Yogafly2

"Letting go" from The Venerable Ajahn Chah

A Collection of Dhamma Talks

For the ultimate in the practise of Buddhist
Meditation, the Buddha taught the practise of
"letting go". Don't carry anything around!
Detach! If you see goodness, let it go. If you
see rightness, let it go. These words' "let go",
do not mean that we don't have to practise. It
means that we have to practise following the
method of "letting go" itself. The Buddha taught
us to contemplate all dhammas, to develop the Path
through contemplating our own body and heart. The
Dhamma isn't anywhere else. It's right here! Not
someplace far away. It's right here in this very
body and heart of ours.

Therefore a meditator must practise with energy.
Make the heart grander and brighter. Make it free
and independent. Having done a good deed, don't
carry it around in your heart, let it go. Having
refrained from doing an evil deed, let it go.

The Buddha taught us to live in the immediacy of
the present, in the here and now. Don't lose yourself
in the past or the future.

The Teaching that people least understand and which
conflicts most with their own opinions, is this
Teaching of "letting go" or "working with an empty
mind". This way of talking is called "Dhamma language".
When we conceive this in worldly terms, we become
confused and think that we can do anything we want.
It can be interpreted this way, but its real meaning
is closer to this: It's as if we are carrying a heavy
rock. After a while we begin to feel its weight but
we don't know how to let it go. So we endure this heavy
burden all the time. If someone tells us to throw it
away, we say, "If I throw it away, I won't have anything
left!" If told of all the benefits to be gained from
throwing it away, we wouldn't believe them but would
keep thinking, "If I throw it away, I will have nothing!"
So we keep on carrying this heavy rock until we become
so weak and exhausted that we can no longer endure, then
we drop it.

Having dropped it, we suddenly experience the benefits
of letting go. We immediately feel better and lighter
and we know for ourselves how much of a burden carrying
a rock can be. Before we let go of the rock, we couldn't
possibly know the benefits of letting go. So if someone
tells us to let go, an unenlightened man wouldn't see
the purpose of it. He would just blindly clutch at the
rock and refuse to let go until it became so unbearably
heavy that he just has to let go. Then he can feel for
himself the lightness and relief and thus know for
himself the benefits of letting go. Later on we may
start carrying burdens again, but now we know what the
results will be, so we can now let go more easily.
This understanding that it's useless to carry burdens
around and that letting go brings ease and lightness
is an example of knowing ourselves.

Our pride, our sense of self that we depend on, is the
same as that heavy rock. Like that rock, if we think
about letting go of self-conceit, we are afraid that
without it, there would be nothing left. But when we
can finally let it go, we realize for ourselves the
ease and comfort of not clinging.

from Nirmala Devi's Daily Inspiration e-mails

the shattering of all pictures

Charlotte Joko Beck
Quote

"Someone said to me a few days ago, "You know,
you never talk about enlightenment. Could you say
something about it?" The problem with talking about
enlightenment is that our talk tends to create a picture
of what it is - yet enlightenment is not a picture but
the shattering of all our pictures. And a shattered life
isn't what we are hoping for."

Quoted form Halfway Up the Mountain - the error of premature
claims to enlightenment by Mariana Caplan

from Nirmala Devi's Daily Inspiration e-mails

Fusion and Differentiation in Relationships

from If the Buddha Dated by Charlotte Kasl, Ph.d. which I bought at Ananda Ashram's gift shop.

This book is great for all of you Buddhas and yogis dating  out there :-)

"Fusion, the opposite of differentiation, is when we become enmeshed with someone.  They have a headache, we take the aspirin.  They're out of a job, we read the want ads.  In many families, fusion is mistaken for love.  If you don't get upset when I'm upset, you don't love me.  If you don't want sex when I want sex, you're rejecting me.  When we're fused, differences are seen as a threat because everything has to be either right or wrong.  So if we have two different opinions, one person is 'naturally' wrong.  This attitude inevitably leads to arguing and blaming.  That's why fusion gets in the way  of intimacy.  It does not allow for two different people with two different ways of thinking, perceiving, or handling situations.

