Without craving and aversion, there is no unhappiness and suffering.

When we are identified with the mind, and the mind is being over-powered by craving and aversion, we’ll crave for the things that we agree with, and what we like and want, and we’ll reject the things that we don’t agree with, and what we don’t like and don’t want.

When we haven’t come in contact with anything that we don’t like and don’t want, but we are already full of aversion, tensions, negativities, fear and worries that we might come in contact with the things that we don’t like and don’t want… So restless and have no peace…

When we come in contact with the things that we don’t agree with, and what we don’t like and don’t want, we’ll get so irritated, unhappy, frustrated, angry, dissatisfied, fear and worry… Even after we get rid of the things that we don’t like and don’t want, we are still not peaceful, because we attach to the past unhappy and unpleasant experience that generates a strong aversion that we don’t want to come in contact with the same things or objects again… Full of tensions of fear and worry that come from strong aversion…

Before we get the things that we like and want, we are restless and have no peace. We are full of dissatisfaction, greed and craving for the things that we don’t have which we like and want to have…

When we don’t get the things that we like and want, we’ll get so unhappy, frustrated, angry, dissatisfied, disappointed, and jealous of others who have the things that we like and want…

When we finally get the things that we like and want, we’ll attach to these impermanent objects of names and forms, generate craving and clinging onto them. We have no peace even though we get the things that we like and want, because we’ll be over-powered by pride and arrogance that derived from the achievement of the things that we like and want, but at the same time, we also have fear and worry that these things that we like and want will change and disappear, and this will cause us losing the fantastic sensation of being proud and arrogant that derived from having the things that we like and want… We have strong rejection or aversion that we don’t want these things to change and disappear… We don’t allow them to change and refuse to let them go when impermanence strikes… This is impossible under the law of nature – the Truth of things – Impermanence… We’ll be so disappointed and dissatisfied when the pleasant sensations disappear due to impermanence…

And so, no matter we get the things that we like and want or not, and whether we don’t get the things that we don’t like and don’t want, we are always dissatisfied, not peaceful, restless, anxious, and being in fear and worry…

If we can let go of craving and aversion, we can fully enjoy what we have in the present moment now, without fear of losing it or worry about it will change… We can appreciate and enjoy everything as it is, not necessary the way that we want it to be, but we are able to accept everything to be the way as it is, from moment to moment… Without craving for the things that we don’t have in the present moment now, and without clinging onto the things that we have in the present moment now… We also won’t have rejection or aversion towards the things that we don’t like and don’t want. We allow everything to be here being in this same space of the universe of where we are, whether it is something that we like or don’t like, want or don’t want, agree or disagree with… We allow impermanence to happen from moment to moment… We accept the changes of the conditions and qualities of names and forms of everything as it is, from moment to moment…

This is true freedom. Real liberation. Being free from anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, dissatisfaction, disappointment, frustration, anxiety, pride, arrogance, fear and worry…

We can have like and dislike, agreement and disagreement… We don’t have to like the things that we don’t like, and we don’t have to agree with the things that we don’t agree with… But, without the attachment towards the things that we like and don’t like, agree and disagree with… Without craving and aversion towards all the names and forms that we like and don’t like, agree and disagree with… And thus, we will be free from all the impurities that come along with the existence of craving and aversion…

When we don’t have the things that we like and want, we don’t have greed, disappointment, dissatisfaction and craving for these things that we like and want… We are fine, and still peaceful and happy…

When we haven’t come in contact with the things that we don’t like and don’t want, we don’t have fear and worry whether we will come in contact with these things that we don’t like and don’t want… We are fine, and still peaceful and happy…

When we come in contact with the things that we don’t like and don’t agree with, we don’t have disappointment, anger and hatred towards these things that we don’t like and don’t want… We are fine, and still peaceful and happy…

When we get the things that we like and want, we don’t have fear and worry that these things will change and disappear… We will appreciate and enjoy all these things that we like and want while it is here, but allow impermanence to happen and able to let them go in peace when they change and disappear…

When we know the Truth of things as it is, that everything is emptiness and impermanent, we won’t have strong attachment towards all these names and forms… We won’t have fear and worry, craving and aversion towards all the objects of the senses and the qualities of things… When we know what is non-duality, namelessness, formlessness and attributeless, there is no attachment towards all the qualities of names and forms… When there is no attachment, there is no need of “letting go”… There is no craving for something “good” and there is no aversion towards something “bad”… There is no “good” or “bad”…

Changes, impermanence, being with the things that we don’t like, separation from the things that we like and love, old age, sickness, discomfort, pain, injuries, weakness, decay, death or decomposition of this physical body are not something “bad” or “horrible”… When we stopped judging or labelling all these things as something “bad” and “horrible”, we will have no craving for something “good”, and have no aversion towards something “bad” and “horrible”… And thus there is no fear, no worry… There’s no anxiety or restlessness that comes from craving for the things that are being labelled as “good” and aversion towards the things that are being labelled as “not good”…

Without craving and aversion, there’s no fear and worry… Absence of fear and worry is peace…

We accept ourselves and other beings in this present moment now as we are, as they are… We are contented and peaceful… At the same time, we perform actions for the well-beings of ourselves and other beings out of selflessness and compassion, and allow the results of our actions to come naturally and allow improvement to happen… Without attachment towards our actions and the result of the actions… Without selfish desires or intentions, judgment, comparison and expectation… Without the influence of likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements that come from our impure mind…

We don’t need to depend or rely on doing something “good” or not doing something “not good”, to have peace… We don’t need to be in specific “good” place or “nice” environment, to have peace… Peace is there, when there’s no craving and aversion, fear and worry… Wherever we are, whatever we do and don’t do, peace is already there in us…

When we realize the real peace in our true nature, we don’t need to do something or go somewhere to be in peace… We don’t need to depend on doing the things that we like to do to have peace or to enjoy some momentary good or happy feelings… Whatever we do or don’t do, wherever we go or don’t go, we are always peaceful…

This real peace never increase nor decrease, never change nor disappear… This real peace is unconditional and unlimited by the condition and ability of this physical body, the state of the mind, the energy and elements, the actions and inactions of this body and mind… Neither does it conditioned or limited by the qualities of names and forms that we come in contact with, nor by the condition of the environment that we are being at… It is beyond all the perception of names and forms and the qualities of good and bad, positive and negative…

Nothing can make us happy… Nothing can make us suffer… Nothing can give us peace… Nothing can take away the peace in us…

Letting go of attachments, craving and aversion in our everyday life whenever the mind comes in contact with the objects of the senses, is our yoga and meditation practice to realize eternal unconditional peace… This is nothing to do with whether our body is strong and flexible or not, or in good health or not, or whether we can perform the yoga asana poses perfectly or not, or we can chant the Sanskrit prayers in perfect pronunciation or not, or we know all the asana poses and their names or not, or know about all the bones and muscle tissues in the physical body or not, or whether we can speak, read and write perfectly or not, or whether there are many people like us and agree with us or not, or whether we have went through many courses, retreats and workshops or not, or whether we have an “international affiliation” recognized certification or not…

There is no need a piece of paper to qualified and certified us to realize the peace in us and to share this peace and the wisdom with all other beings… There is no need a piece of paper or many pieces of papers to show anyone that we are peaceful and we want to show loving kindness to other beings, if we know selflessness and compassion…

There are people who have never come in contact with yoga asana practice or meditation practice or yoga philosophy, but it doesn’t stop them from realizing the peace in them and be selfless and compassionate, if they know what is non-attachment, and letting go of the ego, craving and aversion… Peace, love and compassion doesn’t belong to certain religion or practice or believe… Spirituality, peace, compassion and wisdom is in everyone, disregards what are the differences of conditions, qualities, names and forms… A very weak and sick, or paralyzed person can also have peace and be free from “suffering”…

Even if we practice yoga asana and meditation everyday, and name ourselves “yogis”, are not necessarily we will be peaceful and be free from anger and hatred, if we do not know what is non-attachment and letting go of the ego, craving and aversion…

Realize this real peace and be free… Be truly content and happy…

Even though everyone is doing the same exercises but, not necessary that everyone will be looking the same in the exercises. Some might need to adjust a little with the feet slightly point out or the hands slightly turn out. Some might need to keep their legs slightly apart, while some might need to keep their legs together. Some might not be able to keep their body and head at the exact “angle” like what the teacher demonstrates. Some might not be able to extend their leg completely straight. Some might not be able to sit up right, maintaining the spine as straight as what the teacher usually ask them to be… And it’s okay.

Yoga, or in another terms – peace, is nothing to do with whether our body can perform the yoga exercises “perfectly” or not. So called “perfect” asana poses cannot determine or guarantee a person will be enlightened or not, or will be peaceful or not. If a person can be enlightened and attain self-realization by being very strong and flexible, and is able to put the body in many different types of complicated positions, then there are many world class athletes, gymnasts and contortionists are already enlightened and is peaceful, and be free from ignorance, anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, pride, arrogance, fear, worry, and suffering… Maybe some of them are peaceful, but it should not be coming from their physical conditions and abilities. Because if the peacefulness is coming from the conditions and abilities of their physical body, then this peacefulness will change according to the impermanent changes of the condition and ability of the physical body. It is not the real peace that is unchangeable…

We don’t have to be very physically “perfect”, or healthy, or fit, or strong, or flexible, to have peace… Peace can be realized by anyone in any conditions as long as they know what is non-attachment, selflessness and compassion, when they know how to go beyond their own body and mind, not identify with the body and the mind, and be free from craving and aversion, and be free from all sorts of impurities and ignorance… Be free from anger and hatred, greed and dissatisfaction, envy and jealousy, pride and arrogance, fear and worry…

Whether we can stand on our head or not, we all can have peace…

Whether we can touch our toes with our hands or not, we all can have peace…

Whether we can put our heels down on the floor completely or not when we perform the downward dog, we all can have peace…

Whether we can bend our body forward with our body and face completely resting on the legs or not, we all can have peace…

Whether we speak the same language or not, have the same cultural and religious background or not, we all can have peace…

