Living Yoga Principles | Episode 106

(1) Living Yoga Principles | Episode 106 - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6GKJ2uW5m4

Transcript:
(00:03) [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh om shant shant shant oh peace peace peace om shant ah gosh thank you so much um looking forward to this conversation today me too crash our neighbors so we we get to have many wonderful interactions uh this one will be for you for the listener
(01:09) Pros I want to start out by asking you about yoga know there I think there's a lot of different definitions that people have I'm curious how you would Define what yoga is um what's important to me about defining yoga is yoga's unity and I the way it works in my life is I'm always trying to look for the ways in which my own mind um can get away from the thought of that unity and that even in the midst of disagreement you know we're all one basically so uh I believe in that the unity that is yoga and everything else
(02:01) that we do in you in yoga practice and I love yoga all the the different aspects of integral yoga um everything that we do is to bring us back to that Unity with one another the whole of this crazy world and universe that's what I think about yoga in a nutshell a little nut I think if I understood correctly even it's important to you the movement from the thought of the unity into the experience of the unity is that what you're saying 100% because you know I can can talk about philosophy until I turn blue but uh what
(02:58) am I doing with all of that that's what's important to me how it works in our lives as individuals not what somebody else dictates to you but how it's working for you for me for everyone e it's up to each one of us to examine that and and really work the different uh aspects of yoga to help us look within ourselves and be constantly learning and refining and clarifying and playing playing with it all so and one of the things that you're learning is the movement from what the thought into uh
(03:49) like a felt experience is that what you would say would you have different words for what is it that you're trying to to practice okay I'm trying to practice ractice the basically I would say rajer yoga Raja yoga is the name for the study of the yoga sutras of Paton and I'm sure probably your listeners all know that and you know that um and I I really take that to heart I've been studying my my father introduced me to the patan sutras I think I was either I was someplace in my teens or my early 20s I think I was
(04:43) still a teenager when he shared with me the book how to know God which is Christopher isherwood and Swami prananda and it's the yoga sutras it's a be if if anybody is interested it's really a beautiful little book it's very easy to read some of you probably know who Christopher isherwood was who was a very famous writer um of my parents generation and uh he his Guru was Swami prananda so they wrote it together it's lovely it's simple it's easy see so that was that was my first uh intro to the yoga sutris and I
(05:37) still love that book my two bookshelves here with um books on the sutris different books because I think to really look at it it's important for us to look at different ways people comment on it that the I don't want to spend a lot lot of time repeating things everybody knows uh if that if they know this but um what we call rajer yoga is the study of those sutras the sutras are very short simple statements like a a sentence and that the books and there some of them are very nice fat books some are there smaller and smaller uh
(06:25) the books are are someone's commentary on it so um when we're studying those sutras I if I'm teaching a rajer yoga class I like to bring a nice stack of rajer yoga books and when we're analyzing it together we can open we can say what did Swami uh pravan say Swami sucha said uh here's another person neli um and gosh I I just heard of another person I respect who had written a commentary I can't remember who it was anyway just look for them if if you're interested in doing this and it's nice
(07:17) oh what did this person say about that Sutra okay let's look at how this person spoke about that Sutra and and in that kind of study M and I mean I do it for myself I'm not just doing it when I'm in a class uh in that study we and looking at different ways people say it there are things that will jump out to to you I think and say um clarify it in a way none of the other commentaries did but that doesn't mean mean that commentary is the only commentary there's a lot of really good ones and so I
(08:09) um I do that so the study is to come back to your question that study is very important to me I really when I'm having conflicts in my life I really like to say you know am I looking at this situation with a h which is non-injury nonviolence non not causing fear and not feeling fear Aima and it's constant reflection I'd like to bring things back to that and I think actually this person I'm having a conflict with them am I thinking kindly of them am I coming a little bit out of my head and back into my heart to just feel that
(09:06) connection we may not see eye to eye or brain to brain but what's going on in the heart and I feel that's a beautiful way to deal with conflict whether with a colleague with a friend uh um and certainly with um an intimate partner uh to come back to that place in the heart um it's a challenge it's not like something we perfect um maybe by the end of life I don't know but it's it's really worthy of constant reflection and contemplation and even the have a chronic illness I now I've