We all started life being completely fused to our mothers.  Moving from fusion to differentiation is a developmental process that continues throughout our life.  In fact, the process of differentiation completely parallels our evolution on the spiritual journey.  Spirituality and differentiation are simply two frameworks for understanding the same concepts. "

SILENCE

from Ramana Maharshi

Silence is ever-speaking;
it is a perennial flow of language;
it is interrupted by [human] speaking.
These words obstruct that mute language.

Om Guru Jai Guru Om!

from Nirmala Devi's Daily Inspiration e-mails

from an interview with Sharon Gannon of Jivamukti Yoga

from the www.jivamuktiyoga.com Web site:

Fr. Anthony: Where do you see conflicts between Yoga teaching and
Christian teaching?

Sharon: It appears to me that there are fundamental conflicts between yogic teachings and Christian teachings, but NO conflicts between yogic teachings and the teachings of Jesus.
If there was a movement to save Jesus from the Christians, I might join it! (Ha ha, I guess internally I already have joined it)

Jesus was a yogi: He lived the yogic life: Through acting in a way which was harmonious with the creation He felt the presence of God within His own being and was no only able to identify with it but to exemplify it so as to inspire others to remember their own True nature.

I and my father are one. -John chapter 10 this is Yoga! Could have come straight from Patanjali. Yogash Chitta Vritti Nirodha: Yoga sutra chapter1:2 which translates as: When you cease to identify with the fluctuations of the mind then there is yoga; identity with Self.

During his time Jesus was giving some pretty radical teaching, I and my father are one. is radical because it cites our true identity with the Divine (the Sacred Unity, Alaha), which means all that is. That which is seen and not seen. That Scared unity has to include all, so it even implies nature. This is radical because if we could identify with the Divine in this sense, then what would happen to our guilt or our anxiety or our insecurities and fear of loosing? If we knew ourselves to be connected with the All how could we enslave others or exploit them or see Mother Nature as belonging to us and existing for our benefit alone? How could culture survive? Without fear to plague us we may not need the heavy -handed control of the state. We would recognize the entire world as a Divine expression of our own greater heart.

There might be anarchy- oh my! Self-rule. Can't have that for a society based on the exploitation of others.  When one is governed by Love, one tends to see through the motives of man-made selfish laws. One can only be controlled through their anxiety, which is why culture is so keen on keeping us in a state of anxiety.  My teacher often said: "Yoga is the state where you are missing nothing."-Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati 

Jesus taught love and non-violence The social-political forces were threatened by his teachings, so they did what they had to do to maintain control. They turned His message upside down. By inverting the good news that the kingdom of heaven was within, and Love is the way to enter this Kingdom. The cultural powers focused on deifying Him, creating more separation. Separation or disconnection was what Jesus was trying to heal. After devaluing His teachings in lue of his deification the church became busy pointing an accusatory finger at pagans (worshipers of mother earth) and other savages who did not bow down to the One True Way.  The Church switched the focus from realization of the true nature of the soul to the worship of One Man The Church has been marching their armies over His message of love thy neighbor as thyself, in a frenzy to search convert and/or destroy.

There is indeed a basic difference between the Yogic teachings and the Bible in how the teachings are communicated. The yogic way does not emphasis proselytizing It is thought that One cannot be made to accept the teachings. One must instead already have the inclination inside of them and from that a person is able to hear the teachings. Isn't that what Jesus may have meant when he said, "He who has ears let them hear."

"Say I Am You" from Rumi

Gamble everything for love....

Half-heartedness doesn't reach into majesty.

You set out to find God,

but then you keep stopping for long periods

at mean-spirited roadhouses.

Don't wait any longer.

Dive in the ocean,

leave and let the sea be you...

-Rumi

the mark of a fake messiah

Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah.

-Richard Bach

how to achieve happiness

It is by not always thinking of yourself, if you can manage it, that you might somehow be happy. Until you make room in your life for someone as important to you as yourself, you will always be searching and lost. 

- Richard Bach

and from the movie "Into the Wild"--->
"happiness is only real when shared."

if you love someone

all by Richard Bach:

"If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they're yours; if they don't they never were.


"Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't. "

I don't want to do business with those who don't make a profit, because they can't give the best service.
 

I want to be very close to someone I respect and admire and have somebody who feels the same way about me. "

the Bachs are talking to me...

this one by Ricard Bach - author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions

"We look at some people as if they were special, gifted, divine. Nobody is special and gifted and divine. No more than you are, no more than I am. The only difference, the very only one, is that they have begun to understand what they really are and have begun to practice it."

Richard Bach

from Johann Sebastian Bach

  "It is easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.”

     "Where there is devotional music, God is always at hand with His gracious presence.”

and viva sweet love

 

Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl "Will you marry me?" The girl
Said:"NO!" And the girl lived happily ever-after and went shopping,
Dancing, camping, drank martinis, always had a clean house, never
Had to cook, did whatever the hell she wanted, never argued, didn't
Get fat, traveled more, had many lovers, didn't save money, and had
All the hot water to herself. She went to the theater, never watched
Sports, never wore friggin' lacy lingerie that went up her ass, had
High self esteem, never cried or yelled, felt and looked fabulous in
Sweat pants and was pleasant all the time.

The End

from Brenda Jablonski -

on the lower self

Fadiman & Frager

A Collection of Quotes on - The Lower Self

“The lower self always wants people to obey moral precepts only as it
expounds them, to love it more than anything else. The lower self
wants others to fear it in all situations, clinging to hope in its
mercy, in the same way that God demands these things from His
devotees.”

~ Kashani


“The lower self does not want anyone to receive anything from anybody
else, and if it is aware of someone receiving a special boon, it
seeks to destroy it.”

~ Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi


“The lower self is continually subject to notions and whims, both in
word and deed; it sticks with nothing and completes no project, only
wanting to finish everything quickly. Its movements are arbitrary
and unreliable; it is in a hurry to fulfill its desires, acting
precipitously. Certain sages have likened it, in its fickleness, to
a ball rolling giddily down a slope.”

“The lower self soon wearies of things. If, by any chance, the lower
self should succeed in attaining what it wants, it will still not be
satisfied. The lower self lacks stability.”

~ Kashani


“The lower self is constantly preoccupied with the virtues of its
attributes, contemplating its states with contentment and reverence.
It considers important the least thing it has done for anyone,
remembering it for years afterward, being overwhelmed by its own
kindness. Yet however great the favors others do for it, it places
no importance on them, forgetting them quickly.”

~ Kashani


“I saw my lower self in the form of a rat. I asked, "Who are you?"
It replied, "I am the destruction of the heedless, for I incite them
to wickedness. I am the salvation of the friends-of-God, for if it
were not for me, they would be proud of their purity and their
actions. When they see me in themselves, all their pride disappears."

~ Hujwiri


“The lower self likes praise. It continually enjoins a person to put
on pretensions, so that people will compliment it. Indeed, there are
many worshipers and ascetics who are thus controlled by the lower
self.”

~ Qushayr


“A donkey with a load of holy books is still a donkey.”

~ Traditional


“The lower self is like a flame both in its display of beauty and in
its hidden potential for destruction; though its color is attractive,
it burns.”

~ Bakharzi


“Happy are those who find fault with themselves instead of finding
fault with others.”

~ Muhammad

from Nirmala Devi's Daily Inspiration e-mails.   awesome.  awesome.  awesome.  note to the small self...

The Heart of Buddha's Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh

"The seed of Buddhahood, the capacity to wake up and
understand things as they are, is also present in each of
us. When we join our palms and bow to another person,
we acknowledge the seed of Buddhahood in him or her.
When we bow to a child this way, we help him or her
grow up beautiful - and with self-confidence. If you plant
corn, corn will grow. If you plant wheat, wheat will grow.
If you act in a wholesome way, you will be happy. If you
act in an unwholesome way, you water the seeds of craving,
anger, and violence in yourself. Right View is to recognize
which seeds are wholesome and to encourage those seeds
to be watered. This is called "selective touching."

from Nirmala Devi's Daily Inspiration e-mails

listening "hard" to the nadam...

from Rob Brezsny

listening to a source I love...over and over and over again.  the nadam sings me to sleep and awakens me into the waking life...and thrills every little cell in this wee body that eats and eats like there's no tomorrow but doesn't grow in any direction except inward:

week of january 17, 2008......................

