Serene Flavor asked an interesting question on her blog today: How many of you naturally believed the saying that if you came across yoga during this existence, you probably had done yoga in a previous life?
I don't know the answer to this, but then I haven't been practicing yoga regularly and don't have a particular strong yearning to practice it that much. I am currently only craving regular exercise. Also, because of my long ligaments, it's really tough for me to get a good stretch in my muscles. I feel like most poses I have to be careful I'm not just stretching my joints, which don't need stretching, and try to move the stretch into the muscles, which is quite difficult.
I do, however, feel like I've been interested about how the world works since forever. It's like I've accumulated a million questions in me since my previous lives and am dying to answer them ever since I could form language of thoughts in my head. Why is the sky blue? Why do people get sick? How does the airplane fly in the air? How many different kinds of animals are there in the world? What kind of creatures live in the ocean? What's in outer space? Are there aliens in the universe? Will we be able to travel to the moon one day?
On the other hand, it seems like my mother has only worried about getting me to grow up healthily, get good grades, get into a good school, find a stable job, marry a trustworthy man, and live the smoothest/most stable life she can imagine. Curiosity about the world is just child's play - totally unimportant for real life. Other kids at school seem to mostly care about playing, making the maximum number of friends, enjoying life, while I was the weirdo who was obsessed about getting perfect on my exams since grade 1. Some girls have talked about wanting to be a mother since they were 2 years old (I've never thought about wanting to be a mother even when I was a small kid). It seems like some deep desires that people have must have carried over from a previous life rather than established in this life time. I must have been a scientist or a philosopher for several life times... probably pretty unsuccessful back then, and still unsuccessful this life time.
Maybe I need to relax and enjoy this life; just take the world for what it is instead of trying to understand every single aspect of this world. Stop being an obsessive compulsive knowledge hoarder and end up accumulating a lot of knowledge that aren't that correct anyways. I feel like I've been stressing myself out for thousands of years and it's time to chill and take it easy.
How about you? Have you been wanting something ever since the earliest childhood memory and it feels like you've been wanting it since before you even had a concept of self? Are there things you strive for that other people around you never really cared for that much (Ashtanga yoga counts)? I'm interested in hearing your thoughts about this.
I think your blog is an excellent read and daily writing is a good idea. It seems to me that your blog is a honest account of someone who is waking up. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't believe in reincarnation. I think we are here by pure accident. Actually, we aren't here at all. It is all dream. All there is is consciousness... But that's just another belief. Right now, I am working on to get rid of all beliefs.
Spiritual awakening is something in which I put forth all my efforts. I started my spiritual search ten year ago and since then, I think, I read all spiritual books out-there. My wife and daughter do not care about it. If I speak about spirituality with friends they don't understand it. Any mention of spirituality to my mother or father finished with: there is our Jesus Christ. So you get the picture.
Hi Zee, thanks for your comments. It doesn't matter if reincarnation is real or not because we can't prove its existence anyways. What happens after awakening though? Have you seen the movie "Inception"? I feel like it's possible to wake up from a dream state to find yourself in a dream state one level up. You can keep waking up but you still end up in some other dream state. When does it end? :P
DeleteI am working to wake up from this dream. How awake person looks at this world I don't know. I watched Inception, I like it. Did you watch 13th floor and eXistenZ? Both movies are about dream and waking up from dream.
DeleteNo I haven't seen those movies. But moving to different countries and interacting with people of different nationalities certainly help me "wake up" from some of my bad personal and cultural habits.
DeleteGood topic. I have had several yoga teachers say the same quote,"if you practice now, you practiced in a past life." Where did this come from? Sound nice though but also feels like false reassurance for why we move our bodies into asanas.
ReplyDeleteI strive for the mystical experience. Because isn't that the deal. If you get that mystical experience then maybe this yoga thing is real. Still waiting or searching.
Hi Anonymous, thank you for your comment. We can't prove that there are past lives, or that yoga makes you connect with the spiritual world. But it feels good to place our bodies in extreme angles, to stretch, to engage the muscles, and to breath deeply. That's all that's important I guess.
Delete