Be one in self-harmony, in Yoga, and arise, great warrior, arise.
Yoga comes from a war.
One of the first written accounts of yoga comes from the Bhagavad Gita, a section of the Indian epic the Mahabharata, which chronicles the Kurukshetra War between the Pandavas and Kauravas, royal families related by blood.
In the Gita, the archer Arjuna sees his brethren lined up to face off on the battlefield. He despairs at the idea of fighting his own kinsmen, of having to kill or be killed.
Arjuna cries out to his guide and charioteer Lord Krishna, who reveals his many splendid and horrific faces as he guides, comforts, and motivates Arjuna to fulfill his responsibilities without expectation to the outcome.
"The duty of a soldier is to fight, and fight well," Krishna tells Arjuna, encouraging him to perform his role with total devotion and total detachment.
Krishna, the godhead incarnate, persuades Arjuna to take up his weapon and SLAY, advising the use of dhyana, bhakti, karma, and jnana yoga to make peace with it.
How's that for a mindfuck, eh?
I'm not really one for dogma or religion, but I do enjoy sucking the marrow out of life, and the Gita is a juicy tale to consider with lots of layers to chew on.
I prefer esoteric teachings, and some of the deeper lessons I get from the Gita relate to duality.
Yoga AND war? I thought it was one or the other...
To me, yoga is not only a series of poses you do for an hour after work on Mondays - yoga is LIFE. So the question becomes, how is LIFE war? And more importantly, how do we make peace with it?
Most of us exist within a paradigm of duality: good vs. bad, right vs. wrong, light vs. dark, ned vs. dan - but the true BEingness of existence is something beyond what most of our limited human supercomputer brains have been programmed to see.
When we operate from duality, we automatically judge the things we don't like. We label them as "bad". We say we're justified and "right", and the opposition is "wrong" and deserving of punishment because they counter our beliefs. Then we take it upon ourselves to energetically or physically shun & abuse our challenger.
When we operate from duality, everything becomes an act of warfare. Every judgment that we cast is an attack and a defense.
The program of duality is a Trojan horse operating 24/7 in our subconscious. It's amazingly efficient and alarmingly far-reaching, tainting almost every aspect of our whole lives. It hijacks our experience and tricks us into thinking that judgment is not only normal, but an acceptable way for human beings to conduct themselves.
There is little to no consideration for the fact that judging another person affects your physical health. Judgment (and guilt and shame and doubt and fear) create chemical reactions in your own body that causes heart disease & inflammation, fucks up metabolism, and weakens the immune system. It's a biological feedback loop!
Awareness is key. You have to recognize that corrupted files are running in the background at all times before you can do anything about it. Then you have to search yourself to remove them from your supercomputer, and then you have to download and install new software. Yoga is one protocol!
Yoga = CONSCIOUSNESS offers a path to liberation & freedom from our exhausting, subconscious judgment of this vs. that, even in the face of conflict ESPECIALLY in the face of actual conflict.
It's easy to be peaceful and zen and shit when everything's going well, isn't it? The real test of character comes when SHTF, when someone or something we don't like or want is happening right in our face - that's when we sometimes lose our cool and let judgments fly like arrows!
The fact is that there will always be something you don't like happening in life. Your mind, body, and soul ARE under constant attack from forces seen and unseen - hello, viruses & GMOs & indoctrination & HAARP & taxation & assholes & on & on & on.
You do whatever you want about it - you can get pissed, judge it, fear it, resist it. You can try to control it if you want, or you can withdraw and cower from life...but in doing so, you will have already lost the battle.
OR you can meet the conflict head on with a focused mind, peace in your heart, poise in your body, and honor in your soul to vanquish all enemies.
Be one in self-harmony, in Yoga, and arise, great warrior, arise. ~ the Bhagavad Gita
💛 Sara!
Thanks to @quinneaker for helping me rewrite my hard drives and upgrade my operating systems.
Judging others is addiction, very chronic one actually. Many can’t relate it to their own suffering and the prison they lock themselves in.
I guess the aproach you presented is brilliant. Live isn’t about duality, everyone in a spot of spectrum. Judgment is subjective. Acceptence of others as they are is a great mindset to relieve anyone from this addiction.
Thanks @saramiller for this informative post.
You're welcome~
I think it's valuable to examine & discuss our subconscious tendencies. Humans have held judgment in our collective subconscious for a very long time, but it's dysfunctional! I believe better ways are possible, and it's time to consider them.
:D :D
nice image:
Thank you
It gives you strength in mind actually and that strength then shows on your body.. So its actually your mind controlling your body.. stay fitter and live strong
No doubt the mind and body are connected!
What you put in your body affects the state of your mind, and what you hold in your mind affects the state of your body.
Yoga is one of the few "exercises" that also incorporates the importance of the will/spirit.
Yoga provides that ahhhhsome pause that gives rise to moments of introspection and connection. I love how this photograph fits so perfectly with the tone of what you share. It's it awesome that at the @gardenofeden the true blessing is examining these programs and receiving the opportunity to wipe them clean and rewrite them again. @quinneaker never waivers in the space he holds. The blessings are endless! Thanks for this amazing post @saramiller.
