By Jeff Martens

as shared in L2 class 12/7/11 with additional info

Long ago there was a village in a high mountain valley led by a holy man, a Master.  Each day the people would consult with the holy man [...]]]>

Image from the book Pramahansa Yoganada's Bhagavad Gita

By Jeff Martens

as shared in L2 class 12/7/11 with additional info

Long ago there was a village in a high mountain valley led by a holy man, a Master.  Each day the people would consult with the holy man to see if there was anything they needed to do for that day.  One morning they were all gathered and meditating in the stillness of the town center when the Master spoke.

“We need to get rid of all the roosters and chickens.”

The village people looked at each other concerned.  “But Master,” they said, “the hens give us eggs and the roosters protect the hens, provide us with food and wake us early in the morning to start our day’s work.”  The Master just smiled and said nothing in reply.  In the end it would be up to the people whether to act or not.  After a brief discussion and prayer the people decided to follow the suggestion even though it seemed counterproductive.  For the next several days they traded off the chickens, gave them away or ate them until soon all the coops were empty.

The very next day the Master spoke again.

“We need to release all of the dogs and send them clear of our village.”

This time the people were even more concerned.  “But why the dogs,” they moaned, “The dogs give us companionship and protection.  They warn us of thieves or dangerous animals and are companions to our children.  What possible good can come from having the dogs gone?”  But the Master would only smile and shrug, not saying a word.  With his message delivered, it was now up to the people to decide what to do.  So after consulting with each other and checking out whether it felt right, they decided to follow the advice and clear the village of all the dogs by setting them free or giving them away to families and friends outside the village.  In one week’s time there was not a dog to be found.  The next day the Master spoke a final time.

“We need to douse all the cooking fires completely by this evening.”

A great moan followed this suggestion.  “But Master,” the people said.  Our fires keep us warm and cook our meals.  We start future fires from the coals and embers of yesterday’s blaze and without these fires we will have to work much harder to try and start our fires every day.  What reason is there for putting out such a valuable resource?  Is it not enough that we have already given up our chickens and our dogs?  Who will feed us?  Who will protect us?”

“Who has protected and fed you up to now?” the Master replied.  So the people gathered a final time and after a great debate and inner consultation they decided to follow the suggestion to douse the fires, even though it seemed only to be creating even more hardship.  By the time the sun had set completely all the fires were extinguished and everyone went to bed.

Early the next morning a marauding army of brigands and thieves crested the nearby hills and carefully studied the village from horseback.  All the huts stood dark and silent beneath the sun’s rising.  Not a chicken was stirring and there was no sound of barking.  Smoke from the perpetual cooking fires was absent.  Everything was still.  The leader spat on the ground in frustration.  “This place is deserted,” he growled.  “Let’s move on to the next town.”

Do you know what your work is?  Can you tell the difference between sacred action and busy work?  Do you know what it is that you are supposed to do?

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells the warrior Arjuna about holy work which he describes as sacred action.  Unlike normal actions we take hundreds of times each day, sacred action in not binding and exists to set us free of karma and old reactionary patterns.

So what is sacred action?

Sacred action – the work that stands before you – does not always make much sense, at least initially.  One of the most valuable things you can do in this life is to know the difference between sacred action and busy work.  When our work is not sacred, when our actions come from habit or addiction or unconscious reaction, then we become bound by the fruits of our works.  We look to these works to give us meaning from the outer world.  Motivations like these lead us into karmic work that binds us to the fruits of our actions because the attraction of karmic work is to experience habitual or even addictive patterns of consciousness.  We cling to the familiar routines tending to our chickens, dogs and fires even if something needs to change, repeating past action (re-action) to define ourselves – to tell us who we are.

Sacred work, by contrast, is liberating.  Getting rid of dogs and chickens and putting out fires requires a faith in something other than the external appearance of things to help us venture into the unknown.  Consecrated action is unique in this way, an individual experience for each one of us because it is inspired.  It always takes place in the present moment.  When a person does the work that the present moment has given them, Krishna tells Arjuna, no evil blame can touch such a one.

“Greater is thine own work, even if this be humble, than the work of another, even if this be great.  When a man does the work God gives him, no sin can touch this man.”  –Bhagavad Gita 18.47 (translation by Juan Mascaro)

“Sin”, “evil”, “blame”, all are another word for karma.  Karma is the identification with form or past or future action.  Sacred work is the work that is before you right now, in this second.  Washing the dishes, doing the laundry, writing a thank-you.  Maybe you are working in your home office on a strict deadline when your daughter comes in and asks for help with her hair.  Or you are getting your holiday shopping late done at night when your love asks you to come to bed.  Or maybe you are talking on the phone and hear your three kids in the next room getting into a ferocious argument.  Limbs are flying, objects are breaking, walls are being torn down.  Sacred action is the work that God has given you in this moment.  Nobody else has your work.  Your work in that moment is not to shut the door.  It is also not to go into the next room and become as angry as your children.  Then there will be four kids in the room and not just three.

Here is something the reactionary mind does not understand.  The work that has a deadline, the shopping that must get done, the conversation that must be finished on the phone… All may be important, yet is this really the work that is before you in this second?  Or is it a way to avoid your real work?  How is consciously bringing peace to an argument or helping your daughter with her hair going to help with these other things that need finishing, your mind will say.  Because you were using your work to define you or to bring you some future reward, you will see everything else as interruptions keeping you from getting ‘done’.  There may be an almost overwhelming feeling of frustration and urgency inflating the importance of what you are doing that also makes you blind to the opportunity to live your life more fully where you are.  So the dear friend flies in and almost immediately the mind is thinking that they will have to leave soon.  Or you are out holding hands with your partner and start to complain how you never connect anymore.  The emphasis will be on unfulfilled work or the planning of future work at the expense of the present moment.  Since you are your actions when the work is binding, you must stay busy, if only in your head.  In light of this, aren’t all things that don’t go as planned mere distractions keeping you from what really needs to be done?

When Krishna says no sin or blame can touch the one following their sacred path, the word sin is more related to the ancient Greek meaning of “to miss the mark” then it is related to its current connotation of hellfire and damnation.  Originally the word sin meant just that – that you missed the mark, that you forgot what was important and vital and true.  When you miss the mark it is painful because we have traded stars for tinsel and gold for sand.  We are taking our friend back to the airport in our head before their visit can properly begin.  We are focusing on a lack of connection with our partner in the past rather than feeling the connection we are seeking right now where we are.  We have forgotten what is important in our life and forgotten who we are.  Once you are aware of this you can pick up your bow and re-aim and pull the string anew.

