Personally . . . .

Personally I really do believe that yoga can make a huge positive influence in your life.

Words can only convey so much, and I sometimes struggle to convey what I mean on here (as some of you probably can tell).

Some of us need more verbal and instructive guidance than others - and some of the dark ominous warnings of 'going against the guru' seem to me to a bit like 'sell by dates' on some foods. You heed the warnings if you're not hungry enough to take a few risks now and again.

It does make me laugh that people seem to be able to take all sorts of over the counter medications, drink alcohol, and maybe take some of the so- called recreational drugs without a second thought - but then get them to breathe deeply for any prolonged period and they start to become concerned that some thing is wrong and that they may go mad- 'it ain't natural is it all this deep breathin?'.

Every thing that impacts on the nervous system changes perception to some extent - seeing a beautiful sunset, hearing some loud rock music, walking along Oxford Street at 1 pm on a Saturday, being shouted at by someone, being laughed at by someone, being quiet for ten minutes, shouting really loud for 5 minutes, having a cigarette, not having a cigarette (when you really want one), etc, etc.

'Nothing is known. Everything is imagined. Frederico Fellini.

Of one thing we can be more or less 100% certain - one day we will die!
Is there anything you can do about that?

Coming back . . . .

If you are serious about yogic practise, you will eventually have to concede that it is not what you 'do' but 'how' you do whatever it is you do.

Feeling dissatisfied and uncomfortable is good from the point of view of looking into the reason why you are feeling dissatisfied and uncomfortable. The usual option is to 'fix' any feelings that we do not like or approve of in some way by 'acting out'. But if you start to breathe instead it may allow you the opportunity to realise that there is nothing to 'fix'. This is a blessed relief because it is the start of realising that you are ok the way you are. How 'should' you be? Is there some way that you are being now that is not ok? If not why not?

Being ok at not being ok is an interesting position to take. In this case you can be tense and be ok about it. Why do you think that there should never be any feelings that make you uncomfortable?
Anaesthetising our self against feeling is death for the body/mind life-streams. It is numbing out and loss of feeling attitudinal leading to non-feeling and neurotic/compulsive behaviour. Phew!

Do you agree with any of this? Are you happy with your life? What are you doing? And why?

And . . . . . . . . . .

Ommmmmmmmmmm Shanti .

response-Ability pt 3

We can react to a situation a place or person or we can respond to it - but we can only respond if we have an inner deeper connection to ourselves and know who we are.

Once we loose our inwardly directed attention we are more out-ward in our focus and so in effect become more easily affected by what we are focusing on out side of our self. For example some people become obsessed with the weather and their moods change literally like the weather.

SO what? Who cares?

In this world that we appear to be living in it seems to me that there is less certainty than ever now on all sorts of different levels - so where do we find this certainty and/or peace?

Inside of the 'self' is a good place to start - and I'm not talking about the ostrich effect of burying your head in the sand - this is not a good idea to me.

Continuing to be interested in the global news, but perhaps watching it with some interested detachment seems better to me than becoming hooked in and worrying about every little thing that seems to be going on everywhere - I mean what can you do about 'it' anyway?

Becoming part of the solution - becoming more peaceful is a very good way to protest (if that is the right term?)

The media to me appears to be obsessed with telling us bad news (ALL THE TIME) - Charlie Higson has a show on TV that shows the amount of media attention given to 'bad news' opposed to more benign news items. I don't like the format of the show too much but he makes a good point on this (in my opinion).

BUT - We know this already don't we?

All I know for sure (he said tentatively) is that yoga has got a good track record for making people generally more peaceful.

'The truth shall set you free, but first of all it will really piss you off!' Quote.

Will it?

Omzzzzz.

I am that I am . . . . So Ham

"Believe nothing no matter where you read it or who said it no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and common sense." Gautama Buddha.

P.s I am (as far as I know so far) not a Buddhist.

If the above statement is true what then can we believe - experience - ? What is common sense?

Even experience is subject to variations on a theme, e.g. something we like /approve of etc, some times we don't like/approve of at other times. Why is this? Is it to do with biology - physiological processes etc - psychology - hormonal changes - astrology - permutations of the planets - meteorology - the weather systems - or something even more mundane or esoteric.

How can we know the truth?

