Exploring the Nature of the Self, Suffering and Sadhna - Youtube

Creating and sharing videos is a new and very fun and still very new experience for me. As a medium of communication, I've learned many things in the process of shooting and editing videos, all with the goal of bringing Yogic knowledge and practices to the online world and bridging it to its use cases in the current world.

The value is to bring this wisdom and the practices that coexist alongside it to the current state of the world as a tool to help you be free from the conclusions of all things and not replace it with any. new conclusions; but rather that being free lets you be true and in your loving nature, that person that you already are. In truth, I posted this video into the Youtube ethers, and while I watched it myself the first 3 times, I have not idea who are the other 30 people who watched this video, and it paritially made me think I could do a blog post. Here's the video:

Standing here looking at you like a Proud Dad

What Inspired This Video

Around 3 and a half years ago, I started working at One Yoga, in Koh Phangan, Thailand. My main tasks here include running Morning Hatha classes and daily Yoga Philosophy classes as part of the Sadhna Retreats that are held weekly. I am also a Yoga Philosopher teacher a small number of the Yoga Teacher Trainings at One Yoga, Ananda Yoga, and run an independent 50 hour teacher training in Kundalini Yoga as a Yoga Alliance's Continued Education Provider. In addition to this, I teach a few of the philosophy and hatha teacher at Orion Healing Center inside their teacher training as well. I share this because I believe teaching in these various places in different parts of the same role as a yoga teacher has given me a unique perspective on the types of people who go out of their way to learn what yoga is.

One thing that I've learned to accept in this role is that there are a significant number, although far from a majority, who come to yoga to only further their Asana practices, with little interest in anything else. I want to recognize this and once again repeat that it is the far minority.

To emphasize this point, very recently, I got to participate as a Yoga and Asana teacher where 26 souls attended, and each showed up every single day as a Yoga Student, applying themselves wholly into every lesson, meeting themselves honestly where they are and bringing out the absolute best in each other and gave me so much inspiration. Simultaneously, I've got a lesser part teaching just philosophy and a handful of pranayama and meditation with another group, where also everyone showed up with the entirety of the mind attention. These things inspired me so much, that I truly feel like a proud dad, also a metaphor shared by one of the incredible 26 souls.

Having made the above point, the main reason I am sharing this within the blog post is the common theme I hear from people of different backgrounds and the unique avenues through which I meet; everything from retreat, teacher training, even drop in philosophy classes; that I have simplified and shared a simplified version of the nature of the Self as both the "I am" consciousness and that of "The Highest Self" as a space of Pure Consciousness from which the I am merges with that which is endless.

Key Themes Covered

The video explores several important themes on the nature of the self and how it can unconsciously take us into suffering:

• Understanding the basics: First we build on the nature of the Self and how thoughts form who we are.

• The Necessities that turn into Obsessions: The introduction of the four basic needs that turn into obsessions from the Gita and other older texts.

• Understanding the nature of Maya: Understanding Maya as temporary, impermanent reality built by human consciousness where things are not entirely real and not entirely fake either; as actions have consequences.

• Real-world applications: The video includes many examples from the world we live in and the effort required towards being within our own nature (Highest Self).

• Nothiing But Love: Coming into loving nature itself is both the experience of the Highest Self and liberation.

• Sadhana: The real world effort as an inner journey towards getting to know ourselves and living in a world of unconscious and endless action reaction cycle and breaking the cycle of maya with constant practice of acting from Love.