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"Cats are Great Teachers! They love to be fondled, but not by anyone." |
Try to be as smart as you can be and do not try to please yourself out of it to become an underling. For underlings are not always allowed a fair way up, nor are many subordinates in business life either.
Think about what is Good Yoga by looking at cats. If handed-over doctrines conflict with liberal cat living, drop them and maybe you can also remedy mistakes you have done before. Think "Hats off for the pussycats."
There are many and at times conflicting teachings as to what constitutes fit yoga. Some traditions are know to say no to your sex life, if any, others fall by it, and some have the good look to do much as cats, that is, preserve an astounding degree of inner independence to favour all right living. Less is less sensible in the long run.
If you train your skills of observation and relax a little off the hustle and bustle, you may find that cats are great teachers, and they hardly pose as teachers either except when they train their kittens. There is a lesson involved here.
In common yoga training that links up to Patanjali Yoga Sutras instructions, the things to do and adhere to are said to be:
- Outer purity;
- Contentment (Internal purity);
- Following what the guru says (Tapah)
- Perceiving and tuning in to the sound of [nadis, i.e.] Omkar(a). [It's the
Aum-sound]. (This step is called svadhyaaya);
- Pure devotion and remembrance of Ishvar.
That is how Lahiri Mahasaya saw fit in accordance with a
certain verse of an ancient "primer" on yoga. [Patanjali's Yoga Sutras 2:32]
Let there be room for new comments:
- Can you do kriya with hands, face, and mouth unclean? Yes. Some bacteria are likely to be there after you wash yourself with soap anyway . . . A good point is that dirt that makes you uncomfortable, may be removed, another is that washing oneself does not have to be overdone.
- It could be interesting to consider whether you have a right to remain
content (no. 2) while you and your family drifts downhill due to the insincerity of
others. At least, do not let inner contentment (Skr. saucha) hinder coping well.
- Also, if what a certain guru says is untrue or brings on a life fare that hardly
anyone may adjust to any longer, following that one is too foolish, and may become marring as well. There are certain gurus one had better take leave of.
- The secret medley of shrieks and muffled sounds you should hear if you attune yourself consistency by a yoga method, could be great help. But you have to know how to train yourself in it. There are yoga methods for doing these things- of listening for vessel sounds (nadis are vessels of life force swirling about in one's body and those of others). The same issue is covered in yoga teachings of Tibet too.
- Devotion directed outwards can be good for a while, but it is also easy to get fooled by non-pure guys through pure, devotional admiration and submission. A guy's devotion errs if it is no help to him or her, hinders proper development through Eriksonian life stages and the like. Devotion is of id (libidous urges), and needs to be taken care of by rational instructions and handling, or many lives may falter and fall. Devotion may lead to overstretching outwardly too, which may go against the drift of good yoga. It takes your attention inward. One is to drop fixations in doing it. One of the Upanishads (an old instructional book from
"the Indo-Aryan era") purports that he who worships the god in someone else, is like a
housedog. Implied: There could be better things to do.
The essence of Ishvar
(alias God to some) is inner, subtle light that floods you. To remember the light of
yesterday is seldom as good as experiencing today full well - yet there could be
situations or conditions where much remembrance would be okay as well. Much depends.
We should see there is a need for good "rules of the thumb" with some margins for
adjustments. We also need to think over that being careful like a cat with whiskers in approaching
teachings and teachers of yoga can be a good help. Being very careful in choosing a yoga teacher is part of the ancient yogi heritage.
To remain judicious can bulwark against becoming nuts through bossy or over-bossy
slogans.

Taking Care of Cat Living
Kriya Yoga is a system of physical and mental methods aimed at attaining Yoga as
defined in many written works (books). The system taught by Lahiri Baba (Lahiri Mahasaya)
and down through his disciples is also termed just kriya. It is generally said to be
taught in conformity with many basic conceptions laid down in such as Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and the Laws of
Manu, but that would necessarily depend on interpretations.
Kriya Yoga may also be applied as a training system free from dogmas. Its main
value lies in practice, it is pointed out.
Various organisations (or churches) teach basic yoga techniques, and some ends:
- Common hatha yoga postures may improve help if carefully done for a while (several weeks and months, and further), as medical science has shown. There are some additional good poses, movements and holdings (mudras) too.
