by Swami Vimalananda

Surrendering is letting go of our ego’s identifications, opinions, attachments and desires along with the delusion of control. It is connecting with the supreme being through the inner voice of wisdom which is enveloped in unconditional love. It is giving up the delusion that happiness is found outside of our own hearts. If we choose this path of letting go it is possible to live in grace and independence from the world and its agenda.  Often we believe we can control outcomes to suit our narrow and skewed perceptions of what we think we need and/or what other’s need.

As a mother I was committed to my delusion that I knew what was best for my children. I tried to control their environment and to shape it in ways I thought was best.  This included how everyone else should respond to my kids.  In my delusion, I was constantly confronted with the reality that everyone else also had their own agendas. 

When my oldest daughter was in high school, she and her friend played softball for the local softball league. Both girls received invitations to play for a very competitive team located in another area.  An important benefit to being accepted was every girl on the team received scholarships to various colleges. The local league’s president’s daughter was not chosen for the team. The local league refused to let them go, even with the knowledge of what was being forfeited.  I was astounded, for the first time I felt on a visceral level what minority mothers must feel when their children are denied opportunities out of others’ prejudices and self-interests.

It is an example of how enmeshed we are in each other’s desires, with all of us struggling to get what we think we need to be happy. How desperate our desires become until as Sri Gurudev stated, “The pot becomes too hot to hold on to and we finally drop it.”

With a practice to quiet the mind and study our thoughts, we slowly begin to see our own agendas clearly and become more anchored in our hearts with the silent witness. A beautiful experience begins to take shape with the inner voice becoming louder and clearer. It isn’t that we have to create anything. We have always had that inner voice but we do not always listen. In the story of Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket advises Pinocchio how to do the right thing, Pinocchio momentarily agrees and then is whisked off to fulfill his desires, inevitably leading to a disaster. Because desires are much stronger in the turbulent mind than the quiet still voice, we are often whisked away.  The quiet still voice never demands its way.

Some years ago, around Christmas time, I remember driving in a congested shopping area when a car behind me began to honk his horn, he just laid on it. I decided I was going to get out of the car and tell him to take a deep breath, just cool it.  I was halfway out of the car when the quiet voice said to me, “Are you sure you want to do this?” 

Slowly a trusting and beautiful interplay begins to happen. It is a loving voice, always pointing out the best way, and as we chance it and follow it, we come to realize that not only is it the best for us but for everyone else as well. A sweet intimate relationship grows, a trusting and loving relationship. 

One time when I was in Hawaii with my two daughters a huge storm was raging. It was at night and as I laid in bed I began to imagine a possible storm surge or even a tsunami occurring. We were right on the beach and directly across the street were steep cliffs. I pictured myself trying to climb these cliffs with the raging storm and a complete lack of ability for rock climbing.  I was really working myself up into a frenzy. Sri Gurudev came to me and I put my head in his lap, he stroked my brow and I quickly fell asleep. I will never forget the gift he gave me.

With a loving relationship of trust, a building of faith develops. As Kabir said, “it is like a bird that begins to sing in the dark knowing that the dawn is coming.”

There was a time not so long ago when I was very worried about my son who was ill. I was afraid when he became wheelchair bound that I would be unable to take care of him. What would I need to do, agencies to call, etc. Gurudev’s voice came to me and said, “He belongs to me now.” I got it. I just have to love him, all the rest would be taken care of.

As faith becomes solid, our inner voice becomes the decision maker. Our inner voice becomes the vehicle to surrender. We are free from all the fear and turbulence of the world. We are nestled in an intimate and unconditional loving relationship feeling we are completely taken care of.  Gradually we lose even the feeling of separateness to the inner voice and then the inner voice stands alone. 

Tripping Over Joy by Hafiz

What is the difference

Between your experience of existence

And that of a saint?

The saint knows

That the spiritual path

Is a sublime chess game with God

And that the Beloved

Has just made such a fantastic move

That the saint is now continually

Tripping over joy

And bursting out in laughter

And saying, “I surrender!”

Wheras, my dear,

I am afraid you think

You have a thousand serious moves.

I Heard God Laughing, Renderings of Hafiz

Swami Vimalananda, RYT500, is an Integral Yoga sannyasi – monk. She has been involved with Integral Yoga since 1971 and Director of the San Francisco Integral Yoga Institute from 1992-2011. She specializes in teaching yoga philosophy and spiritual counseling.

by Prajna Piper

A meditation teacher of mine once quoted a Burmese teacher as saying ‘when everything that can go is gone, what’s left is the truth.’ That sentence resonated with me – I heard it maybe 20 years ago and I still reference it and repeat it a lot. And I think that’s because we know there’s already a truth in us, with us – it’s probably the one thing we really do know. This innate knowing may have gotten distorted, it may seem so removed that we have to project it outward onto a deity or a more spiritually refined person, instead of being everyone’s own known truth, but it’s still in there. That’s what spiritual teachers tell us. The kingdom of heaven is within. The guru is inside. Be a light unto yourselves. Know yourself.