Whether we live a simple lifestyle or a luxurious lifestyle, we all can have peace…

As long as we know what is non-attachment…

Whether we are thin or fat, looking good or not looking good, smart or not smart, fit or unfit, flexible or not flexible, strong or not strong, healthy or not healthy, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, so called successful or not successful, young or old, men or women, single or not single, being with ourselves alone or with many people around us, have an easy life or a not so easy life, being here or there, doing something or not doing anything, being able to see, or hear, or smell, or taste, or touch, or think, or read, or write, or walk, or sing, or dance or not, and so on, we all can have peace… Because real peace is nothing to do with all these names and forms… It is already within everyone, unconditioned and unlimited by all the qualities of names and forms… We just need to remove all sorts of impurities in the mind, and go beyond the ego and the intellectual thinking mind, and be free and be at peace, resting in our selfless, nameless and formless true nature…

A person who cannot sit up right due to certain physical limitations, or a person who cannot move the body or the limbs to perform any so called “yoga asana practice”, also can have peace, if they want to, and know how to… And if a person can sit up right but doesn’t know anything about non-attachment, he or she cannot “find” peace even though he or she is “looking” for peace…

In my own experience in teaching yoga asana classes, very naturally I will put myself into the student’s physical conditions and limitations… It means, naturally my body will “coordinate” with the condition of the students physical body and their physical limitations… Such like if some of them have back problems, or knee problems, or muscular tendon injuries, or flu, or nose blocked, or headache, or any physical discomforts and limitations, or just simply being unfit, lack of stamina, strength or flexibility, or have fear, I will guide them to perform different ways or variations of the same exercises in the same class having different people with different types of physical conditions and limitations.

If there are people who are very flexible as well as people who are very inflexible in the same class, I will show them the different positions that they are individually capable and comfortable enough to perform the exercises or the asana poses in that present moment… And explain to them that even this condition in this present moment now is impermanent, it will change from moment to moment… Sometimes the body is more energetic, more strong and flexible, and sometimes the body is less energetic, less strong and flexible… We need to perform the exercises according to the condition of the body at that present moment and according to the needs of the body and the mind in the present moment…

Maybe the body needs to do more forward bending to calm down the energy… Maybe the body needs to do more backward bending to stimulate and energize the energy level… Maybe the body is recovering from certain injuries, and we need to modify some of the asana exercises… Maybe some of the exercises that we were able to perform easily in the past, but now, our body cannot do it… Maybe some exercises that we didn’t feel comfortable doing them in the past, but now our body can do it easily and comfortably… And we will let go of all the pre-judgments about what our body can do and cannot do, and be very open-minded on what the body can do and cannot do…

I will show those physically strong and flexible students to perform the asana poses according to their own physical abilities, and I will show those who are not physically strong and flexible students to perform the same asana poses but in accordance to their own physical abilities…

We can’t be teaching the same variations of yoga asana exercises to all the students and ask them and expecting them to be able to perform all the same asana exercises according to the “standard” of what is called “perfect asana poses”… There is no “perfect asana poses”. Everyone is “perfect” in their own way of doing it and is “perfect” being able to accept themselves as they are, and respect their body as it is, and be comfortable and relaxed in all the asana exercises, and be in the present moment, be free from the past and the future, and be at peace…

Performing all the asana exercises or poses without judgments, comparisons and expectations, no matter what types of conditions of the physical body is, in the present moment… And from moment to moment, the conditions of the physical body is constantly changing, impermanent… We are able to observe and be aware of the present condition of the body, and are able to accept the condition of the body as it is, that in this present moment now, this is what the body can do and cannot do… Not comparing ourselves with anybody, not even to our own self in the past experiences…

Everyone performs the exercises or the yoga asana practice according to our present condition of the physical body, out of selflessness and compassion, without any intentions or expectations to gain any benefits from doing the practice, but allow the benefits to come naturally by itself, not because “we” want to gain some sorts of benefits, or want to become more healthy, or more strong, or more flexible, or more peaceful, or more happy… Not even think about wanting to be more wise and compassionate… Because wisdom and compassion is not “something” that we can gain or learn from the outside, but it’s through realization from within our true nature, when all the impurities and the ego is annihilated… Merely by performing the asana poses “perfectly”, or “precisely”, or in “perfect alignments”, cannot guarantee nor determine that we will be free from impurities or the ego, and be free from suffering…

Sometimes, when all the students have the similar type of physical limitations or have limited flexibility in the same class, I won’t be demonstrating the asana poses as what I usually do in some other classes. I will put myself into their position. I will “make” my body become similar conditions as the students, demonstrate and perform the exercises according to what their body are capable to do and be comfortable at, allowing them to be able to relaxed into all the exercises without trying to compete or compare with the teacher who are more strong and flexible than them physically… And allow them to gradually develop courage, faith, physical stamina, strength and flexibility as they practice from time to time… By showing them that even if I “cannot” extend my legs completely straight or even if I “cannot” reach forward “properly” in a forward bend, it is still okay, and it doesn’t mean that we are not good at yoga practice, or we are not suitable to practice yoga exercises… We still can be at peace even though we cannot perform the yoga asana exercises or poses “nicely” or “perfectly”…

And then when they are able to accept their body as it is, and be comfortable with themselves in doing the yoga asana exercises without judging themselves or comparing with anybody, and they are able to relaxed into the asana poses without forcing or struggling to go beyond their physical limitations, I will then show them that as they practice, the physical strength and flexibility will be improving, and they will be able to stretch their body and limbs further, and slowly they will be able to come into the asana poses which need certain degree of strength, flexibility, stamina, faith and courage…

As yoga teachers, we are there to guide the students for what their body can do from moment to moment, and it’s not about showing them what we (our body) can do…

We cannot set a goal for the students, telling them that they have to be able to do this and that after a specific time… Everyone takes their own time to develop the fitness level of the physical body and skills to perform the exercises… Everyone takes their own time to let go of fear and worry… Yoga asana practice is not some fitness training that everyone sets a goal for themselves, that they want to be able to achieve “such and such” in a certain period of time… Realization won’t “happen” even though if we set ourselves 3 months, or 3 years, or 30 years time to attain realization, if we didn’t practice in accordance to the methods and without right attitude… If we perform the practice with the right attitude, realization will happen at anytime naturally even though we didn’t have the intention or expectation to attain self-realization…

Just like when we do the yoga exercises, even though if we don’t know anything about the benefits of the exercises, the benefits will still be there… The benefits won’t change, or become more when we have expectation for the benefits… The benefits won’t disappear or become less, even if we don’t know what are the benefits of doing the exercises and without any expectation for the benefits… It will still be there…

And I’ll explain in the class to the students before they start trying to do the yoga exercise, about the exercise itself, it is not something “easy” or “difficult”. It is subject to our own each individual physical ability. When our body can do it and feel comfortable, our mind will judge “this is easy”. And when our body cannot do it and feel uncomfortable, our mind will judge “this is difficult”… But, the same exercise everyone is doing, some will say it’s “easy” and some will say it’s “difficult”… But, the exercise itself, it has no intentions or qualities to be easy or to be difficult… It is all coming from the judgment in our own mind… And by understanding this, we learn to let go of any judgments about everyone and everything in the world… That they are not something “bad”, and they are not something “good”… Everyone and everything is just being what it is…

And after the class finished, there is no “good class” or “bad class”, as all our experiences in the class is vary in each individual… Some might say its a “good class”, but, some might say its a “bad class”… Again that is nothing to do with the class itself… It is coming from each individual state of mind… Positive mind projects everything positively… Negative mind projects everything negatively… Those who know how to go beyond positive and negative, they project everything neither positively nor negatively…

Whether it is a “good class” or a “bad class”, it is not coming from the teacher or the class… Even if the teacher taught a really “awful” class…

There are many conditions that will “influence” each individual whether they will think or “judge” it is a “good class” or not… For example, maybe some people still don’t know how to let go of the ego yet, having judgment, comparison and expectation while doing the exercises, and forcing themselves to go beyond their physical limitations, and struggling in performing the exercises without respecting the conditions of their own body… And they get discomfort, pain and soreness, and building up more tensions during the practice, instead of letting go of tensions and be relaxed and peaceful after the practice… And some people might have some purification process going on, “physically” or “mentally”, and they experience so much discomforts or resistance during the practice, instead of “enjoying” the practice…

If we experienced a “good class” and “gain” some mental peace or physical relaxation from the practice in the class, we appreciate that present moment of how the body and mind feels, but without attachment, without craving or clinging… Know that even that peaceful moment and good feeling is momentary, it’s impermanent… It will change, be disturbed and disappear…

If we experienced a “bad class” and not “gaining” any mental peace or physical relaxation from the practice in the class, we don’t have to force ourselves to appreciate that unpleasant experience, but, just be aware of it without attachment, without generate aversion towards that “bad” experience, and let it go… Know that no matter how unpleasant it is, all are impermanent… It will change and disappear…

And that will lead us to be undisturbed, or unaffected, or uninfluenced, or undetermined by what we see, hear, smell, taste, touch and think… Because all these names and forms, they are not something “good” or something “bad”… “Good” and “bad” is coming from our own mind, not coming from the objects…

And that will lead us to true happiness and real peace that is unconditioned and unlimited by any qualities of names and forms or impermanence…

With this unmovable peaceful state of consciousness or awareness, we are able to perform lots of selfless compassionate actions in the world to help ourselves and the world to evolve, but, without being disturbed, or affected, or influenced, or determined by the world and the law of impermanence, and all the conditional qualities of names and forms…

Out of compassion, we perform selfless actions, and let go… Without attaching to our actions and the fruit of the actions… Without judgment, comparison or expectation… And be free…

Om shanti.

This will help to purify the mind to a deeper level.

It is like emptying and cleaning the rubbish bin. Stop putting in more rubbish and bringing out the existing rubbish from the bin and give it a good clean up. It is stopped stimulating the mind and allow it to have a moment of stillness.

It is about changing the habit of the mind that likes to react towards all the names and forms that the mind perceives through the senses every moment. It is restricting the mind to react whenever it wants to react towards whatever it perceives.

