To say hot yoga is Yoga, is like saying that electric shock therapy calms the mind. Yes, it calms the mind, but by leaving the owner of the mind as a cooked vegetable.

The only union one can find in the non-yoga “hot-calisthenics”, is the union between a false teaching and novice student who doesn’t know better.

The blind leading the blind!

* The translation of the Sanskrit word yoga is “union.” *

~ shakti

To comment on or discuss this post, we’ve created a forum topic for that purpose.

Hello shakti,

Could you please help me by telling me, how can I balance my third eye Chakra (AJNA)?
I went to the doctor and she told me that my thyroids are unbalanced and that they work too fast. Then she explained me about the connection between the location of the ajna to the location of my thyroids.
To make story short, on the physical side I feel health, but on the other, I thought you can help me.
Thank you.
-Ilan

Below is writing by shakti, on her feelings about “Hot Yoga”:

shakti’s response is below in red.

My Dearest Ilan,
The Thyroid gland has nothing to do with Ajna, the sixth chakra, it belongs to the fifth chakra in the throat Vishuddha. This is the center of communication. You will need to find out why are you stressed or blocked in this center. One of the explanations may be your difficulty to express yourself with ease in a foreign language, while in your nature you are a very expressive person and doing it with ease and passion in your native mother tongue. The situation of being unable to communicate as you wish to do, probably adds lots of stress and frustration to your daily life and as a result is blocking your fifth chakra.

You definitely need to take care of it and if possible not with drugs that will make you dependant on them and probably will develop a chain of other symptoms.

Your symptoms indicating that your body is over loaded with toxins as well as under great stress.

Suggestions:

• Make sure you study your condition Hyperthyroidism, until you know about it better then your doctor.
• Practice every day shoulder stand and after do the fish to balance the Thyroid gland.
• Practice yoga on a daily basis even if it is only for half an hour as you need to relax the hyper body.
• Check out if you are missing iodine, a necessary substance for the Thyroid gland that the body doesn’t create on its own. Sometimes too much Iodine in the body will unbalance the Thyroid gland as well.
• It is important to release all the toxins from your body by doing

1. Bowel cleanse with parasite cleanse (colonic)
2. Dental cleanup
3. Liver cleanse.

• Approach Chinese doctor as Chinese medicine and acupuncture are great to balance and heal the Thyroid gland conditions.
• Try to practice Analuma Viloma (an alternate nostril breathing technique for 10 minutes) before going to bed to calm your nervous system and enhance your sleep.

The Hyperthyroidism condition usually appears in people that going too fast and doing too much.

See these symptoms as a request from your body to slow down internally and externally.

Take care of yourself, knowing that many people managed to fully recover from Hyperthyroidism.

But you must take an action.

With Love,
shakti

THANK YOU SO MUCH
All makes sense and action is being taking immediately.
With lots of gratitude.
-Ilan

Many people, to different degrees, often experience a variety of personalities that may appear as opposites to each other. Those who are brave will express more than one of their personalities. They are brave because they act against the preference of the masses that dictate you should fulfill only one role. When a person is viewed as having only one defined persona, it makes it easy for the conservative mind to categorize what it sees.

"She is very shy."
"He is very powerful."
"She is very motherly."
"He is a successful man."

How would you (react) if the "shy girl" in your office would suddenly reply to you in an uncharacteristically bold manner?

Or how would you react if your mothering aunt, who constantly bakes and cooks for everyone and is always there to listen and give a hug, would unexpectedly announce that she is tired of serving and being the loving caring aunty so she is taking off to a foreign land to elope with a man she met on an internet dating site?

How would your family feel about you if you suddenly become apathetic when you are known as a driven and successful person?

Most omit people follow the unspoken requirement of staying within their defined character.

Imagine what happens when people stray from their predictable personas and allow an entirely different side to surface. For example:

She is very shy but last night she hit on someone aggressively.
She is very spiritual person, so I couldn't believe it when I saw her drinking at the bar.
He never shows emotions but last night he cried at the movie.

These unexpected behaviors, that are not part of the definition of the person, will be questioned with a very definite tone:

"Are you ok?"
"Did you lose your mind?"
"What's up with you?"
"I don't recognize you!"
"I do not know who you are anymore!"

Some people whose role is to be non-confrontational, when faced with an unexpected behavior from others simply squirm in their chairs uncomfortably, avert their gaze, roll their eyes or develop a sudden cough.

Those brave people who choose not to lock themselves in only one of their personalities, will be filed under "odd", "weird", "crazy" or if dealing with more charitable descriptions: "interesting" "a character" and "eccentric"

Which group do you belong to? The filer, the filed or both?

