Guest guest Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 " The whole world may give you support....but you if your own mind does not support you, you will not be in a position to do anything in life. Your own mind cannot be controlled and guided and give you the support until it is brought to a discipline. That word which brings a mind to a discipline to support you is called " Mantra " . Man-Tra...to bring discipline to the mind. That is why we do Japa (Repitition of Mantra/Bani). Japa creates the heat. That is called Tapa; Tapa, that heat burns the karma. Out of the karma grows the kindness and it becomes Dharma. Out of that it grows the compassion. That is called " Sidhi " , that is called " power " . From that comes the word " Sadhu " who has controlled himself through the all aspect of life and that is what we call " sadhana " . Which you do not normally want to go. How many of you are doing regular sadhana? " - SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa (June 25 1987 Summer Solstice) Gurumustuk Singh Khalsa SikhNet.com 1A Ram Das Guru Pl. Española, NM. 87532 - USA T : (505) 629 4697 F : (505) 753 0537 E-mail : gmustuk Web: http://www.sikhnet.com Blog: http://www.mrsikhnet.com Get news on Sikhism and the SikhNet web site Sign up at http://www.sikhnet.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 I agree with this quote, I know that meditation helps tremendously, I feel more physically healthy even after a simple half hour meditation of just sitting there and chanting. Also, our bodies tend to revolt against discipline, it really is an accomplishment to develop a routine and for it to become a part of us where we need it or really want it. That said, I do question if in this YB quote that Yogi Bhajan meant sadhana in the dogmatic sense, ie. a few hours before dawn. I think that as yogis, we could accomplish a stronger sadhada (sadhana as in a regular spiritual practice) success rate, if we were more gentle with ourselves and met at more realistic hours in the day to come together and " clean out " . Of course, practice before we start the day is ideal, but life is too short to be doing things that we don't enjoy, who here can really get to bed early enough to rise hours before dawn and then still have a full day of work or school? What about extracurricular activities after work/school? How can we truly accomplish this strict form of sadhana and still live our lives and maintain our friendships and relationships? I question if there is an epidemic of yogis wandering around feeling like failures because they don't measure up to Yogi Bhajan's guidelines. There is no need to feel guilty for not rising at 3 am to practice for nearly 3 hours. Does yoga not teach us to release ourselves of this guilt and fear? How can we feel successful or even want to keep up, when in this new age where old religious systems are crumbling we still feel this guilt that is a hallmark of these institutions, if we don't meditate as exactly prescribed by scripture? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 10, 2009 Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 Sat Nam Carly, You make a lot of excuses--your post is full of them. Thinking about doing sadhana in the sweet Amrit Vela seems hard. Simply do it. You will have more energy for everything else and need less sleep. And all your affairs will be covered, blessed. Blessings going into, through and resulting. It comes from your commitment, your will, your Soul. One who follows the mind is a manmukh. One who follows the dictates of the Guru is a Gurmukh; their darkness is dispelled. Loving Blessings on your journey, SS Guru Prem Kaur Khalsa http//:www.pathoflifetolight.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 11, 2009 Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 Kundalini-Yoga , Guruprem Kaur <guruprem wrote: > > Sat Nam Carly, > You make a lot of excuses--your post is full of them. > Thinking about doing sadhana in the sweet Amrit Vela seems hard. > Simply do it. You will have more energy for everything else and need > less sleep. And all your affairs will be covered, blessed. > > Blessings going into, through and resulting. It comes from your > commitment, your > will, your Soul. One who follows the mind is a manmukh. One who follows > the dictates of the Guru is a Gurmukh; their darkness is dispelled. > > Loving Blessings on your journey, > SS Guru Prem Kaur Khalsa > http//:www.pathoflifetolight.com > I find it interesting that to question something to you means making excuses. I don't want to do early morning sadhana everyday. I could tell you why, but you'll just say that I'm copping out, which I consider to be unfortunate, but to some people I guess things are simply black and white. You think I'm making excuses, but I question your state of fear and enlightenment by your post to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 11, 2009 Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 Sat Nam Carly, My post about your making excuses and listening to your mind dictates rather than the Guru's was based on the fact that Yogi Bhajan's teachings on doing a daily sadhana in the Amrit Vela come directly from the Siri Guru Granth Sahib. The Siri Guru Granth Sahib is unchanging. It doesn't