Easy/Hard - Hard/Easy ?

It's a simple thing to do isn't it? Sitting still I mean, it's simple to do isn't it!

Sitting down to meditate is the beginning of the 'inner' journey.

Once you have got fed up with finding the 'perfect posture' and looking at yourself in the mirror as you compete with others in the Asana class, you may be ready to really start to practice.

Whether you have the best teacher in the world or the worst is irrelevant in some way, the reason for this is that the commitment to go deeper has to come from you.
It is 'you' that takes yourself to the class and does it!

Don't let the teacher take your glory. They are only doing what someone showed them to do. Yoga is an old technology and all of the different labels that now exist are the 'egoic' stamp of approval of the self ordained 'teacher masters' that decided they were worthy. And of course the silly neurotic devotees that have nothing better to do with there time except do retreats, workshops and seminars because they have nothing inside to connect to are equally to blame for the hyperbole that surrounds the whole silly yoga world!

If you want some inspiration read Krishnamacharya or Satyananda. Both of these people lived very simple lives. Begrudgingly leaving the commitment to the practice they were involved in to teach the idiots that came from the west.

The rest as they say is history.
Just sit still, shut up and do it!

"There ain't no guru can see through your eyes" - 'I found out'. John Lennon R.I.P

Garbage in and out . . . . more.

Whatever makes you happy - right?

Hmmm - not sure that is the case.

We are (according to what I understand) ideally are meant to live with our feet firmly on the ground and our head firmly planted in the sky. In this way (metaphorically at least) we are integrated above and below, head and heart, body and soul etc.

In yoga we ground ourselves with 'challenging' physical Asana's. Yes, a bit of suffering is good for you ;)
We empower this groundedness and move heavenwards with pranayama breathing.

This is surely not too difficult is it? An hour or two per day or every other day?

Because we appear to live in a world that is 'crazy,' life, instead of getting easier with all the incredible technological inventions, seems to be getting harder. Why is this? Is it really getting harder or have we been hypnotised by the massive media powers and marketing people to think that we do not have to do anything anymore to get anything?

Life for us, according to the hype and bullshit - count the endless silly magazines that are available now - is effortless. We can all live like the Beckhams for free, we can get it on credit.

I know so many people that are working 10 or more hours per day, for what?

The old Yogi says - "All of your problems stem from wanting, wanting, wanting." And he is right!

It's not that we have to live in a cave and live on rice, bit surely this crazy feeding frenzy of compulsive consumption has got to stop at some point. How much do the Murdochs, for example, need?

An addicts first line of defence is 'denial'.

'YOU' absolutely will have to defend your behaviour. The alternative would be to realise what a mess you're in and that is too much to carry.

Sit still and let the mind become quiet - breathe in and out through the nose calmly and regularly.
Relax and realise your true SELF.

Garbage in garbage out . . ..

Whatever you input into the hard-drive (brain) will result in information/data being processed through the nervous system. As you become more conscious it stands to reason that you will become more choosy about the information input into the hardware/brain/nervous system.

At a certain point along the path of awakening, either conscious or not, we will meet obstacles, usually referred to as 'Samskara's' in Yogic terms. This is essentially where we may come into contact with unconscious material that is, for various reasons, too difficult to deal with under normal circumstances.

BY 'under normal circumstances' I am referring to people that are either not doing a conscious practice of some kind such as Yoga, or are doing some kind of conscious spiritual practice but do not have an experienced teacher/guide.

If you have the tenacity or the commitment or the need to continue through this 'stuff' that emerges you may - if you are doing a regular practice, have to step up the practice, or in some cases, take the practice down a notch or two. If you do not have the necessary 'wisdom to know the difference' then you may get into trouble.

The trouble you may get into would, in medical/psychological jargon be referred to as a crisis/neurotic/psychotic episode and under extreme circumstances a 'nervous breakdown'!

Now to the novice Yogi or otherwise uninformed souls this is hugely traumatic and can lead to a halting of any progress at all. But to the 'informed Yogic practitioner it is the 'golden fleece'.

