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Integral Yoga® Magazine, Issue No. 136 Body/Mind Healing
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Body/Mind Healing

Actually you don’t have to do anything to heal the body and mind. If you don’t interfere, the body and mind heal themselves. There is a healer within everyone. We don’t have to do anything to put health into the body. We have to stop doing the negative things that disturb the body and mind and then the good happens by itself.

God bless you. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.”  Sri Swami Satchidananda

(photo: Los Angeles, California, mid-1980s.)


Earth Day and Beyond
By Sri Swami Satchidananda

In honor of Earth Day (April 22), here is a question a student once asked Swami Satchidananda: "What do you think will happen to our natural environment?" His reply:
    It’s already happening. We are ruining it. Now we are thinking of repairing it. Well that’s the way we learn. Mother Nature allows us to make the mistakes and to learn by our own mistakes. The earth is not going to condemn you once and for all. And we cannot literally ruin the whole nature. It’s not in our hands. But we suffer by our actions and we learn to correct ourselves from that suffering.All the terrible things that are happening in the environment and climate are good because this is nature’s way of doing things, cleaning up things. Not only individuals go through suffering. Countries go through suffering. Communities go through suffering. The entire world goes through suffering. They’re all efforts of cleaning it up. Why is that weather pattern like this? Who is the cause for it? We as a whole. We did something wrong, we are facing it. And scientists also say that. They know it. We still don’t want to accept that.  I remember once, during the first Earth Day in New York, the entire Fifth Avenue was blocked to traffic.
  MORE


In this video, Swami Satchidananda gives an Easter message. He speaks about the alchemy of the resurrection of Jesus from an Eastern philosophical perspective. The message is one of the greatness and immortality of the spirit and the liberation and freedom that comes from transcending the physical body. The expression and triumph of the spirit is what we see in the lives of many saints.

In Jewish tradition, Pesach (Passover) is called Z'man Cheruteinu, the season of our freedom. Tradition also tells us that on Pesach we are  to consider ourselves as if we, personally, were delivered from slavery in Egypt. That must mean that the freedom we celebrate on Pesach is not just the remembrance of a long-ago liberation. Pesach is a time to experience and act upon the freedom in our life today—in the here and now. During the weeks before Pesach this year, I've been trying to put more focused attention on freedom and what it means to me in my personal life. I ask myself: In what ways am I free? How do I unintentionally constrict my freedom? What do I do with the freedom I have? By coincidence (if you believe in that sort of thing), my amazing Yoga teacher chose to talk last week in class about freedom. "Freedom," she said, "comes in two flavors: freedom from and freedom to." We experience "freedom from" when we remove ourselves from the things that hurt us or confine us.  MORE

The Hawaiian term Malama Pono loosely refers to the idea of caring for one’s self and living life in a healthy way. However, more and more, we understand that the wellbeing of the individual, the community, and the land are codependent on healthy symbiotic relationships. The responsibility of caring for one’s self includes: honoring our ancestors, looking out for future generations, and living from a place of integrity. Striving to live from authentic integrity often brings challenges, fears, disagreements with friends or relatives, colleagues and employers, and sometimes even bitter confrontations. The Hawaiians have a beautiful practice for bringing resolve and restoring harmony called, Ho’oponopono.... The popular approach involves saying these four things: 1. I’m Sorry This is not about being wrong or right, it is about humility and recognizing that even when we mean the best, or stand firmly in our own integrity, we can still inadvertently hurt others. This is a natural part of being human and acknowledging this is a powerful way to re-examine and reflect on the pillars and values of our own integrity. 2. Please Forgive Me...  MORE


Resurrection has been well understood by accomplished yogis of India since the dawn of the highest ages. Jesus himself was a realized yogi: one who knew and had mastered the spiritual science of life and death, God-communion and God-union, one who knew the method of liberation from delusion into the kingdom of God. Jesus showed throughout his life and death his power of complete mastery over his body and mind and the oft-recalcitrant forces of nature. We understand resurrection in its true sense when we comprehend the Yoga science that clearly defines the underlying principles by which Jesus resurrected his crucified body into the freedom and light of God.” “Resurrection means ‘to rise again.’ What rises again—and how? Though restoring life to a deceased body, as Jesus did for Lazarus, is indeed one form of resurrection, what Jesus evidenced after his crucifixion was much higher. It was the resurrection of the soul into oneness with Spirit—the soul’s ascension from delusory confinement of body consciousness into its native immortality and everlasting freedom.  MORE

In this webinar, Avi Gordon, director of the Integral Yoga Teachers Association, is in conversation with Rev. Jivana Heyman, an Integral Yoga teacher, minister, and founder of Accessible Yoga. They discuss a range of topics, including the challenge it is to change the stereotype of Yoga as something only for the physically fit, celebrities, and supermodels—as magazine covers often portray.

