Naturality

Naturality can best be defined as living according to one’s nature and walking one’s own path. Its derivation from from the Latin, Natura, means innate temperament or constitution. In Sanskrit, the word Naturality can be translated as Sahajata, itself derived from the Sahaja – ( Saha / with; Ja / born). Sahaja means that with which we are born – and we are born with our innate nature.

Naturality embraces life’s underlying harmony and flow. Even that which we label as artificial, abnormal, pathological and unnatural is still a fragment of the natural, a fragment that has been separated by thoughts that have ensued from the mind’s process of thinking.

Core Teachings

Two Stories about Naturality

1. A man asked Bankei, “What type of miracles can you do?”
And Bankei said, “We know only one miracle here........
When I feel hungry I eat, and when I feel sleepy I sleep. Only this much.”

2. I Am What I Am
Student came to teacher - “I am relaxed and peaceful.”
“Throw away the relaxation and peace and meditate.’’
Student meditated and came back – “I discovered my soul.”
“Throw away the soul and meditate.”
Student meditated and met the teacher – “I experienced Nirvana.”
“Throw away the Nirvana and meditate.”
Student didn’t come. Teacher searched and found him peacefully dancing in marketplace.
“What happened to you?”
“I am what I am.”
Teacher touched the student’s feet and left.

Effects of Evolution: Fear, Conflict and Discontent

Cause Self-Awareness
↓
Fear of Living and Dying
↓
Formation of protective Ego or Self or Mind
↓
Alienation, Conflict and Guilt
↓
Discontent
↓
Decline in Pleasure and Well-Being
↓
Consumption of power, wealth, food, sex, chemicals etc. to maintain pleasure
↓
Environmental Destruction

Goal: Freedom from Fear, Conflict and Discontent and living in Harmony, Movement and Play

It is possible for humans to become free from the cycle of fear, conflict and discontent. On the one hand, self-awareness brought fear to humans; on the other, self-awareness made Evolution a conscious process. With their unique awareness, humans can evolve consciously and go beyond their existing conditions and problems – a capability that has the potential to reverse the cycle described above.

Way of Naturality: Living According to one’s Nature, walking one’s own path

Naturality can be seen as a process of metamorphosis in which mind’s habitual patterns are shattered, releasing individuals into an ever- expanding freedom to live according to their own nature and walk their own path. This process includes intimate knowledge of one’s innate intelligence and leads to the full expression of one’s nature in the world; this is the state of Becoming. Naturality is also a state of Being; in this state, stillness roars with energy, peace meets passion, and living and dying are movements of life.

Core Learnings

Innate Intelligence or Prakirti

Prakirti comes from two words; pra means primal or original and kirti means creation. Prakirti constitutes the primal creative force, from within and from without.

• Humans are each born with a unique nature which expresses itself in Innate Intelligence.
  
• Mind and Body are two expressions of one nature and orient humans in the world of space-time.
  
• One’s individual nature cannot be completely changed but its expression can be modified.
  
• The full blossoming of one’s innate nature leads to wholeness and well-being.
  
• Cultural conditioning suppresses nature, thus causing conflict and imbalance in the Mind-Body.
  
• Mind suffers from lack of fulfillment and well-being; to experience the needed pleasure and sense of well-being, it develops harmful addictions.
  

Discovering One’s Nature:

The most beautiful book to study is the book of your life......the most important observation is the universe within.

In Indian Ayurveda (science pertaining to the knowledge of life), the method of discovering one’s innate intelligence begins with the three doshas or temperaments of Vata (Wind), Pitta (Fire) and Kapha (Earth). The word dosha comes from dus which is related to the English word dys, meaning flawed. One’s constitution or temperament is called a dosha because it can be easily disturbed by external and internal factors.

Learning about the Brain, Mind and Evolution/Involution through Chakras or Energy Centers

It has only been a few decades since it has become possible to know and record the brain and body’s anatomy and physiology in the laboratory. Before that medicine and healing were based on either external visual observation or through the recognition of internal sensations and feelings. These sensations, named Chi or Prana, are the result of chemical and electrical impulses and currents flowing through the nerves, fascia, spinal cord and brain.

The flow of Chi or Prana through nerve plexuses in the midline of the body gives the sensation of a moving wheel; hence the name Chakra (‘wheel’) is given to the movement of energy within the body.

Body - Brain has no perceptual boundaries and can be in constant communion with the biological universe, effortlessly feeling and expressing its movements. It can move back and forth spontaneously within states of Being and Becoming where life is aware of its wholeness. Sadly, for most humans, Ego/Self/Mind breaks the intimacy between Body-Brain and the biological universe, making individuals prisoners of mental time and space.

Trapped in repetitive patterns of emotion and thought, the individual suffers. But, suffering ends with the opening of the chakras(commonly designated as seven in number though some indicate more or less) either spontaneously or intentionally. Body and Brain, now flooded with powerful energy, experience a shattering of the prison of fear, conflict and discontent. Released from the conditioned life of the past, the individual is now free.

The first two chakras belong to the body - which is connected with the reptilian brain. The third chakra is for emotions, the fourth for feelings, each connected to the limbic or emotional brain. The fifth chakra is of the intellect and related to the neo-cortex which, well developed in humans, deals with reason, rationality, science, systems etc.. The sixth chakra is for intuition . The seventh chakra is not an independent chakra but the integration of all six chakras . It leads to an integral state of wholeness and well-being, more commonly known as individuation, self-actualization or self-knowledge. Before the opening of the seventh chakra, a human being is a conditioned person but after reaching the seventh, evolution becomes fully conscious and moves down through the chakras again, as involution in its universal form.

