SADHGURU 2016: Listening to Life

Reference: Inner Engineering (Content)

This paper presents the summary of Part two, chapter 2.4 from the book, INNER ENGINEERING By Sadhguru. The contents are from the first edition (2016) of this book published in the United States by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

The summary of the original material (in black) is accompanied by brief comments (in color) based on the present understanding.

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Listening to Life

The body constitutes a very large part of who you are in your present understanding. The body has its own attitudes, its own resistance, its own temperament. The science of working with the body to prepare it for higher levels of energy is hatha yoga. Hatha yoga is about understanding the mechanics of the body. If you consciously get your body into different postures, you can elevate your consciousness.

When your body doesn’t function as it should, it can rob your life of every other aspiration. Dedicating a certain amount of effort and time to see that the body does not become a barrier is important. There are countless people who have come out of spinal problems by doing simple asanas. 

For a lot of people, spiritual growth happens very painfully because the necessary preparation has not taken place. Preparing the body sufficiently before one goes into more intense forms of meditation is very important. Hatha Yoga is the preparatory system for yoga, which is a means of transforming yourself into a receptive possibility beyond the five senses. 

Hatha Yoga is more than physical exercise. It is about creating a certain atmosphere, and then using physical postures to channel or drive your energy in specific directions.

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June 17, 2022 – 7:40 AM Categories: Sadhguru | Post a comment

SADHGURU 2016: Sadhana (2-2:3:1)

Reference: Inner Engineering (Content)

This paper presents the summary of Part two, chapter 2.3.1 from the book, INNER ENGINEERING By Sadhguru. The contents are from the first edition (2016) of this book published in the United States by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

The summary of the original material (in black) is accompanied by brief comments (in color) based on the present understanding.

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Sadhana

“Start by paying attention to everything you think of as yourself just before you fall asleep: your thoughts, your emotions, your hair, your skin, your clothes, your makeup. Know that none of this is you. There is no need to make any conclusion about what “you” are or what “truth” is. Truth is not a conclusion. If you keep the false conclusions at bay, truth will dawn. It is like your experience of the night: the sun has not gone; it is just that the planet is looking the other way. You’re thinking, reading, talking about the self, because you’re too busy looking the other way! You haven’t paid enough attention to know what the self really is. What is needed is not a conclusion, but a turnaround. If you manage to enter sleep with this awareness, it will be significant. Since there is no external interference in sleep, this will grow into a powerful experience. Over time, you will enter a dimension beyond all accumulations.”

Throughout your life you have accumulated all these things that you think you are, such as, your thoughts, your emotions, your hair, your skin, your clothes, your makeup, etc.

DRILL: As you prepare to sleep, take one of these items that you are identifying with, and hold the concept: “I am not this _______ .”

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June 16, 2022 – 8:36 PM Categories: Sadhguru | Post a comment

SADHGURU 2016: Knowing Life Beyond the Senses

Reference: Inner Engineering (Content)

This paper presents the summary of Part two, chapter 2.3 from the book, INNER ENGINEERING By Sadhguru. The contents are from the first edition (2016) of this book published in the United States by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

The summary of the original material (in black) is accompanied by brief comments (in color) based on the present understanding.

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Life Sense: Knowing Life Beyond the Senses

Whatever you know of the world or yourself is information you have gathered only through the five sense organs—by seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching. If these sense organs fold up, you would know neither the world nor yourself. These sense organs can perceive only that which is physical. Additionally, they perceive everything only in relation to something else. The sense perceptions are absolutely wonderful instruments for human survival. But if you are seeking something more than physical survival, they are not enough.

Life is more than just physical. The essential nature of life lies in the source of the physical or psychological expression of body and mind. To perceive the dimension of source you have to develop ways to experience it. Yoga is fundamentally aimed at enhancing your experience beyond the five senses. This will make you aware of a completely new dimension.

It is just a lack of attention which has denied people the possibility of discovering this dimension. This dimension has nothing to do with thoughts, ideas, opinions, or philosophies. Enhancing your experience means enhancing your ability to receive life, just as it is. The simple process of paying a little bit of attention to your inner nature will transform the quality of your life in remarkable ways.

The attention beyond the senses has nothing to do with thoughts, ideas, opinions, or philosophies. It has to do with enhancing your ability to receive life, just as it is.

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June 15, 2022 – 6:44 PM Categories: Sadhguru | Post a comment

SADHGURU 2016: Sadhana (2-2:2:1)

Reference: Inner Engineering (Content)

This paper presents the summary of Part two, chapter 2.2.1, from the book, INNER ENGINEERING By Sadhguru. The contents are from the first edition (2016) of this book published in the United States by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

The summary of the original material (in black) is accompanied by brief comments (in color) based on the present understanding.

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Sadhana

“You may have noticed this about yourself: when you are feeling pleasant, you want to expand; when you are fearful, you want to contract. Try this. Sit for a few minutes in front of a plant or tree. Remind yourself that you are inhaling what the tree is exhaling, and exhaling what the tree is inhaling. Even if you are not yet experientially aware of it, establish a psychological connection with the plant. You could repeat this several times a day. After a few days, you will start connecting with everything around you differently. You won’t limit yourself to a tree. 

“Using this simple process, we at the Isha Yoga Center have unleashed an environmental initiative in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, under which twenty-one million trees have been planted since 2004. We spent several years planting trees in people’s minds, which is the most difficult terrain! Now transplanting those onto land happens that much more effortlessly.”

Realize that every moment you are exchanging vital support with plants, trees and other things and beings in your environment. Life is continuous; there are no real boundaries.

DRILL: Sit for a few minutes in front of a plant or tree. Do japa: “I am inhaling what the tree is exhaling; I am exhaling what the tree is inhaling.” Repeat this several times a day, until you establish a psychological connection with the plant.

DRILL: Sit for a few minutes thinking of somebody or something in your environment. Do japa: “_________’s actions are supporting me; my actions are supporting _________.” Repeat this several times a day, until you establish a psychological connection with that person or thing.

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June 15, 2022 – 4:59 PM Categories: Sadhguru | Post a comment

SADHGURU 2016: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”

Reference: Inner Engineering (Content)

This paper presents the summary of Part two, chapter 2.2, from the book, INNER ENGINEERING By Sadhguru. The contents are from the first edition (2016) of this book published in the United States by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

The summary of the original material (in black) is accompanied by brief comments (in color) based on the present understanding.

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“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”

As a machine, the body is faultless. The only problem is that it just springs out of the earth and falls back into the earth. It does not take us anywhere. What truly makes us who we are is a dimension beyond physicality that has infused itself into this wonderful mechanism. This dimension gives us the consciousness of being more than just physical.

At the level of the physical body there is a longing to root ourselves well on this planet for self-preservation. But in the dimension beyond physicality there is a longing to expand without bounds. The instinct of self-preservation fixates us on the physical body. One doesn’t need to be so fixated.

Spirituality is the dimension beyond the physical. The human desire to transcend the limitations of the physical is a completely natural one. Fixation on self-preservation poses a limitation that is entirely created by us. Yoga is all about unknotting and dismantling such limitations.

Fixation is like gravity that is trying to hold us down. Freedom is like grace that is trying to lift us up. All we to do to get rid of fixation is to stop identifying with the physical dimension and make ourselves receptive to the spiritual dimension.

Our intelligence is struggling against the physical idea of “self-preservation”. It has the goal to evolve until it becomes boundless. 

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June 14, 2022 – 8:42 PM Categories: Sadhguru | Post a comment