The reason why people choose not to express their "other" personalities is because they believe they can lose the approval, recognition, acknowledgment and love of the ones they feed off of. This is where one gives up their freedom.

We fulfill others' expectations of who and what they want us to be.

These people can be our:

Lovers and partners
Parents and family
Children
Friends
Colleagues
Churches
Society
and god.

The fact that we have been taught that a split personality or multiple personalities are not desirable, creates lots of feelings of unease in people who experience themselves in more than one way. As long as you are the one that masters your personas instead of your personas mastering you, there is no problem to be more then one defined persona. Mastering your personalities is achieved by not identifying with any of them as who you are as an essence. You are the maestro and your various personalities are the different instruments that express your different tones, notes, colors and shades.

So be it.

PS: Interestingly enough: it is known that in English you use the word "is" for singularity and "are" for plural. When I was writing the above article, the phone rang. When I answered, my friend on the other side asked, "How are you?" Why do we use "are" if it is only one person? Is it because subconsciously we know that there is more than one personality in each of us?

By shakti mhi

As a spiritual teacher, people often ask me about my beliefs.

Do you believe in God? Do you believe in karma? Do you believe bad people can achieve enlightenment?

Regardless of the specific nature or flavour of the question, my answer is always the same: “I do not carry any beliefs.”

This reply constantly surprises my audience, as most people assume that spirituality goes hand in hand with beliefs and faith, and that the stronger the beliefs are, the deeper the spirituality.

On the contrary. On the spiritual path, the practice is to act from knowing and not from believing or having faith.

Two sources of ‘knowing’

The first source of knowing comes from information we gather externally. We may gather this information through our direct personal experiences.

For example, we singe our finger in the flame of a candle and learn that fire can burn us. We do not believe that fire can burn us; we know it. We may also learn from others’ experiences; our father teaches us how to drive as he has long been in the driver’s seat.

The other source of knowing comes from outside of our physical experience but manifests in subtle ways within our bodies. This source may be called the Higher Self: intuition, inner voice, inner guru or God.

This second type of knowledge may manifest as feelings: “I should not take this offer even though it sounds ideal, it just doesn’t feel right.”

It may manifest as an inner voice or inner guidance: “Something” in me is telling me not to go to the party tonight.

Or, it may manifest as actions without preliminary thought, when we flow from one moment to the next doing the “right thing” without hesitation or doubt. Without premeditated thought, you decide to take a different route to work one day, unknowingly avoiding the collapse of a bridge and this saves your life…

No matter what we call this state, within it, there is an absolute sense of knowing.

So when do we believe?

On the other hand, we believe when we do not know or are not sure: “I believe in life after death.”

We believe when there is no experience: “I believe in oneness.”

The Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines faith as a “firm belief without logical proof,” and belief as a “firm opinion or conviction.”

Because belief and faith aren’t based on a direct experience or inner or external knowing, they are very intangible.

Subconsciously, you know you can always lose it, (“he lost his faith”), so there is a constant effort to strengthen beliefs by reinforcing them. By trying to convince people around you to hold the same beliefs that you do, you create an artificial strength in numbers.

Throughout history, this has often if not always, resulted in one group of people imposing their beliefs on others, often planting these seeds of faith through the platforms of fear, brainwashing, and even violence.

Beliefs become our possessions. We “hold on” to our beliefs so we do not “lose” them.

Through the extreme fear of losing our beliefs, we become fanatic.

Do you need to reinforce the knowledge that water is necessary for your survival? Do you need to go to a Water Church once a week to be reminded of how important it is for you to drink water as you might otherwise stop doing it? Do you need to be convinced of the power of water? Do you believe that water is life, or do you know that it is?

If you believe in love, you do not love.
If you believe in peace, you do not know peace.
If you believe in God, you do not experience God.
When you know love, you experience inner peace and you become God.

By shakti mhi

This article was written by the request of CBC’s News Radio and News Series: “Where is God today?”.

In today’s yoga culture, yoga instructors take endless anatomy workshops and seminars, studying in excruciating detail which muscles contract when you blink your right eye.

Increasingly, yoga instructors compulsively fill up the already cluttered minds of their students with obscure anatomical details. During the yoga class the poor students are trying either to make sense of how the floating rib relates to the sitting bones or are trying to visualize their pelvis as a fruit bowl which swings back and forth as they do the cat pose.

There is no argument that understanding what happens to the physical body as we practice the asanas (yoga postures) helps the body open faster. It is important that yoga teachers know the body and its parts and be able to share it in simple terms with their students.

