Category Archives: Behaviours and Relationships – the Yogic Way
Resilience vs Meditation
Meditation is fantastic, but leaves out direct work on the mind processes that account for your outbursts and moods in the first place. Learning Resilience at Blackburn Meditation and Mindfulness overcomes that. Continue reading
Uncertainty, Control, Stress
Uncertainty is a major stress factor for most people. It goes hand in hand with lack of control, which often freaks people right out. We can face uncertainty in a strong and empowered way, or we can be irrational, inept … Continue reading
Unchallenged Assumptions Lead to Poor Outcomes
Here is a conversation I had recently with a student: Nothing external can cause an internal response What causes our emotional reaction is the black box full of assumptions (in the mind) by which we make inferences about how we … Continue reading
The Conundrum of Discipline and Letting Go
Here Sarasvati discusses the problems of actually living a Yogic life. The first conundrum is, “What is surrender?” (not what you might think) Sarasvati supervises Anatomy and Asana teacher training for the Australian College of Classical Yoga. Her own Yoga … Continue reading
Noxious guru
Supposing that you find you have a noxious guru, what do you do? How might you discover it? You may have encountered unpalatable aspects of his personality, but assumed that he was a high-functioning narcissist
Hurting and Growing
I owe much to guru and lineage. Without having had a guru, I would not have discovered this yogic path, nor ventured far upon it. Without his guru, I would not have met him. Without the great Nityananda, none of us would … Continue reading
Sit with your anger, dive deep through pain
Some years ago now I sat with a spiritual community in trauma. Their spiritual leader was in disgrace from allegations of sexual impropriety. The hall that is normally full was half-empty, and of those attending, half were quietly weeping. The … Continue reading
Spirituality and Women
Prior to Vedic times, women were fully equal participants in ritual celebration – then along came Vedic Brahmanism and women were not even permitted to hear the vedas recited. I heard this when attending an address by the scholar and … Continue reading
Truthfulness …Being Truthful to Yourself – so that you can be truthful about yourself
Truthfulness is a strange phenomenon. Scrupulous truth-telling may not be the same as real truthfulness. (Why?) Likewise with lying. A persistent liar is very unlikely to be able to be truthful to himself. And if untruthful to themselves, neither the scrupulous … Continue reading
Let ’em think what they like!
Do you try to make sure people understand you? Waste of time! After you have said your bit as best you can, take as a given that your hearers will filter your communication through their own preconceptions. For your listeners, “you” … Continue reading