(10:02) had it for 20 years but you see I'm of a certain age so I had a lot of years without a chronic illness and when it came upon me and It Came Upon me very strong it really threw me for a loop I couldn't do ASAS yogaposes anything and I really it really really messed me up and for a while and and then I began to say come on Pros you have all the tools come on girl you can do this and I began to bring in all those yoga teachings mostly from um well there's a lot of yoga teachings but um coming back to the yoga
(10:54) sutras there's a lot of helpers in there I think for da life and I began to be able to come back in touch with myself beyond the physical body not that this was some um fabulous ex uh Transcendent experience it's just in a very simple way come on I do believe in these teachings I do believe this we have a body we have a mind we're not the body and the mind they deserve to be respected and taken care of though and I began to really appreciate my body which was suffering quite a lot and uh began to find new
(11:46) ways to work with um with it for myself my particular individual condition and challenges and triumphs so I just gave you a very long answer R so I'm curious like how it works there's these spiritual texts you know take the the yoga sutras and you study it and like you said there's there's you know one line maybe you could provide even you know an example of of a line that that really means a lot to you so going back to what you said about moving you know from from the Mind into an experience or the Mind from the from the
(12:28) mind to the heart and that's you know your practice so how does that work exactly like you're studying these texts you you read the translation uh from patan and then you read the commentary and then what's the next step is the next step you know sitting with it for a while I mean do you allow it to just hit you and allow yourself to have an experience because you know again it's interesting that you say the practice is moving from the Mind into a full experience or Into the Heart right and then that your your main
(13:09) practice is to study Raja yoga and study I would say usually you think of study and you think the mind the mind is studying right but it's from what you're saying you're using the mind to move beyond the mind is that right so can you explain a little bit more of how that process works for you well first of all it's individual I know what works for me um but um let's see rather than thinking of it being a constant study I think it for me anyway it means to keep trying to live it live these principles that I believe in
(14:03) there's one fa it's so many people's favorite Sutra that people start to um take it for granted but it's deep deep deep it's the typically referred to as four locks and the Four Keys or I don't know if it's typically but it's often referred to that way because uh Swami SAA Dand used to say there's four locks and here are the Four Keys in that one Sutra and on the surface of it it sounds simple and you say okay I got it I got it I'm gonna be honest I'm or those these are also not let's see
(14:48) let me back up a second that one Sutra and the yamas and Nas which are the ethical teachings uh when we first look at these they seem um okay I've heard this kind of thing before and um okay I got it I got it I've I've seen a lot of people study say they studied Raj yog and say yeah I know all that I know all that well you don't know it all because you haven't taken it in and put it into your life for me it's living it and not expecting Perfection it it's to me the this is uh living ongoing study that's why I use the word
(15:49) reflection a lot not just the intellectual study but living it so I I think to myself well I I think I I already said of just an example when I'm having a conflict with someone I try to look into also I'll hear something people can probably relate to a particular uh politician or uh some other person saying something I really really really don't agree with I don't even know this person why should I be friends with them but what what is it in that that's got me so upset that's thrown me off Bas so
(16:41) much yeah yeah yeah I hate hearing that kind of stuff but why is it throwing me off balance because and that's important I mean not that I'm trying to bring myself into an agreement with something with an opinion I don't like but the more I can be in balance and believe me I'm not always in Balance but the more I can be in Balance the more I can be useful and the more clearly I can look into something and say is there something I can do to help with this change you know there's been a horrible
(17:27) horrible earthquake at the time we're recording in Morocco it's terrible um and then there's tragedies where one person dies uh it doesn't make the news as big but it hurts someone just as much anyway am I going to be completely unnerved by that and I feel my let my own sense of empathy with a suffering which I don't want to take it away um that feeling of empathy and Care however is it am I going to go off balance with that so that I can't clearly see is there a way I can help here what can I
(18:23) do not what should I do not what I wish I could do what can I do to me using the these teachings I hope I'm making some sense here AI to me using those teachings all the different teachings from the yoga sutris again and again and again I've been practic I've been doing this for over 50 years and I'm still not perfect in any way so um just looking at a situation and find where am I off balance here not what somebody else tells me is off balance I know I know I look inside I recognize it as soon as it starts to happen that's
