"When you know that there is enough, you stop competing with others. You stop competing for love, or money, or sex, or power, or whatever it is you felt there was not enough of. The competition is over.
This alters everything. Now, instead of competing with others to get what you want, you being to give what you want away. Instead of fighting for more love, you being giving more love away. Instead of struggling for success, you begin making sure that everyone else is successful. Instead of grasping for power, you begin empowering others.
Instead of seeking affection, attention, sexual satisfaction, and emotional security, you find yourself being the source of it. Indeed, everything that you have ever wanted, you are now supplying to others. And the wonder of it all is that, as you give, so do you receive. You suddenly have more of whatever you are giving away.
The reason for this is clear. It has nothing to do with the fact that what you have done is 'morally right,' or 'spiritually enlightened,' or the 'Will of God.' It has to do with a simple truth: There is no one else in the room.
There is only one of us."
(Neale Donald Walsh)
Love Laughter Inspiration Simplicity
R. Sharath Jois
"You should not be practicing to have a 'good' practice, but instead to keep steadiness within yourself. Practice happily regardless of whether it is 'good' or not. Sometimes some postures will not be possible, but when you accept the good and the bad and everything becomes equal for you, that is yoga."
- R. Sharath Jois
Burnt To Ash
"All Inquiry is meant for one purpose; to take you experientially into the unknown as efficiently as possible. Once you get there, simply be still because inquiry has delivered you to its destination. The rest is up to Grace. Do not hold onto any knowledge that comes your way. Even the greatest revelations much not be clung to, or you will end up with a head full of memories and a heart empty of substance. The truth is ever new, existing only in the now. The highest truth is beyond knowledge and experience. It is beyond time and space, and beyond beingness, consciousness, and oneness. Just remember that all direct path techniques are meant simply to undermine, to cut away, the one who is performing them. No matter what spiritual path you've walked or what teachings you've followed, they must lead you back to no path and no teaching. A true teaching is like a blazing fire that consumes the itself. The teaching must not only consume you, but consume itself as well. All must be burned to ash, and then the ash must be burned. The, and only then, is the Ultimate realized. True Enlightenment destroys enlightenment. As long as you can refer back to yourself and say, 'I'm enlightened', you not. Enlightenment is authentic only when there is no one left to be enlightened. Even to say 'I am nobody', is one too many. There's a point when you intuitively realize that to be Free you have to give up your attachment to Freedom. You have to quit asking yourself: Is it still there? Am I okay? You have to decide to never look over your shoulder again to see if you're free or if others know you're free. You just have to let yourself burn there - no matter what. This isn't something I can help you with. I can tell you what you need to do, but you have to do it. In the beginning, teachers can help a lot. But the deeper you go, all they can do is point, and clarify, and tell you what you need to do. Only you can take this step. Nobody can push you in to this place."
- Adyashanti
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About
"Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could."
- Louise Erdrich
Hamsa
No Expectations
A spirit that lives in this world
and does not wear the shirt of love,
such an existence is a deep disgrace.
Be foolishly in love,
because love is all there is.
There is no way into presence
except through a love exchange.
If someone asks, But what is love?
answer, Dissolving the will.
True freedom comes to those
who have escaped the questions
of freewill and fate.
Love is an emperor.
The two worlds play across him.
He barely notices their tumbling game.
Love and lover live in eternity.
Other desires are substitutes
for that way of being.
How long do you lay embracing a corpse?
Love rather the soul, which cannot be held.
Anything born in spring dies in the fall,
but love is not seasonal.
With wine pressed from grapes,
expect a hangover.
But this love path has no expectations.
You are uneasy riding the body?
Dismount. Travel lighter.
Wings will be given.
Be clear like a mirror
reflecting nothing.
Be clean of pictures and the worry
that comes with images.
Gaze into what is not ashamed
or afraid of any truth.
Contain all human faces in your own
without any judgement of them.
Be pure emptiness.
What is inside that? you ask.
Silence is all I can say.
Lovers have some secrets
that they keep.
(Rumi)
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15 Insightful Comments:
“There is only one of us."
You must agree that this is an invalid statement. Think for a second. There is only one of us, and what is “us”? “Us” is two. So he is saying: There is only one of two. ;)
Ok, I see, you will say that this is not what author wanted to say; there is transcendence, simple truth, no one in the room etc, etc... But, who is the one to see that there is only one?
Miss L., there are four main philosophical (bullshit) questions – the questions that do not have answer: The first question and it appears to be the most important one is: should we kill ourselves now or should we wait for some time and kill ourselves later on. Next question is What is knowledge? Next endless bullshit question is the question of the One and the Many. The one is the one because it does not have parts. The part is also the one because it is a piece of the whole (which btw. does not have any part) etc. etc. My previous comment is just teasing you a bit. It actually belongs to this category of bullshit questions. The final bullshit question is who comes first: the egg or the chicken?
