Knowledge and Spirit

In this age, we hear plenty about numerous paths or approaches to Yoga rumored to be separate or somehow unrelated. Paths often include, but are not limited to, Hatha, Kriya, Kundalini, Raja, Bhakti, Jnana, Swara, Bhoga (union through desires), Tanta, Kriya, or Nada. However, as a scholar of these variegated paths and an ardent practitioner of a Yoga that often encompasses most, if not all of these paths, I am rather unconvinced about the degree to which there is a real distinction between them. Indeed, although for example, Bhakti Yoga is often the yoga of a personal God, or the yoga of union through an emotional investment into a personal godhead, a devotional attitude or some degree of emotional outpouring are necessary for fixating the mind and forces of concentration. This subsequently facilitates the restraining of the pranas or vayus into the center channel of sushumna. In Tantra, the following is held to be inalienable:

Mind and Prana are one. If we can restrain the mind, we can restrain the prana, or if we can restrain the prana, we can restrain the mind. The differences between these approaches are rather arbitrary, and at a point where discipline and practice is at a culminating point, these distinctions are especially no longer relevant. The mind has often been compared to water, and the prana has been compared to milk, and vice versa.

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As we tread onward on this river of life, we must be willing to apprehend the nature of our attachments to that which is no longer conducive to our personal growth or development. How valiant will you be in your determination to sever the ties that bind you? Will you gallop with courage and a sword in hand, or will you slow your gait and fall prey to those facets of life that thwart your travels? From death comes life, and from life comes death; all phenomena–both physical or etheric–must succumb to this principle. Hence, how do you see yourself? Who or what would you like to become? What kind of physical, mental, or spiritual transformation do you desire? All these questions are petty and fruitless if we cannot first summon up the will to respond to the rather portentous question: What are you willing to let die? We may suffer from a disorder or undesired condition, while nevertheless persevering in our old patterns of living. Be advised, no change or growth is possible without death, and everything that is build on faulty foundations will be prone to gradual collapse through natural law or be otherwise torn asunder by the lightning of divinity. Heed gently to these words and be prudent with that which you attach to your bodies, minds, and spirits, lest you fall prey to the chains of the devil - as he cackles maniacally at your despondent condition.

Why do we sanction certain groups of animals as deserving our love, while objectifying or marginalizing others? In other words, in spite of the current research in neuroscience, which now supports complex intelligence, pain-sensation, and emotive capacity in nearly all animals (especially mammalians), how is it that we find the hypocrisy to extend our empathy to cats or dogs, while not extending this care to other equally qualifiable creatures? How is it that we feel repulsed to hear that the koreans or chinese butcher cats and dogs and use them as traditional foodstuffs, while simultaneously exhibiting an immutable demeanor when confronted with the reality of the modern slaughterhouse and meat-packing industry? If you cannot extend your empathy across animals, you do not love them; you are merely attached to your selective emotional consideration of creatures towards whom you’ve grown conditioned to have positive feelings towards from a young age. If we remove this convenient hierarchical differentiation, the same thing occurs among humans when genocide or persecution takes place–we sanction certain racial groups as ‘humans’ and 'deserving of mercy and affection’, while denigrating others as being 'subhuman’, 'swine’, or 'bestial’. The moral development of the human race is proportional to how we treat those creatures that are most helpless or most dependent upon our mercy and compassion.

(via bleudaimonia)

bleudaimonia:

May I be a candle, which (though dim) still flickers in the dark,
And when looking into the eyes of an Other,
May I—bowing humbly—acknowledge their presence,
As the whole and growing Being whom they are.

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” -Matthew 7 15-20

Many are tempted by the allure of spiritual luxury, or cultivating some sense of higher worth; in certain cases, there’s different forms of meditation, in others there is a sense of ecstatic emotional surrender to a higher force, and then perhaps some cultivate a combination of both, upheld by a philosophical backdrop that builds strong roots to the earth. Faith is also ancillary, if not a central force that propels this flame of development onward and to greater proximity to the sun; if it endures the worst, it drives us onwards through the darkest nights, where only a dim light can be discerned on the distant horizon.

Indeed, but I say unto you, what have you done today to service creation? Surely you may have cheap philosophy! This will all gradually slip from your fingertips as the flesh grows wary of the bone, and the spirit grows tired of the vessel; as we grip onto the sands of life, they slip under our finger tips as we are beckoned to let go! The soul alone knows no boundaries, and resists our gradually stagnating attempts at capturing a sector of infinity! Thus, I say unto you once more, “What are the fruits of your practice?” How are you serving creation? How may we discern that the spirit truly shines bright from you in this lifetime? By your fruits shall ye be judged! You may think your branches grow towards the heavens, but are they barren, or may we eagerly extend our hand and reach toward your fruits, and perhaps taste of their sweetness?