{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Forgiveness and Respect","description":"In this podcast I will be talking briefly about the classical codes of conduct prescribed by the Yoga Sutras and then we will delve into more modern lifestyle practices that are greatly needed in our world today. In Classical Yoga, we study the Yoga Sutras and the eight limbs of Patanjali\u2019s yoga or Raja yoga, the royal yoga! These are: Yamas \u2013 codes of social conduct Niyamas \u2013 codes of personal conduct Asanas \u2013 the poses of yoga Pranayama \u2013 the breathing practices that enhance our life force Pratyahara \u2013 withdrawing the awareness from the sensorial world Dharana \u2013 being able to concentrate and focus Dhyana \u2013 the state of meditation whereby the concentration is extended Samadhi \u2013 merging of the individual consciousness with the universal consciousness The idea here is that we must first work on ourselves through the practice of the codes of conduct or we will continue to have disturbing mental turmoil that will prevent us from moving into the internal practices. In other words, the mind will always be thinking about every little detail of our external life \u2013 all of the feelings, the conversations, the play of our ego, our likes and dislikes \u2013 it will remain unsettled and unable to tap into the internal sense of peace and wholeness that exists in each of us. The five yamas ask us to avoid harming others or ourselves, lying, stealing, wasting energy, and possessiveness. The five niyamas ask us to live a clean life, to value contentment, to know our needs and not exceed them, to engage in self-study and connect with inspiration, and to surrender to something greater than ourselves. These are all quite lofty goals, but it is said that if you can embody even one of them fully it will lead you into the rest. Just one. But in modern yoga practice we actually see that most people concentrate on the physical practices, the asanas. Maybe some engage in some breathing and meditation practices, but it seems to me that most are looking to yoga as something to be done on the mat or the meditation cushion for a specific period of time and hoping it will improve their daily lives. And it does to a certain extent. Practitioners may feel better in their bodies, have more energy and feel calmer after practicing \u2013 these are all good things.  Don\u2019t get me wrong. This spectrum of yoga participation serves its purpose. But if you want to be less reactive to life\u2019s challenges, to feel more connected to the world around you, to evolve your consciousness and be the best version of you that you can be in this lifetime, then you will need to take yoga off the mat and into your life more. You will need to make yoga your lifestyle. Over the last few years, the Bihar School of Yoga in India has been emphasizing a set of six Lifestyle Yamas and Niyamas to support bringing yoga more fully into daily life. Given the worldwide pandemic and the political upheaval within the US, today I will be discussing the lifestyle yama and niyama of forgiveness and respect. This pair is especially useful in dealing with anger and there seems to be an epidemic of anger. Not just political anger, but anger that our lives have been turned upside down by the pandemic. Anger that we can\u2019t do everything we want to do. Let\u2019s start with forgiveness. How forgiving are you? Give yourself a ranking of 0-5 whereby 5 is the most forgiving. Now can you bring to mind some time in the past when you needed to practice forgiveness. Can you do it? Even as you recall it now, what feeling comes up inside of you? Sadness, hurt, anger? And as you recall this, how do you feel about the other person? Are your thoughts negative? To truly forgive means to let go of feelings of resentment, anger or hurt. Are you still holding on to those feelings? Sometimes we are masochistic about forgiveness. We are stuck in our pattern of suffering. It seems to be a pattern of human behavior that we are more likely to dwell on the negative in our lives than the positive. Think about your daily conversations. Don\u2019t most people share more about their negative experiences than their positive? It\u2019s more entertaining to talk about something bad that happened. It is easy to say we forgive but hard to truly release the negative feelings and experience freedom from them. To release the resentment in your heart is the true challenge. It takes strength and courage. \u201cThe weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.\u201d Mahatma Gandhi So we need to make it a yoga practice of forgiveness. Not so much for the benefit of the other person, but for our own benefit! Let\u2019s go back to our forgiveness exercise-the one where you remembered an interaction that needed you to forgive. Once again think about it and see what feeling arises again. It can be the same feeling. And then think about the other person in the interaction, but this time, instead of a negative feeling about that person from that particular interaction, can you think of a positive quality about that person? Everyone has some positive quality after all. Is it hard or easy? Now from your heart, offer forgiveness again. It can just be a mental process, not in person. How do you feel now? Has the feeling changed from the beginning of the process when you first recalled the situation? Can you smile? Keep practicing this sequence until you can smile and then you can let go of that interaction and start working on another. After all, most of us need to do this work and can benefit greatly from it. We usually have more than one. We may become more conscious of the intricacies of our interactions and are more likely to forgive and move forward without having to pin fault on either participant. In yoga you may have heard people use the word namaste. The lifestyle niyama in this pair is namaskara. They both have similar meanings. Namaste means salutations to you. Namaskara means salutations to you with respect. It\u2019s a more formal greeting. Both greetings are done by placing the palms of the hands together in front of the heart and bowing the head. Namaskara is a way of connecting and honoring someone while understanding that this person contains inherent goodness that is also a reflection of you. Some will say it means the divine in me sees the divine in you, or the light in me connects to the light in you. It is an expression of humility. It is an acknowledgment of the value of others. Therefore, it can be an act of ego management. Too often we greet others as a social norm, but not with sincerity. \u201cHi, how are you?\u201d is expressed and the person may not even look at the other in the eyes, may keep moving without even waiting for an answer or they wait briefly expecting \u201cFine, how about you?\u201d But what happens to you when someone looks you in the eyes, smiles and sincerely asks, \u201chow are you?\u201d It touches your heart, doesn\u2019t it? Even if the interaction is just for a minute or less? It is my feeling that we need this now more than ever. We need to connect in this time of social distancing, isolation and insecurity of \u201cthe other\u201d and their politics. It is the time to practice Namaskara. It doesn\u2019t mean you actually have to use that word but use the essence of what it means. Say hello with feeling and sincerity, with humility and respect and let that feeling reach from your heart to the heart of each person you greet. See each person as a reflection of you. It doesn\u2019t take a huge commitment or very much time at all to make someone smile by reaching out to them with a sincere greeting and inquiry. It takes just practice. And one way to keep up this practice is to keep track at the end of each day, how many people did you greet in this fashion? Through the recognition and acknowledgement of our negativity we provide the basis for developing positivity. See your strength in being able to look at your weaknesses and let your strengths grow. As we live through this pandemic and the political landscape of divisiveness, these two practices, forgiveness and namaskara, will support the best parts in you. Make a resolve to \u201cthin out\u201d your negative nature. As my guru says, \u201cBe sincere, serious and committed.\u201d Over time, it will become easier to develop new neural pathways to a more positive nature. The world needs a positive you! ","author_name":"Swami Ji, the OG","author_url":"https:\/\/www.atmacenter.com\/podcast\/","html":"