Saturday, September 5, 2015

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Sadhguru on "Padahastasana"

Sadhguru: There are aspects of hatha yoga that millions of people in the world may be doing wrong. For example, when practicing something as simple as padahastasana, which is bending forward to bring your pada [feet] and hasta [hands] together, you must keep your feet in such a way that your heels are touching and your feet are forming a “V.”

This is important because when you bend forward and create this movement in the spine, there is a tendency for the energy to move. The question is which way it should move. In yoga, you are always trying to move your energies from lower dimensions of life or lower chakras to a higher possibility. Only if you keep the heels together, your muladhara will get tightened and will not allow downward movement of energy. Then, if you bend forward, naturally, the energies will move upward, because the downward flow is arrested by the tightening of the muladhara.

If you keep the feet completely together or if you keep them apart, you will force the energies to move downward. That way, in this posture, you may stretch your lumbar spine, you may create muscular strength, but you move the energies downward. So, instead of making life subtler and preparing for higher possibilities, you are making it gross. Most people will not take care of such things unless there is a teacher who corrects the geometry of the body in a meticulous way. This is why it is important to find a proper instructor if you want to learn hatha yoga.

Monday, July 20, 2015

How do you begin your day and how do you end it ?

Robert Adams : The worst thing you can do in the morning is turn on the TV and read the newspaper. That is the worst thing you can do.

The best thing you can do in the morning when you wake up is to ask yourself, " Who am I? " and "What am I doing here?"

The worst thing you can do at night before you go to sleep is to think about your job or your family or your finances or your sicknesses or your...all the other things that has been going on in your life.

The best thing you can do before you go to sleep or when you're sleeping, going to sleep is to inquire, "To whom do these activities come? To whom has the days activities come? Who has experienced these days activities".

So you see it's up to you to do the right thing. Wherever you go in this world you still have to take yourself and no-one can transcend your mind but you. No-one can cause self-realization but you. No-one can awaken you but you. You are the one. The world really has nothing to offer you. Your dreams have nothing to offer you. Look to yourself. Look to eternity within yourself. Learn to love yourself. When you're loving your self you're loving the universe for the Self is the whole universe.
Robert Adams

Conscious or Unconscious ? Action or Reaction ? Sadhguru






Sadhguru
The more deeply you are embedded in your karma, the more deeply your
body reacts. 



  • There is someone who, if you smear his face with some filth, will just go, wash his face well and come back. 

  • Someone else, if you smear his face with some filth, he will be revolted and puke. 

  • There is someone else who’ll get angry, irritated and disgusted with it. 

  • Somebody else may just fall dead; it’s possible. 

It depends on how strong your karmic structure is, accordingly, the reaction is that
powerful. As your karma becomes lighter, your reactions become lighter. That means your whole life
and existence is moving more from unconsciousness to consciousness. That’s why your reactions are
becoming less. The more unconscious you are, the more reactive you are. The more conscious you are,
the less reactive you are.

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Wake up. You are creating the world every moment of your life., with the things you believe in.

Robert adams : When I was around ten years old my uncle took me to see a hypnotist. He was a pretty famous fellow at that time. He was also a magician. There must have been about four hundred people there at Town Hall, downtown New York. He picked out certain people. He asked for volunteers first. I told my uncle, "Why don't you volunteer?" He said, "OK," and he did.

And there were about twenty five volunteers who sat on chairs on the stage. He spoke to each one of them. He told most of them to go back to their seats. He picked five people out of the bunch. My uncle was one of them. He proceeded to hypnotize them and he made them all do funny things. What I really remember is my uncle. When he was finished, before he un-hypnotized everyone and brought them back to this reality, he said to my uncle, "When you come out of it, you will go back to your chair, but when I clap my hands, you will imagine there’s a black widow spider on your neck." And I was really laughing. He clapped his hands first and my uncle came out of it, out of the trance, and he said, "Was I hypnotized? I doubt it." He went back to his chair. The hypnotists started talking about something else. Then he stopped and clapped his hands. As soon as he did that, immediately, my uncle started squirming and slapping his neck. And he told me, "Robert, there is a spider on my neck. See where it is." And he stood up and started wiggling and slapping himself all over. The hypnotist clapped his hands again and my uncle came back to the natural state, the human state. When I looked on his neck there was a red welch on his neck, like a spider bite. Where did that come from? There was no spider. Where did the bite come from? Who put it there? Student: Did he get sick at all? Robert: No. He didn't get sick at all. When the hypnotist clapped his hands everything came back to normal. But the welch, the red mark, was still there.
The same power that caused the red mark to be there causes this universe to be here. In other words, no-thing. There is no cause for this universe. 

I recall when I was about nine years also, I used to run out every day when it snowed in my t-shirt, and play in the snow. I would do this every day. My mother didn't see me. I had fun. I'd throw snowballs, build a snowman, yet I never caught a cold. One day my mom saw me going out in a t-shirt and she screamed at me, "Robert, get back in the house and put on your coat this instant or you'll catch your death of cold." Sure enough that day I caught a cold. Why? Because I identified with what my mom told me. After all she's my mom, she must know what she's talking about. 

Lets take something else, a cancer. What we call cancer, again, is impersonal. Yet when some of us identify with it we appear to have it also. If we looked at cancer like we do a cold, the cancer would disappear by itself. Yet what is the first thing that comes to your mind when you've been diagnosed as having cancer? Death, and so you start deteriorating. But in reality there are no cancers. There are no colds. There's nothing but consciousness. Yet, you are seeing the world, you are believing the world and you are identifying with the world. It's not the world or any condition that has come upon you. You have created your own condition, by what you have accepted, believed, and identified with. 