Yes it is a total blessing to get perspective and space to address and rewrite the programs. This is serious work! It has been worth it though. Yoga has been a great tool, and I give epic thanks for my time at the @gardenofeden and especially Quinn & your influence which is its own flavor of yoga :)
Well said @saramiller! You have such a great way with words...and it's awesome to be doing the work together! <3
How to reconcile the duality. That is the question!
I have found dancing to be a GREAT reconciliation!
a very good question
Wow! Mindfuck, indeed. There's so much here to talk about ...
When we operate from duality, everything becomes an act of warfare. Every judgment that we cast is an attack and a defense.
This reminds of something I read recently that talked about the moment after we are introduced to something new (person, idea, food, whatever) but before we decide if the new thing will be assimilated as part of us or rejected as not part of us (duality). The ideal would be to keep things suspended in that moment and to never decide or, as you say, to not judge.
There is little to no consideration for the fact that judging another person affects your physical health.
I would love to hear more about this. Thanks for another really interesting post!
Cool, yes if the human mind could learn to NOT define everything, not box it all in, remain open to the reality of unlimited potential things would be much more fluid & free! So how do we stay "suspended in that moment"?
Judgment has been ingrained in us for a really long time, and for more people to judge is subconscious and automatic. I believe humans are starting to wake up and recognize they have actual power over themselves, which means we have the ability to become aware of, analyze, and rewrite these dysfunctional programs. It's a big deal to take responsibility for evolving as a person!
The mind and emotions are intimately connected to the body. Think about being afraid - you might feel it in the pit of your stomach. Or anger - senses get heightened as adrenaline pumps, blood rushes to the face. Or LOVE! You feel relaxed, warm, open. Such it is with EVERY emotion and experience, including judgment.
There are what I'm going to call "higher" and "lower" emotions, meaning that higher emotions enhance health and well being in the body, and lower emotions harm it. Love, hope, compassion are higher emotions, and anger, judgment, fear, etc are lower. Love, hope, compassion release chemicals like anandamide, seratonin, and dopamine into the body, and lower emotions release stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Stress hormones in small doses are awesome and beneficial - it prepares the body for fight or flight when you have to defend your life or outrun a bear or something, but in modern society the ON buttons for anger, judgment, and other stressors are constantly triggered - which means we have a steady flow of these hormones. They cause inflammation, oxidative stress, and generally just fuck up the system when they're always ON!
The thing is that judgment (and often anger and fear, guilt, shame, doubt, etc) operate from the "lower" parts of the brain, and modern humans are so disconnected from their bodies that they don't pay much attention to how it affects their physicality. The brain has A LOT to take it - it is constantly, unceasingly processing data and inputs, so on the one hand it's like a space and energy saver to tuck some things away in the subconscious so the program runs and you don't have to think about it, but on the other hand if the program is NOT in your own best interest, then it takes some effort to wade through the subconscious, identify the dysfunction, and reprogram a new, healthier, happier habit.
I am exactly there - finally working through some destructive ways of thinking that no longer serve but have been with me since childhood. It is tough. But I have had some success and the results are freeing in unexpected ways. Thanks for the inspiration!
You're welcome! To me, addressing dysfunctions is the real war. Keep on fighting the "good" fight!
If you have some serious stuff to deal with (and who doesn't? lol), I recommend looking into a technique called EMDR. I'll write a post about it eventually, but it's a really great technique for PTSD especially.
Sending you love and support! 💛
Before I read , when I see this picture I remember the Movie RAMBO lol!!
Haha, Yoga Rambo!
Maybe you should submit this one to the yoga contest???
Yes this is one of my favorite yoga photos, especially because it challenges people's ideas about how yoga is "supposed" to look.
awesome post - love the yoga history too!
...constant war with yourself. I think that most religions are metaphorical and should be interpreted that way.
...if people would understand that they are their own god and that they need to overcome themselves first before they can understand others, the world could potentially be a simpler, more peaceful place.
#Truth as f*ck
am i hypocrite sometimes? yes. but I'm also human and just striving to be better than who I was yesterday... which leads to...
I was a bit confused by the photo at first and was being slightly judgmental/prejudiced thus was somewhat reluctant to check out this post - but I read it anyway cuz I tend to like your stuff... it proved to be the right move!
namaste
Thank you @hrissm!
Yes I agree humans are in constant internal conflict. It would be awesome for people to embody their innate, sovereign power and get over being all broken and weak already...I believe it's a path to freedom and peace but I understand how difficult it is.
Thanks for being honest about your reaction to this photo - I really love this shot because it is intentionally yet completely unthreateningly challenging beliefs. I'm glad you were willing to overcome your prejudice and scope the article anyway and also that you found value in it!
The purpose of yoga is to create strength, awareness and harmony in both the mind and body. There are almost hundreds of exercises and each one of them when done perfectly bring everthing in order and ultimately fills you with peace..
There are hundreds if not thousands of poses, yes.
Yoga is much more than asana though :)
There are infinite paths to peace.
Change is not something that we should fear. Rather, it is something that we should welcome. For without change, nothing in this world would ever grow or blossom, and no one in this world would ever move forward to become the person they’re meant to be.
Well said. 👍
I agree! People would be a lot happier and healthier to embrace rather than resist and fight change. "Nothing endures but change" - no use stressing out over the inevitable!
Indeed