This is a promise I cannot retract - Sadhguru

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

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

Sick with Exam Fear? This Will Help​. Video from Sadhguru.

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

Beautiful sharing by a meditator on Devi Yantra's experience

Question: When someone reincarnates, does one usually come back as the same gender?

Sadhguru: Not necessarily at all. There are people around me who are of a different gender now than what they were in an earlier life. I have a very immediate experience of this in many different ways with quite a few people.

Gender, even species, need not necessarily be the same. All this could be determined by your tendencies. It happens to people, it happened around certain yogis, and it definitely happened around Gautama Buddha. It so happened that a lot of monks were reborn as women. When they had sat with the Buddha [in their past lives], the male monks greatly exceeded the women in numbers – mainly due to cultural reasons. In those days, a woman could not renounce when the children were below a certain age.
So the monks who sat there as men, noticed one thing – the female monks’ contact with the Buddha seemed to be better than that of the male monks. This was because it is very natural for a woman to make a very deep emotional contact. These men were sitting and meditating hard, but these women were just looking at the Buddha, and tears were flowing down. They loved him and the Buddha looked at them gently. The men envied that.

Somewhere within them, there was a longing to be connected with the Buddha like the women were. Because of that longing, a lot of those monks came back as women in their next birth. After a certain period of time, they realized who they had been, and that now they had become women. They were shocked, “We did so much sadhana – did Gautama abandon us? Why didn’t he make us monks once again? Now we are here with our children, our husbands, and this whole drama.” This happened because they had envied the women.


Depending upon your longings, depending upon your tendencies, nature gives you an appropriate body. Let’s say you long to eat continuously and you happen to die at that time. The next time, you may come back as someone’s pet pig, really well-fed. People think it is a punishment to come back as a pig. This is not a punishment for you. Nature is not thinking in terms of punishment or reward. Depending upon your tendencies, to fulfill those tendencies, what kind of body would assist you best, that is what you get. Now these monks came back as women. It was their tendency, their longing for what the women were having. When they were longing for the women’s ability to love the Buddha and connect with him emotionally, they unknowingly aspired to become women.

What gender or form you take is determined by the type of longing that you create. So, to maintain focus on your goal and create that longing which is beyond all these limitations is the best way to ensure that nature does not know what to do with you. When nature does not know what to do with you, it is good for you because you can work your things out very effortlessly. When nature knows what to do with you, you are put in this chamber or that chamber – male chamber or female chamber, pig chamber, cockroach chamber, or some other chamber – a body is a chamber.
So if you maintain that longing which is not for this or that, you simply stare at nothingness and are absorbed, now nature does not know what to do with you. It cannot push you this way or that way. It cannot make a decision on you.

Paramahansa Yogananda's meditation room picture

Go to your room and shut the door—make no fuss. Sit down and talk to God. Practise meditation. Let your mind become so intense that the next time you sit to meditate you won't have to make the effort; your mind will be fixed immediately on Him. If you don't make a great effort to conquer physical and mental restlessness in the beginning, you will have difficulty every time you meditate throughout the years. But if you make that supreme effort at the start, you will soon be happy and free.

Paramahansa Yogananda
Paramahansaji's meditation room in his family home

God is in Your Genes ​ - The Science of Kula Gotra​

Linga Bhairavi - A Window Into the Creation

Speaking Truth - The Acid Test

Swami Rama :

I remember an occasion when I was traveling with my master. The station master in a town we were passing through came to me and said, “Sir, give me something to practice, and I promise I will follow it faithfully.”

My master said to me, “Give him something definite to practice.”

I said, “Why should one fool misguide another? It will be better if you instruct him.”

So my master said, “From this day on, don’t lie. Practice this rule faithfully for the next three months.”

Most of the employees of the railroad in that area were dishonest and took bribes. But this man decided that he would not take bribes or lie any more.

That very same week a supervisor from the head office came to investigate him and his assistants. The stationmaster answered the probing questions of the supervisor honestly. This inquiry brought serious trouble to his staff. All the employees who had been taking bribes, including the stationmaster himself, were prosecuted. He thought, “It has been only thirteen days, and look at the difficulty I am in. What is going to happen to me in three months’ time?”

Soon his wife and children left him. Within a month his life had crumbled like a house of cards from a single touch.

That day the stationmaster was in great agony, and we were some three hundred miles away on a bank of the Narmada River. My master was lying under a tree when he suddenly began laughing. He said, “Do you know what is happening? That man whom I instructed not to lie is in jail today.” I asked, “Then why are you laughing?” He answered, “I am not laughing at him, I am laughing at the foolish world!”