Take a look at your life right now. Think what's going on in your life. Are you happy, are you miserable, are you healthy, are you sick, are you rich, are you poor? It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is everything you are is what you have identified with, somewhere, somehow. There is no power outside of yourself. There is no world outside of yourself. There is no creation outside of yourself. There is no universe outside of yourself. There is no God outside of yourself. You have given birth to all these things. You are playing a game with yourself. 

You’re putting on an act. Why? Ask yourself.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

You judge because you are looking at Life through a keyhole

Robert Adams : It's like this. Imagine you're looking through a keyhole and all you can see through the keyhole is someone being killed by someone else. You see a man killing a woman through the keyhole, and all of your concepts revolve around that. That's how we see the world, through a keyhole. We see a part of the picture. But lets say you open the door instead of looking through the keyhole. You would look to the left, and you would see perhaps in a previous life the woman killed the man. It's in reverse. Now in this life the man is killing the woman, and you would understand what's going on. Then you would go further. You would look to the right and you would see they’re both together again, laughing and having a good time, and you would realize that no one is killed and no one kills. It's all a game. You would see the complete picture. But as long as you only look through the keyhole you're going to see a limited view of things. Then you become judgmental.


This is why we're told not to judge, because we only get a limited picture. Everything that you see in your life is looking through a keyhole. When you awaken the door opens, that's all. You then understand why everything is happening, and where it comes from. This is the reason why sages remain so calm and they never react to anything. Not because they don't care. They see the whole picture. The door has been opened for them. And they see the person who wins the lottery and has fifty million dollars. They earned it, somewhere, somehow. There is no such thing as luck. There is no such thing as chance. And then they see the end picture, when they wake up, they laugh at the whole game. For no one lost anything and no one won anything.


It's like a movie. The movie has a beginning, a middle and an end. And when the movie is over there's the screen. The screen is the reality. The movie is just impressions upon the screen. All impressions have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Most people go through their life as an impression. They react to everything they hear, see, smell, touch and taste. They're always angry, they're always mad because they are not getting what they want. This is looking through the keyhole.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

The worst thing you can do (to Yourself) is to put yourself down. - Robert Adams


 Student: I think part of the problem is, speaking for myself of course, is that I don't believe it will happen. I feel it happens just to a favored few, like Jesus, Buddha or yourself. What's the sense of trying it if it's not going to happen?


Robert Adams : Well, if you don’t feel it's going to happen, what can you do? Go see a movie. You've got to realize you are greater than you think, and you've got the same power within you as everybody else does. It may appear to be asleep, but as you work on yourself, work on yourself, work on yourself, you will awaken it, and one day it will become stronger than you are and take you over completely and you'll be free. But you've got to keep on working on yourself, and stop putting yourself down. That's the worst thing you can do is to put yourself down. That's blasphemy because you're putting God down. Think of yourself as a higher person, love yourself, worship yourself, bow to yourself. You are greater than you think.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Not able to settle ? ---- How compassionate the Divine is, that it somehow keeps you on your toes. - Sadhguru
















Sadhguru : Many who take to the spiritual path have this question every day in the morning when they have to get up at five. ‘Why should I do all this? The whole world wakes up at eight o’clock. Why should I get up at five o’clock? Everybody eats five meals a day. Why should I eat two? Everybody is looking happy, like Mother Earth. (Gestures to show round figure.) Why should I look like this?’ That is Mother Earth’s shape; that is not the human shape, but a lot of people are trying to imitate Her.

So this question always comes up, ‘Why should I do this?’ Of course traditionally, they would say, ‘You must realize yourself, you must realize God. You must attain liberation.’ But in the morning, you say, ‘I don’t want liberation. I just want to sleep. I don’t want to see God. I just want to eat well. I am really not interested in meeting God. I just want to meet the neighbourhood girl or boy.’ These thoughts will come up, they are very chemically supported. Spiritual longing is not chemically supported. But still, the question of ‘why’ becomes very big. ‘Why? Why?’

If you had the intelligence of a worm, there would be no ‘why.’ If you even had the intelligence of a buffalo – it is a bigger brain than you, at least a bigger head – you would not have these problems. The problem is what you see as creation. If you look at it closely enough, everything is contradictory. If you are just engrossed in one thing, it looks like it is complete by itself. When your hormones are spiced up and they are ruling your body and your brain, it looks like that is the very purpose of life. Then when you get married you think, ‘Why the hell did I get caught up in this?’ So the question is not about whether life works out well or not. The question is just whether you have a working head or not. If you have a working brain, it does not matter how well life arranges itself. ‘Why the hell am I stuck in this?’ will anyway come.

If you have observed and paid attention to the nature of the creation, you will have to learn to exist in contradiction, which makes you very compromised. Only somebody who is completely blind, only somebody who never pays attention to his own emotions, thoughts and actions can believe that he is all right. Otherwise, if you pay enough attention, you know it is all a terrible compromise. Wherever you are put, it doesn’t matter where, if you have a working head, it will ask, ‘Why? Why am I in this?’ People try to freeze their brains with all kinds of things, but it will not work. If you have an active working brain, the ‘why’ will come soon. If you have a frozen brain, it will come at the moment of death.

My blessing is the question, ‘Why do I exist, why am I doing this?’ This should come to you at the earliest possible time so that you have the necessary energy and strength, and you are not so heavily encumbered that you cannot choose the path which will liberate you from this ‘why’ and the torment of ‘why.’ The ‘why’ becomes very big – you cannot sleep. You cannot sit in one place peacefully. You cannot do anything properly because this is the very nature of existence. Only somebody, only a creature which is below the mind can settle into this existence. One who has a working mind cannot settle into this existence. Whichever way you look at it, you cannot settle into it. If you are put in a city, you cannot settle into it; if you are put in the jungle, you cannot settle into it; if you are put in a small hut, you cannot settle into it; if you are put in a palace, you cannot settle into it; because that is the very nature of the existence. Existence is created like this, so that the human being does not stagnate. Wherever he is, it feels meaningless and he wants to move somewhere else. How compassionate the Divine is, that it somehow keeps you on your toes.