So you can braid your daughter’s hair or type out another email.  You can talk on the phone or face the very worst in yourself that is currently being expressed through your children in the other room.  You can shop online for one more bargain or you can spend a little extra time before bed being looking into the eyes of the one you love.  Maybe the work we are doing is helping to reveal something uncomfortable about ourselves, something so uncomfortable that we unconsciously look for any distraction in order to avoid seeing the work that is before us, the work that truly needs to be done.  Perhaps you are realizing this about your day, you are following an inspired thread and really getting somewhere, feeling like things are being revealed.  Then you get a text message on your cell phone.  Or you remember that there was some great deal on Amazon.  Or someone is trying to start a chat on your computer.  Maybe you’ll just take care of that online deal or that chat right now… you can always pick up that inspired thread later, right?  And off we will go, never realizing that our indulgence in distraction is a reaction against the ‘threat’ of sacred action.

The mind may take this information and try to help by making sacred work a routine.  So we may take whatever new distraction that comes up as sacred work, for example.  Yet there is nothing predictable about sacred action; no hard and fast rules you can always follow to guarantee that you will never suffer again.  You are not meant to always drop your current focus in favor of whatever just happens to come along.  Sometimes planning the trip back to the airport or reviewing something in the past with your partner is necessary.  But is this moment right now the right moment?  Is the focus you are choosing helping you to find a path of joy, wholeness, love or healing?  Or is it a habitual reinforcement of old habits that ultimately keeps you from discovering what you truly want?

The truth is that sacred action is incredibly efficient and powerful and helps us to accomplish things with an efficiency beyond habitual understanding.  In ways that the mind may not understand, sacred action makes all of our work easier and leads us on the inspired path of discovering who it is inside of us that acts, finding out who is really home.  Sacred action may feel glorious, humbling or even terrifying, but in the end it just feels right in a way that our habits or addictions can never approach.  The trick is that we have to know the difference.  You want to know what sacred action feels like for you and know if your current action is taking you to who (not where) you truly want to be.

“The world is in the bondage of action unless action is sacred.”  -Bhagavad Gita 3.9

The other day I was picking up my stepson from his friend’s house and asked if he had eaten dinner.  “Noooo?” he said, almost as a question.  “They didn’t give you dinner?” I asked, a little incredulous as the hour was late.  “Nooo?” he ‘asked’ again.  “Well you must have had a snack,” I answered.  “I know you, you wouldn’t be able to survive all this time after school without a snack.  Did you have a snack?”  “Nooo?” he replied.  I could tell that he was being untruthful.  After asking him again with a little more insistence he admitted that he had a snack.  When I asked him why he didn’t say that he had a snack, his reply was that he never said he didn’t have a snack.  I could feel myself becoming frustrated.  When I pointed out to him that yes, indeed he had said that he did not have a snack (almost getting lost in the double negatives and convolutions of what was really said) and that this was the same as lying, he did what many kids have done and proceeded to plug his ears and say that he was not listening to me anymore.  Suddenly my frustration turned to a bright and flaring anger, an anger way out of proportion for what the situation warranted.

The impulse to react – whether it is to a person, idea or event – comes from some kind of perceived threat (rational or irrational) that throws us into the limbic system or reptilian brain and severely limits our intelligence and ability to make conscious choices.  Identifying with a karmic, irrational state such as fear or anger limits our options to the repetition of past behaviors, further locking us into our old patterns.  When we are lost in such a state, sacred action will seem like an intrusion or worse yet counterproductive or even painful.  Instead of seeing the present disruption as an opportunity, the mind will see it as an affliction caused by someone or something outside of yourself.

Let’s say that something happened today that was painful or deeply disturbing.  Let’s say someone plugged their ears and refused to listen to you.  Let’s say your button was pushed.  You can look at your strong feelings or emotional reactions to the event and see that there is a ripe fruit there just waiting, ready to fall into your hand.  Or you can blame the other person’s ignorance, go get a snack and look at the newspaper.  To pick this ordinarily hard-to-reach fruit now when it is ready and ripe could save you unending suffering and countless hours of confusion and blame.  To realize that this fruit has been ripening since childhood and is merely echoing the times you had repeated experiences of not being heard in what felt like absolutely helpless situations, for example, can bring you great illumination.  Your consciousness will take you out of reaction, out of the primitive brain and up into the higher evolutions of neocortex and frontal lobe.  You can then journal about this fruit or meditate or talk it through calmly and watch it fall easily right into your hand.  Or you can just leave that fruit hanging there to rot on the tree of life, then walk around complaining about the smell and blaming everyone around you as the source.

Sacred action is incredibly efficient and remarkably powerful.  By finding the root cause of your disturbances or recognizing the source of all support and inspiration within yourself, you begin to let go of the blame/victim game and have more energy and focus to direct toward what you really want.  Sacred action is powerful because it links you to unlimited support and guidance that comes to you beyond your habitual state of being.  So instead of having just your own limited resources derived from past actions that caused your problems to begin with, you are suddenly inspired (in-Spirit) and moving with enthusiasm (from the Greek enthusiasmos, to be in or possessed by God) into a whole new realm of understanding and action unknown to who you were before.

So how do you know what sacred action is?  Sacred action will feel like an inspiration throughout your whole body or at the very least make you feel more alive.  Karmic work will be like a storm inside your head causing unpleasant reactions in the body that will trigger feelings of struggle, protection or dread.  Sacred action will bring you the energy and meaning as you move into it.  Binding work will want everything planned beforehand.  Sacred work is to feel truly alive.  Karmic work is to indulge in struggle and survival.  Busy work points to the action.  Sacred work points back to the one experiencing the action.  And this One is also free to experience a different action.  This One can sense the marauding army’s approach or discover Grace in confusion or despair.  In this way sacred action solves or prevents problems; karmic work creates or invites them.

Ultimately Karmic work defines us.  Sacred action reveals us.

Notice how you are feeling right now.  Become aware of your body, your energy level, your attitude.  What do you notice to [...]]]> Jeff Martens as spoken (with minor edits) in L2 Yoga Class 11/30/11

Notice how you are feeling right now.  Become aware of your body, your energy level, your attitude.  What do you notice to be your experience of yourself in this moment?

Now consider this:

You are the way you are because you tell yourself you are that way.

You are the way you are because you tell yourself you are that way.

Over and over and over again.

You are the way you are because you tell yourself you are that way. And you can also take that a little further and realize that the people in your life are the way they are because you tell yourself they are that way.

