...........hello you guys...thought that i would keep you abreastof the coolest yogic thang...
this is from Master Erich Schiffman...a little talk
that he gave in ojai CA at the CRIB in october...i
went to his class the other day and was reminded of
it...so here it is...
hope it resonates...
peace out!So, thank you for being here. I’m excited to be here.
I love the Crib. And we’ve got the primo room. It’s
nice in here in the morning
Thank you for being here. What I’m thinking to do is
talk a little bit, is that okay? Are you sore, by the
way? Good sore. I want to talk a little bit for a few
minutes, then we’ll meditate together for a few
minutes, and then we’ll bend over for a few minutes. I
think the talking part is really essential, important.
It’s sort of why I got into yoga. Not so I could talk
about it, but I was interested in the philosophy. I
didn’t want to bend over particularly. I didn’t want
to exercise particularly. So I just want to get into a
couple fundamental ideas because if we get clear on
these fundamental, three ideas is what I’ve got in
mind, if we get clear on these three simple ideas
you’ll find that they transfer into everything. It’s
hard to come up with the simple, clear, fundamental
ideas. And to then talk about it in agreeable words.
You’ve got to do a lot of homework to make it as
simple as it actually is!
Okay, now if you’ve been around the yoga scene for a
while, and even if you haven’t, you’ve probably become
aware of how popular yoga has become, as evidenced by
this conference and others. I thought yoga was big in
the 70’s, and it was, but ever since then it’s just
been growing exponentially. It’s still just getting
more popular everyday. And this is a good thing, and I
wasn’t so sure at first it was a good thing. But, you
know, the more people on the planet doing yoga, the
better. It’s good for the person doing the yoga, it’s
good for them, and it’s good for others that they’re
doing yoga. You know what I mean? And what I’ve always
liked about my involvement with yoga, and with life
actually, is that the learning just doesn’t stop. It
just keeps going. It’s not like you learn yoga and
then you do it. Or that you learn everything there is
to know about life and then you live it. It’s sorta
like the whole process is about getting clearer and
clearer about what is yoga, really? What is life,
really? What’s going on, really?
Now there are a lot of different yoga styles. There
are many many teachers, more and more everyday, and
everyone has their own slightly different emphasis
point, which is cool. And again it’s evidenced in a
conference like this where people are saying slightly
different things. And it’s interesting. And as the
teachers learn, and as the teachers understanding
grows, they find that what they teach has got to morph
and change in order to stay congruent with what
they’re learning. And so gradually the cultural
understanding of what yoga is begins to spiral toward
greater clarity, coming from different emphasis
points.
Now, no matter what style you’re studying, and no
matter what style anyone else is teaching, and no
matter what the emphasis point is, there’s one simple
idea to just really be clear on. All of the practices
in yoga, all the exercises, all the breathings, all
the theory, all the philosophy, just like all the
stuff is aimed at one simple thing. The reason for
doing yoga is to have a clear experience of what yoga
means. The reason for doing yoga is to experience
yoga!
That’s a simple thought, and it’s almost too obvious.
But keep it in the forefront of your mind because as
you get more involved with the complexities of your
specific technique, it’s easy to overlook the fact
that what it’s really all about is understanding yoga.
Especially if someone else is doing something
different from you. It’s like, huh, who’s right? You
know?
Now the word yoga is a very interesting word and it
would be good to be clear on what it means or at least
how I’m using the word. The word yoga comes from the
Sanskrit root word yuj, y-u-j, which is similar to the
English word yoke. Not yolk, like egg yolk, but yoke
like yoking together, joining together, bringing
together. A yoke remember is the wooden frame that
holds two oxen together, so that the two oxen pull as
one. And so the word yoga is referencing the act of
joining together, as well as the increased strength
you’ll experience as a result of joining together—you
know, two oxen are stronger than one—as well as the
new experience of felt unity that you do experience
when you join, when you merge with.
Now the merging that’s being referred to in yoga is
what might be called the individual soul merging with
the universal Soul, the Oversoul. Small mind merging
with Big Mind.
And so the word yoga is talking about the unity of
Mind. It’s a statement that says “unity,” and it’s
also the whole body of various processes that help you
join with the feeling of unity, so you experience the
unity. So it means “union” and “joining.”
