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Finding Peace Isn't Selfish
“Find the peace in yourself so that you can help others realize their own peace. That’s not a selfish act. You are preparing yourself to serve. A razor must be sharpened before it is useful. Sharpening looks like a waste of time if you’re in a hurry, but if you shave with a blunt razor, you will shave more skin than beard. Preparation is necessary for service.
“God bless you. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.” —Sri Swami Satchidananda
(photo: Swami Satchidananda in Colombo, Sri Lanka, early-1970s)
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Yes. If you want it, you are seeking from outside. When you know you are already enlightened, you won’t seek. So seeking something means you have forgotten yourself. You have to realize yourself, not seek yourself. That is Self-realization. You realize who you are, and then you don’t have to seek outside. The minute you want something, you have missed the joy. Who is the most joyful person? The one who doesn’t want anything. Even with enlightenment, even with God. If you still want God, then you don’t know who you are. There is a proverb, “Waste not, want not.” I like to change it a little to want not, waste not. Don’t waste your life by wanting something. Let the wants, want you. Instead of your wanting the wants, let the wants, want you. When will the wants want you? When you don’t want anything. Sounds like philosophy. This is also what the Bible says: “Seek the kingdom first and everything else will be added unto you.” Seek that kingdom within you. When you realize that, you don’t want anything else. Then everything wants you. Everything else will be added unto you. Do you know how to make gold? We can all make gold. When and how? Be contented. MORE
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The first thing Rev. Jivana Heyman (Integral Yoga Minister and founder of Accessible Yoga) does when he enters a Yoga studio, restaurant, store, or community space is scope out its accessibility. Are the hallways wide enough for wheelchairs? Are there ramps? Do the chairs accommodate all body sizes? Rev. Jivana leads conferences, trainings, and advocacy programs across the world to help make Yoga available for all. On this podcast episode of "Beyond Asana," presented by Liz & Aaron, he clears up a common misperception that Accessible Yoga is a type of Yoga. He also shares about the start of his work teaching Yoga to those living with AIDS and HIV, and encourages teachers and trainers to help shift the media landscape around how a Yoga body looks and moves. Stay tuned for Rev. Jivana's forthcoming book Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body, expected to release in November 2019.
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In this interview, Timothy McCall, MD (author of Yoga as Medicine), talks about his new book: Saving My Neck, which is a deeply personal and inspiring memoir of his healing journey during which he integrated the best of western and eastern medicine.
One of the ideas of holism is that whatever stage of health you’re at, you can always do things to try to improve it. In Western medicine, doctors just try to bring people back to being free of a disease (or at least control its symptoms) to a point where their scans or blood tests are good. But in Yoga and Ayurveda and other holistic disciplines, we aim much higher. Many people talk about getting back to the life that they had before they got cancer. I feel like I took the challenge of cancer to go deeper into my practice, deeper into my psychological and spiritual work — which has been part of my Yoga practice for years. The goal was not just to survive but, if possible, to thrive. And it has worked. I am more balanced and stronger psychologically and physically than I was before I was diagnosis. My life is better now in so many ways. MORE
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Swami Ramananda (President of the Integral Yoga Institute of San Francisco) was recently in Brazil training Yoga teachers. During his visit, he was interviewed by Ricardo Mitra (from Jai Vida Centro de Integral Yoga). The interview is in Portuguese and English. Mitra introduced the video by saying, "With one of our greatest teachers, Swami Ramananda. In this video we bring meditation tips and show the relationship of practice with stress and anxiety relief, as well as an understanding of what meditation is. For those who seek meditation and self-knowledge it is a must! Swami Ramananda is an American monk of the beautiful Integral Yoga tradition and a renowned Yoga teacher."
