The JosephYoga Blog

In life I know for sure that one of the secrets is about “desire”. I know that the more you desire the more you can bring into your life. We have to think big — personally and globally! We cannot settle for less. If we think big we will be given big blessings. After all don’t we believe that repeated practiced thought creates reality??? A Kabbalah teacher once told me the story of the Skinny Cow and I thought it was a perfect way to begin 2010:

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Long ago there was poor farmer who lived in a small town on a small farm. He had a humble family and very little money. The farmer also had an old skinny cow in the back yard that they used for milk. During the winter this cow’s milk was all they had to eat. The family lived poor and suffered for years and years with their small bit of milk from their skinny cow. One day a very important town leader came to the farmer’s home and out of respect they fed him dinner. Their guest ate the few crops they had and kept asking for more until he had finally eaten everything the farmer had. After he had eaten all of the farmer’s food, the man asked for even more food. The farmer told the man he had nothing left. But the man didn’t seem to believe the farmer. He stood up and saw the skinny cow in the back yard and told the farmer to slaughter it because he wanted to eat that too! The farmer, knowing that the cow was their only food source for winter, slaughtered the cow with great sadness and dispair. The man ate the cow and left. There sat the family devastated. All the fears came pouring in. What will they eat? What will they do? How can they survive winter? The farmer left the house to take a walk and to think about a solution. He walked deep in the woods and sat down and prayed and cried. Just then a voice came from the sky and told him that he had finally after all these years let go of that skinny cow and now he can have real major blessings in his life! He looked down and saw a box burried in the ground. He dug it up and it was filled with rare diamonds! He and his family were never poor again and lived happily ever after!

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What is your skinny cow? What small desire is keeping your from a bigger ones? What small ego attachment are keeping you from major soul longings?

In 2010 let’s go for it! Let’s let go of small comforts! Small inflexibilities! Small control issues! Small places, people, attitudes and dreams! The Creator is ready to send you diamonds if only you stop clutching stones!

Call 1800 Kabbalah to get in touch with a kabbalah teacher or in the LA area visit 1062 S Robertson on Tuesday or Thursday nights at 7pm for a free introductory class!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Moses, Jesus and Mohammed would all be friends if they went to high school together — Yehuda Berg

Balancing judgement and mercy is hard to do....

One of my favorite lessons my teacher taught me was on the deep
incomprehensible love that the Creator has for humanity.

It is said that the Creator loves us so much that during our Earth School
experience He gives us a “buffer” between cause and effect. What does
this mean? Normally nothing would prevent cause and effect from
occurring in rapid cessation. So if you caused harm to another, we would
immediately feel the consequence. Imagine calling someone a hurtful
name and embarrassing them and then simultaneously being called a
hurtful name by someone and feeling too embarrassed. It’s a wild concept
to think of Earth without this “buffer” between cause and effect. But, the
Creator loves us so much that He wanted us to be able to have a second
chance before we suffer our own effect. This “buffer” or “second chance”
is called Time. Time is the buffer between cause and effect. In this
compassionate system, we can behave egregiously toward our fellow
neighbor and not experience the effect for years or even lifetimes in the
future. In this system, we are able to change our behavior before the
boomerang comes back to hit us. It’s a school system where all the
students are guaranteed to pass.

Now, lets look at our hearts. Often times we care so little for our fellow
man, we have such small hearts and apathy and even hatred for each
other that when we witness a fellow neighbor commit the slightest
transgression, we want instant cause and effect. We want the murdered
killed. The felon convicted. We want the traffic offender ticketed. We
want the cheater to suffer. We want the punishment, not just to
happen but to happen immediately. That’s how little we care for each
other. And this type of hatred for no reason is the root behind our wars,
our tsunamis, our floods, our earthquakes, and our global and individual
chaos.

Gandhi was once almost beaten alive and then refused to prosecute his
assailants. He knew better. He knew that if he sped up the process of
cause and effect for his assailants, he would also experience the same
increase effects in his life from his own actions For our lives are built on
our consciousness. And how we treat others is how we will be treated.

Time = Mercy = Love.

Today, as insurmountable as it seems, give your fellow neighbor Mercy
For No Reason. They do not have to earn it. You give them love just for
being alive. And I promise, without a shadow of a doubt, this love will spill
over to you, like sweet rain from the sky. For learning to love another is
learning to love yourself. We can tell how little you regard yourself by how
you regard others.

The more we travel inwardly, the calmer our seas will be....

Have you seen this commercial? Be on the look out. It’s lurking out there in
TV land ready to offend at any moment. Ready to lull you into robotic
consciousness. Ready to strengthen the bonds of slavery to the senses
and then to top it off charge you and arm and a leg for it! What nerve!

