[I]I have lived on the lip of insanity[/I]
[I]Wanting to know reasons[/I]
[I]Knocking on a door, it opens[/I]
[I]I have been knocking from the inside[/I]
Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī
Sane and made … differ only from the point of view.
It is easier to change one’s point of view than to change the whole world. Still, we rarely do that because we identify with our point of view, and changing it would mean giving it up. We hate to give up ourselves, so we require the world to give itself to us. We try to change the world, people’s hearts, their points of view, just so we can keep ours.
All this is rooted in identification with the physical body. The physical body is limited, it is a small thing in the great space of the world. It provides a camera set, a point of view. From this perspective, we see and judge the world. We only see the sensorial world as existing, and in it, a body, what we control (to a small measure). In this great big world, there is only one thing what is always with us, our body, so we naturally cling to it. It seems the only safe place, providing the thought of safety, a daily base for our ego consciusness. This is not a theory, if you give it a thought, this is a basic human experience.
It is hard to give up the only thing what seems to be real in the only world we know, that of the five senses.
We cling to this body as to our life … in fact, we take the life of this body as our life. We try to preserve it by all means. We build our whole life on it. It is the support of our existence. So why should we give it up ?
Because it is limited. It is like sailing on a frail boat towards a waterfall, without the power to do anything about it. We know we will reach the fall, yet, we say, oh,m there is still time left. We shut this thought out from our consciusness, as it is terrifying, it takes away the only safety we have. One says, I can’t think about this, it will poison my existence, noone can expect me to think of this, I’ll go insane if I have to think of this.
So one puts one’s head into the sand again, not to see, and builds a whole world around one, trying to escape or at least, postpone the inevitable.
That’s why our world is an illusion. We see it’s surface, only, and from this surface we try to make a safe, and pleasant picture. We do this. And this is an illusion, not forced on us, but created by our very selves.
We so can’t concieve to lose this illusion that we often die for it.
This is human existence. To change to point of view is going beyond safety. Developing the strenght to take the world, life, for what it is. To not accept the tyranny of senses. To not fear. We need something to hit us, to get out from this body linked ego. To make us see it’s real worth. Illness, unreturned love, selfishness of others, misery … these are what shake this safety so we ask: I can’t accept this anymore. It must be something more, otherwise the whole thing is pointless. Hear it ? Pointless. Point of view-less. 
[LEFT]I love this poem, as for me, it speaks to our own inner teacher, the Sadguru. It connects me to Patanjali’s sutra II:47, which Mukunda translates as,[I] Yoga pose is mastered by relaxation of effort, [/I][I]lessening the tendency for restless breathing, [/I][I]and promoting an identification of oneself as living within the infinitive breath of life.[/I]
I think of the “lip of insanity” that Rumi is speaking to as the fluctuation of the gunas: rajas, tamas and sattva. [I]The relaxation of effort[/I], how to be with our rajasic minds; [I]lessening the tendency for restless breathing, [/I]how to be with our tamasic minds; [I]promoting an identification of oneself as living within the infinitive breath of life, [/I]what to cradle in our minds as practice of keeping sattvic.
And even still, with all these tools and techniques that we use in our daily lives, in our prayers and in our various practices, these techniques when done with an intense urge for Spirit, all simply, and inevitably, bring you back to the door of the heart that lies deeply within your own heart.
[/LEFT]
Sutra I:21
For those who have an intense urge for Spirit
and wisdom,
it sits near them waiting.
[LEFT]*
[/LEFT]
Beautiful thoughts, Nichole, especially the last sutra quote.
Your longer yoga experience brought you to a balance I only long for.
I wish one day I am united too with the infinite breath of life. (I am united with it even now, just that I am too busy realizing it )
I swing on a pendulum and only pass by balance on my way from side to side. I only know [I]of[/I] balance really…
You are indeed intimately united with Spirit now–I am certain of that.