PHILOSOPHY FOR DEEPER KNOWLEDGE

Ultimately there is but one question - but on the way there there are many - and this is the land of Yoga Philosophy - welcome to self study - Svadyaya. 

 

Here I offer this space of Yoga and Learning to the footsteps of the Great Ones who have walked before us.  I have been blessed to have visited the Shrines and Ashrams in India, Nepal and other parts of Asia, and in Respect and ever deepening Gratitude to the Glory of These Saintly Tombs, and the embodied memory of the hours, days, months over years spent in the presence of The Most Blessed Ones, both embodied and also now Beyond Form, I offer what I know and understand of the Truth Teachings. 

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If you would like to gather for teachings that engage through the mental faculties, then this is a great and uncommon magnet. I use philosophical teachings inherently in the physical practise teachings and when sharing Bhakti chanting and other devotional offerings, for I sense the benefit of using all faculties in order to gain deeper access to the Truth that we call Yoga.

 

So  many in the West will refer to their practise as 'stretching' - for me it has never been this way and never will be - yoga can encompass all the parts of your human expression, but to isolate the use of the body without acknowledging the rich tradition behind the movements, the wealth of fable, wisdom and insight behind every name of the Divine or even every physical asana we may in modern practise engage, is to completely misunderstand the practise, the tradition and the heritage. The waves in Time that are governing modern changes in the World of Yoga hold True to Yoga in it's fundamental meaning because of those who honour philosophy. The ancient stories threads, or songs, themselves, are the foundations of this Truth.

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I have long been called into the philosophies and parables that inform the practises of Yoga, and am drawn into deeper silence through my mind and mental faculties, when it engages with the Philosophies of Yoga, and the language of Sanskrit and other dialects. 

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Anything offered here and in classes is in service to and honour of those I have learnt from, both in the West and the East, the many Western and Eastern teachers, or Acharyas, and Gurus who have written and spoken in Wisdom. I have engaged in a personal study of Scriptures, Eastern languages and Philosophies on and off since before I began practising Yoga, driven by interest in alternative states, consciousness and traversing these Realities through (previously) Arts until this turned me to Yoga.

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I do not call Yoga an Art, it is an embodied spiritual Practise and both a Truth and a Pathway to Truth, and without this Direct Knowledge being a felt sense or my embodied Life Understanding, I might not still be offering the practises. This does not mean it does not involve skill. To call it an Art is to put it in a category removed from itself, as Yoga is beyond scrutiny and is non-judgemental Art is for the spectator, Yoga, through its practise, is attained by the individual, as a part of The One. The Jiva - the individual consciousness, contemplates itself on the pathway towards Recognition (Mukti) of itself as The Whole or The One. It's a fine line in some ways, but Yoga is non judgemental - this membrane - vanishes. 

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In the Timeless Space of The Undivided, there is no personal preference. Yoga is not a performance nor a competition, it is a play and display of the Creative Force for no reason other than Divine Play. This is why the Devi Dances - for the Play of Sakti in the Timeless Space of Undivided Oneness, Siva Consciousness (Pure Potential), for The Pure Beauty of the Dance, free from judgement, free from scrutiny, for the joy of Being In Form, expressing The One. For the joy of the colour masking the empty space and for the joy of Recognition - again.

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We can aspire to greater skill, for the practise of Yoga is also Skill in Action. We can aspire to perfection, yet at the same time in the very act of 'failing' the moment of True Understanding is there - if you are open to it. THis can be a rocky road, and it allows you to be all that you are without self-condemnation.  But at the same time and co existing, there is also the possibility to succeed, of perfection. and this you already are: Saccidanaanda Murtaye - you are the form of Being-Consciousness-Bliss , perfection (un)recognised.

Direct Understanding, which will bypass all perceptions of failure and success, and replace them with Knowledge, Clear Seeing, I AM THAT - 

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Another doorway in a different way, this is where Grace, Divine Play, can offer an invitation into Awakening and it lies available to all and at any moment. And this is Beyond Art, Beyond Science, Beyond Conditioning and Cultural Expectation, and Beyond the Reasoning of the limited Body and Mind. 

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The Ultimate Truths of Yoga are a lived experience, beyond language, beyond form. These timeless and immortal Truths are there for anyone willing to see Beyond the so called constructs of an average experience in this world, in the body, and in the mind you perceive yourself to have.

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If you are drawn to devotional practise, through love and surrender, this is perhaps not the path for you, though they are not exclusive, like the rainbow of the personality, the Yoga teachings are myriad and colourful. It may depend on your background, your constitution, previous influences or conditioning, or the stage you come to, as whilst the tradition sets out the path as more turned to Hatha physical practises in the younger years and more meditative later on, this is constitutionally and class dependent.

 

I dived so deep into meditation in my twenties that nobody could bring me down, at a time when I probably 'should' have been building a sound career base, I was sitting in a monastery contemplating stillness for months and years and seeing through everything my top class education had taught me to think important. I never did fit in here in the west after that with the friends I'd left behind working in the city, but I don't think I'd change it, despite the judgement I've lived through from the powers that be that aren't constructed around these kinds of laws. 

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Ask me about politics and I won't be much to write home about. but Universal Truth, And Laws of Karma and the Tantric teachings - these are the Divine laws that I recognise and embody with the days and hours that pass in this body and mind. A friend from Sangha Sahaja in Portugal and other blessed meetings once sang 'The Great God In This Body Is Living Free' - if I have one wish for may it be that all Beings come to know​​ this, for this is Peace, one and all ' . If I offend you in my dance, Dear One, know that I dance the dance of the same God in all. 

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If you are so inclined, then writings on Truth can provide sustenance for your mental body. If you are drawn to contemplate, before you meditate, then look to the teachings of the tradition, the Sanskrit texts, for this is the way to refine the thinking mind, onto subjects Pure and Divine.

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There are many paths, so it has been said, but one goal. So we refine the physical form in our asana and pranayama practises, we can refine, purify and nourish the mind and intellect, informing the consciousness in more subtle ways. From here, it can absorb back into Source, Divinity, The One. Transcending the body and mind is part of our Yogic Journey, but living through them with vitality and Grace is essential and this is the Dance of The Goddess, the Creative force, Sakti, and this is embodied living. In the space where we meet, in Recognition, and silence, I honour the God inside of you - for it is the same God in all. 

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Where I love to begin - for simplicity - is with the ethics that set this apart and will guide you to a pure and happy individuality in the sea of Oneness. And - from here - into Beauty-

It might be as simple as a code for your day to day living, or it is the ground of the other practises that follow. The 'Dos and don'ts of the Tradition will set the precedent for your conduct or also set you into the Divine Flow.

 

From here into breath and asana - hatha practises to purify the energy body and the physical and moving into the subtler realms accessed through meditation and visualisation

 

Then of course you can delve into all the worlds of Devotion and wisdom teachings of the myriad Paths of One Yoga Divine, one and One Knowledge, beyond wars of I know better and duality. Where there exists ego, including the spiritual ego defense, there will exist the need to identify with some group of beliefs as better, for the preservation of the individual and a sense of identity and security and the individual as a practitioner of one set of truths or another. True Yoga as in the Divine Union of Form with Conscious Potential exists as the celebration the Good and the Bad coexisting unjudged in the Beauty that is this life we play out through our unique dance. All of this seen from conception to expression in form, and playing out - just for the fun of revelation. This is the Dance of the Goddess - I sakti-, who loves to hide the pure light of Divinity -  and then reveal it once again as everything folds back into itself.

 

Om Mata, Om Kali, Om Devi Namostute

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