To define oneself as a Yogi

To define oneself as a Yogi is to be committed to the spiritual life. It is possible to read many books and without understanding, to remain, much like a donkey loaded down with many books, yet still a donkey. Yoga is greater than the sum of its parts, with each part is linked to every other part, not unlike a cosmic jigsaw with each piece a stepping stone to the infinite that lies beyond.

Yoga is union in every sense of the word, not only between the parts but also the infinite which has precipitated the parts. The study and practice of yoga is discovering the link factors which constitute the whole, not only intellectually, but with feeling and a consciousness of the whole process. There is no part of this life study that is not divine in its nature; because to say that something is not of God, is to detract from his absoluteness.

We all live moment by moment in the presence of God, some of us struggling and jockeying for position within the illusion of time. The enlightened seeing the whole pattern and individual karma expressing itself and tempering each according to their ability to evolve and develop. Purity of action is the keynote in the life of the yogi, which sets them apart in the life of the community, as their evolving nature and physical body becomes more and more refined. This becomes evident by the company they keep as low vibrations can be disturbing to the more refined organism. Likewise foods of an animal nature become less evident in the yoga diet as there will be a preference for foods formed as close to natural sunlight as possible.

The yogi has above all to learn to be true to themselves and to learn to respond to the creative within themselves. By being true to ourselves we are more likely to bring something new and interesting into the life process, rather than simply to be absorbed and fashioned by much of what has gone before. Self-realisation is a process of ‘letting go’ and letting God and responding to the free and boundless of which we are but manifestations.

None of us are separate from the whole process and have been woven from the same cloth which is the power of God; hence the first of the restraints which is ahimsa, non-injury.