We are always telling ourselves how we are, we are defining ourselves all the time.  This telling is usually based on the past.  We are always defining other people all the time based on the past.  When you become conscious of it, you become aware of it, you begin to otiose: Wow, I am telling myself how I am right now, I’m defining myself, it is all under the radar it is all unconscious.  It’s all that hidden 85% of the iceberg.  That you are telling yourself that you are a certain way.  That you are telling yourself that this person is a certain way.  This person can be totally different to themselves or other people but you are still seeing them the same way.*

The reason that, in your mind, you are telling yourself how other people are is that you need a supporting cast.  Your false self needs actors to support the false self.  So you have this drama that is your life, sometimes it is rated ‘G’, sometimes it is ‘R’, sometimes it is unrated, and you need a whole cast, sometimes a cast of hundreds to help define who you are.

You need a villain.  You need someone who can play the antagonist.  You need the commiserator.  You need the best friend who agrees with you.

So if you want other people to change that means that you have to change first.  You have to change the movie, you have to change the script.  You have to change from being the actor to being the director and the writer.  You have to be willing to rewrite the script, because if you don’t change, the other people will still keep playing the roles in our movie, the movie of our life.  The same as they always did.

Now sometimes people in your life will change and you don’t want them to change because it messes up your movie.  It’s messing up the plot of your movie.  Don’t they know that they are messing with your script?  And you are going to keep trying to make them play the same role, you’ll say “No, no no!  You’re supposed to say this, you’re supposed to do that.  In fact you will hear them saying this and see them doing that even when they are not doing it.  You will keep seeing them in the old role.  And that won’t change until you change.

You are the way you are because you tell yourself you are that way.

Maybe it’s time you stretched yourself as an actor.  Maybe it is time that you tried a different role, a different part.  Maybe you start to branch out into writing and directing.  When you let go of that old role, when you stop telling yourself that you are a certain way that you have been for a long time, it is a death of sorts  This is the archetype of the resurrection.  You will rise from the ashes of your  old self.  You will be the Phoenix.  You will be reborn, you will be changed, but much must be sacrificed; you must be wiling to let go of the old way of being.  And the tendency to preserve your false self can be very strong.**

In reality its not really much to be sacrificed, in fact it is mostly pain and misery.  But when we are pain and misery and difficulty it seems like everything. It seems like ourself.

So when you are that false self you have a false setting.  You change the whole world to fit your goal.  So it can be beautiful and sunny out but you will see miserable surroundings.  This is really a perversion of your ability to create.  The creator in you being used to see the worst in yourself and others all the time as well as the world and nature around you.  And by not allowing the world or those around you to change you condemn yourself to living your past as your future.

You are the way you are because you tell yourself you are that way.

When you are stuck in that role we often give lip service to changing.  You have the opportunity to change you might say “I’ll try to change, I’ll try to make it, I’ll try to do it.”  But what this really means is “I’m probably not gonna do it.”

“I’ll try to meditate.”  “I’ll try to make it to yoga class.”  “I’ll try to eat better, to eat more fruit and vegetables.”  But you are still really too invested in your role to say it’s going to happen.

Let me ask you a question.  “If you won the lottery and you needed to be at the lottery office by 1 O’clock would you say “I’ll try to be there?”

To that false role, living a life of joy and freedom and love and living a fulfilled life isn’t that important because you’re just going to give it a try.  “I’ll give it a try,” you say to yourself.  And that is okay too, it is all right.  You just realize that.

Right now, try to Breathe deeply.  If you inhaled more you did not “try”.

There is no try, there is only do.

You either do or you don’t do, once you start to be honest with yourself.  “OK, I’m not doing it.  All right.”  Then you can explore why you are not doing it.  Why you are not changing.  Maybe you don’t really want to change.

Don’t try to read these words.  Read these words.

In fact you are meant to continuously let go.  We are not made to hold on to old experiences, old selves, old judgments.  We are supposed to experience, let it pass through us, let it flow.  We are not supposed to keep it, throw it on a pile an then point to that pile and say “hey, that’s me.”

You are the way you are because you tell yourself you are that way.

It’s not because of what somebody else does or did to you, it’s not because of the weather, or the virus that’s going around, it’s not because of your parents, it’s not because of the car that you drive.  It’s because You are the way you are because you tell yourself you are that way.

Just start to become aware or how many times you are telling yourself how you are, how many times you are defining yourself by how you define others and the world around you.  You make up a story about “them” so you can be who you are in relation to them.  They are mean and you get to be the victim of their meanness.  They are weak and you get to be strong.  They are wrong and you get to be right.  Every time you compare yourself to others you are defining yourself and cementing that self-concept into place.  You are constantly remaking the world in your own image.  How many times are you affirming the past repeating in the present over and over again?

How do I not repeat the past?  Find your heart.  Keep finding the heart so that space right behind the heart softens so the heart can open.  Heart is the center of feeling.  You want to be able to feel otherwise you have to rely on memory and repeating past action.  When you truly feel, not in an overly dramatic way, but you are just sensitive, you feel what is in this moment.  You can respond instead of react.  Responding means that there isn’t a script, you have a choice.

Then you don’t have to try anymore.  In reacting you try.  In responding you be.  And from this present self you do.

About a year ago there was a story about a local man in the newspaper who had some kind of accident and damaged a part of his brain so he had complete amnesia***.  He did not remember his family, he did not remember who he was, he did not remember his house, he remembered nothing of his old life.  So there is this woman visiting him and she has to tell him that she is his wife.  She has to tell him he has grown kids.  And so finally his wife drove him home from the hospital and as they were driving up the driveway he said “this is our house?  This is where I live?”  And she said “Yes.”  And he said, “Who all lives here?”  “Oh, just you and I,”  she answers.  “Well why do we have such a big house?”  They pulled into the garage. “Why do we have four cars?”  He goes into the house.  “Why do I have six watches?”  He is literally baffled, asking these things about his own life.  He doesn’t understand.  What’s happened is that he is no longer telling himself that he is a certain way.  Because he has lost the past he is not defining himself anymore, therefore he is able to experience reality.  He is able t experience what is in this moment.  And so he is asking legitimate real questions.  It is not wrong to have a big house or four cars or six watches.  But now he is asking these questions. These are questions that he has probably never asked of himself when his memory was intact.  He never stopped to think about it.

When you are the actor in that false role, you have all kinds of props surrounding you.  You have supporting players, you have mental soundtracks, you have whole sets.  But what they really are is artificial constructs.  The don’t reflect who you are, they don’t reflect your true self.  They can’t tell you who you are.  Because they are props.  Now again there is nothing wrong with having money or a big house or a lot of cars, but if you use these things to define yourself, to tell you who you are, then you are in a bit of trouble.

You are the way you are because you tell yourself you are that way.  Who is the “You” in that sentence?  Who are “You” anyway?

