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Die Weisheit eines Yogi: Wie innere Veränderung wirklich möglich ist

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There often comes a moment in people s lives when full stops fall away,Question marks surface.And commas,Vast yawning commas.This is the point at which the individual becomes a seeker.This is a book for seekers.It encompasses the gamut of questions restless,fevered,desperate that have arisen in every seeker s mind at some point or the other.Questions about fear,desire,suffering,commitment,free will,determinism,God,faith,love, morality,self-deception,doubt,the spiritual path,the mind,the body,disease,healing,madness,death,dissolution.And more. The answers are by Sadhguru,a living master and profound mystic of our times.Unshakably anchored in inner experience,he remains unaffiliated to any organized religions,sectarian or ideological tradition.Forthright,witty, unconventional,provovative,but deeply compassionate,these answers were shared with close disciples over a period of ten years on various occasions.Spanning a variety of subjects that he seldom addresses otherwise in public,these words were spoken to foster the growth of a few who had been with him for a long time.The tone is intimate,the cadence conversational,the context specific.And this is the book s strength.Seekers of every culture and persuasion will find themselves turning from eavesdroppers to participants from the very first page.For the answers carry the unmistakable ring of authenticity,the deep clarity and wisdom of one who knows what it means to seek.And to know.And just how to map the arduous,often interminable,journey in between.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

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About the author

Sadhguru

151 books3,394 followers
Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic and visionary. Named one of India's 50 most influential people, Sadhguru's work has touched the lives of millions worldwide through his transformational programs. Sadhguru has a unique ability to make the ancient yogic sciences relevant to contemporary minds. His approach does not ascribe to any belief system but offers methods for self-transformation that are both proven and powerful.

An internationally renowned speaker and author​ of the New York Times Bestseller Inner Engineering, A Yogi's Guide to Joy, Sadhguru has been an influential voice at major global forums including the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, addressing issues as diverse as socioeconomic development, leadership and spirituality. He has also been invited to speak at leading educational institutions, including Oxford, London Business School, IMD, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Wharton and MIT. In February 2017, Sadhguru was the recipient of the Padma Vibhushan Award by the Government of India, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.

Dedicated to the physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing of humanity and gifted with utter clarity of perception, Sadhguru possesses a perspective on life that never fails to intrigue, challenge and surprise all those he encounters. Sadhguru established Isha Foundation, a non-profit, volunteer-run organization operating in more than 300 centers and supported by over 11 million volunteers worldwide. Through powerful yoga programs for inner transformation and inspiring social outreach initiatives, Isha Foundation has created a massive movement dedicated to addressing all aspects of human wellbeing.

Sadhguru has also initiated several projects for social revitalization, education and the environment through which millions of people have been given the means to overcome poverty, improve their quality of life and achieve community-based, sustainable development.

In the fall of 2017, Sadhguru initiated Rally For Rivers, a nationwide campaign aiming to implement sustainable and long-term policy changes to revitalize India's severely depleted rivers, which found great support among India's people and leadership. With over 162 Million individuals pledging their support, Rally for Rivers is the largest ecological movement in the world to date. In the fall of 2019, Sadhguru launched Cauvery Calling, a uniquely modelled project that focuses on enhancing farmer wealth while simultaneously impacting river flow and riverine ecosystems. It will enable farmers in the Cauvery basin spanning Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, to plant 2.42 billion trees.

In the United States, Isha Foundation is headquartered at the Isha Institute of Inner-sciences in the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee, Isha Institute is established as infrastructure for raising human consciousness and offers a variety of programs that provide methods for anyone to explore and experience the yogic science in its full depth.

About Sadhguru: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_co...

Visit - https://sadhguru.org/karma

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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
Profile Image for Nandakishore Mridula.
1,352 reviews2,697 followers
March 16, 2020
Load of tripe. Metaphysical mumbo-jumbo. Mystical balderdash spat out by a shameless charlatan to delude a gullible public.

Detailed review coming!

***

This gentleman, Jaggi Vasudev (who calls himself "Sadhguru") is in the news nowadays in India, as a sort of spiritual spokesperson for the Modi administration. He's apparently an encyclopaedia on all matters under the sun, from medicine to technology to politics to history. The fact that his purportedly learned but apparently nonsensical statements support the BJP's Hindu majoritarian narrative has helped him garner official recognition.

