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BEING YOGA
Being is already
happening -
Yoga is attuning with it.
Hello and Welcome,
It's no accident that the strongest muscle in your body is the heart. The yoga of being is self-evident when you see that the priceless treasures of health, happiness, freedom, and peace of mind are yours when you live them as a gift to others.
Without a doubt the single most valuable thing that I would like to share with you after some 30 plus years of continuos yoga practice and study is the understanding of Nonduality. This is challenging because Nonduality is Truth that is not based on book-learning which means that I cannot give it to you and it cannot be taught - yet it can be transmitted in a manner that makes it available to you. This is the reason that I'm a so called yoga teacher and this website is a complementary component of the process.
In this light it is my intention to share with you a way of harmonious being that is simple and most effective. All the challenges and wonders of life continue to unfold yet for me there is an ease of being such that nothing is experienced as problematic. And, since this is true for an ordinary person like me, then it is available for you as well.
Peace
Now ~ Love Always,
James Traverse
Being Yoga is Awareness in the nondual tradition of Kashmiri Shaivism and Advaita Vedanta. It asserts that Awareness as the 'seer' and its spontaneous authentic action is the realm of nonduality and that the 'thinking mind' is reaction and the realm of duality (said another way... Awareness, conscious energy, is your true nature - it acts).
“You
did not come into this world, you came out of it.
You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean.
You are not a stranger here.” ~ Alan Watts
Truth
is never not the case -
It is what's happening Now.
What's
Happening - the Truth:
Being is Seeing | Seeing is Doing
- Being is already happening. There is no 'you' as a 'doer', there is only what's happening and You are That. You can never know 'what' you are through thinking, you can only know 'that' you are by being it - the Observer is the Observed (the Thinker is the Thought - Awareness as the 'seer' that sees this is your true nature - You are That).
- Being is uncaused. There is only functioning as Truth is expressed as what's happening in the timeless present. You are That.
- Being is innately intelligent - there is natural order. You are That.
- Being is whole. Nothing is separate. You are That - That is You.
What's
Happening
- the Problem and Solution
- The problem
is Mistaken Identity as what you think you are is not your true nature.
You have learned to identify with appearances as your name and form, the Id-entity, which is a mentally generated creation based on thought, memories and experience. Your parents, teachers and society are all accomplices in causing you to believe that you are a separate entity. - Mistaken identity as the wrong turning of the mind is the cause of all conflict and discord.
- The solution is the living understanding of Truth before and behind the 'thinking mind'. Awareness is the means and the end - Awareness is the Agent and the Actor.
- Being Yoga is Living Truth as steady attention and its simultaneous action.
Know Thyself
Be a Light unto Yourself
"Form is Seeing and Seeing is Being." ~ Atmananda Krishna Menon
"Being is Seeing and Seeing is Doing" ~ James Traverse
"Liberation is from the person, not for the person" ~ Jean Klein
Mistaken identity, the wrong turning of the mind, is the cause of all conflict and discord. The solution is the living understanding of your true nature that is prior to thinking. Awareness is the means and the end.
There is nothing to become since Being Awareness is already happening yet there is a returning to innocence knowingly as the false mentally generated knowledge of mistaken identity is seen and allowed to fall away. This Living Awareness as your true nature is the light of understanding that dispels the darkness of ignorance that is the root of mistaken identity and separation.
“You
cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it.
You must learn to see the world anew.” ~ Albert Einstein
The problem of mistaken identity is a problem of self-knowledge as false knowledge of your true nature. It is a mentally generated problem that is resolved by Awareness as the primal intelligence that sees the false as false and no longer supports it. In this way the impostor of mistaken identity dies through starvation - what remains is pure Awareness wherein all of your faculties are free to function without distortion.
Enlightened
Being - Being is happening - Breathing is happening
the Agent
is the Actor.
Breathing is Life. Breathing is the expression and direct link to intelligence that is beyond human comprehension. It is self-evident that this intelligence sees and adjusts your breathing according to your health, your fitness, your age, your emotional situation etc., and it dynamically makes these adjustments in accord with the complex current environmental conditions etc. while you engage in activities like walking, running and resting. In this light, breathing awareness is the direct means of connecting with this intelligence and living it knowingly.
It is immensely significant to understand that all approaches to meditation acknowledge the power of being aware of breathing. It is equally significant to understand and acknowledge the power of turning Awareness back on itself and see that:
- the innate intelligence of your bodymind sees and regulates breathing even when you are not consciously attending to it (something is aware of breathing and it regulates it)
- whenever you do attend to your breathing you harmonize with your innate intelligence - this is the yoga of conscious breathing and the model for all yoga approaches
- the process of being aware of your breathing is a kind of feedback loop wherein your innate intelligence as awareness is aware of its act of awareness of your breathing
- awareness of, seeing, your breathing always benefits your breathing, your body and mind
Being Yoga is a resonance with timeless being that flowers through the connections with your breath body, the energy body, that animates and manifests as your timebound form. Being Yoga has four interrelated yoga practices that honour the yogas of Vedanta:
- Karma Yoga - the yoga of action
- Bhakti Yoga - the yoga of devotion
- Raja Yoga - the yoga of mental control
- Jnana Yoga -
the yoga of discrimination
This website is an example of Jnana Yoga. Jnana Yoga is essential because its practice is the discrimination whereby you understand your true nature that naturally flowers as the other yogas of mental control, devotion to Truth and action that is in accord with your true nature.
Being Yoga's forms are:
-
Nisarga Yoga - Yoga the Middle Way or Yoga Nature's Way. In this practice traditional yoga poses are explored yet they are never imposed on your body, instead the appropriate pose is exposed by listening to and harmonizing with the innate intelligence of your body as it manifests through breathing and sensations.
-
Nidra Yoga Meditation - a guided meditation process that approximates deep sleep to provide the rest and restorative benefits of deep sleep (and the delta brainwave state) and it is a means whereby the real knowledge of your true nature is available.
-
Nonduality Satsangs - Nonduality is the English rendering of Advaita Vedanta. A means without; dvaita means duality; Veda means knowledge; ante means end. Satsang means in the company of Truth. Nonduality Satsangs are experiential gatherings that honour Truth that includes and is not limited by the mental knowledge of the 'thinking mind'.
-
Meditation - listening without a listener - Being Awareness as the listening itself.
"This approach brings about an awakening of all virtual energies and enables them to fully enfold. These energies are then guided into a vertical course, which brings our whole structure to this verticality. This work generates a forefeeling of the truth. This path leads us to a meditative attitude. This meditative state, which is not a cerebral function, is a presence without objects, which is thereupon lived while objects are present." ~ Jean Klein