Try to see that relaxation is nothing but the transformation of something rigid
 Into something supple, if to it you add a notion of expansion.
Shri Anirvan – Great Indian Teacher

If you carry on as you always have.
You will always have what you have already got.
Janet Southall

I am only one, but I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.
Janet Southall

Swami Dayatmananda’s thoughts
So long as we have a mind, there will be thoughts and emotions.
They are the nature of the mind as the waves are the nature of the sea.
Allow them to rise and settle without any constraints.
It is the thinking of the thought, that is the problem.

As we discover who we are, there comes an inner dignity.
We have nothing to prove to anyone.
We can release as sand from the hand.

Doing is more important than not doing.
By doing, you do not have time to think about what you may not do.
But if something cannot be done – do something else that can be.

Be centred on the Present, not in the Future or the Past.

Yoga is disjoining not uniting truth and untruth.

If you want someone to think about something –
Tell them not to do it.

The ability to laugh at oneself is very important.

Swami Dayatmananda on Detachment
The aim is not to be callous but to see things
And accept them as they are.
Accepting realistically with understanding
Not accepting fatalistically (I don’t care really, it’s inevitable).
Prepare for the change.

Swami Dayatmananda on Death
Life without death is like asking for a one sided coin.

The goal is to be a little more detached
In order to prepare for the time of death or disaster.

Swami Dayatmananda on Tragedy
There are two types of Tragedy
To be related to what we do not like
To be separated from the things we do like.

Swami Dayatmananda on Happiness
People want to be happy.
They go to venues to find happiness.
Every religion is trying to tell us we are happy.
So long as man desires happiness, religion cannot go out of fashion.

We must not chase after happiness.
Always happiness is a result of achieving something and how the mind manifests.
Lulu was a beautiful woman who was lusted after by a man.
He was devastated when she married someone else.
However, the man she married was also devastated
Because Lulu turned out to be a complete bitch.

Happiness and peace are not dependant on external things.

The happiest state of mind is where we forget everything.

Swami Dayatmananda on Unhappiness
Worry is the greatest cause of unhappiness.
If we are not accepting ourselves as ourselves.
This world is never going to be perfect.
Good and Evil are not two different things,
But two interpretations of the same event.
A poor farmer’s son broke his leg so he could not work on the farm,
But this was good because he could not join the army recruitment.

Swami Dayatmananda on Self Pity
Self pity is the inability to accept yourself.
Self pity is comparing yourself.
Be yourself completely in your tower.

Swami Dayatmananda on Philosophy
Philosophy is useless knowledge.
There were two philosophers in a balloon,
which drifted down into a strange field.
They shouted down to a farmer standing in the field
and asked where they were.
The Farmer looked around and said “You are in a balloon.”

Swami Dayatmananda on Meditation
If we cannot find the true self when we sit,
We need to formulate a plan.
Silence is the first step.
Solitude is the second – to let things go.
Memories we carry around with us.
Let them go so as not to trouble us.
Often when we sit in meditation,
The thoughts will come because there is no other time.
Letting go means not allowing things to leave their mark on you
Such as memories and negative thoughts.
Stillness is the third step – the ego becomes as a mirror
Reflecting true consciousness.
True Yoga.

In meditation things disturb us only because we let them.

Swami Dayatmananda on Desire
Prayer is a desire.
God can do without prayer – he has no desires.
Desire is bondage.
Be free from the desire to be free.
When the mind is free from desires, it is in its natural state – it is happy.

Swami Dayatmananda on God
The Catholic conception can only conceive God as a Father
Become wonderful mothers.
Look upon God as a child.
Have the right to smack God.
We can be angry at God.
Approach God in any way which is comfortable to you.
Religion must bring out the best in you.
God is a reflection of ourselves.

Swami Dayatmananda on Samadi
Patanjali said that “Yoga is the suppression of all mental thoughts.”
When the mind becomes concentrated with one idea,
What happens to that idea?
It self destructs.
Samadi is only one thought.
You need two thoughts to annoy each other.

What happens when the mind is absolutely still.
It becomes a mirror.
We remain ourselves.
We see our face.
Things come and this is me.
In between waves there is a state where pure consciousness remains.

When no modifications come,
The time in between becomes the state.
This is Samadi.

Yoga is removing the mind by making it pure.
The technique by which the mind is made to see the truth.

The way to God is but one step.
The step out of yourself.