But why are so many instructors so obsessed with anatomy? Why are anatomy and alignment the only topics discussed in yoga classes?

It is no secret that the practice of Hatha yoga is not only about the body and becoming fit as its end goal. In the practice of spiritual yoga you are mindfully taking care of the body because it is the platform for the transformation to take place. When the physical body is in ease, when it is free of pain and diseases, it doesn’t consume prana (energy life force). As a result, prana can build and accumulate in the body to become a high frequency fuel for the consciousness to transform onto its utmost potential.

So maybe the reason for the anatomy mania is simply because instructors are lacking spirituality. You can study anatomy but you must experience spirituality in order to demonstrate it in your teaching. Perhaps the fixation with anatomy fills up the void of not knowing and the gap of not experiencing.

Perhaps excessive anatomy instruction is becoming a trendy cover-up for diluted teaching. Instructors should not try to avoid silence in their classes, for it speaks volumes.

By shakti mhi

Dear shakti,

I’ve been through ‘self transformation’ since 2005. I began my first yoga class during this year. A nervous depression woke me up: I had the choice between going on sleeping and taking the pills or facing the disease. I decided to open my eyes and facing the truth. But the path was very tough… until now. I’ve divorced and I lost my mother – who died of cancer, in the same year. And in the same time, I lost my illusions, my old dreams, my old mental, religious patterns, and… my friends. Now, I’m getting more and more lonely. Some days I’m struggling against my fears (Am I a good mother for my kids? Am I a good teacher for them? Should I leave the place I’m living now for another very different place? Am I going to be alone for the rest of my life? etc…) in spite of the fact that I know that yoga has nothing to do with struggling. I also fight against people I love most and then I cry because hurting them is like hurting myself. Yoga is about peace and union and I do the opposite. A very precious friend of mine who used to be both, teacher and lover wrote me in his last letter ‘to get out of my cave instead of cleansing it’. He told me ‘to go to the light’. He also told me things very hard to read… His words hurt me, but the fact his that I’m trapped in the darkness. I don’t know how to reach the light within myself or the light of the universe. But I’m going on searching and maybe, you may enlighten me somewhere…

Love,

Ayala

 shakti’s response is below in red.

Dearest Ayala,
You said:

”I’ve been through ‘self transformation’ since 2005. I began my first yoga class during this year. A nervous depression woke me up: I had the choice between going on sleeping and taking the pills or facing the disease.”

First I would like to address what you describe as your “nervous depression disease”.
More and more people from all ages are waking up in the morning finding themselves in depression, often believing something is terribly wrong with them as an individual.
What in the past used to be a hidden, embarrassing condition of a small minority dealt with in secret, has become a western cultural phenomenon. The number of depressed people is so numerous and widely accepted that advertising for anti-depressants can now be found on the sides of public buses.
It is important to remember that the depression you are dealing with is a result of environmental circumstances (being away from nature, lacking prana energy, and oxygen, pollution, chemicals, etc.) as well as a result of a stressful lifestyle. It seems like one needs to be a superwoman (or man) to raise a family, survive financially, and find the time and energy to fulfill one’s inner voice or call. On top of it, unlike the old times, big families used to be structured as tribes where the individual could find support in raising kids, making a living and finding guidance from the elders. Today, the tribe structure is fading out and more individuals find themselves dealing with the burden of life alone – up to a state where they collapse physically, emotionally and mentally. So no wonder you feel what you feel in this moment.

“I decided to open my eyes and face the truth. But the path was very tough… until now.”

The path is tough because to be on it you need to rise above your evolutionary programming that following it blindly brought you to this point. Most of the time we do not know better.
For example: In your search for a mate, getting married and having children wasn’t done by you with full consciousness. You do have the illusion that you are the one that wanted to get married and have family but you actually followed the DNA program in each of your cells to continue your race like a good soldier. The duty to continue the race comes with many illusions such as: “marriage last forever”, “my family is my happiness” etc., which helps to glue everything together. If you see the big picture as it is, it actually makes sense that two people will not survive forever as a couple if each of them goes through their own process in a daily life.
Why do we expect two people to constantly develop or regress in the same way, same direction, same pace and same time when they are two different minds? Most people stay together for the purpose of raising the children because this was the reason from the beginning for their “falling in love”. Once the kids are there, often the “love” falls away.
As well, it makes sense that if you are occupied in raising, feeding, supporting, and training the next generation, you won’t have much time to fulfill your own personal dreams. When you become aware, you may find that your personal dreams have nothing to do with your evolutionary role. If you do fulfill your dreams it will probably be warped with endless guilt of not fulfilling an “ideal” way your role as a parent, a wife, a daughter. Many people are trapped in the evolutionary surviving role but somehow when their kids are about to embrace the same direction, they are not there to enlighten their eyes. Often it is because we feel the need to see ourselves continue on.
It is not that on the path of spirituality you cannot have a family, but my point is that most of the people are not aware they have other choices than to continue passing their genes to the next generation. This drive to reproduce is one of the strongest forces of our physical existence.

