Yoga: The Union of Opposites, The Heart is the whole body and all its relationships, Left is Right etc, You are a flower blooming in your own garden.

Left is Right, Inner is Outer etc
Yoga is the union of all opposites. Your participation in the opposites does more than you know. Please observe that left IS right… left is literally the right, yet can be defined and experienced independently and are also utterly the same as each other. You are the whole body. Please observe that base IS the crown… you are the whole body. And please observe that your inner IS the outer. You are literally another person, a tree, a cloud, the sky, solid ground and moon and stars. You are the whole body appearing in this vast context utterly one with and dependant on everything for your Life, yet amazingly an autonomous individual as well free to steer in any direction you choose. By these simple means you know your Reality. Nurturing source reality is appearing in you as you.
You are a flower blooming in your own garden
Your first form arrived as one cell known as the heart. A spark of Life, initiated by male female, giving and receiving union of opposites, the catalyst of nurturing, your spirit took form and the source became seen. This one cell is the portal to absolute nurturing reality, mother source. Poetically it is the jewel in the lotus. She has unfolded like a flower in bloom as a subtle body, the movement of energy through your whole form. And she has manifested as your physical form. Well, you are not a flower. You are a human. But the same life beauty, wonder, intelligence is blooming as you. Indeed there are subtle structures in your body like flowers. So you ARE a flower blooming in your own garden. Rest in that. Searchlessly see the flower petals unfolding from the heart. Be in the tips of petals. Be in your skin and all ordinary conditions. Nurturing energy flows from the heart. The love prana flows from the hridaya and everything is nurtured in all directions.
The Heart, The Whole, Source of All Appearance, From Where Opposites Originate, Served and Sustained by Union of All Opposites
In Yoga there is no requirement to manipulate the body or the energy in attempt to know the source, rather it is the other way round. We start with the heart that is felt in the simple participation in the union of all opposites. The heart or “hrid” is felt as the place where all opposites are in union and the origin of all opposites, from where the life energy flows, nurturing the physical and all its relationship. Yoga starts and ends with reality participation. The hrid manifest as all life as the giving and receiving functions of life. (hri = to give, d = receive).
It is felt in the body as:
1. heart on the right (hrid, causal nurturing origin)
2. heart in the center (anahata heart chakra and all chakra, the nurturing energy flow base to crown from the hrid enjoyed as mantra and yantra)
3. physical pumping heart on the left.
There is no value system one higher than the other. Resting in one gives access to all.
They are the same originating heart reality. Intimacy with the physical is the primary means. The attempt to reduce the physical to realize the subtle or causal heart is not required and disturbs our heart and life.
Yoga is not about self-consciously trying to realize anything. That creates the false identity of one who is seeking. It is surrender participating in what is already true. We are completely nurtured. This we can depend on any time in the future. Just wait relax and be healed. If there is pain it is the healing. The nurturing is always operating and cannot be lost in the extreme wonder and intelligence of the universe always functioning to maximum degree to keep you well and happy… like a mother does!

Yoga in Asia: Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangkok

The most inquiring group of Yoga students I have ever had the priviledge to teach was in Beijing recently. This is not a put down of all other groups!. it is just that their sincere thirst for authentic understanding and practice was intense. Presumably it reflects China’s contemporary emergence as dominant world society with its ancient Taoist roots.
Organically, naturally and spontaneously Yoga is taking its place everywhere in the contemporary world, because it is needed as the soothing balm that in time will nurture everyOne everywhere. It is coming into China driven by Chinese and US commerce. It was not until America could find its commercial potential that Yoga spread. And this is good. Money is needed to power it into the public mind. Now after only three years of operation Pure Yoga International in China sponsored the first and most successful Asia Yoga Conference. It was a hit, such a great multi-cultural event and is already set to go next year.
Being in Asia confirmed again to me the universality of Yoga. It is utterly adaptable to all body types, age, health AND cultural backgrounds. As a distinct darshana from India, separate from the six ancient philosophical systems that later developed into world religion, yoga is completely universal to all cultural systems. In fact it was Krishnamacharya’s academic view that the non dual practice of Yoga was needed to realize the idealisms expressed in dualistic religious systems. In Bangkok’s mostly Buddhist culture, it was easy to see how the impositionn of male doctrine has “once again” sadly created a suppressive society for women (and therefore men too). Just like in America, in Asia the Yoga rooms are mainly full of women trying to feel better and “feel better.” These simple Yoga practices allowed them to realize the peace of meditation of their natural state, during and following practice. They understood how much the practice is needed in the context of their Buddhism. I also saw how withhout any apparant religious imprint the young Chinese needed it too. They lapt it up as a means to absorb / enjoy reality, the natural state without religious language or context. And we realized, “the Buddha is a Yogi.”
Curiously though in China despite the vigorous efforts to rid society of religious “opiates” and superstion people had ancient wisdom in their DNA. The great society of the Tao will never vanish and is taking its contempoorary form.
Nevertheless, sadly all over Asia everyOne is cowering under the foreboding holy personality, the enlightened superperson implying that every ordinary condition is not sacred. As Juliana bent to smell a lotus bloom she was fiercely scolded.. “That is for the Buddha. Not for you.” Juliana turned, a little startled said, “I thought I was the Buddha”
Later Juliana innocently went onto a pedestal under a beautiful golden Buddha. We took a photo. We were soon told by the attendant this was “very bad” because it was reserved for the male monks. Nevertheless history has occurred. The deed was done. An ordinary woman, a mortal took her equal place on the pedestal with the Buddha. This for me was the most significant event of the Asia trip. Guess what!? The Buddha thought so too.
May all women and men realize soon that we are all ordinary Buddhas, the extreme perfection of Life, already Given as heart beat breath, sex and all natural relatedness. This is all Gautama Buddha ever was and ever wanted for everyOne.
Mark