Take responsibility in relationships

By on July 22, 2016   /   Health  

Do you feel suffocated by your parents’ expectations?
Can you differentiate attachment vs. responsibility in relationship?
How do you take responsibility in creating a loving and fulfilling relationship?

Many of us are confused with attachment in relationship instead of having a right understanding about responsibility especially when it comes to relationships with parents. After all, our parents are the first two role models in our lives and they have major influence in our lives. Not only we imbibe their body languages, we also are influenced by their thought patterns. This is further complicated by the societal expectations on parents. This is one relationship every seeker needs to complete with as he or she travels on the path of spirituality because the parental conditioning is the last imprint to leave our bio-memory which shows how deep-rooted the conditioning can be.
Relationship is a profound subject, however, I have been blessed to receive more clarity from the guidance of a living enlightened master, Paramhamsa Nithyananda (fondly known as Swamiji).

  • Relationship with parents. I remembered Swamiji made it very clear in one discourse in 2009, he said that we are not bound by our parents to live our life the way they want. It is not our duty or responsibility to live their unfulfilled dreams through us. One wrong cognition that many parents carry is they think their child is their extension, so unconsciously they try to force their child to live a life they think is ‘best’ for the child. The truth is the moment we are born, we are independent beings with our own wisdom. We have come to fulfil our own life purpose and possibilities. Our duty to our parents is to give them emotional and moral support whenever they need it, love them and care for them but we don’t give them our life. Many times, we mistake our attachment to them and powerlessness as a duty and responsibility. If you are completely bound by your parent’s way of living and it has become a duty, there is then no possibility for growth and expansion. You will lose the courage to break through and upgrade yourself. Responsibility to your parents is giving them moral support but the highest responsibility to our parents is helping them to become liberated by living enlightenment. The same understanding applies to us when we become new parents, we are there to enjoy our children’s presence and support them so that they can experience their highest possibility.
  • Relationship with partner/spouse. The relationship with your partner is like doing penance (tapas) because it truly requires constantly working on yourself and making yourself settle with that person and making that person accept you as you are. To have a loving fulfilling relationship, there should be no hidden agenda but each person is willing to take responsibility in making the relationship work. By working on ourselves and evolving our space, naturally we will be able to align more and more with each other. xannonce.ch
  • Relationship with teachers. The responsibility to our teachers is keeping the knowledge they have imparted to us alive and making it flourish and benefit humanity. Whatever knowledge we learn from teachers, we ensure the continuity of this knowledge to the next generation of humanity.
  • Relationship with Guru. A Guru-disciple relationship is the most mysterious of all relationships. All the other relationships have happened from the mental and emotional levels. But Guru-disciple relationship operates from the very core of our being. Actually it is not even a relationship, it is a connection between a realized one and the unrealized, the alchemy of merging into oneness. Then the disciples will realize that they were always realized, just that they were not awakened to it. So the only responsibility a disciple has to the Master is to achieve a completion with everything in life and experience oneness (advaita) with Existence.

In essence, we are a free being, we are not bound by anything in relationships. The courage to break free from all expectations and the willingness to take responsibility to stay true to who we truly are is the first step toward becoming integrated, complete and authentic with our being. Namaste: D

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Prana: The Vital Life Energy

By on July 15, 2016   /   Health  

The topic –Prana is one of my favourite topics because it connects me back to the very energy source, Nature. I am currently reading a book called ‘Siddhas: The Masters of Basics’ written by Pal Pandian which I like to share with my readers.

The first truth we need to know – not only the structure of our human body but also the structure of everything in the universe, both visible and invisible, with form and without form, from the single atom to the entire universe, is all formed by the principle life-shaping energy called Prana.

The Divine Creator creates and sustains all realms of Existence from this primal life force. This matrix of primal patterns builds up our entire Cosmos along with us in it and the connection between us and Prana is inseparable. In this interconnected web of primal energy, the Cosmos, Prana bridges everything external and everything internal together as ONE. So anything even our breath is capable of affecting and altering every other thing.

Here’s a simple test. Place your left index finger on the spot on your wrist just below your right thumb. You can feel your pulse. Now, without removing your index finger, just hold your breath for a few seconds. That very instant, you will feel a change in the pulse pattern. We can feel for ourselves the diminished pulse rate for the moments we hold our breath in check. The influence is apparent and immediate.