This will lead our mind to stop reacting towards what it likes and dislikes, what it agrees and disagrees with, and allow the mind to develop inner qualities, such like patience, forbearance, non-attachment, letting go, tolerance, adjustment, adaptation, accommodation, acceptance, forgiveness, self-introspection and self-control over the thoughts, actions and speech. All these inner divine qualities will lead the mind to realize God consciousness or the universal consciousness – Selflessness and compassion.

It is not just about not talking.

By controlling the speech organ not to talk or speak whenever the mind wants to express itself through speech or verbal expression, it is actually controlling the mind from its egoistic habitual reaction towards all the objects of the senses or whatever it perceives through the body and mind.

It is about being the master of the mind and be “the one” in control of ourselves, instead of being the slave of the mind and being controlled by the mind. It’s about stop generating craving towards what the mind likes and agrees with, and stop generating aversion towards what the mind dislikes and disagrees with. Through this practice, the ego will be annihilated.

Beside stopping the mind from reacting towards the sense objects by refraining the mind to express itself through speech by observing non-talking, non-justification, non-arguing, non-interaction and non-communication with the world, and just stand as a witness or the observer witnessing or observing all the names and forms that are being perceived in the mind, we also refrain the mind from reacting or expressing through physical actions, body language and facial expression, during the practice of silence – Mauna.

It is a total restrain over the thoughts, actions and speech. The mind becomes silent.

The practice of reducing or purifying senses inputs – sights, sounds, smells, taste, sensations (touch) and thoughts, and stop generate craving and aversion towards all these names and forms, is observing Mauna. When we stop generate new reactions of craving and aversion towards all the names and forms that the mind perceives through the senses, the old accumulated tensions or karma that derived from past cravings and aversions, will appear to the surface of the mind to be purified, or to be letting go.

The practice of Mauna is a very efficient and important way for us to realize the Truth of ourselves and about suffering.

The practice includes but not limited to:-

- No verbal or written communication and interaction with other people.

- No eyes contact or body contact with other people. Not looking at other people nor take interest in other people’s affairs.

- No body language or facial expression to make any communication or interaction with other people.

- Reduce and limit the inputs (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and thinking) and outputs (ideas, communications and interactions) of the mind. Such like not reading novels, magazines and newspaper, not watching movies and TV programs, not listening to music, not playing sports games, not writing, not doing intense physical activities, not sleeping on soft bed, not using perfumes or fragrances, and divert the mind to contemplate on Dharma only whenever the mind thinks of any worldly objects, and etc.

- Control and minimize the habit of self-talking in the mind (talking to ourself in the mind). The speech organ maybe not performing any talking verbally, but the mind continues to talk to itself in the mind. This is very common for many people. It shows that how restless the mind is, and it doesn’t like to be in silence for a single moment, even though from the appearance the body is silent and stilled, not performing any speech and actions.

- Controlling sexual desire. Transform or channel the sexual energy for spiritual practice and spiritual realization.

- Conserve energy by limiting worldly mental, physical and speech activities, and use the energy for spiritual practice and to perform selfless service for ourselves and for other beings.

- Reduce wants and worldly desires and sensual enjoyments.

- Restricting the usual daily habits of the body and mind. Such like dependent on “taking” certain “substances” or “doing” certain “things” to feel good…

- Restricting the usual reactions of the body and mind towards all the names and forms. Such like when we hear something that we don’t agree with, we would like to argue about it…

- By limiting and reducing verbal, physical and mental activities. This will stop any stimulations of the mind. Allowing the whirlpool of the restless mind to have the opportunity to “settle down”. When the mind is pure and calm, we will be able to “see” the Truth of everything as it is, not being contaminated by the impurities and restlessness in our mind…

- Restrict the mind from trying to express itself at anytime through verbal speech, facial expression and body language/sign. Such like learn to observe anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, dissatisfaction, arrogance, anxiety, agitation, depression, fear and worry, and let them go without react towards any of these impurities…

- Observe the thoughts (thinking) and not identify nor associate with the thoughts.

- Make the outgoing mind turns inwards concentrating and resting in the chamber of the heart.

May all spiritual aspirants be determined to observe Mauna – Silence of thoughts, actions and speech for some period of time in the path of yoga and meditation for spiritual realization to know the Truth.

Note that this practice of silence is “possible” for those who really want to know how to transcend suffering. For people who never suffer, or haven’t experience any suffering, or don’t know what is suffering, and are not interested in transcending suffering, this practice is not possible for them. It’s because this practice will generate some “discomforts” or “pain” or “suffering” in the body and the mind, due to we stop feeding the body and the mind with what it usually likes to think, do, say, see, hear, smell, taste, and touch… It is “not fun” but “miserable” for the mind that likes to chase after worldly sensual enjoyments…

We will see our mind’s true behavior when we start to restrict the mind from getting what it usually gets in everyday life… We will notice that we are not actually “the person” whom we think what we are… All the anger and frustration kick in as the body and mind is being cut off from its usual addictions, activities, lifestyle and enjoyment, and when its craving is not being gratified…

We will find out that our own mind is not actually as “obedient” as what we thought it was. And we will become humble and stop judging and criticizing other people whom we think that they have a “bad” mind that is not as “good” as ours… It’s because we will realize that our own mind is not any better than anyone else mind…

We thought that we are super nice and calm people, but not really…

We thought that we are patient and compassionate people, but not really…

We thought that we are loving and unselfish people, but not really…

When we stop giving the mind what it likes and wants…

And so, this confrontation with the “ugly dark side” of our own mind, is not a “good” thing for anyone who is very proud and arrogant… But it is a very good thing for anyone who is willing to give up pride and arrogance…

This is simply because we are able to see the truth of our own mind when we practice Mauna for a period of time, and turn the outgoing mind inward for self-introspection…

When come to the point if we are able to perform all our actions and speech out of selflessness and compassion, without any attachment, selfish desire and expectation, when all our thoughts, actions and speech are pure, then even though we are performing some thinking, actions and speech, but it is not contradicted with the practice of silence at all… That is what we call inaction in action…

Om shanti.

This was a message from one of my yoga student… And this is what I replied to her.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Hi there,

It is very normal that we will be apart from our family and friends at some stage in our life.

When we love and care for someone, we don’t have to be together in the same place or be together all the time, but appreciate each other when we are being together, and continue to care for each other when we are apart, but without worrying…

Worry doesn’t bring any positive changes to anything, but will make us loose the concentration on where we are and what we are doing at the present moment. It doesn’t benefit us and the other person whom we worry about.

When you start to accept that in this present moment now, you are being there and your parents are being here, physically you are apart from each other, but actually there is no separation at all between you and your parents. Space and time cannot separate you and the people that you love. Space or distance doesn’t exist when you accept yourself being where you are and not thinking about why you are not being at some other places now?

Imagine that if you are here living in the same house with your parents, do you always be with your parents every moment all the time? No… You need to get out of the house and be in the office, or meet up with your friends, or go for a movie or shopping… Or your parents want to have their own space to do their own things. But will you start to worry about your parents when you are not with them during those time that you are not being together?

Most of the time for people who live in the same house, they don’t really see each other very often… In fact they’ll start to feel that they need a distance from the people who live together in the same house, or have some privacy without some other people around them.

Whether it is being close together touching each other, or being 1 foot away, or 1 Km away, or 100 Km away, or 10000 Km away from each other, it makes no difference when you truly love and care for somebody, but without want to possess the physical togetherness or want them to stay close to us all the time.

If your parents are going to be fine, why should you worry for them?

And if your parents are not going to be fine, then by worrying is not going to help anything. If you really want to see your parents, anytime you can just come home, let go of your job for a few days, for a few months, or a few years, if your parents are so important to you… Even if you are going to loose your job for seeing your parents, why not? If your parents are really that important to you… It is just an excuse if we think that we cannot see our parents because of “something” that stops us from doing that…

If you think that because of your job, you cannot come home to see your parents, it means that your parents are not as important as what you think they are to you. Your job is more important then.

Even if you come back to where your parents are, it is not necessary that you will be living in the same house or at the same neighbourhood. Should you be still worry for your parents then, just because you are not living together?

And if you are living together with your parents in the same house, are you going to stop worrying for them? Do you still worry for your parents if you going to leave them and do your own thing for a few hours, or for a few days, or for a few months?

And so, worrying is not about how far you are apart from each other, and it is not about how long you will be apart from each other. It is not about whether you are living together or not, or living in the same country or not?

It is not that being closer, it will be less worry. And being further apart, it will be more worry… It is not that you’ll be apart for a short time, the worry is less, and if you’ll be apart for a long time, the worry is more…

If somebody we love had passed away, we will miss them but we won’t worry for them… If you will worry for somebody who had already passed away, then you will be worry for everything no matter where you are…

And so, why worry? Even if the people whom we love are still alive but are not well, being worry won’t make them better… Worrying is meaningless… Wasting our energy and time but doesn’t benefit anything.

It is about whether you want to worry (go ahead and start worrying, it’s your freedom to worry) or let go of worrying (stop worrying, it’s in your control to let go of worrying)…

Be happy wherever you are, you still can care for somebody who is very far apart from you physically but you are never separated from them in your heart…

Love connect you and the people you love. You are always “together” with the people you love… And you don’t have to be with them to stay close together physically and seeing them all the time.

And if you really want to be with your parents, want to spend time with them while they are still healthy and alive, then you can just come back and be with them for as much as you want. It is all up to you.

Most of the time, we are just giving a lot of excuses to ourselves about we cannot do this or cannot do that because of “this” or “that”… And making ourselves feeling confuse about what we really want.

The best gift that we can give to our parents to show love and gratitude to them is by taking good care of ourselves and be peaceful and happy… So that our parents don’t need to worry for us at all. And so, why do we want to worry our parents by worrying for them?

But if one day, our parents need us to be there for them, then there shall be no excuse at all that why we are not being there for them… Unless we had tried our best to be there but it didn’t happen, then we have to forgive ourselves and let go…

Wish you all the best.

