This is an important practice in yoga to silent the mind by stop feeding the thought current or thought activities by restraining the mind from projecting or expressing the thinking via speech and action. It’s the practice of awareness, non-attachment and letting go that eventually leads to complete silence or the annihilation of the entire worldly idea of ‘I’ and life existence. People who are passionate towards worldly idea of life existence, who aspire to build a positive world that is free from what they think is negative, would interpret this practice as oppression or suppression or degradation of the mind or human life existence or humanity, which the worldly minded think it’s something inhuman, abnormal, unhealthy, non-progressive and wrong. Those who are not interested in yoga and meditation practice, who are passionate about worldly idea of life existence, they don’t need to perform this practice. Those who think they are free from suffering or they don’t mind suffering, or who had transcended suffering, also don’t need to perform the practice to silent/annihilate the modification of the mind.
Even the teachings and practice of yoga can be something ‘good’ and ‘amazing’ for some people, but it can also be something ‘not good’ and ‘wrong’ for many other people. It’s up to everyone on how the mind perceives and reacts towards everything, and whether the mind needs the teachings and practice of yoga to realize unconditional peace.
The practice of silencing the mind is greatly contradicted with the existing worldly ideas and values that emphasize on empowering self-identification, self-worth, self-development, personal and global achievement and recognition, and social community development, where people think human beings should progress forward by constantly stimulating their minds and projecting their thoughts/desires freely through expressing their ideas and feelings via speech and action, especially if it’s something ‘constructive’, ‘good’, ‘right’ and ‘positive’ according to the thinking and belief consists of certain worldly ideas and values, cultural and religious belief and practice that people think it would benefit all humanity.
What most worldly minds don’t realize is that silencing the mind is the greatest form of serving humanity. There’s less a being under the influence of ignorance to generate ignorant actions into the world.
Many people who are interested in doing some form of yoga exercises regularly are either ignorant towards this teaching and practice, as the yoga teachers don’t teach about this teaching in the yoga exercise classes, or, people have heard and learned about it, but they don’t like and disagree with this teaching and practice. Whether people know or don’t know, like or dislike, agree or disagree, this is what yoga is about – Annihilation of the modification of the mind/thought activities.
The worldly idea of life existence appears when the mind moves, where there is habitual attachment and reaction towards the mind perception of names and forms through the senses. The worldly idea of life existence disappears when the mind is stilled and desireless, where there is only silent witness towards the mind perceptions without attachment, identification, desires of craving and aversion, judgement, intention or expectation.
A lot of time, the thinking and judgment from the impure thinking mind is only partially true, or may not be true at all. The mind reaction of likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, is also part of the by-product of ignorance, being influenced by egoism and impurities.
There’s nothing wrong when the mind thinks and believes that it has some ‘constructive’, ‘good’, ‘right’ and ‘positive’ qualities, ideas and values that are well-worth to be shared with the world, and there is strong urge to project what it thinks and believes as ‘constructive’, ‘good’, ‘right’ and ‘positive’ through speech and action, thinking that this would bring positive goodness to the society or the world, so that other people will also be inspired by or be endowed with the similar qualities, ideas and values. There’s kind and generous intention or aspiration to share something great with the world to inspire others.
Everyone has the freedom to express their thinking through speech and action, there’s nothing wrong and it really doesn’t matter for those who are free from the influence of ignorance and egoism because they will not be affected or disturbed by other people’s thinking, ideas or feelings being projected through speech and action/reaction. But in reality, there are many minds functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism, that are not free from being disturbed by ungratified desires, likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, who will be disturbed, or intimidated, or offended, or hurt by other people’s thinking, ideas and feelings, actions and reactions. Again, there’s nothing wrong with people expressing their thinking freely, as well as it’s everyone’s freedom and responsibility for how they react towards other people’s thinking, ideas and feelings, actions and reactions. Just that impure minds can get very confused when being disturbed or intimidated, and might unwittingly or spontaneously hurt themselves and/or others out of the disturbed and confused state of the mind.
For example, there are women who don’t have or don’t want to have children would express their ideas or feelings about how ‘good’ and ‘blessed’ for them to have the joy of not having children. While the women who have or want to have children would express their ideas or feelings about how ‘good’ and ‘blessed’ for them to have the joy of having children. And sometimes, they might mock each other for justifying their respective ideology is somehow more superior or better than the other.
There’s nothing wrong with both different ideas or feelings towards the joy of having or not having children. It’s all good that some women find joy in not having children, while some women find joy in having children, as long as there’s no attachment or identification towards this idea or value to be who they are. Then it doesn’t matter whether they have or don’t have children, they are fine, being undetermined by any ideology to feel worthy, happy, confident, or meaningful, or not.
There are women who think and believe that having children is something ‘good’ and ‘blessed’, and they would love to have children, but for some reasons they couldn’t have any children, or they have children, but it’s not the way that they like it to be, and their minds are being in a state of suffering due to ungratified desires. Under the imbalanced state of the mind, they would feel greatly disturbed when women who have children keep boasting about their joy of having children, thinking that it’s something good and positive to inspire and encourage other women to also have the joy of having children, but it’s actually generating great disturbance for the women who would love to have children but they couldn’t. And then, there are some women who have children, but for some reasons, they feel regret about having children, and their minds are being in a state of dissatisfaction, frustration and regret, they might feel more disturbed for having children that they don’t really want, when the women who don’t have children keep boasting about their joy of not having children.
