Thought Waves

Feb. 8, 2009

Thought Waves
Anne Stanton 2/9/09


Have you ever felt that you have a dual self? The self who does the naughty, and the voice who scolds you? The guy who eats an entire bag of chips and ruefully promises to start his diet tomorrow?
The teaching of Kriya Yoga says the mind has a sense of duality. The chattering voice – the ego, the “ ”—is not you, but a stream of thoughts, paradoxes, paranoia, worries, and ideas... a continuous response to endless stimulus.
So says Brandon Kietzman, who has invited yogi Shibendu Lahiri to Traverse City to share his teachings of Kriya yoga on the weekend of February 19. “When you observe the observer, you see the whole show. See the
thinker, and then it’s over. It just hits you,” he said.
Kietzman owns the Bikram Yoga studio in Traverse City, but stresses that Kriya yoga is distinct from physical yoga, although complementary. Anything that helps the mind also helps the body.
Kietzman, 29, met the yogi six years ago at a retreat held at Song of the Morning Ranch yoga center in Vanderbilt. Since then, he has kept in touch with Lahiri and deepened his study of Kriya yoga.

THOUGHT WAVES
Kriya yoga teaches that the natural pattern of a thought is akin to a wave – it rises, it crests, and it dissipates. “Instead of becoming overly involved with it, watch it without a watcher, and it vanishes,” Kietzman said.
The philosophy of Kriya yoga acknowledges that technical thought -- such as how to write a software program or design a home -- is productive and doesn’t cause “bondage,” Kietzman said.
“If thought is simply speculation, acknowledge it as such and move on. You might worry, ‘I wrecked the car and my husband is going to be really angry.’ But let’s say you get home, and your husband doesn’t react the way you expected. You were a wreck with fear! Most people don’t learn from that.”
Your relationship to your husband or wife and children can be used as a mirror of yourself, he added.
“All of your good and bad reactions to them are your mind, your ego. If we see that all the nasty reactions to stimulus in us is our big, fat ego, look at the ‘I’ who feels it’s the victim or who believes it’s the authority and knows all,” Kietzman said.

Here’s a recent phone interview with Shibendu Lahiri, speaking from India:

NE: Can you tell me about Kriya yoga?
Lahiri: The meaning of the word Kriya is action. Because of the mind, we are not available to the action. The main purpose of Kriya is to be reprieved from our psychological investments because of the conditioning and our entanglement to the ‘I.’
We remain in the burden of all psychological entanglement – this is the network in which we live. We are not available to life. We are only available to the reactions of the mind. It’s returning to the action of perfection --- this is the main understanding of Kriya.
This activity of the ‘I’ is so dominant that the intelligence, which our body is connected to, remains dormant. The Kriya is to be free of this dominant activity of the ‘I.’ So the dormant intelligence can have an awakening. The freedom from the activity of the dominant ‘I’ is a kind of restoration to one’s natural state.

NE: I got some of that down, but I was wondering if you could speak a little slower and softer—we speak more slowly here in Northern Michigan.
Lahiri: And we shout in India because the telephones are not that good. So people ask me, why are you shouting? They think I’m angry.

NE: So tell me what your life is like.
Lahiri: My life is moving, moving, moving. I never stay at one place. Because the programs are arranged by these people – who have been touched by the energy and want to share with people around the world—they make programs, the tickets are made. I move from place to place. I’m already 70 – but I have the energy of a man of 25 years. I keep on moving without getting exhausted, without feeling any fatigue.
My sons and daughters are grown up, successful in their life, and manage their own affairs. My wife has passed away from cancer. It is a joy to move. It is also good so that I don’t stay in one place so I don’t get attached. I have affection with people, but I don’t get attached.

NE: Do you go to movies, or go bowling or dancing?
Lahiri: No I don’t see movies, TV -- I have not seen a movie for years. Very rare. The last movie I saw was Fast Food Nation. It was a horror to see that. I advise vegetarian food. When someone tells me, ‘We’re addicted to meat,’ I say, did you see Fast Food Nation? Once in a blue moon, when people insist I see a movie, I do see a movie that I do enjoy. And I find it’s really wonderful. I have no time to see a movie or TV. Even newspaper reading I do rarely.

NE: What is your favorite book?
Lahiri: (He laughs). If I may, I like to tell you, my most favorite book is one by J. Krishna Murti. When I read, I like to read books by him. I love that. I love him. Of course, he passed away in 1986. He was also traveling all over the world and teaching the most profound wisdom for yoga. He was doing a similar thing. And he was also traveling. And his books are available in English.

NE: Speaking of news and reading, what does India think of the election of President Obama?
Lahiri: We are looking forward to it. It is so nice. In India, we had a president and he came from a community of scavengers (the late Kocheril Raman, who was elected in 1997). We were wondering if we can have a president who came from such a downtrodden place, why not America? We have the caste system here, as with the untouchables, and our president came from there, the lowest caste. So we thought, why can’t America have a president like that? It’s a wonderful event.

NE: You have such a different lifestyle than those whom you teach. For those people who have stressful jobs and kids to raise and support, it might seem hard to hold what you say.
Lahiri: This is what happens, they find it profound – but because of the humdrum of their lives, they cannot hold onto it. So on the first and second day, we give them a profound practice to meditate, to help them through their ego-centered activities. Freedom from this ‘I,’ the ego. It is an understanding. Are you prepared to lose these activities—the pursuit of power, which we humbly suggest. Wake up and let us help you make an inward journey and see if it’s possible to have tranquility without the kind of emptiness that requires filling, filling, filling. We try to share that. To whatever extent that is possible, we are happy. We are not here to influence people, but to share the inside of what has happened in our body, and it can happen in your body too, providing you’re willing. We can sow the seeds provided there is fertile soil.

To learn more, go to
www.kryiyayogalahiri.com.


Speech and Workshop:

Shibendu Lahiri will give a free talk about Kriya Yoga on February 19 at 7 p.m. On February 20, he’ll conduct a Kriya Yoga Initiation from 10 a.m. -8 p.m, and a retreat February 21-23, at 1661 Duke Hollow in Traverse City. For reservations and costs, call Brandon Kietzman at
231-392-4798.