Om shanti.

Meng Foong

This is the most common question that everyone asked us…

We didn’t choose Langkawi actually…

Either it was Langkawi that chose us or the universe wants us to be here…

We had no idea at all that we will be living in Langkawi one day, and teach yoga in this place. We went to Koh Lipe with our friends from Austria for holidays in January 2009.

The easiest way to get to Koh Lipe from Kuala Lumpur was to take the flight from KL to Langkawi and then take the speed boat from Langkawi to Koh Lipe. We didn’t plan to stay in Langkawi at all. We didn’t even think of to take a look at Langkawi either. We had no idea at all how Langkawi is, and had no interest to know about it either…

We wanted to stay in Koh Lipe for our entire holidays for 17 nights. And so we booked our return flight tickets to go back to KL 17 days later. Marc, my husband went to Bangkok before and he would get a 30 days tourist visa stamp. We thought that we would get a one month tourist visa upon arrival in Thailand.

As soon as we arrived in the Langkawi Airport, straightaway we took a taxi to bring us to the jetty at Telaga Habour where the speed boat will go from. About 90 minutes later we arrived in Koh Lipe, a very beautiful island with clear water and white sandy beach.

When we got to the immigration booth in Koh Lipe to get back our passports, the immigration officer gave my Malaysian’s passport a 30 days visa stamp and gave my husband’s Irish passport a 14 days visa stamp… We didn’t know that they had made a new regulation that coming into Thailand by land or by sea can only get a 14 days visa for foreigners, but Malaysian will still get a 30 days visa.

We asked the immigration officer on how could we extend his visa for another 3 days? They told us that the only way was to come back to Malaysia and go back to Thailand again… And this would cost a lot more than if we just stay in Langkawi for the last 3 days of our holiday, and then flew out from Langkawi on the day according to the flight tickets that we had booked… And thus, we decided to cut short our holidays in Koh Lipe and stay 3 days in Langkawi instead, unwittingly without any intention…

After spending 2 weeks in the beautiful clear water island of Koh Lipe, doing yoga asana practice on the beach everyday, snorkeling and collecting beautiful sea shells, and enjoying delicious Thai food on the island, we left Koh Lipe and came to Langkawi island… We didn’t really know where to head to…

We met some other tourists in koh Lipe said that Pantai Cenang is the most popular place in Langkawi and there are some budget guest-houses to choose from. We jumped on to a shared van taxi with some other tourists and they were heading to Pantai Cenang as well. Each of us paid 10 Ringgit for the 30 minutes ride…

The taxi driver let us out in front of AB Motel. But they had no room for us… We walked along the street carrying our backpack and looked at several places to stay, but they were either fully booked or they were too expensive for us.

At last, we found this Amzar Motel for 50 Ringgit a night… It’s a simple accommodation but we didn’t expect too much. But we had some noisy neighbours quarreling in the middle of the night… We didn’t sleep very well.

On the next day, we spent our time walking along the street of Pantai Cenang and strolled on the beach. The beach was nice but fulled of jet-skies, some motorbikes, cars and four wheeled drives (on the beach?), and tourists… The sea water was not as clear as in Koh Lipe… But it was very calm. We went for a swim in the sea… Well, we didn’t find the place any interesting.

On the second day, we decided to take a taxi to the town of Kuah… The taxi fare was not cheap. It was 24 Ringgit one way. We got down in front of a duty free shop. We were not really interested to do any shopping. And so, we walked around the shophouses and we came to Trimula. We saw there was a vegetarian restaurant and we went for a look at their menu, but it wasn’t appealing for us as the dishes were pre-cooked and already sitting out there for some time… They had other dishes that can be cooked fresh when you place order, but most of them were deep fried mock meat stuffs which we didn’t really want to eat…

The restaurant owner was a very friendly man. He has a touring company and car rental business as well just right next to the restaurant. We asked him what were the interesting things to do and places to visit in Langkawi. He said that the best way to get around Langkawi was to rent a car… He was right about that. Due to the expensive taxi fare in Langkawi and there were no public transport like buses, it would be cheaper to rent a car to explore the entire island.

He gave us some discount for a small car at 80 Ringgit a day. I think it was Suzuki Swift. And so, we went exploring the island with a guide map with us from him. We drove towards the highway (Yes, it was a very good highway on the island from Kuah town straight to the airport…), and turn into a side road which led us to the middle of the island. We saw the sign for Gunung Raya and drove up to Gunung Raya with a nearly empty fuel tank (Oops! We forgot to fill up the petrol tank before we went…). It was quite nice when we were up there because of the cooler temperature and the view from the top… That gave Langkawi some extra points… We managed to come back down to a petrol station to fill up some petrol.

We continued our journey and came to a waterfall, the Durian Perangin waterfall near the Air Hangat Village Hot Spring. We followed the path that led us up to the waterfall. Along the path was surrounded by rain forests. The air was so fresh and cooling. It was a small waterfall with very powerful water pressure coming down from the top. It has a big enough pool for dipping in. The energy there was really great! It had been a long time we had not experienced such an energetic waterfall and rain forest. We both liked this waterfall very much, especially my husband. He is a man of nature. He finds peace in the nature… This waterfall gave us a different impression on Langkawi.

After the waterfall, we continued exploring the island and came to the hot spring. It was nothing much there. It wasn’t renovated yet that time, and lack of maintenance. But now it is renovated and looks brand new with some hot spring Jacuzzi rooms. And from there we drove along the road passing by some villages and there was rain-forest as well as some rubber plantations along the road. This experience of driving on the road with the trees and mountains that we can see along the road and not high rise buildings, gave us great impression about Langkawi Island. We stopped by at the Black Sand Beach and the Craft Complex. That gave Langkawi another few more points.

That evening we went back to Pantai Cenang with complete different point of view about Langkawi. Langkawi was not just Pantai Cenang as what we (or some other tourists) thought it was. It has some other beautiful features, nature, waterfalls, rain forest, mountains, mangroves, river, nice beaches and mellow pace of lifestyle… It depends mostly on tourism. It is a touristic place but it is also suitable for living…

On the next day we came back to the city of Kuala Lumpur… We both had a strong feeling about Langkawi, and that led us to booked another return flight tickets to Langkawi due to AirAsia had great promotional air fare during that time. And so, we took 3 days off from our yoga classes in Kuala Lumpur and came back to Langkawi again in less than two months later. On this trip, we were mainly coming here to see if there was any suitable houses for us to stay and to teach yoga…

We told each other that if we could find a house that was suitable for us to live in and to teach yoga at the same time, then we would move up here… We believed that if we could find a house to rent, then it was meant for us to be here. It was not so easy to find a house to rent in Pantai Cenang area due to it is a popular location for foreigners to rent a house here for long stay. And if we couldn’t get a suitable house to rent, then it wasn’t meant for us to be here, and we would go back to Kuala Lumpur happily continued teaching yoga there to the regular daily drop in Malaysian students if that’s the case.

At that time and still is, most of the good condition houses here were occupied by foreigners already. What left were some half-built houses which need a lot of renovation works done before moving in…

We did think of wanting to move to some other places where we will be closer to the nature… I didn’t mind living in the city of Kuala Lumpur, I was contented living there for many years… But, if there is a choice I would prefer to live in a village near the nature just like when I was growing up… One day about one year ago before we moved to Langkawi, I painted a painting that was about a wooden house near the beach with mountains and coconut trees surrounding it… Actually since I was little, I always dreamed of living in a house by the seaside… And the house that I painted was similar to the house that we found in Langkawi later. Although Langkawi wasn’t in our plan at all in the first place.

There we were, in Langkawi again, looking for a house to rent which is not too close to the busy street of Pantai Cenang, but yet close enough for people to walk from Pantai Cenang… We wanted to look for a house that is surrounded with nature and not too close to other houses or the road… We also looked for a house that has a big enough living room that we can teach a few people in a yoga class… We also looking for a house that is within our budget… Under all these conditions that we requested, it wasn’t easy for us to find a suitable house…

We found another budget place to stay this time for 45 Ringgit a night at the Shirin Guest House… Again, we didn’t expect anything from this room. The lady owner was a very nice Japanese lady named Hiroko. She married to an Iranian man and had been living in Langkawi for many years… She also had been to India for two years studying Yoga… She is a very “strong” lady in her heart, even though from her appearance she is just a tiny skinny lady.

The best way to look for a suitable house, was to go around this area by feet. And so, we walked around the villages behind the Pantai Cenang street. It was hot and sunny, but we were determined. We asked a few villagers about vacant houses and told them our interest in looking for a house to rent. Some people asked why didn’t we buy a house instead? The truth is, we couldn’t buy any properties in that area because all the lands and houses here are Malay Reserved, and even though as a Malaysian citizen, I was not allowed to buy any of the properties here on the island except a few freeholds properties in Kuah town that were not Malay Reserved which the price is ridiculously expensive… Anyway, we wasn’t looking forward to buy any properties here… We don’t have much money and we don’t really have to own anything…

We looked and looked, and asked… Some people showed us some houses, but either they were near the noisy main road, or they were too close to some other houses, or they were too far to walk from the beach, or they were too small for teaching classes, or the rentals were out of our budget… We talked to a few people and gave them our contact numbers to call us if they heard there was any houses for rent… We left it for the universe to decide.

We were quite tired from walking for a few hours under the hot sun for two days, and decided to just take the rest of our last evening time to relax on the beach. We changed into our swimming attires and was about going to the beach… The phone rang… I answered the phone and the caller asked me in Malay if we were still interested to look for a house to rent? Why not? We told ourselves that this would be the last house that we looked… If it wasn’t the right one, then it meant that we were not meant to be here…

And so, we changed back into our clothings and went to meet up with these people that wanted to bring us to see a house… We came to a road where we had walked pass before in the afternoon. we arrived at a side road where there was a sign saying “Wrong Place”… We saw that sign earlier, and thought it was funny. Then we came to the end of the road with a little Malay wooden house standing there elegantly… The first thing we had in mind was, “Yes! A very beautiful wooden house surrounded by nature, away from the main road and other houses but yet close enough to walk from the beach…” But we still had not see the inside of the house yet and we didn’t know how much was the rental…

This house was about 150 years old. The owner bought it from somewhere else, took down the woods piece by piece with numbers written on it, and then brought it here to be resembled back into a house on this piece of land which belongs to the family. It had a small balcony to sit out looking over the garden and the rice padi fields…

They opened the door for us to get in… The living room was big enough to accommodate 6 – 8 people. Then they opened the windows on the three sides of the living room… The sunlight and the breeze rushed in… It was so beautiful!