(19:23) why when I mention a politician there were we all have those that set off something in us and a indignation and so on it's fine to want to vote against it talk against it and so on but I need the clarity I need mental I do for sure I need mental Clarity and I'm not going to get that if I'm not in at least a little bit of balance with it so you're saying that you know you see it as maybe your your primary job or even responsibility to kind of monitor yourself and so that's like that's the
(20:07) top uh in terms of where you want to put your attention and you see okay some external stimulation caus me to go off balance and I'm noticing myself that I'm out of balance and therefore my practice is to return to a place of balance to attempt to first of all I think our Prim the primary thing is to be useful to other people useful in the world whereever and in our tiny tiny tiny little niches be as useful as we can uh to be kind right so that's the purp behind the monitoring of yourself or doing all to be a good instrument yeah yeah to
(21:07) be a good instrum as good an instrument as I can be and not got to be careful about comparing ourselves to other people but uh oh I can never be as wonderful as Mother Teresa um or whoever comes to mind as someone who might seem perfect um that I idea of per um Perfection and we get such something in our minds and then but in the midst of our Humanity which is we as human beings we can be learned we can um have many many many life experiences but
(22:10) um we're human beings and we're subject to some of the human frailties so even then I don't think PE I I also I aim to not be judgmental with myself when I see that in myself but to work with it I I think I'm not answering your question a that's a really important part is not to okay okay it's like so the question is no I'm glad what you brought up here because I think it's really really important okay so I something happened that threw me that throws me off and so the first step is is just
(22:55) awareness that I'm off which I say is is already a victory to be aware that that I'm right then my goal is to be you know on or as close to on as possible well balanced you know a clean instrument whatever the words the words are and why so that I can serve because I believe that if I'm you know a a clean instrument if I'm healthy myself that that's going to uh you know be of the most good to to others okay and so then it's a matter of how do I do that and then you bring up this very important point I think
(23:33) because if I'm when I'm off and then I'm aware that I'm off and then I judge myself as being bad that I'm off yeah what I found and I think maybe all of us find is then that's a spiral into another place that's not going to help me you know get back to state of balance I think that point that you make of of of the Judgment that I can have for myself is such a barrier between me and actually achieving what I want to achieve yeah absolutely a yeah yeah and there's some kind there's some
(24:18) kind of human tendency because I've seen it so much in my life I mean I've done it too to find someone that you admire you see someone you admire you read a book by someone you admire you and and you interact with someone you admire you think oh my goodness they're they're so wonderful they're so perfect and um I want to be like that person then you find out the person who was so wonderful um we see this all the time sports figures uh famous conductors and others who made a m big mistake we all make big mistakes we
(25:15) human creatures make big mistakes all of us uh we often don't hear about others big mistakes but we all make them and we make plenty of small mistakes and to I think we've got to keep our sense of humor we you know it's it's just you know I so many times over the years newer students uh coming to meditation have said oh I've been meditating for a year now and my mind is still full of this and that and the other thing and and they're just really kind of torturing themselves about how imperfect they
(26:05) are and we've got to keep a sense of humor about it I don't often like to say we've got to but honestly that's one I'll say you got to keep a sense of humor the mind is full of stuff it's not our enemy it's serving its purpose but um to if we focus on what's wrong with ourselves we're really bringing it out more and more we're also encouraging it it's like there's this monster who is saying um oh you did it this time and you have done this before you did it again you're
(26:55) just stupid that voice if we take it seriously it's like the Monas grows in its uh um uh in its its own purpose and if we could just say yeah you're right I did it again and have some humor having humor does not mean you're trivializing something at least to me it's have some humor about and say yeah look at that that's my mind I went there again I got myself into that mess again um and okay if you're going to analyze first of all just try to bring out the you know a little sense of okay
(27:48) uh that I went to a place that I shouldn't have gone and mentally or whatever and uh um just how can I come back to Center I think the more relaxed we are with our what we're doing in the world um the more we first of all Advance spiritually and also have fun and adventure and hopefully along the way can be useful to people once in a while I love this so much thank you like it's really a gift I think when um someone reminds me that's how I feel to keep things light and playful and have a
