One of the great Sufi Masters, Junnaid, was asked when he was dying… his chief disciple came close to him and asked, “Master, you are leaving us. One question has always been in our minds but we could never gather courage enough to ask you. Who was your Master? This has been a great curiosity among your disciples because we have never heard you talk about your Master.”
Junnaid opened his eyes and said, “It will be very difficult for me to answer because I have learned from almost everybody. The whole existence has been my Master. I have learned from every event that has happened in my life. And I am grateful to all that has happened, because out of all that learning I have arrived.”
Junnaid said, “Just to satisfy your curiosity I will give you three instances. One: I was very thirsty and I was going towards the river carrying my begging bowl, the only possession I had. When I reached the river a dog rushed, jumped into the river, started drinking.
“I watched for a moment and threw away my begging bowl–because it is useless. A dog can do without it. I also jumped into the river, drank as much water as I wanted. My whole body was cool because I had jumped into the river. I sat in the river for a few moments, thanked the dog, touched his feet with deep reverence because he had taught me a lesson.
“I had dropped everything, all possessions, but there was a certain clinging to my begging bowl. It was a beautiful bowl, very beautifully carved, and I was always aware that somebody might steal it. Even in the night I used to put it under my head as a pillow so nobody could snatch it away. That was my last clinging–the dog helped. It was so clear: if a dog can manage without a begging bowl… I am a man, why can’t I manage? That dog was one of my Masters.
“Secondly,” he said, “I lost my way in a forest and by the time I reached the nearest village that I could find, it was midnight. Everybody was fast asleep. I wandered all over the town to see if I could find somebody awake to give me shelter for the night, until finally I found one man. I asked him, ‘It seems only two persons are awake in the town, you and I. Can you give me shelter for the night?’
“The man said, ‘I can see from your gown that you are a Sufi monk….and I feel a little embarrassed to take you to my home. I am perfectly willing, but I must tell you who I am. I am a thief–would you like to be a guest of a thief?”
For a moment Junnaid hesitated. The thief said, “Look, it is better I told you. You seem hesitant. The thief is willing but the mystic seems to be hesitant to enter into the house of a thief, as if the mystic is weaker than the thief. In fact, I should be afraid of you–you may change me, you may transform my whole life! Inviting you means danger, but I am not afraid. You are welcome. Come to my home. Eat, drink, go to sleep, and stay as long as you want, because I live alone and my earning is enough. I can manage for two persons. And it will be really beautiful to chit-chat with you of great things. But you seem to be hesitant.”
And Junnaid became aware that it was true. He asked to be forgiven. He touched the feet of the thief and he said, “Yes, my rootedness in my own being is yet very weak. You are really a strong man and I would like to come to your home. And I would like to stay a little longer, not only for this night. I want to be stronger myself!”
The thief said, “Come on!” He fed the Sufi, gave him something to drink, helped him to prepare for sleep and he said, “Now I will go. I have to do my own thing. I will come back early in the morning.” Early in the morning the thief came back. Junnaid asked, “Have you been successful?”
The thief said, “No, not today, but I will see tomorrow.”
And this happened continuously, for thirty days: every night the thief went out, and every morning he came back empty-handed. But he was never sad, never frustrated–no sign of failure on his face, always happy –and he would say, “It doesn’t matter. I tried my best. I could not find anything today again, but tomorrow I will try. And, God willing, it can happen tomorrow if it has not happened today.”
After one month Junnaid left, and for years he tried to realize the ultimate, and it was always a failure. But each time he decided to drop the whole project he remembered the thief, his smiling face and his saying “God willing, what has not happened today may happen tomorrow.”
Junnaid said, “I remembered the thief as one of my greatest Masters. Without him I would not be what I am.
“And third,” he said, “I entered into a small village. A little boy was carrying a lit candle, obviously going to the small temple of the town to put the candle there for the night.”
And Junnaid asked, “Can you tell me from where the light comes? You have lighted the candle yourself so you must have seen. What is the source of light?”
The boy laughed and he said, “Wait!” And he blew out the candle in front of Junnaid. And he said, “You have seen the light go. Can you tell me where it has gone? If you can tell me where it has gone I will tell you from where it has come, because it has gone to the same place. It has returned to the source.”
And Junnaid said, “I had met great philosophers but nobody had made such a beautiful statement: ‘It has gone to its very source.’ Everything returns to its source finally. Moreover, the child made me aware of my own ignorance. I was trying to joke with the child, but the joke was on me. He showed me that asking foolish questions–’From where has the light come?’–is not intelligent. It comes from nowhere, from nothingness–and it goes back to nowhere, to nothingness.”
Junnaid said, “I touched the feet of the child. The child was puzzled. He said, ‘Why you are touching my feet?’ And I told him, ‘You are my Master–you have shown me something. You have given me a great lesson, a great insight.’
“Since that time,” Junnaid said, “I have been meditating on nothingness and slowly, slowly I have entered into nothingness. And now the final moment has come when the candle will go out, the light will go out. And I know where I am going–to the same source.
“I remember that child with gratefulness. I can still see him standing before me, blowing out the candle.”

Yoga . Meditation . Ayurveda . Therapy . Reiki . Tarot

How to understand the valuable mysteries of the Universe
if you cannot even comprehend your own self?

OM Helpers in Action! Visit and comment: www.omhelpers.blogspot.com <http://www.omhelpers.blogspot.com/>

A beautiful way to bring in the new season of change.

A must experience for yoga and meditation teachers.