Become aware of the inner dialogue, become aware of the scripts.  Become aware of what you are telling yourself, how you are defining yourself.  It is all based on the past and this is how we condemn ourselves to repeating the past.  Because we define ourselves based on the past.  And we define others based on the past.  We don’t allow change to happen.  So let yourself be here.  What does it feel like to be here in your life now?  Let go of the past.  Keep letting go of each moment.  You are meant to experience the moment, let it flow through you but not carry it into the next moment.  Think of laughter, do we hold on to the last time we were laughing and relive it over and over again?  Yet we do this with pain all the time.  Keep letting go, let the moment flow through you.  Do not hold onto this moment and make it a possession, let it flow through you.

If you must tell yourself that you are a certain way, why not tell yourself something magnificent?  Not in an egotistical way that makes you better than other people or worse than other people, they are both egotistical.  Throw yourself in the gutter, build yourself a throne, they are both ego.  To see the best, the highest in yourself.  This is what the Master or the Guru does, sees the highest in you until you can see it yourself.  So be your own Guru.  To see yourself in a magnificent story, a story of evolution, of abundance, of joy.  Of healing, of prosperity of love.  It takes just as much effort to see yourself negatively as positively.  And then let go of even this effort so you don’t carry it with you into another story.

If you were to let go of your past and just suddenly appear in your life, what would you find odd?  What would you find strange.  What would make you go, “Really?  This is what I think about most of the day?  This is what I focus on?  Why do I have this?  Why do I talk that way to that person?  How come I feel this way around this person?  And why do I have such a big TV?”

There have been some studies of multiple personality disorder and people who have had amnesia like this**** and sometimes they have a skin affliction or some kind of disease or disorder, and when they are the different personality or when they have forgotten their old self, they no longer have the disorder.  They are no longer constantly defining themselves as their disorder, as their condition.

The good news is that you don’t have to wait for somebody to bonk you on the head  or get some schizophrenic episode.  You can begin letting go now.  Just let go of your attachment to things and defining yourself in relation to others or your ‘stuff’.  It’s not wrong to have things… The way you live in your life is not wrong, none of it is wrong — it is all right and perfect.  But let yourself start to see it anew, let yourself start to se it with fresh eyes.  Just begin to notice and you’ll become aware.

How are you telling yourself that you are?  How are you defining the people around you?  The world around you all the time?  How are you using your powers as the Creator?  If you are truly made in the image of God as the Sacred texts say, how are you using that magnificence?  What kind of world are you creating each day for yourself and others?  And as you notice this you begin to have awareness, you begin to have the ability to create something a little bit different.  Feel so you can choose.

You are the way you are because you tell yourself you are that way.

Tell yourself something magnificent.

Download and listen to the whole Inner Vision Yoga Level 2 Yoga class.  Click Here.

* See Yoga Sutra 4.15: Same object, different consciousness, separate path.

**See abhinivesha, Yoga Sutra 2.9.

***See: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/2010/05/02/20100502lost-memory-gilbert.html

****Colin A Ross: Dissociative Identity Disorder: Diagnosis, Clinical Features and Treatment of Multiple Personality; 2nd edition, New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1996

We are Made of Stars

For a moment imagine that you are looking into the night sky at a place far away from city lights.  Looking up and seeing the Milky Way and all those stars.  And as you take in the enormity of this view you [...]]]> by Jeff Martens

We are Made of Stars

For a moment imagine that you are looking into the night sky at a place far away from city lights.  Looking up and seeing the Milky Way and all those stars.  And as you take in the enormity of this view you come to realize that you are not seeing the stars as they are now, but as they were millions or even hundreds of millions of years ago.  The light that is just reaching your eyes now has been traveling for countless eons.  In fact, the star that you are looking at might be different now.  It might actually be a Red Giant, a White Dwarf, a black hole or maybe even non-existent.  So you are actually looking at the past.  You are seeing the past as the present.  You are seeing the star as it used to be a long, long time ago.

Now look at your hands.  As you look at your hands realize that you are not seeing your hands as they are, you are seeing the past.  Look at that person you know.  Or the clothes hanging in your closet.  Or your face in the mirror.  Whatever you are looking at, you are looking at your own face, you are not seeing your face you are seeing a past image of your face.  Realize that here too you are looking at the past.  You are looking at a situation and not seeing things as they actually are, you are seeing a past image of the situation.  Just like the light from those stars.  You are seeing things from a long, long time ago.

Now the distance between you and your hands is not such that it takes a vast amount of light years for the image to reach you, but you are still seeing the past.  The psycho-emotional distance placing time and space between you and what you are seeing is vast.  And it is the same with all that you see.  The whole situation could be different now, but you will still be seeing the past.

Whatever you are looking at realize that I am not seeing this as it is.  I am seeing the past.   I am seeing a past projection, a past perception.  A past judgment.  A past labeling.  I’m not really seeing it as it is.  Your husband can be the man you married 10 years ago to you, young and verile and full of life even though he may actually be out of motivation, out of shape and out of passion.  Your wife can be beautiful and full of mystery to someone even though to you she seems plain and hardly there.  That used TV or old jacket could seem like new to someone else.  Whatever it is that you are looking at just realize that you are seeing a concept, a construct.  You are seeing something from memory.  It is very rare to see something as it is…

Become Like a Child and Enter the Kingdom of Heaven

When a baby is born the neural nets representing habitual perception and thought in the infant brain are largely undifferentiated.  This is the realm of possibility without identification with past events and experiences.  Thought charged with emotion has not sculpted the brain’s neuronal pathways yet into samskaric tracks or grooves of habit which repeat their patterning even when the outer circumstances may have changed.

This undifferentiation of living without a past allows the baby to see the wonder of the butterfly, the magic of the colored light filtering through a prism of windowpane.  With wide-eyed amazement the baby soaks these tinges up with as many senses as possible, seeing their miraculous reality in the present moment.  In yoga this is samadhi or conscious integration.  In zen this is ‘beginner’s mind’.  Either way when we have become aware of this innocence as ourselves, this innocence is married to the full intelligence of knowing who is looking, and that in the old way of looking we were blind.

Who is Looking?

The seer in you, though pure, sees through the distortions of past concepts.  Yoga Sutra 2.20

What we see is not related to what is on the outside but it is related to who is looking.  So in order for us to keep seeing the past we have to be in the past ourselves.

When we look at our bodies we see our past, a past concept of ourselves, we see a history.  We also see an expectation of where that history is going.  It is very rare to see things as they are.  Now imagine how that makes actions difficult, and the results of our actions binding if we keep acting on inaccurate information, affirming it to be true.

