Sublime

“There is a story, a metaphor, that perhaps you may find useful,” said His Holiness. “A man arrives home to find a huge pile of sheep manure has been dumped on his front yard. He didn’t order the manure. He does not want it. But somehow, it is there, and his only choice now is to decide what to do with it. He can put it in his pockets and walk arou

Les discours que Goenka prononçait le soir exposaient les fondements de sa technique. Le concept-clé en est l’anitya, « l’impermanence ». Si l’on apprécie pleinement l’impermanence de chaque stimulus physique, il n’y a plus qu’un pas vers l’application de ce principe d’anitya à tous les événements et désagréments de la vie. Car tout passe, et l’on

Then the discrimination between self and nonself, mine and not mine, will vanish.

More important than “mastering” Mūlabandha is the joyful, unending process of keeping the heart and mind connected and open for the moment compassion emerges in the form of Mūlabandha. This kind of practice is very advanced and profound, and it erases the subtext of ego striving.

The old koans tell stories of people much like ourselves who eventually liberated themselves from their own fantasies of “Buddha.” It would be a shame to become so enchanted by their example that we use it simply to renew our own dualistic fantasies of delusion and enlightenment.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has spent much of his life teaching yoga-based breathing practices around the world through his organization the Art of Living Foundation.