The Truth of Yoga is in the experience, and you don’t necessarily need to know the story of its origins in the Himalayan Mountains, or to understand the powerful science behind Yoga, to experience its benefits. But this fascinating knowledge will empower both the beginning and advanced practitioner of Yoga alike.
In a series of conversations, Cosmin shares the origins of this amazing knowledge with us, and how it has served humanity for thousands of years. It’s a story not just of Yoga’s past; but of its past, its present, and its future in our modern world.
In Part Two: We Are All Spirits, Cosmin talks about the goal of Yoga to awaken us to our true nature, and to take us from being a regular human into being a super human.
Read Part One: The Story of Yoga
The illusion of separation.
It is taught that, regarding the Universe… the Infinite Universe: You are the Universe. Regarding God… Almighty God: You are God. There is no separation. You are it! You’re not even just a part of it. You are. Period.
One of the goals of Yoga — then and now — is to wake us up — to know that there is no separation. We say Yoga means union, unite this with that. There is no separation. There’s only an illusion of separation: The feeling that I’m in a hypnotic trance… I’m sleeping… I’m a zombie. That’s why I don’t feel the unity.
But it’s not even that — not just to have the experience of being a part of this Universe. No, I am the Universe. So maybe the absolute of Yoga is that — to wake humans up, to know they are infinity, to know that they are the Infinite Universe.
If we get a little technical, we say in Yoga, I am soul. I am energy. I am consciousness. (And even that can be looked at in greater detail — I’m just summarizing here.) I am energy and consciousness and I was given a physical body and a mind. So I can just enjoy and have fun during this lifetime on Earth.
We are all spirits!
Today we say, “Oh, I’m very spiritual.” Everybody’s spiritual! Because we’re all spirits! Sometimes we use words that are very, let me say, New Age — and I’m being very candid here — perhaps a little bit too New Age.
We are all spirits, of course. This is a spiritual world. But you’re not spiritual when you just think that you are just a physical body, and that when you die that’s the end of it. In essence, we’re all spiritual. We’re all souls — so, spirits! — and we were given a physical body as a vehicle.
We are given a mind as a computer and it says, Hey, go play. Make the best out of it. You want to enjoy life? Go to planet Earth. Here’s this tool: Your physical body. Here’s this computer: This beautiful machine of your mind. Go and enjoy! You — as a soul — go experience life.
Moving towards something greater.
So — initially — we have this science that is designed to take a human being beyond that state of living in a cave and worrying about food, or worrying about the family, or the commune, or whatever the case happens to be. Basically from living day-to-day, from dealing with wild animals, (very primitively in a way, depending on how we look at it,) towards something greater.
This science says, I can take you from a being a human — a regular human — and I can make you into being a super human.
It’s not about just eating, drinking, and making more kids. It’s about actually reaching your absolute potential in this lifetime, like enjoying life at its fullest, in this infinite Universe, during this hundred years or so you are going to live on planet Earth.
Beyond the physical body.
As we wake-up as humans, we’re associating with the physical body all of the time because it is tangible. I can touch it… I can see it.
When the physical body is hungry, I have to feed it. When the physical body hurts, I have to go to the doctor. When the physical body is tired, I have to relax. There’s no way of getting around it, unless you’re just completely out of it — medicated, or high, or whatever — to where you don’t feel the physical body.
So the initial steps are all related to the physical body, to taking care of it. And some people are not even there yet. We’re still figuring out how to take care of our physical body. And some people are at that point where they say, I just want to be healthy. And that’s fine too. You have to start from somewhere. Be healthy. God bless you!
The thing that drives us crazy.
But the moment you’re going to be healthy is the moment when there is no pain. And the moment there are no issues with the physical body, you will disappear.
Not physically. Physically, you’ll still be there — otherwise, you can’t enjoy life! — but you will disappear. You’ll go into the background. You’ll still feel a little hungry… You’ll still feed the physical body… You’ll need to take a nap… You’ll give a little nap to the physical body, but it’s not going to remind you that it’s there.
So now you will have more freedom to explore the next step. And the next step is the mind: The thing that drives us crazy.
In the Yoga tradition, it’s called the monkey. And not only the monkey that’s jumping around inside of your head, doing loops like Cirque du Soleil; but the monkey that’s drunken and being stung by scorpions!
Taming the monkey.
Now that you’re healthy, going to the gym, going to Yoga, what’s next? Once you wake-up and say, Well, this is taken care of, something else is going to come up.
That’s when we start realizing that there’s a computer inside of us which is driving us nuts! There’s something there — software — that doesn’t want to stop. It doesn’t give us a break, no matter what we do!
While you’re sleeping, you’re dreaming: No rest. When you’re trying to nap or even go to sleep: You toss and turn. During the day — doesn’t matter the time: You’re thinking.
When are you going to get a break? If the software isn’t working properly — think about your computer or your cell phone — no matter how much you polish that phone or how much you clean the computer and charge the battery — if the software isn’t maintained properly, then your laptop might as well be used as a cutting board. It simply won’t work anymore.
What’s next?
Next, Cosmin explores how Yoga provides us the tools to tame the monkey in our mind!