It is a very bizarre concept to the so called 'normal person' that we as Yogis are looking for crisis on purpose. That is the goal of Yoga - to evoke a crisis. sometimes they are rather mundane such as realising that you 'should' stop smoking. And sometimes they are larger such as realising that you may never have been totally free!

A shock indeed!

This information is here for your perusal to do with as you will.

OMMMMMMMMM

Altered blood chemistry = altered state.

The physiology of our human body is responsive to chemical influences. We have receptor sites in our body for the receiving of chemical influence. When the body requires a certain inherent chemical it sends a message into the system the chemicals are produced and attach themselves to the receptor site in question and low and behold we have altered out state of being somehow.

Adrenalin is a favorite, a hit of adrenalin will keep us going when we get tired. In order to get the adrenalin we create a scenario (the fight or flight response) and we get a 'hit' of the stuff. It gives us a temporary shot of adrenalin, which would normally last until the 'fight or flight' crisis is over. Some people become addicted to it and keep creating drama's in order to keep the stuff pumping into the bloodstream. Over the long term this can lead to a syndrome known as 'adrenal exhaustion', commonly known as 'burnout'.

Burnout is only taken notice of when it requires us to take time off work, or makes us sick in some way. But it is all around us, all the time. Some of us are living on a knife edge of energy depletion. The question is WHY?

Have we become hypnotised to believe that we need 'lots of money', lots of things to own and have? Well of course we have!
It, like many other bizarre behaviours, such as compulsive gambling, drinking and drugging are now accepted as being totally normal. But if you can just for a second get outside of the box you may begin to realise just how crazy it is - crazy beyond belief!

A whole industry has now sprung up around these issues, the industry is known as health care or healing or some other such thing. But once more we see the craziness of it all. A massive supermarket of healers and therapists telling you what is and what is not good for you!

Ok enough of that - Really if you just stop for a moment and take a deep breath, relax the shoulders a little and relax a bit more, suddenly your whole world has changed. The inherent chemical messengers are going to do the job for you. Relax and the brain relaxes into deeper states or frequencies - Beta - Alpha - Theta and Delta. As you relax your brain all of reality changes before your very eyes.

You may well respond to this by saying - 'it's not that easy', and you'll be right it's not. But you gotta start somewhere - right?

Yoga will help you relax and that is the starting point for change.

Dis - Satisfaction!

What do you want?

Om ;-)

Wake up an do it - Do it and wake up!

As soon as you open your eyes in the morning do Pranayama!

What have you go to loose?

Weird thing to do? Too right it is!

I notice a tendency in the morning - first thing - to scan my mind for something to fixate on.
It can be anything from what I did yesterday to what I might do today and beyond. It doesn't matter 'the mind' or the 'small part of me that 'I' call the mind' is looking for it's little fix of what it perceives as 'reality'.

Feeling - Thinking - processing through information is what creates for most of us 'reality', I mean where would we be without it?

If on the other had, as suggested above, you sit up and start to breathe deeply, ignoring the moans and the groans of the beleaguered mind stuff, you may find another way to 'wake up'.
It is a 'real' awakening. It is almost too much to bear sometimes. As the larger mind is revealed into full waking consciousness is can be quite a shock to the 'conditioned system'.

'Necessity is the mother of invention' - and Pranayama is the invention bar none of necessity at this point in time wouldn't you say?!

The harder it gets the more responsibility you 'have' to take!!

Become . . .

Being, as opposed to doing, is very 'boring' for the continuously seeking soul.

As I am slightly older now maybe my seeking has naturally dropped away.

All I now know is that seeking comes from dissatisfaction - a sense of lack of something.

Seeking leads you into all sorts of interesting places. In these places we sort the 'real' from the 'unreal'. We find out who we are.

We can then relax as we begin realise there is no big secret to life.

Relax.

living is easy . . . .

"Living is easy with eyes closed. Misunderstanding all you see."

So goes the lyrics to 'Strawberry Fields' The iconic Beatles song of the 60's.