Another example is the way how our breathing becomes distorted over time due to unconscious lifestyle. As soon as the natural flow of breath changes, the regular flow of external air within the body is somewhat disturbed and the temperature of the inner parts of our body rises a little. This rise in temperature is capable of destroying millions and millions of microbes within our body. If the condition is not addressed, this may even interrupt some bodily functions and bring diseases.

This small exercise makes you realise that the effect of any restrain we do extends beyond ourselves to all over the Universe causing appropriate results or reactions. The formless Prana repeatedly acquires bodies in this world and this cycle of taking birth goes on until we attain a state that acquires a liking to remain without a body as pure vital force – the silent spirit. This primal Cosmic energy has its own vital significance and pattern. It returns to the source from where it first originates. For one moment, assume that the Prana of the whole universe is retained for a few minutes. All of us would die in a catastrophe. Compared to the immense universe our petty ego is simply nothing. Similarly, compared to our entire body, the countless microbes that inhabit our body are individually nothing. Fundamentally, we are affected by each and every change that takes place in our environment based on the interconnectedness of this energy web.

I remembered my Guru, Paramahamsa Nithyananda (fondly known as Swamiji) once spoke on the topic ‘Collective Consciousness’, he revealed the first truth ‘All our minds are not individually separate pieces of the universe. They are all one and the same.” We are all totally interlinked, closely networked. If we go a little deeper into this truth, the moment we will understand that we are a part of the collective consciousness, we don’t have individual identity or ego, and we go beyond any idea of pain, suffering, depression and disease. With Prana, we can experience to this egoless state of being. That’s why the yogis perform pranayama as a purification process for the body-mind system before they experience the undifferentiated state of consciousness.

Prana is what connects our formless state with our formed state. Just as the life-principle within us makes use of this energy to structure our body, that very life-principle gets freed from the body by the withdrawal of this energy. It operates involuntarily, similar to the involuntary process of our breathing. Before the formation of different cells in our body, the life force by its own flow first forms a basic structure of invisible channels called Nadis. Depending on this flow, the Nadis assume different names. Sushumna is the central channel which is said to be the Vatha Nadi as it executes the main animating principle. The Pingala Nadi (Pitta Nadi) works the solar principle of giving vitality, growth, metabolism to the embryo. The Ida Nadi (Kapha Nadi) gives enough nourishment to the organs and keeps the body temperature in check. Prana creates and maintains this genetic structure and is in turn maintained by it. The primal Creator in His creation of a human body, using Prana first creates the 3-fold layers before anything else. Prana is based upon which the 3 bio-regulating forces – Vatha, Pitta and Kapha are formed. The tri-doshams (3 doshas) is what determines the constitution of the human body for that entire lifetime. This starts the formation of microcosm – the human body – by determining the looks and design of the 3 life shaping forces of a human.

The next truth – the ancient Siddhas describe Nature as an endless flowing phenomena, always changing and moving. This is Mother Nature’s inherent nature. When this flow of existence experiences a block, it responds by an alarm. We have seen how our insensitive acts hamper the flow of Mother Nature and result in frightening natural calamities. Our bodies are not separate from this river flow of existence and its inherent principle. The ancient masters declare disease and illnesses are a result of our own insensitivity and ill health the undeniable evidence of us persistently turning a deaf ear to what our body intelligence is telling us. The Siddhas call this river flow of natural existence that nurtures life as ‘Vaasi” (living) and the blocks as “Viyadhi” (deviated from own nature).

In essence, Nature which expresses as Prana – vital life energy – responds to those who live as Nature. You can live in Nature only by loving Her. Life is a journey – the journey of a spiritual being going through a human experience. Unfortunately, human beings forgot to identify with the language of the Universe and feel the abundance that Nature so unselfishly shares. Our modern day high-strung lives are crowded with demanding commitments hence making it easy to drop our self-awareness and replace it with an object-oriented mentality which brings stress, fatigue, disorders and chronic conditions. All we need to do is turn our awareness inwards and start listening to the silence, be with our self with great ease. By pure listening to them and to ourselves, we create an environment where they are nurtured and recognized, hence preventing them from being pushed into obscurity by our aggressive misuse. You will soon feel you are part of the grand Universe of life and also inextricably connected to the physical dimensions of life by being in your body. Prana, the energy pervading all over the living Universe is embodied and rooted in physical form and life as it nurtures your body-mind-spirit every moment, your connection with it nurtures it more. Namaste 😀

