To Go Somewhere Different...

... our minds have to change.

{Peter Thomson}

What Yoga Do You Do?

Ever so often, someone would ask: "What kind of Yoga do you do?"
.
A question which is almost impossible to answer, for the mere posing of the question is in itself a sign of confusion.
.
A true Yogi - who practices authentic Yoga with sincerity - may practise Karma, Bhakti, Jnana and Raja Yoga in some combination. One Yogi encountering another Yogi is unlikely to ask such a meaningless question.
.
Nine out of ten times, the inquiry is a misled one and is directed as to which of the many modern or funky adaptations of postures does one practise.
.

Indeed, the typical public perception of Yoga has shifted a great deal in the recent years (akin to that for Tantra, but that's another topic altogether). As Swami Rama highlighted in Lectures on Yoga:
.
"The word Yoga is much used and much misunderstood these days, for our present age is one of faddism, and Yoga has often been reduced to the status of a fad.
.
Many false and incomplete teachings have been propagated in its name. It has been subject to commercial exploitation, and one small aspect of Yoga is often taken to be all of Yoga.
.
For instance, many people in the West think it is a physical and beauty cult, while others think it is a religion.
.
All of this has obscured the real meaning of Yoga."


Of course, the human body is a beautiful instrument and should be taken care of.
.
However, the body is merely an instrument, and is not itself the goal of traditional Yoga. The excessive focus on, and obsession with, the physical body in modern Yoga vulgarises the tradition.
.
In fact, work on the body is but one small part out of the four paths of Yoga. Together, these four paths of Yoga are aspects of a whole that is called Yoga. The four paths of Yoga work together, like fingers on a hand.
.
So the next time someone asks me That Question, do not be offended if I simply wave my hand.
.

~ Thanks to Kung Fu Master for triggering this. ~
.

Yoga Is Optional Today

Full and new moon days are traditionally observed as yoga 'holidays'. Why is this so?

Like all things of a watery nature - human beings are about 70% water - we are affected by the phases of the moon.

.

These phases are determined by the moon's position in relation to the sun.

- Full moon occurs when they are in opposition.

- New moon emerges when they are in conjunction.

Both the sun and the moon exert gravitational pull on the earth. Their relative positions create different energetic experiences that is akin to the breath cycle.

The full moon energy corresponds to the end of inhalation when the force of prana is greatest.

This is an expansive, upward moving force that makes us feel energetic and emotional, but not well grounded.

.

The Upanishads state that the main prana lives in the head. During full moon phases we tend to be more headstrong.

The new moon energy corresponds to the end of exhalation when the force of apana is greatest.

.

This is a contracting, downward moving force that makes us feel calm and grounded, but dense and disinclined towards physical exertion.

.

Also, apana makes it difficult to maintain the abdominal locks which provide support for the belly and the back.

Thus, gentler forms of Yoga are recommended on these days. You can opt to take it easy with restorative poses, or simply lie down in Savasana.

Full Moon Days: 9 May, 7 June, 7 July, 6 August, 4 September, 4 October, 2 November, 2 December and 31 December 2009.

.

New Moon Days: 24 May, 22 June, 22 July, 20 August, 18 September, 18 October, 16 November and 16 December 2009.

.

Breathe In. Breathe Out.

We are all perfect expressions of One.

.

Yours or Mine?

How people treat you is their karma;

.

how you react is yours.

.

{Wayne Dyer}

.

Seed Nanotechnology

Shrink your ego as much as possible,

.

to leave space to accommodate others.

.

{Dharma Master Cheng Yen}

.

Step Up. Step Forward.

There is no real love without courage.

Courage and love go hand in hand.

{Transmitted via Fu Zan Fen.}

.

What Is Yoga (Part III)

Where is God and where am I?

God is on the third floor and I am on the first floor.

We both meet on the second floor.

Yoga is the second floor.

.

Rest & Rejuvenate

Just A Ride!

When the power of love overcomes the love of power,

.

the world will know peace.

.

{Sri Chinmoy Ghose}

Who Are You? (Part II)

All is an illusion, as in a vision or a dream.

All beings in the world, are beyond the realm of words.

Their ultimate nature, pure and true, is like the infinity

.

of space.

.

{Prajñāpāramitā}

The Art of Meditation (Part V)

The Art of Meditation (Part IV)

The Art of Meditation (Part III)

The Art of Meditation (Part II)

The Art of Meditation (Part I)

If you had only one year left to live...