(28:51) sense of humor about it all uh it's just something happens Within Myself where I just kind of like open up and just relax like yeah like there's me trying to be perfect again or there's me judging myself again like whatever it is like you said you're reminding me of something I heard recently um about I think it's the Lakota tribe and they they used to have someone who played this role of a a clown that was like their role for for for the tribe and anytime there was a person that uh that couldn't
(29:25) be made fun of is what I heard that that that was something to look at for the whole clan to look at like why can't we you know whether it's the clan Chief or the priest or whoever it is if there's anyone that we can't make fun of then let's look at that and investigate why yeah yeah I I L that yes I I certainly am not even close to being extremely knowledgeable about indigenous culture but um from things I've read and also talked to people about the the fool shows up in many many aspects and it's
(30:10) actually uh a holy person uh who does that and even you know we see that in other cultures too in different ways but I love that yes uh and we need to have that within ourselves for sure is that fo that will pop up and say you're getting so serious you are so important you are the only person who can fix this problem blah blah and it just make fun of all that stuff and say be here be human that's what I just once upon a time I was a SW I was a Swami for 17 years and the thing that I most didn't like about it was because of
(31:06) my title and the fact that I wore orange people had a tendency to put me on a pedestal I was not ready to be on any kind of I'm still not I definitely wasn't ready to be on a pedestal and they set you apart oh that one can do it this and but I can poor little me who's not a Swami who doesn't have a fancy title I can't do it but you're just another the Swami me in this case I was another spiritual Seeker who had studied a lot and had good intentions uh but not someone Superior even slightly Superior
(31:58) I love it's been said a million times everybody knows this but I love it Baba ramdas love to say we're all just walking each other home that is super meaningful to me and I strive to be aware of that with with with ourselves with Within Myself am I being open to everyone caring about everyone even if they believe differently and and um I I want to keep that openness of heart an openness of mind that I can listen to
(33:05) other people and learn from other people even if we're in completely different philosophies but if when people are sharing and listening to One Another there's so much richness in that um so I much prefer to being a Swami being a regular person in the world um because um I I don't I don't want to be on any kind of pedestal we or we'll all we should all be on the same pedestal not my own pedestal we all are on the same pedestal yes yes there we go yeah you know I've um heard you speaking about the importance of of
(34:05) honesty and vulnerability and I'm considering that in in what you're sharing and the importance of being aware of it right and I noticed that there's a real tendency uh to to rank human beings especially in the spiritual world you know yeah and I've heard people speaking speak about it almost um to kind of put themselves down like this other person you know is so far beyond me and uh you know that's great for them I'll probably never get there this is where I'm at you know that's it
(34:46) and I'm just I'm wondering if this this is another trap of the mind that the Mind does is is and and the ego think that it is even possible for me to rank human beings and where they're at you know spiritually um yeah yeah you can't you can't do that because in the same way I can't look at you know I hear someone's having challenges in their marriage for instance I can't I look at that marriage and say well it looks to me like so and so is doing this and so and so is doing that I have no
(35:40) idea we don't know what happens in the intimacy not just physical but also the the psychological and uh the complex intimacy of a marriage I can never look into to somebody else's and figure out what's happening I can never know it I can hear what people say to me but I can't know and we also human beings are really complex e every one of us I don't care what your education is um what your experience is we're all complex and that's I mean also I want to say I've been doing I've been a yoga
(36:34) practitioner and even teacher for a very long time but I have learned some of the greatest things from people who were brand new who would look at everything with a fresh eye or I like to when I'm teaching I like it to be in a class where people can ask questions we can have conversation because I love fresh ideas I don't want to just be reading my old notes again and again and again I make it fresh keep it bright it's like eating every day fresh ideas and some of them you know think well that's fine for them not that
(37:21) doesn't work for me but fine for them but um truly truly truly be open if you can to the the gems of wisdom or the seeds of wisdom that come to us in so many little as well as big ways that's um I think it's very important yeah I think uh your emphasis on remembering that human beings are really complex it feels very important to me you know there's a little story that popped into my head that um when I was younger I used to love Rabbi schomo kabach I don't know if you know who that is but he used to tell certainly do I I know