Some of my educated friends also talked in glowing terms about Isha Foundation, the spiritual organisation set up by this guy. So I decided to check out what he was all about. This book seemed a good starting point as any other.

At the outset, let me state: I am a confirmed sceptic. I do not believe in the non-materialistic world, and spirituality I consider effective only in the sense how it can liberate the mind. So any such book will have its work cut out in impressing me - which, unfortunately, this book was unable to do. It's basically preaching to the choir, and one will be impressed only if one believes in the pranic body and karmic influences and all that sort of metaphysical poppycock.

This is a set of questions and answers, collected over a period of time, from the disciples to their guru. It is divided into four chapters: "The Seeker's Predicament", highlighting the concerns of the disciples; "With the One Who Knows", showcasing the skills of the guru; "The Only Bondage", which explains the bondage of karma; and "Body's Plight", describing the nuances of the material and occult bodies. It aims to be light and pithy, but it ends up being didactic and boring.

First of all, the guru never provides a straight answer - he goes off on tangents, talking about everything under the sun, repeating and sometimes contradicting himself, rehashing concepts from the Bhagvad Gita, the Upanishads and the corpus of the teachings of the Buddha. (He brings in Jesus for good measure, too.) Also, he narrates a lot of humorous stories one usually hears in talks by motivational speakers, which are often irrelevant to the subject at hand but squeezed in and somehow forcibly made to connect. (Maybe when he says them, people laugh - but on paper they fall flat.)

The first two chapters, though unimpressive to a sceptic, are sort of passable - even without a central focus, and despite the glorification of "guru-dom". However, from the third chapter onwards, the narrative lapses into the worst kind pseudoscience-spirituality cocktail, and it gets progressively worse. Let me share some nuggets of wisdom.
Similarly, your karma makes you settle down in some particular womb, with those kinds of tendencies and with those kinds of attributes. Somewhere, there are millions of beings waiting for this. One half is there, it has to find the other half. It just finds a suitable plug and somehow gets notched up. It’s not that this person is named for that person. This is not the way it works. It’s just like the way many things settle down in certain ways, beings also settle down according to their attributes and tendencies. That’s all it is.
That is, all kids are rebirths of karmic bodies which have been looking for places to settle.
Now if a very powerful situation is created, certain creatures become aware of something more than their physical body. The three animals that are very capable of doing this are a cow, a snake and a crow. You know they told you, if your father dies or your grandfather dies you must feed the cow, the snake or the crow. This is because these are three creatures that are capable of a little awareness if a powerful situation is created, not otherwise.
Only these three animals, it seems, can have self-awareness other than human beings. There is more:
See, if you have to eat some animal for food, if you have to kill some animal and eat it, even towards that you should have compassion; there is no doubt about it. Even for a rudimentary man, the snake and cow have been a taboo only because these are the compulsory steps in the process of evolution of the soul. It should not matter; if you have the same compassion for everybody, but if you are a rudimentary man who kills, you spare at least these two animals, because they are potential human beings. It’s like killing a man; it is so close...

...In the Indian tradition, the laws were fixed like this: if you kill a human being it’s murder; if you kill a cow it’s murder; if you kill a snake, it’s also murder. That was how it was fixed, but they could not fix a law to say that anything you kill is murder, because the need to kill was there, maybe for man’s survival, for his food. Now the cow is one animal that has human emotions. A cow will shed tears when you have suffering in you. People have very deep relationships with cows in India, and snakes are very sensitive to certain types of energies. Wherever there are meditative situations, or rituals are performed, snakes are drawn there.
Somehow, the crow gets missed out here.
Charles Darwin told you that you were all monkeys, your tail fell off and you became human. When you were a monkey, you did not desire to become human. Nature just pushed you on with your evolution. Once you are in this human form, you can only evolve consciously. Unconscious evolution is over for you...

...All the process, all the steps in Darwin’s theory are not essential for the being to evolve, but these two forms, the cow and the snake, are significant steps in the evolution of the being.
Darwin didn't exactly say monkeys evolved into humans, but it is a common enough misconception among laymen. But the snake and the cow being essential steps in the evolution of being are totally against all scientific principles.

