Ask the Blogging Yogini...

Guess what? I switched days. Just to check if you're keeping up. And possibly because it's the only day this week I'll post, so let's just pretend it's Sunday, ok? Okay. And yes, the picture has nothing to do with anything except I like it. Here's the questions. Put your weapons down and listen:

Blogging Mama Andrea asks, "Can I find out (a) what exactly a true Yogini does, and (b) how long did you train to become one?" I did explain in the last Ask the Blogging Yogini post what a real yogini is, so you can read there to catch up. In terms of what I wrote there, daily I do mantra meditation, I study eastern philosophy, I visit temples, I sometimes go to lectures, I sometimes give them, I speak with others, I chant, I sing bhajans (devotional songs), I seek guidance from spiritually advanced elders, I have a spiritual master, and I live in a holy place that makes these things more accessible and a natural part of daily life. I've been doing it for over twenty years and it's an ongoing process, so I don't think the "training" ever stops.

The delicious Alix asks, "Did you read the book Eat Pray Love? What was your honest impression?" I did read it, and I loved the Italy portion. The book itself was a bit of a letdown, as I kind of felt that something like that should have been inspiring and give its readers something solid. But what is inspiring about a book that says "I can take a year off and indulge myself and in the end not much changed but gee I had fun and now I'm going to tell you about it." Doesn't really do much for me, but when we say that people criticize us for being negative or jealous. I definitely was jealous about Italy :) But the rest? A waste of time. I found the Indian portion particularly irritating, as it was some unsubstantiated yet popular guru-type, and sitting in caves and meditating is something that the uneducated might perceive as a good thing, but which is an illusion of mammoth proportions and just more of that good old Indian trickery and cheating that's been going on for eons. It's not a bona fide process for self realization or anything else: it's just a joke. An elaborate and costly one, but a joke. I was also irritated that the author called the guru at that ashram the person who had contributed the most Indian philosophical literature to the English reading market. This is a load of old codswollop, an unsubstantiated and false claim that can be refuted in one minute flat by anyone with knowledge of these topics. So I didn't like that kind of buffoonery. Typically, the least substantial and most superficial stuff is always made into Hollywood movies. Que sera sera....I hope no one actually thinks it's anything but fiction...

The elusive Blu wrote in regard to the post on Treaty that I had put up, and says, "Sad about the treaty which was a broken promise, so will something bad happen to the men who broke their promise?" As a wise man once said, Blu, "what goes around comes around." Yes, the same ill-treatment will be visited upon those who inflicted it. That's one of the laws of material nature, and it's unavoidable.

Sweta asks, "Is it always vital to know what you exactly want from life, or can knowing what you don't want sometimes make up for not knowing what you want?" Well, sure: the process of elimination leads us eventually to what we *do* want. But I don't think it entirely "makes up for not knowing what you want." As for knowing exactly what you want from life: is there a need? I know people who are clear on exactly what they want, but they're not nice, their goals are superfluous and transient, but their attachment to their way, their goals, their needs are all very overwhelming and put me off. I think it's possibly easier to learn what the purpose of life is, and then just get on with life, knowing that whatever comes at you was meant to be, and maintaining a consciousness that is governed by the spiritual energy, not the temporary, distracting material energy.

That was deep, wasn't it? :)