Twelve people in that man’s office had gotten together and said he was a liar, although he had been speaking the truth. They accused him of being the only one guilty of taking bribes. He was put in jail and all the others were released.

When the stationmaster went to court the judge looked down at him from the bench and asked, “Where is your attorney?”

“I don’t need one.”

The judge said, “But I want someone to help you.”

“No,” said the stationmaster, “I don’t need an attorney; I want to speak the truth. No matter how many years you put me behind bars, I won’t lie. I used to share in bribes. Then I met a sage who told me never to lie, no matter what. My wife and children have left me, I have lost my job, I have no money or friends, and I am in jail. All these things have happened in one month. I have to examine truth for two more months no matter what happens. Sir, put me behind bars; I don’t care.”

The judge called a recess and quietly called the man to his chamber. He asked, “Who is the sage who told you this?” The man described him. Fortunately the judge was a disciple of my master. He acquitted the stationmaster and said, “You are on the right path. Stick to it. I wish I could do the same.”

After three months that man did not have anything. On the exact day that the three months were up he was sitting quietly under a tree when he received a telegram saying, “Your father had a huge plot of land that was taken long ago by the government. The government now wants to give you compensation.” They gave him one million rupees [about $100,000]. He had not known about the land, which was in a different province.

He thought, “Today, I have completed three months of not lying and I have been rewarded so much.” He gave the compensation to his wife and children, and they happily said, “We want to come back to you.”

“No,” he said. “Until now I have only seen what happens by not lying for three months. Now I want to find out what will happen if I do not lie for the rest of my life.”

Truth is the ultimate goal of human life, and if it is practiced with mind, speech and action, the goal can be reached. Truth can be attained by practicing non-lying and by not doing those actions which are against one’s own conscience. Conscience is the best of guides.

Swami Rama
Living with the Himalayan Masters

Breath - Your constant companion.

Questioner: Why should we focus on the breath during asanas?

Sadhguru: Your mind and emotions need a single object to focus on. If both of them stay with the same object, you are at maximum ease. If your body goes in one direction, your mind goes in another, and your emotions go in yet another direction, you will be struggling. Let’s say you have a job that you are very involved with, a family at home, and an affair on the side, you will be in a lot of mess – never at ease. Only if your body, mind, and emotions are focused in one direction, you will be at total ease.

Nothing and no one – neither your job nor your wealth nor your family nor your love affair – are as reliable as your breath. As long as you live, it will always be there. It is the most steady and reliable thing to focus your mind on. If while doing an asana, you do not focus your mind onto the breath, it will go all over the place. Therefore, focus on the breath. If I take away your breath now, you and your body will fall apart. It is your breath which holds you and your body together. This kurma nadi, as we call it in yoga, is like a thread that ties you and your body together.

If you constantly stay with your breath, if you really travel with it, one day, you will understand where you and your body are linked. Once you know this, you can hold your body at a distance, and all your trouble and suffering will be over. All the trouble and suffering in your life arise from your body and your mind. If you can hold your body and your mind at a distance to yourself, this is the end of suffering. And only when there is no fear of suffering, a human being will dare to explore his life at full stride.

So, being with the breath is very important. One thing is your mind has a steady companion to stay with. Anyone may leave you, but your breath will not leave you until you die. And another thing is it will transport you to a place where you and your body are linked. If you don’t want your life to be determined by multiple factors of compulsiveness, if you want to do or undo your life by choice, it is important to know this place.

Source Link : http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/focusing-breath-essential-asanas/

Do not react - Robert Adams

Now what do I mean by not react.
Do you ignore the summons to go to court?
No, you don't. (students laugh)
You do what has to be done.
When you go to court, but you realize, 
"Who's going to court?
My body is.
My body's going to court, but who is my body?
There is no body.
There is no court.
It's all an illusion.
It is, really" (students laugh)
And then, really, if you look at it that way,
something good is going to happen. (more laughter)
Strange as it may seem you will overcome and
transcend that predicament.
But if you don't, if you react like everybody else does with fear,
and say, "I'm not guilty. I didn't do it."
Then you've got a problem.
You're going to have to repeat that condition over and over again,
as I mentioned before until you're able to realize that
nothing has ever happened to I.
I is free.
I has always been free.

~Robert Adams - T. 26 - Dealing With Problems