Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy

by Sadhguru

The human longing to expand is actually just an expression of the ultimate formless intelligence that is the very source of who we are. Instead of trying to find the source of our longing, we try to give it expression in the outside world. Due to the nature of our outward-bound senses, we are deceived into believing that outward expression will somehow bring fulfillment.

separateness is a myth.

Yoga means to experience the mental and physical process distinctly, not as the basis of yourself, but as that which is caused by you.

If you manage these two instruments of body and mind consciously, then your experience of life is one hundred percent of your making.

All you need to do is create a distance between you and everything that you a...

Everything that you have gathered in this life accompanies you wherever you go. It is deeply attached to you, and you, in turn, are deeply attached to it, on some unconscious level. It becomes an encumbrance because you don’t know when to put it down and when to p...

It is definitely possible to create some distance between you and what you have gathered. You can use it when you want, but you need not be identified with it.

If you cannot maintain this distance, your whole vision of life will be clouded. Your memory and your imagination—which includes all your ideas, beliefs, and emotions—belong to the psychological realm.

There are many ways of recognizing which way your life energies want to go.

Suffering is entirely self-created.

If you can joyfully do whatever is needed in a given situation, this is freedom. But limiting yourself to doing only what you like is a horribly compulsive way to live.

Karma is like old software that you have written for yourself, unconsciously.

Depending upon what type of garbage is in the bin today, that is the kind of smell that will emanate from it. Depending upon what type of smell you emit, you attract certain kinds of life situations to yourself.

This is not your nature. You are not doing what you want. These tendencies have become compulsive.

the quality of your life is always decided by how you experience life, not by what life offers you.

karma is not a negative word. Karma is what gives stability and structure to your life.

There is nothing wrong with this stored information. It is very useful for your survival. If you deleted all of it, you would not know how to handle even the simplest aspects of life. The spiritual process does not seek to demolish this storehouse of karmic impressions, but helps you to become more conscious of it,

and establish a little space, which allows you to stand outside of it.

So, your software is not in itself the problem. It turns into a problem only if it becomes the...

Karma is just your own creation. It is neither good nor bad.

This is all the spiritual process aims to do: loosen the grip of karma upon you.

Denying, suppressing, or avoiding life brings more bondage than freedom. The desire, “I don’t want karma,” is itself a big karma!

The very process of living is itself a dissolution of karma. If you live every moment of your life totally, you dissolve enormous amounts of karma.

When you experience everything that comes your way absolutely, when you experience every life breath with utmost intensity, without the distractions of thought and emotion, devoid of any psychologi...

birth and death. You are not only more alive; you...

It offers you the choice every moment of your existence to be either a victim or a spectator or the very master of your life.

With a certain amount of effort and practice we all can write a software of joy and well-being for themselves.

Try this. Sit alone for five minutes and see what your life would be like if you were absolutely alone in this world. If there were nobody or nothing to compare yourself with, what would you truly long for?

What would really matter to you if there were no external appreciation or critique?

the physical, the mental, and the energetic body. It is only in aligning them that you find access to dimensions beyond the physical—to

to the fundamental life energy itself.

The purpose of yoga is to activate your energy system in such a way that your body consciousness is constantly being

lowered, so you can sit here in the body, but are no longer the body.

Zen

King Janaka

This is what every spiritual practice is about. When you want to attain yoga or Zen, you have to drop your load, discard everything on the way, remain free, stand upright.

The word “linga” means “the form.” When creation began to happen, or when the unmanifest became manifest, the first form that it assumed was that of an ellipsoid, or a three-dimensional ellipse, which is what we call a linga. It started as an ellipsoid, and then took on many other shapes and forms. If you go into deep states of meditativeness, you will find that before a point of absolute dissolution, once again the energy takes on the form of a linga. Modern cosmologists have identified that the core of every galaxy is always an ellipsoid.

So, generally in yoga, the linga is considered to be the perfect and fundamental form in existence. It is the first form and the final form. In the space between, creation takes place. What lies beyond is “that which is not” or shi-va. So, the linga form is actually an opening in the fabric of creation. For physical creation, the front door is

a linga and the back door ...

If you push energy up to very high levels of intensity, it can hold form only until a certain point. Beyond that, it becomes formless

Mount Kailash (the mountain peak in western Tibet that is regarded as a sacred place of immeasurable power and antiquity)

Kedarnath is just a small temple in the Himalayas.

There is another place called Kumara Parvat in the South Indian state of Karnataka.

Wherever a person does something with his life energies, he creates a certain possibility which cannot be erased by any event.

The work and presence of anybody who experimented even a little bit with the inner dimensions can never be destroyed.

Let us look at this in the simplest possible way. Isn’t it true that the more you know about your computer, the better you can use it? Isn’t it true that your ability to use a device or instrument is directly proportional to your knowledge about it? Isn’t it true that someone with a high level of dexterity and expertise can use even a simple instrument in a seemingly magical way? Have you seen some people riding on a piece of plastic they call a surfboard, doing incredible things? Just a piece of plastic,

The issues of life around you can be addressed to the best of your capabilities. But once joy is your constant companion, you are no more an issue in your life. After

that, life is a journey of endlessly unfolding celebration and discovery.

Our relentless pursuit of external well-being is already on the verge of annihilating the planet.

Your joy, your