Bindu 23 - engelsk 7.p65 - Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School

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population catastrophe. Rousseau would have recognised these thoughts, which in an unforeseen way illustrates the dilemma in everything we call ‚development‘.” On the inner sides of society’s unconscious influence, professor Henri Laborit is expressing himself in the film, My Uncle From America, by Alain Resnais: “The unconscious constitutes a fearsome instrument, not so much because of its repressed part, repressed because too painful to express and because the socio-cultural environment would have punished it; but on the contrary by what this very same socio-cultural environment allows and sometimes even rewards. All is put in the person’s mind since early childhood, the individual being unconscious of it, and yet being led into action just by that part. It is this unconscious - different from the Freudian one - which is the most dangerous. What we define as personality is a mish-mash of value judgements, prejudices, common truths becoming more rigid as the individual grows older and questions it less and less. Taking away but one stone from this building will be enough to see it crumble down. Then appears anxiety. To express itself, this anxiety will not stop for murder, on the level of the individual, nor for genocide or war on the level of social groups. We are just starting to understand by which mechanism, how and why, levels of hierarchy and dominance have been established through all of history up to our present time. We have to know the laws of gravity so as to travel to the moon. Knowing the laws does not imply that we are free of gravity. It just means that we 22 can use them to do something else. As long as we haven’t publicised very widely, for the individuals of this planet, how their brain is functioning and how they use it, as long as we don’t tell that its function has always been, up to now, to dominate others, there will be little chance for changes.” Ideals and daily life I believe that ideals are quite dangerous for our existence, as they easily make us go to extremes, both politically, spiritually and culturally February 1969, the day after sannyasa. and consequently miss the goal. They deprive us of our ability to appreciate what is happening in the situation we are in. It is important, especially for the yogi, not to pull the wool over people’s eyes, which can develop into intolerance and sectarianism. There are no easy solutions, it requires our own commitment. Also for our own sake, we must take heed to, for example, the Zen monk, who discovers that it is in daily life the miracle is found. That we should occupy ourselves with what lies directly before us, tasks, people close to us and what we carry within us and wish to express. The ideal easily creates neurosis, as when one sees nothing but smiling people in advertisements for healing, religion, New Age, positive thinking, etc. Where is the deeper earnestness, I am tempted to ask, and the knowledge that working with oneself implies that one undauntingly meets all aspects of one’s mind and personality? Can one allow oneself to see and, more importantly, to feel these aspects - without it leading to self-indulgence? The teacher who has not permitted the crisis in him or herself, will have a tendency to suppress it in teaching situations by avoiding to let go. Stability, discipline and consistency are certainly called for, a choice one makes oneself, and a necessity if one does not want to get lost in one’s own fantasies, or be restrained by other’s thoughtlessness. In another way, too, ideals create intolerance and hypocrisy. Is it not true that it is often demanded of our teachers to be pure saints that we can imitate or fantasise about? That they are not allowed to be ordinary people, capable of expressing sorrow, anger, childishness, pride, jealousy, disappointment or spontaneous joy - not to mention a sense of humour? I am not implying that the teacher should be an inverted snob and try to be someone else other than he or she is - but there is no reason to be afraid of showing one’s true colours. When we ourselves know what is behind the mask, then we can also stand by what is natural. Once we have learnt that the mind and personality are tools for surviving in the physical dimension - a
surface through which we communicate with the world around us - then we can fearlessly go deeper and become one with our whole being, our true identity. The Tantric attitude helps here: by unhesitatingly remaining in the state we find ourselves in, the state can be made conscious and thereby exhausted. Here is a very old instruction: “Lie down as dead. Enraged in wrath, stay so. Or stare without moving an eyelash. Or suck something and become the sucking” (Malini Vijaya Tantra) There are also what I would call escapist ideals. I have met people who dream of living in the primitive tribes found on the outskirts of civilisation, in the rain forests or deserts of Asia, Australia or South America and in the Arctic regions of northern Europe and North America. Cultures that are unfortunately dying out. No doubt they represent values that we indeed have use for. When, however, it becomes an ideal for people, who are unable to meet the challenges and undergo a process of liberation in daily life or the society they live in, then they have an excuse for dreaming instead of acting. And isn’t it here you find many socalled teachers and movements - between ideals of the primitive society with tepees, and the super high technology society with spaceships, where people do not use money (nothing wrong with that), where they communicate telepathically and move almost floatingly over the earth so as not to harm plant life? Such cultures are placed both in the past and the future, in Atlantis and Lemuria, in the Central American and Egyptian cultures, on other planets, or after an upheaval on our planet in a not too distant future. And what is worse, people are sitting waiting for spaceships, expecting them to come and save us from life on this globe! Should such dreams (and anxieties) justify (regardless of whether they are based on facts or not): - that one cannot make oneself do what has to be done here and now in our time, in our cities, in our countries? And live this life and use the abilities that one has received, instead of dreaming? - that we do not dare to receive a knowledge, that enables one to disregard one’s limitations, instead of magnanimously passing our limitations on to others under the guise of wisdom, healing or religion? - that we are not capable of taking life as it comes and deal with the tasks that lie to hand? Why must everything be looked upon as problems? Everything is part of life and life is an exciting challenge! Those who have actually heard the message from the “past”, “future” or the “dream time” do not use it as an excuse to dream themselves away from the life they were born to, but throw themselves into a work to come in harmony again with themselves and nature, and then help others and the society they live in to do likewise. It happens without thought of comfort and not in a state of self-absorbed hypochondria. One contributes where it is most needed. Each according to background and abilities. Or said in the words of Walt Whitman in Song of the open road: Hence forth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune, Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing, Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms, Strong and content I travel the open road. The earth, that is sufficient, I do not want the constellations any nearer, I know they are very well where they are, I know they suffice for those who belong to them. The force of example Personally I don’t think that the force of example is worth much for the one who really works with him/herself. Where it is important for children to have a firm example in an adult and stable guidelines as a basis - an adult, who wants to discover more about life and one’s own depths, does not find it by copying other’s lives, only by living one’s own. In this endeavour, one must be able to make qualified choices with regards to oneself and not decide from imitation or habitual norms. However, discipline and other conditions should not be confused with ideals. In my opinion, one should be able to let oneself be initiated, dare accomplish what one really wants and overcome one’s fear and in this way acquire useful knowledge. My collaboration with Swamiji, that he could tease me, test my pride or my fear, wake me up, give me tasks, and above all, that he could bring me down to earth when imagination ran away with me, had the result that I learned a potent, useful and, not least, deepgoing yoga, giving me presence and willingness to act. On the other hand, the decisions I took, the conclusions I drew, my inner objectives and the amount of perseverance I displayed 23
Page 2 and 3: A yoga school sees the light of day
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Page 6 and 7: The shoulder pose is one of the pos
Page 8 and 9: Some look intensely at the yoga exe
Page 10 and 11: others. Nothing is final or permane
Page 12 and 13: But I was actually awake and well w
Page 14 and 15: asic reactions to life, and that th
Page 16 and 17: Heinrich Böll, as well as Franz Ka
Page 18 and 19: society lives on its own illusions.
Page 20 and 21: One day, a close friend, the painte
Page 24 and 25: As to being a yoga teacher, I do no
Page 26 and 27: and show you how to return to yours
Page 28 and 29: This was a little about my life as
Page 30 and 31: Håå International Course Center -
Page 32 and 33: Yoga, Tantra and Meditation in Dail
Page 34 and 35: Read Bindu - previous issues are st

Bindu 23 - engelsk 7.p65 - Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School

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