Dear Yogis,

NOTES FOR TODAY:I am never sure whether to put these in the front or at the end.

YOGA CLASSES: please read “classes” above, and bring all your props, and pre-pay. ZOOM – Four classes PER WEEK.  Mondays, Wednesdays, Friday and Saturdays.

TAROT: The last training class today (Saturday) at 2pm.  Bookings taken for the next class. I will be trying zoom consults and trainings starting the 1th July.

TEA AND TAROT  “Afternoon Tea – Meet-up”, At the studio, 2pm to 4pm Sunday 28th June.  Please email an RSVP yogafirst2@bigpond.com. Everyone welcome.  Readings, decks, paintings, posters, pendulums….

We have been walking around and around the hard things, the yoga basics, but starting today we are going to jump in.

WE ARE NOT THESE BODIES.

“O descendent of Bharata, he who dwells on the the body can never be slain.  Therefore we need not grieve for any living thing”. (Bhagavad-Gita 2.30)

The first step is to understand that you are not your body.  In the verse above the “he who dwells in the body” is not talking about you.  It is not a matter of just repeating “I am not this body” but actually realising it.  Although we are not these bodies, these vehicles,  but are pure consciousness, somehow over time we have become identified within this physical identity.

Some scholars say that this identification with the body can be cured by abstaining from all action.  Buddha also maintained that if we somehow separate ourselves from the material,  the cause of suffering will be removed. In today’s terms – If you were being pursued by the ATO, would it remove your tax debt if you destroyed all your material possessions.  I don’t think so.  It would however make it more difficult for you to meet the remaining obligations, but now you would have destroyed the vehicle through which this could be achieved.

The Bhagavad-Gita indicates that the body is not everything.  There is more.  Beyond the complex material elements there is the spirit, and the symptom of that spirit is consciousness.  We know that a body without consciousness is a dead body.  What is this energy we call consciousness? Consciousness is the energy of the soul and proves that the soul is present.  When the body breaks down and this energy called consciousness leaves the body, there is no possibility of our replacing a broken part and thereby reviving the body, and achieving our destiny…  The soul energy has gone.  There is no possibility of re-animating the body after the soul has left.

In the Bhagavad-Gita, Sri Krishna points out that all our miseries are caused by false identification with the body.   It is the spirit spark of the soul which motivates us into great feats of creation. We try to attain eternity, knowledge and bliss by subjugating our imperfect physical vehicle, however to progress to our goals we must realise  that we are being blocked by the physical.  Perhaps we are floundering in a place of desire and attachment, allowing the  senses to drag us this way and that.  For success, for peace and contentment, we must learn to master the body, not deny it.  We must be masters and not servants.

Tantra USES the energy of desire.  Instead of seeing pleasure and desire as things to be avoided at all costs, TANTRA recognises the powerful energy aroused by our desires,  to be an indispensable resource for our spiritual path.  Tantra seeks to transform every experience no matter how un-religious it may appear – into the path of fulfilment.  Because our present life is so inseparably linked with desire, instead of denying this fact, instead of living in denial,  we must USE desire’s tremendous energy if we wish to transform our life into something transcendental.

HAVE A LOVELY WEEKEND.

NAMASTE – JAHNE