There was a small kitchen that can only fit one person at a time, and a small bathroom that we couldn’t stretch out our arms… There was a medium sized bedroom and another small room which we could use as an office… It was almost perfect except that the kitchen was really small as my husband loves cooking and we were planning to do all the cooking ourselves for the yoga retreats beside teaching daily yoga classes…

And we discussed about the rental… It was great! the rental was within our budget although it was considered a very high price in the village for the locals… It was liked more than double the price of what it should be for a house like that. Due to the house, the location and the environment were exactly what we were looking for, we didn’t want to bother about it as it was still within our budget…

And so, we paid them one month deposit to reserve the house… We told them that we could only move in at least two months later for us to settle all our classes in Kuala Lumpur… They didn’t mind.

We came back to Kuala Lumpur the next day and were excited about our unexpected decision to move to Langkawi… At first, we thought that we could finish all our classes in two months time and move to Langkawi in June, but it wasn’t. We had to take another one month to settle everything… We called the owner’s brother who was the one in charge of the house, about our delay for moving to Langkawi… He told us that there was no problem at all… They didn’t charge us any extra rental either…

In less than two weeks time before we moved, my husband went for a 10 days Vipassana Meditation retreat in Malaysia. He came back on the day before we moved… And so, I was busy with packing our stuffs into boxes while he was gone… And when he came back from the retreat, we were ready to go. Since my husband loves to cycle but due to the heavy traffic and air pollution in Kuala Lumpur, he didn’t feel like want to do any cycling in the city… And so we thought that it would be great that he could do some cycling when we moved to Langkawi living in a village area with no heavy traffic or air pollution, we went to PJ Old Town and bought him a new bicycle on that day. But, as he cycled back to our condominium in Taman Sri Manja, one of the tyres got punctured… And so, we had to detached the wheel from the bicycle and brought it back to the shop to repair it… We were really busy that day! But we enjoyed every moment of it…

On the next day the 10th of July, we arranged a six wheeled lorry to bring our furnitures and stuffs… And we drove our little Kelisa towards Langkawi… We spent one night half way in Ipoh. On the next day, we arrived at Kuala Kedah and sent our car to the car ferry and we took the passenger ferry to Langkawi… We stayed overnight in a motel in Kuah town near the Jetty Points where the passenger ferries come in.

On the next morning we took a taxi to the car ferry at Dermaga Tanjung Lembung to collect our car and drove to our new home in Pantai Cenang… It was monsoon time and it rained all day when we were coming from Ipoh to Kuala Kedah… But it didn’t rain at the time we arrived at our new home and our lorry also had arrived soon after us… We moved all our furnitures and stuffs into the house just before it started to rain again…

And what we found out after that was, this wooden house was already been empty for six months when we saw it… It was strange that a good condition beautiful house like that would sit empty for six months because this area is a popular location for long stay tourists to rent a house… And the rental wasn’t too expensive. And another thing was, there were other people looked at the house before, and they wanted to rent the house but the owner declined to rent to them… And the owner did want to rent the house to a couple who were millionaires, but the couple didn’t take it as they said the kitchen was too small for them… And so, the house was sitting empty for six months until we saw it. And it was empty for a total of nine months before we moved in…

The house was there waiting for us to come, all that time…

Now, we had rented another house about 3 minutes walk from our yoga studio with bigger kitchen and dining hall to prepare the meals for our yoga retreats… We also had moved in to this house about three months ago, and let the wooden house just be the yoga studio for doing the yoga classes…

This was the story for the answer of the question that everyone asked us…

We didn’t choose Langkawi but Langkawi chose us…

We did make the effort to be here… And we spent quite a lot of money for moving and for getting the business license… We didn’t see teaching yoga as a business. We didn’t really need a business license to teach yoga to anyone… But when we went to the city hall to enquire about it, the head officer advised us to apply for a business license anyway… We wanted to do it the proper way legally, as it was quite a sensitive issue here about running yoga classes in a Muslims predominant village area…

The business license took more than a year for it to come through… What happened was, the business license department people were not very sure about what was going on with the yoga fatwa thing. They didn’t know whether they could give us the permission to teach yoga here. And so, they held our application for more than six months and then they sent our application to the mosques to get their advice whether we could teach yoga here… And after another few more months, the mosques finally gave us the permission with a special request that we cannot take any Muslims of any origins for attending any of our yoga classes and retreats activities… Or else our business license would be terminated, and we wouldn’t be allowed to teach yoga here on Langkawi anymore… Well, we still want to teach yoga to so many other people who come here to learn and practice yoga… And thus we respected and followed the rules and regulations that were applied to us.

For understanding more about the terms and conditions of our business license that forbids us from teaching yoga to Muslims, please click on this link to read about it… And for understanding more about yoga is unconditional and unlimited by any names and forms, please click on this link to read about it…

For applying the business license, we needed to apply for a temporary yearly renewal building permit for the house… And that also used up lots of money and took another few months before we could actually apply for the business license which took about a year altogether… We were living on my husband’s savings for many months before the classes and retreats taking off… We didn’t give up nor worried about it. I believe the universe will take care of everything… And it did.

We will continue to teach yoga here, unless the universe wants us to be at somewhere else…

Om shanti.

This video below was taken when we were in Koh Lipe

Anything that is being created, it is not real… It has a beginning and an end… It exists and will stop existing… It has qualities of names and forms… It is impermanent and constantly changing…

The real “thing” is not being created… And thus it doesn’t has a beginning or ending. It doesn’t exist and stop existing. It is attributeless, it doesn’t has quality of names and forms. It is not affected by impermanence and it doesn’t change…

This practice of Mauna and Uparati is not just applicable and limited to the so called monks and nuns who leave the world to concentrate on their own Self-realization. The real renunciation is not conditioned by any names and forms, but it is happening in the mind, and it can be at anywhere and anytime, and in anyone…

People who know real renunciation can live in the midst of the world but will not be affected, nor influenced, nor determined, nor disturbed, nor conditioned by the world of names and forms… They are free from ignorance, egoism, anger, hatred, greed, desire, dissatisfaction, craving and aversion, anxiety, restlessness, fear and worry. Out of compassion and wisdom that they realize from Self-realization, they can perform so much works or actions to help the other beings to be free, to transcend the ego and the mind, ignorance and suffering… But without being affected by the fruit of their actions.

For people who really wish to attain success in the path of yoga and meditation, the practice of Mauna (silence) and Uparati (cessation from worldly activities) are very important practice to turn the outgoing tendency of the mind inward, in order to render the mind calm and be free from restlessness and unnecessary anxieties, cares and worries for Self-introspection or Self-inquiry.

The practice of Mauna and Uparati maybe seen as “anti-social” in the eyes of the worldly people, but it is a must if we really want to go deeper in the path of yoga and meditation to know the Truth of our existence and to attain real peace. Those whose minds are wild, incontrollable, restless and passionate are not yet ready to meditate, to contemplate upon the Truth… There is nothing wrong or bad about the mind being restless and passionate… Just keep practice purification of the mind and strengthening self-control…

That’s why all the (serious) meditation retreats for people who live in the busy world to immerse themselves in meditation practice for purifying and calming the mind, and to contemplate on the Truth, they have two most important observations which are, to observe silence or Mauna (to stop any interactions and communications with the world verbally, mentally and physically) and to refrain from worldly or daily habitual activities throughout the entire retreat. This is to allow the mind to quiet down, to take a few moments of “rest”… Within that few moments of “rest”, the mind is calm and quiet, be free from anxiety, restlessness, imaginations and speculations, and naturally, without any intention to know the Truth, the Truth will reveal itself…

Only a calm and pure mind can reflect upon the Truth without the influence of the ego, the thinking, impurities, judgments and expectations…

For people who really devote this life existence for Self-realization, and they know self-control, non-attachment and renunciation, they can live in the busy world, but being undisturbed, unaffected, uninfluenced, unconditioned, undetermined by the world, and practice meditation entering into silence. The world is always restless, but they are not influenced by the world. Their mind is at rest all the time… They are different from those who need to go to retreat centres repeatedly to have some sorts of “momentary” self-control, non-attachment and renunciation in the retreat centres, to find some moments of peace, but when come back out into the world, there is no self-control, nor non-attachment, nor renunciation, and there is no peace…

In the path of yoga (mind control), these two practices are unavoidable if we really want to know about this mind (the existence of “I” (the perceiver) and all the enjoyments and suffering (the perceived) that comes along with the existence of this “I”), and to be able to go beyond this mind and to transcend the ego, craving and aversion, and ignorance or impurities, as well as transcending all the qualities of names and forms (the state of duality that derives from the perception of names and forms).

Fear and worry, anger and hatred, greed and dissatisfaction, envy and jealousy, doubts and ignorance, craving and aversion, passionate desires, the attachments towards the body and mind, the attachments towards all the names and forms that are being perceived through this mind and body with the functions of the senses and sense organs, the wrong identification with the body and mind, the sensations, the feelings, the thinkings and the egoistic “I-ness” and “mine-ness”… – All these impurities “disconnect” us from our true nature, the eternal unconditional, attributeless wisdom, bliss and peace.

We think we are “this” or “that” with certain names and forms, behaviors, believes, religions, educations, cultures, habits, hobbies, talents, characteristics and personalities. We think we have something called “self-esteem” that is being determined by who we are and what we are, what we do and don’t do, what we can do and cannot do, and what we judge ourselves and others. We think we need to have certain qualities to create or develop something what we name as “confidence” in us.

