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Life

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These posts include notes to myself regarding all aspects of my life including my practice of specific aspects of raja yoga. Raja yoga and it’s goal are my spiritual path and practice. It seems appropriate to include my own notes in this blog. I hope you find it interesting and inspiring.

I lead a Raja Yoga study course and in it we focus on specific aspects of the teachings for two week intervals. At this time we are practicing the yama and niyama of Patanjali which are:

Yama:

Non-Violence, or Ahimsa

Non-Lying, or Satya

Non-Stealing, or Asteya

Non-Sensuality, or Brahmacharya

Non-Greed, or Aparigraha

Niyama:

Cleanliness, or Shaucha

Contentment, or Santosha

Austerity, or Tapasya

Self-Study, or Swadhyaya

Devotion to the Supreme Lord, or Ishvarapranidhana

These qualities that are not limited to any one path or teaching. They are states of spiritual attainment universally experienced by all souls on their way to perfect union(Yoga) with “all there is” or God.  The practice of yoga is directional, in other words, we work from “where we are” and focus on the immediate steps needed to move toward perfection. Every step in this direction brings a greater experience of freedom, joy and wonder. It’s the greatest adventure on earth!

As Paramhansa Yogananda said:

“If we are not having fun, we are doing something wrong.”

Enjoy the ride!

turiya

Non-Lying Pt. 2

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I just reviewed what I wrote in Non-Lying pt 1, and I’m just going to flow into this directly. If you have not read that post, this might make more sense if you read that first.

Goals that I place in the future take me out of the present and steal my joy.

The more I expect something to be one way or another, the more I am disappointed.
It’s not that working for what I believe in feels useless. It’s just that my focus on a specific outcome takes me out of the present. It instantly transports me into a fictional future experience that obscures the truth and sweetness of now. Specifics that I visualize into my future are like targets. They begin as inspiring goals, which provide a direction for my energy. But they also seem to become targets for “life” to take a stab at demolishing, while I helplessly watch from the distance. They are like a mirage that always vanishes right before I arrive.

By the way: I have always been a goal setter, and I have achieved much of what I set out to do. The thing is, it’s never been the way I thought it would be when I got there.

So how to stay in the “truth and sweetness” of now? My experience has been that when I focus on the quality of energy I put into my thought and activity, it keeps me more present. The outcome I desire now is simply the continued experience of joy. A nice side effect is that when I approach what I do with calmness, and trust, even without a thought of what will come of it in the future, things always seem to go pretty well.

I determine the quality of my energy by the inner-peace and love that I feel. No matter how difficult a situation may be I try to feel that God is in control and to be His willing instrument. This helps me maintain a feeling of gratitude and love in my heart. For me this is the answer and brings the greatest success in my life.

It’s not that I can prove this or even believe it all of the time, but in the great majority of situations, I can honestly say that how I feel in myself, determines the way I experience my surroundings. Not only that, but sometimes the way I feel, actually seems to create or alter circumstances. Haven’t you ever had a bad day that just seemed to keep getting worse? It’s almost like there is an inertia created. Or the opposite: have you ever had “a string of good luck?” Again we seem to know intuitively that there is a momentum to certain energies that we can choose to ride or avoid when we are aware of them. I believe our attitude has a major role to play in this dance.

In my opinion: The big lie is that we can attain inner-peace and joy by imposing our will on the world and living for ourselves. The truth is that we can have the joy and peace we crave, only if we learn to live in harmony with what we know is right in our hearts, without resisting, or needing to control, circumstances, or people.

If we stop wanting to change people, I think we will discover how much we love them.

I hope you have peace and joy in your heart right now. I love that we can interact this way through the web, and discuss spiritual topics like this. Daily meditation is a way to tap into the peace and joy at your own center. It gives us a firm footing from where we can move forward.

I would like to hear from you.  Questions and comments are welcome!

The Best Job Ever

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Tonight someone asked me what I would change about my life if I only had one year to live. I thought about it, and there is nothing I would change about my life. I’m so glad I was asked, because it made me appreciate how good my life really is.

I think I have the best job ever!

I get to meet and hang out with people who:

  • Are interested in improving themselves!
  • Are looking for answers inside, rather that out.
  • Are ready to go deeper into their spirituality and who want to know truth, instead of just believing that it exists.
  • They are searching for something more permanent and satisfying then what standard materialism can offer.

What more could a person ask for? Maybe lots of things, but for me this is heaven.

What do I do?

I try my best to help people figure out how to meditate in a way that fits their spiritual beliefs and capabilities.

I also teach yoga philosophy (raja yoga, also known as ashtanga yoga or the “eight limbed” yoga of Patanjali, see “The Art & Science of Raja Yoga“). It’s not what most would call a religion, it’s actually an observation of the evolutionary stages every soul will take on it’s journey to perfect self awareness; Self-realization. It clearly shows us where we were, and where we are headed. The art is discovering our next step, and how to take it. It’s a directional process just like meditation. We need to work with our present “reality” while leaving the door open for a newer more expanded version.

I find this all deeply satisfying. I just had to write it down. Our meditation class tonight didn’t want to go home. In eight weeks they formed a bond through our meetings.

