bernie
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Total Posts
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503
- Joined: 11/22/2007
- Location: TX (transplanted New Yorker; world citizen)
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Status: online
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Integral Yoga
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2/24/2009 10:45 AM
( #1 )
Ideally, it's best to integrate & unify the heart & the mind w/ action; however, as in yoga (Skt, union) there are different paths to get to unitive consciousness - attaining the Divine - depending on your proclivity, chosen path. E.g., roughly speaking: heart (bhakti), mind (jnana), & physical (hatha, karma) - all of which, of course, are valid depending on one's preference or idiosyncrasy...
The whole course of our life is a striving for the realization of higher values. Values represent the riches of Being, its dynamic potentialities. Life springs from the depths of Being and presses forward towards the fulfillment of the various possibilities of Being. Thus whether we are aware of it or not, the whole movement of life is in a sense a process of yoga: It flows in union with the creative purpose of Being. It evolves in the direction of deepening awareness of that purpose. The more a person advances in life the deeper is his insight into the cosmic purpose of Being and its hidden possibilities.
The practice of yoga in the strict sense of the term is a resolute will to allow the power of Being to work more and more freely within us. It is a commitment to higher spiritual values. Ordinary life is a slow and meandering movement unconsciously determined by the cosmic power. Yoga is intelligent co-operation with that power in full measure. It is an acceleration of the tempo of life's process occasioned by a sort of Copernican revolution of the field of consciousness, i.e., by a transition from the egocentric to the cosmo-centric outlook... Each perspective brings to light a certain facet of Being. And each perspective has some value and importance for some people in certain circumstances.
(Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri, Integral Yoga: The Concept of Harmonious and Creative Living)
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lilsparrow
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Total Posts
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4187
- Joined: 9/15/2008
- Location: us
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Status: offline
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RE: Integral Yoga
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2/26/2009 7:31 AM
( #2 )
That is the goal of grateful living as well, Bernie,
isn't it?
So many pathways . . .
so little time.
Sometimes I am bombarded by options
and possible solutions.
Some years back
I 'cat sat' for a friend while she was away in Amsterdam.
Her cat wouldn't eat until she knew I wasn't going to leave
so I lay down on the living room floor.
As I waited for her to finish her supper
I looked around me,
at the total disorder and chaos of my dear friend's life.
Books were everywhere . . .
self help books,
philosophy books,
new age books . . .
it occurred to me that she was scattered . . .
giving a little of her time to many different pathways,
but full attention to none.
Then I realized
that there are many roads and pathways to God,
to Integral living, to Nirvana,
to Peace, Source, Goddess, Love . . .
and it is important to acknowledge and embrace all possiblities,
but devote ourselves to what speaks to us the most
because it is so easy to get lost in quantity.
I find that yoga helps to center me and make me more open to healing
of body, mind and spirit,
prepares me for 'the work',
and is 'the work' as well
with love . . .
sparrow
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