I could go on quoting. The guru talks of a black hole being at the centre of human existence; also of karmic bodies hovering in space and entering into unborn foetuses forty days after conception (so abortions are apparently okay before that); and about how the pranic entities hover over dead bodies, looking for a way in (that is why apparently the toes of the dead body are tied, so that the entity does not enter through the rectal cavity... this and much, much more. So much so that as a scientifically-minded person, the reading became a torture for me after some time.

But the really worrying thing here is not the pseudoscience. It is the adulation the guru gets, and his own assertions, time and again, of his omnipotence.
The reason why there has always been so much importance and stress in this culture on a Guru is that without a Guru there can be no spiritual process. Without him you cannot transform yourself.

Maybe I have to tell you this at this point; I have initiated more people I have not met than people I have met; that is the reality. When someone really longs, I initiate them, wherever they may be, when the longing is deep enough to receive me.

Yes. Many people who were connected to me in some way over three hundred and seventy years ago, not only those who supported us, but even those who persecuted us, who tormented us, are somehow mostly in Coimbatore today. All of them are not our meditators, but they are with us. It is like that. That is the way life functions.

Many of you are still in that state where, if you were simply told something, even if it’s the best thing for you, you would get a little irritated because you still have your own personality, your own will, your own privacy and whatnot. So when I talk to you, I talk as if I am asking, but actually I am really telling you. Even if somebody tells you what is best for you, you will resist because they are telling you, so I make it appear as if I am asking. All this is unnecessary. If your surrendering is total, this is unnecessary. For a rare few, I just say, “You have no choice, you come.”

The only thing is, you need trust to hand yourself over so completely.
This absolute surrender to the guru is characteristic of a cult.

It also seems that he has performed some miracles (though he pooh-poohs the term, always trying to depict it in karmic terms) where he has apparently healed patients, in one case even coughing up "buckets of blood" by transferring the disease to himself. This, to me, smacks of charlatanry.

Conclusion: this so-called Sadhguru is a spiritual con-man who has insinuated himself into the good offices of India's far-right Hindu government. In the coming days, he might gain more and more prominence and power in a country which is on the fast track to a majoritarian dictatorship. Dangerous.
Profile Image for Meghana.
241 reviews58 followers
February 4, 2022
Often hilarious, sometimes irreverent, and always delightful, this Q&A format book presents the very best of Sadhguru's wit and wisdom. As a spiritual leader who eschews mindless rituals and encourages logical thinking, he is a refreshing change from what most people associate with the word 'Guru.'

This is a great book for those who're seeking answers, straight from a guru with the mind of a scientist. He never takes himself too seriously, always interspersing his answers with jokes and anecdotes, and he never fails to impress. I recently underwent Sadhguru's Inner Engineering program and am a new practitioner of Isha Yoga, so this book is an extremely valuable resource for me- it helped me clear doubts and misconceptions I didn't even know I had.

Whether you're a spiritual seeker or just looking for an entertaining read that will leave you thinking, there is something in this book for everyone.
6 reviews1 follower
November 17, 2016
This is just the exact half of the Mystics Musings book which I enjoyed the most.

Do not buy this book if you have already read or haves copy of Mystics Musings
Profile Image for Eva Keiffenheim.
117 reviews83 followers
March 4, 2020
Erster Teil

Mindset "ich weiß nicht" ist das einzige Tor zum Wissen. Ohne jedes Motiv auf Dinge schauen. Unser logischer Verstand ist zwar in bestimmten Situationen nützlich, aber grundsätzlich zu beschränkt. Jeder Mensch trägt eine Sehnsucht nach Grenzenlosigkeit in sich.

Verschiedene Gefühlszustände
- Körper angenehm = Gesundheit
- Körper sehr angenehm = Wohligkeit
- Geist angenehm= Frieden
- Geist sehr angenehm = Freude
- Emotionen angenehm = Liebe
- Emotionen sehr angenehm = Mitgefühl
- Lebensenergie angenehm = Glücklichsein
- Lebensenergie sehr angenehm = Ekstase
- Wird die Umgebung angenehm = Erfolg

Technologie verschafft ein komfortables Leben, aber kein Wohlbefinden. Das woran wir Mangel leiden, erscheint uns als höchstes Ziel. "Das eigene Schicksal zu gestalten bedeutet nicht, jede Situation auf der Welt zu beherrschen. Es bedeutet, dass du dich stetig auf das eigene Wohlergehen und deine eigentliche Natur zubewegst, egal, was das Leben um dich herum mit sich bringt." Wohlbefinden erlangen durch Körper, Geist und Energie.