This is a question for you - and 'there are no truths' is not an acceptable answer - is it? :)

During the process of meditation etc (or whatever process you use) at the point where the mind is silent and the body is peaceful - Do We still exist - And if we do in what context? And if we don't where have we gone? Hmmmm.

WhO ArE YuO ? ? ? ? ?

Shanti . . . . .

Responsibility pt 2

It is up to no-body but 'you' to find out who 'you' are.

'You' can do that through may different ways, e.g, just living your life everyday with a more aware consciousness will do it for you.

Yogic practise can help you maintain a (higher?) state of awareness that will support you to go deeper into the multiple layers of who 'you' think 'you' are.

If you are even half serious about yoga you will at some point have to ask yourself what it means to be free.

What is Samadhi? Have you thought about it and what it is? Because this is what you are heading towards if you are following the yogic path.

If you don't look at it fine, but it's a bit like going on a journey with no final destination in mind. Which is all very well but why would you not want to know where you are going? I know it is nice and convenient to say that your life is in the hands of some mysterious guiding force that some of us may choose to call God. But what about your own 'free will', do you have any?


'I never believed in God. Even as a child I thought if He did exist we should start a Class Action suit against Him.' Woody Allen.

Yoga helps some of us for sure in many ways. It is a radical process of transformation and as we begin to see into our nature, i.e, why we do what we do, we will be disturbed and comforted at different times. We may think we have arrived at a safe understanding only to have the carpet pulled from under our feet again in the next instant.

But all the time we bring it back inside, we bring it back to this essential question - 'who am I?'

B-R-E-A-T-H-E BREATH BREATH . . . . . . . . . even when you don't feel like it!

Om shazam !!

Yoga can blow your mind!

IF yoU LeT iT !


'Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere might be having a good time'.
H.L Mencken. 19th Century journalist and critic.


DiD you DO SomEthinG gooD foR YouRSElf TODAY ?

O ZZZZZ

Truth Or Dare

What is the truth? - Do you dare to find out?

'It must be nice to live in a cozy illusion' - This is a statement made by someone that I felt was being a bit harsh on me when I was speaking about my life as I now live it (most of the time).

My first response was 'ouch!' and then I thought 'but we all live in an illusion to some degree don't we?' Well this was ok and it got me by for a while - Until . . . . . .

I thought deeper about this whole thing of illusion and the great 'get out clause' of "Oh I'm sorry I wasn't thinking straight at the time I'll do/say that again"

Which of course lands me in the hot water/ hornets nest of 'who the fuck am I anyway?

I know that there are some benighted folk that 'think; they know who they are - (sorry let me put that again) - I think I know of some folk that 'do definitely' know who they are, and I usually conclude (on a good day?) that they are the lucky one's and on a bad day I'm not so sure.

'This is no one's problem but my own.' This is another of my thoughts on the subject of nothing in particular. This - is = I am stating that 'this is' reality. No - one's = I am really talking about 'who I am'. Problem = something that I cannot understand. My = me/myself/I. Own = posses.

Now I'm thinking I'm trying to be clever and it is true I am trying to be clever. Why would I not want to be clever? But I am trying to not be confusing and so on that note I will desist. I hope that you can see what I am getting at (he thinks to him-selves assuming that there are people reading this!)

Bearing in mind that nobody seems to have the time to do yoga anymore -( too busy is such a popular excuse these days - but let me ask you one thing - who makes you busy or what makes you busy?) - I am not going to suggest that you get up in the morning and do 30 minutes of deep breathing - because you won't have time!

'We have found a strange footprint on the shores of the unknown. We have devised clever theories, one after anther, to account for it's origin. At last we have succeeded in reconstructing the creature that made this footprint. And Lo!. It is our own!' Sir Arthur Eddington. (British Astrophysicist ).

Shanti!

Easy?

To achieve a state of consciousness that is conducive to a more relaxed and positive experience of living we have to be realistic about what it takes to attain it.

What is realistic? This is a good place to start. . . . .

For me the determinant factor involved in wanting to achieve peace/moksha/samadhi is intention - and unless you have a goal you cannot score!

BUT then again all of this wanting leads to more stress - the statement "I want to be relaxed" is a positive enough statement but when "I want to be more relaxed" becomes a compulsive command it becomes counter productive.