go to the bathroom or care if you bow to it or not. It just is. You can accept it or not. When a Hukam or random reading is taken from it, the Siri Guru Granth Sahib replies very clearly to given situations, challenging us to go beyond our limitations and mirroring our evasive, argumentative and questioning tactics back to us for what they are. Today's Hukam from the Golden Temple of Amritsar to the world sangat is an example. We are all in it, mirrored, doing what we do, one way or the other: (Page 734-11) /Soohee, Fourth Mehl:/ /That mortal, with whom the Lord is pleased, repeats the Glorious Praises of the Lord; he alone is a devotee, and he alone is approved./ / How can his glory be described? Within his heart, the Primal Lord, the Lord God, abides. ||1|| Sing the Glorious Praises of the Lord of the Universe; focus your meditation on the True Guru. ||1||Pause|| He is the True Guru - service to the True Guru is fruitful and rewarding. By this service, the greatest treasure is obtained. The faithless cynics in their love of duality and sensual desires, harbor foul-smelling urges. They are totally useless and ignorant. ||2|| One who has faith - his singing is approved. He is honored in the Court of the Lord. Those who lack faith may close their eyes, hypocritically pretending and faking devotion, but their false pretenses shall soon wear off. ||3||/ / My soul and body are totally Yours, Lord; You are the Inner-knower, the Searcher of hearts, my Primal Lord God. / /So speaks servant Nanak, the slave of Your slaves; as You make me speak, so do I speak. ||4||4||11|| / Loving Blessings, SS Guru Prem Kaur/ / Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 11, 2009 Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 Kundalini-Yoga , "carlyblackwell" <carlyblackwell wrote:Sat Nam, Carly, Here are some thoughts re your post, based on personal experience. I hope you hear them as food for your thought process, and not as condemning or judging, because that's not at all where I'm coming from. > That said, I do question if in this YB quote that Yogi Bhajan meant> sadhana in the dogmatic sense, ie. a few hours before dawn. I think> that as yogis, we could accomplish a stronger sadhada (sadhana as in a> regular spiritual practice) success rate, if we were more gentle with> ourselves and met at more realistic hours in the day to come together> and "clean out". I think that we all think at some time or another that it would be great if we could accomplish the same results doing sadhana at 10 am that we can doing it at 4 am. I also think that if that were true, that's what Yogi Bhajan and many other teachers from many other yoga traditions would have taught. Why do the yoga masters emphasize so consistently the importance of practice before sunrise? Could it be because it does make a difference? We may be able to accomplish a stronger sadhana if we practiced later -- if by "stronger" you mean "more consistent". But results, effects, are stronger when sadhana is practiced early. Millions of people have verified this in their own lives. Is it wisdom for you or me to think we will be the exception? You can experiment with this to a certain extent in your own life: 40 days of practice at 4 am; 40 days of practice at a later time. It's hard to adjust for the variables of different life circumstances and demands during the two periods, but internally you can still evaluate the results. > Of course, practice before we start the day is ideal, but life is too> short to be doing things that we don't enjoy, Are you saying that you don't enjoy sadhana? That you're giving up doing what you like to doin order to do something you really don't enjoy doing -- sadhana? Maybe this bears examining. If I didn't enjoy sadhana on some level, then I too would find it difficult to get up early consistently to do it, and I wouldn't want to sacrifice "more enjoyable" activities to do it. >who here can really get> to bed early enough to rise hours before dawn and then still have a> full day of work or school? I would venture to say that many people in this group manage this. It may not be easy to implement at first; it may involve a gradual re-ordering of your lifestyle and priorities; it may not happen without some discomfort -- but it can be done, and is being done, by lots of folks. >What about extracurricular activities> after work/school? How can we truly accomplish this strict form of> sadhana and still live our lives and maintain our friendships and> relationships? I work, teach yoga, am married, maintain a household, connect regularly with friends, do seva, exercise regularly, am always studying something, and last night made one of my frequent trips to the local club to dance to live zydeco music. I am not a high-energy person by nature. Is it too simplistic to say that before I started practicing sadhana regularly I could not have kept up enthusiastically with all of these activities in my life? > I question if there is an epidemic of yogis wandering around feeling> like failures because they don't measure up to Yogi Bhajan's> guidelines. There is no need to feel guilty for not rising at 3 am to> practice for nearly 3 hours. If anyone feels like a failure because they "don't measure up", is that the fault of "Yogi