (at least) is - 'what is the nature of reality - and who am I?'

I mean if you keep stripping away the layers mental conditioning where do you end up?
The existentialists arrived at a bit of a dull conclusion because they weren't yogi's - and of course (some) of the yogi's did (and still do) arrive at some pretty weird conclusions too.

So whaddawedothen?

Keep breathing/Pranayama - Thinking with awareness/ meditate - Asana practise (every single day) and Relax more and as often as possible.

And

Enjoy it :))

Ommmmz

Denial or not denial - good question

DENIAL = the action of declaring something to be untrue.

The way I see it is that before we can solve a problem we have to acknowledge that we have one.

Denial is a very good way of staying within the the comfort, and therefore life negating, condition of pathologically oriented comfort.

If and when you decide that you have had enough of being a slave to your conditioning you may decide to do Yoga everyday.

If you are on here and reading this then hopefully you are already being supported by an ongoing practise. If you are on here and not doing an ongoing practise I'll assume you have a very good reason for not doing so. Excuses and denial will only last so long before life will somehow snap you out of it. (IT) being the pathological 'need' to stay stuck.

You may see yourself as a victim and say that it's not fair, that you of all people have the excuse par excellence for not doing anything. God bless you then.

"We do not become enlightened by focusing on images of light. We (may) become enlightened by taking the light into the darkness." Carl Gustav Jung.

I personally believe that practise of yoga (or any other discipline) can be very hard at times and it is pointless to say otherwise. Those that say it is all easy then good luck to them. It's not been like that for me and many other people I know that have taken the road to recovery from denial.

This is a yoga website for people that practise, or have a desire practise yoga.

Ha - Tha = Sun moon Balanced polarities.

Too much sun = too hot

Too much moon = too cool

Bit of both = Harmony.

How do we keep a balance?

Try doing some balancing postures.

Question - Would you do sun salutations in the middle of the night?

Ommmmz

Help!

You know it seems to me that everybody seems to be a bit busy.

Global recession etc really means that companies are finding it hard to keep up the profit margin. So they sack people and the one's that remain have to work their arses off!

I see too many people stressed because of this.

What I am saying is that unless 'you' start to stand up for yourself, by getting some inner connection with yourself, you will be chewed up and spat out and no one will care if you did what you did for heroic deeds or not.

Unless you make some quality time for yourself you will evaporate.

And going mental on the booze and drugs at the weekend in order to forget about it are depleting the system even more.

But the funniest/strangest thing to me is why people wonder why they are so unhappy . . . .

You are a victim or beneficiary of you own actions. It is no one's fault. You are completely responsible for everything you do, everything.

How many lives have you got?

Shambo!

Do you need it?

I have always been a bit of a restless soul and not very easily pleased with things you might say. I think it was/is this quality that kept me looking for answers, answers to the dilemma of always being restless, distracted and a little anxious.

Eventually, to be honest, I stumbled across yoga. I had always viewed yoga as something that looked very boring and for silly people that took themselves to seriously.

Well here I am now with 15 years of practise behind me and I've never felt more content and peaceful. Some of you who know me better may laugh at that but you should have seen me before!

So it seems to me that with yoga being so challenging and all, why would anyone that was content with life as it is (without yoga) do something like 'yoga' in the first place?

I know why I did and still do it because to be honest I need to.

Now there's the thing. 'I 'need' to', is a statement that doesn't sit easy with me because I don't really like to 'need' anything.

But if I go deeper with this issue I soon realise that I 'need' to eat, sleep, work, have fun, etc. So it is (for me) a required need. But only if I want to have the quality of consciousness that I have become used to, and this quality of consciousness of course stems from my sometimes wavering desire/need etc to keep practising.

So that is it really that is what keeps me wanting to get to the top of the mountain- the desire for continuing the quality of consciousness that I have become used to.

Nothing more nothing less.

What about you? :)

Om Shanti

Wake up now!

Once you realise (and some of you may eventually) that you are a victim of your conditioned programmed mind, then you may understand the importance of yogic practises everyday!

If however you think this does not apply to you then you surely should ask yourself the question what am I/you relying on in the way of 'reality signals' ?

It seems to me that we are bombarded every single day with negative news impressions, disasters, terror threats, social decline, poverty, war, global warming and global un-health . We are then bombarded with 'fixes' in that way of advertising, i.e. 'because your worth it', and we still wonder why there are problems in the world. . . . ?

'Unless you lose your mind you will never come to your senses.' famous quote by someone.

'You may find yourself . . . . . . . ' Once in a lifetime. Talking heads.

What is the pre-requisite for enlightenment (whatever that is) ?