When we were on the Kailash Yatra, I saw some slackness in the way some things were being done, so I called the volunteers and teachers and said, ‘What is the problem? Has Kailash become mundane because you are coming every year? People would give their right hand to be here. What is the issue with you?’ Then they said, ‘No Sadhguru, we are just tired.’ I said, ‘Tired is good. You are not dead. Tired is not a problem. You are not dead, right? You are young.’ Then one of the participants said, ‘They have just been on their toes.’ I said, ‘That is the best way to live your life.’ Do you think being on your backside is a good way to be? Being on your toes is the best way to be. That means you have a life that is happening. You don’t have a stagnant life. You have a life that is happening all the time.

You must be fortunate that things are always happening – seven days of the week, three hundred and sixty-five days, it is happening. That is one thing you cannot complain about in Isha. You cannot say, ‘Nothing is happening.’ Something is happening all the time. This is very important. May you know the joy of action that leads to stillness.

Love & Grace,
Sadhguru.

Source Link : http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/sadhguru/spot/why-the-hell-do-i-exist/

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Be sensitive to hear and listen to your Inner Voice. Trust. Mooji

The instant you genuinely say Yes to Truth inside your Heart
a subtle vibration is felt. Don’t overlook it.
As you become open, it will guide you in subtle ways.
Day by day, you become increasingly aware of its presence.
Sometimes, it may just whisper. Why whisper?
So you bend down to listen and develop more sensitivity to truth.
In the beginning you have to make an effort to hear and to listen,
because other voices are also talking inside your head.
The more one identifies with the ego self, the more heavy life is felt to be.
The one who calls you is with you. Trust.
You must engage your discerning power to identify which is the true voice.
Basically, the less of ‘you’, the person, there is, the more Truth reveals itself.
The one who grasps this begins to see things in such a calm and light way.
Stay like this—observant. Move like this—empty.
Don’t wait for the Real to come.
Recognise, inside your heart - I am already here.

~ Mooji, Sahaja 2015

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Don't Go Up In Smoke!

The Key To Health: Treating Water With Reverence

When nothing happens in your life, its a hibernation process - recognize it.

Bhagavan Ramana once told a busy grihastha sadhaka (family aspirant) : 

"There will come a stage in sadhana, when the aspirant will be forced to live in seclusion. It is truly the blessings of God on him. Then, he will be blessed with the capacity to withdraw himself from all forms of outward activities and commitments, like the tortoise which involuntarily withdraws its limbs and head within the protective safety of its own huge shell, when it sees 'danger' ! This


inner hibernation is a precious opportunity blessed on a true spiritual aspirant by the Higher Power, to silently meditate; and, in such silence, he will receive inner commandments of guidance !"

Friday, June 12, 2015

Difference between a seeker, disciple and a devotee - Robert Adams

There are three types of people that enter the spiritual path. 

The first is called the seeker, 
the second is called the disciple, 
and the third is called the devotee. 

The seekers are the worst ones because they never stop seeking. While they are at satsang they think about who they will see tomorrow. They never stop. They run from pillar to post; they go to India to seek a teacher, then to Hawaii or St. Louis when they hear about another teacher. They are seekers, and this is good to an extent, because they are better off than the people who do nothing and think they are human. Unfortunately you can be a seeker for a thousand lifetimes without ending it. 
                                    If you are a sincere seeker, with a heart that truly wishes to awaken, the time will come when you become a disciple. 

The disciple finds a teacher and learns all they can from that teacher. Yet they still are not sure; they still have
doubts. They still are interested in me, me, me, me, asking, “What am I getting out of this?” Also they still go to other teachers from time to time, even while staying around one particular teacher. They may be a disciple but they are not that close. 

                             If the disciple is sincere in their heart, with love and compassion, thinking kind feelings towards all, they will eventually become a devotee.
  The devotee becomes the consciousness of the teacher. A devotee forgets all about him or herself. They could be in satsang where everyone is going wild, but the devotee sees nothing but the teacher. The devotee is oblivious to anything going on in satsang, but only has love and good feelings towards all. The devotee is interested in the teacher's welfare and ultimately becomes enlightened. It is the devotees that awaken before anyone else. 

In which category are you? Ask yourself.

Robert Adams

Sunday, May 24, 2015

In sleep, where did your world go ? Robert Adams

Again as in sleep.
When you are in deep sleep and you do not dream where did your world go?
What happened to the world? There is no world for you.
The world only begins when you wake up or when you dream.
Then there is a world.
But in deep sleep there is no world, where did you go then?
What did you become then? Find out.

So the beginning of wisdom is when you understand that
this world is only an emanation of your mind.
That is all it is, it's a bubble, a dream bubble.
If you really knew this and you understood this,
would you ever feel serious about anything that's going on in this world again? Would you believe someone is trying is trying to hurt you?
That you have to have revenge and hurt somebody else?
Would you believe that you have to have your own way and
make things happen the way you want it to be?
You would simply become the observer wouldn't you?
Where you observe this whole world and all its manifestations wouldn't you?
You just watch everything happen, taking place.
You would not react to person, place or thing.
You would not react to anyone and you would never be hurtable again.
What could possibly hurt that you think is separate from you?
For in truth you are one with it.

This is the reason I say so often,
noone can ever leave you or be away from you.
There is nothing you could ever lose.
For you are all of these things yourself.