Verantwortlichkeit = Fähigkeit bewusst zu reagieren. Verantwortlichkeit und Agieren gehören zu verschiedenen Dimensionen. Die Fähigkeit bewusst zu reagieren, verleiht dir die Freiheit zu handeln, aber auch die Freihheit nicht zu handeln. Tolle Affirmation auf S. 80

Die Wissenschaft des Yoga ist die Wissenschaft, in absoluter Harmonie und vollständiger Übereinstimmung mit dem Leben zu sein.


Zweiter Teil
Innerer Natur Aufmerksamkeit schenken, wird Lebensqualität in bemerkenswerter Weise transformieren. Vor dem Einschlafen aufmerksam schenken, was man für sich selbst hält. Bewusst Schlussfolgerungen des "selbst" ziehen lassen. Nichtidentifikation.

Es ist wichtig, ein gewisses Maß an Mühe und Zeit aufzuwenden, um dafür zu sorgen, dass der Körper nicht zur Barriere wird. Ein schmerzender Körper kann ebenso ein Hindernis darstellen wie ein von Zwängen beherrschter Körper. Körper geschmedig und freudig <3 Zusammensetzung des Körpers bestimmt Qualität der Lebenserfahrung. Täglich aufgerichtete Wirbelsäule. Jeder Mensch hat ein unterschiedliches Wahrnehmungsniveau. Menschlichen Atem verlangsamen, zwölf Atemzüge / minute. Bewusste Wahrnehmung dessen.

Nahrung/Essen
Gehirn arbeitet dann optimal, wenn Magen leer ist. Mehr Energie, Lebendigkeit und Wachheit durch max 3 Mahlzeiten am Tag. Was man isst, hat eine gewaltige Wirkung darauf, welchen Körper ich aufbaue. Was wir in unserern Körper stecken, bestimmt welche Qualität er hat und wie wohl er sich mit sich fühlt. Was und wie du isst, entscheidet nicht nur über deine körperliche Gesundheit, sondern auch darüber, wie du denkst, empfindest und das Leben erlebst. Nehmen wir naturbelassene Nahrungsmittel in ungekochtem Zustand zu uns, so verschaffen wir dem Organismus ein enormes Gefühl von Gesundheit und Vitalität. Bei der Nahrungsaufnahme geht es um den Körper. Frage daher deinen Körper, nicht deinen Gaumen, bei welcher Art Nahrung er sich am wohlsten fühlt. Das ist immer das ideale Essen für dich. Sobald sich deine Körperwahrnehmung verbesser hat, wirst du genau wissen, was ein bestimmtes Nahrungsmittel mit dir macht. An manchen Tagen möchte der Körper garkein Essen, höre hinein. Fastentag = Reinigungstag. Wenn du sehr hungrig bist, dann bist du der Körper. Schaffe ein wenig Raum, dann bist du plötzlich nicht nur ein Körper. Verzichte auf eine Mahlzeit an einem Tag, wenn du besonders hungrig bist. Dissoziation vom eigenen Körper. Ausbrechen aus zwanghaften Mustern. Essen nicht aus dem Kopf heraus entscheiden, sondern aus dem Bauch. Körper entscheiden lassen, wieviel er essen will. Körper entscheiden lassen, wieviel er schlafen möchte. Sobald er erwacht, ist er fit und ausgeruht.

behandle deinen Körper so, dass er sich nicht danach sehnt das Leben zu vermeiden oder davor zu flüchten. Sorge so für ihn, dass er sich danach sehnt aufzuwachen.

Geist
Wenn man das Leben in seiner Fülle erfahren möchte, braucht man mehr als seinen Intellekt. Gedanken ziehen lassen. Yoga -> gesteigerte Klarheit & Wahrnehmung. Je mehr man sich in Gedanken vertieft, desto freudloser wird man. Vielen Menschen geht die Fähigkeit zu lächeln verloren, je mehr sie denken.
"Liebe ist eine Seinsqualität. Nicht etwas, das man mit jemand anderem tut."
Schmerz ist nicht dasselbe wie Leid. Schmerzen sind schon schlimm genug, warum sollte man sie noch schlimmer machen, indem man leidet?

Die Qualität deines Lebens entscheidet sich dadurch, wie du dein Leben erfährst nicht dadurch, was es dir bietet.

