Who Is a Spiritual Person?

What does the word spiritual mean to you? Who, in your opinion, is a spiritual person? A renowned yoga guru with many followers takes vows of celibacy and yet involves himself sexually with his students. Is he a spiritual person?

A grocery man works long hours cheerfully and gives generously of his time to his customers. Is he a spiritual person? Jack Schwarz, one of my teachers says: “I can go to the vicar and get garbage, and I can go to the garbage man and get wisdom!” He also states that the spiritual person is the one who uses the most energy available to her. Every day she tries to improve herself in spite of the seeming difficulties. She develops the courage to follow her excitement. Joseph Campbell says: “We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

In order to take my yoga teacher training course, Susan drove halfway across the country in her old car. Her finances were limited and she had no idea where to stay. Following her excitement, she arrived at the yoga centre, found an inexpensive living arrangement, received a scholarship and her car even made it back home!

Candise Pert, the scientist who discovered opiate receptors, reveals in her book Molecules of Emotion that the energy moving through our body is intelligent. It can guide and direct us. Prana, the Sanskrit word for energy, originates from “pra”, to bring forth and “na”, the external cosmic vibration. Yoga helps discharge bodily stress, making space for prana or spirit to be felt as a guiding, living force within us.

Contrary to popular opinion, spiritual individuals are usually in situations they find challenging. Rather than assuming victim mode, these people look for the part they play in their difficulties. Endeavoring to grow beyond their limitations, they aspire to deal consciously with these restrictions. This helps increase their conscious awareness, honing their ability to deal more effectively with life.

Yoga, a Sanskrit word comes from the root word “Yuj”, meaning to join or to “yoke”. We are uniting body, mind and spirit. Or more accurately, we are undoing the tensions that prevent us from experiencing ourselves as already one in mind, body and spirit.

Releasing bodily stresses through yoga allows our obsessive, anxious mind to calm down. Then we naturally reside in the quiet of our innermost self or centre, which opens the doorway for prana or spirit to ignite inside our body.

Uncovering our centre is called pratyahara in yoga. The next stage, darana, arrives when we hone the ability, through our yoga practice, to stay centered for longer and longer periods of time.

Keeping centered or inwardly absorbed prepares us for dhyana or meditation, the ability to notice and respond to our subtle reactions in a life affirming way. With every action there is a reaction. Between action and reaction there is a pause. This pause is our point of power. It allows us to choose our response. Through meditation we can mediate our response.

Lastly, samadhi allows to bring all of our life’s experiences together in our own unique way (“sam”, to bring together and “dhi”, in one’s own way). Samadhi offers a deep sense of inner peace in spite of life’s particular circumstances.

Yoga offers us progressive stages to reach a peaceful heart:
    1. The use of prayers, mantras and right thinking keep our thoughts straight, especially in times of turmoil. (vitarka samadhi)
    2. Moving toward our centre and away from obsessive thinking through prayers, mantra and right thinking leads us into states of well-being. (vichara samadhi)
    3. A relatively continued state of inner accord opens us to feelings of bliss or happiness in our body. (ananada samadhi)
    4. Bodily locations of tranquility transport us to the “I am” presence, a sense of oneself, not in competition with others but simple in accord with spirit. (asmita samadhi)
    5. At last in asamprajnata samadhi, spirit (inspiration) is our guiding force. This is called para-varagya in yoga. We learn to follow spirit instead of our emotional imprinting and conditioned patterns.

Our commitment to yoga helps us stay connected to spirit, freeing us from creating new patterns that may once again bind us. The continued practice of asamprajnata samadhi delivers us to kaivalya (liberation), oneness with all.
 

by Sandra Sammartino, http://sandrasammartinoyoga.com

Watch Sandra's first newsletter at http://youtu.be/73AJ6nJRg44 for balance, hormonal balance and the shoulder stand.

Sandra has been teaching Yoga for over forty years; training Yoga teachers for over 25 years and developing Yoga teacher trainers for the past ten years.
Co-founder of Unity in Yoga, which merged into the Yoga Alliance in America, Sandra also founded Yoga Outreach-–a volunteer organization, teaching over 25 classes per week to those who would not be exposed to the ability to go to yoga class in British Columbia.
Sandra’s Yoga classes are highly experiential - infusing the physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological aspects of ones being, allowing students to feel, heal and connect with spirit. She lives by the principle: “One needs to be true to oneself and trust in one’s own inner strength and spiritual guidance.”
Sandra books, DVDs, unique sandals, classes, workshops and retreats are all at her website.