What would your life look like if every happening, every person who passed and situation that emerged, was welcomed as the intelligence of Life? What if you could ride the waves of existence, without being thrown perpetually off balance? Samādhi is thi …
Svādhyāya, literally means one’s own study, Self-study, or “to focus upon the Supreme Self in all circumstances without any distraction”. It is Patanjali’s fourth Niyama and the Niyama’s are ‘the Do’s’ and the second step of his eight limbed system. Al …
Many years ago, I took the decision to go on a pilgrimage. The path was very long, all by foot, and I had very few things at my disposal. I remember every morning when I woke up, my mind gave me a thousand reasons to go home: the path was too hard, the …
“Unparalleled happiness”… Think about it for a moment; a happiness so great that it surpasses all the happiness you have ever felt. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Could such a thing ever be experienced within the realms of human life? Mostly when we feel …
Yoga is a contemplative practice. We use different ideas and concepts to move towards a greater truth. Shaucha (cleanliness) is the first of the Niyamas (observances) to appear in Master Patanjali’s compilation of the Yoga Sutra. To formulate an accura …
Aparigraha means non-acceptance of gifts, non-hoarding, being free from greed, being free from rigidity of thoughts and free from clinging to paradigms and opinions. In a positive sense, grasping is replaced with the practice of generosity, gratitude, …
In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali gives us five recommendations, called yamas, for how we should treat others if we want to attain liberation. The fourth yama is brahmacharya, which means “to respect the creative power of sex and not abuse it by manipulatin …
As one of the five Yamas, Patanjali presents the practice of non-stealing as a way to be able to see the preciousness in everything. The word ratna, which means jewel, indicates prosperity. It appears when we stop taking things that do not belong to us …
In order to develop unwavering discriminating knowledge (vivekakhyāteḥ) between the seer and the object of seeing or Puruṣa and Prakṛti, master Patañjali states that it is essential to purify the mind. It is by practicing the eight limbs of Yoga that t …
Ahiṃsā is a practice that leads to enlightenment, a state of consciousness said to be beyond words. However words and phrases such as ‘spacious,’ ‘illuminated,’ ‘truth bearing,’ ‘non-identification with one’s mental whirlings,’ and/or ‘the eighth limb- …
Yoga means “union with the Divine.” This union with Bhagavan cannot be attained through effort alone—it occurs only through God’s grace. All that exists is God, and all exists because of God. In an absolute sense, nothing is separate from Bhagavan. All …
What determines the result of any action in life is the Intention that lies behind it. Intention can be defined as something that you want or plan to do, in other words an aim that has a goal. To do something intentionally means to do something on purp …