The teachings of yoga gave me a much-desired understanding of the way this world actually works, one that eventually helped me to accept the nuttiness of it all. I’m still learning every day. Seeing others get a spiritual foothold and go for it is awesome, and actually playing a small supportive role in the process is so fun.

I was a commercial flooring contractor when I got my yoga & meditation teacher trainings at a place called The Expanding Light. I also had very little experience. I had no idea how much my life could and would improve when I signed up. But I’m sure glad I did.

If you are happy with your life, I would love to hear what you do. If you are not, I hope this inspires you to embrace new opportunities and to take real, inner or outer steps in the direction you want to go. If you would like help with your process or just a supportive ear, I am easy to reach.

Non-Lying Pt. 1

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My focus on non-lying (truthfulness) this week has helped me be more centered and aware. It’s become a real exploration into what works, and what doesn’t work for me.

“Truthfulness is the necessary attitude for us if we would overcome our own false notions about life.”
Swami Kriyananda, The Art and Science of Raja Yoga

There is a habitual tendency in me to assume that my happiness is altered by circumstances.

I don’t believe this for a minute, but it has been a strong habit of my mind.

Life has proven that I rarely have much understanding of what is truly best for me. In fact, it is clear that some of the most difficult and even “unfair” situations I have faced have also been the most instrumental to create positive change in me. The hardest challenges actually gave me strength in the end, even when at the time I thought I might drown in them.

I can see that I have grown through the tests, and what I gained turned out to be exactly what I needed later on.(even in miraculous ways) I do believe that there is a conscious loving force (that I call God) attempting to guide my life.

What I believe or have noticed:
Circumstances are clearly out of my control.

The world I live in is like a conscious dream filled with illusions that can obscure the divine nature and purpose of life.

Most every experience that seemed random or unfair, later proved to have a purpose, and that purpose has always been positive.

The thoughts in my mind are not binding, they are not really my own, until I embrace them with my energy.

My feelings alter the way I think, and the things I think about.

If I think too much, I drift away from joy, love, and gratitude.

If I continue feeling gratitude, love stays awake in me, and my thoughts tend to be more positive.

The best way to banish negative thoughts is to burn them away with a good dose of gratitude.

If you have any feedback I would love to hear from you.

Read Pt. 2

blessings,

turiya

Ahimsa

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My morning meditation was fruitful today. I hope that writing this down will help me maintain the awareness I think I have right now.

The practice of my techniques seemed very deep today. I was able to visualize my guru floating in my spine and working in my chakras. I have attempted this visualization for years but today it just seemed to go to the next level for me. It was really a very beautiful experience.

As I watched him inside of me as a tiny yogi in my astral body my mind desperately tried to tell me that it was unfair to give all of my burdens to him. It wanted me to feel bad for who I am now or have been in the past. My ego doesn’t want me to be free, because it’s afraid it will loose control of my life. It was trying to make me feel guilty for accepting the help of my divine guru. A battle raged inside of me because it’s so easy to feel that the egoic fears I have are my own, and that they define who I am. But at some level the yoga teachings have convinced me that this “little self” is not at all who I am. We all must be more if we are part of a human race that the likes of Jesus, Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Yogananda, and other great ones would incarnate here solely to remind us of the true purpose of life here on earth.

For a time I overcame much of my inner resistance and felt that I allowed my guru to work inside of me more than ever before. It helped me to remember that what I visualize in the form of a man called Paramhansa Yogananda, has not the limitations of ordinary man at all. There is no limit to what God can do through a true avatar. In chapter 4 of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says,

“O Bharata! whenever virtue declines, and vice is ascendant, I incarnate Myself on earth. Appearing from age to age in visible form, I come to destroy evil and to re-establish virtue.”

Continuing my practice after I finished my techniques, I enjoyed for some time a deep state of peace and stillness that seemed both effortless and timeless. But then my mind began thinking of a project I’m working on. I could see it, and at first it seemed positive and productive in some way, so I allowed it to continue. I gave my ego-mind an inch, and it proceeded to drag me for a mile!

Oh how many times must we play this game to finally overcome the inertia of negativity? Thoughts that in most of my life seem fairly normal, were noticeably negative now because they erased my peace. Then I remembered the homework I suggested to the raja yoga study group I lead. It’s the practice of harmlessness, (ahimsa) or ridding the consciousness of harmful desire and energy. I couldn’t reason my way out of what I was thinking and what I saw in the situation that had grabbed my attention. There was no mental way out of this.

Then I found my answer as I do many times in my meditations, over and over again. God didn’t send me here to fix the world and all of its troubles by focusing on all the negative details and thinking them over. Intellectual reasoning’s are hopelessly limited. It’s feeling that made me realize where the thoughts had taken me. Feeling revealed more truth than any reasoning I tried. And what feeling brings me back to my center? For me the feeling I seek comes through gratitude. Gratitude for those who took the time to teach me how to meditate, gratitude for my God given awareness, and even the ability to reason. And gratitude for the freedom to embrace that state of mind, which uncovers the experience of divine joy and inner peace in my heart.

By remaining as much as I can in a state of gratitude, I’ll be more kind, patient, and divinely loving. The more I can be a channel for divine love, the less harm I will cause to myself, and others.

Today this will be my practice of ahimsa.