BUT then again unless we have an element of stress we will not be motivated to achieving a state of relaxation- will we?

SO it is probably best to ask yourselves what is it that you think you need and how are you going to get it?

Unless we know what it feels like to be 100% relaxed we can never really be sure if we have found it can we? So we may have to take the advice of those that have gone before us and look for the clues therein - (Yoga Sutra's -Bhagavad Gita et al.)

When one makes the statement "I am" one is affirming a condition of reality into the mind/body dynamic. BUT making the statement "I am" does not necessarily in itself mean that what you are experiencing is anything other than an illusion of your conditioning.

This then begs the question - is there a template for being a human i.e is there a default setting of the human experience?

IF we can acknowledge that we live in a 'conditioned' reality we may then need to ask what would it be like to live in an unconditioned reality? And unless we know what unconditioned reality looks like we can never really know for sure if we have achieved it or not - can we?

What is unconditioned reality?

When we sit and look deeply into the nature of our mind we find what?
When we sit and look deeply into the nature of 'our' condition we find what?
If the mind and all of it's devices stops being - do we still exist as a human personality?

And more importantly - Do we care? :))

Om

4x4 breath

A good simple and really (relatively) quick way to restore harmony - if you find yourself feeling stressed out - is to try and breathe in and out through both nostrils counting 1-2-3-4 inhale and then 1-2-3-4 exhale - then repeating this procedure for as long as you can or until the heart rate slows down and peace is restored .

The reintroduction of a regular breath pattern sends a signal to the brain that 'all is well' and the brain (usually) will comply and slow down the heartbeat and restore harmony. Yes I know it's over-simplified - but this is an easy and simple way to bring some harmony to the system back when it becomes compromised by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Anxious thinking it it is left unchecked long enough will eventually provoke a feedback mechanism from the brain via the hypothalamus - pituitary pathway - to the adrenal glands for a lovely shot of adrenalin - leading to increased heart rate etc (see yesterday blog). Our mental anxiety has now become a physical anxiety- hmmmm.

So the best thing to do - if you can be bothered - is to introduce a steady 4x4 rhythmic breath into the mix before the mental anxiety becomes a physical anxiety.

Over time - more likely to happen if you practise regularly - you will notice the times when you start to feel anxious/stressed and act accordingly.

Why would you not do this and why would you prefer to be stressed and anxious rather than relaxed and peaceful - has it become a habit that you have become attached to and need in order to function. It's possible that you are now addicted to adrenalin - this could be one possibility - and this is not so unusual - as you may already know.

Anyway ........

as you continue to progress with this practise you can - Inhale 1-2-3-4 - Hold 1-2-3-4 - Exhale -1-2-3-4 - Hold on the exhale - 1-2-3-4 and inhale again 1-2-3-4. It is an easy thing to do and it works.

Depending how far your anxiety has gone into physical mode it may take a bit longer - How long?

How long have you got?

Omm

Addicted!

What are you addicted to? That is - what is it that you 'have' to do to feel better? Extreme addictions such as drug and/or alcohol abuse are very obvious and we can point at the drunk and druggie and accuse them of being out of control. But when you stop and look and think about yourself in terms of freedom from addiction how do you relate to it?

Addiction of any kind irrespective of it's destructiveness is a form of control. "Neurotic suffering is an attempt to avoid authentic suffering" S. Freud.

Why do 'YOU' do yoga? - AND - What is the point of yoga? . Yes I know we have lots of books telling us what it is and what it does and what it is supposed to do - BUT - what is it doing for you?

F>E>A>R = False - Evidence - Appearing - Real.

Anxiety is very common today for many people. It becomes so common that we don't even recognise it anymore. It becomes part of our everyday experience and we learn to kind of 'accept' it with a level of begrudging affection . . . . . ? "Oh yea well stress is part of life innit".

Achieving a deep state of relaxation as often as you can will definitely change your whole life.

The 'sympathetic nervous system functions as a stimulator. In extreme situations it is more commonly known as the 'fight or flight' mechanism. This is the body's emergency stimulation into action when we are under threat. In days of yore when we were threatened by a wild beast or something else our fight or flight mechanism would kick in and we would either attack the threat or run away from it. Adrenalin would course through our system and the muscles would tighten for action, we would go pale as the blood was shunted into the centre of the body away from the periphery, the digestive tract would switch off creating a dry mouth and tongue and of course the heart would race and pump - Recognise these symptoms ?