“I’ve divorced and I lost my mother – who died of cancer, in the same year.”
“And in the same time, I lost my illusions.”

That is good as you should rather have a reality than illusions.

“I lost my old dreams”

Better to have manifestations then dreams.

“I lost my old mental”

All it means is that you let go of your old programming.

“I lost my religious patterns”

Maybe it is a time for you to create your an authentic patterns and not following others.

“and… I lost my friends”

If you lost your friends you never really had them. What you had instead is an exchange with people on a basis of give and take, and when one side (or both) found they cannot get what they want anymore, they end the invisible contract.
Where you are now is often a great turning point for a real awakening, as long as you are willing to take full responsibility for all your actions and intents by willing to stop looking for happiness in other people, events or circumstance. Your other option is to join the masses out there by becoming a victim that hopes to have an external salvation through relationships, money, fame, god and others.

“Now, I’m getting more and more lonely.”

Do you know that the feeling of loneliness is an instinct rooted in us from our ancient time in the savannas? When we lived in dangerous areas and our self protections were fully relying on staying within the tribe, the unpleasant feelings of loneliness ensured that we would never depart from the tribe. This instinct is still within us but in a modern version.
When we need to receive acknowledgments from others to feel good about ourselves and when we do not receive that acknowledgement, we feel lonely.

“Some days I’m struggling against my fears (Am I a good mother for my kids? Am I a good teacher for them?)”

Be a good mother by giving your children the choice to live their life authentically without creating a net of expectations around them. Avoid telling them the lie that having a family is the utmost happiness for humankind. Rarely do mothers reveal to their children that the romantic love that often will drive a man and woman to have a baby as a demonstration for their love will be the first to fall away when the baby arrives.
Give them the option to choose and let them know the truth about the illusion that things remain the same. Give them the permission not to follow the majority’s customs, give them the approval to be different from “others”, to be true to themselves.

“Should I leave the place I’m living now for another very different place?”

I am very much encouraging anyone that would like to live a wholesome life to move and live in nature. Living in big polluted cities has devastating results on our nervous system and brain, our health in general and more than anything, our state of consciousness.

“Am I going to be alone for the rest of my life? etc…”

Not if you will take the time and energy to find yourself. Then you always have yourself. Being in a relationship is fine as long as it is not coming from a need and desperation. If it is coming from that place, it will always be painful, as even if it goes well you will carry the fear that it may end. If you get to the point that you are content on your own, then a relationship is more of sharing instead of a form of dependency.

“…in spite of the fact that I know that yoga has nothing to do with struggling. I also fight against people I love most and then I
cry because hurting them is like hurting myself.”

You fight against them because you need things from them (support, love, recognition, acknowledgment, sex, attention etc.) and if you don’t get it in the way and the doses you need then it becomes a struggle.
You fight against them because you do not have the power (yet!) to let them be who they are. We constantly demand from our loved ones to see the world from our eyes. Each of us wants to be the director of the movie. On the path of spirituality you never wish to be right by being so you see reality only from your own limited perspective.

“Yoga is about peace and union and I do the opposite. A very precious friend of mine who used to be both, teacher and lover wrote me in his last letter ‘to get out of my cave instead of cleansing it’.”

He is right. The next state is to realize that the cave doesn’t exist…
Buy flowers for yourself for no reason on a weekly basis as a reminder that bliss comes from being in the moment.
Start from small things to practice mindfulness and learn the “self”. Become the observer. So you do not fall into your emotions when things manifest not in the way your mind expects.

Reach out to give and not to receive.

Move on your own pace to a position that you make a living from something that gives you joy and contentment.

Practice letting people be who they are without demanding any expectations from them. At the same time avoid demanding from them doing the same with you, as love is not a business. Only a free person can allow others to be free.

With respect,
shakti

Ayala’s Response to shakti’s letter:

Dear shakti,

I read your letter carefully and it seems that the content is like an echo that comes out from my core. It really makes sense for me.

Thank you for all these precious things you have shared with me.

Love,

Ayala.