Having eyes closed may appear to be easy, it follows from the 'ignorance is bliss' platitude. It comes from the misguided belief that life is somehow easier if we don't care about anything, or to be more honest, if we 'pretend' we don't care about anything.

Denial is endemic. It is a by product of addictive behaviour. Addictive behaviour can be said to be any behaviour that is injurious to your health - think about that!

When the human brain and nervous system are victimised/compromised by the operator's denial of grounded reality or 'I don't give a damn' attitude, it becomes distorted and corrupted. At this point the psychological issues become physiological issues.

Once we reach this level of conditioning it is harder to change. The longer you leave it the harder it becomes. The issues literally become 'concretised' into the system. All very scary stuff I suppose.

What baffles me (again) is that the solution is simple. One has to find a practice, spiritual or otherwise that keeps the owner of the nervous system living in a grounded reality.
Yoga is the system par excellence for this purpose.

Now as far as I'm concerned, with all the information now available to you from the many sources that exist you have a choice to make - you either do it - or you don't!

Living in misery and drama will keep you pre-occupied forever but it is not much fun!

Apparently Sigmund Freud, the great cocaine and nicotine addicted Psychologist said. "Neurotic suffering is used in place of authentic 'existential suffering!"
He also said; "A cigar is sometimes just a cigar".

BRAIN STRAIN DRAIN . . . .

As you keep pushing yourself to achieve, overcome, and alleviate the mundanity of everyday life you use the adrenal glands a lot. You may even throw gasoline on the fire by drinking caffeine, eating sugar, drinking alcohol and taking drugs. Wow! As I think I said earlier these habits are more or less accepted as being normal occurrences.

If you are doing these things you are really not going to be too interested in hearing about the damage you are doing to your nervous system. You may 'like some do' believe that the world is coming to an end so 'who cares anyway' ?

I personally find it staggering that some people that purport to be on a spiritual path, working on themselves, doing/teaching yoga, lecturing on health issues and otherwise so called enlightening subjects have the audacity to stand in front of a group of people and pretend they have something interesting to pass on! But hey that's me. . . . .

Please get a life now!

Surrender.

Of the eight limbs (Ash - Tanga) of Yoga only one of the limbs is a physical practice (Asana).
Pranayama is physical too but mostly it is concentration. The rest of the limbs are concentration at deeper and deeper levels until the surrender of Samhadi.

Surrendering or letting go is something we can do at any time. Acceptance of the now is surrender into the moment. There is no other time.

If we are constantly thinking about the past or looking into the future we are 'not all here'. We are off somewhere else.

Being present does not need to be tense. Practising relaxation in many different situations is a good way to go deeper into being who you want to be.

Resistance to the moment is not being you - resistance is fear based. Of course that is not to say that you are going to put yourself in great danger and not expect to be fearful - fear is an appropriate emotion if there is a real cause for it. But being constantly anxious about life is not good at all.

I really believe that many people are living with chronic anxiety. They have lived with it for so long that they don't realise they have it anymore. Smoking and drinking help alleviate chronic anxiety but do nothing to deal with it.

It is difficult for me to see people that have been practicing yoga for some time come up against something they cannot deal with and give up practicing yoga. But that of course is their problem as they say. 'It's karma innit, as they say'.

Samskaras - Granthi knots etc are a term used for what we may call blocks within our system.
We are happy and can function well under certain conditions. At a certain point if the conditions change we may become triggered into feeling stressful and tense, we then cannot function quite as well, we go unconscious. In order to deal with the anxiety/ stress/ paranoia or whatever it is we may resort to compulsive panic based behaviours such as smoking/drinking/ overeating etc. As we know all of these behaviours are more or less accepted as 'normal' in our addictive society.

To be completely honest I used to think that if a person had enough of compulsive acting out they would be ready to face the music and get on and deal with the 'unfinished business' of the background delusions. But unfortunately I have seen to many people die from 'compulsive acting out' - which is merely another term for 'chronic addictive behaviour'

So to keep it simple you can either let go completely or you can notice what is preventing you from doing that and deal with it. As this is a Yoga website I would encourage the Using of Yoga, of course, to help you.