The truth is, once we know this mind and what is this ego, then all the so called “self-esteem” and “confidence”, and all the other qualities of good and bad, happiness and suffering, names and forms that we use to judge ourselves and everyone and everything in this world, they all will disappear… They don’t exist at all…

There is no “I”… There is no “self-esteem” or “confidence”… There is no need to have “self-esteem” or “confidence” to feel that we are “somebody” or to make us become “somebody”…

“Self-esteem” and “confidence” exist when we think we are this body and mind, and we are “somebody” with certain qualities, names and forms…

When we truly know our true Self, the existent of “I” with certain qualities, names and forms, will disappear… Our true Self is nameless and formless, beyond names and forms… There is no good and bad. There is no positive and negative. There is no happiness and suffering…

In order to know our true Self, not just from reading books written by enlightened beings, or having heard from past saints and sages, or from some existing teachers or Gurus telling us about “who we really are”, we need to be able to observe the practice of Mauna and Uparati in some stage in our life… Just to take some “time off” from worldly activities and interactions… For the mind to have the opportunity to be free from restlessness, unnecessary cares and worries, to concentrate and focus inwardly for introspection, for self-inquiry, for self-realization, for experiencing the real inner peace, for knowing the Truth of existence and suffering…

Note that this real inner peace is not the momentary peaceful good feeling that comes from doing some meditation, asana and pranayama practice, or by not encountering any discomforts, pain and illnesses, or by doing the things that we like to do, or by getting the things that we want, where by this type of peaceful good feeling is conditioning and limited by the qualities of names and forms, and it is impermanent, it will change and disappear…

The real inner peace is unconditional, unlimited, undisturbed and unchanging… It is always there. Never increase nor decrease… Never exist nor doest it stop existing…

This renunciation is not selfishness as some people might think that it is… This is definitely not running away from our duties and responsibilities… It’s because the biggest duty and responsibility in this existence of “I”, is to know who am “I”… If we don’t know “who we really are”, we will have no peace, no wisdom, no compassion… And we cannot help other people to have peace, wisdom and compassion, if we ourselves are not peaceful, not wise, and not compassionate… If we want to help the world, we need to help ourselves first…

When this mind is restless, wild and uncontrollable, it makes us think that we are experiencing all the enjoyments and suffering in this world of names and forms with qualities of good and bad, pleasantness and unpleasantness…

When the mind is pure and be free from all sorts of impurities and ignorance, we’ll know that there is “nobody” there to experience “anything”… The world is just being what it is being “projected” from this mind… It is the mind projecting the “world”… When the mind stops, the world disappears… When the mind ceased existing, there is no “world”…

Impure mind projects impure world of names and forms… Positive mind projects positive world… Negative mind projects negative world… Fearful mind projects fearful world… Angry and hating mind projects angry and hating world… Compassionate mind projects compassionate world… Calm mind projects calm world… Pure mind projects pure world… No mind, no world…

Yoga and meditation is to “annihilate” the mind, to “eliminate” the ego, the thought waves or the mind activities…

It doesn’t matter if some worldly passionate minds think that this practice of Mauna and Uparati is impossible, contradictory, unnecessary and means no more “fun” in life… Everyone has the freedom to choose what to do in life and what way of living… Be happy.

The meanings of life and ways of living are vary in everybody…

The Buddha and all the other saints and sages chose to live a simple, self-controlled, desire-less and non-attachment way of life and find that entering into silence and attaining real peace is the meaning of life… And some other people choose some other forms of lifestyle and find that by attaining another form of excitement, enjoyment and happiness as the meaning of life… There’s nothing wrong… Be happy.

Contemplate on this teaching and be free…

Om shanti.

Jan 1 – 7
Jan 9 – 13
Jan 16 – 20
Jan 21 – 24
Jan 25 – 31

Feb 6 – 9
Feb 11 – 16
Feb 20 – 24 (Beginners Yoga Retreat)
Feb 26 – 29

Mar 5 – 12
Mar 14 -18
Mar 26 – 31

Apr 2 – 6
Apr 11 – 18
Apr 23 – 26

May 3 – 10
May 13 – 20
May 21 – 24

June 2 – 9 (Yoga retreat in the French Alps)
June 9 – 16 (Yoga retreat in the French Alps)

Aug 7 – 11
Aug 13 – 16
Aug 23 – 30

Sept 3 – 10
Sept 12 – 15
Sept 17 – 24
Sept 27 – 30

Oct 3 – 6
Oct 8 – 12
Oct 17 – 24
Oct 28 – 31

Nov 4 – 10
Nov 18 – 25
Nov 27 – 30

Dec 3 – 7
Dec 10 – 14
Dec 16 – 23
Dec 27 – Jan 2, 2013

* Any dates other than these dates can be arranged to suit your holiday best. Please contact us for further details and booking.

You may start your retreat on the date that suit you best and for minimum 4 days 3 nights up to 14 days 13 nights.

Contact details:-

yoganow@hotmail.com

+6016 2715 082
+604 9559 082

Please visit our website for more details.

www.yoganowmalaysia.com

French Alps yoga retreat with Yoga Now Malaysia

We will be running a yoga retreat in the French Alps in June 2012.

For more details please click on this link Yoga Retreat in the French Alps.

Om shanti,

Marc and Meng Foong

Yoga Now Malaysia

+6016 2715 082

yoganow@hotmail.com

After my mom passed away, my father was, and is still missing my mom very much. He feels guilty about my mom passed away in the hospital alone without anyone of us being with her. He feels deeply regret blaming himself for not being there with my mom when she took her last breath. He believes that maybe my mom had something to say to him before dying, but now and forever, he will never know what my mom wanted to say to him before she died.

Everyday he just want to sleep and sleep, hoping that my mom will show up in his dream and talk to him. Every time when I went to visit him, he was so sad and crying, telling me that my mom didn’t come into his dream. One year later, himself being paralyzed on the bed, he was still waiting for my mom to appear in his dream. He was so disappointed. With tears in his eyes, he asked me why he couldn’t see my mom in his dream? Another thing that he kept blaming himself is, for being impatient and shouting at my mom when my mom needed his care and support for everyday routine, for the last two years before she passed away.

Due to this deep sadness missing my mom, he gave up on himself to get better. He didn’t want to go for physiotherapy or any kind of treatments or rehabilitation. He gave up on living from the moment he got paralyzed. It was more than four years now he is paralyzed and he is getting weaker and weaker…

He got paralyzed was because he went to the hospital for a body check up one day, and the nurse asked him to perform some exercises while sitting on the bed… He lost balance and fell down the bed, and his head hit the floor first… He went into coma. They sent him to Emergency Unit. There’s nothing they could do… They brought him to ICU… They informed my sister… When my sister arrived, my father was awake but with half of his body paralyzed… The doctor explained that there were three blood clots in his head that caused him paralyzed… We couldn’t undo anything even though if it was somebody’s negligence and responsibility…

My sister was thinking of getting some compensation by suing the hospital and the nurse… I told my sister, that there was no need to sue anyone… The nurse had no intention for my father to fell down from the bed… The nurse didn’t want this to happen… The nurse might be feeling so guilty already… Even if we sued the hospital or the nurse and got some compensation many years later, it wouldn’t change the fact that my father was paralyzed and it wouldn’t stop my father from being paralyzed and suffering… We should forgive and let go… One day this nurse might become a great nurse by learning from this incident…

My brother is taking care of him now, and I continue to support them financially. My brother couldn’t work because of taking care of my father. His wife also needs to take care of her own father who is paralyzed as well… What a “sad” story of our family…

My mom was paralyzed for more than 2 years before she died. She needed special care and attention from my father and my sister to help her for going to the toilet, cleaning, bathing, eating, drinking, changing clothing, resting, going somewhere, and bringing her to the hospital and traditional Chinese acupuncture centre for body check ups and treatments for a few times a week.

It was not easy to take care of a paralyzed person for 24 hours a day. Everyone got tired, exhausted, impatient, and frustrated. My mom had no choice but had to depend on my father and my sister to be her arms and her legs for everything. It was very hard for a person like my mom who used to be very independent and strong, but suddenly she lost all her mobility and freedom to do simple things, and had to depend on somebody else just for going to the toilet and cleaning herself. It was not easy for both of the person who needed help and the person who gave help.

I could never blame or complain about how my father, my sister and her daughters for being impatient with my mom and shouted at my mom frequently, when they lost their patience for being exhausted from taking care of a paralyzed person. Everyone was exhausted and frustrated. I could totally understand that. The person in sickness was suffering. The people who care for the sick person also were suffering.

I felt compassionate for my mom for being paralyzed because no body would want to be like that, being helpless losing the strength and mobility. I also felt compassionate for my father, my sister and her daughters, for being unwittingly to care for a paralyzed person. No body would enjoy spending many hours looking after a paralyzed person who needed so much care and attention. I also felt compassionate for my the other two brothers who blamed themselves, and felt bad and guilty for not being able to help out financially. I felt compassionate for myself for not being able to be there for my mom all the time, because I have to be at somewhere else making money to provide financial support for the family.

I need to be able to take care myself in order to take care of my family. I never worried. Being worried would not change anything. Worrying would not make my mom’s suffering to go away nor would make my family’s condition to become better. Instead of worrying, I use the energy to perform lots of merits to help myself and to help other beings, including my family is also one of the beings that needed help.

More than 12 years ago, my parents used to live with me in Taman Sri Sentosa flat. After my late brother in law passed away, my sister wanted to move to Senawang, a place about 1 hour drive away from KL. Why? Only she knew… Maybe she wanted to get away from this place that gave her so much unhappy memories. Maybe she needed a change of environment and change of job, to get a new perspective in her life. Just to feel different… Maybe she wanted to live in a house close to the country side than being in the city, where she can see the mountains and the big blue sky from her house…

She did mentioned that she would like to buy a landed house in Senawang because the price of the properties there was a lot cheaper than what we could get in Kuala Lumpur. And she could get a job in Senawang. Senawang is an industrial area, there are many big factories. It would make more sense if she lived there than to travel back and forth between KL and Senawang everyday.

