Inner World of Yoga – Day 25
The mind of course, conditioned to keep busy and preserve its activity at all costs, is not a proponent of truth unless there’s a speeding vehicle about to slam into your physical body, in which case it will move you out of the way if at all possible. For emotional, psychological, relationship issues, it is not willingly cooperative because that would mean diminishing its activity level which goes against the mind’s nature.
Albert Einstein, physicist and genius, said the following:
- Imagination is more important than knowledge.
- No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.
- The only source of knowledge is experience.
This is where the pragmatic methodology of YOGA makes our journey to self-knowledge and happiness possible. Yoga stimulates imagination through experiences that build intuition and inner strength, facilitating increased perception and expanded levels of consciousness.
Regular asana and pranayama practices support Niyama – second limb of yoga, and the guidelines that address how to deal with our personal self-nature and nature of the mind, to make certain our body/mind doesn’t succumb to falling off the wagon, whatever that wagon may be, into habits that keep us dull in mind and unhealthy in body; or opportunistic, materialistic, self-centered, egotistical, negative and unethical. Engaging in regular practices has a cumulative effect and produces results, although admittedly, sometimes at first it can be a kind of “fake it ‘til you make it” scenario.
This “getting to know yourself” is a tall order, but is the same for everyone on this Earth, and in every station in life. Remember – the emotional feelings of pain, fear, and suffering are the same for everyone, regardless of the situational details. This is the reason the question of WHY is basically not only irrelevant, but actually damaging to personal growth. Existential pain and suffering just is – it is the force of mind that pushes us towards what we need to know about ourselves, and any obsession with “why” only serves to keep us in ignorance of our true nature and blind to what we need to see clearly.
