Your Brain is Too Small for the Job

We try to figure stuff out all the time. From war to water wastage, to why kids hit each other and why we throw cigarette butts on the floor.

I don’t know. Do you?

Have you figured it all out?

Do you have a system that works and answers all the questions?

The fact is, many of us live with points of view, and these are like coloured glass that we look through the world with. Well, I’ve got socialist leanings, so my glasses are a light red colour and when things upset my image of the world, maybe my glasses break, but I just buy a new pair.

That is, we put a bandaid over the problem and think it will fix it – or we shove it into the box of ‘that doesn’t fit with my view of the world’ that gets bigger and bigger and we ignore it more and more (much like my sock drawer that is also a drawer for bits and pieces I don’t know what to do with).

The human brain is just not capable of seeing things how they really are. Its too full of its own ideas. It has to be ‘this’ way, or people shouldn’t do that, or I don’t understand – and its continual. Just listen to people. How many times a day do you think, or hear someone say ‘people are just crazy’.

There is something more. But what is it? If our brain can’t understand it, why do we keep using it for the job? Perhaps there is another part of us that has the capacity to perceive, rather than see. Things are really not black and white. Its our brain trying to order everything. But it gets jammed.

Along with many others on this journey we call life, I look you in the eye, I hold your hand, and I say – let’s try with the heart. Maybe the heart is big enough to understand. Maybe the heart can see the truth without trying to impose limitations. Perhaps the heart can guide us through the jungle.

Just a suggestion.

Important of Practice

We’re not just looking for a flat stomach. We’re not just looking to fit into last year’s pants.

We’re practicing yoga, qigong, meditation to bring the One that dwells within out of the closet.

When we sit in silence, when we practice mindfully, when we watch the thoughts and make the detachment from them, we are giving the indweller, the eternal Self, a chance to come through.

We know that there is an egoic self making demands. We know it puts us into situations where we can never be fulfilled. And we give it a lot of attention.

The more we practice meditation, the more we liberate the indweller. The ‘Being’ that is constant.

Our practice is our fight for freedom from the egoic mind. Our practice is our path to peace. Our practice defends the Soul from the many illusions we are presented with on a daily level. Our practice helps us navigate through the jungle of life.

Practice is more than getting stronger, fitter, and better than the guy beside me.

Practice is our truest friend and guide. Be loyal to your practice and without a doubt, you will lift layers of artifice from your mind.

With love

My Goals til 1st of January 2010

I’m going to study Catalan with enthusiasm and I will open my ears to the language instead of feel as though it hurts my head.

I’m going to make a big pot of soup every week because soup is yummy and cosy for Autumn.

I’m going to restart my Pilates training and strengthen the core muscle groups. They are integral for all physical development.

I’m going to up my physical yoga/qigong practice to an almost uncomfortable level until it is comfortable, and then I will do it again – until the end of the year.

I’m going to read ‘speed cleaning’ – and I will implement my new learnings in a practical manner.

I’m going to learn how to make a really good cake. I’m going to learn how to make it perfect, every time. I’m just undecided of the flavour.

I’m going to do more and think/plan less.

So – that’s my big ‘gonna’ list – what’s yours? Only two and a half months til the end of the year. Let’s go!

Teaching What Needs to Be Taught

As a student, we feel motivated when we are interested in something. We can sit up all night with our face in a book. Its harder and less rewarding to study the topics we’re not so interested in. It can be difficult to build up enthusiasm.

As a teacher, you need to be motivated by your student. Not by your self.

Teach What the Student Needs to Know

That means that sometimes you have to bend the curriculum of what you have prepared, and move around and open up another box of information or wisdom.

The Jesus and Buddhas’ teachings are full of stories. They are similar stories, but they are different, depending on their audience. And finally, when they have spoken taught as best they can, they say, ok then, for those of you with ears, listen!

As an instructor, we need to move fluidly around the material we want to teach. If you see your students/class not responding. Its not their fault. Its yours. You need to take responsibility for doing your best to fulfil their requirements. Sometimes your students won’t like you for it. It doesn’t mean just making them happy. It means, making them grow and develop.

Remember that some of our harders, and yet rewarding lessons in life, have been difficult and even traumatic. If we survive them, we feel enriched and empowered.

The next time you stand in front of your class/student, take a moment to ask yourself ‘How much am I just talking about me? How much am I answering the student’s needs? How can I explain what needs to be taught, so that the student understands me, like a flash of light?

Advice for Sadhana by Amma

“We are like pure rainwater that has become impure by falling in the gutter. The water in the gutter needs to be cleaned by connecting it to a river, and this is what sadhana does. Even though we are, in reality, the untainted Atman, because we are bound to the gross, physical world, there are impure vasanas (tendencies) present within us. We have to purify our minds by discriminating between the eternal and the ephemeral, and through meditation. And as we are purified by meditating, we grow strong.”

Amma Embracing the world for Peace and Harmony