The Seer and the seen exist to reveal the true nature of the One who is looking.  Yoga Sutra 2.23

In Sanskrit the word ‘Jai’ means “Oh Yeah!” or ‘Victory’.  Buddha said that the greatest victory is victory over one’s self.  The victorious action is to be present.  It is the simplest thing and yet we make it the most challenging thing: to just be where we are.  To be as we are, where we are.  What does this mean?  It is an allowing.  The dropping of contrariness or reaction to what is here that throws into the script of past perception and all of the samskara or habitual behavior that we mistake as choice and living.  A victory here would be to know yourself – both the one that is perceiving it all and the one who is reacting and calling this reaction a ‘plan for the future’.

Most planning is done from the place of repeating familiar past karmic patterns because they are made from a place of unconsciousness.  The events that you have planned for your day?  You are not seeing these correctly either.  You are seeing them through the lens of the past.  You will not be able to let the day be as it is with its multiple opportunities to step outside of your old self, you will not be able to notice anything new or different or transcendent or transforming if you are unable to see them as they are to begin with.  So in your day you will walk by trees that have forty different colors of green, you will walk by sunrises and sunsets, you will walk by people’s eyes and opportunities to touch and to feel and love and you will not notice any of these things because they will not be there, they will be non-existent.  Or your expectations will distort them to make sense to who you think you are.

Begin to realize that whatever you are looking at you are seeing things not as they are.  Even something as simple as your foot.  Just begin to realize this.  There is a whole story with that foot, a history.  Just as there is with everything else we see.  We bring our own meaning to every situation and color it to make sense with our past.  And this is how we live.

The Revelation

Our assumptions and expectations shape the world we experience.  When the looker is erroneous, so is perception.  Where we see struggle there may actually be benefit.  The butterfly struggling to emerge from the cocoon may actually be moving a life-giving fluid into its wings.  The illness forcing us to stop the way we do things may actually be saving our life.  The storm bending the sapling to nearly breaking is actually strengthening the bark and structure of the wood.  Where we see something beneficial there may actually be discord.  Finding more money to make that last sure bet.  Discovering a pill that makes the pain go away temporarily and allows you to keep living the same way making the same choices which caused the pain to begin with.  Getting away with a little lie and preserving your reputation.  If we see only our labels of things we will most likely miss a deeper meaning.  And beyond all ordinary meaning is the realm of pure awareness without labels.  A mystical state that can only be felt and not named.

How many things do we miss each day because we are in the past?  How many things do we keep seeing the same over and over because we are reliving the past?  How many times do we try to change what we see instead of changing ourselves, the one who is looking?

The Miracle of Living

Which center circle is larger?

To actually see what you are actually looking at is an accomplishment.  Many times we may look at something and not really see it.  When we make decisions based on always seeing the past or on past associations, guess what we keep repeating?  When we are the past making decisions based on a perception of the past, guess what we keep experiencing?

Yoga or union is the stripping away of that which is not real.  It is not an adding-to or a getting somewhere else, but a revelation of what is already here.  Removing the unreal we are left with what IS, and this IS-ness is far greater than our limited perception can comprehend.  The miracle in life is therefore not improving one’s self, which would be but an exercise in polishing up the past.  Rather, we are to become more in line with what we already are.  It is only by changing the one who is viewing that we can can begin to change that which we see.  And what exactly might this be?

Thou Shalt Not Worship a False self

To worship a false idol means to place your constant attention on something that is unreal or false.  What is in the present is real, all else exists only inside your head.  In truth miracles and the state of yoga are available all the time.  These seeming miraculous states of consciousness can only be perceived in the present moment.  So the journey always starts right where you are.  Can you feel the pulse in your fingers right now?  Can you feel the texture of what your foot is resting on?  To feel these things without adding a story or comparison you had to become present.  So what?  So today I actually saw the ground.  Today I actually experienced a yoga pose that I have done a thousand times.  I actually felt what it was like to be in the experience.  Today I actually actually experienced falling, without blame, ridicule, guilt or judgment.  It was a miracle.  I thought falling was a bad thing, it was not what I thought it was.  Today I actually felt my yoga mat under my feet.  I actually felt what it was like, what my mat felt like.  Today I actually felt my two hands joining.  I actually began to realize how rich life is.  I have only been living 1% of my life.  Why didn’t someone tell me this sooner?

Being present is an ongoing practice.  You don’t have to do it all in one day.  Whatever you are looking at, just be aware of what you are seeing.  Then be aware that world can be something more than the idol of your past.

Who is it?

The untangling of Seer and seen leads to absolute freedom.  Yoga Sutra 2.25

How can we ever untangle ourselves from suffering  if we think we are what we perceive?  Another way to lookat this is how can we choose anything in life if we cannot feel our own hands?  How can we decide anything of any importance if we cannot experience our breath?  How can we plan anything that will lead to a different future if we cannot even feel the ground underneath our feet?  How can we make complex decisions in life if we can’t even feel the simplest things which point to who we are?

It is important to move into new experiences and new situations even though we see our old projections and assumptions because it gives a chance not to react, to let it all be okay.  Then the veil can fall away and life becomes a mirror of our own expanding awareness.

We are made from the atomic ejecta of stars.  That is what we are made of.  When we look at the stars we are seeing ourselves as we were, the universe is showing us the past because that is where we are looking from.  It is your inevitable destiny to shine, and then to be the one who perceives the shining.

Today I died to my old self and was reborn into the present moment.

Start by allowing the possibility that there is another way to see things.  Feel the pulse which animates your fingers.  Close your eyes.  Start being who you already are perceiving without distortion the very simplest element of what is already here.  And then watch in amazement as a new action moves through you, as you rediscover life and possibility in this now eternal world.

Long ago there was a village caught in the grip of a great draught that was causing much suffering.  All of the people began to [...]]]> Shraddhâ-vîrya-smrti-samâdhi-prajnâ-pûrvaka itareshâm

Long ago there was a village caught in the grip of a great draught that was causing much suffering.  All of the people began to worry as the weeks turned to months, and the months to years.  It was decided that something must be done, so the local religious leader called for a great gathering in the village circle where everyone was to bring an article of faith to present for the calling of rain.  A small boy heard the message and all night he squirmed in anticipation, for he knew exactly what he was supposed to bring.

The morning came and people began to arrive with their sacred objects of faith: relics, statues and other images representing God, pictures of ancestors, talismans and family heirlooms.  Soon a great crowd had gathered and the priest instructed everyone to hold up their articles of faith to send their prayers for rain to heaven.  At this moment there was a great commotion at the center of the circle.  People stepped back to give room and looked on in wonder at the small boy who was holding up his article of faith.

