The Power To Step Back

It's about stepping back,

You could say detached or being able to observe what's happening.

The most important energy is that which we practice in meditation is to be peaceful.

So the more that I practice being peaceful,

The more I'm able to understand some of the rules of life which many people have forgotten.

And the most important thing,

And only when I'm peaceful can I start to look at and understand this,

Is the energy of being equal.

We teach ourselves to be equal with others,

Not to be bossy,

Pushy,

Shovey,

Me,

Me,

Me,

How important am I?

But to share anything useful with others,

But to see that everybody uses their energy in life.

And according to how much we begin to understand ourselves,

Does that energy of being useful come more and more to the surface?

Everyone puts their energy into some connection with others.

No one is useless.

Everyone has specialities.

No one's actually inferior to anyone else.

I'm going to start to practice meditation and peacefulness and start looking at how I'm doing my best to understand myself and I'm doing my best to understand what happens around me.

Everyone has started to begin to observe in every relationship we've got used to the fact that someone can be very bossy and put us down and maybe we can accept that for a long time,

But we won't be happy because whatever it is that we have,

We contribute.

In life,

People might say it's not up to much,

I'm much better than you,

I earn so much money,

What do you do?

You don't do very much.

When I start to do meditation,

I'm able to see the times when in the journey of life,

Some people have sort of pushed themselves away to the front,

Far,

Far,

Far away to the front and sometimes you don't notice that because of a fondness or an attachment and you get used to being not valued.

Meditation teaches us to,

First of all,

Value ourselves and see that we are worthy of respect for being alive and playing our part whether we do knowingly or unknowingly,

We're doing the best we can.

Some people have problems,

Not able to put much of an input in because of illness,

Etcetera,

But a sensible person will understand that.

They're still doing the best they can.

They can't do better than the best that they can and therefore they're worthy of respect.

So it would take a lot to get our head around all of this unless we practice meditation and becoming peaceful and calm and for that I have to keep talking to myself and being nice to me.

It's not that I have to go around being so nice to others because they'll just think not right,

This person's not right because it's not actually fashionable out there.

But I start with being nice to me,

Saying you have to be kind,

You have to be considerate,

You have to make others equal to you,

You need to see their specialities,

You need to give them a space.

So I have to speak to myself in that way,

Then I understand this balance of being equal.

It's an amazing,

Amazing thing which you can actually only learn through meditation.

You can't learn it any other way because no one else will speak to themselves inside like that and look at their original energy and become quite determined to use good qualities.

And so when we look out and look at things that are happening to us and relationships that we have,

You can question if you're equal or what are you.

There are times in life when I need to withdraw my energy from a situation,

Not be part of the bullying or bossiness and make sure I'm not being a bully or a boss because there is no mileage in that.

People know when you're not respecting them,

People know when you're bullying them,

People know when you think you're the boss.

Raja Yoga's teaching us we're not the boss,

We're souls and our original nature is to be peaceful.

Sometimes I can step back in my mind as if I'm on a balcony and looking out and observing everyone and even myself,

I can observe them.

And there are other times when I need to just step away.

So there's times when I need to walk away to leave the scene altogether.

So sometimes I just have to smile and keep quiet and just find a second to just be busy or whatever,

Move away,

Don't get into conflict.

There's no gain.

You can't see that people are dominating and being aggressive.

You're going to be that yourself by challenging them.

The power to withdraw is to give clarity.

So to withdraw from a situation is to detach or step back from whatever the current situation is,

In feelings,

Emotions,

Confusion,

Interaction.

So whatever your potential reactions might be,

The outward situations seek to draw you into their web so that it challenges you to react.

So if it's a difficult situation,

You're caught in the trap because you're not going to shout and scream and call names and get angry.

You're not going to go there.

So it's not going to be a boxing match because you don't want to do that.

So you're better to step back,

Try and stay calm,

Silent,

Smile,

Move away if necessary.

Sometimes it's not necessary to move away.

To move forward in life requires detachment from the old patterns of thinking,

Of being and reacting.

So if we want to learn how to withdraw,

It is vital to understand that you are an actor playing a role.

So I'm an actor who's practising understanding myself and I want to have the best role for me that I can to be peaceful,

Accepting,

Not blaming,

But not get into the tug of war that's being put to me.

Like someone saying you're of no use or I'm so superior to you or you're a waste of space or whatever,

Or not even saying it,

But just always treating you like that.

And it's through lack of understanding that this happens.

So we need to become very generous minded.

You're playing a role,

But if you get too caught up in the identity of the role,

Then you'd lose any power to create,

To contribute and to walk new paths.

So you'd think you're obliged to challenge,

You're obliged to get upset,

You're obliged to be disturbed because that was the old way.

But don't get too caught up in that and see that you want to walk a new path.

The power to step back requires meditation and simply learning to make your mind quiet,

Peaceful,

Still.

We learn to speak less and think less.

So you don't need to challenge and you don't need to wonder what to do next.

Just stay still,

Peaceful.

Peace is your original nature.

All your power is in peace.

It's when we continue to practice this power of peace that we find ourselves becoming empowered and understanding more and more about situations around me and that people are at the mercy of their own energies.

So how can you challenge and blame and dislike?

