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