... what would you do?

.

.

.

~ Love & Life from Yoga Gypsy ~

Heaven & Hell

There was once a samurai

who travelled to the distant home of an old monk.

.

On arriving, he burst through the door and bellowed,

.

"Monk, tell me!

What is the difference between Heaven and Hell?"

.

.

The monk sat still on the tatami-matted floor.

.

Then he turned and looked up at the warrior.

.

"You call yourself a samurai warrior," he smirked.

.

"Why, look at you.

You're nothing but a mere sliver of a man!"

.

.

"Whaaat!!" cried the samurai,

as he reached for his sword.

.
.

"Oho!" said the monk.

.

"I see you reach for your sword...

.I doubt you could cut off the head of a fly with that."

.

.

The samurai was so infuriated

that he could not hold himself back.

.

He pulled his sword from its sheath,

.lifting it to strike off the head of the old monk.

.

.

At this, the monk looked up and said,

.

"That, my son, is the gate to Hell."

.

.

Realising that the monk had risked his life

to teach this lesson, the samurai slowly lowered his

sword to put it back into the sheath.

.

He bowed low to the monk in thanks for this teaching.

.

.
"My friend," responded the monk,

.

"That is the gate to Heaven."

.

.

~ Love & Holograms from Yoga Gypsy ~

最幸福的事

你撐著雨傘 接我那次

已經足夠我 記得一輩子

我懂後來你 不是不堅持

愛情本來就 沒萬無一失

.

淚水離開了 你的手指

那不如讓它 留在這信紙

我想女孩子 最貼心的是

讓愛的人選 結束的方式

.

我最幸福的事 當過你的天使

趁鼻酸能掩飾 讓我們像當時 擁抱最後一次

最幸福的事 吹蜡燭時你總為我許願的手勢

為摯愛的人 在左邊心口保留位置

.

是最幸福的事

.

可惜愛不是 童話故事

不能夠永遠 依賴著王子

再難過其實 只剩兩個字

我怎麽忍心 為難你解釋

.

那一陣子有你 美得不像現實

多高興每一幕都微笑著靜止

.

我最幸福的事 牽著你的日子

一段愛從開始 即使分開我們 都對彼此誠實

.

最幸福的事 對那片海用力大喊永遠的樣子

想得起那時 那天和你傻笑著認識

.

是最幸福的事

.

.

~ Love 與幸福 from Yoga Gypsy ~

علامہ اقبال‎

Asia is comparable to

a living body composed of soil and water.

.

The heart that beats inside the body is Afghanistan.

.

The destruction of Afghans would be

the destruction of Asia.

.

And in their progress and prosperity lies

the well-being of Asia.

اقبال لاہوری‎

علامہ محمد اقبال

.

.

~ Love & Deep Gratitude from Yoga Gypsy ~

Hardship Holiday - The Tenth Day

Caveat lector: some viewers may find these images disturbing.

عاشوراء

~ Love & Humanity from Yoga Gypsy ~

Calling All Lightworkers!

Tashakor

The mud of one country is the medicine of another.

.

.

~ Love & تشكر from Yoga Gypsy ~

.

Twenty Years Ago

Peace can come only with understanding.

And travel is an important means of acquiring it.

It is, however, only through the full consciousness

of "the essence of the human" that we shall be able to

open the difficult paths of international relationships.

As a traveller you have an excellent opportunity to serve

your country and the world in creating ties of friendship.

To you, therefore, we bring this message,

a message sparked with beauty all its own:

The Search For The Human.

{Vincenzo Marcolongo}

.

.

~ Love & خوشحال از ملاقات با شما from Yoga Gypsy ~

.

因为

所以。

.

.

~ Love & چي حال داري from Yoga Gypsy ~

.

Beyá’id...

... negáh konid!

.

.

~ Love & سلام from Yoga Gypsy ~

.

Nine Practices

Practise non-action.

Practise softness and weakness.

Practise guarding the feminine.

Practise being nameless.

Practise clarity and stillness.

Practise being adept.

Practise being desireless.

Practise knowing how to stop and be content.

Practise yielding and withdrawing.

.

.

~ Love & Practice from Yoga Gypsy ~

師傅与徒弟

徒弟選擇一個好師傅, 固然困難,

.

但師傅選擇一個好徒弟, 更加困難。

葉問

.

.

~ Love & 徒弟 from Yoga Gypsy ~

We All Have It

Master Yourself.

