You already are.

“Education then is the art of doing this very thing, this turning around, the knowledge of how the soul can most easily and most effectively be turned around; it is not the art of putting the capacity of sight into the soul; the soul posses that already but it is not turned the right way or looking where it should. This is what education has to deal with”.   

– Plato, The Repbulic 

Everything you want to know, everything you want to be, you already are…

... You just need to find it! 

Integration: Lust or Love?

“The deepest state within us is always one of integration”

-       A.G Mohan

Integration. It is what the whole practice of Yoga is working us towards.  “Integration” is already in us, but a distracted mind does not notice it.

When the mind is “un-integrated” it is un-healthy, confused, and judgmental- leading to mistakes and distractions. An “integrated” mind is balanced and can navigate the path of peace, joy, and freedom.

This path is different for everyone because we all perceive the world differently. Therefore, you are the only one who can integrate yourself, and YOU must do the work.

The physical practice of yoga clears the dust from the mind by building strength and flexibility in the body. When you can control they body you can control the mind.

Balance and integration can come from many other places as well. It is your environment, habits, senses, breath, personal disciplines, diet, social interactions, and health. (yamas and niyamas) Looking at all aspects of your life there are many distractions to be had.

It’s a process of Learning to Know yourSelf. Knowing yourSelf allows you to know your true wants, needs, and desires. 

As special yoga teacher from my past recently reminded me: integration “… lies at the deepest root of love that is so often disguised as something that “looks” very different from love”.  (thank you Paula!)

An integrated mind will not be swayed by the distractions it is faced with because it knows itSelf and most importantly LOVES itSelf.

Don’t mistake LUST for LOVE. 

Satisfaction Guaranteed

 When the tranquil mind achieves purity equal to that of the Self, there is Absoluteness.

-YS 3.56

Set your goals high. There is something great waiting for all of us; we just have to find it. It is easy to be distracted by the small things on the path to the big goal, since they often disguise themselves as what you are looking for. With a pure (yogic) mind, we can see through the illusions. When the mind itself is distracted, the illusions appear real.

Do not settle. Keep going until you are totally satisfied.  

When You Can Endure

When

The words stop

And you can endure the silence

That reveals your heart’s

Pain

Of emptiness

Or that great wrenching-sweet longing,

That is the time to try and listen

To what the Beloved’s

Eyes

Most want

To

Say.

-Hafiz 

The Radiance Sutras: Find a Pulse*~

What is this mysterious awareness shimmering 

everywhere within it?

What are these instinctive energies

that undulate through our bodies, 

moving us into action?

And this “matter” out of which our forms are made -

What are these dancing particles of condensed radiance, 

Are they an illusionist's projection?

What is this power we call Life, 

appearing as the play of flesh and breath?

How may I know this mystery and enter it more deeply?

Deep inside the human heart live two lovers….

Goddess/Shakti (Creative Power of The Universe) & God/Shiva (Consciousness That Permeates Everywhere). There they have a coversation about connecting with sacred energies of life through full body spirituality, being at home in the universe, how to accept every breath, sensual experience, and emotion.

This conversation is written in a texted called The Radiance Sutras from the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra

A “tantra” is a manual of practices. This tantra is a set of mediation instructions given as a conversation between two lovers.

The One Who is at Play Everywhere said,

There is a place in the heart where everything meets.
Go there if you want to find me.
Mind, senses, soul, eternity, all are there.
Are you there?

Enter the bowl of vastness that is the heart.
Give yourself to it with total abandon.

Quiet ecstasy is there -
and a steady, regal sense of resting in a perfect spot.

Once you know the way 
the nature of attention will call you 
to return, again and again,
and be saturated with knowing, 
“I belong here, I am at home here.”

Answer that call.

You can read The Radiance Sutras here:
http://www.lorinroche.com/radiancesutras/radiance/sutras1992.html

a few more excerpts that have been inspiring me lately….

The life essence carries on its play 
through the pulsing rhythm 
of outward and inward movement.
This is the ceaseless throb, the rhythm of life - 
terrifying in its eternity, exquisite in its constancy.

Breath flows in, then surrenders to flow out again.

In this moment, drink eternity.

Breath flows out, emptying, emptying, 

Offering itself to infinity.

Cherishing these moments,

Mind dissolves into heart,

Heart dissolves into space,

Body becomes a shimmering field

Pulsating between emptiness and fullness.. 

The emptiness of space permeates the body 
and all directions simultaneously. 
Space is always there, 
already there before your noticing of it. 
What we call space is a presence that is a more solid foundation than the firmest granite. 

Space is permission to exist and worlds within which to express.

Without thinking about it, 
without forming mental images of it,
rest in this vast expanse
and become friends with infinity.

If you can tolerate the nothingness,

the ecstatic energy of that emptiness will surge 

through you and carry you

into the world beyond all thought. 

Consider vast spaciousness as permeating 
above your head, below your tailbone,
and within your heart simultaneously.
In this, find complete freedom to exist.

Forget all of your ideas about the body -

it's this way and it's that way.

And just be with any area of it,

this present body

as permeated with limitless space.

Drenched in freedom.