Friday, August 30, 2013

内心的平静

INNER PEACE
By  Swami Rama

Inner peace and happiness is a subject that concerns everyone, It concerned the ancients, and it is our concern today as well--to understand how we can be happy. We always think that people somewhere else are happier than we are, but that is not true. Everyone is restless; everyone is unhappy. And the reason is that human beings have not understood the source of happiness. No matter where you live, no matter what you have in the external world, no matter how many things you own, if you do not have peace within, you will never be happy.

To understand this, you will have to understand two things. One is called "within" and the other is called "without." Accordingly, there are two concepts for living, One is: make yourself happy in the external world, and you will be happy within. The other is: make yourself happy within, and you will reflect that happiness outside. But there is also a middle path: you can do both. You can make yourself happy in the external world through your attitude as you perform your actions and speech in that world, and at the same time you can maintain happiness within by being constantly aware of the Reality that is beyond body, mind, and senses. Actual knowledge comes when you start understanding both.

We all expect to be peaceful; we all expect to have happiness within us; and that is why we like to enjoy things. Even the smallest enjoyment comes with the hope of finding peace within. But we sometimes find that the enjoyments of the world create more turmoil than going without them would. Try to think of a single pleasure of the world that brings you lasting happiness, that brings you lasting enjoyment. You cannot. Suppose, for example, you have a watch. That gives you pleasure; but if you lose the watch, then that same watch becomes a source of pain. You depend too much on the things of the world. You think that after having this thing or that thing, after acquiring this thing or that thing, you will enjoy life and finally have peace. But it never happens. The things of the world cannot bring happiness; peace of mind does not depend on anything external, and without peace of mind you can never be happy.

So first of all let us try to see how our peace of mind is disturbed, how our mind remains in turmoil; for if we really want to understand our emotions, we can learn to be happy. There are many people in this world who enjoy life by being cheerful, by being in a state of tranquility. They maintain that state because they have learned to create a bridge between the external world and the internal world. People generally fall into one of three categories. Those in the first category do not understand the cause of their own turmoil. Those in the second category analyze the cause, but they cannot handle it, they cannot remove it. But there is a third category of people who know and understand the cause of turmoil, and who then remove it. These people remain free from inner and outer conflicts.

The Vedas, the most ancient scriptures, say that when our senses are not a source of distraction, when our mind is calm and quiet, when there is no inner turmoil and conflict, then we have attained the highest state of wisdom. Actually, the path of enlightenment is very short, but it is difficult to tread because we always expect that someone from outside will come and enlighten us. But this does not happen. Unless you are prepared to take responsibility for yourself, to understand your own inner being and your own internal states, you will not find happiness. You have to learn to do that.

BRIDGING THE TWO WORLDS

Though the worlds within and without are different, they are not totally separate. So you will have to learn to create a bridge between them. If you do not know how to live in the external world you will never have happiness. You cannot, for life and relationships are one and the same. You cannot separate them. Somehow, somewhere, everyone is related to something, to someone. Even a swami is related to his practice. He has no worldly relationships, it is true, but he is concerned about his students, about their progress. We should learn to deal with these relationships. This is very important, for if we do not do that, then we are constantly blasting our inner peace. If we leave our duties, if we run away, we will still have problems because we carry our mind with us all the time no matter where we live, and the source of our problems is in our mind.

Some of you will say you have done your best in the external world, yet still you are unhappy. You should remember one thing: it is the ego that comes in the way of your relationships. For example, two people may have decided to live with each other, but most of the time they are on their own ego trips. "I want this," one says, and the other says, "I want that." That I and that want come between the two of them and create a problem. So in relationships ego stands as one of the biggest barriers. Modern egos are very strong because people do not get training in taming the ego. We all have different wants, and if we try to fulfill them without regard for others there will be conflict.