-> Krya Yoga

Samadhi = Zustand der Gelassenheit und des Gleichmuts
Kundalini = Energie


This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Barack Liu.
600 reviews20 followers
March 25, 2025

562-Essential wisdom from a spiritual master-Sadhguru-Philosophy-2008

Barack
March 24th , 2024

Essential wisdom from a spiritual master, first published in 2008. This is a book for seekers. It covers the restless, feverish, desperate questions that arise in every seeker's mind at some point. Questions about fear, desire, pain, commitment, free will, determinism, God, faith, love, morality, self-deception, doubt, the spiritual path, the mind, the body, illness, healing, madness, death, disintegration. And much more.

Sadhguru was born in Mysore, Mysore State, India in 1957. His representative works include Inner Engineering, Dhyanalinga, Rally for Rivers, Linga Bhairavi, Adiyogi: The Source of Yoga, Mystic's Musings, Cauvery Calling.

He is an Indian guru and the founder of the Isha Foundation, which is based in Coimbatore, India. Founded in 1992, the foundation operates an ashram and yoga center and carries out educational and spiritual activities. Sadhguru has been teaching yoga since 1982. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Happiness and Karma: A Yogi’s Guide to Creating Your Destiny, and is a frequent speaker at international forums.

Sadhguru is also an advocate for protecting the environment and combating climate change and has led many initiatives such as Project Green Hands (PGH), Rally for Rivers, Kaveri Call and Save the Soil Journey. In 2017, he received the Padma Bhushan, India’s second highest civilian award, for his contributions to spiritual and humanitarian service.

At 25, after a series of spiritual experiences, he closed his business and began traveling and teaching yoga. Vasudev and his wife Vijay Kumari
He gave his first yoga class in Mysore in 1983. He started travelling across Karnataka and Hyderabad on his motorcycle, running his own yoga classes, called Sahaja Sthiti Yoga, making ends meet from renting out his poultry farm and donating the money raised by his students.

Additionally, in 2017, Sadhguru inaugurated the world’s largest bust, the Adiyogi Shiva statue, in Coimbatore, India.

Although Vasudev did not grow up in a spiritual family, he remembers his first spiritual experience after he turned 25. On September 23, 1982, while driving up the Chamundi Hills and sitting on a rock, Vasudev had his first spiritual experience. He explains, "My whole life I thought, this is me...but now, the air I breathe, the rock I sit on, the atmosphere around me - everything has become me." About six days later, Vasudev had a similar experience at home. Six weeks later, he quit his job and traveled around, trying to gain insight into his spiritual experiences. After about a year of meditation and travel, he decided to teach yoga to share his inner experiences.

In 1992, Sadhguru founded the Isha Foundation as a platform for his spiritual, environmental and educational activities. In 1993, he began looking for a location to set up an ashram to cater to the growing interest in his yoga classes. In 1994, he purchased land near the Vellingiri Hills in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, and inaugurated the Isha Yoga Center. He has been the head of the Isha Foundation since its inception. The activities of the Foundation are mainly managed by volunteers. The organization offers yoga classes, called Isha Yoga.

Opening the eyes, or simply opening the eyes, is a religious act in Taoism and Han Buddhism. The ceremony generally involves chanting various mantras, scriptures or auspicious words, and sometimes even using a cinnabar pen to point at the statues or artworks.

Taoism uses specific rituals to invite spirits to enter statues or religious artworks with their spiritual power, and the person in charge is usually a Taoist priest. Chinese Buddhist monks also perform opening ceremonies to invite Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to bless with their divine power.

Adiyogi is the first yogi.

Shiva (Sanskrit: शिव , Ś iva ), one of the three main gods of Hinduism, is one of the most revered gods by Hindus, along with Brahma and Vishnu. The followers of the Shiva sect worship him as the highest god, with eight incarnations of earth, water, fire, wind, space, sun, moon, and sacrifice. His spouse is the goddess Parvati (incarnation: Kali and Durga), his sons are Ganesha and Srila, and his daughter is Asura. Shiva is the god of the universe and destruction. In Indian philosophy, "destruction" means "rebirth", so he also plays the role of creation (transformation). His prototype comes from Deva "Rudra" in the Vedic classic "Vedas".

