“Undisturbed calmness of mind is attained by cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous. ― Patanjali, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
This is a saying from the Pali canon, upadhi dukkhassa mūlanti, which means “Attachment is the root of suffering.” So this is a genuine canonical quote.
You’ll find it in this sutta, but translated by Thanissaro as “Acquisition is the root of stress.” His translations are rather idiosyncratic.
In this translation of the same sutta it’s “acquisition is the root of suffering.”
Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation (not available online, but in The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, page 868) has “attachment is the root of suffering,” although he sometimes has “acquisition” in place of “attachment,” in various repetitions of the phrase.
“There’s no use looking back at yesterday. Every morning when the sun rises, I am a changed person. Don’t let yesterday steal today’s joy.. Every time the sun rises, it’s a new opportunity to make your life the best of your life. Enjoy every moment.” Namaste enjoy your day” Buddha
So often when we are in the middle of a negative state of mind, or difficult feelings, we forget that we have any way to change what is happening. When you are in the grip of any kind of strong sensation it can be very easy to be consumed by it. We feel like we are it, in it, totally surrounded by it.
But this is only a perception; when we meditate we learn that there are other perspectives available, and we get to experience the same kinds of strong sensations but with a bit of distance between us and the feelings. We get to observe the sensation rather than become it. But it is incredibly easy to lose sight of this and get carried along by thoughts, feelings, and sensations.
A couple of days ago I was doing a fairly monotonous chore and my mind was chattering away. After a while I found myself wondering when all the chatter was going to stop. Suddenly it occurred to me that I was just letting this happen. I realised I wasn’t doing anything about it, I was just listening to the unskilful mental chatter and wasn’t intervening at all. I remembered that what would be the more useful thing to do was to cultivate something more skillful, so I did.
Yoga is Union of our individual self with the larger Cosmic self. Yoga is Balance, reaching a point of aware acceptance. And we attain it through our physical self or the body.
Breathing or Pranayama, Organized and structured physical postures called Asanas, Deep aware relaxation or Yoga nidra, Mantra Chanting, Meditation, these form the essential components of Yogic practice.
Swami Satchidananda lineage I come from teaches this as a easy, compact, and best practice of Yoga and highly advises that Yoga is practised with no expectations or competitiveness.
Yoga in Pop culture is more about the Body and getting ourselves to do those head stands, hand stands, twists, turns and all those postures that look impossible, the oh-so-tight spandex apparel line, green shakes, commercially capitalizing the timeless practice. A closer look and subtle observation will help us see the truth: it’s the breath and higher energies that move the body.
Pic courtesy- Theformfitness
Now on to breath: What is the breath. Science tells us we inhale Oxygen and exhale Carbondioxide. Well, there is more to breath, we inhale the Life force known as Prana along with O2. In a future post I will tell you in detail about Prana.
I have dabbled with yoga for many years but it’s only since I started my AF journey at the end of 2017 that it’s been in my life more consistently. When I came back from the retreat recently, recognising that I had neglected yoga for a few months I set myself a 40 day challenge to do yoga or meditate every day in an attempt to embed the habit. I’ve missed 2 days so far out of 30. Some days it has been really difficult to get myself onto the mat and I’ve literally only been there for 5 minutes. More recently I’ve found myself prioritising it and looking forward to that time.
In his wonderful book, The body holds the score, Bessel van de Kolk talks about how trauma is held in our bodies and nervous systems, and people need more than talking therapy to help with that. It’s like the body’s smoke alarm is set to be triggered at any hint of danger, leading to over reactions, stress and catastrophising all over the place. Their research has confirmed what the yogis already knew; yoga calms it all down; encouraging balance between the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) rather than the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight). It is also said in yoga circles that we hold emotional pain in our hips in particular; a result of those muscles contracting whenever our stress response is triggered. Sitting at desks and in cars for long periods doesn’t help either.
I’ve had tight hips as long as I’ve been aware of such things; particularly on the left. Years of running and riding and not stretching – the folly of youth! Yoga has helped ease it but I often have pain in that area, particularly as I fall asleep. I’ve been doing a lot of hip stretches in my yoga routine these last few weeks. When I wrote my last post about getting in touch with the origins of my depression; I didn’t say that whilst the memories flooded me as I was going to sleep my hip was throbbing intensely – not super painful but intense. I wrote the blog and the next night I dreamt that my mum died. It was now, not the past, and all I did in the dream was cry buckets of tears. Since that night I have not felt depressed in the same heavy, unmotivated way; and my hip is looser and the pain has gone pretty much. I’ve felt extremely grateful to my unconscious that it took care of the weeping so I didn’t have to in the day!
New Delhi, March 11 (SocialNews.XYZ) We are the generation of “good vibes” and the moment we realize we arent getting good vibes from the people around us, or the surroundings, we prefer to move away from it. As human being we also have our own internal energies within our bodies. We all thrive on energy in spite of being brainwashed with the convenient methods of healing, we fail to recognize, acknowledge and embrace the energy within us. Our internal energy is an alternate for medicines, says Dr Shyam Nidugala, Chief Medical Officer, Nimba Nature Cure
By embracing the energy sources within us, we can purify and filter those energies that bring a feeling of positivity and give us the power to heal ourselves and others, she notes. She explains how energy can be healed through Reiki, Pranic and Hypnotherapy
Inspired Life 