Take Charge of Your Drama
For many people, their body, mind, and emotions are making up some kind of drama all the time. This drama includes your psychological scape, your perception, and your experience. The way the world is playing within you, how you see, hear, taste, or smell – all this is your drama. Another creature would not experience it the same way. People’s perceptional drama is not necessarily always in line with reality. If your chemistry plays up in a certain way, everything looks different. Some people are going through psychological issues where the entire reality changes in their experience, and doctors are trying to fix it with some kinds of chemicals.
Yoga is a dimension where even the simplest physical postures can lead to a profound understanding of how to take charge of this drama. What we are trying to do is to get a hold on this drama, understand the source of this drama and direct it as you want, not only in terms of thoughts and emotions but in terms of your very perception. Through the yogic process, you can take charge of how you see things and how deeply you see things, and how profoundly or profanely you experience life. That will not come with the surface activity of twisting and turning your body. It needs enormous involvement.
Total Involvement
The only reason why the entire humanity is not enlightened is lack of involvement. Lack of involvement comes from the fear of suffering. You involve yourself in what you like or know, or what you consider as pleasant. You do not involve yourself in what you do not like or know, or what you consider as unpleasant. This discriminatory process creates lack of involvement. Early morning Yoga may not be pleasant, but to be absolutely involved without discriminating between what you like and dislike is the answer. A neem ball may not be something that you like, but to be involved with it, to integrate it within yourself, is fundamental to creating a sense of involvement. As your involvement becomes profound, your experience also becomes profound. The doors of existence, of which there are many layers, open one by one if you show the necessary involvement.
Establish involvement without discrimination, which means simply doing whatever is needed – not doing more of what you like and less of what you do not like.
There are many compulsions and limitations you have to face to make things happen in the world. All these things will have an impact on you, unless you know how to involve yourself in just everything, without fear of failure. Establish involvement without discrimination, which means simply doing whatever is needed – not doing more of what you like and less of what you do not like.
This is about bringing a sense of vairagya into your life. The entire Indian culture has grown from vairagya, though this is changing rapidly today. Raga means “color,” vai means to be beyond that. So vairagya means “beyond color”– in other words, to become transparent. If the background behind you is blue, you become blue; if the background is red, you become red. If you are transparent, you can take on and experience every possible color in the universe without a trace of that color being left in you. You are absolutely involved in the process of life but remain untouched by it. Or in other words, life does not leave a scratch upon you. Unless you have this freedom, you will not be able to deepen your experience of life.
How Hatha Yoga Can Help Your Mind
Questioner: I have a hard time memorizing. Being receptive to oral transmission is very challenging for me. Could you say something on this? Bringing precision into life We have to work on clarity. What is it that gives us clarity of mind? A simple thing you can do to improve clarity is to handle everything [...]
Project Human : Moving from Compulsiveness to Consciousness
Hatha Yoga, Sadhguru explains, is one doorway to liberation, offering the possibility to transcend compulsiveness and move towards consciousness. Questioner: Is there a connection between meditation and hatha yoga? You said hatha yoga is a path by itself – can you elaborate on that? Sadhguru: There are many dimensions to hatha yoga. One fundamental aspect [...]
Hatha Yoga, Sadhguru explains, is one doorway to liberation, offering the possibility to transcend compulsiveness and move towards consciousness.
Questioner:Is there a connection between meditation and hatha yoga? You said hatha yoga is a path by itself – can you elaborate on that?
Sadhguru:There are many dimensions to hatha yoga. One fundamental aspect of it is to knead the body. You know, if you make bread or chapati, you need to knead the dough well for it to turn out well. Similarly, the quality of your meditation depends on how well-kneaded you are, not only through hatha yoga or asanas, but by life itself. Life is kneading you in so many ways. You can either enjoy it or suffer it. You can either mature and blossom, or get crushed by the process. This is the choice you have.
Hatha yoga is a kind of kneading – not just of the muscle but of every aspect of who you are.
Hatha yoga is a kind of kneading – not just of the muscle but of every aspect of who you are. What you refer to as karma is embedded in every cell of the body and in every aspect of your energy. This becomes apparent when, in the same process or activity, the energies of different individuals behave differently, depending on the type of memory their energy system carries. Kneading means trying to make your system so malleable that it has no power to influence you. You are taking charge of your life through the body.
There are different ways to take charge of your life – one way is through the body. Physically, it may be a little harder, but it is a sure path, because you immediately know what works and what does not. If you try to take charge of your life through the mind, you do not know whether you are going forward or backward. You do not know whether you are becoming malleable or crusty. You may think you are doing well, but people around you may say otherwise.
The body never lies – that is a good thing about it. The mind tells you all kinds of lies, all the time. People who do not trust the mind start off with the body. Hatha yoga can be an ultimate path, because body, mind, energies, and being are not separate entities. You can approach the same thing from different ends. The physical entry is a sure way, but a longer one. It is not even harder, except if you practice hatha yoga only every now and then. If you only do it once in a way, then bending may be a problem. If you do it every day, you will see sadhana is not hard at all.
Asana Siddhi and Meditation
Hatha yoga is just one more doorway to ultimate liberation, but it is physical in nature. If you are in good physical condition, it is an effortless and beautiful way to go. If you have asana siddhi, which means you can stay in a posture comfortably and stably for long periods of time, meditation will be effortless. If you struggle with meditation, it is because certain parts of the body and certain aspects of the mind do not cooperate as they should.
The problem is you have not trained your body and mind. Sitting down on the floor, you realize in what state your body is. Hatha yoga means keeping everything in the system flowing. If you do the right kind of hatha yoga, you will live long, because you do not allow death to crop up in your system. Otherwise, rigor mortis is slowly creeping in – slowly, the body is becoming stiff.
