Helping Others with Yoga Practice
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 4 years before Jun 07, 2018
MiBeloved 4 years ago
People sometimes question as to why I am reluctant to get involved and to know people and to become well known. The reason is simply that it screws up meditation practice. The whole idea about being compassionate to people, which was explained to me a few days, by phone by a member of this forum, is hogwash.
Some Tibetan master, perhaps Sri Padmasambhava who is a Buddha in his own right, may have spread the idea about becoming liberated after all living entities are freed. This sounds good on paper but in the practical field it is dead-end proposal. It does have value as an attitude position and as a way of relating to the living beings so long as one is in the material world but otherwise it is worthless. For one thing unless one is the person who can save the world, thinking like that is a manifestation of subtle arrogance.
The more people I know, the more I make new acquaintance, the more I am sinking myself down into the material creation. There is exception for sure but only a desperate stupid compulsive yogi will go on thinking that maybe this one exception will pan out.
This is like when poor people go to the market for fish. They cannot buy the expensive high end sea food. They must buy the bony fish. When these are prepared, tiny bones slip down the throat and become embedded in it. This happens every day but the poor fellow keeps telling himself just before he eats, that today a bone will not stab his throat. He thinks, “
Today is the day, when like a rich man, I will eat boneless filet.”
Or it is like with fishermen, where handling the catch inevitably causes sharp steel like needle bones to stab the hand. This happens when the fish are live especially since the fish will move fins suddenly with the intent to harm the fisherman who removes them from their habitat.
Everyday a particular fisherman is told by his wife during the night, “Please be careful. Use a glove today. Handle the live fish with care. I am tired of digging out fin bones which are embedded in your palm. Some of them become infected with pus. Please stop this.”
And then the fisherman will stay,
“Of course today will be different, I will use a glove. Never mind I will be okay.”
But when he gets into the boat with other crewmembers there is no possibility of using a glove. He must work fast. A glove would hamper that. He ignores the stabs and does not care if there will be an infection. In the back of his mind, he fears having to face his wife, knowing that she will complain again. He thinks,
“Women, they just do not understand what a man must do to survive. Gloves? What does she think? This is not a picnic. We are out at sea in the dead of night. The boat could capsize. The tides could pull us out to deep sea. Why is she worried about a fin bone stuck in my palm? Who cares about that? Does a stumped toe cause pain when you were just shot through the heart?”
=======================
One problem that keeps resurfacing is a student who feels that I should help someone else. This also comes in another way, where a student sets out to impress someone by explaining yoga practice. Then when that person becomes superficially interested in yoga, the student runs to me and places the burden of dealing with the inquisitive person on my back.
Then like a laden ship has seawater at its upper rim, I sink down, lose my footing in the practice, begin teaching the newcomer, and then myself, the student and the novice become flaky yogis.
How sad that is!
Alfredo 4 years ago
Om Tat SAD!
Jettins 4 years ago
Yeah, maybe it could be time for a break with newcomers and students.
Walking down the street looking out for shit screws up my astral projection practice because it's pointless, but when it feels like it's something that I am supposed to be doing, such as mundane obligations of sorts, there is no decrease in my ability to project nearly at will.
The important thing is to be able to realize quickly when an activity can cause a problem. If this is suspected, it's likely that it will.