After this deity was absorbed into Buddhism, he became a saint who lived in the Akanistha Heaven. In Mahayana Buddhism, he is regarded as a saint who resides in the land of Dharma Clouds. Some Buddhist scriptures call him Mahesvara , who lives at the top of the realm of form and is the master of the three thousand realms. Later, he became the "Great Black Heaven" ( Mahākāla ) among the guardians of Tantric Buddhism .

Table of Contents
1. Seeker's predicament
2. With the one who knows
3. The only bondage
4. Body's plight


The origin of my reading this book is also quite interesting. My roommate has been practicing yoga for two or three years , so I bought Sadhguru's book " Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy " as a birthday gift for him. He then gave me this book. The yoga interpreted by Sadhguru is closer to a philosophy, or even a religious concept. This kind of yoga is more concerned with how we understand the relationship between matter and spirit? How to understand the world, and how to understand ourselves? When we were young, we rarely thought about these abstract things. Why? Because at that time our desires were very simple and easy to satisfy, and we rarely felt powerless. However, as we grow up, we begin to experience the impermanence of life, birth, aging, illness and death, and the inability to love. We even learn to cherish only after losing it. The regrets brought by these experiences make us gradually realize the fragility of life and feel our own insignificance and powerlessness. Therefore, deep in our hearts, we urgently need a sustenance, a belief, or even a spiritual pillar to support us.

We are always filled with various fears and insecurities. For example, we applied for a credit card but were rejected, so all the plans we had previously envisioned were ruined; we added the person we liked on WeChat, carefully edited the message and sent it, but the other party did not reply at all, which made us fall into anxiety and self-doubt; at the end of the month, after receiving the salary and paying all the bills, we found that we could not save a penny, which followed with deep uneasiness and anxiety. So, when everything goes smoothly and meets our expectations, can we really get inner peace? Maybe, but reality tells us that such a situation of complete control over everything is rare. In fact, if our sense of security must be based on the basis of controlling the situation, we may never be able to truly feel inner peace and satisfaction. Therefore, we need to focus on the existence beyond the material level, that is, our inner spirit or mind. We need to free our mind from excessive dependence and restraint on external reality, which is exactly the wisdom emphasized by Sadhguru. In fact, it is not just Sadhguru, many other religions and philosophical schools have repeatedly emphasized this point - that is, the human soul is often imprisoned in a small body, and the joys, sorrows, anger, and happiness, and various sensory experiences produced by the body further affect and limit our emotions, making it impossible for us to gain true inner freedom. Therefore, we must realize that the body is only a temporary residence for the soul, and we are only temporarily living in it. It is not important whether it is possible to apply for a credit card; it is not important whether the person you like is interested in you; even the level of income is not that important. What we really should spend more time paying attention to and realizing are those things that transcend the body and the material level, so that we can gain true inner freedom.

Overall, this book is mainly presented in the form of "quotations", and the content is mainly Sadhguru's answers to believers' questions. In fact, this form of question-and-answer dialogue has been adopted in many classic works of religion or philosophy, perhaps to express ideas more clearly, or to guide readers to think deeply on their own. In one paragraph of the book, Sadhguru quoted a Christian saying about "Love your neighbor". He pointed out that it is actually easy to love God because you don't really need to pay anything for it; but it is difficult to truly love the people around you because you need to take practical actions. There is a joke that says, are you willing to donate 10,000 cows to the country? You may answer yes very readily, because in fact you don't have 10,000 cows at all. But if you are asked if you are willing to donate a cow to the country? You may hesitate or even refuse, because you really own this cow. This is the huge gap between ideal and reality. Sadhguru also mentioned another point worth pondering, that is, as long as a person has a strong desire and sincerely seeks the truth, direction, or spiritual mentor of life, then he will eventually find the answer. Many times, we always behave like "Ye Gong loves dragons": we say how much we want something, but in fact we are not willing to really make an effort. Even when this thing really comes to us, we may have an evasive mentality. When I heard the story of "Ye Gong loves dragons" when I was a child, I thought it was incredible, but now looking back at our own lives, we find that we repeat this behavior pattern almost every day. Going further, Sadhguru also emphasized that when a person's inner desire is strong enough, "God" will definitely respond to him. This made me think: Is the reason why we don't get what we want now because our inner desire is far from strong enough? So, what kind of desire can be called strong enough?

