Make a body of the spirit

 

alert and prepared

 

One must try

 

The way

 

REI

 

The royal path to union - The second branch of yoga - Niyama

T h e R o y a l P a t h t o U n i o n (cont.) 

 The Second Branch of Yoga—Niyama

The second limb of yoga as outlined by Patanjali is Niyama, traditionally interpreted as the “rules of personal behavior.” We see them as the qualities naturally expressed in an evolutionary personality. How do you live when no one is looking? What choices do you make when you are the only witness? The Niyamas of yoga encourage

1. purity

2. contentment

3. discipline

4. spiritual exploration

5. surrender to the divine

Again, these qualities do not arise by making a mood of moral self-righteousness, but they emerge as a result of a person living a natural, balanced life. H. G. Wells said, “Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo,” and yoga would agree. Like ideal social conduct, evolutionary personal qualities derive from your connection to spirit. Focusing on the first Niyama, purity, or shoucha, adds no value to life if it encourages a judgmental mind-set, but it is of great value if you see your choices in terms of nourishment versus toxicity. Your body and mind are constructed from the impressions that you ingest from the environment. The sounds, sensations, sights, tastes, and smells carry the energy and information that are metabolized into you. Yoga encourages you to consciously choose experiences that are nourishing to your body, mind, and soul.

Contentment, or santosha, the second Niyama, is the fragrance of present moment awareness. When you struggle against the present moment, you struggle against the entire cosmos. Contentment, however, does not imply acquiescence. Yogis are committed in thought, word, and deed to supporting evolutionary change that enhances the well-being of all sentient creatures on this planet. Contentment implies acceptance without resignation. Contentment emerges when you relinquish your attachment to the need for control, power, and approval. Santosha is the absence of addiction to power, sensation, and security. Through the practice of yoga, your experience of the present moment quiets the mental turbulence that disturbs your contentment—contentment that reflects a state of being in which your peace is independent of situations and circumstances happening around you.

The third Niyama, tapas, is traditionally translated as “discipline” or “austerity.” The word tapas means “fire.” When the fire of a yogi’s life is burning brightly, she is a beacon of light radiating balance and peace to the world. The fire is also responsible for digesting both nourishment and toxicity. A healthy inner fire can metabolize all impurities. People often associate discipline with deprivation. The lives of people established in a yogic lifestyle may appear to be disciplined because their biological rhythms are aligned with the rhythms of nature. They arise early, meditate daily, exercise regularly, eat in a healthful and balanced way, and go to bed early because they directly experience the benefits of harmonizing their personal rhythms with those of nature. Tapas is embracing transformation as the pathway to higher consciousness. 

Self-study, or svadhyana, is the fourth Niyama. Traditionally, this is interpreted as being dedicated to the study of spiritual literature, but at its heart, self-study means looking inside. There is a difference between knowledge and knowingness. Yoga advises us not to confuse information with wisdom, and self-study helps you understand the distinction. Self-study encourages selfreferral as opposed to object referral. Your value and security come from a deep connection to spirit rather than from the things with which you are surrounded. When svadhyana is lively in your awareness, joy arises from within rather than being dependent upon outer accomplishments or acquisitions.

The final Niyama, Ishwara-Pranidhana, is often translated as “faith” or “surrendering to God.” Ishwara is the personalized aspect of the infinite. Even when considering the boundless, the human mind wants to create boundaries. Ishwara is the name applied that makes familiar the infinite and unbounded field of intelligence. Ultimately, Ishwara-Pranidhana is surrendering to the wisdom of uncertainty. The seeds of wisdom are sown when you surrender to the unknown. The known is the past. True transformation, healing, and creativity flow out of present moment awareness, which means relinquishing your attachment to the past and embracing uncertainty. A deeply spiritual friend of ours once contacted us from the coronary care unit at a New York hospital to say he had just had an emergency three-vessel coronary artery bypass operation. Only forty-two years old, he had never smoked, he was a vegetarian, and he meditated regularly. We obviously were very concerned about how he was doing and feeling, but he quickly reassured us he was doing well and was confident that everything would work out fine. He explained that a few days earlier he had been visiting Long Island and had driven to Coney Island to ride on the roller coasters. He enjoyed riding the roller coasters because despite the turbulence, he knew he was safe. In an analogous way, because of his deep connection to spirit, our friend was able to surrender to the unknown when a blood vessel to his heart suddenly became blocked. He trusted that despite the twists and turns his life was taking, he would be okay whatever the outcome. This is Ishwara-Pranidhana—surrender to the divine. The Yamas and Niyamas represent the inner dialogue of a yogi. These are not qualities one can make a mood of or manipulate. They arise spontaneously as the natural expression of a more expanded sense of self. You can see them as milestones of your spiritual progress. Allow them to resonate in your awareness, avoiding the impulse to be self-critical or judgmental when you occasionally fail to express the highest value of each principle. To awaken spontaneous evolutionary thought and action in your being, Patanjali encourages you to put your attention on more refined aspects of your body, your breath, your senses, and your mind. These are the next branches of yoga.

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga - Deepak Chopra, David Simon

...e não perfeito...

 

Preparam pessoas comuns

 

...in the blink of an eye.

 

Not things.

 

You will nderstand

 

The spirit

 

Is my enemy

 

...in the midst of a storm

 

Não nasci para competir com os outros

 

Follow not in the steps of the masters

 

Doesn't need to prove the other

 

O transporte de crianças

 

Há uma força motriz mais poderosa

 

Não permita

 

A mais elevada forma de esperança

 

Make the jump

 

Forte

 

The Royal Path to Union - The first branch of yoga - Yama

The Royal Path to Union

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. 

