Summary of Philosophy Class May 24th 2015

What is yoga?

Yoga is many things to many people. To some it is a form of physical exercise, to others a deep philosophy.

The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root 'yuj' or yoke. Yoga literally means to come into union. It is an ancient philosophy which talks about letting go of the ego and connecting back to the world and to other people. 

What do you mean by gaze inwards?

To take your awareness away from the five senses and to the mind's interpretation of what the five senses are telling it. This interpretation leads to perspective and each creature on earth has their own perspective on life and on the world. When we gaze inwards, we take our awareness away from our five senses, hence our individual perspectives and back to our original state of peace which is inherent to each and every one of us.

Are we born peaceful?

Many ancient teachings say that we are and that our original nature is peace.

Sometimes teachings that have helped in the past do not help now?

Things that happened and helped in the past where correct for that time - but by dwelling on them we are dwelling on the past. It is very important to remain present and to work on ourselves in the present.

How should we react if somebody is angry?

Rather than reacting to them we try and act peacefully - obviously this takes a lot of work. The natural thing to do is to react with aggression but that just escalates the situation. Acting peacefully does not mean we ignore bad situations - quite the opposite - instead of making things worse by reacting we actually try and resolve things by peaceful means. Examples of this can be seen in the work of Dr Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi who both effected big changes in the world by peaceful protest and not by reacting with violence. It can also be seen in the modern world by organisations such as avaaz,org

How can we live without the worries of the future?

By remembering that the future has not yet happened. There are a million different possibilities of what might happen in the future and we can never know which one will really happen. If we are always worrying about what might happen, then we cannot enjoy the present moment. It is very important in life to enjoy each and every moment.

The more we learn to accept ourselves for who we are, the less we want to move our awareness to a possible future and the happier we are living in the present.