(Yogis and shamans: shared roots in liberation and direct experience)
Both yogis and shamans sought to master levels of consciousness that would help them break free from suffering and bring them to a direct and immediate experience of the Divine. Both sought stillness and enlightenment and the expression of their fullest human potential. Both sought to heal themselves through their discipline and practice. The more I learned about the ancient yogis who had lived thousands of years ago in the foothills of the Himalayas, the more I came to realize that these yogis were the ancestors of the shamans of Tibet and the Americas.
For the shaman, as the yogi, in order to heal, stubborn identities must be shed and personal histories drained of their power.
The mind spins its tales in five different ways. Through right knowledge wrong knowledge hearsay dreams memory.
When you practice yoga and nonattachment, all the stories your mind creates through right knowledge, through wrong knowledge, through hearsay, through dreams, through memory … will dissolve like the images from a nightmare that quickly fades as you awaken.
Let go of your attachments and discover self-mastery. Let go of your attachments. Free yourself from desire.
The supreme nonattachment is when you accept life as it is right now. Your mind’s drama does not distract you as you dwell in your True Self, needing nothing, wanting nothing.
(Nonattachment and stillness as the path to true power)
In stillness true power requires no exertion, no effort. Simply practice yoga. Then awareness will cease to waver, untouched by the swirling winds of thought, worry, and desire.
Once you know you are a spiritual being in a body, a visitor in this world, you will never again need a spiritual experience. (36)
Prana. Inhale. Exhale. Master the art of the breath and your body will shine with the radiance of a star.
The mind, a grain of sand, the Self, the beach. The mind is a single note made by a flute, the Self, the breath, the wind.
(The True Self: the witness behind all false selves and reflections)
In the hall of mirrors, you are everywhere. Which is the real you? Find your original Self, the one who perceives all the reflections and is amused by them. Then you will recognize your path and walk it, no longer stumbling over your many false selves.
Those who do not practice yoga are caught up in intricate plots. Some are cast in a heroic drama, others in a tale of suffering. Their karma may be good, bad, or a little of each. But the yogi’s journey is neither comic nor tragic, good nor bad. It simply is.
Pure and unchanging, the True Self is unmoved by the mind. When the mind turns away from the fleeting distractions of sensation, it acquires the form of the True Self. Then the mind observes all that surrounds it and can observe the one who Sees. Able to perceive the Seer and understand all.