The Spiritual Path

THE SPIRITUAL PATH

To many people, Yoga is just some stretching exercises in tight revealing clothing. In fact, most Yogis wear loose fitting clothes in the East where it actually started. Most practioners will wear loose fitting clothing so that you do not distract other students with your sexy body or get distracted by others. Learning Yoga is a sacred thing. Similarly you do not fool around with Kung Fu or any other martial art. You can get seriously injured when you are distracted. You learn everything from a master / sifu / guru whom you have high esteem of. It is inappropriate and disrespectful to dress in tight fitting clothes. In fact many people wear tight fitting clothing and thinks it is sexy. They do not understand the implication to their health. Most people do not know about blood and chi circulations. Tight clothing hampers our movements. It also can cause the chi or blood to be blocked. Please read my article Healing FAQs  or visit my website www.TFFoo.site11.com for more information. Even sleeping on a certain side of the shoulder can cause chi and blood blockage as explain in the mentioned article. I have nothing against anyone wanting to be sexy. It is funny to think that meditation and Yoga exercises are suppose to make you healthy mentally and physically. The fact is there are many Yoga instructors, monks, nuns, masters and students actually seeking treatments for all kind of physical damages / discomforts as a result of incorrect practices.

Many years ago, I would never thought of myself as willing to do any manual work. Now I do it everyday. I was the Finance & Admin manager of a hotel belonging to a listed groups of companies. I am used to using my mind all the time and had neglected the physical aspect of my body. I guess it is karma that I do my own business. I have more time to pursue my interest in spiritualism and learning to get detached and rational about life.

A fellow collage mate ask me on how to solve stress and weight problems.
If your stress is from works, you have to face it head on. Be honest with yourself. Jot down which aspect of the work that stress you most. Take one little step at a time. How about try solving part of it first. The rest will be much easier. You need to set your priority right. The worst outcome would be to change job or business whichever is applicable. Always make sure you have done your best before going back. Remember that it is pointless to worry over something which you cannot change. For instance if you know your car battery is faulty, you should change it immediately. There is no point worrying your car might breakdown due to the faulty battery. In life people choose different path and have different destinies. There is no point worrying after you have done your best. You have to be rational.

You can do some chanting such as " Om Mani Padme Hum" if you are Buddhist. For Muslim maybe you can try "La i la ha i la wa" one thousand times. Some meditation will also help to calm down your mind. There are plenty of meditational centre everywhere.

Chi Kung if practiced on a regular basis under the guidance of a qualified master/instructor can bring you many benefits such as lowering your heart beat, promotes better chi and blood circulations. This should take care of most minor ailments. If you are tired you will naturally sleep better. You will also be able to become stronger when you are able to control and manipulate the chi. At this point you can even become a healer. I am not sure it will reduce your weight. You need to control your consumption of food. When you have reached a certain level perhaps you might not be that interested in food. I do not take much food but I am heavier and never hungry. There are many masters who are not disciplined with their consumption of food and doing daily exercises. Even they might get heart problems. You have to set your priority right.

Yoga is a system to help you live your live to the fullest.
Yoga can be divided as follows:
1) Exercises to tone up the muscles and bio-magnetism / chi
2) Meditation to tone up the bio-magnetism / chi and the mind
3) Introspection and Spiritual Awakening

Taoism

Regardless of whether you are Taoist, Buddhist or Hindu the above path is almost similar. For instance a Taoist disciple from Wu Tang Clan will have Wu Tang Kung Fu to tone up their muscles and bio-magnetism. Then they follow the Wu Tang's Taoist meditations. After that they have the Tao Te Ching and their masters' guidance to guide them on the spiritual path. Taoism is about cultivating Tao. The Tao is littary translate as a path or highway. The Tao is a way of life basing on the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tze. The water might be soft yet it still manage to cut through the rocks that happened to be in its way. A hero might be valiant but is no match for the beautiful maiden's trap (as in Samson and Delilah). It is because we see beauty that we see ugliness. It is always a comparison between this and that. If there is no comparison there is no beauty or ugliness. It is because you do not believe in someone that you make him/her a liar. How about my favorite Tao Te Ching's wisdom:

To know when one does not know is best,
To think one knows when one does not is a dire disease,
Only those who recognizes the disease as a disease,
Can be cured of the disease.