You should not expect to gain happiness from others. Everyone asks, "Do you love me?" But there is no need for doing that. You can find out within how much you love a person, and that is exactly how much that person loves you. Do not ask, "Do you love me?" That is not love, but expectation. You are expecting too much from others. Just love, and you do not have to ask the question. The whole world suffers because everybody says, "Do you love me? Do you love me?" You expect others to love you, and yet you do not love. Love does not mean expectation, love means awareness. If you are aware that in everybody's heart, deep within, there is eternity, you will love that. You will be able to say, "I love you not because of your body, senses, and mind. I love you because you are an eternal shining flame. We are like lamps, and your eternal flame is shining the same as the one in me. I love that flame." Saying "I love that flame" means that you are loving yourself when you love others. It becomes very easy. So you should learn to change your concepts, change your attitudes toward life a little bit and make it into a poem, a thing of beauty.

One of the sages I met in the Himalayas said to me, "I don't know why people are bothered so much; it is very easy to enjoy life." So I said, "What is the formula, sir?" And he said, "Life needs adjustment. Its goal is contentment, but those who do not know how to adjust--how can they attain their goal?" When you cannot adjust yourself in the external world, the whole problem lies with your inner understanding. So learn to study your inner processes, and then you will be happy.

But modern people have no time for insight. They do not want to sit calmly even for a few minutes. And if they do try, then they start thinking, and this leads to turmoil. But it is not our thinking process that creates the disturbance, that makes us petty and small. It is something called emotion. No matter how much wisdom you have, no matter how much you understand, it will not help you if you have not organized your emotional life. No amount of book learning can help you do this. Even if you know the scriptures, you cannot be happy if you have no control over your emotions. So you should learn to study where the emotions are coming from and why they are creating problems for you. You have to find the way to divert and channel these negative emotions.

One way to do this is to learn to control your attitude as you perform your actions and speech in the external world. Nobody knows how you think; people know you because of your actions and speech, and this is how you relate to the external world. So if you know how to direct your speech and actions, you can know how to live peacefully in the external world. The wound from a bullet can be cured, but the wound from a word is not that easy to heal. If someone is very harsh to you, or if someone has spoken something that you cannot forget, that wound is still there. Speech is very powerful; action is also very powerful. So only those who know how to conduct their actions and speech can be happy in the external world. Behind our actions is that which motivates us to perform them, and that force is called desire. If you are always saying, "I don't know why I did that, and I am sorry," then you are lying to yourself. You know why. Even if you do not consciously remember the reason for being compelled to do something, you still know it. Many of your actions are controlled by your unconscious mind, but any part of you that motivates you to do something is also yours, and you can learn to control it, too.

FOR ME BUT NOT MINE

How do we perform actions in such a way that they do not become a source of problems for us and for others? If we learn to change our attitude, we will be happy. When we have to do something, we should find out how to do it in such a way that we are not attached to it. All the things of the world are meant for us to enjoy--but they are not ours. All of our pleasures and joys are marred when we start owning things, for if we try to possess things we become attached to them. Nothing belongs to us. That which gives us problems is our "my" business: "My house, my car, my bank, my this, my that." Wherever our my is attached, that gives us problems. We get attached to these things--and attachment brings misery--and then we cannot enjoy them.

Do you know that the words we use most the whole day, from morning to evening, are I, my, and mine? All the time we tell people, "I have done this; I am sad; I am happy; I am rich; I am poor...." Whatever we do we always use that I. But suppose someone were to say, "Well, sir, you are talking of your I all the time. Can I know what that I is?" You would have to keep silent. If someone were to say, "Is that body your I? you would say, "No, it is merely my body." So where is the I that you want to express all the time? What is that I of which you are talking all the time? Have you known that l? Where is that l? When you start studying yourself, you become aware that you have to know one thing: you have to know the I that is within you. And there is only one way of knowing it. You must ask yourself the question, "Who am I?" If you ask other people, "Who am I? What are we trying to do? What is God? What is Self? What is Self-realization?" they will think that you are crazy. But for knowing yourself and your I, you do not have to consult others. You have the power to find out for yourself.

