Meditation and Yoga: The Environment
I would like to share some information on a subject very dear to my heart. That being the naturally healthy state of being of my body. I truly believe our bodies are sacred gifts, and they allow us to learn in this envirionment we find ourselves in, here on planet Earth. Please take a few precious moments to read the following article related to Meditation and Yoga.
Meditation and Yoga: The Environment
Let’s discuss how our environment affects our mental thought processes and our lives and how Yoga and Meditation can help us deal with these issues.
First let’s define what we mean by the environment. This is everything that one encounters that is external to them. This encompasses the natural environment, the mountains, lakes, streams, animals, etc. But of greater importance to our discussion, it also encompasses the other people in your lives, and the relationships that exist with these people. It includes all of the economic, political, religious and cultural circumstances that one encounters during his or her life.
The questions posed are, “How does the environment affect our mental thought processes and our lives and how can Yoga and Meditation help”?
From the moment we are born, even before birth, we are all in a constant struggle with the environment to achieve physical safety and security. As babies, we learn to cry to alert our parents, that we need something. As children, we learn to use our eyes, put on a certain facial expression, or alter the tone of our voice, etc. to entice others to act in a certain way. We attempt to control the other, and as a consequence our environment, to attain what we want so that we may be secure and safe.
As young adults we learn to dress and act in certain ways to attain friendships and to attract a mate. Again, we control the environment to get what we need and want. We do this all of our lives. This is all fairly obvious, isn’t it?
In the process of attempting to control the environment to attain what we believe will bring about safety and security, and pleasure and happiness for us, we develop an ego.
The “I” wants and desires pleasure and happiness for itself and finds countless ways to influence the environment to attain what it wants. We spend our entire lives, countless hours, immeasurable effort, developing and fine tuning this “I” in an attempt to get what we want. To get our way. We attempt to control others, exert our will over others for primarily selfish reasons, in search of our own security and comfort. You will need to be very honest with your self to see this. The actions necessary to develop the “I” create an ever moving and changing environment because everyone is doing the same thing in their own little ways. Everyone is motivated by the self, “I” to bring about their own security, safety and comfort. So you exert your influence on another, they process your actions, realize the manipulation, and react differently the next time you meet by responding to your manipulation. They have changed and certainly you have changed as well. So we adapt, always fine tuning the “I”
to be ever more cunning and manipulative and powerful and influential than before.
We join organizations to meet like minded individuals, political, financial, religious, etc. We marry, and have children because we need to feel loved and belong to a family group. We need to perpetuate our own species, and our own consciousness, the “I”. We desire immortality through having and raising offspring to carry on for us. We are drawn towards various religions, for the same reason, because we fear death and want to live on forever. The “I” for whom we have spent countless hours developing and perfecting does not want to let go. There is so much vested in this process, it wants to continue forever.
Do you see this? Think it over carefully and you will see the beauty of this whole process. In time, you will come to a deep understanding of how this works. It should be fairly obvious that we can never hope to understand others, or our actions in relationship to the environment, if we don’t first take the time to understand ourselves. If you are at all serious about being happy and content and attaining the future that you’ve always wanted and desired, you should give Yoga and Meditation a chance. This is the true process of Yoga and Meditation in action. We hope to gain a better understanding of ourselves and others through the practice of Yoga and Meditation.
To learn more visit us at YogaAwakening.com
Until next time,
Anthony D’Agostino
Founder of Yoga Awakening
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When I look at this image, with its pristine beaches and cerulean blue waters, it just makes me want to cry. My heart aches to imagine all of the billions of Life forms which have been destroyed beyond imagining, and how long it will take to bring this beautiful piece of Mother Ocean back to Life, if ever. Creation is so beautiful, and we are such blessed beings to live upon such a wondrous planet, created with health and bountiful Life to sustain us in a paradise if we can only see it. Paradise is not a heaven far away, it is right here!! We have everything we need to live in joyous harmony, and it is to our shame that we take for granted that which our creators have bestowed upon us, by placing us upon this gift of a planet. 
from Amazon. 
, I practice outside in my bare feet. When we are at our Sundance ceremony we enter the shade arbor which surrounds the Tree, either in our bare feet or in natural leather moccasins, so we can connect to and feel the Earth’s energy as we sing and pray for the Earth and the People. It is no small wonder that indigenous people are so in tune with the Earth and the animals, as they understand how to utilize nature to be as one with their surroundings.
When I think of the American plains, I imagine the sweet grasses blowing in the wind, and the wild Buffalo roaming with their herds. The Buffalo are most Sacred to my people. They were placed here for some very good reasons, as they spread the seeds and fertilized the land. Once they provided food and materials for shelter and clothing for the peoples of this land. It is amazing to imagine how brilliantly the Creator of this world set things in motion so very long ago. From the tiniest microbe to the mightiest predator. Each living creature having a purpose, and given the chance to evolve in a natural way. To think that the beings who believe themselves most intelligent cannot see the widsom behind this, and are the ones destroying the balance so painstakingly created to maintain Life on this Earth. Such folly can be credited to a foolish, yet supposed intelligent race, when we should be providing good stewardship in caring for the environment. Nature knows how to do her job… why is it so hard to do ours?