There, at the center of the circle, smiling with eyes closed as if lifting his face into a downpour, the boy stood holding up his article of faith: a raised, open umbrella.

Gotta Have Faith

Religious leaders and spiritual Masters tell us over and over how important faith is.  From the New Testament of Christianity to the Hindu Bhagavad Gita and the words of Buddha in the Dhammapada, the message is the same.  As our faith is, so are we.  We are made of faith.  As we think so shall we become.

Faith is a knowing of things not yet seen.  To know something we must feel it deeply inside ourselves to be true.  Whatever we feel to be true for ourselves indeed becomes our experience, whether that experience is present or not.  We may have already experienced this many times anticipating something wonderful that was going to happen, such as a birthday, graduation or Christmas morning.  We have also probably experienced its opposite feeling the effects of a difficult meeting or a dreaded appointment well in advance of the actual event.  In both cases our faith is the combination of thought with feeling, bringing us the full experience of what we are focusing upon now.

Faith is the outcome of the correct use of imagination and yet it is so much more.  We all live by faith, whether this faith is conscious or in conscious, and it is this faith which describes and defines our lives.  Conscious faith is the instrument of deepest change, for it is the act of faith that transforms us into the direction of our focus.  In this way our personal transformation is limited only by our ability to conceive and what we feel to be true for ourselves and the world around us.  However these limits made of ethereal thought or habitual perception can seem more daunting than the highest mountains.  Known as our belief system of unconscious/subconscious map of the universe, here is the realm of habit and the dark currents of fear and addiction which keep us swimming in the often painful yet comfortingly familiar waters of lack.  Luckily it only takes a small spark or seed of faith to ignite our entire being with transforming light.

Moving Inner Mountains

…for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.  Matthew 17, 20-21

We can be devoted to many things in life.  We show our devotion by giving our attention.  In fact, attention is the most valuable thing you have to offer in this lifetime.  As we can only think one thought at a time, by focusing on something inspirational, even if that something is small,  we begin the process of removing our attention (or worship) from the pain in our lives.  To consciously use our attention and direct it as faith in an evolutionary way transforms us beyond old limitations and truly allows us to become the object of our devotion.

Yoga for the Rest of Us…

Few are born in the state of yoga and it is Faith that has the capacity to take the rest of us into the unknown and uncertain which is necessary for all change to occur,   Patanjali notes this in the Yoga Sutra when he describes the process of realizing the state of yoga.  Faith is the starting point and only after we take the leap of faith does the energy, mindfulness and knowledge of our true Self begin to emerge.  The energy and resources arrive as we need and use them and not before.  If we just sit back and wait for guarantees or assurances from the outside before we live our lives as we want them to be, we will be waiting for a very, very long time.  Instead we must know our path on the inside so deeply that we feel it happening even now, even if the whole world were telling us otherwise.  Paramahansa Yogananda knew this when he built many beautiful Self Realization Fellowship temples in the United States in the mid-1900s.  At first he would tell people of his plans and the people would exclaim how impossible they were and how many insurmountable obstacles he would face.  Soon he learned to start the projects and have them well on the way to completion before announcing them.  Then when the naysayers would cry out, he would simply say with a smile “It is already happening and done.”  In this way he taught his students that, as we are literally made of faith or directed consciousness (whether that consciousness is habitual or inspired), it is not so much what we have faith in that has the power to transforms us, but the act of faith itself.  To have faith in being healthy is to expand beyond a self concept of illness.  To have faith in ourselves as generous is to give ourselves the feeling of abundance.  To have faith in ourselves as Spirit allows us to transcend the effects of physical limitations.  To have true faith in something stretches us and expands us beyond old boundaries, ultimately taking us further than our conception of what we initially understood as real.

Faith – the intentional act of Faith itself – is the essence of Self Realization and all transformation.  It must be felt completely and known inside as truth while taking full responsibility for the cause of one’s current situation and without unconscious reservation or doubt.  What do you have faith in?  Is it what you truly want or is it a habit or past programming of consciousness?  Is it in something that is greater than your limited self which stretches you, or do you place your attention on your petty and fearful nature?  As we literally are faith or directed consciousness, when we intentionally focus with faith and feeling we discover the truest essence of who we are.  Then the toys, conditions and objects as motivations of faith begin to fall away and we feel our truest nature.  This focus ultimately points us back to our own reflection.  Our attention shifts from the object of faith to the one who IS faith itself.  Here is the truest gift of faith as a practice: the knowing of the One who focuses and experiences this glorious journey of life as a unified being of consciousness aware of itself.

Jeff Martens is a teacher, writer and co-owner of Inner Vision Yoga. All suggestions are voluntary.  Consult a qualified teacher or your physician before you embark on any practice in which you are unfamiliar.
For more inspiring yoga essays click here…

Your cells are blind.  They don’t have ears.  And their sense of smell leaves much to be desired.  What they do have though are inter-membrane proteins.  And this is the key to putting a smile on your cell’s DNA (or a frown).

In yoga, the teaching of samtosha or fulfillment [...]]]> By Jeff Martens

Your cells are blind.  They don’t have ears.  And their sense of smell leaves much to be desired.  What they do have though are inter-membrane proteins.  And this is the key to putting a smile on your cell’s DNA (or a frown).

In yoga, the teaching of samtosha or fulfillment is the secret of contentment and gratitude now, in this moment.  Not waiting for something else in the future to make us complete.  The challenge of this is that we keep experiencing our present circumstances as reality and keep feeding this experience into the environment around our cells, thereby reinforcing the external reality on the inside over and over again.  This locks us into our past on a physiological or cellular level, and as a result we keep re-creating ourselves based on our habitual perceptions of the past.

Contrary thoughts are repelled by becoming the opposite. –Yoga Sutra 2.33

It is not enough just to think or wish yourself different.  You have to feel different.  With your senses.  Now.  Your present circumstances may feel like a locked prison cell.  However when we can cultivate the opposite, when we can find joy in the midst of sorrow, strength in the midst of weakness and calmness in the face of adversity, we can literally change What the ancient yogis knew long ago modern science is now confirming: that an attitude of gratitude can actually change your perception of a given situation and ultimately change the experience as well.

In his book “Awakened Imagination”, Neville Goddard tells the story of a blind woman in the 1950s who took the bus to work every day.  When the busses were rerouted, her 15 minute ride to work turned into a multi-transfer affair that would stretch into two hours or more.  After careful consideration, she came to the conclusion that she needed to drive to work – something, of course, she could not do for herself.  Nevertheless, she did not let that stop her.  She did not dwell on the impossibility of it or wallow in self-pity.  She knew she would have o be driven to work.  And though she had no idea how this would happen, she did not limit herself trying to figure out the how.  Instead she focused on experiencing what she wanted right then and there.  She sat and imagined herself riding in a car, feeling the motion and stopping, smelling the odors, touching the sleeve of the driver to get in and out of the car.  She felt te car come to a final stop at her destination and turned to the driver and said “Thank you very much, sir.  She then heard the driver respond that it was his pleasure and she got out of the car and went into work.