~Robert Adams -T.219 - Become What You’ve Always Been -
24th January,1993

A simple way of surrendering - By Robert Adams
















How do you surrender?

Everyday you should sit half an hour in the morning and
half an hour in the evening by yourself.
Don't meditate more than half an hour.
Sit by yourself and watch your thoughts.
Don't react to thoughts.
Whatever comes to your mind never react,
just watch, smile and you are surrendering.

As you thoughts come, as thoughts come to you,
you no longer pay any attention to it,
it does not bother you, that is surrendering.
The next thought comes to you,
you never pay attention to it.
It doesn't frighten you,
it doesn't make you happy,
it doesn't make you sad,
just watch it and it will go away,
you surrender that thought.
You keep it up , keep it up.
As you keep it up, your mind become calmer and calmer,
quieter and quieter until the mind dissolves itself in the heart
and you will be free.

~Robert Adams - T. 238 - Stop Fighting - April 12, 1993.

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Why Doesn't Hard Work Bring Me Success? Sadhguru

Wholeness - Musical from Sounds of Isha

WORK AND SURRENDER - Anandmayi Ma


When you have surrendered yourself to the Guru, he may do anything, subject you to no matter what trials, yet you still regard yourself as a tool in His hands. You will then have reached a stage, where in spite of all difficulties, you persist with the work, knowing it to be the Guru’s order. Keep in mind that by this attitude you will grow steadfast in endurance, patience and perseverance, and your energy and capacity will be enhanced.

In action there is bound to be conflict. When can there be freedom from this conflict? When there is no question of feeling hurt. Even in the midst of work, at all times and under alt circumstances, one must be prepared to obey any kind of order. 

Imagine you are hungry, and just as you are raising your hand to put food into your mouth, you are asked to go elsewhere. At that very instant, you should gladly let fall the food you were about to eat, and obey the call. Such an attitude is an indication of one’s becoming established in a happiness that is not of this world.

- Anandamayi Ma

To observe silence means to keep the mind fixed on Him. - Anandamayi Ma














Words of Sri Anandamayi Ma

This evening the following statement was made "Through the observance of silence one attains to Supreme Knowledge (Jnana)".

SRI MA: How is that? Why has the word ‘through’ been used here?

A DEVOTEE : Silence is itself wisdom, the means is itself the end.


SOMEONE ELSE : By silence we have to understand the stilling of the five senses.

SRI MA : Yes, but why say ‘through’?

A DEVOTEE: Complete and exclusive concentration on the Self this is the significance of ‘through’.

SRI MA : When speech is suppressed, the activity of the mind still continues. All the same, such silence helps to control the mind. As the mind dives deeper, its activity slackens off, and then one comes to feel that He who provides for everything, will arrange matters. When the mind is agitated by thoughts of worldly things, the benefit that should be gained by abstaining from speech is lost.
One may, for instance, keep silent at the moment of anger, but some time or other it is bound to burst forth. When the mind is centred in God, it keeps on advancing steadily, and along with this emerges purity of body as well as mind. To let thought dwell on the objects of the senses is a waste of energy.


When the mind is thus occupied and silence is not observed, it finds release in speech. Otherwise, this kind of silence might put undue strain on the senses and possibly result in ill-health. But when the mind is turned inward, not only can there be no injury to health, but more than that, by constantly dwelling on the thought of God, all the knots (granthi) that make up the ego are unravelled, and thereby that which has to be realized will be realized.

To observe silence means to keep the mind fixed on Him.

At first one feels the impulse to talk, later all inclination and disinclination vanish. It is also like this : just as the bee collects honey, so all that one needs is gathered together naturally. What is necessary becomes available of its own accord -presents itself, as it were - when there is ever closer union with Him.

When one entirely refrains from speaking and even from communicating by signs or gestures (kasta maunam), how is the body kept alive?


Everything dovetails, and the silent person just watches as a kind of spectator. In the measure that one progresses towards union, one will notice that obstacles disappear, and whatever is necessary provides itseif;
It is one thing if everything happens by itself, and quite another to make arrangements by one’s own effort.


Real silence means there is actually nowhere else for the mind to go.
In the end, whether the mind exists or not, whether one speaks or not, makes no difference.
To say "through silence He is realized" is not correct, because Supreme Knowledge does not come "through" anything - Supreme Knowledge reveals Itself.

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Do taste control your life ? Amma enlightens.
























Venu, devotee of Amma, narrates his experience. 

"Nothing can be concealed from Amma. She knows everything. About five years ago I had an experience that illustrates this fact. One night during supper while everyone was eating kanji (rice gruel), I suddenly had a strong desire to have some mango pickle has a side dish. I had seen some in the ashram kitchen earlier that day, but as they were meant for the labourers and the visiting devotees, we residents were not supposed to take them. Also, Amma had told us that, as spiritual aspirants, we should not eat things which were very spicy, sour, salty or sweet. She would often come into kitchen unannounced to see whether her instructions were being followed. Although, I was fully aware of this, the desire for some mango pickle got the better of me.

"Without making any noise, I entered the kitchen and stealthily stole two big slices of mango pickle. I was about to leave when suddenly I heard Amma's voice, "Venu, what is in your hand?" I was shocked and, to avoid being caught red-handed, i threw the mango slices away.. Amma then searched and found the slices. Seizing me, she caught hold of my hands and tied them to a post. I was ashamed and full of fear."

Seeing his childlike fear and innocence, Amma burst into laughter. Actually, Amma was enjoying looking upon Venu as the child Krishna, who was tied to a mortar by his mother, Yashoda, for stealing butter and milk from the gopi's houses. After a couple of seconds, Amma untied him and lovingly served him some mango pickles. She said, "Son, only if the taste of the tongue is controlled can one enjoy the taste of the heart."

