Be Good…For Goodness Sake!

 

When I ask my students how are they feeling, more often then not I hear “ good…fine.”

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The Law of Diminishing Intentions or How to Win The Loosing Battle

Have you made your New Year’s resolution yet?

If it includes becoming healthier, more flexible, loosing weight or finally addressing your stress levels, starting a yoga practice might be exactly the thing you need! Winter yoga session is starting tomorrow and there is a spot in one of the classes just for you.

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The Law of Least Effort

An integral being knows without going, sees without looking, and accomplishes without doing.

Lao Tzu

Listen to The Law of Least Effort class:

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About a month ago I was reading Candace Pert’s book “Molecules of Emotions”.

In one of the chapters she talks about her discovery of Peptide T, a brilliant new drug to treat AIDS. At the time of discovery, the only treatment option available was a highly toxic chemotherapy cocktail, that targeted the symptoms but not the virus itself. Candice and her partners had become more and more frustrated, as the medical community refused to consider Peptide T as the viable option. Paradoxically, the harder Dr. Pert and her colleagues tried, the more rejection they’ve encountered.

By chance of luck Candace Pert was introduced to Dr.Chopra at one of the meetings. Here is what she writes about their conversation:

“Deepak, I don’t know what’s going on. I have a brilliant drug that can save people’s lives. I’ve been working on it for years, and I can’t get in out the gate. What am I doing wrong?”

He listened carefully and then, gazing calmly and deeply into my eyes, gave me a stunning answer: “You are trying too hard!” he said and then smiled.

I took this in for a moment and then responded.

“Trying too hard? But I’ve never heard of such a thing!”

In the world I lived in, there was no such thing as “trying too hard”.

Two years later, as  Dr. Pert at last has secured financing for the clinical trials, she wrote: “True to Deepak’s diagnosis of my problem, the solution had come only when I had stopped trying.”

Here are three ways to bring the Law of Least Effort into your life;

• Practice Acceptance: “Today I will accept people, situations and circumstances as they are, not as I want them to be”
• Take Responsibility – doesn’t mean blaming yourself or anybody for current situation. It simply an ability to respond creatively to whatever arises.
• Become Defenseless: ever had a conversation with somebody in which you were trying to convince that person of something? Have you noticed that the harder you tried to get your point across, the more resistance you’ve encountered? It is a tremendous loss of energy for everybody involved, the energy that could be used for something positive and productive.

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The mantra for The Law of Least Effort is:

Om Daksham Namah.

I achieve maximum benefit with minimal effort.

The Law of Giving and Receiving

“The universe operates through dynamic exchange…giving and receiving are different aspects of the flow of energy in the universe”

Deepak Chopra

What the bird with the human head knew:

by Anne Sexton

I went to the bird

with the human head.

and asked,

Please Sir,

where is God?

God is too busy

to be here on earth,

His angels are like one thousand geese assembled

and always flapping.

But I can tell you where the well of God is.

Is it on earth?

I asked.

He replied,

Yes. It was dragged down

from paradise by one of the geese.

I walked many days.

past witches that eat grandmothers knitting booties

as if they were collecting a debt.

Then, in the middle of the desert

I found the well

it bubbled up and down like a litter of cats

and there was water,

and I drank,

and there was water,

and I drank.

Then the well spoke to me.

It said:

Abundance is scooped form abundance,

yet abundance remains.

Then I knew.

How do you see your life? Is your glass half – empty or half – full?

Getting ready for this class turned out to be unexpectedly challenging. Inevitably, the Law of Giving and Receiving  touches on  the topics of wealth, abundance and money. Things were about to turn interesting.

First, the words wouldn’t come.  Finally when they appeared, I couldn’t string them together into a somewhat coherent sentences – like  a  torn string of pearls, the elusive bead-words rolled away in every direction. I went for a walk instead….

Of course, like the wise always say – in every challenge there’s a seed of opportunity and so I went on examining my own believes about giving, receiving and the abundance.

I grew up in the Soviet Russia. I am sure many people here in the west have heard a lot of different and scary things about our life behind the iron curtain. But truly, it wasn’t so bad. We got up in the morning, had breakfast, went to work or school, had supper once we came back home, watched TV or read books and then went to sleep. Sound familiar, doesn’t it?

