The Cat Rescue

Diksha's commitment and perseverance when it comes to animals doesn't cease to amaze me.

This cat was stuck on a third floor vent for over two days. I'd called the security guys, but they said they couldn't do anything as it was too high and had no access. Some others in the apartment tried getting him down, and had given up. 

When Diksha saw him stuck (which was on day two, as she wasn't home on day one), she just didn't give up. Two hours I saw her just sitting there on the ground floor and looking up....... and I'm like, 'how do you think you're helping', and she's like, 'I can't just leave him there ma, he'll die'.  I gave her all the moral support I could, and all the ideas I could, (all of which had already been tried out) and left.

By lunch I get a message from her saying the cat was down :)

Shambhavi Maha Mudra

Sadhguru can be really profound and irreverent, all at one time. At times gentle and patient, at times abrupt and blunt. He says, living, real living is to live in joyousness and exuberance........... "If you can't have a love affair with life, it will rape you". "Bliss and Joy are not the goal, they are the path....find the path and see where it will take you"

Yesterday was a 6 am to 6 pm session with Isha Yoga

I had wondered how that would go, twelve hours at a stretch....but then it came with a bundle of surprises. Some fun and games to start with, then the saatvic food which was amazing, some exposure to the kind of wonderful outreach programs done by the organization, and finally the actual initiation into the Shambhavi Mahamudra ( a kriya, an internal process said to be the most potent of the 108 methods of Vigyana Bhairav Tantra; an act of concentrating on the inner third eye of Shiva, the Ajna Chakra )

The first two hours was physical games, like frisbee, dodge ball, kho kho and stuff. We were allowed to bring friends and family, so diksha and a friend of hers also came along, and we all had a lot of fun.

The food was amazing; breakfast was a drink made from 21 millets and jaggery and coconut, and it was one of those super nutritious but real tasty kind of things. One glass and no hunger till the afternoon. And lunch was a five course meal, with three deserts, all from uncooked, high pranic fruits and vegetables. Needless to say, really tasty again.

Courtesy Google, as we weren't allowed our mobiles in

The outreach programs I'll write about separately, as they're doing some really really interesting and wonderful work in terms of environment, health and education. 

The initiation into the Shambhavi I think is a very individual and internal experience, so I'll suffice it to say that it was one of the most powerful experiences I've had to date.

Ida, Pingala and Sushumna

'Intuition and Logical Thought'

Right side brain and Left side brain, The Masculine and the Feminine, The Objective and the Subjective ..........

It's kind of amazing, but I've heard about this, in depth, from two completely different approaches, one spiritual and one scientific, all within twenty four hours.

One, from the Isha Yoga course which approaches it through Energy Pathways, and

Two, from a Spiritual Technologies Summit, which actually has a smart phone App to enable higher use of Intuition.

Both clearly agree that the key to 'experiencing' life is in finding the balance; but that, as mankind, we are moving more and more into Logical space, and further and further away from Intuition.

First from what I learnt at Isha Yoga:

                                             

He talks of three fundamental 'Nadis'; the Ida, Pingala and Sushumna, which are the energy pathways. Ida and Pingala are equivalent to the left side and right side of the brain, just that these Nadis are not part of the nervous system, but are the Energy Pathways...... they are not seen, but can be 'felt'. And Sushumna is the Nadi that balances both.

Ida and Pingala are the basic duality of existence, the Shiva and Shakti, or the masculine and feminine ( this is not to be confused with gender). They are qualities in nature. Like the objective and subjective, intuition and logic, art and science...you get the drift.

The key is to finding the balance, and that's when Sushumna is awakened. Most people stay in either Ida or Pingala all their lives, and their central space, Sushumna remains dormant.

Once energies enter into Sushumna, you are said to attain Vairagya. Vairag means 'no color' and Raga means 'colour', so together it in essence means, you become transparent. You then reflect what's around you. If what is around you is green, you turn green. If whats around you is red, you turn red. You yourself remain unprejudiced and undisturbed. Wherever you are, you become a part of that, but nothing sticks to you. And it's in this state that you will dare to explore other dimensions of life, even as you live here.

Right now, you are reasonably balanced, but if for some reason the outside situation gets upset, you will also get upset in reaction to that because that is the nature of Ida and Pingala. It is reactive to what is outside. But once the energies enter into Sushumna, you attain to a new kind of balance, an inner balance where whatever happens outside, there is a certain space within you which never gets disturbed, which is never in any kind of turmoil, which cannot be touched by the outside situations. 

Once your energies enter into Sushumna, you will dare to scale the peaks of consciousness.'

Shinrin Yoku

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit. —Robert Louis Stevenson

        

Nature-based therapy is nothing new, at least in the East. But the Japanese have now developed this into a critical part of the Japanese health and wellness system.

The term Shinrin Yoku, is not really ancient, it was developed in the 1980's by the Director of the Japanese Forestry Agency, initially as a means to market and make popular the forests. But studies have now shown that a thirty minute trek in the forest had a significant impact in terms of decreased negative feelings, stress, anger, fatigue, anxiety, confusion and such, and it actually results in improved cognitive skills. 

Yakushima was chosen because it is home to Japan’s most heralded forests. The area contains some of Japan’s most pristine forests, including those of select cedar trees that are over 1,000 years old. Miyazaki reported that a level of physical activity (40 minutes of walking) in the cedar forest equivalent to that done indoors in a laboratory was associated with improved mood and feelings of vigor. This in itself is hardly a revelation, but he backed up the subjective reports by the findings of lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in subjects after forest walks compared with those who took laboratory walks. It was the first hint that a walk in a forest might not be the same as a walk in a different environmental setting.

