Thoughts are floating by like clouds in the sky...

"You do not need to be going to the Himalayas, you can create the
Himalayas in your own place." 

- Prashant Iyengar -

Amazing truth,  I came across just while surfing the www. years ago when asked by friends why I am not going anymore to India, where I have been almost ever year in the past, I answered almost in the exact context: 

"If one has realized what this "India" is, it is everywhere!"

In fact everyone should realize this, unless it is a very noisy and uncomfortable place like the horrific "Kashmiri Gate" Bus Terminal in New Delhi, but even there are people "at home" and indisputable it IS India...  it is only a result of the conditioning of the mind, our thoughts and the perception of our environment and how we judge it's estimated and vividly imagined values!

Much more though if one manages to immerse into the Brahman, the ONE and only truth, reality... that one which we really are and everything around us visible or invisible, material or immaterial..... with out valuing, judging it all the time and split it in ever smaller categories to "lock it away" into the myriads of drawers in the store room memory.

It sounds maybe a bit strange, but this is exactly why one may have to go to the Himalayas... to experience this, but then in today's world it is only given to a few who can afford this, some who are native of these Regions would love to go away from there because for them it is everything else then enlightening!

Strange isn't it, the mechanics of the mind, those who are there, aren't necessarily enlightened, because they are simply born and live there, those who go there for the purpose, may be disappointed and not finding any ray of light...even in the brightest sunshine.

The problem is embedded  in the situation itself, when we start to look for something, search for something, we assume that we haven't got it... that it's not there, not in our possession, tricky, but it's exactly so!

But "it's" always there, right here... if we can let go, let lose, we can realize that ALL is right here for ever, but for eternity on the move, changing like the seasons, like wind and weather slowly change the earth's face ever more....and we will have to accept this, there is nothing that can change the ever changing empirical world.

It's you who has to change!

A day at the Beach

"If you love something so much let it go. If it comes back it was meant to be; if it doesn't it never was"
  -

Albert Schweitzer

It's Sunday my day off, started the day early with some rounds of Surya Namashkar, Trikonsana flowing into Parsvakonasana, Padottanasana, Parsvashita...Ardha Baddha Padmottansana, Pada Halasana...and  flow, flow,  flowing back into the Surya Namashkar - welcome sun...!

and then went to the beach....

 

It was this stunning blue sky with puffy white cottonballs strewn around.. what a day!

 

Check these guys out.... beach sellers...trying to makea living..

 

Rarely we are aware how blessed we are... all these clouds of sorrows, worries, wishes, wants... entangled in our thoughts, mind constructions, we let the hours and days of our lives pass by as if there is an endless supply of it - REALIZE!

You are here, always and ever , always only here and you aren't your thoughts, other peoples imagination or the one in the mirror - is only a reflection of you...neither you are any of the myriad of feelings which carry us away from time to time, a mix of some bio-substances, hormones our body produces all the time, especially if agitated through some mind stuff, thoughts, feelings, good as well as bad ones..loss, loneliness - hey how can one be lonely - 6.000.000.000 people around... and animals, birds, fish... name it just LOOK and REALIZE!

three simple but effective asanas:

Yogamudra

Sit cross-legged (sit in Padmasana, Ardha padmasana orVajrasana  ). Hold your left wrist with your right hand behind your back. Slowly lowering your chin, then your neck, bend down as far as you can go, breathing out as you go down. Stay there for 8 seconds with your breath held out then rise up, breathing in. Practice eight times.

Cobra  (Bhujangasana)

Lie down on your stomach. Put your hands facing down on the floor beside your ears. Supporting your weight on your palms, push up and raise the chest, looking up towards the ceiling. Breathe in while rising, and hold your breath in that position for 8 seconds. Come down to original position while breathing out. Practice eight times. 

Long Salutation

Kneel down with your buttocks resting on your heels and your toes pointing forward. With your palms together, extend your arms up next to your ears. Slowly bring your arms and head down as one, first bending your neck then the whole upper body, until your fingers hit the floor, keeping your buttocks on your heels all the time. Now stretch out along with your forehead and nose resting on the floor. Breathe out as you go down and stay there with your breath held out for 8 seconds. Then rise up, breathing in. Practice eight times.

and remember: keep breathing, breathe, relax, relax and relax to the max! 

Savasana

Lie on back with arms by the side, inside of hands facing up, make sure that the breathing is calm and relaxed, watch the air flow through the nostrils, throat, into the lungs, the belly, the diaphragm expands, slowly, ever further, the belly, the chest slowly filling the lungs and reverse - exhale, slowly, let the air flow gently back out. 

relax...