Over the long term (unless the para-sympathetic nervous system is able to restore balance again), we will begin to suffer form what is known as adrenal exhaustion - m.e - chronic fatigue syndrome etc, etc. The function of the para- sympathetic nervous system is 'greatly' enhanced when the practise of ASANA - PRANAYAMA - MEDITATION is used as often as possible.

What more is there it be said!

Loads ......

Omzzzz

multi-dimensional

As one goes deeper into the practise of Asana - Pranayama and Meditation it becomes clear that there is more to the psychic/soma structure than we at first imagine.

During practise we find the mental processor changing and going through a whole spectrum of intricate meanderings - we tend to drift off (daydreaming) - we find ourselves thinking about events from the near or distant past (remembering) - we go off somewhere and snap back to the present feeling as if we have been somewhere we can't quite remember (spacing out). Lots more than this can happen as we know and when these phenomena occur over and over again we begin to see into the nature of ourselve(s) into the deeper layers of our mental/physical construct.

There are many psychological models to choose from - Freudian - Jungian being the two most well known. And it is useful to have a psychological framework to use once the practise goes into the murkier territory of 'ego' re-configuring.

Ego reconfiguring is a stage of transformation. It is when we start to see our - selve(s) more clearly. Some of these inner selves we may like and some we may not - this is the challenge. Some people try to minimise themselves into a kind of cardboard cut out of a person living in a one or two dimensional realm of good/bad and right/wrong. Life seems to 'not' be like that for me it seems to be more multi-faceted and there are many shades of colour between black and white to look at.

Yoga for me is a tool to awaken higher consciousness - it is not an end in itself - it is a begining of transforming and of using the the 'stuff' that we have now - the crude oil energies and emotions - and then learning to tame and transform them in the alchemical process of Dharana/Meditation, in fact in the whole process of the Eight Limbs. And lets face it because there are so many poorly trained and ill-equipped so called yoga teachers out there it is very sound advise to find someone that is trained in dealing with the difficult processes of the mind/body transforming dynamic.

And here we may come up against another problem - which one to choose?

Reading some of Carl Jungs more accessible work is useful - and Robert Assigiolli too for a more illuminated description of the construction of the psyche/mind whatever you want to call it.

All good stuff!

Om

Changing the input . . . .

Compulsive and manic thinking and behaviour in general blocks out our ability to connect to the source (prana). If we cannot get energy in a natural way we resort to substitutes such as adrenalin (one of the most popular), caffeine, nicotine, sugar, alcohol etc. We then become more susceptible to the ups and downs of life - for example being upset because it isn't sunny everyday or because somebody said something to us that we didn't like or didn't agree with.

Seasonal adjustment syndrome (s.a.d.s) and food allergies and all sorts of mechanisms peculiar to our modern lifestyles are endemic. So we get gadgets and therapists to help us limp along, we resort to all sorts of supplements and medicines to enable us to carry on living in the lifestyle we have become accustomed to and feel we are entitled to.

It seems to me that modern humans think that they are entitled to a trouble and pain free life, then get upset when things seem to go wrong. Life has always been a challenge in some way or another throughout human history why should it be any different now?

For the last 25 years I've done just about all a person can do to find a way to live that is more or less pain free and joyful. I studied Osteopathy and Naturopathy and I tried all sorts of different modalities in my attempt to find a lasting way to keep healthy. A lot of these things work but they formed a dependency on outside aid which I was never comfortable with. Then I came across yoga almost by accident 16 years ago.

Before yoga I took all sorts of supplements and I needed body work sessions every two weeks or so because of my past injuries and damage in general and life for me in general was always a bit up and down depending on all sorts of complicated permutations .

I now take no supplements at all ever. I haven't needed an osteopath for 10 years - although I do have the odd massage here and there occasionally. I eat a healthy balanced diet and therefore suffer from no allergic reactions. And to be honest this is all because I practise yoga. And that is the point I do actually get up and practise yoga everyday even when I'd rather not - and that's putting it mildly.