When we change our attitude – which is based upon our perceptions of ourselves and our lives – we have the potential to have everything change.  On a cellular level this means changing the environment around the cells.  Why?  Recent studies and research spearheaded by Bruce Lipton and brought into awareness through the science of quantum physics as early as the 1930s point to the importance of the cellular environment in determining the experience for our cells.  Your cells ‘feel’ what you experience, and more importantly, how you perceive it.  For it is this environment and not some pre-mapped fate in the DNA that is the prime determining factor for how the physical expression of life within us will grow.

Calming Awareness dawns as suffering is met with friendliness, compassion, joy and happiness, as the virtuous and non-virtuous are met with neutrality.  -Yoga Sutra 1.33

Just as there is an incredible wisdom orchestrating the functioning of the human body and all of its cells, so too is there a mysterious wonder linking an coordinating all of creation.   Quantum Physicists know this as “The Field”.  Spiritual people call it God or a higher intelligence.    When we meet a challenge such as getting to work with a great attitude, we open the possibility for miracles and the unexplained (from our old point-of-view) to happen.  The blind woman visualized and directly experienced her imaginary ride for two days when she was told about a newspaper story mentioning a man who was interested in helping the blind.  She called this man and stated her need to the man.  The next day this man was in a bar and mentioned the woman’s plight to the bar’s owner.  A stranger sitting nearby said that he could take her to work in the mornings.  At this point, the man said that if the stranger took her in the mornings, he would take her home in the evenings.

Because our cells cannot directly sense the outside world, to know the world we live in there is a reliance on the external senses, the breath rhythm and the “vibration” of thoughts (including peptide chains of emotion pumped into the bloodstream through the hypothalamus).  From this cellular environment, certain processes are activated in the cell’s structure and DNA that can literally change the course of our bodily evolution, one cell at a time.  Through awareness, asana, pranayama and dharana, yoga offers us many tools to change the cellular or gross aspect of our beings by engaging the most subtle.  This gives the opportunity to be a conscious living expression of the Divine Law of entanglement or synchronicity to the point that we literally experience a different concept o ourselves and therefor, a different reality.  Then we live this reality as our real and direct experience.  Then we can be like the blind woman on her first actual ride to her office which took less than 15 minutes, she turned to the man who drove her and said “Thank you very much, sir.”  And then she received the reply “The pleasure is all mine.”

Jeff Martens is teaching a new workshop “Quantum Biology” March 11-12.  or more info, visit our workshop page.

santosâd anuttamaha sukha-lâbhaha –Yoga Sutra 2.42  ”Contentment brings unsurpassed joy.”

The art of contentment is the art of fulfillment.  It is the experience of finding what you are seeking in the present moment and becoming rich in what you thought you were lacking, so rich that you can give what you [...]]]> by Jeff Martens

santosâd anuttamaha sukha-lâbhaha –Yoga Sutra 2.42  ”Contentment brings unsurpassed joy.”

The art of contentment is the art of fulfillment.  It is the experience of finding what you are seeking in the present moment and becoming rich in what you thought you were lacking, so rich that you can give what you were formally lacking.  The alternative is to always be greedy for the next moment and living in the poverty of constantly lacking what you are seeking.  The Yoga Sutra teaches that when we are content with this moment, our entire being radiates with an inexpressible joy.

Alexander’s army was marching toward India when he heard of a Greek man, Diogenese, who was said to have found true contentment living in Corinth without a single possession.  ”I would like to meet such a man,” Alexander said, curious as to how such a thing could be possible.

After a little searching Alexander came to a man lying naked in the sun beside a river.  ”Are you Diogenese,” Alexander asked.  ”Who wants to know,” the man answered without so much as opening his eyes.  ”I am Alexander the Great.”   The sunbather gave no sign of recognition.  ”Do you not know who I am?  I have come a long way to see you.  Some men would think it an honor.”  Diogenese smiled, but said nothing.  ”I have heard,” Alexander continued, “that you have found true happiness and yet you do not posses a single thing, no clothes, not even so much as a begging bowl.  Is this true?  Have you found supreme joy?”

Reclining peacefully, his eyes remaining closed, Diogenese made no effort to answer.  Alexander studied Diogenese, waiting for a response, admiring the relaxed calmness in his presence.  Indeed, the man seemed to be totally at ease.  ”Can you teach me what you have found?” he asked the naked man at his feet.

“Where are you going, Alexander the Great?”

“I am off to India.”

“Such a long way to travel, and for what?  What will you do there?”

“I will conquer it.”

And then what shall you do, Alexander?”

“I will move on to conquer the next country.”

“And how long will this campaigne continue,” Diogenese asked.

“Until I have conquered all the countries.”

“And when you are through with that?”

“Then I will celebrate as emperor of the world,” Alexander said.  ”Then I should like to rest like you.”

Diogenese laughed, a loud chaotic bray that seemed out of place by the peaceful river.  Alexander noted that Diogenese’ eyes were a deep blue and utterly without greed.  Instead of being angered by the Greek’s laughter, Alexander found himself intrigued.

“Why do you laugh?” Alexander asked.  He had never seen such serene eyes.

“Tell me, is your father alive?” Diogenese asked, closing his eyes again at the emperor’s feet.  This time it was Alexander’s turn to remain silent.  Diogenese continued: ”Would you recognize his bones from the bones of this beggar?”

Alexander closed his own eyes and thought.  He had seen many bones.  Countless battles had taught him that all men’s skulls looked the same.  ”Why did you laugh?” Alexander asked again.

“Because your bones are on a fruitless journey, the same journey as the bones inside my skin.”

“Being emperor of the world is a fruitless journey?” Alexander asked, incredulous.

“In the end it makes no difference what you and your army have conquered.  What you are really seeking is right here and available to you now.  So why do all those things before you rest and find contentment?  If rest is what you are ultimately looking for, then do what I did and give yourself what you are really seeking now.  Let go of this fool’s journey and you can rest right here and now.”

Alexander laughed uneasily.  He had never considered stopping his war.  For the first time he questioned the nature of his quest and his mind rebelled in protest.  To be Emperor of the World was his whole life!  How could a man give up such a thing?  In contrast to his inner turmoil he could see the bronze skin of Diogenese relaxed and glowing, ribs filing and releasing simple breaths into a cloudless sky.