Upgrade the software.

Upgrade the input into your brain and nervous system.

Pranayam - Pranayama - Pranayama.

It's all in the mind!

Never was a truer sentence uttered. . . .

IT IS ALL IN THE MIND!

So be careful what you put into it.

What goes in must surely affect what comes out.

Lots of prana going in will have a very positive effect on the brain and nervous system.

The brain and nervous system are the hardware.
Thoughts, ideas, beliefs, habits etc are the software.

Become more choosy about what you think about.

Ommmminnngs

Coming back to yoga...........

A swami once said to me, a swami that lived in an ashram, he was speaking of a yoga teacher in my area, he said; "This man is too political." At the time I thought, 'yes he is too political'.

Now I ask - How can you 'not' be political. Obviously yoga per se has no agenda with politics, but the human beings that practice it have to live in it and with it. And whilst they may have no particular political axe to grind, to say, one is not political is like saying I'm only half alive.

To live in this world you 'have' to be political. This current global situation warrants that we all pay very close attention to what is going on. And the 'tool' of Asana - Pranayama - and Meditation is the perfect way to stay sharp and clear.

"If you cannot avoid what's coming towards you, open your arms and welcome it". Anon quote.

In the microcosm - us as individuals - we can deal with our immediate environment - we can recycle - we can buy less junk and stop wasting energy - we can consume less as we become more conscious of our needs as opposed to our wants - and so on.

As we practice we cannot fail to increase our awareness - as we increase our awareness we see more - as we see more we become clearer about what we can and cannot do about all sorts of things.

One of the things about becoming more awake is that we see our natural talents - we can apply these natural talents to the task at hand, whatever that may be.

The alternative it to try harder and harder to ignore the facts and become more and more disassociated from reality. Reality being the grounded experience of living now.

The deception.

This western modern society we live in is incredible. We have so much and so little. We have so many incredible inventions, technology has blasted through the roof in the last twenty years. We take it for granted now that we can speak to someone on the other side of the world more or less when we want to within seconds, from anywhere in the world - incredible.

We have access to very powerful computers, we can look deeply into the past through powerful telescopes that look deep into space. Hadron colliders are working twenty four seven to find the missing building blocks of the universe - Unbelievable!

In spite of all this we still have people starving to death at different points on the planet. We still have wars over money/oil/territory all over the planet. We have problems with the climate though over use of fossil fuels etc. It is said we are destroying the planet by cutting down huge swathes of ancient rainforest etc. Crazy!

The answer to all of these problems must surely come through the simple realisation that 'we' as a 'species' do not need so much. We need food - shelter - water - company - warmth - community.
The rest is all 'wanting' which stems from lack, or the seeming idea that we lack something.

Why do people (in spite of what appears to be going on - recession, banking collapses etc.) still need to hoard vast sums of money?

Apparently - according to what I read, 3% of the population of the planet own 97% of the wealth. Is this true? Even if it is 20% it still seems wrong somehow doesn't it? I am no expert on the economy but it seems to me that if you spend more than you have it doesn't work.

The media has a huge responsibility to tell us the truth - doesn't it?
But does it?

If you sit still and breathe in and out through your nose for half an hour you may start to see some thing more clearly. Your own perceptions and beliefs, biases and habits will be exposed.
You may see that people are more confused and frightened rather than bad and dangerous.
We have politicians on the TV that look and talk more like the 'Muppet's' than the Muppet show itself!

You have to laugh.

Down we all know the truth - We just have to access it - We have to remove the obstacles that prevent us from seeing with clear eyes.

Yoga is one way of doing that.

Omzzzzz

Deep soul exploration.

I do go on, I know I do, about the state of so-called Yoga, the so-called teachers that teach it and the so-called people that do it.

But that is my prerogative because this is my blogspot.

Not all, but some of what I say has relevance.

Meditate on the self is the maxim I follow.