It’s not the fault of the people who express, share or boast about their thinking, values and feelings, when other people attach onto whatever they perceive, and react towards what they perceive, taking other people’s expression of thinking and point of view seriously and personally, and feel disturbed, or intimidated, or hurt. Though there are many minds that are easily be affected, disturbed and intimidated by other people’s freedom of expression. For the mind that is free, it won’t be affected, or disturbed, or intimidated by other people’s freedom of expression. This mind doesn’t need to stay away from something that the worldly minded perceive as ‘bad’, ‘negative’, ‘unhappiness’, ‘depressing’, or ‘meaninglessness’. But these liberated minds are very rare in the world.
When the mind starts to develop correct understanding towards the modification of the mind, it’s normal for the mind to have particular thinking and belief towards particular ideas or values, but it doesn’t need to project/express these ideas or values with the intention to inspire other people to also take up these values and ideas, even though the mind strongly believes that they are something ‘constructive’, ‘good’, ‘right’ and ‘positive’. Allowing everyone to have their own version of thinking and belief, ideas and values, and it’s needless to boast about anything trying to inspire other people to be the same as ‘I’, to achieve what ‘I’ achieve, to live life as how ‘I’ live. It’s like, “I am happy. You should be like me, and you will be happy too.” But what is ‘good and happy’ for ‘I’ might be something ‘terrible and painful’ for other people.
When teaching a yoga asana class, the yoga teacher can’t tell the students, “I can do this, so can you,” or “Nothing is impossible. You can do and achieve anything that you want,” to inspire or encourage the students to be able to do what the yoga teacher can do, because it’s not true. Not everyone has the similar physical structure, condition, ability and limitation to be able to perform the same action. People who take the teacher’s words seriously and force themselves beyond their limitation but still couldn’t achieve what they want to achieve, they might hurt themselves out of great expectation and disappointment.
By accepting the reality in this present moment now as it is, that the mind is not free, and it’s okay, and this is impermanent and it’s not ‘I’, and without judgment or disappointment, keep practicing, without attachment or expectation towards the practice and the fruit of practice, and that is already what yoga is about.
For example, high performance and continuous achievement in any field is being perceived as something ‘good’ and ‘positive’ in the world. There’s nothing wrong with the idea of high performance and continuous achievement individually and globally, and many people can keep up with that idea with not much difficulty, but there are people couldn’t meet up with the expectation of high performance and continuous achievement, and they keep forcing the capability of the body and mind beyond its limitation to attain higher and higher performance and achievement until the function of the body and mind eventually breakdown, harming the entire body systems and suffered from physical and mental illness, restlessness, depression or insanity.
People can just do their best within their own capability, without trying to achieve what the world think is ‘good’ and ‘positive’, without pushing or forcing the body and mind beyond its limitation to compete with themselves or others to attain the sense of self-worth, achievement, confidence or meaningfulness, and without losing the clarity and sanity of the mind.
For the untrained mind, there are countless random thought activities or thinking in the mind constantly reacting towards the mind perception of names and forms, whether there is likes or dislikes and agreements or disagreements towards the perceived names and forms in the form of thinking, and naturally, there’s an urge to project/materialize the thinking through the speech and action, either intentionally or unintentionally. There’s an urge to express, to comment, to justify, to fight back, to argue, to attack, to revenge, to intimidate, to oppose, to criticize, to condemn, to aspire, to inspire, to admire, to love, to appreciate, to praise, to possess, to change, or to control, and so on.
For the mind that has developed strong foundation in non-attachment and letting go, there is awareness towards the thought activities of the mind perception of names and forms of sight, sound, smell, taste, sensation and thinking/imagination/feeling, even though there might be likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements in the form of thinking due to the intellectual thought processing and recognizing the perceived names and forms, but it’s not necessarily that the thinking has to be projected/expressed/materialized through speech and action. In the end, all the likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements in the form of thinking will drop off. There might be necessary actions being performed, without egoistic intention, attachment, identification, desires, judgment or expectation. Allowing the fruit of actions to be there as it is, allowing all the names and forms to be there as they are, and allowing all and everything to change as they are.
There might be many intellectuals in the world would disagree with this, or are against towards ‘Silence of The Thinking Mind’. And that is their freedom of thinking and reaction.
This is what yoga practice is about – Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodha
And it’s nothing to do with the selfless impermanent physical condition, ability and limitation to do the yoga poses. It’s nothing to do with the knowledge of anatomy and physiology, or the precise physical alignment and different techniques on performing the yoga poses, or how one looks and feels in the yoga poses, or what are the names and benefits of the yoga poses, or the different types of qualifications and certifications authorized/sanctioned by such and such internationally recognized yoga school, yoga alliance, or yoga association.
The mind that is free from impurities, ignorance and egoism, and is peaceful as it is, being free from ignorance and suffering, doesn’t need to be recognized, acknowledged, approved, authorized, qualified, or certified by anyone or any group/organization, or any higher consciousness.
Be free.
My Daily Yoga Practice 