Each of us may need a mentor - and not just in a specific aspect, but in every area of life. We need a mentor in spiritual practice, a coach in fitness, and a mentor in career development, because we are always confused, always trapped in the bondage of ourselves, and cannot see more possibilities in our hearts. We will hesitate, doubt, and be picky. Even when we have something, we will still worry: "Is what I have now the best? Will there be better things in the future?" Because of this, we always don't know how to cherish the things in front of us. Although we have eyes, we are often blind; although we have ears, we are often deaf; although we have a heart, we are always blinded by our own obsession. At this time, a mentor becomes particularly important. He will guide us to withdraw from ourselves, get rid of inherent limitations, jump out of narrow perspectives, and see a wider world and more possibilities. And this kind of mentor does not necessarily have to be Sadhguru like the seekers in the book. Every flower, grass, brick and tile in this world may become our mentor; an ordinary and inconspicuous person can also become a guide in our lives. We are used to paying attention only to those who have outstanding achievements on paper, but forget that everyone and everything may give us valuable inspiration. In the final analysis, what is really important is that our hearts should be open enough and not close ourselves easily.

Sadhguru talked about his explanation of disease in the book: when our body and mind cannot get enough rest, or when the body itself does not know how to rest, disease will appear. He gave a very vivid example: suppose three people all suffer from asthma. The first person's disease is entirely due to his body not being able to rest; the second person's asthma is partly caused by the body's inability to rest, and the other part is due to the retribution of cause and effect karma; and the third person's disease is entirely caused by cause and effect karma. Therefore, the first person learned how to truly rest through yoga practice, and his asthma was naturally cured. The second person could only get partial relief, and the third person's disease did not improve because yoga could not completely resolve his karma because the disease was purely caused by cause and effect. This view may be very difficult to understand from the perspective of modern medicine. Because in the modern medical system, if we want to explore disease and health, we must spend many years learning professional knowledge before we can make judgments and treatments on specific diseases. However, when we look at these issues from the perspective of spiritual practice, it seems completely different. Spiritual teachers like Sadhguru seem to have an answer to all the world's problems - whether it is life and death, healing, or miracles, it seems that everything can be explained at the spiritual level. Modern medicine has a strict division of labor. For example, people who study internal medicine cannot make professional comments on surgical matters, and people who study ophthalmology cannot guide dentists' treatment plans. But spiritual practice does not seem to follow this professional boundary. It is more like a holistic vision that can respond to all the questions and confusions in human hearts at the same time. Humans seem to be born with a kind of awe for these supernatural and weird things. Can we simply regard this phenomenon as a kind of human imagination? However, this so-called "imagination" is surprisingly real, sometimes even more real than what we think is reality. Humans often have real emotions, such as joy, fear and emotion, because of their own fictional stories and beliefs. So do animals also have such emotional experiences caused by fiction? Our civilization is essentially built on a collective fictional narrative, so what about the animal world?

Profile Image for Bhakta Kishor.
286 reviews47 followers
July 26, 2020
So many tricks that your body and mind carry out on a daily basis look like “the thing” at that moment. After some time, you look back and see, they were actually not very good. You could have done better without them. There are so many things like this. And we have created a whole social hype that you are supposed to get excited about everything new, everything you do for the first time – you are not supposed to look through anything.

So, like someone said, experience is like a comb that you find when you lost all your hair, or there is a vernacular saying that you find nuts to eat when all your teeth are gone. Nuggets of wisdom fall upon you when they are digging your grave. No, they must fall now. When you are young, when you are healthy, when life is ahead of you, not just nuggets, a torrent of wisdom should fall upon you. If this has to happen, there is no other way than to bring clarity to your perception. If you don’t do enough work to bring clarity of perception then wisdom is an accident. If there is no clarity of perception, you will see things the way they are not.

