June 21 was declared International Yoga Day by UN Resolution 69/131 in Dec. 2014
By Eileen Fleming
The word ‘yoga’ means to unite.
The practice of Yoga as a physical, mental and spiritual practice originated in India 5,000 years ago and focused on breathing, meditation and stillness.
The yoga positions/poses/asanas that are practiced in the West are less than 100 years old!
UN resolution 69/131 stresses “the importance of individuals and populations making healthier choices and following lifestyle patterns that foster good health.”
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated in his address at the 69th session of the UN General Assembly, Yoga is not just about exercise; it is a way to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and the nature.
The practice of Yoga will unite thought and action in harmony and “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”– Mahatma Gandhi
In the 20th century Paramahansa Yogananda, taught about universal Christ Consciousness and founded the Self-Realization Fellowship in 1920 to bring the true teachings of yoga to the West and underscore the truth underlying all true religions.
In titling The Second Coming of Christ, Paramahansa Yogananda explained:
I am not referring to a literal return of Jesus to earth. He came two thousand years ago and, after imparting a universal path to God’s kingdom, was crucified and resurrected; his reappearance to the masses now is not necessary for the fulfillment of his teachings.
What is necessary is for the cosmic wisdom and divine perception of Jesus to speak again through each one’s own experience and understanding of the infinite Christ Consciousness that was incarnate in Jesus. That will be his true Second Coming.
Many are the churches and temples founded in his name, often prosperous and powerful, but where is the communion that he stressed—actual contact with God?
Jesus wants temples to be established in human souls, first and foremost; then established outwardly in physical places of worship.Instead, there are countless huge edifices with vast congregations being indoctrinated in churchianity, but few souls who are really in touch with Christ through deep prayer and meditation.
A thousand Christs sent to earth would not redeem its people unless they themselves become Christlike by purifying and expanding their individual consciousness to receive therein the second coming of the Christ Consciousness, as was manifested in Jesus.
Contact with this Consciousness, experienced in the ever new joy of meditation, will be the real second coming of Christ—and it will take place right in the devotee’s own consciousness.
In his chapter on The Beatitudes [Sermon on the Mount] from The Yoga of Jesus, Yoganananda writes:
Peace is the first manifestation of God’s response in meditation. Those who know God as Peace in the inner temple of silence, and who worship that peace-God therein, are by this relationship of divine communion His true children…
Anyone who brings peace to an inharmonious family has established God there. Anyone who removes the misunderstanding between souls has united them in God’s peace. Anyone who, forsaking national greed and selfishness, works to create amidst warring nations is establishing God in the heart of those nations…
No matter what one’s nationality or the color of his body, all of God’s children are souls. The Father recognizes no manmade designations; He loves all and His children must learn to live in that same consciousness…
So we, being made in his image, must also behave like gods and conquer hearts with the power of love, or humanity, as we know it will surely perish. Man’s power to make war is increasing; so must his ability to make peace…
Anyone who stirs up strife among brother nations under the guise of patriotism is a traitor to his divine family-a faithless child of God…
The true Christ-method of living can banish human conflicts and the horror of war and bring about peace and understanding on earth; all prejudices and enmities must fall away. That is the challenge placed before those who would be peacemakers of God.
Before Emperor Constantine brought Christianity into the mainstream, all the early Church Fathers taught that Christians should never serve in the army but willingly suffer rather than inflict harm on any other.
Augustine was the first Church Father to consider the concept of a “Just War” and within 100 years after Constantine, the Empire required that all soldiers in the army must be baptized and thus the decline of Christianity began.
With the justification of war and violence supplied by Augustine’s “Just War” theory, today’s Orwellian politicians persist to claim the way to peace is through war and military occupations.
In 313 AD, Emperor Constantine legitimized Christianity and the religious and fundamentally minded began to enjoy political power and prestige and Jesus’ teachings were reinterpreted to justify warfare and the use of state sponsored violence.
St. Paul taught that the only way to resist evil is with good. Clement, Tertullian, Polycarp and every other early Church Father taught that violence is a contradiction of what Christianity is to be about.
Two thousand years ago, there was lively debate about who Jesus was, and why he came. Churches before Emperor Constantine legitimized Christianity were hot beds of individuality and not the institutions that have become big business today.
During my first of 8 trips to both sides of The Wall in the Holy Land;
I heard this spin on the Sermon on The Mount within my heart:
About 2,000 years ago, when Jesus was about 33, he hiked up a hill and sat down under an olive tree and began to teach the people;
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”
In other words: it is those who know their own spiritual poverty, their own limitations and ‘sins’ honestly and trust God loves them in spite of themselves who already live in the Kingdom of God.
How comforted we will all be, when we see, we haven’t got a clue, as to the depth and breadth of pure love and mercy of The Divine Mystery of The Universe.
God’s name in ancient Aramaic is Abba, which means Daddy as much as Mommy and He/She: The Lord has said, “My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not yours.” -Isaiah 55:8
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
The essence of meek is to be patient with ignorance, slow to anger and never hold a grudge. In other words: how comforted you will be when you also know humility; when you know yourself, the good and the bad, for both cut through every human heart.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be filled.”
In other words: how comforted you will be when your greatest desire is to do what “God requires, and he has already told you what that is; BE JUST, BE MERCIFUL and walk humbly with your Lord.”-Micah 6:8
“Blessed are the merciful, they will be shown mercy.”
In other words: how comforted you will all be when you choose to return only kindness to your ‘enemy.’
“For with the measure you measure against another, it will be measured back to you” Christ warns his disciples as he explains the law of karma in Luke 6:27-38.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they see God.”
In other words: how comforted you will be when you WAKE UP and see God is already within you, within every man, every woman and every child. The Supreme Being is everywhere, the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. Beyond The Universe and yet so small; within the heart of every atom.
“Blessed are The Peacemakers: THEY shall be called the children of God.”
IF we believe in God we will at least try to live by The Golden Rule.
Jesus explained it in Matthew 7:12: So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
HINDUISM teaches: This is the sum of duty: do naught to others, which if done to thee would cause thee pain. -The Mahabharata
BUDDHISM teaches: Hurt not others with that which pains yourself. – Udana-Varga
JUDAISM teaches: What is hateful to you; do not to your fellow men. That is the whole Torah, the entire Law; all the rest is commentary. Go and study it. – Talmud Shabbat 31a
ISLAM teaches: No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. – Hadith
Learn More about Yoga Day at The Yoga Day Summit- a FREE online event that will explore the world of yoga from its ancient roots in India to today’s Global Movement of Transformation HERE
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Eileen Fleming
Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" who founded WeAreWideAwake.org in response to her first of 8 trips to both sides of The Wall in Palestine Israel.
In 2012, Eileen ran for US House of Representatives District 5, in Fl.
Read her FREE eBooks and more at:http://www.eileenfleming.org/
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