Unfortunately, this is something that we forget a lot of the time. We get lost, and then, we have the ego to deal with as well. Decades ago, the Tibetan teacher, ChogyamTrumpa, coined a phrase, Spiritual Materialism. His classic book, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, is a brilliant look at how to work with an ego that can convert anything (in this case, the spiritual path) for its own use. Spiritual materialism is about acquiring something.

We probably all have had, at some point, a fantasy version about the payoff of spiritual life, where we’ll become better versions of ourselves and consequently have better lives. Or we’ll enjoy the blissful states and maybe have psychic gifts or we’ll be great teachers and have the respect of the world. Or maybe we’ll just settle down to an ever-present, undisturbed state of composure. We think about our spiritual growth in terms of personal gain. We even believe that we’ll achieve these things the way we do in the material world, that at some point our good deeds will tally up or our hard won powers of concentration will carry the day, as if we’re competing at the Olympics.

That’s spiritual materialism and it’s easy to understand how we can be taken in by that approach because that’s the way the world we live in views things. Why would we do something in the material world unless there was something in it for us?

But what if the fruit of practice really is letting go? What if chasing happiness is illusory, but letting go of unhappiness and its causes opens the door for something real – what if what is left is the truth and the truth sets us free?

This is what we get a glimpse of in a meditation where we’ve calmed down enough so that we don’t grasp at everything that comes into our mind. We’re there, aware of what’s coming and going in our experience, but our fascination with phenomena is no longer in the forefront. Instead there’s some calm, some peace, and a treasure, right there inside of us, to be carefully attended to.

I heard someone say once that they were afraid that if their mind stopped thinking, they would die of fear or of shock. That’s an extreme idea, but I think it’s maybe closer to how we function than we know. It’s an example of how counter-intuitive it is for us to let go of using the mind to try and create a fixed reality, a safe, static world where we – supposedly – know what’s what. It’s why we hold onto our stories, our suffering, our thoughts and associations; it’s why we cling to what keeps us in bondage, like some kind of a life raft. We think that our constructed reality is keeping us safe.

Ajahn Sucitto, a teacher in the Thai Forest tradition, says that when the constructed world falls away we won’t be left hanging in an abyss. He says, that in spiritual practice, falseness doesn’t drop away unless there’s already something there to step into – the virtuous qualities will be there. This is the point of the path of purification, which, in that particular tradition, includes cultivating the virtues of generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, loving kindness and equanimity.

This teaching bothered me at first. It seemed, on some level, a little fishy. We’re going to cultivate habits, replace one habit with another? Even if it’s a healthy habit, that still didn’t sound like freedom. Ultimately, in my idealized view of enlightenment, conditioning will cease and every moment will be new.

Again, probably all of us who aren’t totally enlightened have our own idea of what enlightenment might be like. But, whatever our imaginations may offer, there is a practical reason why the virtuous, the wholesome qualities aren’t just another potential trap of conditioning. And that’s because the virtues aren’t sticky. There’s not much for the ego to cling to in goodness, because it’s ultimately impersonal. If we look at the qualities that are unwholesome, they are all about individuality, they have an identity, a personal self, stuck to each and every expression. We may get very confused about our individual manifestations of ill will, our desires, our dullness, anxiety or doubt, but we aren’t going to be particularly attached to or thrown by our individual experiences or expressions of kindness, generosity, wisdom or equanimity.

If we want to get to the truth, if we’re trying to touch, reach, or uncover the true self, then it does seem that we have to go inward. Ultimately, what is any sane person going to let in?  Not the unwholesome. Nobody will trust that. But we will open to what we sense as innately wholesome, to the qualities that are trustworthy.

In meditation, when I see my mind fixing on something, chasing yet another train of distracted, inessential thought, I’ll often bring myself  back by saying “not really who I am.” I remind myself that whatever my mind wants to chase is not what I’m going for here. I’m going for the truth and that thought, that passing idea, sensation, feeling, mental state, is not really who I am. Can I let it go?

There’s a lot to let go of in spiritual practice, a lot to see through. But I’m heartened by the fact that after decades of practice I understand a sentence that used to puzzle me  -“The fruit of practice is letting go.” Our practices are like seeds that take root, they grow, they have blossoms, and then, finally they give fruit. The fruit of practice is the truth and it is what’s left when everything that can go is gone.