Bhajan's guidelines"? There is no need to feel guilty for -- anything. Period. If we feel guilty for not doing something, it's either because we really need to be doing it and we're not, or we really don't need to be doing it, and we haven't completely accepted that. Either way, it's not the activity that causes the guilt, it's our position in relation to it. If you truly believe that for yourself, at this time and in this space, doing sadhana at a later time would be more beneficial, then DO that! And learn to claim that as your true path, right now, without feeling defensive or a need to explain and apologize. We ALL have to wrestle with that lesson when we're not measuring up to an "ideal", any ideal. What is truly best for each of us at any moment in time may not be the ideal held up to us in the yogic teachings. It takes honest examination to see that and courage to say that. But that doesn't diminish the yogic ideal. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't let it rest lightly somewhere in our consciousness as what we're moving toward when we are able. When this period of taking a break ends. When this physical challenge ends. When the demands of work ease up. When we find a daily practice that we truly enjoy. When -- whatever. The challenge is to learn to hold onto both truths at the same time. Yes, early morning sadhana is the best -- no, I'm not there right now and that's okay. Grasping onto the one without acknowledging that each of us is at a different place in our journey breeds fanaticism and judgment. Insisting on staying in the other when it's time is past leads to laziness and a watering down of spiritual experience and growth. >Does yoga not teach us to release> ourselves of this guilt and fear? How can we feel successful or even> want to keep up, when in this new age where old religious systems are> crumbling we still feel this guilt that is a hallmark of these> institutions, if we don't meditate as exactly prescribed by scripture? Old religious systems may be crumbling, along with the guilt associated with them, but that has nothing to do with yogic truth and practicing accordingly. This is an issue well worth your continued investigation, so don't close off in the face of what you perceive as others' misunderstanding and judgment. Nirvair Kaur Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 11, 2009 Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 Dear Carly, I do my KY sadhana at night, before bed. I used to feel guilty that I wasn't practicing in the early a.m. hours, but since I teach at night, it was easier for me to commit to practicing after a bath, before bed. It is working really well for me. If you can work a consistent time to practice into your daily routine and work schedule, I think you will find you still receive great benefits. I claan my cottage and walk my dogs every morning, which also now feels like part of my sadhana. It's all a state of mind. You don't have to be perfect. Showing up is most of it. Satpal Kaur > > > I find it interesting that to question something to you means making > excuses. I don't want to do early morning sadhana everyday. I could > tell you why, but you'll just say that I'm copping out, which I > consider to be unfortunate, but to some people I guess things are > simply black and white. You think I'm making excuses, but I question > your state of fear and enlightenment by your post to me. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 Carly I personally found this youtube post of Guruka Singh called Guilt vs Self Discipline very helpful and reassuring: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=- NbZAmVwwAQ & feature=PlayList & p=EF9085E9C47F1538 & index=37 Love Vladka Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 Thank you, but the link doesn't work, perhaps because you're from a UK server? At any rate, I'm sure that all of us here would like to improve our discipline, mine is for my art in particular. I don't believe that people who wake up early are more disciplined than people who practice at later times in the day, they simply have schedules/life styles that allow them to go to bed more early and thus rise more early. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 Guilt or not guilt... Try or don't try... Serve or don't serve. Some people simply like doing their Sadhana early... Like a breakfast for the mind body and soul. And others do it when they can. Everyone's practice is personal... And where EVER people are on the path of progress †" or regress †" on their Sadhana is just exactly right for who they are, and where they are in their life, at that time in their life. Our experiences help us learn that without judgments, we open ourselves to more possibilities for learning... and so therefore we learn from our own experience. 2.5 hours (1/10th of the day - just like tithing) is what we give to the Guru and God so that we receive their blessings for the remainder of the day. What's not to enjoy about serving and giving? Truly Yours, Fateh Singh (Filip) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 Sat Nam! Try this link, Carly: http://tinyurl.com/a2amsx ......G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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