3-month course - registration open!

After some time away from the blog, Peter has returned with news...

The long-awaited Tantra course is now launched!

3-month course for peace of mind, vitality and profound transformation.

See info here:

Here I Am

Self-Realization is not only possible, it is inevitable, if you are truly open... sincere... focused on living your deepest truth.
Self-Realization doesn't come through effort, it comes gracefully, through breathing in, breathing out... doing, resting... speaking, listening...
Self-Realization comes in balance, truth, openness, courage, faith... patience... Inspiration... and of course, Love.


Self-Realization ultimately is no big deal. It's what's left when all the confusion, fear, and struggle have gone.

Yes this is possible. It's your natural state.

Peace comes not from 'knowing who you are', but from being open to discover who you are at every moment, continuously.
You are not a finite 'thing' that can be known.
You are infinity revealing itself.
- Peter

Self-Realisation Coaching and Retreats with Peter

Get in touch to schedule a free initial consultation.

Note:
No one who is sincerely seeking health or peace is excluded from
participating in this work. Money is not an issue (it's just a means of exchange).

Visit Peter in Sintra (Portugal).
Personalised retreats available.
Contact:
Peter Littlejohn Cook
peter@InspirationTantra.com
(+ 351) 918 476 523 (mobile/ cellphone)


My prayer, my hope, my vision, my joy, is that you may come to know that life is naturally Joy-full, Grace-full, Bliss-full.

Life is Love, patiently waiting to be accepted, and shared.

What is Hatha Yoga?

Physical exercise or spiritual practice?

Hatha Yoga is a particular system of Yoga described by Yogi Swatmarama, compiler of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika in 15th century India. Hatha Yoga differs substantially from the Raja Yoga of Patanjali in that it focuses on "shatkarma," the purification of the physical body as leading to the purification of the mind ("ha"), and "prana," or vital energy (tha). Compared to the seated asana, or sitting meditation posture, of Patanjali's Raja yoga, it marks the development of asanas (plural) into the full body 'postures' now in popular usage and, along with its many modern variations, is the style that many people associate with the word "Yoga" today.

Modern, Westernised Yoga

In the West, the term "yoga" is typically associated with Hatha Yoga and its asanas (postures) or as a form of exercise. According to Meera Nanda, modern Hatha yoga includes many Western style gymnastics and bodybuilding exercises which were adopted in India in the 19th and 20th centuries.

(from Wikipedia article on Yoga)

Ultimately, Hatha Yoga means Attaining or Cultivating Unity-Consciousness through harmonising all aspects of our energy - mind, body, etc.

Some say that Paramamsa Yogananda 're-introduced' Kriya Yoga...

Yoganandaji was representing a lineage of teachers and was passing on a set of practices that had already been 'introduced' by them.

Being probably the most well-known Yogi in the West, it could be said that he introduced Kriya Yoga to the West.

Yogananda also made some adaptations to some of the Kriyas for Westerners as he felt that there was a difficulty for them to practice the original forms.

So, it would perhaps be more correct to say that Babaji reintroduced a specific set of Kriya Yoga practices through Lahiri Mahasaya (who was Yogananda's teacher's teacher).

Since then, there have been many Kriya teachers and schools that have come down from this lineage that began with Lahiri Mahasaya.

Paramahamsa Yogananda is perhaps still the most well-known representative of the Kriya teachings, due to his best-selling book 'Autobiography of a Yogi' and the organisation that he founded - the 'Self-Realization Fellowship' (or 'SRF').

Kriya Yoga practices are also taught by others teachers and lineages, although some of them may not call the practices 'Kriya Yoga'. 

For example Swami Sivananda's student Swami Satyananda Saraswati has taught and authored books that explain many Kriya techniques - these being in fact common to many Kundalini Yoga and Tantra practices.

Sexual Tantra and Ecstasy - Weaving the Essence of 'Masculine' and 'Feminine'

A quote from Osho:

“If you look at animals you will never see that they are enjoying; in intercourse they are not enjoying. Look at baboons, monkeys, dogs or any animal – in their sex act you cannot observe that they are feeling blissful or enjoying it. You cannot! It seems just a mechanical act, a natural force pushing them towards it. If you have seen monkeys in intercourse, after the intercourse they will separate. Look at their faces. There is no ecstasy – is if nothing has happened. When the energy forces, when the energy is too much, they throw it.

