About "Going Back", Choices, Past, Present & Future
The previous post was about composting, which I wanted to connect to God.
It is important to compost because the food is becoming dirt, which sustains life on earth.
Dirt farming and composting may seem like ordinary things, but it is always extraordinary when something transforms into something else...like butterflies, or watching a flower bloom, or watching a child grow. Some unseen magic is happening there, behind the screen of this material world where we can't see. There IS something behind it all, for if there wasn't, caterpillars would just stay caterpillars or the flower may just not ever bloom...
After the food is done being food, it goes back, becomes part of the bigger picture (the compost pile, the earth), and starts its cycle over again.
What of us? Perhaps we are no different. After we are done being people, we go back, become part of the bigger picture (the earth, or air, or sea), and maybe we prepare for another life, or an afterlife, or whatever that may be.
This is disturbing for some, as they are not sure what awaits after death, but it's true. We are made of body & spirit. Dirt and Air. After death, the dirt goes back to the dirt, and our spirit goes back too...
Yoga is unification with the Divine, and thus, preparation for death. In the Bhagavad Gita, it is said that we go to whatever our minds are focused on at the point of death:
Thus, we must train our mind to always be fixed on God, so we can go back to God, free from the cycle of birth and rebirth. This is the personal work we must do for ourselves. This is the personal work we will find as we travel the Yoga Margas, swing among the eight limbs of yoga, and do our best daily to follow the four agreements.
It can be argued that it is not difficult to predict where we will go: we need only to look on how we've lived, the choices we've made, as all of that leads to the present moment. Similarly, the present moment--what we do right here right now--will determine the future.
It is important to compost because the food is becoming dirt, which sustains life on earth.
Dirt farming and composting may seem like ordinary things, but it is always extraordinary when something transforms into something else...like butterflies, or watching a flower bloom, or watching a child grow. Some unseen magic is happening there, behind the screen of this material world where we can't see. There IS something behind it all, for if there wasn't, caterpillars would just stay caterpillars or the flower may just not ever bloom...
After the food is done being food, it goes back, becomes part of the bigger picture (the compost pile, the earth), and starts its cycle over again.
What of us? Perhaps we are no different. After we are done being people, we go back, become part of the bigger picture (the earth, or air, or sea), and maybe we prepare for another life, or an afterlife, or whatever that may be.
This is disturbing for some, as they are not sure what awaits after death, but it's true. We are made of body & spirit. Dirt and Air. After death, the dirt goes back to the dirt, and our spirit goes back too...
Yoga is unification with the Divine, and thus, preparation for death. In the Bhagavad Gita, it is said that we go to whatever our minds are focused on at the point of death:
Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods; those who worship the ancestors go to the ancestors; those who worship ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings; and those who worship Me will live with Me.
Thus, we must train our mind to always be fixed on God, so we can go back to God, free from the cycle of birth and rebirth. This is the personal work we must do for ourselves. This is the personal work we will find as we travel the Yoga Margas, swing among the eight limbs of yoga, and do our best daily to follow the four agreements.
It can be argued that it is not difficult to predict where we will go: we need only to look on how we've lived, the choices we've made, as all of that leads to the present moment. Similarly, the present moment--what we do right here right now--will determine the future.
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