This Viagra commercial honestly makes me very sad. To think that a
group of adult men in their 50’s need to be only satiated by having an
erection and the lack of one is their only problem is insulting, degrading
and out of touch. But we have played right into the hands of drug-dealers
for years. Make no mistake: At the heart of it, Viagra is just as much of a
drug as Cocaine or any other street drug.

What the topic of this commercial raises, so to speak, is the concept of
idol worshipping. Idol Worshipping is a rather archaic term that really
needs to be redefined for accuracy. Idol Worshipping is the unconscious
or conscious choice to have an intermediate between you and the light
force of God. It is the archetype of slave and master. Whenever you
derive energy, power, protection, joy, happiness, wisdom, or any other
energy from any person, place or thing and you believe that this is the
source and extent of this energy you are indeed idol worshipping — you are
idolizing a thing for the energy it gives you and thus greatly shrinking the
power you could potentially receive. In truth, no person, place or thing can
possible possess the full LightForce that the Creator manifests and
because of this when you derive energy from any other source, other than
the God-With-In, you are accepting a huge degradation and reduction of
pure energy in the form of a second rate, second class experience. But
what do you do if you do not know how to connect to the LifeForce of God?
Well you will be left in the dark and Viagra is going to sound pretty good.
So will every other quick fix on the planet. The spiritual person is one who
has a bigger desire than this. The spiritual person would never settle for
the cheap thrill of a drug, vacation spot or roll in the hay — we want much
more that! Often times people in this world go from one bodily pleasure
ride to the next. We go from vacation to vacation, cocktail to cocktail,
week-end to week-end, sexual hook-up to sexual hook-up, high to high,
power gain to power gain. Only to go to work between all these idols to
make more money to feed the cycle all over again! When does it stop?
Death is when it stops. When the body had completely given up and
drained out of years and years of this behavior the games soon comes to a
close. Is this your life? Do you go from day to day looking how to satisfy
the insatiable desires of the body? Is this freedom? Are you walking the
dog or is the dog walking you? Do you want freedom? Do you care?
Many of us don’t care. We are happy to just go from one quick fix to the
next to the day we die. We are happy to settle for just a little joy and never
try or desire to connect to the bigger joy. What if I told you that an orgasm
was 1/60th of the pleasure of a full on connection to the light force of God.
Imagine how much the Viagra people would try to sell that! Sixty times the
joy of an orgasm is what the union of God is like. So when we are
practicing our yoga and spirituality and we are working on uniting with God
it is not done so we can be pious and enlightened people. It is done out of
pure greed! We want the real thing! But you cannot have two masters!
Today, make a choice! Is it the body or the soul??? You cannot choose
both! VIVA YOUR SOUL! You are gonna have to sell this one yourself, for
no pharmaceutical company is every gonna make a commercial about this
drug — the drug of freedom, connection and the union with God is never
sold on TV. It’s only sold inside. Choose wisely.

Heaven Meets Earth

The Law of Attraction promises that a connection will be made when two
forces are similar in nature. We all wish to connect to a higher power. The
entire goal of yoga is to unite with the “supreme one”. The union with the
higher power is thought of as “yoking” which mean to unite. This is where
the word “yoga” comes from — “to yoke.” The Yoga Sutras refer to this
higher power as “The Supreme One” and every philosophy has its on
name for it. We have all heard terms like Hashem, Alah and God. The
Alcoholic Anonymous philosophy refer to this higher power as just that: The
Higher Power. I like this secular term for it includes all religions and beliefs
and I will refer to the supreme one today as the higher power. Regardless
of its name though, I do believe there is just one grand source and we are
all praying and longing for connection to the same source and only our
different languages have created this illusion that we are connecting to
different energies. This illusion is ultimately a tragedy as it causes us to
feel separate and insecure and the ground becomes fertile for wars and
persecution. Although we call God by many different names, the path to
this higher power is similar for all of us. We must all use the law of
attraction. For us to cleave to this higher power we must become more
like it. There is a four step process:

Step 1: Admit that we are in opposition to the energy of the higher power.
This is the hardest step and the most important. Our ego knows that once
we start we will complete our mission so it constructs a lock on the door of
this four step process. This lock is hard to break but it’s vital to our path.
We must admit that we are different to the energy of this higher power
which is why we currently don’t have a constant and strong connection to it.
This for many of us is the willingness we have to start a spiritual practice
like yoga. I am not saying we are horrible people and are sinners. I am not
saying we are not made with the same essence as the higher power either.
I am only saying we must admit that there is a disconnect and therefore a
difference in essence between us and this higher energy.