Repeatedly deifying Guru's and teachers is nothing. I imagine that some people may think that these benign beings are looking down on them with special favour every time they put a famous quote, picture or something else pertaining to said 'God' on face book or twitter. Even the much maligned Osho said. "Do not worship me when I'm dead. Do not worship a dead Guru". Good for him.

So what have we got with this Yoga thing?

If you get up in the morning and practice pranayama and meditation you will have a different type of day from a so-called normal day. This will occur because that act of practice will awaken the part of you that is asleep most of the time. The part of you that wants to wake up will find a way to do that, so you may as well encourage the process with some sort of conscious practice, i.e, Yoga.

If you can take some time to relax and look inside yourself you will be shocked to realise how much of your time is taken up with trivia. It really is shocking! The shock has a positive effect of waking you up and igniting the spark within to 'get on with it'.

How much money is enough? I think we can all see now that the way things have been going are not really working very well. The order is collapsing to be replaced by a more healthy and functional order. This will arise naturally once the panic has died down - however long that will last we have no idea. So you need to get clear I reckon, grounded in the self, deep in the self there is certainty and peace.

The alternative is to keep grinding away and partying harder and harder. The problem with that is that once it wears off (the party effect) life hasn't changed, and more often than not it seems to get worse.

On that cheery note - Good morning . Om

onward and upward.......

You can do it!
In spite of all I say.
It is not too hard.
All you have to do.
Is do it
Do it everyday!

The 'gene' of spirituality may or may not exist. We are either predisposed to a so called 'spiritual path' or we are not. If you try to do the drinking and drug thing and the spiritual path at the same time you may have a nervous breakdown. It's not wrong to do this it is just rather stupid!

Stories of 'great people' having mind blowing epiphanies abound in stories from all over the world. For most of us however it is slow and steady. We wake up gradually to the realisation that only 'we' can make a difference. It is a sad blow to the childish part of us to find out that there is no big mummy or daddy to look after us anymore. The inability to come to terms with this fact 'as an adult' leads many to become hooked on therapy, guruism, or some other such co-dependent device. Like I said before, it's not wrong if you 'need' to be told what to do, but it is unnecessary.

And maybe this is where the 'dreaded' karmic factors come into the fray. Some of us may be predetermined to live a life of sleepwalking, maybe we need a rest from the harsh responsibilities of being a grown up.

Hari Omzzz

Mind - Boggling

If you need to have a bath fitted you go to a plumber, likewise, if you need some electrical work doing you go to an electrician. You would generally go to the person that will do a good job for you and at a price that you are happy with.

When we enter the world of healing we enter a very strange domain. It is mostly a wild and woolly place, filled with all sorts of strange people who have their own ideas about what healing is.

25 years ago when I staggered into the cold hard light of day after a sharp reality check I was amazed at all the healing available. I had a book, I think it was called the 'The illustrated book of healing', and it was full of all these wonderful 'new age' healing techniques. I was fascinated and went on to try many of them so that I could be healed.

After ten years of adventure I feel I was finally 'washed up on the shores of yoga' nothing worked for me. Or if it did it was only temporary and warranted a certain dependency on the so called 'healer in question.

Among the things I tried were: Reflexology, Rolfing, Rebirthing, Homeopathy, Osteopathy, Psychotherapy (several different types), Crystal healing, Psychic surgery, Raw food therapy, Juice therapy, Alexander Technique, Radionics, Cranial Sacral Therapy. There are many more that I can't remember.

In my experience, it wasn't the type of therapy that impressed me it was always the attitude of the therapist that i responded to. I learned the difference between a 'healed healer' and an 'unhealed healer' very early on I am glad to say.

A healed healer 'in my opinion' is someone that is currently working on their own issues and is more concerned for your well being that their own egoic or monetary needs.
An unhealer is the opposite, concerned with 'what you think of them' and how much money they are making. Usually these people are less likely to be empathic and not working on their issues 'cos they don't think they have any!

I'm not saying that you won't be helped by an unhealed healer, in fact I did find it necessary to go to some, sometimes. But in the long term you will have to tune your bullshit detectors anyway.

The Yoga world is full of all sorts of people that have strange ideas about yoga. They think, like everything else, that you can, 'just do what you like' and you will be okay. This is not true.