This brought back to me something I've always said, but I guess with ratification now.......that when in the countryside I just feel more in my own element, that direct connect, not only with nature or the outside, but actually with myself. 

There is a harmony and alignment in forests which just seeps into you. Through our daily lives, there are so many little things and at times big things that sap your energy. We manage, but it's mostly like running on a treadmill...unless you make a conscious choice.

It helps to identify and connect with sources that replenish.

One way..... go find some trees :)

Responsibility = Ability to Respond

Ask and you shall Receive 

Got proved yet again today. 

A couple days back a friends post had me thinking about 'Responsibility'. It was about the paradoxical concept of how 'Taking Responsibility grows Freedom'.

It completely resonated, not as paradox, but as a given.

Yet it had left questions in my mind on where the boundaries for this responsibility were, and how they overlap.

And right this evening, at the Isha Yoga course, this was the concept discussed. 

Responsibility s.t.r.e.t.c.h.e.d. Responsibility as equated to 'Ability to Respond'. It's what  you could (should) 'Feel' for everything. Like something you wear as an attitude.

Responsibility does not mean holding responsible or putting blame ........it basically means you care. And it does not mean you need to act and do for everything. Actionability has several dependencies.... situation, access, time, distance, capability, tools......and such.

Can you just 'feel'.

'Responsibility is what you are using to draw boundaries. Limited responsibility is the source of all evil on this planet. Why do we restrict our feeling of responsibility to just ourselves and our people....people who are attached to us. Excesses of any kind comes out of this. Why limit it.... you are restricting and suffocating yourself by limiting it.

If you want to be an unlimited human being, those boundaries will need to break.

You don't have unlimited capability. The action can get limited by capability, but the living needs to be in unlimited responsibility.

The sense of belonging and ease and joy you feel for the walls of your home, they come because you limit your responsibility within. If you can feel that outside the walls as well it would break down a lot of the boundaries. Can you not help the whole atmosphere by just taking responsibility and feeling at home anywhere. A joyless face is the worst crime on the planet. Can you create happiness wherever you are by just being joyous.'

In fact, he goes to the extent of saying that if you can drop these barriers and stretch that responsibility, people around you will become worshipful of you, it will unknowingly happen. He says that's what people like Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Mahavira did. Just took responsibility for everything.

"And this is what enables total Freedom.....and Freedom is the highest goal "

Isha Yoga - Inner Engineering

Yesterday was my first day at the 'Isha Yoga - Inner Engineering' program.

It's banner read 'Welcome to the Silent Revolution of Self Realization'

The program is conducted by the Isha Foundation, the organization founded by Jaggi Vasudev, better known as Sadhguru.

For those who've never heard of him; Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, philanthropist and spiritual guru. While the foundation center is in Coimbatore, it offers the traditional Hatha yoga program around the world. The Foundation is also involved in various very interesting social and community development activities, currently in Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh.

“Transformation means nothing of the old should remain; something absolutely new should happen.” - Sadhguru

          

          

          

Some context:

I attended a session of Sadhguru's in Hyderabad a few years ago.  I was amazed to find that he had the entire hall of over a thousand participants completely mesmerized, some even in stages of trance and intense emotion. Such is his energy being. 

What he spoke resonated really well with me and ever since, I've been wanting to visit his ashram at Coimbatore to understand and learn, as also to 'feel' the energy of the place, of which I've heard much.  That has yet not come to be.

Then, a couple months back I was pleasantly surprised to find the Isha Foundation center in Bangalore open right in the lane where I live. I strolled in the other day, and well, here I am attending their program.

The philosophy behind the Inner Engineering Program:

Inner Engineering is offered as an intensive program for personal growth. The program and its environment establish the possibility to explore the higher dimensions of life and offer tools to engineer oneself through the inner science of yoga.

Inner Engineering can be thought of as a synthesis of holistic sciences.

It consists of simple but powerful processes from yogic science to purify the system and increase health and inner wellbeing. The program includes guided meditations and transmission of the sacred Shambhavi Mahamudra, which, once learnt, can be practiced regularly at home.

Yoga transforms and liberates human beings so that they can reach this unbounded state. Humans, unlike animals, are not merely existing. They are becoming. To evolve as a human being is to become aware of one's limitations; to strive, with intense passion, towards the transcendence for which we all have the potential.

Spirituality aside, I also love his sense of humor, that quiet ripple of laughter that seems to run through his whole body, and it comes up at almost anything, even the most serious of spaces. It's wonderful. His answer to one question:

q: What kind of a job is it being a Spiritual Guru and Yogi? Do you enjoy it?

a: 'Being a yogi is great, life is wonderful; but being a guru....that's very frustrating, because I can keep saying the same thing over and over and over again and in so many different ways, but people just don't seem to get it.'

The Fundamental Mismatch Error

One from Seth:

"It's me, not you."

vs.

"It's you, not me."

What happens when you're unable to serve a customer well, or engage with an employee, or work with a partner?

One instinct is to blame the other person, that your art doesn't match their expectations, and they ought to change, or leave.

And the other is to put the blame on oneself, to state that, "it's up to me to change to make them happy."

Either might be true.

For some people, that's hard to swallow, but it's true. 

If you're not getting what you seek from the work you do, it could be because your instinct is to go too far in one direction, a belief that doesn't help you very much.

Blame too many other people and you become a lonely diva, bitter and alone.

Blame yourself too often and you become a wishy-washy panderer to the masses.

Mismatches happen. The opportunity is in dealing with them in a way that leads you (and the other) to the place you want to go.