She found a job in Senawang. She also found a landed corner house for 53,000 RM, which you won’t get the same price for the same type of property in KL.

Due to her two young daughters were studying in schools near to our home, she didn’t want to bring the daughters with her. If she brought the daughters with her, she would have to pay someone to take care of the children when she’s at work. Her monthly salary was not much. She couldn’t afford a nanny. She also had a lot of debts needed to pay back. And so, she left the two daughters with us, my parents and I, to take care of them. She would (if possible, every month) give 400 RM to my parents for taking care of her two daughter and their daily expenses. My parents also responsible for sending them to schools and bring them back from schools. The elder daughter was going to a school in the next village about 3 kilometers away. And the younger daughter was in a kindergarten in O.U.G. about 8 kilometers away from our house.

She moved to Senawang, thinking of having a brighter future. She wanted to have big house, big car… She wanted to invest in property. She bought a shop lot. She wanted to invest in life insurance. She bought 8 life insurance policies at one time. She wanted to go for holiday staying in 4/5 stars hotel pampering herself once in a while. She used her many different credit cards to pay for everything if possible. House and car installments, insurance premiums, holidays, petrol, shopping, dining, and etc. But she didn’t realize that her ambitions was too many and too big, which she ended up with having more and more debts…

She was and is a very nice and friendly person. She won’t have bad intentions for anybody. She seldom gets angry unless it is something really unbearable… She was an outgoing person who likes to go everywhere and do everything, go into the sea, up to the mountains. She wanted to have a comfortable condition of life. She wanted to provide my parents with a better quality of life. She wanted to give her daughters the best that she could give. All she wanted was just to live a better life… That was totally nothing wrong.

She involved in Red Crescent Movement helping many people everywhere when she was in school. She continued to help many people everywhere after she finished school. She lost her own handbag many times while trying to help some people who were injured in car accidents on the road. She was and still is a good friend to anybody. She’s very open-minded. She was one of the last batch students that went through English medium education. She reads, writes and speaks good English. She loves reading. She could finished reading one book and a bar of 200gm chocolate at the same time within a few hours time. She loved singing and played the guitar. She was a happy and care free person…

But, all these won’t guarantee that she won’t be getting into financial problems…

When she was living in Senawang, she would come back to Taman Sri Sentosa to see her daughters once in a while. If she didn’t come, my parents would drive to Senawang to bring her daughters to see her. Every time when my parents went to her house, my parents would be cleaning and tidying up her house for her. She didn’t like to wash the dishes after cooking and eating. Sometimes she left the dirty dishes on the table for weeks until the mold started to become one foot tall. My parents were being compassionate to her and cleaned up the house for her every time.

Her elder daughter, my eldest niece was quite a “naughty” child. She would tell lies and steal money since she was just 6 years old. One day when she was about 9 years old, I found out that my one and only 50 Ringgit note had been missing from my purse. I was sure that I had one piece of 50 Ringgit note in my purse. It was gone…

I knew exactly how much money I had because I didn’t have much money left for myself after given most of my money to my family. I was very upset then. I knew that it must be her. I couldn’t control my anger. I was thinking that we had been taking care of her but that was what she did to us. “She stole my money that I earn so hard and I didn’t even have any extra money left for myself. All my money were for my family… How could she steal the tiny little money that I had…” I got really, really angry. I shouted at her… I told her that I was going to call the police to send her to jail…

At that stage of my life, I was very unhappy due to ignorance, and I was very angry with the situation in my family and I didn’t have the wisdom to control my anger and behavior… I was over-powered by ignorance and anger…

At the beginning she didn’t want to admit that she had stolen the money. She was famous for her stubbornness. One time, her school teacher punished her for something “bad” that she did in the school. The teacher gave her a stroke of caning on her palm. She didn’t retreat her hand, and she didn’t cry. The teacher became more furious, she gave her a few more strokes and hit harder each time. She still wouldn’t retreat her hand and wouldn’t cry. The teacher gave another few more strokes until her palm started bleeding… The teacher stopped.

She came home with the injured palm, swollen and bleeding. My parents found out what had happened to her, and went to the school to complain about it to the school principal. The teacher was sent to another school to teach… The entire school knew about this, and she became famous for her stubbornness.

After a few times of questioning with me shouting at her madly. She went out. And after a few minutes, she came back with some money in a plastic bag. She already spent some of the 50 Ringgit. She hide the money in a plastic bag and placed it under one of the flower pots down stairs.

I was really disappointed. I called my sister who was in Senawang. I told her that she must come right away to take her daughter back with her to Senawang. I didn’t want her to live with us anymore. I was such cold hearted, uncompassionate and unforgiving. More than one and a half hours later, my sister came. She said she needed some time to arrange her daughter to go to school in Senawang. I said to her, I could wait for another few days or a few weeks, as long as I didn’t want her daughter to live with us anymore. I didn’t mind that her younger daughter, my younger niece to continue to stay with us and I didn’t mind taking care of her…

My parents were very upset. They loved me very much. They knew that I worked very hard to provide financial support for the family. They didn’t want me to be unhappy. They also loved the grandchildren very much. They couldn’t bear the pain being separated from their grandchildren. They sympathized my sister that she had to take care the child on her own as she also needed to work. They sympathized my niece that she wouldn’t get as much love and care as what they could give to her if she lived with my sister. And so, my parents made a hard decision. My father decided to go to Senawang to live with my sister and her older daughter, his grandchild, to take care of her. And my mom would live with me and take care of the younger daughter, her grandchild. My parents had to live separately since then… And traveled back and forth from KL and Senawang.

Once in a while my mom would drive to Senawang to see my father and the elder grandchild. Sometimes my father would come back to see my mom, his younger grandchild and me, of course… This was going on for some time. Until one day, it was time for my young niece to go to primary school. They decided that the easiest way for everybody, was to send her to school in Senawang as well. And my mom also moved to Senawang to be with my father and their grandchildren.

While living with my sister, my parents also helped her by cleaning up the house, cooking, gardening, washing laundry for everyone, and sending the children to school. And because my parents were living in her house during that time, my sister took it as my parents were living in her house, and my parents should do all the house works, and she didn’t need to give any money to my parents for looking after her children. She thought that since my parents were living and eating in her house, that my parents should contribute some money or doing the house works and serving her and her children… I didn’t exaggerate about this…

This didn’t make sense, right? While her children were living with us, and my parents took care of them, she would give some money to my parents for taking care of the children and for feeding them. But when my parents were doing the same thing for her, but living in her house, and doing more house work, and yet, my parents had to contribute money for being the “servants”… If somebody hired a helper to do some house work, the helper would get to live in the house, be fed and be paid accordingly, and shouldn’t be giving money to the employer while not getting paid…

But my parents never treat it as “working” for my sister for taking care of her house and the children, even though my sister took advantage of them to do everything for her… It wasn’t a “job” anyway… My parents love their daughter and grand daughters, and willingly to take care of them, and do everything for them, out of love… For my parents, they do everything for us out of love. Family love. Family never calculate how much we give and do not expect anything in return… But somehow their daughter took this love for granted… But yet, they didn’t mind at all… I totally understood my parents hearts, what were they thinking and feeling…

I felt that it was unfair to my parents to do so much for my sister but being treated like “free servants”, and had to pay for their stay in my sister house for food and accommodation. But, I respect their freedom to do what they wanted to do… They were happy giving all that they could give to my sister. My parents sympathized my sister had lost her husband and had to bring up two young children all by herself… It was very difficult for my sister to work and take care of the children at the same time… I could understand that.

The money that I gave them, they had the freedom on how they wanted to use it… I could not and should not dictate how they should spend their pocket money although it was coming from me… Once I gave away the money, the money didn’t belong to me anymore, and it’s up to them how they wanted to use it… But, I convinced my parents that they didn’t need to tell my sister how much money that I gave them every month knowing that my sister would borrowed off all the money that they had, and spent the money recklessly… They did listen to me. They took the money from me without telling my sister how much I gave them, but they continued to help out my sister’s living expenses without letting her knew about it… How great was that family love?!

Sometimes my sister didn’t have enough money for shopping for the daily needs, my parents would use their own pocket money to do the shopping without letting my sister know that the petty cash for daily shopping had finished because they didn’t want to worried my sister. They treat us as family, not being calculative… This was how much my parents loved us… Gave everything… And not asking for anything in return.

The children didn’t respect my parents at all. They shouted at my parents especially my mom after she was paralyzed. My parents loved them so much, took out their own pocket money that I gave them for helping out my sister living expenses. When my sister didn’t have enough money to give to the children for their schooling expenses and for pocket money at school, my parents would give away their own pocket money to the children… But they didn’t know how to be grateful and thankful… Again my parents didn’t mind at all, even though sometimes they complained to me about what happened, and cried…

One time, my parents had finished using the pocket money, and my sister didn’t give them money for buying rice and vegetables… My sister wasn’t eating at home for a while. She was working another part time job as guest relation officer in a Karaoke night club… My parents didn’t want to ask money from me. They didn’t want to let me know… They didn’t want to ask money from sister as well, because they knew my sister had no money to pay bills, to pay all her installments… They didn’t let my sister know that there was no more rice in the house… They were eating dried bread for days, until I passed them their pocket money through my uncle… I had been giving them enough money for their living, but they spent all their money for the grandchild and my sister… And they had to eat dried bread for many days… I felt so sad, so sad for my parents…

Many years had passed by, the elder daughter didn’t get any better or wiser… She became worse. She couldn’t stop telling lies and stealing. One day she stole her friend’s ATM card and took out lots of money from her friend’s saving accounts. She bought many dresses, shoes and bags. She came home with all these new things, and told my parents and her mother that she had a rich boyfriend who bought her all these things. Sometimes she also brought something for my sister, my parents, and the younger sister to show that she did care for the family. She was only fourteen years old. My parents and my sister didn’t suspect anything…