Prajna lives and practices at San Francisco IYI

by Swami Ramananda

The month of May has inspired us to remember with gratitude the many blessings we have received in this lifetime. Gratitude is a practice that never gets old and once we begin reflecting, there is no end to what we have to be grateful for. Examining our lives with gratitude softens the heart, keeps life’s challenges in perspective, inspires humility and reminds us that we are part of a much bigger picture than our limited minds can comprehend.

One of the primary reasons this practice came to our minds is the occasion of Mother’s Day. For most of us, our mothers made great sacrifices in giving birth and nurturing us through childhood. All of us can likely feel gratitude as well for other important mentors and mother-like figures whose love had a great impact on our growth.

This time of year, it’s also easy for us to feel gratitude and awe at the array of Spring flowers and trees that are blooming around us. Everywhere we look, there is this incredible beauty that we are blessed to witness.

In the United States, May also includes Memorial Day, honored on the last Monday of the month as a way of remembering the military personnel who died defending our country. But we are also choosing to remember all those ancestors, elders and leaders who sacrificed in countless ways to give us the opportunities we now enjoy.

We can feel an even more profound gratitude for the saints and sages of all the faiths who have been for us a source of inspiration, embodying the spiritual Light and serving as role models. We offer our respect and gratitude as well to the Yoga masters who dedicated their lives to transmitting the teachings and practices that have impacted our lives so deeply.

Practicing gratitude can transform our lives even more fully if we embrace the understanding that each day provides us with another opportunity to learn and grow, to expose and heal our limitations and selfishness, and open our hearts wider to love more fully.

Gratitude need not be only an inner appreciation of life’s journey and all we’ve received. It calls for a response. Whenever we sincerely pause to contemplate the magnitude of our blessings and feel the resulting fullness in our hearts, we will naturally be inspired to give back in some way, to serve those in need. Gratitude becomes an underlying source of nourishment that inspires us to act with generosity and courage by embodying peace and compassion, spiritual values that are so desperately needed in our world.

You can join Swami Ramananda for his weekly, in-person/online (hybrid) Mixed Level Hatha class every Saturday at 9:30am PT. And join him for the 4-day Yoga Vacation and Retreat: Community, Contentment, Compassion May 27-30 in Bolinas.

Swami Ramananda is the Executive Director of the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco and a greatly respected senior teacher in the Integral Yoga tradition, who has been practicing Yoga for over 45 years. Ramananda offers practical methods of integrating the timeless teachings and practices of Yoga into daily life, and transforming the painful aspects of human experience into steps toward realizing one’s full potential.
He leads beginner, intermediate and advanced level Yoga teacher training programs in San Francisco, and offers a variety of programs in many locations in the U.S., Europe and South America. Ramananda co-developed the Stress Management Teacher Training program with Swami Vidyananda, has trained many teachers to bring Yoga into corporate, hospital and medical settings, and has taught mind/body wellness programs in many locations. He is a certified Yoga therapist and founding board member of the Yoga Alliance, a national registry that supports and promotes yoga teachers as professionals. He is a co-founder of The Spiritual Action Initiative (SAI) which brings together individuals committed to working for social justice for all beings and for the care and healing of our natural world. His warmth, wisdom and sense of humor have endeared him to many.

by Nischala Joy Devi

Please join Nischala and the sangha in Celebrating the Revised Secret Power of Yoga on Sat. May 21 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm PT

The Secret Power of Yoga, new edition, allows a complete road map to experiencing the totality of Yoga as the union of the body, mind, and spirit which propels us to higher states of consciousness and ultimate realization of the Divine Self.

Observing how Yoga has changed the world, I cannot help but wonder how the world has changed Yoga. As the plethora of Yoga studios and communities formed, they focused mainly on serving the physical body. The calling was great; Strengthen and balance the body —- that is what people knew, and that is where the needs seemed to be the greatest. Many of the transformational physical benefits were touted, and the studios that sprang up were brimming to capacity.

While I hold a great respect and awe for the physical body, my real love was for the sacred wisdom teachings of Yoga. The connection to the inner teachings led me to wonder if those beginning Yoga knew the treasure hidden within the path that they were treading. If they delved a bit deeper, an approach more expansive than the mind could imagine would be revealed. It fueled my intention to provide a more accessible pathway for any seeker who chose Yoga as set forth in the scriptures. Their reward would be not just a healthy and strong body but liberation itself.

With this inspiration, the first edition of The Secret Power of Yoga, a woman’s guide to the heart and spirit of the Yoga Sutras, was born.

