Yoga Beyond Belief: Insights to Awaken and Deepen Your Practice

first time, and realized that all his efforts, rituals, and practices seemed more of a hindrance than a help. He found his awakening all around him in life and wanted to share his realization with others but was not strong enough to return to the city where he had lived. So he decided to make a carving that might convey his insight. He cut a tree and carved a beautiful statue of a man with one hand pointing up toward the stars, the other pointing outward toward life; the statue’s face was peaceful and smiling. The seeker happened to die one day while sitting in the Lotus position. Many years later, his statue and his bones were found by some pilgrims. They marveled at the bones still resting in the Lotus pose and they pondered the meaning of the statue. “These are the bones of a great yogi,” they said. “He left this statue in a mudra of great meaning, and his teachings and this place are obviously very holy.” So they built a temple and enshrined the bones and statue. Each day they offered flowers to the carving and sat in the temple to meditate, never seeing the beauty nor the essence toward which it pointed. It is often our habit and mistake to turn living perceptions into ritual and repetitive practice.
    We may be living during the time of the birth of a new spirituality. This spirituality is free from restricting dogmas and beliefs that divide. It is deeply connected to the sacredness of the web of life, our planet, and the matrix of symbiotic interrelationships in the diversities all around us. We are all part of that web, that life, that wholeness. Our technologies are here to stay and we must learn to use them properly to serve the well-being of all instead of in service of narrow doctrines, or in service of greed. We need to live and act from a perception of the deepest principles of the interconnectedness and sacredness of life, to see our responsibility to leave our planet better than we found it, and to become more conscious of the consequences of our lifestyles in the near and long term. We could all use a good dose ofthe ancient principle of
santosha
, or contentment with the pains, joys, and beauties in the simple—but extraordinarily potent—activities of daily life. This spirituality has at its core a new insight, a new awareness, a new consciousness unburdened by limited beliefs, and open to light, love, truth, spirit, and the art of living, choosing the highest levels of action and awareness each moment.

Evolutionary Enlightenment
    Enlightenment is not a place we get to, nor an attainment, but an endless journey of seeing, learning, awakening, and reawakening. Rather than viewing enlightenment as a state of all-knowing perfection, we are better off seeing it as an endless process. It is beyond the scope of this book to go into a comprehensive critique of the enlightenment paradigm, a common spiritual worldview held by yogis that frames final enlightenment as the end, goal, and purpose of life. I am hoping the approaches to personal practice and insight we have explored demonstrate a more dynamic alternative. Rather than viewing enlightenment as a final condition that leaves us in an all-knowing, and often self-righteous, state, it is more valuable to see enlightenment as a continuous, ongoing, ever-changing process—a movement that by nature and necessity must ebb and flow. If our heads are always in the clouds, absorbed in the One, we cannot navigate well among the Many.
    In some traditions this
natural
, or temporary, enlightenment is considered a lesser attainment. Is it? What are the implications of considering someone, or considering oneself, to be permanently enlightened? There are no errors for these people; all their deeds and words are in perfect harmony with the universe. Every act is pure love and truth. Being in their presence is seen as a blessing. This is the formula for abuse and megalomania. There are those who may take issue with this perspective and point to perfected ones of the past or present as faultless masters. I suggest being very cautious of such claims or they maybecome the ultimate seduction. Trust yourself and the development of your own insight.
    To oversimplify, it may be spiritual to do what feels good, what serves us and the world, what turns us on, and what improves our wisdom, self-knowledge, understanding, and self-esteem. We can base the practices we choose on these guiding lights, not only on what people say we should do to become whole. The bottom