Until one day, her friend’s mother found out that it was her who had been stealing her daughter’s money, and came to see my sister and my father, and threatened to call the police. My father panicked. He kneel down and begged to the woman not to call the police. My father was crying. He was afraid that his grandchild would be filed criminals record and would not have a future anymore. It is a huge humiliation for a man to kneel down to a woman and beg for spareness. My sister promised that she would slowly pay her back all the stolen money which was about 4,000 Ringgit. It was a big amount for my sister as she was already having lots of debts. And so, the woman sympathized my sister situation and was moved by my father’s love for his grandchild. She accepted the deal…

I believed that my niece wasn’t really “bad”. She stole partly was because she was frustrated with the unfortunate condition of this family. Always not enough money for food and for living, not to say to have any extra enjoyments. She also wanted to be nice to the family, and to be able to give something back to the family or to help out financially. But she went for the wrong way to get the things that she wanted…

My niece didn’t learn from this. She ended up getting pregnant when she was sixteen years old and gave birth to a baby girl. She didn’t even know that she was pregnant when her period stopped for 4 months. It was when she felt sick one day and went to the hospital and found out that she was pregnant. She broke up with the baby girl’s father not long after the baby was born, and went out with some other men… And now, she is married to a young man, and gave birth to a baby boy early this year…

My sister was quite happy to be a grandmother. So as my parents were very happy to be great grandparents. They loved this great grandchild so much. This baby had brought some joy and smiles into this family while battling with financial problems. After given birth, my niece didn’t really know how to take care of a baby. This time, my sister had became the baby’s nanny…

Before this great grandchild was born, my mom was already paralyzed from stroke attack. My father and my sister had to take turn to care for her, to bring her to the toilet, to wash her, to clean her, to feed her, to bring her to the hospital and traditional Chinese acupuncture centre for body check ups and treatments for a few times a week… It was not easy.

When the great grandchild was born, it was like a “blessing” to my parents, especially for my mom. She felt so happy seeing her great grandchild. All her sadness from being disabled and being shouted by her exhausted and frustrated husband, daughter and the two grandchildren were gone when she saw this little great grandchild… My mom would cried when she told me about how she was being treated when I was not there… But she would smile when she talked about the great grandchild…

It was December 24th, 2006, after my morning yoga class at home, my sister called me. My mom had passed away in the hospital… The last time when I saw her was a few weeks ago… I told her that she didn’t need to worry for us anymore. And she should let go… I also told her that I love her very much as well as my sister and my brothers also love her very much, and I asked her what would she like to do with her funeral… She told me that she wanted to be cremated and the funeral should be held in Kuala Lumpur so that her friends could come to see her for the last time…

I told my sister what our mother had told me… And we did what she wanted us to do…

I went to the hospital with my brothers and sister in law… I saw my mom on the table. She looked so peaceful as she was smiling. I held her hands and rubbed her hands, her arms and her face… I kissed her cheek and forehead… Goodbye, mother… Thank you.

I didn’t cry…. Not until a few months later… I started to cry… For all the love that she gave me and to the family… Her sacrifice… Her wisdom… I realized how much I missed her… I had to let her go. But she’ll be with me all the times in my heart.

No matter what had happened in the past, who’s right, who’s wrong, who’s suffered most… I wish my family love and peace… Forgive and let go. Forgive ourselves for being imperfect and forgive others for being imperfect…

Life was never easy for me and my family, but I learned to be grateful, thankful and content… I learned to forgive and let go… I learned to be happy no matter what… And love unconditionally…

The truth is, it is not the objects or happenings out there that give us the state of mind of peace and happiness. It is not what we do or don’t do that make our mind feel happy or unhappy.

All the objects, happenings, names and forms (sights, sounds, smells, taste, touch, thinking/thoughts) out there, they have no qualities or intentions to make us happy or not happy, peaceful or not peaceful. It is the one-pointedness state of the mind that is free from craving and aversion, free from greed and dissatisfaction when we do the things or get in contact with the things that we like and want, that generates the (momentary) peace and happiness in the mind. When the mind loses it one-pointedness due to impermanence or disturbance from other objects, names and forms, that momentary peace and happiness will be disturbed and fade away. Emptiness or dissatisfaction/greed/craving for some other satisfaction and happy feelings immediately take over the experience of momentary contentment, peace and happiness that comes from one-pointedness or concentration of the mind.

That’s why different people find (momentary) peace and happiness in many different ways by doing the things and getting the objects that they like and want. Some people feel good from doing good actions and enjoy doing good actions. Some people feel good from doing evil actions and enjoy doing evil actions. It is not the good actions or the evil actions that give us the good and happy feelings. It is the one-pointedness state of mind while doing any actions that gives us the momentary state of satisfaction and happy sensation in the mind.

We often hear people say that there are many different ways or methods of how to be happy in life. There’s nothing wrong with this saying. We do get (momentary) happy feelings or sensations when we are able to do the things that we like to do, when we can get the things that we like, when we can enjoy some precious moments with our family and friends, when we can do some charity works helping other beings, when we can contribute to the society and the world through many ways, when we can live a good quality and healthy lifestyle, when we can enjoy active social life and interactions with one another, when we can live our life meaningfully by doing the things that we like to do and want to do, achieve our goals and dreams, or attain some sort of power, material belongings, name and fame, and etc…

Definitely, there will be momentary happy feelings and satisfaction coming from doing or attaining all the things being mentioned in the above. In the teachings of yoga and meditation, this type of momentary happy feelings and satisfaction is called conditional happiness and satisfaction that is conditioned and determined by the qualities of the external objects, happenings, names and forms. It will be disturbed by some other objects, greed, dissatisfaction, craving and aversion, and it will fade away. This momentary satisfaction and happy feeling is conditioned and determined by what we like and dislike, want and don’t want, and what we agree and disagree with. When our craving for certain things is being gratified, our mind experience contentment and feel good. And when the craving is not being gratified, the mind experience discontentment and doesn’t feel good.

There is no doubt that there are many ways and methods to be happy in life, but what really generates the happy feelings or sensations in us is because of the mind is being in the present moment, free from the past or the future, free from craving and aversion for that time being when the momentary satisfaction arise due to we are able to do and getting the things that we like and want, or when we come in contact with the objects that we agree with.

This type of momentary conditional happiness is not the unchangeable real happiness that the teachings of yoga and meditation talk about. Those who really practice yoga and meditation will not waste energy in chasing after all these momentary happiness and satisfaction that are impermanent, changeable, dissatisfying, and are conditioned and limited by the different qualities of names and forms. The real peace and happiness is already there within us, never increase nor decrease, never disappear, undisturbed or unaffected or undetermined by impermanent conditional external objects, happenings, names and forms. We just need to purify our mind to remove impurities and ignorance, calming the restless agitated state of mind, and we will realize this true and eternal peace and happiness that is always there with us and never leave us.

Realize this Truth, we will stop looking out for momentary peace and happiness and we will rest in peace and happiness that is already there in us that is unconditional, unlimited and undisturbed by any external objects, happenings, names and forms.

It also means that, no matter what is the condition of our body and the mind, or the condition of our life, the environment and the entire worldly existence, we will always rest in peace in our true Self or true nature. That is the means of yoga and meditation practice…

All the names and forms are just being what they are. They are not something good or bad, positive or negative, happiness or suffering…

The pure and calm mind that is free from the influence of the ego and the intellect (being free from selfish intentions, judgment, comparison, expectation, craving, aversion, dissatisfaction, greed, pride, arrogance, anger, hatred, jealousy, fear and worry, and all sorts of impurities) will be able to perceive the reality of everything as it is, not necessary the way that we want it to be or the way that we think it should be…

There is no craving for something that is being categorized by the intellect as good, positive and happy. There is no aversion towards something that is being categorized by the intellect as bad, negative and suffering.

Suffering disappears. Unhappiness disappears. Fear and worry disappear.

When there is no suffering, unhappiness, fear and worry, there’s no need to looking for peace and happiness, because peace and happiness is already there…

The moment when the craving for peace and happiness, as well as the aversion towards unpeacefulness and unhappiness stop, that moment is peaceful…

Peaceful feeling or sensation that comes from being with the people that we like and agree with, by getting or coming in contact with the objects that we like and want or desire, and being in a pleasant environment, it’s conditional, it’s limited, it’s impermanent. It will change, be disturbed and disappear. It is dissatisfying in its nature.

When we stop attaching to this peace and happy feeling or sensation that are conditioned and limited by external objects, happenings, names and forms, we will rest in the unconditional and unlimited peace in our true nature.

If we depend on certain good conditions or objects to feel peace and happiness, then very soon we will be disappointed and being unhappy when impermanence strikes.

The essential teachings in yoga and meditation is to realize the Truth about we are not the body, we are not the mind. This body and this mind don’t belong to us, and they are not us.

There is not a thing that is “I”. There is no “I” am performing some actions or not performing any actions. There is no “I” there to go through birth, growth, decay, old age, sickness, and death. There is no “I” there being happy or unhappy.

It is just the body and mind being existing, changing and eventually will stop existing.

There is no “I” there to experience all the perceptions of sights, sounds, smells, taste, touch and thinking/thoughts. It is just the body and mind experiencing all these impermanent names and forms.

There’s no “I” there to experience all sorts of emotions, feelings and sensations, pleasant and unpleasant experiences.

There is no “I” being good or not good.

There is no “I” there to have fear, worry, doubts, dissatisfaction, craving, aversion, pride, arrogance, to be happy or sad, to be praised or censured, to be positive or negative, to be healthy or sick, to be strong or weak, to experience success or failure, respectful or disrespectful, auspiciousness or inauspiciousness, completeness or incompleteness, and to be loved or to love…

All the qualities, dualities, names and forms disappear.

There is no arguments, criticisms or justifications.

The mind is resting in silence…

That is when we realize the Truth of ourselves and the entire worldly existence…

Om shanti.

No matter what we do or don’t do to find peace and happiness in life, true and lasting happiness is there when we are free from being conditioned and determined by all the external objects of names and forms, and when we are free from being determined by judgment and expectation coming from our own self and other people, and when we are free from the attachment towards our actions and the fruit of our actions…