http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Logo_250X250.jpg http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Background_1024X576.jpg http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Banner_686X60.jpg http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Half-Banner_234X60.jpg http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Logo_250X250 http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Logo-Watermark_250X250.jpg http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Background_1024X576.jpg http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Half-Banner-ALT_234X60.jpg Bigthink http://www.bigthink.com/feed/rss/comment/idea/2156 Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:08:46 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.bigthink.com/faith-beliefs/2156 Jivamukti Yoga is an amazingly comprehensive style of yoga that is physically challenging and intellectually stimulating!!! It's called a yoga practice, not yoga perfection- because we are always trying to do our best. (I don't think Sharon alluded that you have to perfect Ahimsa) But doing our best, doesn't mean to pick and choose what is easy, or to always be making excuses like "I feel that eating meat is not-harming myself, and ahimsa means not-harming." The human heart knows that unnecessary killing is wrong. And that the least amount of harm we can cause, the better. Today there are many alternatives for those who love animal flesh. So, it's even easier to practice Ahimsa towards living sentient beings. Bigthink Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:41:03 +0100 http://www.bigthink.com/faith-beliefs/2156/#11149 http://www.bigthink.com/faith-beliefs/2156 Ahimsa, one of the 5 tenets of Jivamukti is a practice, a yoga practice. As we practice non-violence, we realize that we are always causing some amount of harm to other beings, to the environment,... That realization in itself is humbling. So we try harder. As we try harder, we realize that becoming vegeterian, vegan is one of the most peaceful ways to live harmoniously with others and the earth. That's what yoga is about, living in harmony with others until, as Sharon says "we no longer see others". Bigthink Tue, 11 Mar 2008 05:05:08 +0100 http://www.bigthink.com/faith-beliefs/2156/#11116 http://www.bigthink.com/faith-beliefs/2156 Dear Sharon, you have a beautiful radiance. On the issue of yamas/niyamas: I think that Patanjali did not intend that the eight aspects of his yoga be taken as STEPS to be mastered on the path to Unity, with samadhi being the final step; the word anga (Ashtanga Yoga) means not step but LIMB. Limbs do not grow sequentially, i.e., first the right leg, then the left, etc., but grow simultaneously and spontaneously as the body as a whole grows. Nor does a limb require special attention in order to grow; all that is necessary is to nourish the body as a whole. When Patanjali layed out the limbs of yoga, his intention, I believe, was not to set forth practices as such, but to describe what life is like in each of these areas when YOGA IS ESTABLISHED. Trying to practice ahimsa as a means of attaining Unity is like trying to grow a perfect limb in an unhealthy body--one is putting the cart before the horse. Not that we should not strive towards perfection in these areas while on the path, but real success in the yamas and niyamas requires taking our awareness to the field of Unity directly, establishing ourselves there first. In my thirty-eight years of yoga practice, the first few were wasted trying to grow limbs and to meditate without instruction from a genuinely enlightened master. Then I found that samadhi can be experienced straightaway through the simple practice of transcendental meditation, which brings the mind to Unity quite effortlessly. Coming out of samadhi into activity, I noticed from the very first week that every aspect of my life was growing simultaneously in an integrated manner. As Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who instructed me on Patanjali, told me: Water the root to enjoy the fruit. Bigthink Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:46:06 +0100 http://www.bigthink.com/faith-beliefs/2156/#4730