(38:22) him very I did know him very well yeah yeah so he he used to tell this story uh about uh yuso the meiser he was called and I'll try to be brief with it but I think it's powerful um I love stories AI tell your story yes uh so it was you know back in Eastern Europe somewhere and uh stle which is you know a little little Jewish community and very very poor community and there was one man that was very wealthy and his name was Yesa and uh for years people would come to him and they they they would come to
(39:04) his house and and he would greet them very openly and and give them food and drink and have them sit down and and ask them about themselves and and their story and they would tell them all about their lives and tell them all about their lives and and at the end you know often they would say you know yla please if you could you know spare you know uh whatever the denom ation is you know you know $100 or I don't know that would mean so much to me and my family and as soon as they brought that up um he would be you know outraged how
(39:42) dare you ask me for money and uh and he would kick him out of their house and you know say obscene things to them and he did this again and again um and develop the reputation of being called a miser because he was wouldn't give anything and years passed of this and uh and he died and he had made so many enemies that they didn't even bury him in the cemetery which is like you know the ultimate insult you could have they buried him outside of the cemetery and and so after he died the rabbi of the community he started to get these
(40:23) visitors that came to his home and they would tell that Rabbi I'm just in such hard times and um can you please help me out is there any way that you can help me out and you know the first person that came the rabbi uh say yeah yeah sure you know I'm not a wealthy man either but you know here you could take a little bit of what I have then the next person came and the next person came and and he was like what what is going on you know that all of a sudden at one time so many people are coming and he started to ask them questions and
(40:51) and he found out that every week you know before the Sabbath uh like a parcel with some food and some money would arrive at these people's doors and they wouldn't tell anyone about it they just kind of accepted accepted it gratefully then know it was coming from anyway they find out that yo was giving to everyone you know every single week this is what he would do but he wanted it to be secretive he didn't want anyone to know so that's why he asked all the questions he would know exactly what everyone needed and then he
(41:22) would give it to them and the rabbi realized like oh my gosh this person that we were calling aiser was really you know such a saintly being um so I just that that story I think just comes to me when you when you talk about how how complex human beings are and the mind seems to have a tendency to to want to judge and and and and believe that it can know you know where someone's at one way or another uh so I don't know about you but I I have this practice that I'm working on all the time and it's just humbling myself
(41:54) it's humbling my mind when I think when I think I can know when I think I can make a judgment of someone else I don't really know I think that's beautiful and thank you for telling one of RA Rabbi uh schlomo's stories I he did you ever meet him I did a few times actually it's interesting it's one of the earliest memories I have when I was a child he came and uh he played a little concert in my house in my living room um my family was kind of involved in that in that Community growing up and I I
(42:30) just remember like he I he put me on on his lap and I just remember how it felt to to be with him um it was it was a burst of extreme love that I had never experienced before that uh that stayed with me yeah yeah yeah I had the opportunity to uh meet him and sometimes be a Hostess to him a number of times and um a beautiful soul yeah so um yeah that's a beautiful story uh V thank you thank you and um just that that a beautiful way of dealing with our ego wanting to pop up oh did they notice what I did did they tell somebody what I
(43:28) did um uh my wonderful um kind gesture to the world did they tell people and but if I love that idea of just lowkey keep it lowkey and uh watch out for that the ego is not our enemy sometimes people talk about it as if it's our enemy it's but it's a tool it shouldn't be in charge so it's kind of like uh maybe AI in a way it's a tool good tool but uh it should not be in charge so um the ego should not be in charge so it's uh really good to be aware when that starts to come up and say did anybody notice
(44:26) what a wonderful talk I gave did they hear that I helped this person who was in pain you know that ego does all kinds of stuff like that and um it's fine we don't need to push it away but just say again that sense of humor have a sense of humor and I think if um you mentioned that cool so it can be productive in some way can you speak a little bit more to that like you're like how do you feel that you're your ego is a positive tool for for us well it's our individual sense it's our eye
