Day # 16 of “A.O.Y. 21 Day Immersion”… “Don’t worry… you can trust yourself while exploring Yoga”

Here we are today…

let’s keep it really simple… Let me encourage you to “not worry at all” when you play with Yoga… you can not “do it wrong”!   And even if you do, it is still ok, because that is how we learn.  It is YOUR Body, no one else’s.  Be intelligent with your body… be aware… be loving.  But no need to be worried or scared  Of course we can learn from each other and be inspired by each other.  But your body is your body, and my body is my body.  Each day we can grow in trust… we can learn to listen to our own body, without fear or guilt.  Then, the intrinsic “WISDOM OF THE BODY” inside of EVERY ENERGY FIELD, reveals itself.  If we always doubt, always look to others for approval or advice, we will never develop our own intuition… you don’t give your “Vigyanamaya kosha”, or “intuitive body” space to function… it remains locked in its seed.  Your “intuitive body” holds many secrets…

In India, many mystics have discovered ways of growing intuition inside. On Day # 5 { http://wp.me/p14Qm1-1w }, i said that there are 5 very prominent branches of Yoga {actually, there are even more, but these 5 are the most body-oriented}.  Hatha Yoga, Kriya Yoga, Pranayama, Sahaj Yoga, and Polarity Yoga are 5 different and intertwined methods for raising consciousness.

“Sahaj” means “spontaneity”… and spontaneity is rooted in trust and intuition. Trust and intuition go hand and hand.  And trust and intuition are absolutely essential qualities for relaxation, healing, love, and meditation. Sahaj Yoga is not strict at all… it does not tell you what posture you should take, or how long you should hold a position, or how you should breath.  In that sense, it is very close to TANTRA.  It’s whole approach is natural, easy, spontaneous.  Both Sahaj Yoga and Tantra are based in awareness; whatsoever you do, do it with full awareness… with all of your senses open and alert.  Sahaj Yoga is the art of being totally present and conscious of the needs of your body, mind, emotions, and essence.  It teaches you to be totally responsible and loving to yourself, and to your environment.  It is not against discipline, per se… but it is against forcing any discipline on oneself or others.  If an inner discipline arises on its own, out of your awareness and sensitivity, then that is good.  And Sahaj Yoga never “holds on” to any pattern or form of behavior… when something is right for you, you learn to “go for it”, and when it has given you what you needed, you let go.  Sahaj Yoga needs A LOT OF AWARENESS!  Because if you misunderstand, you can easily think that the mystics are saying “it doesn’t matter what you do”.  It is difficult to talk about… because it is paradoxical.  It is closer to Zen.  Nothing matters, but everything is significant… can you dig it?!?

YOUR BODY IS YOUR YOGA

So, when thinking of stretching, or exercise, remember- your “Buddha Bones” are always in the “here and now.  Can you sense how each big or micro “change of the angles” in the joints between your bones sends an electro-chemical energy thru your field that is perceptible?  If so, then you can see that you are ALWAYS in some yoga asana… right now even.  And when you have learned to watch your breath in the way that Anasha is sharing… well, then you have entered a new reality with your body… then you can enjoy what is known in India as “SAHAJ Yoga”.  You can bend, or stretch your skeleton in whatever angle brings you into the most interesting feeling… listening to what your body wants or could enjoy RIGHT NOW!  If a big stretch is coming, let it come… if a micro-stretch feels right, be in it totally… if big breath wants to flow, allow it… and if the body wants to change its position, trust it.  Just keep in touch with your energy.  If you feel to stay in a “recognizable” yoga posture for 90 seconds, because it feels right for you now, follow your intuition.  If you end up in an “unrecognizable” yoga posture and it feels good- then take a photo and send it to us all!  The key, and the wonderful part, is that you follow your impulses, and not your Mind… it is spontaneous, and it is created anew each time.

I feel that Hatha Yoga asanas, and Sahaj Yoga flow, and Kriya Yoga movements are all supporting the health of the Body and all can lead to more love and awareness inside.  And to have the freedom to play with them all, depending on your mood, or depending on where you are, makes your Yoga more colorful, and more rich.  “ARUN/ OSHO Yoga” is open… spacious… flexible.

