Welcome to the future!

Here.

On "Yoga"

For years i have been trying to find hints through different texts and documents as well as different modern practices of what might be called "authentic Yoga", "THE Yoga". I realise now I had been entirely missing the point. There is no such thing as "true yoga", "authentic yoga" or whatever other derivate. Quite frankly, there is no one who can say exactly what yoga is!(anyone who pretends otherwise has just not read or pondered enough on this). There is not one yoga, but a multitude: as many practitionners, as many types of yoga. We are all forging our own yoga no matter what anyone thinks or says. There are no immutable principles. There are some who take a few ideas/affirmations and turn them into axioms. I'm not saying this is bad. On the contrary. Whether we like it or not, whether we're conscious of it or not, we are practicing while having adhered to a particular way of thinking. So one might better be conscious of it. I'm just saying that, while having been trained in a certain school (and obviously, they all think they have it right, even if they are denying it - why would one practice something if one thought there was something better out there?), we take on bord what is given to us and adhere to it and tend to see everything else as deviations from the true path. If one cannot see the validity of other approaches- or to look at it from a diffrent angle, the relativity of one's own approach - then one has most probably been brainwashed.

Here's an interesting passage taken from "Yoga in Modern India" (p. 19) by Alter, which might illustrate some of the points I've made earlier:
[the author mentions the orientalist who tend - and not only them mind you - to look at classical texts dealing with Yoga and consider thel "gold standard" in order to measure the authenticity of various kinds of practice]: "What else counts as an authoritative text, and on what basis are different texts ranked in terms of relative importance? How are they to be compared one with another if your point of reference is not the corpus itself but modern practice? The most obvious answer to these questions is to be somewhat restrictive and judiciously limit the scope to what are regarded as the primary texts [based on what? - my remark] - the Yoga Sûtra, the Yoga Upanisads, the Bhagavad Gîtâ, and the three mais Hatha Yoga texts of more recent, medieval antiquity, the Hathayogapradîpikâ, the Sivasamhitâ and the Gherandasamhitâ. But this presents problems, since in these texts Yoga blurs into Samkhya, Tantra, and the "cult of Krsna" among other forms of practice, systems of religious thought, and philosophical reasoning."

The differences in philosophies, in the forms of yoga, in the religious environment are far more drastic in reality than this passage suggests. This is why I'm saying that there's simply no point in looking for THE yoga (and judging others based on what one thinks Yoga is), but for what suits one best.

Matthieu Ricard conference

I have finally managed to attend a Matthieu Ricard conference last night in Paris. The last time I had tried to do this I had arrived one hour earlier and the place had been filled three hours earlier. This time I went there early enough and got a perfect seat (about one meter away from him:) ).
It was fantastic. The theme of the conference was altruism and the way it could change us all individually and - thanks to that - the society we live in. I must say it was the first time I actually understood the whole point of it. He said that altruism, kindness, compassion are all states of mind (not just some abstract concept of feeling) and that just as one works to cultivate a physical skill, in the same manner one should devote time to the betterment of one's mind. Through this, we can "contaminate" others with our lack of anger and disarm them. This is also the way in which we can oppose the exacerbated individualism of our society which will eventually lead us to our own self-destruction (ex. environnement, wars - since you no longer see others as human beins but only as targets - etc).
He also said some things about why saying that meditation is a way of shutting yourself from others and reality and of being egocentric is nonsense. One practices meditation in order to stop being egocentric and the transformation is visible in everyday life (a great deal of scientific studies have meen made on this topic). Some person said that withdrawing from her family in order to meditate made her feel as if she was excluding the latter, to which he responded that in order to do anything one need some privacy: whether it's practicing the piano, writing a thesis, or training for some competition. He said that if alowing 20 minutes a day or say 45 in order to become better and be a wonderful human being during the 23:15 hours left , then it is no doubt worth the investment.
He also dedicated a book to me (and many others :) ) saying: "à Alina, que l'amour altruiste règne en votre cœur, Matthieu", which I thought to be (and still do) really beautiful.

