Tuesday, October 03, 2006
jOin yOur uniOn
Why are you?
What is your purpose?
How do you become you?
When people first become yogis, many are suspicious of what is the spiritual dimension of yoga. They say to me, “just give me the physical exercise but cut out the mumbo-jumbo religious stuff okay?”. I always say, “Sure!” And I wait. . . Because not long after, the same yogis will inevitably come to me and say, “Hey, what is meditation? Can I learn meditation? How to I find out more about myself? Are there any yoga practices that can bring me lasting peace? Happiness?!” Why is this so? What is it in yoga that makes us ask these interesting questions when all we want at first was just to work up a sweat?
Spirituality does not mean praying for external help from divine sources nor suspending belief in the logical and investing faith in the superstitious. Spirituality means finding coherence: making a lasting connection between the meaning of being you and your place in the scheme of things. As much as it is human to feel, it will be human to seek meaning in our lives. Hence, as long as we feel the urge of trying to make sense of what happens to us, we cannot help but search for the spiritual dimension of things.
We are sorely lacking in one key aspect in our process of educating individuals for the challenges of modern life and how generally to stand on our own two feet: we are not taught how to find this kind of unity. Instead we indoctrinate book knowledge, we propagate technical competency and we create individuals who are able to make a good enough way of life materially but who are clueless about finding the kind of real happiness that comes from inner coherence. Oops.
From my own pre-yoga experience and from what yogis at mOmentOm have shared with me, I find that a lot of unhappiness comes from feeling we are somewhat helpless in the face of the daily onslaught of people and things that do not agree with us. This creates tons of stress and resentment. We slide from depression to anxiety to anger to depression, momentarily lifted by brief visits of excitement or anticipation only to be dropped back into the downward cycle once again after these inevitably evaporate. It is understandable given this scenario, where so-called “happiness” is momentary and followed by a huge anti-climax, that people are skeptical of practices that promise a way out of misery and into lasting happiness.
The root of the misery is that we feel we are not in control. We know we are not actively participating in our own lives – instead, we let life "happen" to us. This is not just upsetting, it is dehumanizing. We become robots, haplessly processing endless streams of data from external sources and suffering innumerable programme failures and system crashes.
When we feel upset that things are not going according to our liking, we really feel this bad. This is because there is that guiltridden part of us who knows we have already surrendered our freedom to the randomness of life and we have willingly damned ourselves to the consequences of such randomness. We know deep inside that we are ultimately the saboteurs of our own happiness because we have given up our freedom to choose how we want to be AND to make actions that originate from this choice. We just roll along with whatever comes by and feel unhappy because we know we are allowing ourselves to be bounced like a pinball from one event to another. This is that nameless feeling that gnaws at you on sleepless nights and haunts your daily tasks with a feeling of impotence and fills your frenzied plans with a sense of futility. Within ourselves there is a primal yearning for unity: to unite our actions with our purpose. . . to be true to ourselves and thus to have some kind of direction.
The meaning of the word “yoga” is “union”. And the purpose of yogis (“union makers”?) from antiquity to the present is to find ways of bringing individuals to a state of unshakeable union: where our inner being and outer actions are intimately connected. Where our daily behaviour becomes the truest manifestations of our purpose in life, we find ourselves in a state of authenticity that is called “the happiness that surpasses all happinesses” or samadhi. Samadhi is a kind of self-assuredness of living up to our most treasured expectations. All the yoga practices are explorations of how to bring about this kind of union. These practices, even if practised without knowing their purpose, will lead us to seek out our own path to union.
As I teach, I observed such a hunger for a “safe” way of spiritual enquiry from people. They do not want to dismiss their logical minds and take things on faith to discover who they are. They need not worry, in fact, because there is no need to leave your common sense at home to practice yoga, to seek coherence and union. As a matter of fact, you need ALL your senses, common and uncommon. We want to bring individuals to a state of complete union afterall. It is good news that we have adequately developed a healthy curiosity and a scientific spirit of inquiry that encourages us to accept only as facts what we have tested through experiment. As we delve deep into our being, our consciousness, we need these skills to differentiate reality from delusions. And when you find a yoga practice effective in bringing about mental clarity and inner peace, then you believe in it, then you share it and practise it with diligence, making it a part of your life. Authenticate all pursuits, spiritual or otherwise, with your own experience and wisdom. Then live by the truth.
It is significant that yoga is experiencing a revival now. That mankind has reached a spiritual crisis of unprecedented proportions is old news. But today I get a sense of more and more people feeling that “enough is enough” and taking their lives into their own hands and taking on risks to find a way to live in harmony with themselves and the world. We are taking back our humanity. And we are infusing our daily tasks with considered intentions from the largest of hearts. Thank goodness! I think even if just one person practises yoga and reaches to a peak of spiritual attainment, there is already so many benefits for the rest of us just by experiencing someone so authentic and purposeful. And here we are, so many of us practising. This is good. And as I always say, “it gets better”.
