Yogology

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Yogology
Many thousands of years ago, the peoples of Ancient Persia and India sought the connection between the outer world and their inner reality. The similarities between Zoroastrian and Vedic thought and symbols are many. Cosmic beliefs, rituals and practices of purification and worship helped to balance the body and mind and open the heart for revelation of the highest truths of being. I bring this up not because I am a scholar of comparative religion, but because I am an Iranian-American Yoga instructor. I see for our community the opportunity for young and old souls to reconnect to sciences beyond language and the application of this path to personal understanding and sustained happiness.
 
There is a common misconception that "yoga is for everybody." This is true to some extent, and I wish that our world were moving in the direction that more people had the opportunity and time to care for their minds, bodies and souls in an active way. To be honest, however, true yoga is for people who can give up some of the pleasures of the world in order to find balance and contentment with everything. Real transformation does not occur by treating practice like a part-time hobby. The health benefits of the physical exercises and postures of yoga are without doubt. But when your body is sick or giving you pain, you cannot meditate or begin to let the mind drop away.  For many people, the first step is the care and detoxification of the body-- but this is not the ultimate goal of spiritual practice.
 
One meaning of yoga is “to bring together” or unify.  My friends, what is it that has been separated and needs to be unified?  There are so many analogies to this end. Lets begin with the right and left side of the brain. The left side of the brain is good at logic, details and facts.  These are abilities that seem necessary for survival in the physical world as our society and natural selection have shaped our minds to believe. The right side of the brain controls feelings, sees the big picture and lets imagination rule. 

In the culture of “making a living” which for some reason requires seeking out the best paying job and competing with each other like animals, our attention becomes unnecessarily shifted towards the left side of the brain and ignores our ability to see outside of our limited ego and analytical mind.Excessive materialism and capitalism separate us from experiencing our whole being and keep our minds entangled with the external world.

 Life is just a series of moments which we interpret and act upon. The choices that we make shape our body, mind and memory and change our interpretations and thus our experience-- this is Karma. When you give rest to that analytical left side and engage the right, it allows the whole brain to process and see the world in more than one way at a time. The study and practice of Yoga releases us from limited or incorrect patterns of living and thinking and opens us up to creativity and peace.  We want to accept our karmic duties and situation and know how to use both sides of the brain when necessary to progress in our evolution.
 
The nature of our true Self is unconfined, limitless and unending (Sat-Chit-Ananda which means “existence consciousness bliss”.) When you can see the similarity and basic uniformity of being within all of the objects of your perception, then you exist in a state of pure awareness.  Here, the body has no control over the mind and the mind serves the witnessing self that is inside of you watching the play of nature.  At other times we are busy naming things and creating a separation between ourselves and our experience.  It does not occur to us that our feelings and judgments are a product of our own choice.  

We have all experienced moments of great happiness and in certain situations time seems to stop and our sense of self suddenly expands or we feel as though we disappear altogether. This state of consciousness requires a settling of the mind and release of our inflated image of how important we think we are. The ego constricts the free flow of energy within the body and mind.

Every night you go to bed and experience this expansive state in deep sleep which comes during the time that you are not dreaming. Before this (and during the day), your true self fights the “monkey mind” that won’t stop running and talking to itself or jumping from one idea to another. Then, during the dreaming phase, your brain is still calculating and processing thoughts and memories that don’t really exist outside of your mind. This is the subconscious mind wasting your life energy. To tap into and explore those left over thoughts, prejudices, judgments and hang-ups is to start to uncover the sheet that blocks us from seeing the world in a clear way and connecting to our real power and purpose.
 
Enlightenment is simply the process of becoming light.  As you limit your activities and spend more time in reflection or looking within the body and witnessing the consequences of your actions, wisdom dawns and you can begin to make choices that are more likely to make you happy.  Whenever you experience your emotions causing you to lose your balance think about what desires led you to this feeling of disappointment and why you are looking to the outside world for the happiness that you can gain from within.  Remember how carefree and delightful life was when you were a child?  This is what we want to reconnect to. This is our natural state and birthright.  The system of diet, lifestyle and practices that support mind and body healing and yogic progress is Ayurveda.  It is through this practical system that insight about self-healing and our divine nature reveal themselves and we begin to enjoy and approach unity.

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