Now go through the whole body, starting at the tips of the toes feet, consciously making sure that each part is completely relaxed – with no muscular tension at all.

From the feet up, chins, calves, the legs, thighs, consciously checking each part, into the groin area, into the abdomen (also feeling the internal organs are relaxing), into the chest and shoulders, from the fingers and hands up the arms, then into the neck and up into the face, relaxing the facial muscles, nose, lips, mouth, tongue, ears, including the eyes, forehead, and finally to the top of the head, the brain is relaxed. 

Check once more that the breath is calmly, just floating and relaxed, imagine floating on top of the sea, suspended in space, on top of a mountain, imagine a sunflower or poppy field – whatever seems attractive or comes by itself - float. Now stay like that, fully relaxed, for a few more minutes....forget time, forget it all immerse into the ONE and ALL - float, let go... 

 

I love the whoooooooshing sound of a deadline passed by!" - Douglas Adams -

So how the absolute Brahman, Sat-Chit-Ananda, became what we see here around?

Sri Aurobindo, a great indian philosopher and thinker, wrote:

"The Absolute is not bound - not bound to its infinite existence, not bound to its infinite consciousness and the force inherent in that consciousness, not bound to its infinite bliss."

Clever... very, very deep insights this man had!

In other words it is indeed ALL - as in really ALL - without ANY limitations!

Difficult to grasp, how can (perceived) evil and godliness be one and the same?

Well the easy way out would be: :if this wouldn't be the fact, there wouldn't be an Absolute - the Brahman!

Easy?

Almost as a Koan - but hey... they aren't 'easy" are they?

It's way easier to slurp down a pot of tea and gaze in to the fire, illuminating the mountain mist, which hides the colors of the autumn clad trees, beneath the shades of smoky white and ash grey, to steel blue and fading purple clouds ...

..or something like it.

Well why we are so hungry, to know, to know everything because we are obsessed with knowledge, but in general (we reluctant to admit but...) to patronize, to conquer, to dominate (our mind works hard on it!) but then we always tend to be so critical about knowledge and it's applications, we can't just let it in, like the crisp morning air rolling down the mountain slopes from their icy peaks., nope, it has to be analyzed, checked, categorized, filtered, compared, weighed - the whole procedure, until it is decided "right!" An gets stored in some drawer which "sits up there", ready to gulp the information down and then being hesitant to let go of it, once it has disappeared in the vast crevasses of it's giant array of the library of folders in the mind...



And second, he (Aurobindo of course) explains that by definition Brahman is capable of manifesting within its absolute existence innumerable, limited, even distorted and contrary forms of its being. We may further deduce that an infinitely extended, infinitely diverse manifestation, replete with objects and beings ranging from the most unconscious, the most vile, to the most conscious, the most beautiful, the most divine, would be perfectly consistent with an existence that was Absolute.

Amazing, isn't it - reading it, is soooooooo simple, but grasping it, get the whole idea of it, is another story, may be hours of meditation, maybe light years away.

But then, the Author the honorable and very smart Sri Aurobindo packed this in a couple of sentences, like a pizza is packed for home delivery.

Wow!

Well I am going to have this "pizza" now - and try to reflect upon how this unimaginable Brahman exists.... everywhere, in everything - breathtaking concept - isn't it?

But how does the Brahman do this?

The answer for exploring it, is:

The principle of exclusive concentration - Dharana.

This principle is best explained through the example of our own ability to narrow our conscious awareness on a particular idea or perception, putting behind in the background of our focused awareness the rest of our conscious existence.

Good insight can be attained while practicing these "simple" steps... say as in a life time obsession:

Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses through asana - posturs and pranayama - breathing techniques),

Dharana (concentration, focus on ONE point, between the eyebrows, top of the head, Chakras, candle flame, sound..)

Dyana (finallyMeditation, the trance like state of absolut awareness)

Samadhi.... (I spare any attempt to explain...many tried, I think: everyone should try themselves!! Honestly)

one leading seemless into the other, but no "next step" without the other, carefully following the first steps of Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama !

Or the ability to focus awareness and put into the background all else', is inherent in consciousness. It is through a similar process that the One and Infinite Being becomes the many, apparently separate, individual beings and things we see manifested in the universe. The separation is in appearance only, for in truth all individuals are constituted by the One, are That in their Reality, for there is nothing outside the Absolute. They are forms and appearances of its Being, expressions of its Consciousness, movements of its Delight.

Anyone tried yet, or is still busy listening to the clap of a single hand?