“Without the fundamentals, the details are useless.” – James Clear.
The problem is that we end up arguing about the details while missing the big picture. So what is the big picture? Here it is in a few bullet points:
- Consciousness is a fundamental property of the Universe and not an after-effect of the brain. There is now significant scientific evidence in this direction.
- We experience consciousness through a “Consciousness Unit” (Soul or Atma).
- Consciousness comes to us from “Universal Consciousness” (Supreme Soul or Param-Atama or God).
- The ego is a “knot of consciousness” present in the “Consciousness Unit” that consumes all our energy.
- Ego is the roadblock to deeply connect with the “Universal Consciousness”. It takes our attention away from “Universal Consciousness” and puts it on itself.
- When ego is diminished we experience health, connection, love, and happiness. This is because our connection with “Universal Consciousness” is strengthened.
- We have a choice to express consciousness through the ego or while with the “Universal Consciousness”.
- When living through the ego we are in the land of opposites. Happiness is followed by sadness. But when with the “Universal Consciousness” there are no opposites. Here happiness is our natural state.
- When deeply connected to the “Universal Consciousness” our experience is beyond space and time and cannot be described in words. The common word used is: Bliss.
- The Big question: Do we want to spend our lives in the fruitless service of our ego?
- If the answer is “No” then we may use Yoga to sideline the ego.
- Yoga is a systematic way of taking away our attention from the ego and directing it towards the “Universal Consciousness”.
- The Yoga known as “Raja Yoga” has eight limbs. Yoga Postures (Asana) is only one of the eight limbs.
Credits:This has been written by Raj Shah and edited by Ketna Shah.
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