The Lazy Yogi

tayydubb asked: Hey Lazy yogi, after a year of meditation, I feel all the great changes in me! I barely eat meat now, I feel really good about myself, I enjoy more "me" time & stay away from drugs/alcohol. It's a great feeling, but sometimes I feel a giant weight & get distracted by my old lifestyle & want to turn back. I get worried that even my really great friends who still party will not accept this new me since it's "new" & strange", but I love this me. How do I keep encouraged? Is there more good to come?

That’s fantastic, keep it up. 

Even if you were to turn back, it wouldn’t be the same as before. You would find yourself dissatisfied and restless. 

If your friends are your friends, they will remain so. If they aren’t, then they’ll just get caught up in their own lifestyles. Don’t cling to the old out of fear of the new. Keep moving forward. 

Whatever comes will also go, whether it is good or bad. Make the focus of your practice the recognition of that which is timeless. That which never comes nor goes, which is ever-present, is none other than your real self. 

The re-discovery of which means peace and joy never-ending. 

Namaste :)

shxdy asked: Can you recommend positive and peaceful music? Recently I've had a hard time listening to music that is overly explicit and meaningless.

I don’t really listen to the lyrics when I enjoy music. Just the sounds. When I want something peaceful and relaxed, I listen to pretty much anything by Sufjan Stevens. I like his album Seven Swans a lot. 

Modest Mouse is another one of my favorites, although their music is anywhere from peaceful to frenetic. 

I can’t say I really find music meaningful. Rather, I find it moving and beautiful. 

Namaste!

wuweikami asked: should people not rely on others for happiness? You always hear people saying "oh they make me so happy" when in relationships, but is that more harmful in the long run?

Happiness only arises from within. When you attribute it to external things, it is due to confusion. This is like the sun looking at the moon and assuming the moon has somehow conjured up its own radiant light when in reality it is only ever the light of the sun. 

Therefore you cannot rely on anything external for happiness. Not only because external things are impermanent but also because happiness never comes from the outside. The body’s survival is dependent upon external things like air, food, shelter, and health, but happiness is always within. 

This does not mean you cannot enjoy external things. But what you are really enjoying is your enjoyment, not necessarily the external things themselves. 

Love the people you meet, give them joy and light in their life. But also remember to give them a fond farewell when life takes you in separate directions. 

If you cling to others out of a misperceived need, that you must get happiness from them alone, then not only have you begun to indulge ignorance but you have also begun to share that original happiness with insecurity and fear. Clinging is its own form of suffering. 

So recognize the true source of happiness; it is the shine of your own existence. Whatever arises in the phenomenal world, let it be like the moon to the sun. Something beautiful and appreciable yet nothing on which you need to depend for the light of happiness. 

Namaste :) Much love

veggiefit asked: How old are you? How have you learned so much?

I’m 25. What I have learned comes by the grace of the divine and my guru. Learning meditation and receiving encouragement from a self-realized human is truly invaluable. 

Additionally, I spend time every day reading and contemplating the words of other self-realized humans throughout history. A few of them are: Nisargadatta, Ramana Maharshi, Mooji, Eckhart Tolle, Siddharameshwar, Buddha, Adyashanti, Annamalai Swami, and Nome. 

Words and intellectual understanding are nice but what they point toward is indescribable and unapproachable by the thinking mind. That is why daily meditation and similar spiritual practices are essential. 

It is not that I have gained anything that others do not have, only that I have begun to discard the confusion that obscures the magnificent reality within us all. 

Namaste :)

lemonslemonslemons asked: Do you have any suggestions for helping to set intentions before you practice? I'm trying to get more out of my yoga practice but I struggle to find an intention focusing on the "now" because I'm mainly concerned with the future. Ps you are wonderful! xoxo

It is not a question of focusing on the “now”. The “now” is all there is. Simply refrain from leaving the “now” and wandering off mentally elsewhere. Those mental wanderings into the past or future appear real but are nothing but that: mental wanderings. Even they only ever happen in the Now. 

When I practice yoga, there is just me, the body, and the mat. The mat is my own space. Nothing else exists during that time. Think of it as your garden, your canvas, your blank page, or whatever appeals to you. Your body is that which plays to and fro upon that space. 

There is nothing to accomplish in the dance of yoga other than remaining with the practice. It is only when you wander off elsewhere mentally that you must come back. When you are Here, that is enough. It is its own joy. 

When I practice yoga, my intention is to remain present with my body no matter what strains and challenges my practice puts it through. I keep my face relaxed, my breathing deep and smooth, and put my body to work. This is valuable training for maintaining grace under fire. 

There is no future nor past during a yoga session. Delve your attention into the practice. 

Namaste :)

ne0n-drag0nflyy asked: hey, i read a bit of the power of now, and i have a question, because i don't think i fully understand. he talks about the pain-body, like a field of physical pain that we manifest with our emotions when they control us. i think (correct me if i'm wrong) that he said that the pain-body is NOT us. i don't understand how this is, or what it means for how we should lead our lives. this idea makes how much we are "responsible" for our feelings/actions confusing.

You are not what you experience. You are the witness to your experiences. The pain-body is an experience. It is when you mistake it for who you are that you unconsciously cling to it and your pain. 