When I originally wrote this tome, I made certain choices and adaptations, hoping to make it accessible to many. The compromise in dealing with such a comprehensive sacred text was to translate and comment on Books I and II and to summarize Books III and IV. Books I and II are by tradition the most widely expounded upon and gives even the most zealous student plenty to study and assimilate. They are the foundation of Yoga wisdom and practice, important for all dedicated students and teachers.

Books I and II will always be the gold standard for describing the basis of Yoga. They simply and elegantly unveil the sacred teachings, while establishing our perception that when consciousness unites, our birthright as a Divine Being is revealed. To the delight of many, this supreme wisdom is enhanced by an abundance of practices, allowing the knowledge gained to be experienced.

Books III and IV contain the most esoteric aspect of the Yoga Sutras, and because of this, they tend to be less accessible to the basis of a spiritual quest. Venturing into books III and IV presumes that certain experiences and understandings explained in the earlier padas have provided the foundation to build upon.

Rather than assuming, “Oh, I already know the Yoga Sutras, Let’s go on,” query, “If I continue to practice, what is in store for me?” It is a way of cajoling the mind to practice.

For those of us that are students of the Yoga Sutras, it is not only a scripture of great wisdom, but a guidebook for everyday living. We are inspired daily to uphold our idea of Self, ensconced in Sutra I.2, Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodaha, Yoga is the uniting of Consciousness in the Heart. In the midst of our daily life, we may encounter an action or thought that drives us in the opposite direction of our peaceful nature, recalling Sutra I.2 can gently remind us of who we really are.

Another example could be the practice of the great Yogic virtue, Ahimsa, reverence, and love for all, as the pinnacle of our life. When we garner the intention to honor others, holding them in high esteem, we inadvertently unveil our own divine nature.

The Yoga Sutras are broad in their appeal – they encompass expressions of wholeness, uniting body, mind, and emotions. This union then leads us to the realization of the Divine Spirit.

Approaching Books III and IV, we are issued strong cautions. Some great teachers do not speak about or even expound upon these teachings. Do they fear us getting caught in the enticing powers?

With all the concerns about powers or siddhis, the third book, Vibhuti Pada has the greatest number of Sutras of any of the other padas! Kaivalya Pada continues to extol the siddhis, before it valiantly attempts to describe our indescribable true nature.

We have all experienced these siddhis, spiritual powers at some time or another. Can you recall a time when you heard the phone ring a moment before it actually rang? Or perhaps you thought of a friend you had not seen for some years, and to your surprise, the next time you checked email and there is a sweet message from that same friend.

These occurrences, while infrequent, might be deemed mystical, yet they are cocooned within our deeper understanding. The siddhis often come spontaneously but also can be cultivated by intention and practice. The powers transport us to exalted levels of understanding inching us closer to knowing our true divine Nature.

For this understanding to blossom, take an inward, intuitive approach to all the Sutras, especially Pada III and IV. Be still and query the parts you don’t understand – rather than pushing them away. When we sit quietly, the unfamiliar concepts reignite the consciousness and the deeper meanings are revealed.

It is now time to unveil the Secret Power of Yoga in its entirety – To incorporate the more advanced and esoteric teachings as a vital part of our spiritual practice and growth.

NISCHALA JOY DEVI is a masterful teacher and healer. For many years she has been highly respected as an international advocate for her innovative way of expressing Yoga and its subtle uses for spiritual growth and complete healing. Her dynamic delivery and deep inner conviction empower each individual, allowing the teachings to expand beyond boundaries and limitations of any one tradition enabling her to touch people’s hearts.

She was graced to spend over 25 years as a monastic disciple with the world-renowned Yogiraj Sri Swami Satchidanandaji, receiving his direct guidance and teachings. She also was blessed with teachings from great Yoga masters in US, India and worldwide.

Originally trained in Western medicine, she began to blend western medicine with Yoga, offered her expertise in developing the yoga portion of The Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease, and co-founded the award-winning Commonweal Cancer Help Program. Her book “The Healing Path of Yoga,” and her Abundant WellBeing Audio Series expresses these teachings.

With her knowledge of yoga and her experience in assisting those with life-threatening diseases (particularly people with heart disease and cancer), she created Yoga of the Heart®, a training and certification program for Yoga teachers and health professionals designed to adapt Yoga practices to the special needs of that population.

She is now dedicated to bringing the Feminine back into spirituality and the scriptures, in her book, The Secret Power of Yoga, a woman’s guide to the heart and spirit of the Yoga Sutras and Secret Power of Yoga Audiobook Nautilus Book Silver Award Winner! Understanding the need for more love and compassion in today’s world, The Namaste Effect: Expressing Universal Love through the Chakras, her most recent book, explores a heart-centered way of living through the mystical chakras. abundantwellbeing.com