For many people, their body, mind, and emotions are making up some kind of drama all the time. This drama includes your psychological scape, your perception, and your experience. The way the world is playing within you, how you see, hear, taste, or smell – all this is your drama. Another creature would not experience it the same way. People’s perceptional drama is not necessarily always in line with reality. If your chemistry plays up in a certain way, everything looks different. Some people are going through psychological issues where the entire reality changes in their experience, and doctors are trying to fix it with some kinds of chemicals.
Yoga is a dimension where even the simplest physical postures can lead to a profound understanding of how to take charge of this drama. What we are trying to do is to get a hold on this drama, understand the source of this drama and direct it as you want, not only in terms of thoughts and emotions but in terms of your very perception. Through the yogic process, you can take charge of how you see things and how deeply you see things, and how profoundly or profanely you experience life. That will not come with the surface activity of twisting and turning your body. It needs enormous involvement.
Total Involvement
The only reason why the entire humanity is not enlightened is lack of involvement. Lack of involvement comes from the fear of suffering. You involve yourself in what you like or know, or what you consider as pleasant. You do not involve yourself in what you do not like or know, or what you consider as unpleasant. This discriminatory process creates lack of involvement. Early morning Yoga may not be pleasant, but to be absolutely involved without discriminating between what you like and dislike is the answer. A neem ball may not be something that you like, but to be involved with it, to integrate it within yourself, is fundamental to creating a sense of involvement. As your involvement becomes profound, your experience also becomes profound. The doors of existence, of which there are many layers, open one by one if you show the necessary involvement.
Establish involvement without discrimination, which means simply doing whatever is needed – not doing more of what you like and less of what you do not like.
There are many compulsions and limitations you have to face to make things happen in the world. All these things will have an impact on you, unless you know how to involve yourself in just everything, without fear of failure. Establish involvement without discrimination, which means simply doing whatever is needed – not doing more of what you like and less of what you do not like.
This is about bringing a sense of vairagya into your life. The entire Indian culture has grown from vairagya, though this is changing rapidly today. Raga means “color,” vai means to be beyond that. So vairagya means “beyond color”– in other words, to become transparent. If the background behind you is blue, you become blue; if the background is red, you become red. If you are transparent, you can take on and experience every possible color in the universe without a trace of that color being left in you. You are absolutely involved in the process of life but remain untouched by it. Or in other words, life does not leave a scratch upon you. Unless you have this freedom, you will not be able to deepen your experience of life.
How Hatha Yoga Can Help Your Mind
Questioner: I have a hard time memorizing. Being receptive to oral transmission is very challenging for me. Could you say something on this? Bringing precision into life We have to work on clarity. What is it that gives us clarity of mind? A simple thing you can do to improve clarity is to handle everything [...]
Project Human : Moving from Compulsiveness to Consciousness
Hatha Yoga, Sadhguru explains, is one doorway to liberation, offering the possibility to transcend compulsiveness and move towards consciousness. Questioner: Is there a connection between meditation and hatha yoga? You said hatha yoga is a path by itself – can you elaborate on that? Sadhguru: There are many dimensions to hatha yoga. One fundamental aspect [...]
Hatha Yoga, Sadhguru explains, is one doorway to liberation, offering the possibility to transcend compulsiveness and move towards consciousness.
Questioner:Is there a connection between meditation and hatha yoga? You said hatha yoga is a path by itself – can you elaborate on that?
Sadhguru:There are many dimensions to hatha yoga. One fundamental aspect of it is to knead the body. You know, if you make bread or chapati, you need to knead the dough well for it to turn out well. Similarly, the quality of your meditation depends on how well-kneaded you are, not only through hatha yoga or asanas, but by life itself. Life is kneading you in so many ways. You can either enjoy it or suffer it. You can either mature and blossom, or get crushed by the process. This is the choice you have.
Hatha yoga is a kind of kneading – not just of the muscle but of every aspect of who you are.
Hatha yoga is a kind of kneading – not just of the muscle but of every aspect of who you are. What you refer to as karma is embedded in every cell of the body and in every aspect of your energy. This becomes apparent when, in the same process or activity, the energies of different individuals behave differently, depending on the type of memory their energy system carries. Kneading means trying to make your system so malleable that it has no power to influence you. You are taking charge of your life through the body.
There are different ways to take charge of your life – one way is through the body. Physically, it may be a little harder, but it is a sure path, because you immediately know what works and what does not. If you try to take charge of your life through the mind, you do not know whether you are going forward or backward. You do not know whether you are becoming malleable or crusty. You may think you are doing well, but people around you may say otherwise.
The body never lies – that is a good thing about it. The mind tells you all kinds of lies, all the time. People who do not trust the mind start off with the body. Hatha yoga can be an ultimate path, because body, mind, energies, and being are not separate entities. You can approach the same thing from different ends. The physical entry is a sure way, but a longer one. It is not even harder, except if you practice hatha yoga only every now and then. If you only do it once in a way, then bending may be a problem. If you do it every day, you will see sadhana is not hard at all.
Asana Siddhi and Meditation
Hatha yoga is just one more doorway to ultimate liberation, but it is physical in nature. If you are in good physical condition, it is an effortless and beautiful way to go. If you have asana siddhi, which means you can stay in a posture comfortably and stably for long periods of time, meditation will be effortless. If you struggle with meditation, it is because certain parts of the body and certain aspects of the mind do not cooperate as they should.
The problem is you have not trained your body and mind. Sitting down on the floor, you realize in what state your body is. Hatha yoga means keeping everything in the system flowing. If you do the right kind of hatha yoga, you will live long, because you do not allow death to crop up in your system. Otherwise, rigor mortis is slowly creeping in – slowly, the body is becoming stiff.