Now I know if I was reading this in the past I may have been tempted to think 'who this this guy think he is? I couldn't give a f--- what he does! Does he think he's some kind of hero?' :-)). But no actually I'm just feeling like I need to put my money where my mouth is today!

It seems to me that yoga will work for you 'if' you make an effort (at least) to try and do some now and again. . . . . .

Om Shazom!

Ahem!

It would be nice to think that there was something to laugh at all the time, because it does all get a bit intense sometimes doesn't it - why is that? Maybe we have substituted intensity for joy- or is it just that what appears to be the mundanity of ordinary life is so unbearable that we have to do something/anything to avoid feeling the 'stuff' (stuff remember?)

So we find ourselves - Over working - Over eating - Over exercising and Over doing it in general under the misguided belief that we are getting some where and that maybe we are escaping from the prison/s we have created for ourselves

Well life is what it is until it isn't - in other words it seems to me that I/we seem to drift along in a kind of waking dream and then one day if we are lucky, or not, depending on how you look at it, I/we may may wake up!

Then waddawedo?

If you take time to read about or become interested in some one from history (Winston Churchill, John Lennon, Sid vicious, Wat Disney, Marilyn Munroe ) and you read about them. You tend to find that dependent on who is doing the writing you get different perspectives of this person, and sometimes opinions vary so much that you might be tempted to think they were talking about somebody else.

A study was done some years ago by someone I cannot for the life of me remember who it was. But two people met in a room and spoke for an hour - they then came out and wrote about their experience of the conversation, in 9 out of 10 cases these stories varied so much that it appeared as if the two people writing about the experience had not been in the same room.

So from the two perspectives above we may come to some kind of conclusion that reality is however we see it. And if we go back to the idea of (brain) conditioning we once more find that things are or become the way they are dependent on our personal experiences and conditioning so far up to this very point in time.

Pavlov et al are interesting instances of the basic behavioral conditioning that can occur under experimental clinical conditions over a relatively short time. But when you relate that same data over a whole lifetime the mind begins to boggle.

So it behoves you to ask: Who am I? and What am I doing ? From time to time dunnit!

Ommmzzzz

I can't help it . . . . .

There are many questions we may need to ask ourselves as we begin to get clear through our ongoing awakening from our ongoing practise.

One of the more important questions is - Am I who I think I am ?

And if you go a little further with that it may become - Who am I anyway?

BUT - If you 'can sit still' for long enough (as you now know) and bring your mind to a still point of quiet-ness, then a deeper part of you may begin to realise that in a sense it doesn't really matter matter who you are or what you are doing from the perspective of egoic reasoning.

........ and if you continue to go down this road (of sitting still) you may then find that are being guided by a 'deeper' sense of who are 'becoming' with a deeper relationship to feelings, intuition and inspired creative thinking -rather then grinding through and living out the fantasies of the 'robot' mind.

But of course as we all know (don't we?) this will happen by magic (whatever that is) and it can only happen when there is an intention of some kind for 'it' to happen - in the first place.

So the old excuse of 'I didn't mean it ' or 'I Can't help it' becomes meaning less - because the dread of waking up means we 'have' to take more responsibility for ourselves in all areas of our lives! Arrrghh . . . .

"Freedom is a double edged sword" Quote.

As the inhale and the exhale evolve into a meaning- full - harmony we integrate the opposites of HA (sun) and THA (moon) - Male/Female - Yin/Yang and we become more . . . . . . .

AND - DON'T FORGET GET TO RELAX AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN.

Om Shanti

Maintain your energy . . . . .

After you have done a practise or seen a great movie or something else that makes you feel great, how can you maintain that feeling?

Are we the victims of our lives?

Can we become masters of our- selves?

This is what it appears to be saying in every single yogic text that we read . . . . .

Does it seem to be working for you? Is it working for you?

The answer to this is that if you are doing a regular ongoing practise it will be working even when you think it isn't. In fact if you maintain a practise (no matter what) it will be at the times that nothing seems to be happening that more is happening!

BUT - You will only be able to do what you are able to do - BECAUSE - there are 'governors' in your condition that will not allow you to go further than you are able to go at a given point in time. These 'governors' are called various things by whoever is naming them.

'Granthi knots' - (Google this and read about them) - can act as regulators of your progress, and from a psycho-emotional perspective you can just call it 'stuff' that gets in the way.