Step 2: Shut down the energy that is causing the separation. We must
know what we should be before we know what we shouldn’t be. The energy
of the higher power isn’t a secret. We intuitively know what this higher
power is like. For we experience this energy when we are in love, when we
become a parent, when we care for the world, when we feel good and
happy. We know that this higher power has a high vibration because we
have had moments of joy in our life and we know it is a higher quality
energy because of how it makes us feel. But we are not always vessels for
this high energy. We are capable of much much worse. We all have
moments of reactivity, of fear, of hatred and jealousy. Deep inside we
know that parts of us like conflict, wars and lack of human dignity. The
opposite of love is not hate but indifference as Elie Wiesel reminds us. We
also must see that our apathy for the world and its people is also a quality
we possess that needs eradicating. These are the energy patterns that
repels us away from the higher power for the law of attraction states that
like attracts like and unlike things repel. We must stop being unloving,
selfish, hateful, judgemental and self involved. Our yoga postures help
squelch these reactive and body conscious qualities from our being as well
as meditating and deliberate acts of love and sharing. Note that this step
is the ascension towards this higher power. Every small step we take
towards quieting the ego is another step closer to this higher power. This
second step is full of wondrous times and many joys.

Step 3: Fully purge these energies that are unlike the higher power. This
step is different than step two. In step two, we started the process of
stopping these energies. Step three is the complete removal of these
energies. Without a complete release from these reactive, selfish and ego
born energies we will not be enough like the higher power to merge with it.
Devoted daily practice to completely removing our ego through
uncomfortable actions of love and sharing is our medicine for life and our
solution to accomplish step three.

Step 4: Allow the connection. Once our ego has been greatly diminished
we must then allow the connection. We must then allow ourselves to be
loved. We must allow ourselves to receive and connect. But at this point
we have purged our receiving ego nature so greatly that making this
connection it is no longer an act of receiving. Our receiving becomes an
act of sharing because we are now willing to receive so our higher power
can connect to us which is what it has wanted to do from the beginning of
time. In a way we are doing the higher energy of favor by allow the
connection to happen. We let the power connect to us and thus we are
simultaneous sharing and receiving which still insures the laws of attraction
to work. This is called the perfect union since we are connected through
our likeness of energies (sharing) and we get to receive the higher powers
energies at the same time! This is called the union of yoga. Or the Garden
of Eden. Or the energy of being “saved”. Or the concept of being in
Heaven. There as many names of this final union as there are names for
God.

All of great spiritual philosophies promise us beyond our hard work of
conquering our ego lies great bliss when we make our union once again
with the supreme one. We are all on this journey and lets help support
each other. Today, love for no reason. Send mercy to others when they
don’t deserve it. Hate no more. And do your yoga today knowing as you
calm the body down you increase the magnetic attraction between you and
the higher power.

Our power is endless if we connect to the endless....

Often times in this world, people feel the need to hold others up on a
pedestal and give them a larger than life status turning them into something
far greater than who they actually are. It’s not the lifting up of others that
bothers me, its the automatic default mode of lower status the rest of us
become when we separate an elite group or people from of the rest. As if
only a few of us are worthy of praise and love. The rest of us our just
commoners and unimportant is how the thinking goes. But this is not the
truth at all. Everyone one of us is worth knowing and is capable of reaching
great heights of righteousness. We often want to put people high up on
pedestals because then we get the permission to be lazy. We can live a
life unconsciously and devoid of true work if we adopt the belief that only
certain people are destined to greatness and the rest of us are just
hopeless fools who need not apply. We are not forced to idolize anyone —
we run after the opportunity so we can opt out of the game of life and sit on
the sidelines.

Probably my favorites spiritual story of all time is a story that tells of how an
ordinary man can reach heights of extraordinary levels. It shows us that we
are all capable of greatness and everyone of us has this potential within if
we are willing to make the right sacrifices.

One day, a wise old sage was passing through a town he had never
visited before. He was just about to leave the south village of the town
when he noticed the most divine fragrance in the air. He couldn’t believe
what he smelled. It was as sure as the ears and eyes and as strong as
anything he ever knew. The scent was of the Garden of Eden. He had
never in his life experienced the wonder of this scent.

The sage followed the scent to a modest cottage at the foot of the hill
nestled by a small spring. He knocked on the door with great excitement
hoping to find the source of such a wonderful aroma. An old man
answered the door, “May I help you?,” the he said. “I hope so. I know
that in this home is the Garden of Eden and I must find its origin. May I
come in?,” the sage asked. The old man was strong and fearless and felt
no sense of danger so he easily let sage inside. Inside the sage looked
around the entire home and came to a closet. “May I open the closet?,”
he asked. “By all means,” replied the old man. Inside, the sage found
hanging a putrid, molded, frayed, tattered, stained and vile jester suit.
The sage knew this was the source of the Garden of Eden for its sweet
aroma was palpable — it was coming from the suit! The sage
immediately drilled the old man for all information regarding the suit and
the old man relayed the following story:

Years ago, I was living in this very town. The town was quite different back then,
but nevertheless life was good and I had a decent life. I was quite poor though. I
often needed to beg for food and many times never had any food at all. I did
however have many friends. I was blessed with many good friends and I truly did
feel rich. One evening, after a meager dinner, I headed to bed only to be
disrupted by a knock at the door. It was my good friend Noah from town. Noah
appeared to be in trouble. He informed me that his daughter was very ill and she
appeared to be dying and that he needed to pay for his daughter to be
transported to the main city 20 miles north for treatment or else she would die.
Noah came to me to borrow any money that I could possibly spare. I told my
friend that I had nothing myself tonight to hardly eat and unfortunately could offer
no money to him. Noah was devastated. I was his last hope and he knew that
without medical care, his daughter would soon be gone. Now I knew many people
in town and I thought of an idea and told Noah to go home to his daughter and
wait for me and I will get the money he needed. Noah was puzzled but thrilled
and left for home. Without thinking I knew what I had to do. I needed to see the
rich miser who lived at the top of the hillside and I needed to beg him for the
money. I went to the rich miser’s home and knocked on the door. The door was
answered by his servant and I begged to see the rich miser and pleaded for a
chance to speak with him. The servant let me in and showed me to him. I
explained the story about Noah’s dying daughter and asked the miser for money.
Now the old miser lived alone for many years for many reasons. He was a selfish,
mean, cruel and hateful man who hoarded his money and shared with no one.
The miser immediately told me no and demanded me to leave. I fell to my knees
and pleaded and begged for the money. And with this grand gesture, the miser
was inspired to change his mind and decided to have a little fun. “I will give you
the money you need under one condition. Do you see the jester suit hanging?”,
the old miser pointed to an ornate, gaudy and shiny circus like jester suit fit with a
multi pointed hat that hung in the corner of the room. “That suit I purchased
during my travels last week. I was hoping to hire a local fool to entertain me
during my dinners, but I believe you would be just the fool I am looking for. I will
give you the money you need, if you put the suit on and enter ever pub in town
and make a fool of yourself. Jump on the tables, yell — do everything possible to
get kicked out. And do that in every pub and when you return I will give you the
money you need.” I remember feeling ill and I felt as if my face turned white. The
prospect of doing what the miser asked frightened me, but I remembered Noah
and his daughter and I knew I had to do it. So I put the suit on and left the
house headed for the first pub. On the outside of my body was the shiny and
circus like jester suit complete with a multi pointed hat. And on the inside of my
body was fear filling my bones and sickness in my stomach. What greeted me as
I entered the first pub was an onslaught of laughter. Patrons heckled and called
me names. I jumped on the table tops and jumped across the bar inflaming
everyone with rage and anger. I was beat up. I was kicked. I was spat on. I had
food thrown at me. And I ultimately was kicked out on the street. It was an awful
experience and I felt I couldn’t endure it again. But, I remembered my dear friend
Noah who needed my help and knew what I had to do. I visited a total of ten bars
that night. In each bar patrons kicked me Beat me. Spat on me, threw food and
ultimately threw me out on the street. After the tenth bar, I hobbled back to the
miser’s home. The miser was waiting for me and he began to laugh with such
amusement after laying his eyes on me, “You are the town fool after all!” I stood
there dripping with blood, food, dirt and defilement. I was bleeding and the suite
was torn to shreds. “I have never so thoroughly enjoyed myself. Here take the
money, it was worth it,” the miser said to me as he handed me the money and he
too kicked me out. Suddenly, through all the pain and humiliation, I didn’t care. I
knew I had gotten the money for my friend and somehow it was all worth it. I
couldn’t deliver the money to Noah personally, I was too beaten. Instead I got a
child to deliver the money to Noah and I decided to go home. When I arrived
home I fell to the ground and passed out. And that is the story behind that suit
you see in the closet. I kept the suite to remind myself that if we are willing to
sacrifice ourselves a bit, we can probably make anything happen. Noah’s
daughter was sent to the near by city and got her treatment and survived. What I
did was worth it. She is now grown and is a mother and a wife and I am the
godfather to her five children. Noah and I have been very close since then and
have become the closest of friends. I feel truly rich in life. I am happy and joyful
and feel loved.”

The old man finished the story and realized the sage was in tears. “This
is truly the most beautiful story I have ever heard and now I see how this
suit has the scent of the Garden of Eden”, the sage said. “I have met in
my life many great people. Popes, bishops, priests, rabbis, scholars,
author and leaders, but till today I have never met a truly righteous man
like you. I see you have a place in the world to come.” The sage
thanked the old man for his time and story and left, taking with him the
awesome lesson that anyone of us can reach greatness when we are
willing to make a sacrifice for another person. The sage now saw that true
spirituality is taking responsibility for others and when we are willing to do
this anyone can be righteous.