I want to call your attention to a scene in the independent film Autism: The Musical. Neal is a 12-year-old autistic boy who has never spoken a complete sentence, not even to his beloved mother Elaine. He can barely form words. If you ask him to say "bar," he'll say "rahb." Elaine brings him to a therapist who guides autistic kids in using a machine that produces vocal sounds corresponding to words the kids type on a keyboard. For the first time, Neal's mom hears a message from her son: "Mom, I'm going to put you on the spot. You need to do more listening." I expect you will soon experience a metaphorically comparable event, Leo: A source you love will communicate with you in a novel way. Be receptive. Listen hard.

"Inconvenience" by Pema Chodron

When you start to take the warrior's journey, you're
going to find that it's often extremely inconvenient.
When you start to want to live your life fully instead
of opting for death, you discover that life itself is
inconvenient. Wholeheartedness is a precious gift,
but no one can actually give it to you. You have to find
the path that has heart and then walk it impeccably.
In doing that, you again and again encounter the
inconvenience of your own uptightness, your own
headaches, your own falling flat on your face. But in
wholeheartedly practicing and wholeheartedly following
the path, this inconvenience is not an obstacle. It's
simply a certain texture of life, a certain energy of
life.

Not only that, sometimes when you just get flying and
all feels so good and you think, "This is it, this is that
path that has heart," you suddenly fall flat on your
face. Everybody's looking at you. You say to yourself,
"What happened to that path that had heart? This feels
like the path full of mud in my face. Since you are
wholeheartedly committed to the warrior's journey,
it pricks you, it pokes you. It's like someone laughing
in your ear, challenging you to figure out what to do
when you don't know what to do. It humbles you. It
opens your heart.

From "Comfortable With Uncertainty"

from Nirmala Devi's Daily Inspiration e-mails

Retreat at Ananda Ashram with Lee & Rikard

Hi everyone,

Please join Rikard and Lee at Ananda Ashram!  I will be in the midst of helping to lead the yoga teacher training at Ananda Ashram so won't be joining them this time around, but these guys ROCK! the universe:

Weekend Yoga Retreat March 21-23, 2008

We are looking forward to Spring already !! Come welcome the Spring Equinox with us at Ananda Ashram ! I will co-host teaching with Rikard Skogberg (Anusara Yoga Teacher extraordinaire !!!) and together we will lead you deeper into your yoga and meditation practice. Beginner yogis welcome !

Spending the weekend at the ashram also allows you to experience "living your yoga" and helps you carry that back into your day-to-day life. The price for the weekend includes your room and board, 3 veggie meals a day, our yoga classes and the ashram programs.... Meditation, fire purification ceremony, satsang, kirtan etc.... Dorm room: $375 Semi Private room: $390

The ashram is on 85 acres of beautiful land and you can go for easy hikes in the woods, walk around the lake or feed the ashram deer.

Massage and Reiki therapists are available by appointment for an extra fee.

Rikard and I have done a few of these retreats now and our students always ask us to do another retreat ! So here we have it -- Come join us.

Please let me know as early as possible if you want to come to the retreat as we have to give the ashram bed reservation information ASAP. We will also need to ask you for a 50% deposit to hold your space.

The ashram is just 60 minutes by bus from Port Authority -- near Woodbury Commons.

Thank you so much for your interest and enthusiasm for our retreats -we love teaching you all !!
OM
email: quietyoga@msn.com

What is to give light

must endure burning.
~Viktor Frankl

from Nirmala Devi's Daily Inspiration e-mails

good one.

My Lips Got Lost by Jelaluddin Rumi

My lips got lost on the way to the kiss ---

that's how drunk I

was.

Luckily though I still connected

with the most tender part

of her.