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Power of Blessings

By on July 8, 2016   /   Life Solutions  

I never knew the power of blessing till I met my Guru, Paramahamsa Nithyananda (fondly known as Swamiji). In the Chinese culture where I am born in, it is not something we practise consciously. As a child, I always observed how my mother prayed to our ancestors and family deities. The way her generation related with the Divine was through prayer. They relate with God like a business, offering something just to beg for something to be showered in their life. The idea they carry about self is that human beings are lower beings than Gods.

The Sanatana Hindu Dharma gave me the right introduction of self from the context of I am the Source. The moment I cognized that I am also made of the same source as the Existence, I begin to understand and appreciate the power of blessing.

The first thing I learned about blessing from Vedic culture was to bless myself as the first step to bless the world. Blessing myself means accepting me as I am, respecting self as I am, revering me as I am, and feeling that there is something worthy in me as I am. This feeling builds a kind of self-love which is important in shifting the space of negativity we are usually caught in due to the societal conditioning and the wrong thought patterns.

The more we experience a space that is filled with joy or bliss continuously, the more we want to bless our self and bless the entire world and Universe. Swamiji said that “Blessing has to be done to everything because it is consciousness. It is not just an action, it is consciousness. It is not an action directed towards a person; it is a consciousness radiating toward everything!” When we have the presence of an enlightened master, the whole world is continuously blessed by him who is in bliss. His very presence is a blessing, an eternal blessing. His words are a blessing, his actions are a blessing, and his very breathing is a blessing, even though sometimes the blessing comes in a way we don’t directly understand. Everything that happens in his presence is a blessing. When we are established in pure witnessing consciousness, anything that crosses us only awakens blessings.

Swamiji gave an apt analogy – when the air crosses dust, dirt or drainage, it creates a bad smell. When the same air crosses the ripe old sandalwood tree, it creates the sandalwood smell. A confused, chaotic, unconscious, clutched, identifying mind is the dirt, dust, and drainage. A pure, radiating, unclutched inner space is the ripe sandalwood tree. Any breeze that blows through the sandalwood tree carries the smell of the sandalwood tree: the blessing. Same way, whatever crosses the witnessing consciousness will have the smell of a blessing. That is why any food touched by an enlightened being becomes prasada – consecrated or energized food. Water touched by him becomes teertha, holy water. The place where he lives becomes kshetra – a temple. Idols touched by him become deities. And a person touched by him becomes enlightened. Witnessing pure consciousness is like a sparsamani – a touchstone. Whatever the sparsamani touches becomes pure gold. In the same way, whatever pure witnessing consciousness touches, it becomes a blessing to the whole Cosmos. Blessed are those who have a living enlightened master who constantly blesses them in all dimensions of their lives.

Now, whatever new endeavours I want or whenever I want to start something new, I always seek blessings from the Guru, sangha (spiritual community) and my own blessing. At Singapore sangha, we have different Facebook groups to request blessing from Swamiji as well as What’s App groups on smartphone where we can simply send a blessing request for  anything in life ranging from success in getting a new job, passing of exam, speedy recovery from sickness, graceful exit from death, literally anything under the Sun. One thing I also learned, even after we receive the blessing of the Divine, it does not mean we can just be lazy and not take responsibility. A blessing means the energy and knowledge for manifesting that reality are already sent, we have to take the responsibility to create that reality we want. I’ve seen people asking for blessings but never take any responsibility. When the desired outcome doesn’t happen, they carry incompletion with the master for not causing their reality. Sometimes despite whatever we’ve done and the desired outcome doesn’t happen, it means whatever we seek is not meant for us and the blessing comes in other ways which our mind may not comprehend logically. That happens only when we have tremendous trust in the Master.

Blessing is an experience, not a subject we can talk much, we only have to experience it. We only have to live it and let the pure witnessing consciousness touch our life as a happening of miracles. Blessings!

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