DATE: March 13, 20 & 27

TIME:  9am – 12noon

LOCATION: kitsilano area,  please email for exact address to:  omhelpers.blogspot.com

COST:  $120.00

INFO:  For more details please contact: Lipe @ vianalipe@yahoo.com

]]> http://tracygroshak.com/schedule/workshops/the-3-pillars-to/feed/ 0 http://tracygroshak.com/insights/reality-is-subtle/ http://tracygroshak.com/insights/reality-is-subtle/#comments Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:49:44 +0000 admin2 http://tracygroshak.com/?p=404

So often I have students approach me with comments like; “do you think my yoga practice is improving” or “I have been at this for months now and I am not seeing any changes” or “how long do you think its going to take me to achieve xyz postures.

To be honest, the list of questions and comments go on and on.  And please let me be the first to tell you, I did the same thing when I first started many years ago on my spiritual yoga journey, I am sure I drove many of my yoga teachers crazy with my relentless inquisition. Funny though, when I look back at a few wise teachers, they essentially said the same thing and it was not much.  Here are the oldies but goodies that still apply to all of us today. “Be patient”, “Be kind” to yourself and others and “It takes time.” I know, nothing magical as you might have been expecting, but what the heck I am a realist and I have gone through this many times just like you. If you are looking for a quick fix, or a magical pill, you’re not going to find it here.

Now lets take a person that has been living with chronic pain for many years and only after several weeks or months, they have suddenly increased their depth of breath, have less tension in their back and shoulders and are now feeling less stress at work. Lets understand something here; our bodies have millions of functions going on at once that we are for the most part completely oblivious to. And how amazing this machine is, that it still gets up in the morning, takes us to and fro where ever we wish to go and do all the wonderful things we get to do.

So lets look at a few other powerful subtly examples and the importance of it in achieving the grand. If you are a musician, you understand that it is the fine-tuning of the instrument that produces the most beautiful clarity of song. If you are an athlete, you understand that it is the more precise that is the most victorious. Think about it, in chemistry, water (under normal pressure) will not boil at 99.9 degrees Celsius, but raise it to 100 degrees and the water begins to boil. Water will not freeze at .05 degrees Celsius, but will turn to ice at 0 degrees Celsius.

It is very common for us, including myself to disregard the subtle changes in our quest for the grand. We are often reminded that “every journey begins with one step”, yet when it comes down to it we often want to just be at the end of our journey even though we truthfully just began. It is the subtle, not the grand that determines the nature of our environment. The more sensitive and appreciative we are of the subtle changes in our life on and off the mat, the greater joy, prosperity and health we will have in our lives. So as you go about your daily life, acknowledge the small changes that occur and always remind yourself to appreciate the subtle.

Insights are Divine messages sent by the Gods. They are meant to guide us on wherever we have to go and whatever is to be done. They are deep perceptions that do not pass through the biased mind, so the ego cannot touch them. Insights are those spontaneous understandings and comprehensions that lead to the next step that needs to be taken.

Insights come to our Internal Consciousness from the Eternal Consciousness. They arrive in the physical body through the crown, pass by the third eye and get delivered as a message in the heart. This is why insights do not need thought processes to make sense. They come decoded in a way that you get what you have to get and there is no need of thinking about it. They give us the opportunity to “listen to our heart instead of our mind”.

The issue is that many of us choose not to trust insights; instead, we turn the ego-istic mental schemas on to fall into the mind’s traps. Overtime the connection between the Eternal Consciousness and Internal Consciousness seems to fade away and become very weak.

The practice of Hatha Yoga (asanas and pranayama) helps us to shut our mind up and assists us with the reconnection with our Internal Consciousness. The discipline of Bhakti Yoga (devotional practice) will reconnect the Internal Consciousness with the Eternal Consciousness.

In reality, no reconnection is done since the original connection has always been there. What the constant practice of Yoga does is to clean the channels, so the connection can be perceived, and through its discipline and determination not let the link to be lost, so messages can be clearly delivered.

by Lipe Viana. Visit and Comment: omhelpers.blogspot.com

Happy new years to all.

This is the time of year, in particular where we start to think of our intentions for the new year and  what we would like to manifest. I too have been mulling about this word and what it means and how i think i would like to see things unfold. Don’t we all.

But lets be honest, if all we are doing is setting up the supposed right mind set, focusing on the right intentions in the right way at the right time with the right ritual, then all we are doing is setting up the ego to get what is wants all the time.. So wouldn’t you say that this is a bit unbalanced, more like “magical thinking.”

Perhaps we could set the notion of intentions as a part of a natural unfoldment process instead. Whether it be at the beginning of your practice or at the beginning of the new year, whatever it is,  set it as an entry point. So that over time, through our experiences in the process, our intentions transform, almost get re-adjusted. The more we tap into our body wisdom, work with our heart intelligence, tap into our deeper layers of the heart/mind intuition, often we are surprised of what the ego doesn’t know about ourselves and our process.

This is what is truly at the heart of a contemporary  natural maturing spiritual practice. If we allow there to be a dance between our intentions and the process, something new will be revealed. Enjoy the process!

Much peace always,

t xo

It’s one of the most highly intelligent forms of physical exercise that not only brings deep understanding and awareness to the physical self/body but also brings clarity to the mind giving you a greater sense of peace.

With daily practice, one will experience greater strength in the overall body, balance and coordination with subsequent feelings of transparency, and of being more sensitive.

Yoga can also bring a spiritual and emotional element to your life. It requires that you focus exclusively on the present moment.

Remember, no matter how often you do yoga, you cannot hope to prevent or heal your health problems without making other lifestyle changes. If you practice yoga, but continue to eat poorly, get very little sleep or stay in abusive or stressful relationships(personal or business), chances are you’ll continue to get sick.

Think of your yoga practice as a mirror to your soul and a prescription for healthy action.

There are no promises that yoga will fix all your ailments weather it be physical, mental or spiritual, but yoga will change your life!