Patanjali's Words: Avidya—Ignorance
By Reverend Jaganath Carrera

Rev. Jaganath, Integral Yoga Minister and Raja Yoga master teacher, has spent a lifetime delving into the deepest layers of meaning in Patanjali’s words within the Yoga Sutras. Our series continues with sutras: 2.4–2.5 in which Patanjali elucidates further on the klesas, the five causes of our human suffering, starting with the first klesa, avidya or ignorance.   
     Ignorance is rooted in misperception. It is due to experiencing: What changes as unchanging; what is impure, colored by bias, and nonvirtuous as pure, free of bias, and virtuous; what brings pain, restlessness, dissatisfaction, and distress as that which brings serenity, contentment, fulfillment, and happiness; what is not the Self as the Self. Experiencing the not-Self as Self refers to the mind’s tendency, under the influence of ignorance, to try to define the Self. The nature of the mind is to persevere in its attempts to limit the pure Self, assign it attributes, and somehow bring it under the control of the ego. This is perhaps why the moment that best depicts the objective of Patanjali’s Yoga comes in sutras 4.25 and 4.26, where it states that once the seeker is able to distinguish the atma from the mind, thoughts of the mind as atma cease forever and the seeker experiences the pull of the Absolute toward liberation (kaivalya).  MORE
 

2019 is heralding in several important 50-year anniversaries and milestones in Integral Yoga history including: Swami Satchidananda's sold-out Carnegie Hall "concert," (January 1969, which featured his talk, a Yoga demo, and music), his opening of the famed Woodstock Festival (August 1969), his founding of Integral Yoga Magazine (December 1969), and the founding of the Integral Yoga Institute of New Jersey (NJIYI). The IYI will celebrate this special occasion on Saturday, May 18th from 10 am – 10 pm. Margabandhu Martarano, director of the IYI (and Integral Yoga International's longest serving center director), will be joined by many special guests including Rev. Jaganath Carrera, Swami Priyaananda, Dhanapati Holzberg (one of the original founders of the NJIYI), Zen Master Wu Kwong, with musical guests Eddie Brigati (The Rascals and NJIYI founding member), and much more! NJIYI staff noted, "This beautiful day is offered free of charge with our sincere gratitude to all, as well as to provide everyone a deeper framework from which to appreciate where we have come, the fundamental principals of our service, and how we all play a role in forging our future." For more please information contact the NJIYI.

 

Plant-based protein continues to go more mainstream, making it easier to maintain a vegan or meat-free lifestyle. Two weeks after Red Robin became the largest restaurant chain to serve The Impossible Burger and Burger King announced the pilot of the Impossible Whopper in St. Louis, two more restaurants announced Monday that they are joining the growing plant-based foods movement. Blaze Pizza is adding a vegan Spicy Chorizo topping at its 300-plus restaurants nationwide Tuesday. Then on April 25, Del Taco will become the first national Mexican fast-food chain to offer plant-based meat across all 580 locations with two new meatless tacos, officials told USA TODAY. In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY, Del Taco President and CEO John Cappasola said the California-based company partnered with Beyond Meat to develop the protein that includes the restaurant's signature seasoning. “It provides vegans and vegetarians or anyone wanting to cut down red meat consumption with more variety and convenience than they have today,” Cappasola said. “You can have a taco experience without feeling like you’re sacrificing.”  MORE

 
Inside Yogaville

Earth Day is April 22 and Yogaville has a long history of promoting vegetarian and vegan values as part of a yogic lifestyle, as taught by Swami Satchidananda. The wonderful Mandala Cafe in Yogaville, is a place for guests and residents to enjoy all types of wholesome (and many homemade) delectable snacks and desserts. The Cafe also supports local artists who offer their crafts for sale, and it stocks natural health care products as well! (photo by Jeff Ananda Kamen: Swami Sarvaananda enjoys a hot beverage with Cafe host Pushpa Ryan.)

Inspiring Meme of the Week
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