—Mahatma Gandhi

Your body is a field of molecules. Your mind is a field of thoughts. Underlying and giving rise to your body and your mind is a field of consciousness—the domain of spirit. To know yourself as an unbounded spirit disguised as a body/mind frees you to live with confidence and compassion, with love and enthusiasm. To remove the veils that hide the deepest layers of your being, Maharishi Patanjali elaborated the eight branches of yoga—Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi. They are sometimes referred to as the eight limbs (asthanga) of yoga, but they are not to be seen as sequential stages. Rather, they serve as different entry points into an expanded sense of self through interpretations, choices, and experiences that remind you of your essential nature. These are the components of Raja yoga, the royal path to union. Let’s review each of them in some detail.

The First Branch of Yoga—Yama

Yama is most commonly translated as the “rules of social behavior.” They are the universal guidelines for engaging with others. The Yamas are traditionally described as

1. practicing nonviolence

2. speaking truthfully

3. exercising appropriate sexual control

4. being honest

5. being generous

All spiritual and religious traditions encourage people to live ethical lives. Yoga agrees but concedes that living a life in perfect harmony with your environment is difficult from the level of morality—through a prescribed set of shoulds and should-nots. Patanjali describes the yamas as the spontaneously evolutionary behavior of an enlightened being. If you recognize that your individuality is intimately woven into the fabric of life—that you are a strand in the web of life—you lose the ability to act in ways that are harmful to yourself or others. You adhere to the rules of social conduct because you are behaving from the level of spontaneous right action. This state of behaving in accordance with natural law is called Kriya Shakti. Although the Sanskrit words kriya and karma both mean “action,” kriya is action that does not generate reaction, as opposed to karma, which automatically generates proportionate consequences. There are no personal consequences when you are acting from the level of Kriya Shakti because you do not generate any resistance. People sometimes describe this state as being “in the flow” or “in the zone.” Acting from this level of your soul, you are incapable of being violent because your whole being is established in peace. This is the essence of the first Yama, known in Sanskrit as ahimsa. Your thoughts are nonviolent, your words are nonviolent, and your actions are nonviolent. Violence cannot arise because your heart and mind are filled with love and compassion for the human condition. Mahatma Gandhi championed the principle of nonviolence in the independence movement of India from Britain. He said, “If you express your love in such a manner that it impresses itself indelibly upon your socalled enemy, he must return that love . . . and that requires far greater courage than delivering of blows.” 

The second Yama is truthfulness, or satya. Truthfulness derives from a state of being in which you are able to distinguish your observations from your interpretations. You accept the world as it is, recognizing that reality is a selective act of attention and interpretation. Recognizing that truth is different for different people, you commit to lifesupporting choices that are aligned with an expanded view of self. Patanjali described truth as the integrity of thought, word, and action. You speak the sweet truth and are inherently honest because truthfulness is an expression of your commitment to a spiritual life. The short-term benefits of distorting the truth are outweighed by the discomfort that arises from betraying your integrity. Ultimately you recognize truth, love, and God to be different expressions of the same undifferentiated reality.

Brahmacharya, the third Yama, is often translated as“celibacy.” We believe this is a limited view of this yama. The word is derived from achara, meaning “pathway,” and brahman, meaning “unity consciousness.” In Vedic society, people traditionally chose one of two paths to enlightenment—the path of the householder and the path of a renunciate. For those choosing the path of a monk or a nun, the path to unity consciousness naturally includes forsaking sexual activity. For the vast majority of people choosing the householder path, brahmacharya means rejoicing in the healthy expression of sexual energy. One interpretation of the word charya is “grazing,” suggesting that brahmacharya connotes partaking of the sacred as you are engaged in your daily life. The essential creative power of the universe is sexual, and you are a loving manifestation of that energy. Seeing the entire creation as an expression of the divine impulse to generate, you celebrate the creative forces. Brahmacharya means aligning with the creative energy of the cosmos. Ultimately, as your soul makes love with the cosmos, your need to express your sexuality may be supplanted by a more expanded expression of love.

The fourth Yama, asteya, or honesty, means relinquishing the idea that things outside yourself will provide you security and happiness. Asteya is being established in a state of nongrasping. Lack of honesty almost always derives from fear of loss—loss of money, love, position, power. The ability to live an honest life is based upon a deep connection to spirit. When inner fullness predominates, you lose the need to manipulate, obscure, or deceive. Honesty is the intrinsic state of a person living a life of integrity. According to yoga, life-supporting, evolutionary behaviors are the natural consequence of expanded awareness.

The fifth Yama, generosity, or aparigraha, derives from the shift in internal reference from predominantly ego-based to predominantly spirit-based. A yogi who knows that his essential nature is nonlocal spontaneously expresses generosity in every thought, word, and action. Constricted awareness reinforces limitations. Expanded awareness generates abundance consciousness. This Yama implies the absence of aversion. Established in aparigraha, your attachment to the accumulation of material possessions loses its hold on you. It doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy the world; you are simply not imprisoned by it. The practice of yoga, which cultivates expanded awareness, awakens generosity because nature is generous.

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga - Deepak Chopra, David Simon

...those moments in life that are over.

 

Nat Geo

 

Like a sword

 

Parque natural de la serralada litoral ( Catalunya - España ) Outubro 2020