Now hang in here a little longer. What’s interesting
about this, and what you begin to discover, is that
the unity of Infinity… and often, words like unity and
infinity don’t convey a lot of meaning to people… they
make sense, though. The unity of Infinity is not the
result of smaller pieces joining together to make one
infinitely big piece. If you’ve got atoms, atoms can
join together and they make a new unit. They make a
molecule. And so if you’ve got two hydrogen atoms over
here, and you’ve got an oxygen atom over here, and you
get them near each other and you let them do their
thing, and they bbblloopp, they join… and they become
a bigger single unit, a water molecule. And if you’ve
got a water molecule over here and another water
molecule over here and you get them near each other
and you let them do their thing, and they bblloooppp,
they become a bigger single unit. And what I’m saying
is that the unity of Infinity is different than that.
It’s not the result of smaller pieces joining together
to make one huge piece. The unity of Infinity is the
pre-existing fact.
And so, what the yogi’s are talking about is that
when you join with the Infinity from which you
couldn’t actually be separate, when you join with
it—it will feel like you are joining with it—when you
join with That from which you could never actually be
separate, and you begin to experience your unity with
Infinity, with the Oneness of things, when you sense
into it even just a little bit, then, naturally
enough, you start feeling connected. You start feeling
not so at odds with life. You start feeling more on
the beam. And then suddenly life starts getting more
fun again, more exciting again, and you’ll find
yourself feeling more inspired, not so depressed, not
so dis-spirited. And then just the simple fact that
you’re still here on the planet—with a different point
of view—your simple presence will act as a positive
force which will make it more likely for everyone to
start grokking the fact of unity consciousness. And
this is so cool.
And so, the first big idea is the reason for the
practice is to experience yoga, the meaning of yoga.
Yoga means union, statement, as well as joining, all
the processes that help you realize the statement. And
then the third big idea is that the primary way to
experience unity consciousness is through meditation.
Meditation, therefore, is the main practice in yoga.
Meaning it’s the main thing that will help precipitate
the awareness of unity. It’s how you join with That
from which you couldn’t actually be separate. And so
the third idea is that meditation is how you join.
Joining is really essential to realizing the
fundamental already-existing unity.
Now the way I like to talk about meditation…
meditation isn’t just about sitting here like this…
that’s part of it. The way I like to talk about it is
that it means inner listening. You’re learning to
listen to the Infinite for guidance about what to do
or not do. And some of the time you sit quietly and
you get centered and still and you listen and you
merge and you experience Infinity. And some of the
time when you meditate—and, again, I’m using the word
meditate to mean inner listening—some of the time you
listen inwardly as you are doing the yoga poses. And
so as you learn to do yoga you’re actually learning
how to meditate in action. And at first as you are
doing the poses it’s all sort of mechanical. Tighten
here, rotate here, do this… and you’ve kind of got to
go through that stage in order to get the mechanics.
But more and more, instead of dictating your
alignment, you’re listening inwardly for how the
alignment wants to be. And so you’re channeling the
alignment, rather than forcing it on yourself. And
learning to do yoga is an easy context in which you
learn to listen and let it move through you.
And so some of the time you meditate sitting, some of
the time you meditate yog-ing, doing the yoga, but
most of the time you meditate—you listen inwardly for
guidance—all day long. That’s what you’re doing most
of the time. You’re being wherever you’re being and
you’re doing whatever you’re doing, and wherever you
be doing whatever you do—you know, just driving down
the road, going to Starbucks, just whatever the event
is—is the place to be listening for guidance about it.
Now the trick to inner listening, to getting into the
meditative hearing guidance state, involves learning
to get into a frame of mind wherein you are not
thinking quite so much, and instead actively listen.
You’ll find that when you actively listen there will
be less thinking going on in your mind, and when
there’s less thinking going on in your mind there’s
suddenly more space in there for insight to flow in,
for revelation to flow in, for the good answers to
flow in. And what you want are the good answers. And
so at a certain point it makes thinking, logical sense
to use your thinking to help you get into a place
where you’re not thinking quite so much, wherein
essentially you learn to shut up, so that you can
hear. It’s not that you shut up and just mentally
flat-line it. You know, where nothing happens. That’s
not the goal. The goal is to shut up so that you can
hear. So that you join with the Infinity and let it
channel through you as your experience.
And the idea is you do it during the day whenever you
have a decision to make, whenever you have a choice
about something. Having a choice about something,
having a decision to make, is like being at a fork in
the road. And having a choice, a decision, means that
you’re not as clear as you could be. If you were clear
about what to do at the fork in the road, if the
obvious thing to do were obvious, you wouldn’t really
be having a decision-choice moment. The fact that you
have a decision or a choice should alert you to the
fact that, wow, you know, I don’t have all the data I
need to make a good choice… and therefore you need a
bigger perspective than the one you are currently
coming from.