May you drop the burden of self ignorance today and join the path to self knowledge.
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What is your purpose?
How do you become you?
When people first become yogis, many are suspicious of what is the spiritual dimension of yoga. They say to me, “just give me the physical exercise but cut out the mumbo-jumbo religious stuff okay?”. I always say, “Sure!” And I wait. . . Because not long after, the same yogis will inevitably come to me and say, “Hey, what is meditation? Can I learn meditation? How to I find out more about myself? Are there any yoga practices that can bring me lasting peace? Happiness?!” Why is this so? What is it in yoga that makes us ask these interesting questions when all we want at first was just to work up a sweat?
Spirituality does not mean praying for external help from divine sources nor suspending belief in the logical and investing faith in the superstitious. Spirituality means finding coherence: making a lasting connection between the meaning of being you and your place in the scheme of things. As much as it is human to feel, it will be human to seek meaning in our lives. Hence, as long as we feel the urge of trying to make sense of what happens to us, we cannot help but search for the spiritual dimension of things.
We are sorely lacking in one key aspect in our process of educating individuals for the challenges of modern life and how generally to stand on our own two feet: we are not taught how to find this kind of unity. Instead we indoctrinate book knowledge, we propagate technical competency and we create individuals who are able to make a good enough way of life materially but who are clueless about finding the kind of real happiness that comes from inner coherence. Oops.
From my own pre-yoga experience and from what yogis at mOmentOm have shared with me, I find that a lot of unhappiness comes from feeling we are somewhat helpless in the face of the daily onslaught of people and things that do not agree with us. This creates tons of stress and resentment. We slide from depression to anxiety to anger to depression, momentarily lifted by brief visits of excitement or anticipation only to be dropped back into the downward cycle once again after these inevitably evaporate. It is understandable given this scenario, where so-called “happiness” is momentary and followed by a huge anti-climax, that people are skeptical of practices that promise a way out of misery and into lasting happiness.
The root of the misery is that we feel we are not in control. We know we are not actively participating in our own lives – instead, we let life "happen" to us. This is not just upsetting, it is dehumanizing. We become robots, haplessly processing endless streams of data from external sources and suffering innumerable programme failures and system crashes.
When we feel upset that things are not going according to our liking, we really feel this bad. This is because there is that guiltridden part of us who knows we have already surrendered our freedom to the randomness of life and we have willingly damned ourselves to the consequences of such randomness. We know deep inside that we are ultimately the saboteurs of our own happiness because we have given up our freedom to choose how we want to be AND to make actions that originate from this choice. We just roll along with whatever comes by and feel unhappy because we know we are allowing ourselves to be bounced like a pinball from one event to another. This is that nameless feeling that gnaws at you on sleepless nights and haunts your daily tasks with a feeling of impotence and fills your frenzied plans with a sense of futility. Within ourselves there is a primal yearning for unity: to unite our actions with our purpose. . . to be true to ourselves and thus to have some kind of direction.
The meaning of the word “yoga” is “union”. And the purpose of yogis (“union makers”?) from antiquity to the present is to find ways of bringing individuals to a state of unshakeable union: where our inner being and outer actions are intimately connected. Where our daily behaviour becomes the truest manifestations of our purpose in life, we find ourselves in a state of authenticity that is called “the happiness that surpasses all happinesses” or samadhi. Samadhi is a kind of self-assuredness of living up to our most treasured expectations. All the yoga practices are explorations of how to bring about this kind of union. These practices, even if practised without knowing their purpose, will lead us to seek out our own path to union.
As I teach, I observed such a hunger for a “safe” way of spiritual enquiry from people. They do not want to dismiss their logical minds and take things on faith to discover who they are. They need not worry, in fact, because there is no need to leave your common sense at home to practice yoga, to seek coherence and union. As a matter of fact, you need ALL your senses, common and uncommon. We want to bring individuals to a state of complete union afterall. It is good news that we have adequately developed a healthy curiosity and a scientific spirit of inquiry that encourages us to accept only as facts what we have tested through experiment. As we delve deep into our being, our consciousness, we need these skills to differentiate reality from delusions. And when you find a yoga practice effective in bringing about mental clarity and inner peace, then you believe in it, then you share it and practise it with diligence, making it a part of your life. Authenticate all pursuits, spiritual or otherwise, with your own experience and wisdom. Then live by the truth.
It is significant that yoga is experiencing a revival now. That mankind has reached a spiritual crisis of unprecedented proportions is old news. But today I get a sense of more and more people feeling that “enough is enough” and taking their lives into their own hands and taking on risks to find a way to live in harmony with themselves and the world. We are taking back our humanity. And we are infusing our daily tasks with considered intentions from the largest of hearts. Thank goodness! I think even if just one person practises yoga and reaches to a peak of spiritual attainment, there is already so many benefits for the rest of us just by experiencing someone so authentic and purposeful. And here we are, so many of us practising. This is good. And as I always say, “it gets better”.
May you drop the burden of self ignorance today and join the path to self knowledge.