Anyway, I am not here to give you a lesson in bullshitting. I have read your blog for quite some time and I have noticed that there is a sort of confusion, which all serious ashtanga yogis encounter in their path to Self-Realization. This confusion naturally comes by following an incomplete “do and all is coming“ teaching. Nothing related to Self-Realization will come by blind asana and pranayama practice. The practice is necessary and very useful but it has its own limits.
Self-Real-I-zation? (part 1)
Let say that knowing our true nature is something similar to “seeing” the blue, limitless sky. Of course it is not that but let pretend it is. We live besides a hill, in some valley. We don’t see the sky due to clouds. Our city, where we live, is always cloudy. So in order to see the sky we need to climb on the hill. When we come to the top of the hill, the clouds are left behind us so we are able to see the sky. The valley, where we leave, is not the world as usually thought but it is our perception (or attitude, or understanding) of the world and our position in the world. The top of the hill is our self – or precisely our changed attitude towards our self and the world. We “gain” self-realization when we are on the top of the hill. What the “climbing” might be? Obviously, the “climbing” is the process of changing our attitudes. That process can be accomplished only if we investigate our current attitudes. Dictionary said: the attitude is a manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc., with regard to a person , thing or the world; tendency or orientation, especially of the mind. So our “climbing” is the constant investigation of our understanding. We have to come to new understanding which is very simple: “Everything is false”. The world is false. All relationships are false. Our relation to mother, father, brother, sister and other huge family affairs are all false. The relation to our children is false too. Our common knowledge is false. Friendship is false. Our motives are false. All that we do is false. We, ourselves, as we consider ourselves to be, are false. Etc. etc. Let contact dictionary again: The “false” means: not true or correct; erroneous; uttering, declaring or considering what is untrue; not faithful or loyal; treacherous; tending to deceive or mislead; not genuine; based on mistaken, erroneous, or inconsistent impressions, ideas, or facts.
(part 2)
In order to climb we need a lot of courage. We do have a wonderful tool given to us for this climbing and it is called “mind” or better “thinking”. In order to reach the top of the mountain we need to re-think everything. But we are stubborn; we actually do not want to change our understanding. So there is a problem.
Mr. Pathabi Jois was a smart guy. No doubt about that. He did not want to tell this to his students, because he knew that very few would wish to change and even less would start right-thinking or climbing. So he came up with “do and all is coming” as a trick. He tricked ashtangis by making them leave all unnecessary things (of course the false things) because in order to do daily practice most of the garbage habits and attitudes must be left behind. By “do and all is coming” he has accomplished a lot. But there is new problem. The yogis instead of climbing directly to the top, they make a tent somewhere in the middle of the hill. And they live the rest of their life there. So they still see the clouds; true, the clouds are less thick, air is fresher; but nonetheless, nothing is really changed. Those yogis are easily recognized: they teach others how to breath, where to put the hands in asanas, where to look; they read BG, Yoga Sutras, they are vegetarians, bahktis etc… oh don’t forget, they support Obama for president, they want t change the world… they “care” about the world without realizing that by such “care” they actually coming down the hill.
Lets take your blog name as an example of tent-living. Peace-Love-Yoga! Yoga means “climbing” and that’s ok. Dictionary says that “peace” is the normal, nonwarring condition of a nation, group of nations, or the world; (often initial capital letter) an agreement or treaty between warring or antagonistic nations, groups, etc., to end hostilities and abstain from further fighting or antagonism; a state of mutual harmony between people or groups, esp. in personal relations; the normal freedom from civil commotion and violence of a community; public order and security; etc. As you can see, Peace is the state between two Wars. (both capital). Energetically, peace and war comes together, they are the presence or absence of the war. Energetically they reflect the same frequency. Similarly Love. Love is the state between two Hates. Please, we should not mix “Love to Be” that can be found at the top of the hill. Love in your blog name is seen from the tent-living. Looking from the top of the hill, your blog name is War-Hate-Yoga. Incredible! This is very difficult to accept. In order to accept it you need to continue your climbing process. For that, dictionary is the best spiritual book.
I wish you luck.
Looks like what I've posted or have posted in the past, along with the title of my blog has triggered something.
If I took all of this seriously I would be offended, but simply put I'm intrigued by your lengthy response.
I wish you luck, as well. Thank you ... and, I have no problem using a dictionary either.
Take care.
You should look at the lengthily comment seriously because you are on the spiritual crossroad, right now, right here, but there is no need to be offended. I have no intention to insult you in any way. Quite contrary, I think you are great.