A lot of us are unable to differentiate what is right or wrong. To a drug addict, the drug is medicine while to others it is poison. Due to our lack of understanding of the nature of things, we are sometimes not able to differentiate what is right or wrong. Our perception of things might not be correct. It is when we are ignorant and still believe we are right that is most vile. Nothing can be done to help such people unless they are made to realize they are on the wrong path. For example, meditation is said to be good for our physical and mental health but trying to do meditation on our own without the guidance of a good master can be very dangerous. Some have gone mentally unstable to the extent of being insane. Over doing meditation for a novice can cause nose bleeding due to fever, migraines and the blood rushing to the head (which I had experienced about 20 years ago). Another example is, if someone fall down and out of compassion you might want to help him. If you are ignorant of first aids, you should call the ambulance and let the experienced medical personnel take care of him/her. If you ignorantly try to help, you might cause lots of irreversible damages and possibly permanent disablement to him/her. A lot of sufferings in this world can be avoided if only we are able to restrain ourselves from acting out of ignorance. Some of us even have the audacity to try to teach a "duck" (master/guru) how to swim.

This is the difference between a "superior" person who is one with Tao (ren sang ren) and the others. His heart is pure and with the ordinary people but take no credit for educating, prodding and helping them. Everything seems to happen on its own accord. That is Tao.


Buddhism

Similarly the Shaolin disciple will train on the Sholin Kung Fu, Buddhist meditations and Buddhist's scriptures and teachings. Buddhism is about the 4 noble truth, the 10 abstinence and 8 percepts.
The Buddha's first sermon after his Enlightenment centered on the Four Noble Truths, which are the foundation of Buddhism. The truths are:

1)The truth of suffering (dukkha)
2)The truth of the cause of suffering (samudaya)
3)The truth of the end of suffering (nirhodha)
4)The truth of the path that frees us from suffering (magga)


The ten abstinences are :

1)Not killing
2)Not stealing
3)Not misusing sex
4)Not lying
5)Not abusing intoxicants
6)Not talking about others' errors and faults
7)Not elevating oneself and blaming others
8)Not being stingy
9)Not being angry
10)Not speaking ill of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma and Teacher/ Master)


Eight Percepts are :

1)Right View
2)Right Intention
3)Right Speech
4)Right Action
5)Right Livelihood
6)Right Effort
7)Right Mindfulness
8)Right Concentration

The Path is divided into three main sections: wisdom, ethical conduct and mental discipline.

Wisdom: Right View and Right Intention are the wisdom path. Right View is not about believing in doctrine, but in perceiving the true nature of ourselves and the world around us. Right Intention refers to the energy and commitment one needs to be fully engaged in Buddhist practice.

Ethical Conduct: Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood are the ethical conduct path. This calls us to take care in our speech, our actions, and our daily lives to do no harm to others and to cultivate wholesomeness in ourselves. This part of the path ties into the percepts.

Mental Discipline: Through Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration we develop the mental discipline to cut through delusion. Many schools of Buddhism encourage seekers to meditate to achieve clarity and focus of mind.

Of course these are only some basics of Buddhism. Hopefully I might have sown the seed for your quest for greater knowledge.


Indian Yoga

The Yogi's will have their stretching and breathing exercises to tone their muscles and bio-magnetism. They will normally be doing the Kundalini meditations. Then they will have introspections and spirituals discourse by their guru to help them. The Simplified Kundalini Yoga method by Swwarmiji Mahrishi is on how to live your life in a more rational way. If you want to know more about Simplified Kundalini Yoga courses in Malaysia (please click here). Beside meditations, those wanting to go far in spirituality should also look within (introspections) as follows:

1)The need of Introspection. The Greatness of Silence.
2)The Philosophy of Life
3)Analysis of Thoughts.
4)Moralization of Desire
5)Benefits of blessing.
6)Neutralization of Anger
7)Eradication of Worries
8)Realization of Self
9)Sinful Imprints and ways to eliminate them.
10)Life and Mind.
11)Philosophy Of Mind
12)Evolution of Universe
13)Action Imprints - Cause and Effect
14)Karma Yoga - Purifying of genetic centre
15)Peace in Family
16)Why Men differ?
17)Before Birth and after Death
18)Astronomy and Astrology
19)Evolution of Universe
20)Brahma Gnanam and Philosophy of Action and Result.

These are all included in four stages of Introspection courses. Of course you also learn many types of meditations.

What is the point of doing lots of meditation if your heart is not pure? Even in Taoism and Buddhism there is mentioned of being selfless, egoless, detached and leading a simple life. We must be able to rationalise everything. If something bad happens, do not be too sad. If something good happens do not be too happy. We should try to be detached and moderate (never in excess). Rationalised all the events and you will be able to have peace of mind.

It is the harnessing of the Chi/ Bio-magnetism / Prana that enable us to become stronger physically and mentally. It is through meditations that we started to get to know our inner self. It is the books / scriptures and gurus / masters that help us understand and overcome the difficulties on our spiritual path. Please click here if you want to know more about meditation.