Very enjoyable to read this. I have had conversations with a couple of my students about learning to get out of their own way by listening to ... or acting on ... their intuition, their instincts that are borne of all the learning they have already committed to their brains! Thank you for talking about this.
I half an hour ago, all I wanted to do was just write a comment about what you wrote in this particular article. I finally was able to get to the box that I was allowed to write in. There has to be an easier way to access the site.
So on the word “try”: I once had a good friend who was a very advanced yoga instructor. He was not the exercise class variety but an instructor in yogic philosophy (as well as the poses and breathing practices). He told me quite bluntly to stop using the word “try”, eradicate it from my vocabulary. It is a prelude to failure. His point was that when we really want to do some thing we go ahead and do it. It may not be perfect, but that isn’t what we started out to do …. to create perfection. We started out to do some thing that was of interest to us ;important to us; mattered to us and we figured out ways to accomplish that . When people preface their intentions with “try,” it means they themselves doubt that they’re going to be able to achieve what they are saying they’re interested in doing and perhaps what they are thinking. They may be genuinely interested in doing something but try gives it away “Try” is a half measure or maybe even 3/4 but it’s not the full on effort that you associate with success. If your efforts include meditation or some form of mental focusing , great! if you’re operating under what you consider to be your own force field and your own powers, also great ! Either way you will achieve success because it is what you believe you are capable of doing, and it’s what you will make happen or in the case of meditation you’ll allow another source of energy to assist you in creating what you want to have happen .
Or in the long run as meditation becomes your natural state of problem-solving and planning, then success is almost guaranteed because it is a message, or a way or a process that allows you to fully utilize your capacity as a human being. We all achieve that differently in different combinations. There’s not just one way. The one important feature is that we give up the word try. it only prolongs the agony of failure, and it never really allows us the opportunity for success, because it compromises us at the very core of our existence. Giving it up as a vocabulary word is simply a decision we make: it is a self discipline and it’s worth the effort it takes to rid it from our thinking.
It’s the most powerful piece of advice I have ever been given and I would recommend it to anyone unequivocally . My two cents.
I've been meditating for about two years now and I've been seeing this lately, meditative states become my main way of "problem" solving. If I have something I want to solve, I just allow the answer to sort of appear instead of rushing in, and the answer is far more inspired and usually easier that way. I'm just sort of relaxing into letting things happen and, ironically, they're happening faster than when I tried to control things. Your instructor sounds wise, was he Yoda?
My instructor was a student of Satchidananda. He studied with him at Yogaville in Virginia then sort of struck out on his own and ended up in a small town in Central PA where he began teaching sutras, Integral yogic philosophy and meditation techniques. A friend of mine joined me in taking his meditation classes and we continued privately with him .. .his yogic name was Sudharman. . .. . . to spend Sundays in a small cafe talking for hours and hours . ..sharing what he knew and answering our questions. On his recommendation I spent several months in India with another yogic philosopher/teacher and furthered my knowledge of meditation practices and generally enhanced sessions regarding history, yogic practices and culture. What I had learned state side was just a beginning and my teacher in India gave me even more depth than Sudharman. I have progressed in meditation (access to, duration, depth and frequency.) It has become a constant almost or if not then an easily accessible and/or reachable state with out all the training processes and tricks that one uses initially to induce the state or to access it. I've also spent time at Yogaville as an intern of sorts and met many "swamis" and instructors who each have contributed to my knowledge base and skill development.
I tend to see a mix of the word try. The definition of try is attempt. The opposite is abstain.
If you truly believe there is no try how did you get where you are today. Was your success just there with no effort? If so then I would say that was a gift not of your own fruition.
Star wars is fun to watch but Yoda is just like everyone else...not always right. No one is...except one.
Brilliant! I am trying (haha) to apply this to abstract and non representational painting.
Need to get out of my own way!
Very enjoyable to read this. I have had conversations with a couple of my students about learning to get out of their own way by listening to ... or acting on ... their intuition, their instincts that are borne of all the learning they have already committed to their brains! Thank you for talking about this.
I half an hour ago, all I wanted to do was just write a comment about what you wrote in this particular article. I finally was able to get to the box that I was allowed to write in. There has to be an easier way to access the site.
So on the word “try”: I once had a good friend who was a very advanced yoga instructor. He was not the exercise class variety but an instructor in yogic philosophy (as well as the poses and breathing practices). He told me quite bluntly to stop using the word “try”, eradicate it from my vocabulary. It is a prelude to failure. His point was that when we really want to do some thing we go ahead and do it. It may not be perfect, but that isn’t what we started out to do …. to create perfection. We started out to do some thing that was of interest to us ;important to us; mattered to us and we figured out ways to accomplish that . When people preface their intentions with “try,” it means they themselves doubt that they’re going to be able to achieve what they are saying they’re interested in doing and perhaps what they are thinking. They may be genuinely interested in doing something but try gives it away “Try” is a half measure or maybe even 3/4 but it’s not the full on effort that you associate with success. If your efforts include meditation or some form of mental focusing , great! if you’re operating under what you consider to be your own force field and your own powers, also great ! Either way you will achieve success because it is what you believe you are capable of doing, and it’s what you will make happen or in the case of meditation you’ll allow another source of energy to assist you in creating what you want to have happen .
Or in the long run as meditation becomes your natural state of problem-solving and planning, then success is almost guaranteed because it is a message, or a way or a process that allows you to fully utilize your capacity as a human being. We all achieve that differently in different combinations. There’s not just one way. The one important feature is that we give up the word try. it only prolongs the agony of failure, and it never really allows us the opportunity for success, because it compromises us at the very core of our existence. Giving it up as a vocabulary word is simply a decision we make: it is a self discipline and it’s worth the effort it takes to rid it from our thinking.
It’s the most powerful piece of advice I have ever been given and I would recommend it to anyone unequivocally . My two cents.
I've been meditating for about two years now and I've been seeing this lately, meditative states become my main way of "problem" solving. If I have something I want to solve, I just allow the answer to sort of appear instead of rushing in, and the answer is far more inspired and usually easier that way. I'm just sort of relaxing into letting things happen and, ironically, they're happening faster than when I tried to control things. Your instructor sounds wise, was he Yoda?
My instructor was a student of Satchidananda. He studied with him at Yogaville in Virginia then sort of struck out on his own and ended up in a small town in Central PA where he began teaching sutras, Integral yogic philosophy and meditation techniques. A friend of mine joined me in taking his meditation classes and we continued privately with him .. .his yogic name was Sudharman. . .. . . to spend Sundays in a small cafe talking for hours and hours . ..sharing what he knew and answering our questions. On his recommendation I spent several months in India with another yogic philosopher/teacher and furthered my knowledge of meditation practices and generally enhanced sessions regarding history, yogic practices and culture. What I had learned state side was just a beginning and my teacher in India gave me even more depth than Sudharman. I have progressed in meditation (access to, duration, depth and frequency.) It has become a constant almost or if not then an easily accessible and/or reachable state with out all the training processes and tricks that one uses initially to induce the state or to access it. I've also spent time at Yogaville as an intern of sorts and met many "swamis" and instructors who each have contributed to my knowledge base and skill development.
Clinsightful post this was!
I tend to see a mix of the word try. The definition of try is attempt. The opposite is abstain.
If you truly believe there is no try how did you get where you are today. Was your success just there with no effort? If so then I would say that was a gift not of your own fruition.
Star wars is fun to watch but Yoda is just like everyone else...not always right. No one is...except one.