The ordinary sex act is just like this, and moralists have been saying quite the contrary. They say, “Don’t indulge. Don’t enjoy.” They say, “This is like animals.” This in not! Animals never enjoy – only man can enjoy. And the deeper you can enjoy, a higher humanity is born to you. And if your sex act can become meditative, ecstatic, the highest is touched."

'Think again'

It is fundamental to recognise that we have been taught not to trust ourselves...

We have been taught to create a split between 'me' and 'Life'... between 'me' and 'Source'...

The basis of this split is an idea. It is an idea that we picked up by observing all the 'separate-feeling' people around us - their actions, their words, their interests, their fears...

We have been taught to deny the peace that is right here in the Silence, between the thoughts, behind the thoughts, before, after and even during the thoughts... We have been taught to ignore this Witness that is Pure Consciousness... that is always Here.

No-thing is in the way of Understanding. No-thing needs to be removed or added. It's just that idea of separation that distracts us...

It's JUST an idea.

It's not important. It doesn't justify all that effort that we make to find wholeness again.

It's just an idea.

'Think again' ... or not.

It's just an idea.

"The real does not die,

the unreal never lived."

- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Spirituality is just about finding Peace...

The goal of my spiritual work is true happiness... contentment... Peace.

But sometimes we may imagine that spirituality is in some way 'opposed' to involvement in the world. We may believe that if we were content then we would have no impulse towards any achievement.

However, do not confuse true happiness, contentment and Peace with apathy, ‘low-expectations’, indifference, lack of motivation, or stagnation.

In happiness and peace, we rediscover our natural talents, we rediscover our passion, and we find it perfectly natural to live a dynamic, adventurous life, full of discovery and achievement…

In happiness and peace we discover the best of ourselves, we discover the best we have to offer our loved ones and to this world. We discover that by being fully ourselves – just being at peace with ourselves –  actually has a huge impact on our world, because it is a powerful ‘wake-up call’ to those around us. It reminds those who come into contact with us that they too can be in peace… and that peace is not just an idyllic concept. It can be embodied in any moment of our lives.

Ultimately spiritual self-realisation is recognising  that this peace is our unconditioned nature… that it is still here, now as silent witness to all the highs and lows… it is unconditional and eternal.

It is the source of genuine unconditional love. Mystics have referred to it as the ‘Presence of God’… Hindus have referred to it as ‘Satchitananda’ (‘Truth-Consciousness-Bliss’), the Buddhists have referred to it as the ‘Buddha-nature’…

It is always present. We just tend to overlook it in our ‘disbelief’… We cover it up with our thoughts about the so-called ‘real world’, which really is the product of conditioning rather than direct experience.

Ultimately spirituality has nothing to do with belief – quite the contrary – it is what remains when we have the courage to drop our belief systems – both ‘secular’ and ‘religious’ – and experience the power of Life, animating us now… This is communion with the source.

It's too simple to be ‘grasped’, but the ‘cure’ for this strange condition is to recognise why we have been trying so hard to ‘grasp’ in the first place...

We have been afraid. We have developed an unquestioned and even unconscious belief, or attitude, of distrust towards life. This is all that stands in the way of our Realisation… and it has no strength to stand on its own… it is we who are keeping peace (‘God’) at a distance through this lack of trust in life. It is this lack of trust that holds together all our attachment, all our selfishness, all our ignore-ance.

My work – my gift to you – is to help you find that trust again... that innocence.

Spirituality is just about finding Peace.
In that Peace we recognise, and Realise, our very own Self, and the virtues so cherished in the world's spiritual teachings arise spontaneously.

Only in peace can this Infinite Presence of Self be realised, only in Grace. This is why your efforts may be going in vain.

Messages from Shibendu Lahiri

Click here to read, or download, Shibendu Lahiri's inspired messages.

Who is Ramalinga Swami?

Ramalinga Swami of Tamil Nadu, South India, also known as Ramalingaswami, Ramalingaswamigal, Ramalinga Adigal, or simply 'Vallalar' was, or is, in many ways a unique saint in the world's history of spirituality. Not only did he seek 'Enlightenment', or 'Self-Realisation' as a form of 'Supreme Understanding' through total transformation of the psyche, but also, quite literally he sought 'En-Lightenment' as a total transformation of all aspects of one's existence - including of one's physical body, by opening to the graceful power of  the Divine, represented by 'Divine Light'.