They can't help it.

That's the way it is.

But I myself have to help myself by being peaceful and kind and silent.

The power to withdraw also tells you when it's time to remove yourself from a scene.

Sometimes it's time just to go,

I'm away.

A scene,

A situation or a role.

It's the power to walk away when you know that the time of leaving has arrived.

Sometimes that happens.

If you maybe look at your past,

You'll see how you did move away.

Instinctively you knew there was nothing actually happening there.

You'd hit a kind of a dead end.

So silence,

Detachment,

Introspection and concentration is what is required.

So we all have challenges.

Everyone can't say that's not happened to us or that we didn't ever think we were greater than someone else.

It's easy to think that because there's a lot of people who have a lot of issues and misfortune and it's quite easy to feel superior.

And that's when I have to realise this is just not true.

This is not the way.

Someone may be unwell now,

But they weren't always unwell.

At some point they had all their brightness and shining qualities and they're still recorded in them.

And so if I start patronising people or feeling smug about how clear and peaceful I have become,

That's not really practising meditation.

Because when you practise being peaceful,

Something in you wants to help others on their journey.

And when you feel you want to help others on their journey,

Then you must be becoming strong.

Because before we maybe kept looking for people to help us on our journey.

We wanted support and we might be devastated if that support was going to go away.

Don't go away because I rely on you.

Meditation teaches us to be self-reliant.

And as we become self-reliant,

We can help others.

It's really remarkable.

And all this comes from the power of peace.

The power of peace is your original nature.

All your qualities come from the power of peace,

Your health of your body comes from the power of peace,

Your clarity of mind becomes from the power of peace,

Your dignity comes from the power of peace.

Your Courage comes from the power of peace.

Your light heartedness comes from the power of peace.

Your love comes from the power of peace.

It's your energy which supports your body and every aspect of your life.

So when we've forgotten the power of peace,

Everything's like all over the place really,

Here,

There and everywhere.

And it's not so easy to pull it together.

The more I practice understanding myself inside,

I develop my self-respect.

And the start to developing your self-respect actually can happen very quickly if sincerely you want to become calm.

But it's remarkable in how it empowers you to see that you are amazing.

That's the whole journey of Rashogah.

You are amazing.

And once you start to look at yourself,

You do not ever want to squash anybody else.

Because you realise that's a very painful place to be.

And you never want to do it.

So you'll find ways,

It makes you very creative,

You'll find ways not to go there,

But also to stay with your dignity and your power.

Detachment,

I would say that in the old-fashioned way it would be frosty and sort of a cast you out kind of thing,

Empty,

Cold,

Aloof.

You wouldn't quite know what to do with yourself.

And so Rashogah teaches us that it's the opposite to that.

That when I practice to be detached,

It's that I'm just stepping back to get a clearer image of what's happening so that I can better deal with it.

So I can teach myself to be kindly,

Understanding,

Caring,

Delicate in how I would handle a situation.

So it's the very opposite from cold and aloof.

It's actually really rather beautiful.

So it's beneficial for me that's practising detachment because I'm giving those energies to myself.

And I'm also giving those energies out to whatever the situation is.

And therefore the situation should not,

It may,

But there's a good chance it will not reach the crescendo of discomfort that it may have reached.

Somehow calmness gives you courage.

So what happens is,

And in today's world people speak like a fast train,

So fast that actually and sometimes when people,

Business people come on the phone you don't know what they're talking about.

And it's not that we can't hear them,

But they're so fast,

So fast,

So fast.

The faster you speak and the more words you try to push in there,

You're somehow trying to prove something and you lose track of the energy you're using in speech.

You can't keep control of your words.

And sometimes we just keep speaking for the sake of,

We're used to filling in a gap and we've got that habit and we can't stop.

Put in a pause,

Knowing what you're talking about and you're saying it in a way that's meaningful and soft enough and slowly enough so that people can pick it up and understand it.

Because what we learn in Raja Yoga is that we record everything.

If you can hear what they're saying,

Your heart can get touched because somehow you can understand where they're coming from and you can have that feeling and give a very good response.

But if they're rattling on,

Your heart will not be touched.

You don't know where they're coming from except that they're under a pressure and you cannot possibly give a response.

Speak a bit more quietly or softly or let me hear what you're saying and then I'll respond to you.

I'm a great artist.

I'm a great singer.

I'm the boss of my office.

Then that ego will come through.

Even if you're practicing meditation,

I listen to all this information over and over.

I know what I'm talking about.

If I get into that role,

That's wrong because I'm having the ego of being superior because other people are not listening to this every day.

Other people are coming from wherever they're coming from.

I don't have to be playing this is my role.

Even though you're good at something,

Even you're a champion at something.

That's between you and yourself.

You don't need to flag it up.

Although you can be there for good information if needed.

Talk about equality at the beginning.

To have equal vision for people is to see that everybody,

If they really wanted to,

They could be a great dancer or a great meditator or a great whatever,

But it's not happened for them yet.

But they're worthy of respect for whatever they do.

Thank you.

And simply learning to make your mind quiet,

Peaceful,

Still.

And simply learning to make your mind quiet,

Peaceful,

Still.

Quiet.

Quiet.