{"id":6170,"date":"2022-03-20T16:42:22","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T20:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/?p=6170"},"modified":"2022-05-22T00:27:51","modified_gmt":"2022-05-22T04:27:51","slug":"echo-from-the-cave-171","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/2022\/03\/echo-from-the-cave-171\/","title":{"rendered":"Echo From The Cave: 171"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sunday March 20, 2022 NYC\"\"<\/header>\n
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Talk at the End of the Asana & Meditation Class
\nSunday, March 20, 2022
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reflecting Daily Life in Practice of Asana:
\n<\/strong>Getting Ourselves Out of the Way to Listen<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is much that can be learned about daily life through the experience of practicing asana<\/em>. And today I would like to share something that I was reflecting on just this morning as the asana<\/em> class began. I had been thinking about the participants of the class, the topic of expanding the way we \u201cread\u201d, which we were discussing among some gurubai<\/em> the previous night as we met for a Study in Practice Book Club, and also how sharing a certain issue I\u2019ve been facing up against within myself and trying to work on might relate and be of some use. And perhaps I am also, in part, encouraged by the timely material I was working on in the editing process for Pranavadipa<\/em><\/a>, our online monthly publication, which, in the upcoming edition, will be a Testimony written by Satya, a disciple in Japan, about her experience and practice of meditation.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Not that long ago it was pointed out to me that it would be good for me to focus on practicing \u201cbeing humble.\u201d Now, this is not the first time that I have been pointed towards this practice, but perhaps I had been overlooking it, or not clear on how to approach it. Anyway, what was shared with me as an important aspect of it is \u201clistening.\u201d And on the particular occasion that this was pointed out to me, well it just so happens that I had not been listening well because I was instead getting caught in my mind\u2019s reaction to what I was hearing. If I\u2019m honest, I think I thought I was listening, but having this pointed out made me have to check myself. What really is listening? How does one listen?<\/p>\n

I suppose I can say that when I see a lack of listening in others I can easily identify it, and just like I was reminded, it\u2019s true that the one who is not listening is the one who misses out. But isn\u2019t it always the case that it\u2019s so much easier to see these kinds of issues outside of ourselves than to see them unfolding right within us?! Anyway, I\u2019m sure we can all identify that when in conversation with someone else, when we think we are listening, or even the same goes for when we are reading, whether in a noisy or in a quiet way, the mind can have a lot to say. It has its opinions, it is processing according to its experiences and prior knowledge and views that have developed through those experiences, it wants to assert itself, feel that it understands, or bring up a further point, etc, etc\u2026and sooner or later what we thought we were listening to has come to be neatly fit into our own mind\u2019s world, all the while giving us the illusion that we have listened and understood. Certainly, the mind has various reasons or motives that can come in the way of listening, which I\u2019ve been observing in myself, but that will have to be a conversation for another time.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is, for myself, I decided that the first thing I would do just to make some ground for gaining clarity, was to just be quiet. There\u2019s no need for me to say anything, I don\u2019t need to express my opinion, I don\u2019t need to jump to a conclusion, but just simply sit with whatever I am hearing and try to take it in without fitting it into my own mind\u2019s existing story. There\u2019s not a lot more I have to say about this at the moment\u2014this was just a place to begin.<\/p>\n

However, that being said, as I was reflecting this morning, the practice of asana<\/em> and the experience of how it goes, started to reveal an important clue, yet again. This too, is just like practice of <\/em>asana!<\/em><\/p>\n

Oftentimes, when it comes to the practice of asana<\/em>, we can get in to a wave of the mind that approaches it from the notion: \u201cI\u2019m going to do this asana<\/em>\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m going to make the form of this asana<\/em>.\u201d But in asana<\/em>, there is nothing to \u201cdo\u201d and there is no form to \u201cmake.\u201d From what I experience, asana<\/em> is nothing like that at all! Asana<\/em> is not something that needs to be \u201cdone\u201d or \u201cmade.\u201d Asana<\/em> is already there, regardless of us. And rather, asana<\/em> is about using these few ingredients that we have been given\u2014simple instructions, focus on the breath, etc\u2014to bring ourselves to align with the asana<\/em>. Then, the asana<\/em> starts to reveal, taking care of itself by itself, in spite of us. But to align ourselves to the asana<\/em>, there is something we need to let go of, in other words, I feel we need to get ourselves out of the way\u2014and \u201cwhat gets in the way\u201d can include tensing the body too much as we make efforts to \u201cdo the pose,\u201d that can include various concerns and beliefs of the mind, that can include being self-conscious and all that goes along with that\u2026there\u2019s a lot that can get in the way and make us block ourselves from aligning with and coming to get to know the practice of asana<\/em> itself that Shri Mahayogi so graciously teaches us.<\/p>\n

Another way of saying it is, perhaps in the same vein of listening, in order to not lose the opportunity to learn or come to understand something that is not already in the small realm of our minds’ experiences, something that we are lucky enough to have come before us, it\u2019s important to try to quiet ourselves and get our minds out of the way, so that we can try to align and come to understand whatever it is that is being presented to us. It seems that there are many things that are trying to be shown to us all the time, but, just like with asana<\/em>, we are the ones who need to shift something in ourselves in order to hear and be able to receive that which is being shown, otherwise we just continue to keep ourselves blocked.<\/p>\n

Anandamali often reminds us of one of Shri Mahayogi\u2019s most basic teachings: \u201cThe Truth must first be heard, then contemplated, then meditated upon.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

What does it mean for the Truth to be heard? What does it really mean to listen and what is required of us in order to make ourselves able to listen? As Anandamali has pointed out to us today, \u201clisten\u201d is such a basic word that we hear from the time we are young children, yet it may be so common that we can easily take for granted or assume we understand what it means or how to do it. Or like me, slip under the impression that we are doing it already. Perhaps, given that this is one of the first and foremost teachings of Shri Mahayogi and a prerequisite for passing to the gate of Yoga, it is an area where we can all step back to and start to reexamine. Indeed, this also relates to something that Anandamali was recently bringing to our attention. Which is that, in the traditional or classical approach, when one is really wanting to learn something, already the mind is prepared to go to great lengths to first find where it can be learned, and then further, to set aside its own prior notions and understandings without objection, all to make way for coming to align with that which is being sought out to learn and know\u2014that is listening<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And finally, there is one last thing I would like to mention today.\u00a0 It\u2019s a topic that keeps coming up in multiple conversations about a variety of subjects\u2026as if it is being highlighted to me no matter which way I look, like a bright neon flashing sign begging me to pay attention.<\/p>\n

“Patience”<\/p>\n

Patience, it\u2019s great value, and the importance of cultivating it. I\u2019m sharing it with you now, because I certainly suspect that it is an important message to listen to and another clue for us to follow, whether for developing the ability to listen in daily life situations or for developing the practice of asana<\/em>. Very often, we are all reminded\u2014be it directly through scriptures or through the Testimonies of various brother and sister gurubai<\/em>\u2014of the importance of consistent and continuous practice, whatever that practice may be. Perhaps \u201cpatience\u201d is an important tool in dealing with our minds as we train ourselves in all varieties of life situations towards \u201caction without expectation of any result.\u201d<\/p>\n

~ Sadhya<\/p>\n

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Sunday March 20, 2022 NYC Talk at the End of the Asana & Meditation Class Sunday, March 20, 2022 Reflecting Daily Life in Practice of Asana: Getting Ourselves Out of the Way to Listen There is much that can be learned about daily life through the experience of practicing asana. And today I would like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6170"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6170"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6383,"href":"http:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6170\/revisions\/6383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}