The Yoga Syndicate: Recent Episodes
Ellis del Sol & Ellen Johannesen
Are you a devotee or a "sit down and believe what you watch on TV"? In this funfilled episode we cross the plains of remaining plain and getting on a plane to journey towards a better understanding of the pursuit we have been put on and the goal we are hopefully wanting to attain.
Fluctuations and the dissolving of them to best yield a presence in the present that you and others can find pleasant is what we are aiming for. Vrittis are the fluctuations themselves derived from patterns of thought. The thought itself is not a vritti but what instigates or ignites a thought is the fluctuation that can be better understood as it derives from non truths, imagination, deep sleep, memory and tested and proven truth. Add up how the mind and fluctuations can be tamed along with all the other Sutras, philosophy and good practice... well the Vrittis will then play a key role in your becoming and walking a path more clear and rid of circumstantial understanding.
Like an onion we are comprised of different layers. The sheath or incasing of our body and thoughts needs to be identified and worked through in order to attain and experience bliss. Doing vs construing and overthinking was an aspect discussed in fine tuning your koshas. The koshas are like roadmaps within a roadmap and no two methods are the same but the purposeful destination is where were aiming to arrive. The city of Bliss.
Is life experiential or experimental. In fact is it real to begin or end with? This chat brings on the realisation that it is difficult to grasp the grasping of any real clue in reading the map on the ever bumpy roads of reality. Good listening!
What a concept and even more what a realisation when any darn thing at all can bring you into a state of happiness. In this episode we try to clean out the good of happiness and see what lays behind this feeling and expectation of why life should lend to something pleasant by way of a feeling. We do so by looking back and towards the present. Many factors play a role in determining if we are lucky enough to even gain a certain happiness now and then. Join us in what was not the happiest podcast we ever assembled but nonetheless one of the more objective and somber episodes we have put together. Enjoy! And if it makes you happy... well then let it. If it doesn't then also just let it not make you happy.
This episode of the Yoga Syndicate became a long conversation about Dharma: a complex concept within Indian culture. We touched upon finding your true north and keeping it real, but not as real as the realization that real laws and forces are in effec and can affect you at all times! I.e, true realization supersedes worldly dharma. Enjoy!
Asking the question that has no answer is quite redundant to say the least. An entertaining back and forth on the importance or lack there of, asking let alone actually, knowing... who you are. The meaning of what you experience in ever changing thoughts and environments make who you are very situation and circumstantial. Making moments meaningful and randomly giving moments meaning seemed to be the closest we got to defining or trying to understand a palette of who we are. The picture keeps changing and so does the frames and colours we choose. So what we are collectively and as individuals are seekers of meaning in the most meaningful way.
How could we possibly expect to not have any expectations? Ellen and I dabble on the subject and wind down many a road in this ever so baffling concept of what is too little - too much in the expectation side of things in the realm of our everyday lives.
In this discussion we both entertain and seek out a plethora of understanding and definition in what in fact is a Guru. You will be surprised to discover that this Guru, both in you and in others will be an essential key in opeing the vast door in the hallway of your heart and mind.
You are what you everything. And everything dictates what and who you are. Karma is not an easy thing to grasp or manage. Maybe after this episode, you will be enlightened with a little more understanding of where you come from and where things are headed.
How to discriminate? Not easily done, but essential in detecting, projecting and experiencing the auspices and advantages this mind can provide. Without good distinguishing in life we render all thought as borderless. With a good framework in the mind we are able to organise our thought in a way to better create and put us into the right space at the right time.
Love what it is and love in retrospect. Loving love or at least trying to understand if it is necessary in the first or second place at all. In this episode we bounce back and forth with a ball of love in our backyard and traditions to both on a macro and micro level, investigate love and all it's auspices and counterparts. Good listening!
Communicating is necessary in one form or another, even if that means not opening your mouth or ears. In this episode, we shed a light on communication from an array of verbal, technological, demographic and historical perspectives. Enjoy!
Asteya is the third Yama - restraint and means non-stealing. Basically in accord to not stealing the precious gift of life, time, energy from yourself and others. By grasping and understanding Asteya even more, you will identify with how to sharpen the knife that carves a more wholistic and present you.
Satya, the second yama - restraint represents and means TRUTH. Living life and avoiding tendencies to use this truth in an abusive way. It does not refer to truth in the literal true vs. false category, but rather identifying, sustaining & holding a truth either close to you or shed upon and with others in a cautious and truthful manner. By doing so, you hold your truth like a light that cannot be shed a light upon. Pristine, bright and showing you the path that you are already on.
Ahimsa: Ahimsa is the ultimate vow superseding all other concerns in yoga. although it is defined in negative terms as “non- violence”, its application has to be the positive affirmation that all life is precious and worthy of protection. This is not an intellectual exercise but a realization of ones own connectivity to all living beings.
Suffering: where does suffering come from? As the Buddha saw it, from the neurotic emotions of craving, stupidity, jealousy, aggression and pride -and even deeper, from a cherishing and protecting of a sense of “self.” Since we are nothing but an ever changing process, any attempt to please or satisfy an imaginary “self” is futile: since the process that we are produces one craving today and another craving tomorrow, we’re always fighting a losing battle...