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By Alan Watts
There is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity. Wisdom is the direct understanding of the fluidity of life. But the contradiction lies a little deeper than the mere conflict between the desire for security and the fact of change. If I want to be secure, that is, protected from the flux of life, I am wanting to be separate from life. Yet it is this very sense of separateness which makes me feel insecure. To be secure means to isolate and fortify the ‘I,’ but it is just the feeling of being an isolated ‘I’ which makes me feel lonely and afraid. To put it still more plainly: the desire for security and the feeling of insecurity are the same thing. To hold your breath is to lose your breath. A society based on the quest for security is nothing but a breath-retention contest in which everyone is as taut as a drum and as purple as a beet. But you cannot understand life and its mysteries as long as you try to grasp it. Indeed, you cannot grasp it, just as you cannot walk off with a river in a bucket. If you try to capture running water in a bucket, it is clear that you do not understand it and that you will always be disappointed, for in the bucket the water does not run. MORE
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In 1995, I started teaching regular Integral Yoga classes in a Therapy Center. Four years later, I moved my instruction to a cultural center and then eventually an old school, which auspiciously was in room 108! Even though it had always been my dream to create an Integral Yoga Center, I felt reluctant because I was concerned about financing it comfortably. I wanted to share Yoga, not worry about how to pay my rent. But God and Guru had a plan and took over. Gently but firmly, I was guided in the right direction, inspired and given all the strength needed to make this dream finally come true. I received so much support from my landlord, the craftsmen, and everyone else involved. They must have felt the great spirit behind their service. Also, I want to give a special thank you to my beloved parents. It was their love and generosity that allowed me to design the center with my heart. The result is what you see. Our Integral Yoga sangha and I are endlessly grateful for our new home. Thank you God and thank you Gurudev, the ones whom are really running the show!
(Photo: top, Integral Yoga Zentrum/Integral Yoga Centre sign on building; below, classroom views).
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Rev. Jaganath, Integral Yoga Minister and Raja Yoga master teacher, has spent a lifetime delving into the deepest layers of meaning in Patanjali’s words within the Yoga Sutras. Our series moves ahead to sutra 2.35. With this sutra, Patanjali begins to map out how the precepts and practices of Raja Yoga yield profound results. In this sutra, the focus is on the benefits of ahimsa (non-violence).
Yoga offers a counterpoint to hostility and violence: ahimsa – being firmly established in harmlessness, an understanding of humanity’s common struggles and pain, the power, peace and joy of faith, and the freedom of knowing that we are all one in Spirit. Understanding this sutra as if it were describing a miracle – someone established in ahimsa walking into the middle of a violent confrontation and causing everyone to spontaneously drop their weapons – is tempting, and based on deep wishes for peace and harmony. History clearly tells a different story. Great sages and saints have not always been able to quell violence or hatred. Some have been murdered or executed. So, what is this sutra really saying? The practical and very real and powerful message of this sutra is that the mere presence – demeanor, words, and actions – of one firmly established in ahimsa generates a space, even if a small one, for entrenched feelings and misperceptions to recede. MORE
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In this series of short talks, Swami Asokananda (Integral Yoga) shares his insights from years of study and contemplation on the great Indian scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. In part 11 of this video series, Asokanandaji further describes the setting of Chapter 1, in which Sri Krishna tells Arjuna he must place his chariot in the midst of the battlefield between the great warriors Bhisma and Drona. The teaching is one of how we must transcend all our samskaras, good and bad, as we spiritually evolve. To further illustrate this teaching, Asokanandaji shares a story from the spiritual journey of a student of Bodhidharma.
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The inaugural celebration of Hanuman's New Mandir is being held July 13 through July 17, 2019. The temple has been constructed at the Neem Karoli Baba Ashram, which was founded over 40 years ago. Neem Karoli Baba, or Maharaj-ji as he is known to devotees, is the Guru of Ram Dass, Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, among many others. The local news station in Taos reported on the opening (including a tour of the ashram and mandir), noting that the over 1,000 pound deity Hanuman, was carved in Jaipur, India and is one of the only Hanuman murtis in the United States. The murti has been in the ashram temple since the 1980s, but now resides in the new mandir. The ashram Guru Purnima Celebration will also happen during this celebration on July 16 & 17. Jai Hanuman!
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Inside Yogaville
The Ashram hosted a beautiful and inspiring Guru Poornima weekend last weekend. In addition to honoring Sri Swami Satchidananda, our Guru and Yogaville founder, participants honored all faith traditions and wisdom paths with an interfaith worship service and panel discussion. One special highlight was when Rabbi David Shneyer led a joyful blessing of Avi (IYTA director) and Alex Gordon's baby daughter, Zen.
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Inspiring Meme of the Week
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