EXCUSE FOR LAZY MIND

 

praktikovanje joge lazy mind

Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights

 

The lazy mind always has fantastic excuse why not now.

Having taught Yoga for many years and also there where I have not taught sentences such as  “I am stiff on yoga” or “Yoga is hard for me” I have heard countless times. I guess such sentences are contagious.

I wrote a note and a message to those who think they need to sweat, sprain theirs wrists and break theirs bones in order to be a yogi at the beginning of 2015, when this website came into existence.

Since then, unfortunately, not that anything has changed, but the competition who will better flex his body and call himself a yogi has taken a good turn. Practicing Yoga is very often misunderstood.

 

Specially if you are stiff, you should go to the class guided by an experienced yoga teacher.

However, you also need a little background and these are my messages.

Yoga is Not a Competitive Discipline


 

Hatha Yoga is not a sport to train and somewhere win a gold medal. It is not, unlike ignorance, a competitive discipline of weightlifting.

Hatha Yoga can be practiced by any person who has two legs and two hands, although even people of such sad destinies have tremendous willpower and great persistence, even more than people who by fate have been given two hands and two legs.

One usually does not appreciate his life and those “ordinary” things and one notices the value of that ordinary and “irrelevant” things only when they are gone.

Respect the Very Simple Principle of Yoga and Life


 

This principle is nonviolence or in the language of Yoga, Ahimza. Anyone who is deciding to start or is already practicing Yoga has heard from the teacher about this principle (if the teacher has failed in practice and theory, you can learn more about nonviolence here). This is the principle which also applies to nonviolence towards oneself which means not hurting oneself. That is why it is very wise to practice asanas slowly and carefully. Stretching muscles while practicing is quite natural. Pain is not Yoga.

In the book The Yoga Tradition, George Feuerstein states:

“Narcissism, or body-oriented egocentrism, is as great a danger among hatha-yogins as it is among bodybuilders.”

 

The Most Powerful Tool in Life


 

That is your breath.

Breath is the only thing you really “own” in life. If your breath leaves you, you will be gone. So it’s very wise to nurture your own breath while it is still there. That care of breath is part of Hatha Yoga, called Pranayama, or conscious control of breath by yogic techniques. Pranayama prolongs prana and slows breathing.

Turtles and elephants live much longer because their breathing is much slower.

 

One should maintain clean lungs. Pranayama and other Tantric and Hatha Yoga techniques are extremely beneficial for lung health.

In addition to purity in the lungs, practicing these techniques gives us the opportunity to restore and preserve that childish spontaneity and purity yet being firmly grounded and of a strong spirit.

A Yoga Mat is a Flying Carpet


 

Persistent but gentle ego-free practice takes you to areas you’ve never been to before. These landscapes are your true, true nature.

However, change never happens overnight. You need a lot of dedication and patience. The lazy mind has a lot of work to do.

Yoga cannot be learned by heart, nor can it be copied. Pure theorizing and philosophizing do not bring much. Yoga is pure experience and a wonderful companion on the path of self-realization. Self-realization is not some fashion detail, though it adorns human existence. Self-realization is no mysticism but a tremendous strength of spirit.

Only when the mind is completely calm, it can recognize the truth. Power lies in peace, not in hectic.

"Lange Rede kurzer Sinn"


 

… Is a German phrase for when one talks a lot but basically says nothing.

 

Many people talk but say nothing.

Practicing Yoga with an open mind and heart develops honesty, patience and perseverance. These wonderful human qualities thus become part of the everyday life of anyone who practices Hatha or any other Yoga in this way.

He who practices without banalizing the ego and who has overcome the excuse of a lazy mind, who is not “stiff for yoga” at the level of the spirit and not the muscles, he becomes a patient listener and observer of a pure head and a calm heart. He is able to make a difference in situations, stories, behavior. It is not difficult for such a person to get rid of unnecessary things that burden his heart, soul and thus his body.

Man is more than often exposed to various convictions, noise and some kind of torture. In society, people are constantly feeling guilty.

Yoga Practice and Intuition


 

Intuition is a language without words that, especially to those people who in nature have finer oscillations of the spirit, helps to make a person completely independent by thinking with his own heart and mind.

 

So everything is already there. It just got lost on one of life’s paths.

Practicing Yoga, any Yoga, is an excellent and only complete method that can join missing pieces and fill both heart and spirit with new energy.

 

This brings about change.

Change is pure gold for every individual on Earth and for all other realms.