Become your own Teacher and Healer.

Reclaim Health, Wealth, Longevity & Spirit.

.

.

.

~ Love & Longevity from Yoga Gypsy ~

I Cannot Tell You

The Way - cannot be told.
The Name - cannot be named.

The nameless is the Way of Heaven and Earth.
The named is Matrix of the Myriad Creatures.

Eliminate desire to find the Way.
Embrace desire to know the Creature.

.

The two are identical,
But differ in name as they arise.

Identical they are called mysterious,
Mystery on mystery, the gate of many secrets.

.

{Lao Tzu}

.

.

.~ Love, Everything & Nothing from Yoga Gypsy ~

Tiempos

La vida es una huella de triunfos y fracasos,

formada por pedazos de amor y de dolor.

El tiempo es un rosario, sus cuentas los recuerdos,

jardín del sentimiento de lo que se vivió.

Hay un tiempo pa´reir, y otro tiempo pa´llorar.

Un tiempo para partir, y otro para regresar.

Hay un tiempo pa´vivir, y otro para terminar,

hay un tiempo pa´morir y otro para comenzar.

Cuando llegue la hora del fin de mi camino,

que mi sonrisa diga que acepto lo que fuí.

Las cosas materiales las dejaré contigo;

solo se irá conmigo todo lo que aprendí.

Que hay un tiempo para dar y otro para recibir,

un tiempo para pensar y otro para decidir.

Que hay un tiempo pa´olvidar y otro tiempo pa´entender.

Hay un tiempo pa´ganar, y otro tiempo pa´perder.

Hay un tiempo pa´sufrir y hay un tiempo para amar.

Un tiempo para sentir y otro para perdonar.

Hay un tiempo pa´vivir y otro para terminar.

Hay un tiempo pa´morir y otro para comenzar.

{Rubén Blades}

.

.

~ Love To The Bones from Yoga Gypsy ~

Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́нев

Systems are only dear to those

.

who cannot take the whole truth into their hands

.

and who want to catch it by the tail.

A system is like the tail of truth, but truth is like a lizard.

It will leave its tail in your hands and then escape you.

It knows that within a very short time

.

it will grow another.

{Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev}

.

.

~ Love & Lizard from Yoga Gypsy ~

Mind Your Mind

When the mind is silent,

.

then it can enter into a world

.

which is far beyond the mind.

.

{Upanishads}

.

.

~ Love & Beyond from Yoga Gypsy ~

What's On The Other Side?

Those who want comfort in life have to seek conformity.

The result is false compromise and hypocrisy.

And the life without integrity becomes a patchwork.

{Swami Avyaktananda}

.
.

~ Love & Integrity from Yoga Gypsy ~

Making Mistakes

There are only two mistakes one can make

.

along the road to truth.

.

Not going all the way.

.

And not starting.
.

{Siddhārtha Gautama}

.

.

~ Love & Journeys from Yoga Gypsy ~

The Inconvenient Truth

People seldom do what they believe in.

.

They do what is convenient, then repent.

.

{Bob Dylan}

.

.

.

~ Love & Inconvenient Truth from Yoga Gypsy ~

The Emperor & The Seed

An emperor was growing old, and knew it was time to choose his successor.

.

Instead of choosing one of his assistants or his children, he decided upon something different. He called young people in the kingdom together.

.

He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you."

.

The emperor continued, "I am going to give each one of you a seed today.

.

One very special seed.

I want you to plant the seed, water it and come back here after one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed.

.

I will then judge the plants that you bring, and choose the next emperor!"

.

One boy named Ling was there and he, like the others, received a seed.

He went home and excitedly told his mother the story. She helped him get a pot and planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it carefully.

.

Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown.

.

After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.

.

Ling kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.

.

Another three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by. Still nothing.

.

By now, others were talking about their plants but Ling didn't have a plant, and he felt like a failure.

Six months went by, still nothing in Ling's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling didn't say anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow.

.

A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection.

.

Ling told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But honest about what happened, Ling felt sick to his stomach; he took his empty pot to the palace.

.

When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other youths. They were beautiful in all shapes and sizes.

Ling put his empty pot on the floor and many of the other kinds laughed at him.

.

A few felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey nice try."

.

When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people.

.

Ling just tried to hide in the back.

.

"What great plants, trees and flowers you have grown," said the emperor.

.

"Today, one of you will be appointed the next emperor!"

