January 17, 2024
You can practice all these postures and breathing exercises for the rest of your life; you'll have very good health, but nothing more. The spirit will still be dull and any little problem in life knocks you completely off balance. Of primary importance is awareness: if there is awareness, that itself is harmony. Why is it so? Any disturbance is in the physical, mental, intellectual or emotional field. Being awareness, it is aware of itself and therefore aware that there is no disharmony in it, that this disturbance is not in this awareness. At that very moment the other disharmony is somehow dissolved.
When in our ignorance we are tempted to judge others, we often think that there is a kind of a conflict in the external situation. But when we are aware, of what is going on, this awareness removes ignorance and we see it in a different light. What appeared to be conflicting is really seen as complementary. You can see that in the movement of your arm. When one set of muscles begins to contract the other expands. If you observe your breathing you also realize this. As you breathe in, one set of nerves gives the command to the lungs to expand, and at the same time the other one says, "Now I am going to pull back". They are not fighting with each other. It is when these two forces function efficiently that there is harmony.
The intelligence that sees disharmony outside is dull and there is disharmony in that mind. When this dullness is removed and the intelligence is awakened, then that intelligence observes the situation; there is tremendous awareness and in that awareness there is no disharmony. At that very instant the external disharmony disappears as disharmony. This wisdom is extremely important in our lives. Without this,Karma Yoga, unselfish service or selfless service is not possible. If this is not there you'll find yourself constantly taking sides, and that is aggravating the situation everywhere.
How does one transform one's life into yoga? By awakening this inner intelligence and sustaining this awareness throughout, all the time, without allowing that awareness to be clouded again.