The pain-body is the accumulation of these unconscious identifications with pain. Suppose when you were younger, someone always yelled at you for blowing and popping bubbles with your bubblegum. Over and over this happened. Now when you see and hear someone else doing it, it fills you with a kind of anger. Why should they get to do that when you were never allowed to?

The pain-body is kind of like that. Or it could be that you had a bad breakup with your last ex and now you are overly sensitive to everything your current partner does due to a lingering fear and insecurity. 

Essentially, the pain-body is the way we relive past pains through the present. Often we are unaware as to the root of the pain we feel. It can manifest as rage issues, trust issues, depression and victim identity, or any number of ways. 

Not only is this pain emotional but it can cause bodily reactions. It can become difficult eating and sleeping and nausea can become a constant companion. Sometimes physical pain in the limbs happens as well due to the way we hold tension. This is one reason I like yoga, it can dissolve the physical effects of the pain-body. 

The major clue about recognizing the pain-body is to take your attention into the present. Nothing may be happening in the present moment, everything could be just fine. There may be no immediate physical or social threat for you to feel suffering. And yet you are in pain with reoccurring compulsive thoughts and feelings. 

That is how you can tell when the pain-body phenomenon is active or partially active. 

You cannot push it away, control it, or suppress it. But if you watch and witness it directly, not judging or analyzing your thoughts but just seeing them as they come and go, you can let the pain-body burn itself out. 

This is like depriving a flame of oxygen. Eventually it will die. Once you have weakened the pain-body in this way, it will only ever come back in a diminished form. Over and over you have to be mindful and alert of when your pain-body activates. Be ready to dissolve it with this sort of silent, patient, and attentive mindfulness. 

I would recommend reading the rest of The Power of Now rather than just a bit, as Eckhart Tolle goes into depth as to the various ways the pain-body works, manifests, and how it may be dissolved. 

Namaste :)

humanityisamascarade asked: I have self-confidence issues. I have been accepted in one of the best universities of the world, yet, it does not seem to be enough. I have been dealing with my anxiety for the last years and there is a lot of things I could not learn compared to other people because of that. My mind has been torturing me for not being good enough in this and that, for not being able to find a job while most people around me have one, for not being able to cook, etc. How do you think I can fix that? Thanks :).

I went to an ivy league university and while all of my friends went on to get jobs, I have been struggling to find one ever since graduation. It is certainly a situation in which it is tempting to listen to thoughts of anxiety and insecurity. 

What it comes down to is identity. People generally draw confidence from something they attribute to ‘me’. They think “I’m awesome because of this,” and then their feelings of happiness and wholeness then depend on that ‘this’ on which they hinge their awesomeness. 

Soon they start feeling the need to defend that ‘this’ and assert it and compare it and grow it and on and on. So where is the real happiness and peace? In the end, they become a slave to their ‘this’. 

Confidence is really a way for the ego to justify itself. Your habit of comparing yourself to others, far from revealing the truth of who you are, further plunges your sense of self into confusion. Then you feel as though you have been robbed of confidence. 

Instead of clinging to reasons in order to feel confidence, plunge your attention into who that “I” really is. When you know who and what you really are, which is the vast splendor of existence, then your awesomeness is just there. It is a quality of clarity and joy. Confidence becomes a non-issue because that self-consciousness which stems from not knowing who you are simply isn’t there. 

And while others’ confidence will be exclusive, ie. “Only I am awesome because of this,” your awesomeness will be inclusive. “This whole planet, its species and humanity, the cosmos itself, it is all gloriously awesome.” 

Think about it. You can learn to cook, you can devote yourself to any job and succeed if your whole attention and effort are there, being good enough at anything can be learned. If it can be learned, is it really you?

You are not that which comes nor goes. If you are going to use your mind and listen to it, don’t be satisfied with useless self-criticism. Get to the heart of the matter. The mind, used rightly and intelligently, will always bring you to a place of peace and silence. The mind will take you beyond language and description into the indescribable joy of being. 

Remember that comparison will never reveal true identity but rather obscure the reality of both things which you are comparing. Daily meditation will help, when you rediscover a sense of self that is independent of mind and body then neither the mind nor the body can threaten you. 

Namaste!

Urgh my body has been feeling off all day. Skipping yoga. Don’t tell on me!

EDIT: So I have a confession…I went anyway. I feel much better now :D

onehalfhipster asked: In response to a different question you said: "So long as I have breath in this body, I will puzzle over existence until the reality of truth reveals itself as self-evident." Have you ever though what if you never achieve self-realization? What if the truth is not to be learned? I have wondered these things myself.

You are that Self, always. The real is always real and the unreal is always unreal. This holds true regardless of whether or not we realize it in this lifetime. 

Self-realization is not an event that happens in time. It is timeless recognition. 

The often used example is that of mistaking a rope for a snake. Someone sees a rope in the dead of night and thinks it is a snake. Then all of these imaginations follow, fear about the snake and a desire to kill or escape from it. When a little light shines and that person sees the snake is only a rope, all fear and confusion vanish. You may ask what happened to the snake?

The snake never was. There was only ever the rope. The same is for self-realization. The self ever is, the ego never was.

Thus until I see the rope with my own eyes, which means to say until I have wholly and completely realized the truth of the self, then I will live with faith and devotion to truth. 

If nothing else, it is better than giving up and allowing an unreal imagination of a snake to dictate the river of my life between the banks of fear and desire.

Namaste :)