And then there were parts of our lives that might seem completely wild, almost incomprehensible to you.  Shortages… – be it food, blue jeans or something else – there were shortages. We went through bouts of no sugar ( none at all in the stores!), eggs, butter, detergent, matches etc. some times for a few days, sometimes for a few months, and sometimes for years. I know it is hard to imagine – but remember, this once was an everyday norm for Russian people, nothing really unusual.

Of course, where there are shortages there are people with access to coveted goods.

And so it went – person’s value in the society wasn’t determined by anything else but his or hers ability to get those items. Everybody wanted to have this person as a friend, at the same time secretly resenting them for being “better”.

Fiddle – di – di, you would say, what does it matter? What does this have to do with my life?

Here is the scoop: getting up close and personal with the notions and believes I’ve formed as a child  feels like  holding a mirror up to some of my current behaviors and habits….Hmmm, didn’t see that coming!

Material model of the universe is bound to create and reinforce this poverty thinking – the idea that there’s not enough to go around – things, money, time,… staff. And on the flip side, if you possess that which is coveted – wealth, new car, vacation home – then you are better then your neighbor…Start digging deeper and your self-image, your Ego might get a little threatened. No wander I was a little flustered!

So what did we do in the class?  Unlike the Law of Pure Potentiality, this class turned completely experiential. We took time to feel  the Law of Giving and Receiving -  in our breath, in our hands, in some yoga postures. We talked about the importance of intention. When we give  more out of obligation or guilt, rather then  genuine desire to create happiness, we end up feeling resentful or exhausted ( just think back to Christmas)

Here are the ways to practice the Law of Giving and Receiving every day:

Whoever I encounter today I will offer a gift – a flower, a thought, a prayer.

Today, I will gratefully receive all the gifts offered to me – birds’ song, kind words or material gifts.

I will make a commitment to circulate most important gifts in my life – gifts of time, caring, love and attention.

This Law is alive in your Heart Chakra and the mantra for this law is:

Om Vardhanam Namah – I am the nourisher of the Universe and the Universe nourishes me.

Namaste!

The Law of Pure Potentiality & Group Meditation Class

The source of all creation is pure consciousness..pure potentiality seeking expression from the unmanisfest to the manifest.

And when we realized that our true Self is one of pure potentiality, we align with the power that manifests everything in the universe.

Deepak Chopra

The Law of Pure Potentiality comes from the understanding that at the level of the Spirit or Soul – in our essential state – we are pure consciousness, pure potentiality and infinite creativity.

So what are these Spiritual laws, where did they come from and how can we apply them to our reality?

We started our  class in Seven Spiritual Laws of Success series with the verse from Bhagavad Gita, a remarkable Hindu epic story of a great battle:

Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never

Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams!

Birthless and  deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit for ever;

Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems!

It was so inspiring to trace the connection between this ancient text, written thousands of years ago to a scientific principle that has been boggling the minds of the brightest quantum physicists for the last century or so – the  Observer Effect.

Delving into the greatest paradox of quantum physics, we talked about the smallest identifiable units of matter, force or light called quanta. Quanta display a bizarre behavior commonly known in the scientific world as the Observer Effect: until they are measured, in their pristine state, they are everywhere in time and space. They exist in several states simultaneously, having the potential  to be a wave or a particle. Once the experiment to measure one of their characteristics is set, they chose! their real state – collapsing into being either a wave or a particle. The conversation expanded on to the social ability of quanta – once they’ve entangled ( introduced to each other), the connection remains alive even when they are a great distance apart – in fact, communication between the entangled particles happens to be 22,000 times faster then the speed of light.

Why bother exploring to such a depth? Simple – quanta are building blocks of our cells, tissues and organs;the unlimited potentiality is scientifically proven and possible – now, we only have to allow it into our reality.

From there we jumped centuries back to explore the Layers of Life philosophy created by yogic sage Adi Shankara around 806 AD. He describes a human being as a multiplicity of layers – physical, psychological and spiritual.We have learned to practice the Law of Pure Potentiality by shifting our reference point from Ego-referral , based on judgment, discrimination and protecting our social mask to Self, or Soul-referral which brings us to the source of internal happiness and non- judgment.

A group meditation was a welcome reprieve from such deep and  intense philosophical discussion.

“We meditate to discover our true own identity, our right place in the scheme of the universe. Through meditation, we acquire and eventually acknowledge our connection to an inner power source that has the ability to transform our outer world. In other words, meditation gives us not only the light of insight but also the power for expansive change.” writes Julia Cameron, author of “The Artist Way”-modern day guide for discovering our creative side.

Namaste!