If you put yourself in a completely dark chamber away from all light, then where are your hands? You cannot see your own palms, yet you know that they are there. What is that which tells you? Who tells you that your hands are there? Who tells you that you still exist? For knowing your own existence, you do not need any outside light. You have the capacity to find out within yourself. So first of all, you should learn to know yourself, and the ancients say there is a way to do this. If you were to ask a sage, "Who am I? Am I this body?" the sage would say, "No, you have a body, but you are not the body." "Then am I the senses?" "No, the senses are different from you." "Then am I the breath?" "No. Body, senses, and breath are not at all you." "Oh, then I think I must be the mind." "No, the mind goes through modifications--through the thinking process, through thought patterns, through analysis--it is constantly fluctuating. So you are not the mind." "Then who am I?" "You are seated behind body, senses, and mind. That which is peeping through the mind, senses, and body, that you are."

When you start understanding yourself, when you begin to cease to identify with your body, senses, and mind, then you will find that your own self is an eternal wave; your own self is a child of immortality. That which creates problems for you is your mind, because you are constantly identifying yourself with its thought patterns. You do not know, you do not think, that there can be something more, something deeper, higher, and stronger than the thinking process. You think, for example, "My husband said I am a bad woman. So, I must be a bad woman. My son also says I am bad. And my friend the other day told me I am bad. I am definitely bad." You have accepted these suggestions from outside. But you have not cared to make the effort to truly understand; you have not cared to look within. So you feel guilty, and you are suffering. This happens with everyone. You should sit down some time and think about it. Do not blame all these things on God, saying, "God made me like this, so I am like this." God made you beautiful, but you make yourself miserable. And you also have the power to make yourself happy. Both are of your own doing. You can transform your personality by understanding this.

BEYOND BODY, SENSES, AND MIND

How will you transform your personality? By being constantly aware of the Reality within, which is not body, senses, breath, or mind, but beyond that--that flame, that light, that life. Remind yourself: "I am not body, I am not senses, I am not mind--so who is there to create problems for me? This body, these senses, these thoughts have no power to create problems for me, so why am I suffering? I am suffering because of my association with the body, senses, and mind. It is all right to have them, to use them and enjoy them, but when I become attached to them and identify myself with them, I am bound to suffer." Suffering comes when you have something and you do not know how to use it. If you are aware of this, you will quickly come to realize that you have all the things you need; you simply need to learn how to use them. That is all.

So you should know the technique for using the instruments that you have. And that is, you should be constantly aware-- inside--of the Reality. "I am beyond body, senses, and mind. Who is there to make me suffer?" If you say "God," then that poor God should suffer more than we because he would be responsible for having created a whole world of suffering. If you believe that God has created such a miserable world, then there is no need for believing in God. But God has not created a miserable world; it is we who have created a miserable world for ourselves. All the miserable conditions in the world have been created by us, and we can remove them and be happy. So constantly be aware of the Reality that is beyond body, senses, and mind. And when you do your actions, think that all the things of the world are meant to be used and should be used--they should be enjoyed. But know that they are not yours. Then you will be happy. Happiness is not something that we cannot have. It is our right; it is our birthright; we are working for that; we live for that; we hope to continue to live for that.

You talk of other worlds, other dimensions, unknown things. You should not do that. You should understand the nature of the known. You are not satisfied with the things of the world, but it is the nature of the world that nothing is permanent. Everything is subject to change; everything is decaying; everything is dying. Accept this fact--and then live in the world. Do not talk. about the unknown. Do not expect the unknown to come and enlighten you; do not expect the unknown to suddenly drop in and make you happy. Make yourself happy by understanding that the light of lights is within you.