It may be a good idea to ask what are the pre requisites for being totally miserable and doing the opposite. Hmmm now there's a thought or two.

Om Namaha Shivaya

It all starts here!

Where else can power be other than here and now!

Yoga is nothing more than a system that is designed to wake you up!

It is designed to wake you up into the profound realisation that you are MORE than you think you are!

And that as they say is that!

So no matter how complicated it all gets, and it is people that like to complicate things - Yoga really is a very simple process.

It consists of ;

1. Posture practise - including salutations!

2. Breathing consciously - Pranayama - Alternate nostril breathing etc.

3. Concentrating on WHAT YOU ARE DOING. (at all times eventually)

4. Relaxing/Absorbing and therefore re-energising the system with the previously invoked Prana.

Be my guest to add anything else necessary for the process to be complete.

If you leave any of the above out it will not be a fully integrated practise and will therefore be unbalanced. If it is unbalanced then you will suffer in some way. You don't have to believe me of course. But if you are going to make a great cake you add 'ALL' of the ingredients do you not?

I think all of us could do with learning to relax a little more. . . . . .

Keep quiet and see . .

Of all the ingenious and brilliant things we can all do one thing springs to mind that is so simple and yet so hard to do - Stop thinking.

CAN YOU OR DO YOU HAVE ANY CONTROL WHATSOEVER OVER WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT AND WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT?

To be or not to be is not the question - This is the question. . . . . .

Once you have answered yourself as honestly as you can, ask yourself one other thing: Are you truly happy?

If the answer yes please leave your e mail address so we can contact you and ask you how you did it.

If the answer is no ask yourself - WHY NOT?

Who is in charge of your life and are they taking good care of you?

If nobody is in charge of your life you will probably have to (eventually) take responsibility for it..........YOUR SELF.

And then things start to get interesting

You are transforming whether you like it or not

From the moment we are born we are influenced by every single thing that happens to us, this is a fact.

At a certain point in your life if you are lucky you will realise this fact.

You will then become more responsible for how you are affected by how you are influenced by everything.

Especially if you do yoga everyday!

Serenity prayer

God grant me the 'serenity'

To 'accept' the things I cannot change.

The 'courage' to change the things I can

And the 'wisdom' to know the difference.

As I/we/all of us draw in more 'prana' (through our sustained and ongoing yogic commitment) we will wake up our capacity to choose how we 'respond' to life, rather than being a victim of our unfettered reactions to everything that happens to us. This is true. . . .

So I ask you: Why do you not do yoga everyday?

Where What How And WHY?

What
Where
Who
Why
When
?????????

'There are no truths just stories; Zumi Saying.

It IS aLL iN Da Mind!!!

IT's aLL In The MiNd !!!!


It IS!!!


It Is Isn't iT?

Eh??

A word from Allen Watts

Alan Watts Says . . . . .

If you believe in the higher self,
this is a simple trick of the lower self.

If you believe that there is no lower self,
that there is only the higher self, but that somehow or other the higher self has to shine through—the very fact that you think that it has to try to shine through still gives validity to the existence of a lower self.

If you think you have a lower self or an ego to get rid of 
and then you fight against it—nothing strengthens the delusion that it exists more than that.
So this tremendous schizophrenia in human beings of thinking that they are rider and horse, soul in command of body, or will in command of passions—wrestling with them—all that kind of split thinking simply aggravates the problem and we get more and more split.

So we have all sorts of people engaged in an interior conflict which they will never ever resolve because—the true self, either you know it or you don't.

If you do know it then you know it's the only one, and the other so-called lower self just ceases to be a problem. It becomes something like a mirage, and you don't go around hitting at mirages with a stick, or trying to put reins on them.
You just know that they are mirages and
walk straight through them.

Pranic opening.

Sometimes it is very hard, you will know this if you have been practising for a while. Sometimes it feel very difficult as we get captured by something, our emotions take over, our mental discombobulations seem to run riot and we become lost.

The cause for these difficulties are activated usually by an outside event, a catalyst, someone says something to upset us, we get some bad news, someone we love gets sick or we ourselves do.

Once you begin to know yourself through ongoing and regular practise you know that no matter how bad it appears to be it is just an illusion. Getting upset and worrying about something does not change it's external manifestation does it?

Doing a regular and committed practise will start to unravel your conditioned responses and you realise that you have (more of) a choice over your conditioned reactions. Great!

Of course there is something comfortable about living in a conditioned and seemingly safe reality structure but ultimately it is life negating. It is like idling in the groove and waiting for something to happen, but once you activate deeper consciousness - WHICH YOU CAN DO - you will experience yourself in a different way.

The 'bigger' you moves into the 'bigger picture' .

Hari Om!