(45:12) sense and um please I don't know all the uh yungi and philosophy or really any philosophy about that except that the ego that ey sense which is important for functioning you know otherwise there's no reason for us to talk here today we're all one we've got all that inside us but um as in our human form we exchange ideas and we help one another and um um I don't pretend to totally understand it but I do think of that as a tool and I like to think what are my strengths um what are my weaknesses
(46:16) and uh you know I have weak I have plenty of weaknesses believe me but I try not to let them um I try not to let that hold me back in my path uh and I think the eye sense helps where what's as long as we have Minds we have brains and so on WE it's important to use these tools we we've been given um and I think when we reflect on what is disturbing me what is bringing joy in up in me that's the the eye that's the ego that is looking at that and identifying with those
(47:22) things so as long as we're using it and that's not uh um it's not in charge it's all I love this you know looking at it as as as a tool and what I'm considering now is you know is is is the tool of the ego or separation right it kind of does it play on top of the the Oneness like the Oneness is is true that we are all connected to each other you know but then there's the separation on top of that and the ego and and how I use that tool does it have an effect on the totality on the Oneness well the Oneness is actually
(48:12) above that tool it's above that um and the the real real full feeling and understanding of Oneness and the greatness of the universe of God however we like to think of that is beyond the mind's grasp so the Mind itself is our tool of course um a great tool wonderful wonderful tool and we uh like to keep it as sharp and clear as we can um it's very full of stuff but um it it can take us really far our sharp intellect and so on can really take us deep
(49:17) and the real um fullness of everything is beyond the grasp of the mind it just the um it's like the um rocket ship the mind is the ship that takes you far far far up into the um um Star Trek universe or wherever people are going um but at a certain point you have to it the part of it drops away and you just need to go beyond I don't know if that was clear but anyway I the mind is a fabulous fabulous thing but it can't un it cannot grasp it you know there's a um
(50:24) oh gosh I it's in one of the Psalms that um it says something like go it might be Psalm 139 I can't remember uh there's something like it's David is talking to God in the psalm it's a Psalm of David he um he says something like uh you're your greatness is so much I can never I can't grasp it I can never understand it and in similar ways in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says the same thing to I mean not Krishna but Arjuna says the same thing to Lord Krishna it at a certain point he has just test it it's it's
(51:24) beyond Krishna gives him a full experience and it's too much for arjuna's limited understanding to handle and he start he really um uh gets way off balance to say the least uh so and then so then Krishna brings it back to um back to Earth back to the problem they're working on but um so the ego the mind we have so many wonderful tools and not I really don't like when people talk about it as an enemy any of these things these are um in my um belief I'm not saying everybody believes this way in my belief these are
(52:25) god-given tools how could it be otherwise yeah yes exactly uh so uh to try to say oh that tool God gave me is nothing that's really uh very not not very respectful or gracious say okay I don't know how to use this um script screwdriver but it's here in my toolkit why don't I find out how I can best use it love that without destroying it I don't want to destroy it how how does this work what what does this go into you know what what uh screw I'm clearly not a handy person but I've used
(53:19) screwdrivers so what what screw head does this go into and then how do I use it and so on that's I think of it that way yeah Pros thank you so much uh for sharing today and and uh for your practice you know because I feel your heart and that's such a gift every time I'm I'm around you I feel your heart so something something you're doing appears to be very beneficial as far as this one's perspective I'm I'm I'm under construction always always well that's a part of it that's a part of what I feel
(54:01) is is is you're emphasizing that um that that's very uh refreshing yeah thank you AI yeah I think um Al you know part of realize the knowledge that you're not better than anybody else nobody's that also nobody's better than you we're all humans in here [Music] um I think part of it also is being open to hearing where our missteps might be or misunderstandings might be um and being whether I'm hearing it from another person or sudden being aware of it as I look why did that affect me so much and
(55:01) why am I so mad to look at it and see find out where I'm missing some understanding I I always appreciate it if people Point things out to me um so I think being open to that we're all growing and changing I'm a lot older than you Ai and uh I still am learning studying growing um so I probably will be all my life it keeps keeps Our Lives interesting yeah Embrace The Never Ending NeverEnding hopefully progression yeah yep thank you so much Reverend Pros yeah thanks for listening if you've enjoyed
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