The moon conceived --- what

a wild looking baby

we are going to

have.

from Love Poems from God translated by Daniel Ladinsky

from The Bhagavad Gita translated by Winthrop Sargeant

Book III #5,  page 162

"Indeed, no one, even in the twinkling of an eye,

Ever exists without performing action;

Everyone is forced to perform action,

even action which is against his will,

By the qualities which originate in material nature."

#6, page 163

"He who sits, restraining his organs of action,

while in his mind brooding over

The objects of the senses, with a deluded mind,

Is said to be a hypocrite."

"Communicating in Relationships" by Joshua Rosenthal

from his book Integrative Nutrition:  Feed Your Hunger for Health and Happiness

p. 152

"When it comes to relationships, especially intimate relationships, effective speaking and listening are key in staying connected and nourishing one another.  But you've probably noticed that it's very rare to have a conversation with someone who actually listens to what you are saying, without interruption or judgment.

Most people live in their heads, thinking about what they have to do tomorrow, what happened yesterday or an hour ago - pretty much anything except the present moment.  Have you ever been to a party where someone asked you a question and then didn't listen to a word of your response?  These interactions happen all the time.  It is equally unusual that we listedn to another person without interrupting them, judging or planning what we're going to say next.

We are all starving to be heard.  Healing occurs when people listen to us and when we listen to them.  By harnessing the power of listening, you can greatly improve all your relationships.  When in conversation with others, try to concentrate and listen to what they are saying.  While they are speaking put all thoughts about yourself out of your head and be present for them.  The other person will feel heard and appreciated.  This habit will greatly improve the quality of your communication."

top whistleblower status to Leonine yogaflies

from Rob Brezsny, www.freewillastrology.com:

for Leos

"It's now possible to fake everything," writes David M. Hopkins in his book Counterfeiting Exposed. He's not just referring to digitally altered photos of celebrities and singers who lip-sync to pre-recorded vocals during their supposed live performances. He means everything in the world, from vintage wines to famous paintings to designer jeans. At least five percent of all products on the planet are phony. I bring this to your attention, Leo, because I'm putting you on high alert for frauds and cons and deceptions of every kind. You should be the top whistleblower of the zodiac in 2008, the chief bullshit-detector and constructive critic

Misery and it's Cure

Swami Vivekananda

Misery and it's Cure
From Vedanta - Voice of Freedom 

If we examine our own lives, we find that the greatest
cause of sorrow is this: we take up something, and put our
whole energy on it-perhaps it is a failure and yet we cannot
give it up. We know that it is hurting us, that any further
clinging to it is simply bringing misery on us; still, we cannot
tear ourselves away from it. The bee came to sip the honey,
but its feet stuck to the honey-pot and it could not get away.
Again and again, we are finding ourselves in that state. That
is the whole secret of existence. Why are we here? We came
here to sip the honey, and we find our hands and feet sticking
to it. We are caught, though we came to catch. We came to
enjoy; we are being enjoyed. We came to rule; we are being
ruled. We came to work; we are being worked. All the time,
we find that. And this comes into every detail of our life. We
are being worked upon by other minds, and we are always
struggling to work on other minds. We want to enjoy the
pleasures of life; and they eat into our vitals. We want to
get everything from nature, but we find in the long run that
nature takes everything from us-depletes us, and casts us
aside.

Had it not been for this, life would have been all sunshine.
Never mind! With all its failures and successes, with all its
joys and sorrows, it can be one succession of sunshine, if
only we are not caught.

That is the one cause of misery: we are attached, we are
being caught. Therefore says the Gita: Work constantly; work,
but be not attached; be not caught. Reserve unto yourself the
power of detaching yourself from everything, however beloved,
however much the soul might yearn for it, however great the
pangs of misery you feel if you were going to leave it; still,
reserve the power of leaving it whenever you want. The weak
have no place here, in this life or in any other life. Weakness
leads to slavery. Weakness leads to all kinds of misery, physical
and mental. Weakness is death. There are hundreds of thousands
of microbes surrounding us, but they cannot harm us unless we
become weak, until the body is ready and predisposed to receive
them. There may be a million microbes of misery, floating about
us. Never mind! They dare not approach us, they have no power
to get a hold on us, until the mind is weakened. This is the
great fact: strength is life, weakness is death. Strength is
felicity, life eternal, immortal; weakness is constant strain
and misery: weakness is death.

