Yogani - Samyama - Cultivating Stillness in Action, Siddhis and Miracles

Copyright 2006 by Yogani

All rights reserved.

AYP Publishing

www.advancedyogapractices.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2006907579

ISBN 978-0-9786496-3-0 (eBook)

ISBN 978-0-9786496-2-3 (Paperback)

Chapter 1 The Making of Miracles

What determines achievement? Is it getting what we want, or is it giving up what we want? Interestingly, it is both, and not necessarily in that order. There is a natural process of gaining knowledge and its associated achievements that has been observed in human beings since the beginning of our history. To understand it is to know the secret of making miracles.

We have all known people of achievement. No doubt we ourselves have accomplished things in this life, and no doubt would like to achieve more. There is the old adage that success is achieved by staying focused on our chosen task. Persistent hard work toward our goal is the prescribed formula we have heard since childhood.

Yet, why is it that great innovators like Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein tell us that they made their greatest discoveries while doing absolutely nothing? Why is it that artists tell us that their most beautiful creations flow through them, with the main work being to keep up with that outflow?

Is there something systematic and effortless we can do that will greatly enrich our endeavors in everyday life? We will explore it here, and present an age-old method of yoga called samyama that takes advantage of a principle in us that can give rise to remarkable achievements, even entering the realm of the miraculous, all coming from within as a natural flow of energy and creativity.

The samyama methods we will be discussing here are easy and practical, and can help us make good use of the vast resources that are available within us right now.

How Our World is Manifested

It says in the Bible that, In the beginning was the word

And before that, what was there? Stillness, nothingness an infinite field of potential.

Then along came a vibration from the void a word. An intention, we could say. And from that, all things were made.

In other words, the creation of the physical universe came out of a vibration occurring in stillness, coming out of emptiness. Talk about making something out of nothing. For lack of a better explanation, astronomers call it the big bang.

With all of this going on, what has happened to that stillness, that infinite field of potential? Absolutely nothing. It is still with us, comfortably resting beneath the creation that came from it. It is the eternal reality behind the mask of the material universe, and our world.

In the field of physics, this has been recognized quite clearly. We now know that what seems to be solid is in every respect nothing but empty space with miniscule points of energy whirling around each other through the emptiness, giving the appearance and sensation of physical matter. Physicality is a product of our perception. This appearance and sensation of the physical is very real, as we all have found out when we have banged into some of that empty physical matter. Yet, we know that it is empty, all the same. Strange, isn't it?

So, even though we seem to have a rather frail and vulnerable existence here on the physical plane, we know there is more to it than that. There is a dynamic involved in all of this that comes from stillness, from emptiness, from eternity. Not only that, we know that there is a great intelligence involved. Can we look at a rose, a butterfly, or any living thing, and say there is no intelligence coming out into expression on this physical plane? To deny an innate intelligence is to deny the obvious. Surely there is a vast intelligence expressing itself everywhere we look. And it comes from within, constantly manifesting from emptiness. Life is truly a miracle!

Einstein said that we can consider everything to be a miracle, or nothing. It makes no sense to be picking and choosing our miracles from this vast and wondrous universe. Either it all is a miracle or none of it is. The Buddha said that if we could see the miracle in a single flower, our view of everything would change. In laymans terms, perhaps a miracle is that which we have not yet taken for granted. Once we fully wake up to the reality around us, nothing is taken for granted anymore.