.

The emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front. Ling was terrified.

.

"The emperor knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me killed!"

.

When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his name.

.

"My name is Ling," he replied. All the kids were laughing and making fun of him.

.

The emperor asked everyone to quiet down and then announced to the crowd,

.

"Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!"

.

Ling couldn't believe it.

.

Ling couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor?

.

Then the emperor explained, "One year ago today, I gave everyone here a SEED.

.

I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today.

.

But I gave you all boiled seeds, which would NOT grow.

.

All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers.

When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you.

.

Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it.

.

Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!"

Story transmitted through Sabby.

.

.

~ Love & Seeds of Love from Yoga Gypsy ~

Nutritional Yoga

Instead of eating carelessly and hurriedly

.

- in the midst of noise, agitation and arguments -

.

and then going off to do yoga exercises...

Wouldn't it be much better to understand that

.

meals give you the perfect opportunity every day,

.

two or three times a day, to practise

.

relaxation, concentration and the harmonisation

.

of all the cells of your body?

{Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov}

.

.

.

~ Love & Understanding from Yoga Gypsy ~

Simplify

If we could abolish knowledge and wisdom,

Then people would profit a hundredfold;

If we could abolish duty and justice,

Then harmonious relationships would form;

If we could abolish artifice and profit,

Then waste and theft would disappear.

.

Yet such remedies treat only symptoms,

And so they are inadequate.

.

People need personal remedies:

Reveal your naked self and embrace your original nature;

Bind your self-interest and control your ambition;

Forget your habits and simplify your affairs.


{Lao Tzu}

~ Love & Simplicity from Yoga Gypsy ~

Evanasana

The core of man's spirit comes from new experiences.

{Alexander Supertramp}

.

.

~ Love & Change from Yoga Gypsy ~

道 德 經

In the pursuit of learning, one knows more every day.

In the pursuit of the way, one does less every day.

One does less and less until one does nothing at all.

And when one does nothing at all,

.

.

there is nothing that is undone.

.

{Lao Tzu}

.

.

.

~ Love & Nothingness from Yoga Gypsy ~

What Is Yoga (Part II)

The most important issue in Yoga is not flexibility

- or capability of doing difficult poses -

but awareness.

Awareness of the body.

Awareness of the breath.

{H. David Coulter}

~ Love & Awareness from Yoga Gypsy ~

The Little Cracked Pot

There was once a water bearer who had two large pots - one hung on each end of a pole which - she carried across the back of her neck.

One of the pots had a CRACK in it.

The other pot was PERFECT, and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master’s house... while the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to her master’s house.

The perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made.

On the other hand, the cracked pot was very ashamed of its imperfection, and was miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

Or so it thought.

The cracked pot, after two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream.

“I am very ashamed of myself.”

“Why?” asked the water bearer.

“What are you ashamed of?”

“For the past two years, I have only been able to deliver half of my real capacity, simply because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to the master’s house."

"Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, but you don’t get the full value from your efforts,” the cracked pot explained.

The water bearer said, “As we return to the master’s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.”

As they went up the hill, the old cracked pot did notice the sun shining on the beautiful wild flowers growing along its side of the path, and this cheered it some.

However, at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had again leaked out half its load, and so it apologised to the water bearer for its failure.

The water bearer asked the pot, “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?”

“That’s because I have always known about your cracked nature, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path for the return trip."

"And every day while we walk back from the stream, YOU watered them.”

“For over two years, I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master’s table."

"If you are not the way you are, he wouldn’t have the flowers for his house."

Gratitude to Sabby for sharing this story.

.
~ Love & The Way We Are from Yoga Gypsy ~

¿Qué es un viaje?

Un viaje es más que ir de un sitio a otro.

Es más que unas vacaciones.

Un viaje es un proceso, un aprendizaje.

Un descubrimiento.

Un viaje nos enfrenta cara a cara con nosotros mismos.

Un viaje sirve no sólo para conocer mundo,

sino para encontrar el lugar que ocupamos en él.

Es la persona quien hace el viaje,

¿o el viaje el que hace la persona?

Un viaje es la vida misma.

¿Dónde quieres que tu vida te lleve?

.

~ Love & Journey from Yoga Gypsy ~

Ishvara

We are, each of us, angels with only one wing,

.

and we can only fly by embracing one another.

.

{Luciano de Crescenzo}

.

.

~ Love & Embrace from Yoga Gypsy ~