That which is called God or the Lord is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. If he is not within you, then he is not a great Lord, he is not omnipresent. If he is omniscient, then that means that the knowledge of God IS within you. And If he is omnipotent, then the Lord in his full majesty must be within you. So that which you consider to be God is within you in his full majesty. You do not know that because you rely on your body, which is subject to change. But there is something that does not change--something beyond the body, senses, and mind. It is that light, that flame, that eternity--which is within you--that does not change. It is called God within you.

So remember, you are not so miserable as you have made yourself out to be. You are God, too, and cultivating this constant awareness within you will help keep you from false attachments, from identifying yourself with your body, mind, and senses. So you must say to yourself, "Body, mind, and senses are mine, but they are not me, for I am that eternal flame which is not subject to change, death, and decay." This awareness should always be with you.

So how do you live in the external world? How do you find inner peace and happiness? By creating a bridge between the internal and external worlds, by adjusting your attitude when you perform your actions and speech, and by being constantly aware of the Reality within.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

经常这里酸和那里痛的人看过来

许是我长期的职业病,对着电脑逐字琢磨、敲打的长年“身体”疾病和在城市森林中的求生挣扎导致的心力交瘁和迷茫促使我慢慢地走向这个方向上。

常常学生问我怎么会放下那个稳定的高薪和"星光熠熠"的职业改换到这条跑道上,我总会开玩笑地说,"啊,是阿,身体被我玩烂了。”

现在回想,也不是杞人忧天。经过了这几年的东养生,西放松的借口,逐渐看到自己的身和心的慢慢“相应”,早在没遇上<生活的艺术>的日子,那些时候都是在夜半惊醒,感叹身体不属于我的。那些身体的麻酸,这里那里的涨气不舒服,有的没的永远补不足的睡眠,你会知道,当那个身体不听你的召唤时的心是多么脆弱,彷徨,无奈。再加上心的贪嗔痴慢疑,各种七情六欲、种种压力、各种执着在左右你,让身心的疲累和低能量是可想而知的。

这个故事,放在这个年代,我想,普通得再不普通不过了。

你还在20多岁时,你不会想到今天这样的情景。在30岁时,也许有些人会开始遇上了。到了40,50 岁时,你会感觉“老怀安慰”,因为你并不孤单。亲人朋友的情况,比比皆是。

我有时候会跟我家妖精说,可能以我这个岁数的人来说,出席丧礼和进出医院的次数可能比同年龄的人多了一些吧。当然也是因为做义工服务的关系,更多机会接触生死情景。你会觉得,真的,生命就这样稍纵即逝。而你临走前的那个念头,就决定了你的下一世。不管你平日怎么修,临时的最后一口呼气和强烈念头,就决定你上天堂还是地狱啦。但多少人都还不是这样的懵懂,迷糊,甚至有些是因为临走的情况太快了,只能凭着肉身的那最后一个强烈感觉,就重复性地再来人世间“重新玩过"。

嗯,离得有些远了。

话说回来。

近年对Yoga Therapy 这块的兴趣,也当然是因为自己的身体需要疗愈,最后,就变成今天的这个工作坊啦。之前上了Judy 老师的工作坊,那一次倒是让过去所学的杂七杂八的东西打通的感觉:)。后来熬不过朋友学员们嚷着要我分享。好吧,独乐乐不如众乐乐。毕竟这玩艺还真的有一套。那有许多人告诉我,他不做瑜伽的,他喜欢运动。我想说的是,很可惜。因为你会运动到你可能40,50岁的时候,就不得不回头找这类的疗愈瑜伽了。为什么呢?因为疗愈瑜伽在国外的盛行,特别是在医学物理治疗区域,已经不是什么新鲜萝卜皮的事情了。

西方医学也是坚持运动对身体好,到近期你会看到越来越多的“运动伤害”的字眼出现在大小媒体的报道中,就会知道,现代人的“娇弱”身体,不是能够随便运动的。与其说很多人是在运动,不如说很多人是在“发泄”,拼运动。这里伤,那里伤的。年轻的时候,你也许不懂,慢慢几年下来,你就会看到了其累积性的利害。