- Mantra meditation There are guidelines to adjust to and observe for far better results: [LINK]
- Om technique - listening in to inner (nadi) sounds. It may take time before
you hear things. Tibetans teach how to "plug one's ears" by shutting the ear somehow for
as long as you can handle it. You use some fingers, and the particulars of the methods are
not divulged here. Then there are various nadi ("energy vessel") sounds to
focus on, and a sound medley called variously, including Pranava and OM too. Some basic features have been suggested briefly through this.
- What is called kriya yoga by many, is
panting slowly, delicately, almost inaudibly. The basic kriya is a pranayama method in Sanskrit. Different organisations give different total paks, call the steps or levels by different names, and it helps some to know these things. The Indian training was trying, and very time-consuming. The more lax regime of such as Yogananda and his authoritarian fellowship, is said to boost the effects by twelve times (or 144 times) by simplifed methods, less work - and many persons go away disappointed and feel humiliated.
To learn something like kriya yoga one has to be initiated for it, that is, giving away vital human rights. There are cult pledges to ensure deep submissiveness too, as demonstrated in the guru pledge of Paramahansa Yogananda and SRF. [LINK]
Kriya Transmissions
 | | The best is still not to get
outsmarted. |
One is supposed to think carefully over the
conditions and requirements and possible changes and regulations of life-style before one
commits oneself. Accept that "THEY TAKE YOUR FREEDOM;" that would be good. It is just as important to preserve your human rights as much else, especially discordant messages and Hades.
The tough thing to do may be to wait and make no further plans to find a Great Helper -
Interpreting in advance some major signals that kriya teachers send out, could pay very well. It is up to you. Do you think authoritarian submissiveness is the thing for you? Why not seek a doctor first?
ONCE several men were crossing the Ganges in a boat. One of them, a pandit, was
making a great display of his learning, saying that he had studied various books - the
Vedas, the Vedanta philosophy, all the six orthodox systems of Hindu philosophy. He asked
a fellow passenger, "Do you know the Vedanta?"
"No, sir."
"The Samkhya and the Patanjali's Yoga Sutras?"
"No, sir."
"Have you read no philosophy whatever?"
"No, sir."
The pandit was talking in this vain way and the passenger sitting in silence when
a great storm rose and the boat was about to sink.
The passenger said to the pandit, "Sir, can you swim?"
"No", replied the pandit.
The passenger said, "I don't know Samkhya or the Patanjali stuff, but I can swim."
"Now you'd better start swimming or sink like a stone, for the times they are a-changing." - Bob Dylan.
Study the research before committing to anything or anyone. That could help.
Ak: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man's Eternal Quest. Los Angeles: Self-Realization
Fellowship, 1975.
Ap: Mieder, Wolfgang (main editor), Stewart A.
Kingsbury, and Kelsie E. Harder: A Dictionary of American
Proverbs. (Paperback) New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Apa: Walters, James Donald. A Place called Ananda. Rev. 2nd ed. Nevada City: Hansa Trust:
2001. On-line [www.ananda.org/inspiration/books/place/index.html]. Accessed 4 Dec.
2005.
Ay: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 1st ed. New York: Theosophical, 1946. Online. [oaks.nvg.org/pv6bk12.html]
Ebu: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2006.
Op: Simpson, John, and Jennifer Speake. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1998.
Pa: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization
Fellowship, 1971.
Say: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Sayings of Yogananda. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1958.
Tp: Walters, James Donald. The Path: Autobiography of a Western Yogi. Nevada City: Crystal
Clarity, 1977. On-line [www.crystalclarity.com/kriyananda/] Accessed 4 Dec. 2005
CLICK on 'Literature' for the references of about 2000
works.
ANNOTATIONS: Code letters (acronyms and initial words) in square brackets in the text refer to works. Click on 'Literature' to see examples. Page references are put right after code
letters. And the abbreviation cf. means "compare". [MORE].
SITE SEARCH: The 'Search' link gives access to dictionaries and more.
REFER: Prefer the standard 'location address' on top of the page(s).
PILOTING: Note the clickable text links on top of the page. [MORE]
DISCLAIMER: Two disclaimers intertwine: [A] [B]
© 20052006, Tormod Kinnes. All rights reserved Revised in October 2006.
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