Attachment is the source of all our pleasures now. We are
attached to our friends, to our relatives; we are attached to
our intellectual and spiritual works; we are attached to external
objects, so that we get pleasure from them. What, again, brings
misery but this very attachment? We have to detach ourselves to
earn joy. If only we had power to detach ourselves at will, there
would not be any misery. That man alone will be able to get the
best of nature, who, having the power of attaching himself to a
thing with all his energy, has also the power to detach himself
when he should do so. The difficulty is that there must be as
much power of attachment as that of detachment. There are men
who are never attracted by anything. They can never love,
they are hard-hearted and apathetic; they escape most of the
miseries of life. But the wall never feels misery, the wall never
loves, is never hurt; but it is the wall, after all. Surely it is
better to be attached and caught, than to be a wall. Therefore
the man who never loves who is hard and stony, escaping most
of the miseries of life, escapes also its joys. We do not want
that. That is weakness, that is death. That soul has not been
awakened that never feels weakness, never feels misery. That
is a callous state. We do not want that.

At the same time, we not only want this mighty power of love,
this mighty power of attachment, the power of throwing our
whole soul upon a single object, losing ourselves and letting
ourselves be annihilated, as it were, for other souls-which
is the power of the gods-but we want to be higher even than
the gods. The perfect man can put his whole soul upon that
one point of love, yet he is unattached. How comes this?
There is another secret to learn.

The beggar is never happy. The beggar only gets a dole
with pity and scorn behind it, at least with the thought behind
that the beggar is a low object. He never really enjoys what
he gets.

We are all beggars. Whatever we do, we want a return. We
are all traders. We are traders in life, we are traders in virtue,
we are traders in religion. And alas! we are also traders in love.

If you come to trade, if it is a question of give-and-take, if it
is a question of buy-and-sell, abide by the laws of buying and
selling. There is a bad time and there is a good time; there is a
rise and a fall in prices: always you expect the blow to come.
It is like looking at the mirror. Your face is reflected: you make
a grimace-there is one in the mirror; if you laugh, the mirror
laughs. This is buying and selling, giving and taking.

We get caught. How? Not by what we give, but by what we
expect. We get misery in return for our love; not from the fact
that we love, but from the fact that we want love in return.
There is no misery where there is no want. Desire, want, is
the father of all misery. Desires are bound by the laws of
success and failure. Desires must bring misery.

from Nirmala Devi's Daily Inspiration e-mails

Song of the Soul by Shakaracharya

Song of the Soul

I am neither ego nor reason, I am neither mind nor thought,
I cannot be heard nor cast into words, nor by smell nor sight ever
caught:
In light and wind I am not found, nor yet in earth and sky -
Consciousness and joy incarnate, Bliss of the Blissful am I.

I have no name, I have no life, I breathe no vital air,
No elements have molded me, no bodily sheath is my lair:
I have no speech, no hands and feet, nor means of evolution -
Consciousness and joy am I, and Bliss in dissolution.

I cast aside hatred and passion, I conquered delusion and greed;
No touch of pride caressed me, so envy never did breed:
Beyond all faiths, past reach of wealth, past freedom, past desire
Consciousness and joy am I, and Bliss is my attire.

Virtue and vice, or pleasure and pain are not my heritage,
Nor sacred texts, nor offerings, nor prayer, nor pilgrimage:
I am neither food nor eating, nor yet the eater am I -
Consciousness and joy incarnate, Bliss of the Blissful am I.

I have no misgivings of death, no chasms of race divide me,
No parent ever called me child, no bond of birth ever tied me:
I am neither disciple nor master, I have no kin, no friend -
Consciousness and joy am I, and merging in Bliss is my end.

Neither knowable, knowledge, nor knower am I, formless is my form,
I dwell within the senses but they are not my home:
Ever serenely balanced, I am neither free nor bound -
Consciousness and joy am I, and Bliss is where I am found.


~Song of the Soul, by Shankaracharya