也不是说做瑜伽就不会有伤害的。瑜伽,也会有它的运动伤害,如果你是在拼瑜伽的话。根据瑜伽经典, Patanjali Yoga Sutra,我们以为的瑜伽,不是一种运动,那只不过是瑜伽八肢里的其中一环。那个动作的部分我们称为瑜伽体位法。那只是一个准备我们的身体,到最后一个三摩地的境界。不少朋友练习瑜伽却没办法获得全面性的瑜伽疗愈,那是很可惜的。除了享受那一时的扭到高难度动作的满足感,也只有外功,内在的气血循环却不好,也不懂得呼吸,练就了一堆的硬肌肉,更别说心法的那一块了,柔软如水的内在力量和弹性。

所以,瑜伽是什么?瑜伽是一种修心方法,是一种生活哲学,是平衡。而当瑜伽结合了疗愈这一环节,当然,真正的瑜伽本身就身心灵的合一,就是一种疗愈,以现在的瑜伽疗愈定义,就是结合了一些其他的知识,如物理治疗、中医知识、运动学等等后,就特别符合如此多娇的现代人啦:) 放心,没有高难度的动作,都是些简单,渐进式的动作。

这一次的疗愈瑜伽工作坊会分几个系列。这一次会以建立如何不受伤的基本概念为主,以及分享疗愈瑜伽里的第一个环节,就是放松。有别于一般的瑜伽都通过体位法来做放松和暖身,疗愈瑜伽会把放松放在第一个步骤。放松的方式主要通过深层按摩你的肌筋膜。特别适合那些本来有这里酸那里痛的朋友,也适合那些拼瑜伽拼到身体也有这样状况的朋友,如果你没上述问题,这知识就适合你作为预防,甚至加深你的瑜伽或运动疗效。而基本概念则是让你更清楚了解为什么酸痛是什么,为何酸痛会发生,避免慢性劳损。


以下是第二第三场工作坊的时间表,有些好像只剩下几个位子。还有几个地点也在洽谈着日期,有兴趣的,就留言看看有没有这个机缘到你的地方分享。



Tuesday, February 5, 2013

别对自己那么苛刻...

嘿,女孩,

请停止对自己的判断和审视。在这个到处都是贴标签的年代,别人为你贴的标签也就算了,难道你还要自己再为自己加上那么多吗?

生命是浩瀚的,是无限广的,是不可知的。你永远不知道你自己可以去到哪里。你此刻需要做的,就是放松。Just relax。

了解自己,是好的。但不是又在为自己另外贴上什么标签。只需要轻轻地,知道,“哦,我有情绪了。”然后就让它静静地过。

就像古儒吉常说的," Fear is just a fear. Don't think of "im fear of water..why?" ” 事情本来就是这样简单,因为那就是事情的本质。现代人的做法往往喜欢分析,分析后还要再判断,判断后又心生新烦恼....这样下去没完没了。

你所需要做的,就只是.......放松。That's it。

放松,放松你的身体,放松你的呼吸,放下你脑中所有的想法。

当然不是什么都不想。这是不可能的!因为念头的本质就是会不断地浮现。只需静静地让这些念头像浮云一样,随它去。也不去分析,也不需追思下去,也不需捉着它......

别理这些是不是因为你的原生家庭,你的潜意识,你的前世...你的什么的,那些都只不过是一些过去的印记。
Past is Past! 过去的,早就过去了,生命的发生是在现在!当下!
何必让那些过去跟自己过不去呢?!

你真的,只需要做的是......深吸口气,然后...呼气......放松!

你就是平静...你就是喜悦....你就是爱!!!
爱是你的本质,爱不是一种情绪!~ 古儒吉

Love,
Zooooker



当感到痛苦和焦虑时.....