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Sadhguru explains how Guru Pooja is a process of making yourself choiceless, so that the divine also has no choice but to be with you.

Sadhguru: Guru Pooja is not about offering a flower, a fruit, and a coconut – this is a subtle process to create an invitation to the Divine. There is a difference between meditation and a ritual. Meditation is all your own stuff – it is exclusive. But if we actively participate in a ritual, everyone can be in the same space and enjoy the same thing. If performed properly, a ritual is a vibrant and fabulous tool that supports everyone. A ritual needs integrity, involvement, and inclusiveness. If there is no integrity and inclusiveness in the atmosphere, people can misuse it in so many different ways. So there is a serious risk because generally in the society, there is a lack of integrity and inclusiveness.
Guru Pooja is a tool, a certain method. It is not a thanksgiving ceremony. Yes, there is a sense of gratitude in it, but that is not what it is all about. It is a way of creating a certain sacred energy geometry which will naturally draw certain forces to it. You must do the Guru Pooja in such a way that no matter where I am, I must come. I should not have a choice. This is only possible if you make yourself choiceless.
There is a very beautiful story in the Mahabharat. On a certain day, Krishna was having lunch. Rukmini, his wife, was serving him. Krishna was a man who had taken on the whole world, so he barely got home. The chance of serving him a meal did not come often, even for his wife. It was a privilege that she cherished and valued. Halfway through his meal, he suddenly got up and left without even washing his hands. She said, “Please, at least finish the meal before you go.” He said, “No, one of my devotees is in trouble. I need to go.” He went till the gate, stood there for a moment, turned back and sat down to continue his meal. Rukmini asked, “What happened to your devotee?” He said, “He was sitting in the forest, chanting my name, when a hungry tiger approached him.” Krishna had seen that this man was totally immersed in the chant, calling Krishna with total involvement, and when the tiger approached, immediately Krishnahad gotten up and left. He continued, “As I went towards the gate, the fool picked up a stone to protect himself, so I’ll let him do his business.” This is the power of choicelessness.

Guru Pooja is a device for you to make yourself utterly choiceless. All these rituals are just that – you give yourself to a process and make yourself completely choiceless. When you are like that, even the Guru does not have a choice. You need to make it in such a way that the Divine does not have a choice about you. It is from this that many yogis said, maybe in different ways, “Shiva has no choice about whether to be my partner or not.” I have a choice to lose him, but he has no choice. You must always keep him like that because what kind of a fool would consider losing the Divine as a choice? Only someone who has just one brain cell would. If you had two brain cells, you would clearly see that losing him as a partner is not really a choice – it would be utter stupidity.

Guru Pooja is such a tool. You must make it in such a way, the invitation is sent in such a way that he has no choice; he has to be there. If you create such power about simple things that you do, then the benefit of sadhana will multiply manifold.

I have cancer, what should I do? J.Krishnamurti responds

Monday, April 6, 2015

Is your child a spoiled-brat? Please re-check.

Osho : Rabindranath has written, "I was being imprisoned in the schools. The birds would be singing songs outside and I had to go on looking at the blackboard. The sounds of the birds would be wonderful, but I had to listen just to the monotonous voice of the teacher and learn geography. If my ears and my being reached out to the birds, I had to undergo punishment."

Then, when Rabindranath started his school for the first time in Shantiniketan, who would give their children to him to spoil? Rabindranath himself could not get any degree in any university. Fortunate was he; otherwise the world would have been deprived of a great poet. Blessed was he that his parents could not succeed and took him out of the school. Had his parents been successful the world would have suffered a great loss. And how many losses this world has suffered throughout the history of man cannot be assessed because there is no way to know how many Rabindranaths would have been lost in the schools.

When Rabindranath opened his school for the first time, who would send his children there to be spoiled? If I open a school, would you send your children? No, you would not. Who would send their children to be spoiled? But still there were some such children of Rabindranath's friends whom it was not possible to spoil anymore - they were sent to Rabindranath's school. They were at the extreme border, now there was no hope for them to be spoiled any further. Ramanand Chatterji, the editor of MODERN REVIEW, had also sent his son; he was fed up with him.

Any children who have even a little intelligence, parents certainly get troubled with them. Parents like non-intelligent, idiotic children, without any genius, very much, because they sit down wherever they ask them to sit down, and stand up when they ask them to stand up. They neither have any soul of their own, nor any being of their own.

So Ramanand also had sent his son. After three months Ramanand went to see what the condition was there, how the school was run. He had no hopes that the school would be running, but what he saw there amazed him even more. Rabindranath was sitting under a big tree, some ten to fifteen children sitting around him, and study was going on. Coming closer Ramanand discovered that ten to fifteen were sitting under the tree, and ten to fifteen were sitting up in the tree. What kind of class was this?

To Rabindranath he said, "I had my doubts in the very beginning! What is going on? Is this a class?
I feel sad to see this - the boys sitting up in the tree."

Rabindranath said, "I also feel sad: the fruits have ripened, and I am amazed at the children who are sitting under the tree! I also feel sad. I have become old; otherwise I also would have been in the top of the tree. The fruits have ripened, the winds have brought the fragrance of the fruits, the tree is calling, and if children don't climb it, who else will? The tree has sent the invitation - these children who are sitting under the tree have already become old. They are not receiving the invitation; the message is not reaching their nostrils that the fruits have ripened. The tree is giving the call to come!

Sad will be those who have become old and unable to climb, but these children have not yet grown old! This is what I was thinking, sitting here. Have these children already become old? Have they not felt the challenge of the tree? Have they not received the message?"

