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Nietziello
Netherlands
7 Posts |
 Posted - Oct 30 2013 : 05:47:13 AM
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Hey everyone!
So in the book Advanced Yoga Practices by Yogani one of the first lessons is Desire. Sometimes this desire is present but not strong enough I think. Just as the person that gets cancer from smoking would love to go back in time and quit that stupid habit right away. But did not have enough desire or maybe willpower to do so in the past.
I have the same thing going on for myself. I have been reading about spirituality for about 6 years now. Somehow I never even sat down to meditate or follow a yoga class. I did buy meditation cushions and a yoga mat though, but I never really gone through with it and started practicing.
I wonder why this is. Is there anyone out there that has experienced the same as me? What was/is your motivation to practice day in and out? |
Edited by - Nietziello on Oct 30 2013 07:48:46 AM |
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mathurs
United Kingdom
197 Posts |
Posted - Oct 30 2013 : 09:10:42 AM
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Nietziello,
Welcome to the forums.
Give it a go. Just read through http://www.aypsite.org/13.html
and start meditating. If you think it felt alright, then you might see the desire and commitment to carry on arise within you.
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AumNaturel
Canada
687 Posts |
Posted - Oct 30 2013 : 09:29:30 AM
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Welcome Nietziello,
Usually anyone would come across at least some material that would say something like 'put this into practice, otherwise these words surmount to nothing at all' as evidently you have for putting out the question, which to me says you're actually ready to start now and continue your journey along those lines. I'll bet if you even try to ignore the question, and divert all available time to reading instead, something will keep bringing you back to it. No need to see it as a definite start but an ongoing and ever-present exploration in the experience that's always there.
I too have had occasions where I delayed practices, as much as I wanted to dedicate as much time to them, for the purpose of doing some reading, reflecting, pondering on my own terms. I've taken the above 'don't read, just practice' too far and neglected it, but was called back to it for a time. It was very worthwhile, like adding rocketfuel to already burning bhakti, and it also led me to AYP, very literally, book by book.
Your reading on the topic is desire, and doing that only fuels it. It is one approach of many, as valid as any other, one I share when first coming across a book by Robert A. Monroe called Ultimate Journey and amazed that anyone could put such material under the non-fiction section. Soon after it was the Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot. Before that it was fascination with internet sites and TV shows about aliens and UFOs, coming across some forum in 56k dial-up days mentioning things like ESP/PK. Your desire is there, and anything around you will bring it out. You go full circle, only in wider loops, when you find yourself reading Frederick Aardema or posting about the very same things that interested you way back then.
Motivation to practice day in day out? So many reasons it seems impossible to go to the root of it. Probably this thing called bhakti. |
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Nietziello
Netherlands
7 Posts |
Posted - Oct 30 2013 : 10:12:08 AM
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Thank you both for your replies.
@mathurs
I will start today!
@AumNaturel
I think you cleared things up for me. I know about Robert A. Monroe, he does out of body stuff if I am correct. He has a whole institute about those kinds of experience if I remember rightly.
Would you say that the desire fades over time and you just consider practicing as normal as breathing? That the start and the beginning are the hardest part of the practice in its whole? Is a session of practice ever a bore?
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jonesboy
USA
594 Posts |
Posted - Oct 30 2013 : 1:10:27 PM
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Great question Nietziello!
Many times I have done some activity, liked it and then bought the equipment to really be able to do it and thats when I seem to quit. Weird and a common theme for me.
Even for advanced practictioners meditation can be a bore. Not in the mood or even if you are, nothing is happening and you are just waiting for the timer to go off.
It really isn't about how you feel during the session. It is how you feel during the day. How you will notice your life change and those around you change all for the better.
It really is pretty amazing.. I wish you the best 
Tom |
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AumNaturel
Canada
687 Posts |
Posted - Oct 30 2013 : 9:40:22 PM
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| Desire in my experience doesn't fade, it increases. Cultivating the habit makes in more internalized. It also helps to remind myself now and then it is a core practice among many paths, and there's no going wrong with it since everything else depends on the inner silence, purification, energy cultivated, insight, and so on. Being in peace and feeling some revitalizing during meditation offsets any boredom, and to me it is easier to get absorbed in the state so that time flies by, a real timeless state. But it is best to just do meditation, and not risk stalling the process with thinking about it as tempting as that might be. I'd go as far as saying I find the state interesting, the pursuit of letting go and sitting in silence rewarding, but again, better to return to the procedure and not risk getting caught up along the way. |
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Nietziello
Netherlands
7 Posts |
Posted - Nov 01 2013 : 02:34:31 AM
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Thanks for your replies jonesboy and AumNaturel!!
@jonesboy
I think it is a very valuable insight your giving here. It can be sometimes not so much as what you get out of the practice itself but what happens after the practice. I think your saying here that the change of emotions or feelings does not necessarily need to come during the practice but when your not practising. So when there is not any real change during the practice and it could even be boring but it could very well give its effect when your done. Thanks for your insight!
@AumNaturel
Thanks for explaining your experience on your meditation on this particular part of desire. Everytime I hear about letting go I think of Ajahn Chah. His teaching is almost entirely about letting go and it is amazing how much wisdom resides in letting go. Cultivating my new habit will be much easier now. Thank you!
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_shakti_
Canada
48 Posts |
Posted - Nov 02 2013 : 03:15:43 AM
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Some believe that desire/bhakti is a form of grace.. and it is undeniably a mystery, seemingly out of our direct control.
I often lean in the other direction, my desire and bhakti is so strong, that is virtually all I care about. I have had periods where it feels like I'm just going through the motions, but once you have built up a daily practice, it's much easier to keep going with it. Especially knowing that the desire/bhakti will return.
Perhaps you are 'shoulding' on yourself about getting started with it? Maybe just wait for spirit to move you. It sounds like you are getting more and more prepared all the time.. I'm betting that is happening for a reason :) |
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DoctorWho
USA
47 Posts |
Posted - Nov 08 2013 : 03:10:52 AM
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Excellent insight by everyone. Thanks to all.
@Shakti
I agree about bhakti as something "...directly out of our control". If I read you right, it's similar, if not the same as bodhichitta in the Buddhist tradition. Bodhichitta is not a compassion that we simply generate ourselves. It does not originate with us. It's a potent force all it's own; all we can do is 'make a space for it' so to speak.
We have to create the causes and conditions for bhakti to come into our lives. We are co-creators of it in a sense.
All The Best |
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