So i leave you with Osho sharing about the value and beauty of Yoga. If possible, let his words take root in your being…

“Kabir’s path is called SAHAJ SAMADHI YOGA — the path of spontaneous ecstasy.  SAHAJ means “spontaneity.”  Kabir is not in favor of any cultivated life pattern.  Become aware, and out of that awareness, whatsoever form your life takes, let it take it.  You just be aware.  Then you have changed the very roots.

And by changing the very roots you have changed the whole tree. It is futile to go on changing a single leaf each time, and changing branches — sometimes anger, sometimes sex, sometimes greed, and then there are a thousand and one leaves.  Why not change the roots?   The root problem is that you are living an unconscious life, and the root change will be that you start living a conscious life.”

“In India, because of this, we have developed a particular yoga which we call SAHAJ YOGA.  SAHAJ means spontaneous, easy, natural.  Always remember SAHAJ.  If you feel any technique spontaneously coming to you, if you feel more affinity with it, if you feel better with it — more healthy, more alive, more at home — then that is the method for you.  Move with it; you can trust it.  Don’t create unnecessary problems.  And the inner mechanism is very complex. If you do something which is too much for you, you may destroy many things.  So it is better to move with something which feels harmonious to you.

“Natural, spontaneous, aware.  Let these three words become key words, and you will be surrounded with a great revolution — and you will be a witness to it. Kabir is not giving you any program to improve yourself.  All improvement is silly in a way because you remain the same. Modified a little here and there, decorated here or there, but you remain the same.  Clothes change, ornaments change; you remain the same. Kabir is not giving you any program to improve yourself. Kabir is giving you a radical approach — how to be transformed, transfigured — how to die to the old and be born again — totally new, absolutely new, fresh and virgin.

Be natural, be spontaneous, be aware. Let these three words become your very key.  And this is a master key; it can unlock all the doors, all the locks.

Once you have become natural, spontaneous, and aware, the unstruck drum of eternity will be heard.  The unstruck drum of eternity, that’s what in Zen they call the sound of one hand clapping.  In India they call it the ANAHAT NAD — the unstruck drum. It is sounding from the very beginning, endlessly sounding; it is eternally there. The world is full of music, melody, harmony, ecstasy.  Just if you become natural you will fall in tune with it.  If you become spontaneous you will become sensitive and responsive to it.  If you become aware you will be able to hear it.”

“Hence, yoga can become very meaningful and significant for the modern mind because yoga can save.  It can teach you again how to be here and now — how to forget past, how to forget future, and how to remain in the present moment with such intensity that this moment becomes timeless; the very moment becomes eternity.

Patanjali can become more and more significant.  As this century will come to its closure, techniques about human transformation will become more and more important.  They are already becoming all over the world — whether you call them yoga or Zen or you call them Sufi methods or you call them Tantra methods. In many, many ways, all the old traditional teachings are erupting.  Some deep need is there, and those who are thinking, anywhere, in any part of the world, they have become interested to find again how humanity in the past existed with such beatitude, such bliss.  With so poor conditions, how such rich men existed in the past, and we, with such a rich situation, why we are so poor?

This is a paradox, the modern paradox.  For the first time on the earth we have created rich, scientific societies, and they are the most ugly and most unhappy.  And in the past there was no scientific technology, no affluence, nothing of comfort, but humanity was existing in such a deep, peaceful milieu — happy, thankful.  What has happened?  We can be more happy than anyone, but we have lost contact with existence.

And that existence is here and now, and an impatient mind cannot be in contact with it. Impatience is like a feverish, mad state of mind; you go on running.  Even if the goal comes, you cannot stand there because the running has become just the habit.  Even if you reach the goal you will miss it, you will pass it because you cannot stop.  If you can stop, the goal is not to be searched.

Zen Master Hui-Hai, has said that, “Seek, and you will lose; don’t seek, and you can get it immediately.  Stop, and it is here.  Run, it is nowhere.”  Osho