Once you see things the way they are not, unknowingly, you will live a ridiculous life. Ten people may have joined your party, all doing the same silly things and you all may feel it is the right thing – but one day, you will know. I only hope that day is not the last day of your life. Even if you only had three days left, you could at least enjoy wisdom for three days.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Profile Image for Nina Eberhard.
351 reviews2 followers
December 30, 2019
Das Buch beinhaltet das was man erwartet. Nicht mehr und nicht weniger. Wer sich vom alleinigen Lesen irgendeine Erleuchtung erhofft, der ist natürlich auf dem Holzweg. Aber das habe ich auch gar nicht erst erwartet. Ich wusste, worauf ich mich einlasse und bin deshalb umso zufriedener. Schöne Geschichten, sympathischer Yogi. :)
Profile Image for Roger Rohner.
121 reviews1 follower
February 24, 2025
Das Buch erörtert die theoretischen Grundlagen des Yoga.
Es enthält kleinere, mentale Übungsanleitungen, aber kein eigentliches Yoga Training im körperlichen Bereich.
Das Buch enthält durchaus erhellende Einsichten und wertvolle Anregungen, schweift aber gelegentlich auch in eher metaphysische bzw. esotherische Bereiche ab.
97 reviews
June 1, 2025
Hat interessante Passagen, einige Einsichten kann ich mitnehmen. Allerdings war ich auch genervt und kann viele negative Bewertungen des Buchs nachvollziehen, auch wenn ich die Worte im Buch nicht so verteufeln würde. Mit einem gesunden Abstand an die Sache zu gehen, ist dennoch ratsam.
212 reviews3 followers
August 11, 2023
Good summary of spiritual concepts and some nice stories. All with a gentle smile
Profile Image for Ines.
70 reviews
June 22, 2020
- Ursprung und Basis deiner Erfahrungen befinden sich in deinem Innern. Das menschliche Dasein wird zwar von äußeren Situationen stimuliert oder katalysiert, aber der Ursprung liegt innen. Leid und Vergnügen, Freude und Kummer, Qual und Ekstase, alles geschieht nur in uns selbst.

- Trotzdem werdet ihr mich nie bekümmert durch die Gegend gehen sehen, weil mein Zustand in keiner Weise an etwas gekettet ist, was außerhalb von mir geschieht.

- Wenn du das nächste Mal beim Essen sitzt, sprichst du in den ersten fünfzehn Minuten mit niemandem. Du reagierst einfach aktiv und bewusst auf das, was du isst, auf die Luft, die du atmest, und auf das Wasser, das du trinkst.

- Um zu Wohlbefinden zu gelangen, brauchst du also nur eine gewisse Beherrschung der drei Dimensionen Körper, Geist und Energie.

- Wenn es schlicht ums Überleben geht, kannst du essen, was du willst. Aber sobald das Überleben gesichert ist und du eine Wahl hast, ist es wichtig, dass du dich bewusst ernährst und nicht von den Zwängen des Gaumens geleitet wirst, sondern von der grundlegenden Beschaffenheit deines Körpers.

- Die Essenz von Yoga ist nur dieses – an den Moment zu gelangen, in dem ein deutlich erkennbarer Raum zwischen dir und deinem Geist besteht.

- Sitze eine Stunde einfach alleine da. Keine Lektüre, kein Fernsehen, kein Telefon, keine Kommunikation, nichts. Falls du feststellst, dass du wiederholt an Menschen oder Dinge denkst, so identifizierst du dich hauptsächlich mit deinem Körper. Denkst du daran, was du gerne in der Welt tun würdest, so identifizierst du dich hauptsächlich mit deinem Geist.

- Versuche, den Übergang zwischen Wachsein und Schlaf bewusst wahrzunehmen. Diese Übung kannst du im Bett durchführen.

- Wenn du alleine auf der Erde wärst, was würdest du dir dann wünschen? Stelle dir diese Frage und sieh, wohin sie dich führt.

- Indem du dich mit geöffneten Augen zwölf bis achtundvierzig Minuten lang auf einen Punkt konzentrierst, der sich fünfzehn bis dreiundzwanzig Zentimeter vor dem Bereich zwischen deinen Augenbrauen befindet, kannst du die Natur und Struktur deiner einzelnen Chakren erkennen (je nach Dauer und Konzentrationsniveau).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Wolfgang Nitzsche.
30 reviews1 follower
July 22, 2019
Viele sehr allgemeine Aussagen, sicherlich richtig und wertvoll. Aber nur sehr wenige wirklich umsetzbare Hinweise/Übungen...Erst kurz vor Buchende kommen viele Hinweise auf interessante Aspekte, ohne jedoch wirklich noch etwas auszusagen. Ich denke jedes Yoga-/Qi-Gong/Meditations-Übungsbuch bringt den interessierten Leser mehr Wissen und mehr Hilfe. Aber ganz nett geschrieben, für Leute die etwas zur Entspannung suchen...
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