Scarecrow

The Yamas And Niyamas

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Notes from the "Yamas and Niyamas by Deborah Adele:

 

As our awareness of nuances grows, we learn that our ability to be nonviolent to others is directly related to our ability to be nonviolent within ourselves

Our capacity to be nonviolent depends on our proactive practice of courage, balance, love of self, and compassion for others

Seeking out people and experiences we would normally avoid provides a fertile place to learn new things about ourselves and about life. Even those who we would call enemies have much to teach us

Fear creates violence

Courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to be afraid without being paralyzed by it

Imbalance in our systems is almost a certainty for violence. as the dis-ease within us finds its way to express outward

Creating balance in our lives isn't an easy thing. We are hungry noisy people bombarded with simulation and advertisements that promise to grant our deepest desires

No more clutter but more space, space to reflect, space to journal, space for closure, space for imagination, and a space to feel the calling of the life force within us

To be in tune with ourselves, we must get quiet and listen and then heed this inner voice

Spreading ourselves thin looks impressive, but in the end, we are the first to lose

Feeling powerless leads to outward aggression in the form of frustration and anger, or withdraw inward into depression and victimization. On a train riding through a dark tunnel and we can't see anything but darkness and anxiety

We have a choice to take action and we have a choice to change the story we are telling ourselves about our powerlessness

How we treat ourselves is in truth is how we treat those around us

If you are lighthearted and forgiving of yourself, others will feel the ease and joy of being with you. If you find laughter and delight in yourself, others will be healed in your presence

The color of how we treat ourselves is the color of how we treat others

Our inability to love ourselves creates ripples- tiny acts of violence that have lasting impacts on others

Thinking we know whats best for others becomes a subtle way we do violence. When we take it upon ourselves to help the other we whittle away their sense of autonomy

Leave the other person free of our needs, free to be themselves, and free to see us as they choose

We can't save people or fix them

Handling challenges gives us each a sense of skill, self-esteem, and accomplishment

There is nothing to fix or save in another; there is only the git of listening. People need a safe place to hear themselves

We learn compassion as we dissolve our personal version of the world, and grow gentle eyes that are not afraid to see reality as it is. We learn compassion as we stop living in our heads

Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure

Chose to grow over the need to belong

Real asks us to live from a place where there is nothing to defend and nothing to manage. Real is not always pleasant but it is trustworthy

We are here to express our selves in a way that no one ever has or could

Pretending takes a lot of energy

We have to make a choice. We must either sacrifice a part of ourselves to maintain our belonging or we must risk the approval and support of the group by growing

A person of substance is willing to stay present in life no matter what its initial unpleasantness. They know that staying present with the truth of the moment will add more depth to there lives and grow them up to be creative and responsible versus becoming a person who walks around with a rescue me sign

We steal from ourselves our own opportunity to grow ourselves into the person who has the right to have the life they want

When we compare ourselves to others we either find ourselves lacking or find ourselves superior which makes us arrogant. it's all an attempt to make us feel better about ourselves 

When we feel unhappy with ourselves we have a tendency to drag people down with us

Be a forklift. always be lifting people us

All the ways we live in the past or future steals from ourselves

We need time to chew and ponder and allow the experiences of life to integrate within us. We need to reset, reflect and to contemplate

We need to tend to our own growth and learning in areas of our own interests. We are engaged in the challenge and joy of building ourselves. everything everyone else is doing looks tempting to us

Preparing ourselves for what we want is an exciting full-time job. It moves us away from any victim stories into full responsibility for our lives

Without realizing it we have acquired an addiction like need for the repetition of feelings associated with that thing

Pleasure without the addiction

In a culture, if constant activity there always so much that needs to be done

Don't ask what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who come alive

Nonattachment, non-greed, non-clinging. Be willing to let go

what we try to possess possesses us

Let go and pack lightly for your journey through life

To let go completely feels like suspension in the void

We expect things to give us fulfillment the first second and third time. Our expectations keep us captive and often disgruntled

Clutter in our minds blocks our freedom to expand and have space for the next thing life wants to bring us

Attachments ruin our day when they are not fulfilled. Attachments make us boring. They make us blind to the opportunities around us. Attachments are like nailing ourselves to our need for someone or something to continue to be the same and to always be there for us in the same way

Nonattachment frees us up to be immersed in the appreciation of life and one another. We are asked to let go of our clinging not the thing itself 

What wants to come to us is so great. and what we hold onto is often so small

Mind is carrying the heavy baggage of victimhood

Instead of striving to become someone lovable. why don't we love and accept ourselves fiercely as we are? can you leave yourself alone?

We become safe with ourselves and we become a safe place for others. We become a person who can comfortably and compassionately sit with another without the need to fix them.

We are everywhere but the present moment

People in the west are always getting ready to live

We tend to look at other peoples lives and see whats missing in our own

As long as we think satisfaction comes from an external source, we can never be content. looking outward for fulfillment will always disappoint us

Things are neutral. It's the personal labeling we put on these things that make them appealing or repulsive to us

We it rains, let it

Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone

Develop an abiding calm. A centeredness that is unshakable. Like a tall tree so rooted in the earth that great winds cant topple it. We not only agree to what is in the moment, but we welcome it

A crisis is a terrible thing to waste

People and events don't disappoint us, our models of reality do

We must be willing to look at the selfishness and greed and anger that lies in us but feed the greatness

Have a beginners mind: know that you don't know. It is this stance of humility that opens the door to learning and revelation

As we learn to stop fighting life we begin to act skillfully. As we begin to relax and release our rigid thoughts and muscles we begin to flow with life

As we are able to let go of what we can't change, we are able to grow more and more into our unique gift and contribution to life itself

 

 

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