We make the children old in their very childhood. And then if the youth, the freshness disappears from life, who is responsible? As I see it, too much misconduct is happening, too much oppression is happening. Much wrong is happening.

Osho Revolution in Education, Chapter#7.

If you have lots of time, how would you spend it ?

Student: If you have lots of time, how would you spend it, Sir?

Krishnamurti: I would do what I am doing.
You see, if you love what you are doing, then you have all the leisure that you need in your life.
Do you understand what I have said?

You asked me what I would do if I had leisure.
I said, I would do what I am doing; which is to go around different parts of the world, to talk, to see people and so on.
I do it because I love to do it; not because I talk to a great many people and feel that I am very important.
When you feel very important, you do not love what you are doing; you love yourself and not what you are doing.

So, your concern should be not with what I am doing, but with what you are going to do. Right?
I have told you what I am doing.
Now you tell me what you will do, when you have plenty of leisure.


Student: I would get bored, sir.

Krishnamurti: You would get bored.
Quite right.
That is what most people are.


Student: How do I get rid of this boredom, sir?

Krishnamurti: Wait, listen.
Most people are bored. Why?
You asked how to get rid of boredom.
Now find out.

When you are by yourself for half an hour, you are bored.
So you pick up a book, chatter, look at a magazine, go to a cinema, talk, do something.
You occupy your mind with something.
This is an escape from yourself.

You have asked a question. Now, pay attention to what is being said.
You get bored because you find yourself with yourself; and you have never found yourself with yourself.
Therefore, you get bored.
You say: Is that all I am?
I am so small, I am so worried; I want to escape from all that.
What you are is very boring, so you run away.

But if you say, I am not going to be bored; I am going to find out why I am like this; I want to see what I am like actually then it is like looking at yourself in a mirror.
There, you see very clearly what you are, what your face looks like.
Then you say that you do not like your face; that you must be beautiful, you must look like a cinema actress.
But if you were to look at yourself and say, "Yes, that is what I am; my nose is not very straight, my eyes are rather small, my hair is straight."
You accept it.
When you see what you are, there is no boredom.
Boredom comes in only when you reject what you see and want to be something else.

In the same way, when you can look at yourself inside and see exactly what you are, the seeing of it is not boring.
It is extraordinarily interesting, because the more you see of it, the more there is to see.
You can go deeper and deeper and wider and there is no end to it.
In that, there is no boredom.

If you can do that, then what you do is what you love to do, and when you love to do a thing, time does not exist.
When you love to plant trees, you water them, look after them, protect them; when you know what you really love to do, you will see the days are too short.
So you have to find out for yourself from now on, what you love to do; what you really want to do, not just be concerned with a career. 


~ From Krishnamurti On Education,
Talks to Students,
Chapter 8 - On Image-Making

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Sadhguru on beef ban

Q: You recently said, “For me, food is food, there is nothing religious about it. And my sense is we can eat anything that our system can take in naturally.” Does that stand extend to beef too? If so, what do you think about the blanket ban on cow slaughter, beef, etc in Maharashtra and Haryana?

Sadhguru: You want to mix religion even into food? You can’t turn everything into a majority versus minority argument. This is a game being played by certain people, which is unnecessary.

Beef ban is not against any religion.
The first thing I would say is ban the ban.
Banning is not the answer,
education is the answer.

First of all, as food, beef is not good to eat. Every nation, every doctor in the planet is telling you that. In the West, people are giving up beef and turning to vegetarianism. We have been vegetarians for thousands of years. Now we are turning to beef. Do we want to go through all the health problems they underwent? Do we want to spend billions on our health bill? Do we want to go in that direction? The FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) is changing its rules. But we want to go that way! It is definitely not a wise thing to do.

If someone is eating beef, I may want to educate him about the harmful effects of eating it, but it’s not for the government or me to tell him not to.

In our country, we believe if there is an animal that has any emotions in it, you must not consume it. A cow can love you and shed tears for you, just like humans. It is not about the cow, it is about any animal that shows human emotions. Can you cut up your dog and eat it? We have a pastoral culture where before industrialization happened, 90% of the people were involved in agriculture. The cow is not just an animal. It is part of the family. You drink the cow’s milk. Children are taught that the cow is like a second mother. It is part of the culture. So when you cut the cow and eat it, it is aesthetically impossible in the Indian mind.

Still, if someone is eating beef, I may want to educate him about the harmful effects of eating it, but it’s not for the government or me to tell him not to. But now, India is exporting beef, which is becoming a major business. If you ignore about 80% of the country’s sentiment and kill millions of cows and export beef, it is not acceptable.

There is no beef in many villages, not by law but by norm. Even minorities respect and appreciate that sentiment. If someone wants to eat it, he gets it and quietly eats it. Others know that too but they don’t bother because it is their home. But if you are going to cut the cow in the street and hang it in front of someone’s house, it is not going to be acceptable for them because their aesthetics and emotions don’t go with it. They also respect that. But now, the way it is being made out is that you have to eat beef, otherwise you are not universal or secular. You want me to eat beef to be secular? You cannot question the country’s secular credentials or mine. When no country on the planet had thought about democracy, kings here were practicing democracy.

Except tyrants, kings would consult the public on decisions. Democracy and secularism are not new to us. We are a land without religion. Each person can follow whatever faith he wants as long as he doesn’t rub it into me. But now you are rubbing it into me. I am poor and you give me food, and say “give up your God, come to my God.” This is happening in a crude way. This is about the nation, not about this group of people or that group. My concern is 50 million people in this nation have no access to nutrition. In the name of my god and your god, you are destroying everything. Freedom has to become a living possibility. When you are poor, what matters is what goes into a belly. Hunger is not a joke. Which heaven I will go to is not even of consequence.

