This is yoga as a way of life and doesn't oppose any other yoga. It is a way of understanding life differently which cultivates a different relationship with life.
Your relationship with your experience is your interpretation of it. This can cause suffering when an expectation is fed that experience should result in true eternal happiness.
Non-Duality allows us to become aware of the misinterpretation
Yoga (asana) | Non-Duality |
Way of life | Understanding of life |
Experience (constant change from one posture to the next) | Experiencer (unchanged and untouched perceiving) |
Purify, align & control the experience of object (body & mind) | Discriminates between the knower and known |
Adjustments depend on capacity & quality of movement. Physical alignment and flexibility are important. | Adjustments depend on where you are mentally. For the realization of that which witnesses the experience. No body adjustments are needed. |
Pauses the parade and witnesses the stillness. Directs the awareness inward. | Witnesses the parade as it is without stopping. (only a shift in point of perspective - seer vs seen) |
Non-Dual Pranic Yoga combines asana and non-duality into experience and awareness practices. It incorporates purification but also brings forward the importance of non-doing (pure being).
When we practice yoga or any other spiritual practice, it is really easy to get caught up in "the doing" of the practice. We quickly forget that the practice itself is creating space for the "non-doing" to happen effortlessly. The whole purpose of the practice is for the parvashta or after poise bliss. So many people skip this part or are not even aware that this is the most important purpose of the practice.
Yoga is normally taught to empower the individual or to spread a sense of enjoyment and there are lots of interested individuals lining up for that. There is nothing wrong with this, so don't misunderstand me. I would just like to point out that there is a major opportunity missed when only practicing for those reasons. When yoga is taught for the ultimate purpose of Self-Realization, which is the supreme goal for humanity, then no one seems to be interested anymore.
People would rather sign up for something they like hearing rather than the uncomfortable truth that will actually help them the most.
Isn't that funny?
Even when practicing yoga (which includes breath work) for the ultimate purpose of Self-Realization, you still get to enjoy the empowerment, strength, peace, joy, enoughness, etc. but you don't get trapped in the side effects or limit the experience to only that.
Very few people have a genuine desire to realize the truth. Most will knowingly or unknowingly rather practice to simply renovate their mental prison.
Are you renovating your prison or actually freeing yourself from it?
If you are obsessed with the content of fixing, changing, improving then you are merely renovating your prison cell. To be free, you have to be willing to realize the misunderstanding that the content and phenomena are ephemeral in nature. What you truly are, is consistent and more real and true than that which is perceived and experienced.
There is something more real than reflected consciousness, and that is consciousness itself. Just like you see a reflection of your face in the mirror, it is not your real face. Why do you see it? Because you have a real face. This is known even without ever seeing it directly. You can also see it because of the mirror's ability to reflect your face.
Practice cleans the mirror so you may get an undistorted reflection and also bask in the wholesome stillness of knowing what you truly are. It is not to decorate the mirror. You don't put makeup on the mirror, do you? Realize the mirror, and be done with it.
Even fewer have the patience and sincerity to awaken this discernment. A nomadic pursuit is merely an ego trick to keep you in the realm of doing and searching because it somehow knows of its own limitations and how truth surpasses it.
So we practice surrendering into parvashta state. Mental habits, beliefs, and constructs make it difficult to just go there directly. As I am sure you can verify for yourself.
With the foundation in Non-Duality and the true purpose of practice, the Supreme Self is honored and realized. In this way, full potential is embraced and the practice is not limited in any way. In this way, the practice can offer exactly what is needed even if it is outside of perceptual awareness.
It is useful to mention here when I say yoga, I refer to yoga in its entirety. Meaning asana, pranayama, jnana, bhakti, raja and karma. When asana (postures) are practiced it is helpful to remember that you are not the doer of yoga but more so the observer of yoga being done. The relationship between the body, breath, and postures (asana) are playing.
Never do we sacrifice the body for the glory of the posture while neglecting the breath. Instead, it is the breath that invites the posture into the consciousness of the body.
Having physical alignment points are helpful, but it is the breath that does the adjustment (if allowed) as it threads the posture deeper into the body's awareness. Thus the posture is aligned and adjusted with the breath awareness instead of the muscles. This is a very different experience. It does not mean the muscles are not activating or moving, it simply suggests that it originates from the breath and the mind is only the translator. Else the mind and the ego become the leader of demand. The body always accepts suggestions, but if the ego and mind are demanding the body from desire and expectation the body suffers, and little to no benefit can come from it.
The breath is formless, subtle, generous, without agenda, and ALWAYS present. So using the breath (prana) as the alignment conductor is so powerful yet super subtle at the same time. The breath hacks the life force or prana directly. Prana is the subtle energy form of breath. It can penetrate into places not big enough for mental awareness to fit. Mind is the gross energy of the breath.
So instead of directing a movement or posture alignment from the mind, doing so from the breath is more subtle, but also avoids over adjustment which very often leads to bad posture and overextension habits in yoga and injuries normally follow.
It could even be taken a step further by using the pure prana energy as the object of concentration instead of air which consists of the breath. Performing a practice directly with prana energy, you are prone to activate kundalini energy directly and exponentially.
To explain this in an easy-to-understand way, when you inhale the lungs expand as air flows in and moves the body in a natural way as it comes in contact with it. The breath is not just limited to the lungs (lungs are only the 1st point of contact). Where the prana flows up the spine on an inhale. When you exhale the lungs excrete the air and with the breath leaving the body, the body recoils back with a reaction of movements. The prana travels down the spine when this happens.
This is very reassuring when following an online yoga class with me because a lot of people end up hurting themselves due to misalignment or over-adjusting.
This yoga is not the quick fix $10 Aspirin you buy at Walmart to dissolve your headache side effects. This is the less chosen way of doing genuine introspection, discovering misaligned priorities, overthinking habits, noticing dehydration of the body, and then readjusting from there with an authentic understanding and approach.
Interested in doing real yoga with me?
Let me know by sending me an email, private message, or leaving a comment. Don't hesitate to share any questions or perceptions. I am listening.
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