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Working with Self-Judgment

In this episode, host Avi Gordon (director of the Integral Yoga Teachers Association) and his guest, Swami Asokananda, talk about how each works with self-judgment, resistances to daily sadhana (spiritual practice), pratipaksha bhavana, and other topics regarding...

Rethinking Spiritual Practice: Do We Walk the Inner or Outer Path?

Is the spiritual path an inner one? Do we have to leave the world behind to find ourselves? If not, how can we integrate our relationship with the world? Is there an outer path to freedom? I think it is time for us to rethink our relationship with what we are taught...

Self-Effort and Grace

You begin the spiritual path with self-effort. You begin with your own force, with your own will. As you begin to practice concentration and meditation, the mind becomes more one-pointed; it comes to a very calm condition. In that calmness, you are able to perceive...

Six Qualities to Cultivate in Sadhana

It may seem that some people are natural born yogis and that spiritual practice comes easily to them. Are there certain qualities that we see in people who have a well-grounded sadhana? The answer is yes, but they rarely appear full blown in anyone. They need to be...

Self-Reflection as a Spiritual Practice

As the daylight hours shorten in the northern hemisphere this time of year, it’s natural to spend more time indoors. Plant and animal life alike pause from growing and withdraw from activity. We too benefit from periods of rest and reflection as a preparation for the...

The Art of Sleeping like a Yogi

For a yogi, sleep is a sacred moment. Yogic deep sleep has no dreams. Time condenses, requiring shorter times of needed sleep. Upon awakening from a yogic sleep, we should feel a brand new moment filled with optimism, a supercharged mind, a healed body, and each...

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Yoga is Not Limited to Postures and Breathing

Yoga is Not Limited to Postures and Breathing

People often ask me to explain Integral Yoga. I tell them that if you keep certain things in mind, whatever you do becomes a yogic action. Even your eating and sleeping can be a Yoga practice if you do them in a way that creates health and harmony. Chew your food...

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Spiritual Introspection

Spiritual Introspection

Mother Nature, in the role of a stern mother, has sent us to our rooms! The government may call it “shelter in place,” but from another angle you can see that we are being asked to quit running around and do some serious thinking: How are we treating Mother Earth? How...

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The Most Important Goal in Life

The Most Important Goal in Life

Your real partner is your soul. You are married to your soul, your spirit, or the God within. When you really have that spiritual awakening, your recognize that your first responsibility is to yourself—to know your Self. Everything and everybody is there to help you...

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Finding the Joy in Self-Discipline

Finding the Joy in Self-Discipline

Question: Why do Yoga practices appear as disciplines when they are the source of joy? Yoga practices don’t appear as discipline—they are discipline. And who said that a disciplined life is an unhappy life? This seems to imply that discipline doesn’t make us joyful....

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Bringing Our Intentions to Life

Bringing Our Intentions to Life

We’ve all probably experienced times when we felt bounced around by too many stressors and we struggled just to keep our balance. In stressful times, we may be happy just to make it through the day, have something nice to eat, and a little entertainment to relax with....

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Steps on the Spiritual Path

Steps on the Spiritual Path

Question: For people who are new on the path of spirituality, what do you recommend for them? Are there steps or procedures? Swami Satchidananda: You have already taken the first step by wanting to become a spiritual student. That is the most important thing. You want...

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Spiritual Practice: Never Give Up!

Recently I was asked the question, “What can I do when I find I am lacking the discipline to practice my disciplines?” Follow the spirit: The spirit vs. the mind—that means your own inner consciousness and your outer mind. There is always a tug of war between those...

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What Spiritual Science Reveals about Spiritual Practice

The ancient spiritual scientists used the instrument of their minds to perceive what the modern scientists try to prove through outer, more gross instruments. The modern scientists only go to a certain limit because they don’t—or at least haven’t—yet started to...

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How to Develop Your Willpower

How to Develop Your Willpower

The best thing to do to succeed in your spiritual practices is to develop your willpower. That is because everything begins in the mind. The practices that we do in the name of Yoga are to help us become masters of our own minds. Your mind should be your instrument;...

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How to Be Happy Always

How to Be Happy Always

Yoga theory sometimes leaves us nowhere; it’s mostly intellectual. What the mind can understand is very little. So in the name of Yoga practice, we do something that can expand the mind and then, little by little, we understand things in a better way. We don’t want to...

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