Sadhguru

Do we need to know how to deal with teenagers or we need to know how to be available to them ? Sadhguru enlights

Questioner: Sadhguru, how should one deal with
teenagers?

Sadhguru: Every age is a problem. Stone Age was a
problem, Iron Age was a problem, Bronze Age was
a problem, Computer Age – serious problem. The
Middle Ages were a great problem, Modern Age is
an immense problem, Teen-age – another problem.
I hope you too were born normally as an infant and
slowly grew up, passing the age of 13, 14, 15, which
you refer to as teenage.

Like infancy, childhood,
adulthood, middle age, and old age, adolescence
or teenage is just a certain developmental stage.
We are trying to segment it, but essentially, this is
the journey of a body. Some are suffering infancy
problems, some are suffering toddler problems,
some are suffering childhood problems, some are
suffering teenage problems, some are going through
middle age problems, some are going through old
age problems. Looking at it from that perspective,
every phase of life is a problem.

If you consider every aspect of life as a problem,
death is the only solution. Unconsciously, you start
seeking death for yourself and for those around
you. You may not be aware of it, but you create an
atmosphere in your mind where the only solution
is to become free from life. You came here to
experience life. Instead of calling it different facets
of life, you call it different problems. If you die, you
will have funeral problems, because it is not easy to
have a dignified funeral in Mumbai City. No more
can four people carry you, and your whole family
and friends walk behind you with a drum. Even
dead, you are stuck in the traffic.

There are various types of situations in your life, and
that is all they are – situations. Some of them you
can handle – some of them you cannot. Whatever
you cannot handle, you call a problem, rather than
seeing it is only a situation and trying to equip
yourself to handle it. The moment you call it a
problem, unpleasantness is a natural consequence.
Your children are growing up and becoming
teenagers – that should be a joyful event. But you are
distressed about them growing up. Unfortunately,
we have eulogized infancy and childhood, which
are helpless stages of life. But even so-called spiritual
teachers say, “I am still a child.” This is another way
of saying “I am retarded.” I do not want to meet an
adult who is still a child.

If you eulogize childhood, this helpless phase in life
where without someone else’s support we cannot
exist, you will remain helpless forever. And that
is what happens. “I cannot live without you” – do
not mistake this for love. This is not of any great
value. It is just like saying, “I cannot walk without a
crutch.” “I’m fine the way I am, but still I am willing
to include you and involve myself with you” – this is
of great value. “I can live without anyone’s attention
and I am willing to get absolutely involved with
whoever is here right now” – this is of value.
Since you got used to your children being helpless
creatures, when they reach the so-called teenage
and start standing on their own feet, you do not like
it. You want to keep them small. What you need
is a toy or a doll to play with, or maybe a dog. A
couple was struggling with the decision whether to
have children or not. The husband wanted to have
children. The wife said it is not necessary – one can
get a dog instead. Because they could not settle the
debate, they went to a marriage counselor. They
said, “We are not able to make up our mind whether
to have children or to get a dog. What should we
do?” The marriage counselor said, “This is very
simple. Do you want to ruin your carpets or your
life? You must decide.”

If, like a little child, you say, “This is how I am,”
you have become like a concrete block. Based on a
certain amount of stupid information that has come
your way, you have defined how you are. Once you
have formed a concrete block kind of definition of
who you are and you meet another concrete block,
you know what happens.… When two people come
together with great passion and your boundaries are
loose, a wonderful union may happen. When two
concrete blocks come together with great passion,
friction or the breaking of one or both of the
concrete blocks will happen.

Once you become like a concrete block, you
should not beget more concrete blocks. When
you have defined your boundaries absolutely, you
are incapable of including another life as a part
of yourself. If you ask me, you should not even
get married in that case, because two concrete
blocks living together may make a house, but it
will not make a home.

When children are small, they are helpless and
look to you for everything. You think your
children are magical because they are helpless.
Suppose the baby popped out of you, stood up,
and said, “Hey, who the hell are you?” you would
not like this baby. But they take 14, 15 years to
ask that question. In fact, that is all a teenager is
asking, “Okay, who the hell are you?”

If you want to be someone significant to that
fresh life, you must not have defined boundaries
of who you are. Like when the child was infant
and he crawled, you crawled with him. Now
when the teenager wants to swing, you must
be able to swing with him. If you still want
to crawl with him, he is not interested. In the
eyes of young and energetic adolescents, parents
who think you still need to be crawled around
look ridiculous.

Every day, life is changing within you because you
are growing rapidly, and the fools around you are
not able to grasp that. Usually, grandparents become
a little more endearing than parents, because they
look at things from a little distance. Teenage means
you are slowly getting poisoned by your hormones.
Old age means you are being released from that,
so they kind of understand. Those of you who are
middle-aged have no clue. Even historically, the
Middle Agers represent a confused state of mind.
Do not deal with your teenagers – make yourself
available for them. Make them responsible for
everything. One month, have the courage to hand
over your monthly income to them and give them
the responsibility to manage the house. You will
see, things will change dramatically. From the age of
three and a half months, my girl travelled with me
in the car. We built the Isha Foundation in a Maruti
800, travelling thousands of miles. In 14 months, I
put 135,000 kilometers on that car.

She grew up in the car until she was four years
of age. At first, I thought I will never send her to
school because we had bonded and she had such
wisdom since she has seen the road, she has seen
the people, she has been in all kinds of families. I
thought I should not mess this up by sending her
to a school, but you know children of that age need
company. Unless you have a whole cricket team of
children at home, keeping one child alone does not
work, because they may become too old when they
are young, so I put her into school. From then on,
she was always in a hostel. But we have kept a very
active engagement, thanks to phones.