“Sir, your words do have a faint air of truth about them, but how could I give up my life’s ambition?  And yet I know it is strange to say, but your life here now is so beautiful to me.  Perhaps instead there is something I could do for you?  I am an emperor and you may ask for anything, any riches or title your mind could imagine.  Consider for a moment and let me know.”

Diogenese closed his eyes and waved Alexander off.  ”Only step aside,” he said.  ”You are blocking my light.”

“Nothing more?” Alexander asked.

“Nothing more.”

Alexander turned to walk away.  ”Goodbye Diogenese,” Alexander said.  ”I am off to finish my journey.”

“No one ever finishes their journey,” Diogenese called out from his resting spot on the warm sand.

“And why is that?” Alexander asked.

“Because everyone dies along the way.”

And so it was that a short time later in Baghdad, while planning his full campaign into India proper, Alexander died along the way.  His once vast empire was quickly carved up by his generals and disintegrated soon thereafter.

Jeff Martens is a teacher, writer and co-owner of Inner Vision Yoga.  This story is inspired by an ancient parable.  All suggestions are voluntary.  Consult a qualified teacher, your heart  or your physician before you embark on any practice in which you are unfamiliar.

For more inspiring yoga essays click here…

What do Gandhi, Mother Theresa and Martin Luther king Jr. have to do with your daily workout routine?  These and countless other peaceful warriors have helped to reshape the planet and create lasting change throughout world history by utilizing a yoga principle known as ahimsa.  By learning from their [...]]]> by Jeff Martens

Ahimsa and Exercise

What do Gandhi, Mother Theresa and Martin Luther king Jr. have to do with your daily workout routine?  These and countless other peaceful warriors have helped to reshape the planet and create lasting change throughout world history by utilizing a yoga principle known as ahimsa.  By learning from their experience it is possible to create a more fulfilling way to exercise.  As an added benefit, you just might create more peace in your daily life.

Yoga (which means to yoke or unify) is more than just a workout; it is a state of being.  Practiced consciously, yoga opens the possibility to fully inhabit our own existence.  One of the fundamental principles of yoga called ahimsa or non-violence can help us to work out more effectively no matter what your chosen form of exercise.  Practiced with awareness, non-violence has the power to not only improve our workouts but to change the path of an entire world.

What does it mean to be non-violent?  Think of what the term warrior means today.  Too often the concept of non-violence conjures up aspects of weakness or even cowardice.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The true practice of ahimsa requires all of our will and discipline to remain in a peaceful state — to prefer peace — when all around us might seem to be in chaos.

To be non-violent does not mean that we become passive, ignoring injustice or things that we think are wrong in our lives.  Ahimsa requires us to address these issues with love from a place of non-attachment instead of detachment or withdrawal.  Using love in this way allows us to remain peaceful in the midst of the most far-reaching turmoil.  The process of staying present with love is like covering our hands with cooking oil before working with raw bread dough.  The oil allows us to work the dough, yet the dough doesnt have to stick to our fingers.  In practical terms this might mean not becoming emotionally attached to the driver that just cut us off on the freeway; it can mean that when we get the flu we look at what our bodies are trying to tell us; it can mean seeing our bills not as a curse but as an acknowledgement of our ability to pay.

Practicing non-violence in our workouts means that when we exercise, we work with the body and not against it.  The habit of criticism and judgement are dropped in favor of experiencing and observing.  This leads to self-acceptance where life is pure possibility.  Change then becomes a natural result of awareness.  To remain in habitual habit of negativity, comparing or criticism is to fragment yourself and make everything seem impossible.   By practicing yoga or exercising consciously, we begin to unify rather than fragment, and peace becomes our natural state of being.

Vritti svarupyam itaratra…  Yoga Sutra 1.4 When we are not in a state of yoga, our form becomes our mental disturbances.

Light is a form of energy.  It reflects off [...]]]> By Jeff Martens

Tada drastuhu svarupe avastanam…   Yoga Sutra 1.3
When we are in a state of yoga our form is one of pure awareness.

Vritti svarupyam itaratra…  Yoga Sutra 1.4
When we are not in a state of yoga, our form becomes our mental disturbances.

Light is a form of energy.  It reflects off of surfaces as waves which our consciousness freezes into particles to create the mystical experience of observation.  This is the process known by spiritual masters and scientists alike as that point where the perceiver creates the perceived.  Since observation is the exercise of fixing energy in place for that millisecond necessary to process information as our very own, we literally have the power to create the world we live in through our perceptions.

Today quantum physicists have reached a level of observation where particles are so impossibly minute that they teeter on the realm of pure potential energy where just the expectation of observation is enough to allow new properties to be discovered.  It’s as if the very act of expectation creates the space for what we are seeking to bloom into existence.

The ancient science of yoga or unity helps us to clean the mirror of our perception by training us to let go of expectations on a cellular level.  In the Yoga Sutras Patanjali speaks of devotion to a clear discernment so that we may discriminate between the influences of our past conditioning and future expectations to see the world as it actually is.  When we freeze a tight spine in place with our powers of observation for example, it is not the actual spine we are observing, it is our own projection of a spine created by years of memory and expectation though it sure feels real enough!

In order to let go of that inflexible spine, we first have to create the possibility of change by letting go of past history and releasing all future expectations.  In other words, we have to let go of identifying with the mind and it’s constant judgement and limitations. This surrender creates the physical, mental and emotional potential for our spine to change by creating the possibility for a spine that is different from how it was in the past.  Yoga teaches us that, until we reach this point, the glorious mirror of the world can only reflect back to us that energy and expectations which we place before it.  We begin to see things as they are instead of seeing our own problems and limitations everywhere we look.

Many religious and spiritual traditions state that as your faith is, so you become.  By the same token, when we expect our bodies to be a certain way, we leave little room for alternative paths and exclude ourselves from perceiving people, guidance and techniques that could help our awareness value and then transcend the role of illness or injury we may be experiencing.  As a result our natural soul  “form” (svarupam)  becomes limited and we suffer because we are not living in Truth.

The practice of Yoga allows us to see the world as it really is by training our bodies and minds to stay in the present moment – that only point where the world actually exists.   Everything else is just projection of an imagined future or memory of the past.  It is up to us to make sure that our perceptions emerge from a fearless place of love and acceptance.  This is the key to living in the eternal present where all things are possible and the world can bloom anew.

Jeff Martens is a teacher, writer and co-owner of Inner Vision Yoga.  All suggestions are voluntary.  Consult a qualified teacher or your physician before you embark on any practice in which you are unfamiliar.