When we die, we do not take anything with
us. No cars, houses, money, titles, marriages, girlfriends, boyfriends…
nothing. And this life goes by really fast, really quickly. So what is
it that is most important? Many wise ones say (and the point of this
message is to say): Inner Peace. The experience of our own inner peace
is the ultimate spiritual treasure. It does not matter how much
material success you have. If you are living a miserable life then so
much gets wasted. It is easy for us to actually waste a lot of our life.
Yes, our own life. And usually we are not even aware that we are doing
that.
There is a story that Swamiji tells. A
person is walking along a river bank. This person is lost in an
incessant stream of thinking. Thinking about projects, to do lists,
people, tomorrow’s meeting, last week’s events at the office etc. And so
this person is just strolling along the riverside thinking about things
in the past and in the future. And this person is tossing little stones
into the river, not even aware that they are tossing anything at all.
Then suddenly this person realizes that there was just one precious
stone left in the palm of the hand and that the handful of diamonds was
pretty much gone. And it was too late to get all those other diamonds
back. The river had long since swept them away. What a waste!
And so our lives are often like this. Due
to improper mental programming we spent countless hours thinking
incessantly about any random thing under the sun. Psychologists say that
85%+ of these thoughts are actually repetitive and serve no practical
purpose. From the yoga perspective, we waste enormous amounts of energy
(life-force energy known in Sanskrit as “prana”) due to this
out-of-control thinking. In addition, when our minds are washed into the
river of unstoppable thinking we suffer the consequences of energy
loss, fatigue, and reduced capacity of the brain to restore itself and
be creative. Oftentimes, the end result is depression, anxiety, fear
based compulsive thinking, addictive thinking and behaviors which do not
lead to our highest potential of health and happiness.
Yoga wants us all to INCREASE OUR SPIRITUAL BANK ACCOUNT OF INNER PEACE.
Yoga says that the practitioner who diligently cultivates the
self-discipline of their practice (sadhana) will learn to experience
more and more an “infinite ocean of inner peace” (Swamiji). At some
point, yoga culminates with the practitioner becoming firmly established
in the truth of one’s innermost nature which is nothing but the pure
consciousness of love and peace.
This content has been taken from
https://iandarrahyogatrainer.wordpress.com/2017/05/11/the-ultimate-treasure-is-spiritual-treasure-and-what-is-that/
Comments
Post a Comment