And so you ask for guidance… and just the coolest
thing is that once you start doing this, wow, you do
feel responses about what to do or not do. And then
your job becomes that of daring to do as the inner
feeling is guiding you to do, whether you can explain
it to yourself or not.
Okay, now at home I have a big hard drive on my
computer, and I have numerous external hard drives.
I’ve got about 3,000 gigabytes of hard drive. Do you
know how much that is?
Q: Not enough.
Erich: It’s not enough! But it’s a shitload. In fact,
I’m planning on getting more. But 3,000 is almost
obscene. You know, 1 gigabyte is a lot. But if you’re
doing video or audio you need a lot. I wouldn’t have
it otherwise. But no matter how big your hard drive
is, even if it’s a really big hard drive, no matter
how big it is it can only hold so much information.
You know, how much information it can hold is limited.
And so if you are basing all your decisions and your
choices on the necessarily limited amount of
information in your hard drive, then the choices and
decisions you’ll make are not going to be as good as
they could be. They’ll probably be okay, but you’ll be
drawing on a limited amount of information. And so the
idea is to use your mind, to use your PC, your puny
consciousness, to tune in to the internet of Mind. You
use your mind to tune in to the internet of Mind and
suddenly you’ll have access to the whole schlaboodle.
Just the phrase “internet of Mind,” whenever I say
that or think that, suddenly it’s like phwooomp! It
feels like a huge expansion. And everyone gets it
pretty much. It’s like, wow, yes, internet, huge,
connected. And the thing is you’re already connected
to the internet of Infinite Mind. It’s not like you’ve
got to build the connection, or build the internet.
It’s built-in. It’s the way it is. It’s the way it’s
always been.
And so, yoga is about learning to use your mind to
connect with the internet of Mind, rather than drawing
on a necessarily limited—even though it’s big—hard
drive. It’s like from now on whenever you have a
decision to make, google the internet! Become still.
Let it download. And then do as you are guided to do.
It’s so cool, and it’s such a cool analogy, and it’s
simple, and I think it’s accurate. And more important
I think it’s true. And the more of us that start doing
it, like when cell phones came out, at first there
were one or two, but then suddenly you know a good
thing… people will connect into this fast once it
really starts registering with people.
And so like to the best of your ability, connect with
the internet of Mind. Encourage your friends to
connect with the internet of Mind. Encourage your kids
to dare to do as their deepest feelings guide them to
do. Because as more and more people start doing it,
then there will be more and more people who will be
operating out of unity consciousness, and then
everyone’s experience will begin to evidence that.
Rather than the whole world looking like a scary
fucked up place because everyone is scared.
If you’re feeling at odds with life, you’re going to
feel defensive and fearful and you’ll lash out
stupidly. And other people will go, hey, whoa dude,
what are you doing? And a lot of them will lash back.
And so it takes a few yogi’s, and we are the current
yogi’s on the planet, you know… it takes a few yogi’s
to do it for those who can’t. And it’s sorta like now
is the time for the current yogi’s on the planet to
really no longer just sorta think about it, but like
really meditate to the best of your ability. Some of
the time sit down, some of the time gyrate, most of
the time just go through your life but connecting. Do
it now before the world gets too wacko. Do it now so
the world doesn’t need to get any more wacko than it
already is. Mentally encourage Mr. North Korea to dare
to do as his deepest feelings guide him to do.
Mentally encourage Mr. Bush to, yeah, dare to do as
your deepest feelings guide you to do. Knowing that,
wow, they are part of the internet and if they are
plugging in then, yeah, they will work in concert.
And so try to be alert in your mind to not cut out
certain people or groups, “Oh, you’re not part of the
internet. You’re not part of the Infinity.” If that is
what you are decreeing with your mind, then with all
the power of your infinite mind it causes things to
spin wacko. And we’ve had enough wacko.
Yoga has been on the planet for thousands of years,
and I think it is finally at the reaping its fruit
stage, where the thousands of years of work is finally
beginning to really pay off. And we’re the ones to
finally flick it into completion. To just, finally,
click into the obviousness of, “Oh yeah, like yeah,
one mind, unity, one people.” And the way that it will
become real for you is if you join with it through
meditation. You practice listening for guidance.
The problem is isolation. The solution is joining.
The subsequent experience is unity. But the joining
doesn’t establish the unity, the joining just helps
you realize the already existing fact.
So cool! So cool. And so just pretty simple. And
exciting, I think. It’s so life affirming.