Regarding the name of your blog… Well, it is the name, not you. :) I said something what is true, although when I re-read it now I see that it sounds harsher than intended. I should say that “looking from the top your blog name MIGHT be seen as war-hate-yoga”. But let repeat because this is a subtle truth: Peace is a psychological state; in such state there is no motivation for anything; it is just peace. Once we mention “peace” like we want peace, I am in peace, peace-love etc. the state of peace is disturbed and we are not any more in peace. We are actually in the state of war. (psychological state of thoughts and emotions). The frequency of such energy is the same.
Thanks for the reply. I checked your youtube channel and you are really an ashtanga master. My admiration! :)
What “Laruga” means? Is that name or nickname? And what are you doing in Sweden?
Thank you for posting this excerpt. I really needed it today. I really enjoy reading your blog. Please keep doing exactly what your doing...Tracy
Thanks Tracy!! xoxoxox.
After 3 years of commenting, you as a blogger finally said something that brought tears to my eyes. You said, “No hablo ingles.”
:)
Ciao
PS.
sorry for interruption
Laruga, reading your blog is inspiring to me...even if I didn't have the extra knowledge that you are a very special person (duh, because I KNOW you).
I like that you ask and confront a lot of questions a lot of people are afraid to face. I love that some days it speaks to me immediately and other times it doesn't make sense. Okay, it makes sense to me later (you know, I'm slow).
Anyway, thank you so much for being brave and sharing your mind with us (and sharing peace and love AND yoga hahahahaha). XO
I've never had so many comments over something I didn't even write.
Hahahaha.
Laruga and Owl went on a Mysore trip, set up their tent near the shala, and fall asleep. Some hours later, Laruga woke up her faithful friend.
"Owl, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."
Owl replies, "I see millions of stars."
"I see" said Laruga, "And what do you deduce from that?"
Owl ponders for a minute. "Astronomically speaking, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. Timewise, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, it's evident God is all-powerful and we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you Laruga?"
Laruga was silent for a moment, then she said. "Owl, owl!!!, some asshole, probably Zee, has stolen our tent."
Ok, I see you’re in good mood, let keep this space for myself, then. :)
Regarding your post, the one above this one… It is evident that Chuck Palahniuk is not Chuck Norris. For him the real things are stones, wood and people (everything that is visible) and unreal things are thoughts, dream, ideas and legends (the “mind” things as commonly understood). Is this really so? This question is very important. It is actually the starting point in spirituality.
Hey, just wait a second. I understand why you’ve posted this. Your attention was paced on the “continuing legend” and that is ok. My attention here is on real vs. un-real. Of course, I exaggerate certain things but I do that only for “creating drama”, giving “the life” to your blog, bringing you more readers, etc. I am in the role of a troll but regardless of what Owl has told you about me, in general, Laruga, I consider you as a serious spiritual seeker, and you should not consider my comments as a “challenge” or a threat to you. You can delete all my comments if you wish, no harm done, really. I am not challenging you in any way. Having said that, let return to the question “what is real?” because it is an important starting point both for devotional as well as the path of knowledge.
What is real?
The real is something that never changes. Do you agree? So the stones crumble, the wood rots, people die. But also, thoughts come and go, stories are created and they fly away to someone else to experience them, ideas flash in the mind for a second and then they are forgotten etc... None of those things can be consider as real simply because they are changeful.
What is in you Laruga that has never been changed since the moment of your birth until now? There is something that has never been changed. What is it?
Obviously, it is your sense of existence, your “I am” sense, your presence, the “now”, the self, awareness, life energy etc. etc. All these different names for the same thing show mind’s great doubt about it. And the mind can do just that – to have doubts about it. The fact is, your sense of presence is not changing, so that is real. Everything else, including your body and the world is changeful but your Existence stays as it is. It is as It is. And it is (as it is) beyond mind. “Everything is false” is truth when it is understood from the point of the Real.
Dismantle your tent and move up the hill by using your mind, in the form of right-thinking; see the falseness of everything. In that process the Real will appear. Do not have an aim on the Real. That comes by itself. And that’s the core of self-realization.
Zee, in many ways you are preaching to the choir. When it comes to your comments on peace and/or what is deemed as 'real', I have no conflicting issue with what you are saying.
I use this blog as an open forum of thoughts and processes I'm experiencing in this moment in time. I don't really claim to know anything, however, I will say I like to stay open and willing to learn and more deeply understand. That's it really.
I am not sure why you put Owl into the mix. I have a deep respect for her, and she has never said anything to me about you.
My name literally means, "Dawn of a new day."
Well, that's all for now, and take care.
I am so pleased to see that you already understand spiritual things I wanted to tell you. Yes, it is so simple.
It is strange that Owl did not tell you anything. However, if she tells you something about me, please know, it is her expression of love. (yes, in a way, she is weird, because of Rob, very jealous guy). Right now we are not in good standings, we almost ended in an international court.
"Laruga"... a nice name, thanks for letting me know. I’ll not bother you any more.
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