And ...

'Stuff' can be anything, from your psychological/physiological conditioning and/or just being too busy, too tired, too stressed to do anything in the way of anything to do with your ongoing well being practise etc.

Paradoxically your 'stuff' or your 'conditioning needs to be respected otherwise you are likely to break something (do not push for results). But then again if you are an extreme type and want to get it all sorted out by the end next week this may be a lesson that 'you' need to learn.

So we eventually find a way that works for and we learn when to push, when to pull and when to do nothing at all. Loverly .....

'We arrive in different ships but all end up in the same boat!' Quote.

Hari Omzzzzz

Try it and see for yourself . . . . .

The peacock is the symbol for illusion or 'Maya'.







A yoga posture (an Asana) can be difficult to do at first, but like anything else (usually) if you keep at it, it will become easier.

We all live more or less between the dynamics of tension and relaxation. Sometimes we get very tense and sometimes we get very relaxed. Which state do you prefer? And more importantly can you create the state you prefer when you need to?

I am quite disapointed by the lack of enthusiasm I see around me for working towards 'waking up'.

I hear people say that they love yoga, but I don't really see much evidence of the overall benefits of it in the way they seem to be behaving.

But that, as they say is my problem. . .. . . . . . innit!

Oh the Simplicity of it all . . . . .

When in doubt sit or lie down making yourself comfortable - close your eyes and relax - as you relax allow the body to surrender into gravity - feel the body become heavy and go deeper into a state of dynamic relaxation . . . . . . . .

When not in doubt do it too !

Do it as often as you need to. In other words find an optimal state of being - whatever that is for you in your current state of progress along the yogic path - and become fierce about maintaining it!

Notice what takes you out of it and get better at maintaining it!

Too simple?
Too hard?
Too busy?

Within you resides a state of absolute relaxation and harmony - what is it that is preventing you from having it? - you have all the tools at your disposal now - i.e Asana - Pranayama - Meditation.

The really important thing is that if you don't use these tools for your well being it doesn't matter to anyone else at all does it. It only makes a difference to you ultimately doesn't it. So in a sense I suppose it is dependent on how much you value yourself and/or how desperate you are to get clear from the stuff that keeps you unhappy. These are the determining factors in your practise agree/disagree?

An example: The 'drug addict' is only happy when he has his drug - take that away from him and he becomes very upset. Getting upset is a natural event in any process that involves change. We seem to become attached to things being the way they are even when the way they are makes us miserable and unhappy - we become numb, and robot like we crash on hoping that something will happen to change us. Or we may end up becoming sick because we do not heed or may not be hearing the body's inherent wisdom. It is not unusual for this to happen, and it can act as a catalyst for change in some cases. But 'we' don't have to wait to get sick because we have the aforementioned tools to change don't we?

"I wandered lonely as a cloud" William Wordsworth.
"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom" W. Blake
"I can't help falling in love with you" Elvis Presley.

Hari Om

Pranic overload?

Let us be serious about this yoga practise. It is a serious business. Some people will undergo many years of psychotherapy to unravel the complexities of their issues, so we shouldn't think because we do yoga we are going to sail into a bright and glittery future without some mishaps along the way.
In a sense a yoga posture is a 'metaphor' - and we could see it as a difficulty to overcome perhaps or something to understand about ourselves and our attitudes etc. We all have a psyche that is very complex (probably) and this psyche begins to be shaped from our childhood onwards, creating the 'conditioning' that we become blinded by throughout the whole of our life, unless we wake up to it at some point. We cannot underestimate our own ability to fool ourselves - leading to ego inflation as a compensation for feeling of insecurity or inferiority.

So the question is; Can we practise yoga without the help of a guru teacher to guide us along the way?

What happens when we get lost or confused and overwhelmed - who do we turn to?

My answer to that is to turn to the 'real self' and to submerge the small mind into the silence of meditation. I can do that because I have learned the skill to do that and I am very grateful for it too!

If however you do need counsel and guidance I would strongly advise you to be careful about it. Think about what you really need help with and seek out the appropriate person/s for that.
There is so much on offer now in the way of healing and therapy etc that we probably need counseling to know which of the modalities/therapies to choose for our own needs to be met adequately.

'The answer lies within".

Hari Om!