I have found through my own trial and error adventures that there are certain things that are not okay to do if you are seriously practising Yoga.

Yambazza boo baaar !

Relax

After you've done all the retreats and workshops. Once you have spoken to all of the guru's, teachers, saints and sages. Once you have heard the sound of one hand clapping. there is only one thing left to do -

Get A life!

Om

de-conditioning.

Conditioning or the illusion that we are something will be brought into sharper focus as we continue to practice Asana - Pranyama - Meditation. This is challenging, we see who we are, who we have become. It takes some time to learn that we can 'surrender' the past. It takes time for us to 'real' - ise that we can change, that who we are is not solid and unchanging. Once we 'get this' we can move forward or upward or wherever we see ourselves moving. In fact we are not moving anywhere are we, we are actually 'incarnating' deeper into who we are now and who we are now becoming. This person we are becoming is becoming through conscious choice as opposed to unconscious mess making.

All very simple really.

Don't let the bullshit people mess up your mind - you know who you are, you really do!

Don't you?

Om

you are what you think . . . .

'What you believe to be true is true and becomes more true as time goes by. All such truths can and should be challenged, dismantled an reassembled to a higher, clearer truth. If this is possible it begs the question what is truth and what is the ultimate truth?"

"We are what we think."

These ideas about thoughts creating reality have some validity.
'I think therefore I am'. Descartes.

Thoughts such as 'I am tired/angry/strange/upset/not good enough', become reality.
If you were told as a child you were 'not good enough, at some point in time you may begin to believe it is true. You then become 'not good enough'. This is all psychological nursery school stuff, but it is worth reminding ourselves now and again that what we think is very powerful and influential in our manifesting reality.

Needing to be told what to do is a very insidious common fault in our way of modern living.
Why do we need therapists, teachers, guru's etc? Because of some defect? Because we are not enough? It is a valid question I feel.

We are fully formed humans, we have an incredible piece of equipment called the brain, a 100 million (or is it billion?) celled organ sitting in our skull. Why don't we use it?

Pranayama is the single most direct route to accessing higher levels of consciousness, it's not that difficult either. So it completely baffles me when I hear of Yoga teachers getting drunk and taking drugs. What are these people teaching?

Om Nama Shivaya.

Regular practises

If you do a full yogic practice to the best of your ability it will lead you into a crisis - this is what it is meant to do!

You enter the crisis because the structures that were supporting you, before practice, become unstable. Physical, mental and emotional structures become unstable because you are now using Yogic technology to undermine outmoded support processes on all levels.

Once you pass through the crisis your system will integrate the experience and move into a more efficient way of functioning.

On the way to becoming more efficient and Yogic you may start to believe that 'you' are great and that you have super human powers - these are known as Siddhis - and they include telepathy, visions, the ability to perform magic etc. You may start to believe your own hype at this point and become a guru or something and start charging vast amounts of money just because you exist on the physical level.

It can all be very funny, but you have to watch out for the pitfalls, such as nervous breakdowns and psychotic episodes, which are quite prevalent at the higher end of psychic dismantling!

'Never Mind'

OM

Krishnamacharya said . . . .

Apparently Krisnamacharya was a very simple man. He lived a very simple and spiritual life. He was a Yogi.

One of the last things he said was that money was not needed for a fulfilling life.

He was concerned with the so called modern ways (30 years or more ago). I think he would be appalled now at what has happened to Yoga.

It has made quite a few people very rich. People are charging ridiculous amounts of money to teach yoga classes. One example I heard recently is £125 for a personal 75 min class. I'm sure there are some 'super yogi's that may charge 'probably' more.

This is surely wrong! Isn't it?

Yoga is a gift handed down through history by devout Yogi's. It has been turned into business deal, a money making enterprise for those willing to take advantage of the gullibility of people with too much money.

I would like to think that some of the money made in this way was given to a good cause.

This could be construed as Judge mental? Yes!
Am I Jealous? No - I think not!
I think it's wrong and greedy - that's all.