In earlier years, it was the black phone. The school
had only one hour “phone time,” so even if I was
somewhere on the highway at that time, I had to
find a black phone, and for that one hour, I would
be on the phone with her. On her side, children
were screaming at her – on my side, people were
banging on the booth. Later, she went to college and
whatever else she has been pursuing, I would always
find the time and speak to her on the phone. We
have never really stayed at home. When she comes
for a vacation, the next day, we will be travelling
somewhere. Apart from that, I have kept up a very
active relationship with her, largely on the phone.
I saw there is a certain intelligence in every child.
If she was with me, I would leave all my important
decisions in her hands. She was only five or six when
I started putting people’s problems, Foundation
issues, and administration to her. She would come
up with her own whacky solutions, but five times
out of ten, it would be something brilliant. I am
not trying to project her as a special child – she is
normal, but brought up in a special way.

Most people never give that opportunity to a
child’s intelligence. I never bought toys for her. If
she wanted to play, I took her out for a walk in
the jungle. She learned to climb trees and do all
kinds of things. Here and there, someone gifted a
toy, but she was never interested in them, because
there were more exciting things like the snakes or
garden lizards I caught for her.

If you really want to do something with your
children, you must allow them to expand, because
that is all they are trying to do. Not only their body
is growing – the potential of the human being is also
growing. You must allow them to expand, rather
than seeing how to restrict them. If you try to
restrict them, you will have huge problems. If you
have boys, you will have one kind of problem. If you
have girls, you will have another kind of problem.
Do not think restriction is a good way of controlling
life. Responsibility will put them on track. As I said,
hand over your money to them and tell them to
handle it this month – you are on vacation. If you
are afraid that they will go and blow it up – if they
do, what happens to you will happen to them too.
Let them go through it for a month. Of course you
can keep some reserve, but let them understand if
they blow up the money, there will be no breakfast
tomorrow morning. It is better to learn in a
protected, caring atmosphere than out on the street.
Above all, drop this idea that your child belongs
to you. If you think these children belong to you,
coming into their teens, they will tell you in their
own way, “Goddammit, I don’t belong to you.” That
is all they are trying to tell you – which you are not
able to digest. Another life does not belong to you.
If another life has chosen to be with you, please
cherish that. It is a tremendous thing. Whether
it is your husband, your wife, or your children –
value the fact that another life has chosen to come
through you or be with you. You do not own them
in any sense. If you do not get it now, you will get it
when you die or they die. You do not own them, but
definitely, you should include them.

There are many aspects to teenage – one thing is, your
intelligence is being hijacked by your hormones.
Suddenly, the whole world looks different. What
were just people are suddenly becoming males and
females. Suddenly, you are only interested in one
half of humanity. It is a huge change. You will see
boys do not even look at their mothers directly,
because they still cannot take their eyes off certain
body parts. You must understand it is new to them
and they are trying to come to terms with it.
If you were a good friend and they had problems,
they would talk to you. Because most parents are
lousy friends, they make other friends, and those
friends give their own whacky advice, since they
are also in the same state. It would be best that if
your children have a problem, they come to you.
But they will not come to you if you think you are
the boss. They will not come to you if you think you
have ownership over their life. They will not come
to you if you are “that horrible father or mother.”
They will come to you if you are a good friend,
because when they have problems, it is natural
for them to seek a friend. So make sure from an
early age that you are their best friend until they
reach the age of 18 or 20. You have to earn it.
It will not happen because you delivered them.
Because you delivered them, you get the title of
mother and father – you will not get the title of
a friend. This has to be earned by you behaving
responsibly every day.

Sadhguru

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Is màking a inward journey a difficult one? Sadhguru answers

Sadhguru soaked in Silence, in search of words

Sadhguru : What we are just referring to creation is such a fantastic, coordinated design. Itsunbelievable. No human being can logically ever arrive at it and say “I have got it”. Its too much and at the same time its so cohesive and so fantastic. When you see it; even for a moment if you see it, there is no way you can remain the same person.

So, since then, my life has been to make devices, to rub off theseexperiences on people, even if it is for a moment. I can tell you millions of people today, if they as much as close their eyes, tears of ecstasy will dribble out. They do not know the Ultimate but they are near, just the fragrance of the Ultimate, justbreaks them up, dissolves them. This is something that must happen to every human being. Before we fall dead, this is the goal we all must set, whether you become a billionare or not, that I do not know, that is subject to many things. Whether you climb mountEverest or not, I do not know, but before you fall dead, you must know this piece of Life in its entirety. This is important than important. If you pass this life, without knowing the nature of what this is (Sadhguru referring to life within), in my opinion it is waste of life. It doesn’t matter what you might have done, whatachievements you may have done in the world, if you leave this place without knowing this piece of life in its entirety, it’s a waste of life. What this is (Sadhguru referring to life within) , is bigger than anything that we can ever think of doing in this world.

Questioner : For many people perhaps in this room, what you just described seems very far, out of reach and we were talking about….

Sadhguru interrupts

Sadhguru : I would like to correct that, I know that is not a normal thing. I want you to understand, all of you. See when it comes to outside world, we are all differentlycapabled. What you can do, I cannot do. What I can do, you cannot do. That is a fact and that is how it will always be, and it is wonderful that way otherwise we all will be doing the same damn thing but once you look at your interiority, there is no human being here who is better equipped than the other.

In physicality, you may be better equipped than the other.

In your psychological space, you may be better equipped than the other.

But in interiority, you are neither worse, nor better than anybody else.

I am not any better than anyone of you or anybody in this world for that matter internally.

In your interiority all of us are equally capable. This is not something that depends on your competence. This only simply depends on your intention, willingness. This is not a question of competence at all. So, it is never ever out of reach. It is just that we are looking at it, at different

 
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