It is believed that through his total surrender to the Divine Light of Grace, or 'Supreme Grace-Light' ('Arutperunjyothi', in Tamil) his body gradually lost its 'density' and he took on the vibration of Spirit - the Pure Light of Consciousness - and thus in 1874, he finally 'ascended' or 'expanded' his mind and body infinitely... and entered "all the bodies of His creation".

Ramalinga is considered to be a recent example of a Self-Realised Siddha, the likes of which have appeared in the region of Tamil Nadu over the centuries, and even over thousands of years, as related in the life-stories and teachings of the '18 Tamil Siddhas'.

For more information on the Tamil Siddhas, including material that is being translated and published in English for the first time, see the books of 'Babaji's Kriya Yoga Publications', such as:
- 'The Yoga of Siddha Avvai'
- 'The Yoga of the 18 Siddhas: An Anthology'
- 'The Yoga of Siddha Boganathar' - volumes 1 and 2
- 'The Yoga of Tirumular - Essays on the Tirumandiram'
- 'Thirumandiram - A Classic of Yoga and Tantra'
- 'Nine Tandirams on the Tirumandiram'
- 'The Poets of the Powers'
and the following book has a chapter dedicated to Ramalinga Swami:
- 'Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition', by M.G. Satchidananda (Marshall Govindan)

The following site gives some details of Ramalinga's life - his teachings on Union with Divine Love and Divine Intelligence and Divine Light through compassion and service to all beings, his miracles and his total merging with the Source:
http://www.arutperumjothi.com/

'Secrets of the 'Conscious Breath''

There  is a way of breathing that is a shame and a suffocation,
And there is another way;
A Love Breath
That lets you open Infinitely.
- Rumi

Regarding the first two limbs of classical Ashtanga: 'Yama' and 'Niyama' ('moral observance' and 'self-restraint')

"The purpose of yama and niyama ... is to prepare the mind for spiritual enlightenment. Yama sabilizes the mind in the realm of social behaviour, and niyama purifies it by minimizing worldly, outer-direceted activity.
Although it may sound like conventional moralistic preaching to advocate good behaviour and abstention from evil conduct, yama and niyama are actually practical necessities for one who engages in spiritual practice."

- Hiroshi Motoyama (in 'Theories of the Chakras - Bridge to Higher Consciousness')

What is 'Ashtanga'?

There is some confusion about the real meaning of 'Ashtanga' because of the recent popularity of Sri K. Prattabhi Jois' 'Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga'. For this reason, the classical Ashtanga is now sometimes referred to as 'Ashta-anga' to distinguish it from Sri K. Prattabhi Jois' Hatha Yoga practices.

'Ashtanga' means literally 'eight-limbed' ('ashta' = eight; 'anga' = limb).

The following information can be found at http://www.yoga-centers-directory.net/info/yoga_style_glossary.htm:

Ashta-anga Yoga is the Eight-Fold Path of Yoga taught by Patanjali in the 'Yoga Sutras'. On this path, Hatha Yoga is used to prepare for the higher spiritual practices of Raja Yoga.

The Eight-Fold Path / The Eight Limbs:
1. Yama (moral observance)
2. Niyama (self-restraint)
3. Asana (posture)
4. Pranayama (breath control)
5. Pratyahara (sensory inhibition)
6. Dharana (concentration)
7. Dhyana (meditation)
8. Samadhi (Union with God, ecstasy, nirvana).

Ashta-anga Yoga is also known as: 'Ashtanga Yoga', 'Astaunga Yoga', 'Classical Yoga', 'Patanjali Ashtanga', and 'Raja Yoga'.

Who Am I?

Click on the photo to see my new central blog in Portuguese where you can find links to several aspects of my work: Articles, Workshop and Retreat dates, Concerts, Satsangs, Sexual Alchemy, Consultations, etc.

Workshops, Retreats, Consultations, etc.

Click here for details of upcoming events with Peter

OM (AUM)

How to chant OM (AUM) correctly.

Nicely explained.

"A multiplicity of paths to the one Truth."

Shiva - One of the Trinity, or 'the Supreme'?

'Shiva' - the 'auspicious' one

... to be continued .... :o)