Inspiratie

Ma gandeam sa scriu un articol si sa-l intitulez: "Les chercheurs et la phobie du point". :))

Dalai Lama

On a demandé au DALAI LAMA :
Qu'est ce qui vous surprend le plus, dans l'humanité ?
Il a répondu :
« Les hommes, parce-qu'ils perdent leur santé, pour accumuler de l'argent
Ensuite, ils perdent de l'argent pour retrouver leur santé !
Et à force de penser anxieusement au futur, ils oublient le présent,
de telle sorte qu'ils finissent par non–vivre et le présent et le futur;
Ils vivent comme s'ils n'allaient jamais mourir
Et meurent comme s'ils n'avaient jamais vécus. »

Juifs pour Jésus

Am descoperit astazi o asociatie fondata in California in 1973 de evrei convertiti la crestinism ("evrei mesianici"). Unii dintre ei spun ca sunt si evrei si crestini in acelasi timp, si incearca sa explice celorlati "frati" ca Isus este Mesia pe care-l asteaptau.
L-a inceput chestiunea m-a entuziasmat, apoi am avut ceva dubii. Am impresia ca vor sa-L "recupereze" pe Isus si evangheliile si sa le transforme intr-o "juiverie". Chiar daca radacinile crestinilor se afla in traditia iudaica, multe chestiuni au fost transformate pe parcurs: doar de asta ii spunem Crestinism si nu Iudaism.
In fine, pana la urma gasesc totusi ca (atat cat sunt capabila sa-mi dau seama in acest moment) intentia lor nu este una daunatoare dimpotriva. Cred ca incearca sa stabileasca pasarele cu crestinii si cu musulmanii.
Situl asociatiei: http://www.juifspourjesus.org/
Un interviu foarte instructiv. http://www.zebuzztv.com/?item=521&lien=rechrpo

Despre imaginile de cult

Cateva pasaje scurte despre semnificatia imaginilor (=diferitilor zei) in hinduism (tantrism) : B. Bhattacharya - World of Tantra:

"Each aspirant under a threat of spiritual and emotional pressure creates his own deity and prostrates before the ideal so crystallised (in the image). [...]
As many individuals, as many individual ideas; as many ideas, as many ideals; as many ideals, as many dhyāna ; as many dhyāna, as many murtis (images). Images are not idols. Deprived of the eternal values that are attributes of the divine presence, idols are mere lumps that man creates to raise up on a false pedestal. [...]
Tantric images differ from mood to mood, from urge to urge, need to need; even from occasion to occasion. From the fierce forms of Chāmuṇḍā, Kāli and Nīla Sarasvatī to the milder forms of Lakṣmī, Sāradā and Prajñā-Pāramitā; from Viṣṇu, the sun-god, to Varuṇa, the water-god, and Śiva, the quiet static material image of absolute neutrality, every image is imbued with a subjective ideal, which if imaged successfully, holds the devotee's trying attention, and brings about the coveted concentration. This is just a method of sitting the mind free of all inhibited pre-thoughts and neutralising the world of the senses. [...]
This is the underlying secret of the many images of the tantriks, of the many ideals that aspirants nurse and adore. Each image represents an aspirant's soul-hunger concealed into a tangible form, so that he can establish a personal and rational bond between the outer form and the inner hunger.
[...] even the lover who wants to reach the divine liberation, identification of the absolute type, must determine the kind of love that appeals to him the most; responds to his inner personality the most. There need never be any hesitation in accepting that which fits, suits and answers an inner hunger."

Cateva puncte de reper: in hinduism (si budism), imaginile, statuetele ce reprezinta zeitati sunt utilizate ca suport de meditatii si in ritual. Cel putin in tantrism, prin practica sa, adeptul incerca sa se indentifice cu zeitatea aleasa.