Seven-fold Path

                    a. Ethics  Self-Care and Care for Others 
                    b. Study and Observation:  Self-Knowing 
                    c. Worship and Prayer ,                         
                    d. Poses and Movements
                    e. Breath 
                    f. Meditation 
                    g. Fasting and Pilgrimage 

Ethics - Self-care and Care for Others

Without mastering the basic notes of ethics one can’t play life’s natural symphony.

Naturality Mantra

Dharma Daham, Dharma Manas, Dharma Buddhi-Atman
Care to body, emotions, intellect and soul.
Dharma Priya Jan, Dharma Serva Jan, Dharma Desh, Dharma Dhara
Care to family, community, country and the planet.
Dharma Neham, Dharma Ekam, Dharma Hee Gatisheelta
Let love, harmony and movement sustain right care.
Dharma Jeevan, Dharma Chetan, Dharma Hee Ananda Param.
Let right care bring the joy of conscious living.

Study and Observation : Self-Knowing

The most beautiful book to study is the book of your life; the most important observation includes the universe within. Such study and observation can be accomplished by knowing Prakirti or Innate Intelligence

Worship and Prayer

What is worship and prayer?
Worship and prayer emerge from the heart and are permeated with feelings of love. Prayer is blind because it transcends the reason and calculation of the mundane world, experiencing all from the perspective of the Divine. As such, all things are coloured by the echoes and shadows of the Divine Beloved. When the lover or devotee wants to see the face of the Divine Beloved (God) and cannot, a deep longing pierces the devotee’s soul and its soulful cry is prayer - predominantly silent and filled with tears.

Poses and Movements

Law of Reflection
“Inner mind-body states produce specific body postures and breathing patterns. By practicing those body postures and breathing patterns, we can get glimpses of the inner body-mind states which originally produced them. Still, such glimpses are transient and merely a reflection of the original states - not the states themselves. This is the law of reflection.”

Yoga poses are based on the fact that when the body is infused by a certain expression of energy (anger, peace, violence, sex etc.) it takes a certain pose. It follows that if we can intentionally create a specific pose, we can bring a specific expression of energy into the body. This energy can be harnessed and used for the well- being of body- mind, or for the integration of both into wholeness. During a Yoga pose the pressure on specific parts of the body stimulates neurovascular bundles and plexuses, leading to relaxation because of the decreased activity of sympathetic nervous system and increased activation of many areas of the brain. This increased activation leads to optimal functioning of the mind and the immune and endocrine systems. Such optimal functioning enhances the state of mind-body homeostasis. Consciously maintaining a certain pose also gives a more accurate orientation of the body in space, generating better balance, grounding and overall functioning. Such orientation is the result of right hemispheric stimulation which is calming, and increases creativity and hemispheric synchronization.

Breath

Breathing is a unique phenomenon in humans because of its involuntary and voluntary aspects.

Because breathing happens in the present, whatever we do with breath will be connected with the present moment.

Breathing is a bridge between body and mind and so it changes when we experience different mental and emotional states. If we are calm, breathing is deep and slow. If we feel a deep sense of love, breathing becomes deep and slow again. In anger, the breath is deep and fast, while in fear, it is shallow and rapid. In extreme fear, we hold our breath.

Breathing is partly involuntary and partly voluntary. This means that we can intentionally use it to achieve certain states of body and mind.

A baby’s breathing is deep, natural belly breath, the breath of relaxation, whereas most adults breathe through the chest. Therefore, the first goal of any breathing exercise is to achieve belly breathing because this will naturally calm and relax the body and mind.

As we continue to practise mindful breathing, we experience the gap between each inhalation and each exhalation; in that gap we experience stillness.

Meditation

Meditation technique is NOT meditation.
What is Meditation:

The word meditation comes from the Latin root meditatum, i.e. to ponder. Dhyāna, which comes from the Sanskrit root dhyai, meaning to contemplate or meditate. It also means attention.

According to J Krishnamurti:

"...Meditation means 'To be free of measurement' " and "...meditation can only take place when there is no effort, when there is no contradiction."

Active and Receptive Meditations

Active meditation integrates body movements, breathing exercises, chanting and singing. Osho’s dynamic mediation is an example of such meditation.

Receptive meditation is masterly inactivity, a calm observation of what is going on. Vipassana or Mindfulness and Asti or Amness meditations are all examples of receptive meditation.

Witnessing and Absorptive Meditation

In witnessing meditation (such as Mindfulness and Am-ness), the meditator is alert, attentive, calm and doesn’t lose consciousness.

In absorptive meditation, the person is totally absorbed into the meditative experience and may lose body and world consciousness. Kirtan and whirling are examples o absorptive meditation.

Expansiveness or Braham Meditation by Jivasu

Asti meditation or Expansiveness is to expand the boundaries of mind and eventually break them so that brain will be free for unbound perception and wouldn’t have any limitations. As the boundary will expand the brain will include more and more in its field of consciousness of what is not familiar, desirable or pleasant and loose fear and hostility towards them. Then there wouldn’t be any sense of otherness and all will be the part of oneness, non-duality without fear, conflict and discontent and live in naturalness.

Technique:

• Slow, deep and gentle belly breathing for five minutes.
  
• With closed eyes feel the whole body not focussing on any particular part of the body. Feel the presence of the body. This is your own presence and stay with this presence for ten minutes.
  
• Allow your presence to expand slowly two to three feet around you. This is your personal presence and space and stay with it for five minutes.
  
• Expand further in all directions and whatever comes in the field of expansion becomes you. People, objects, buildings, sounds, light and elements of nature become part of you. They are no more separated from you. They are the part of your being. Stay with it for ten minutes.
  
• Expansion becomes without boundary.
  
• Stay with it for five minutes.
  
• Slowly shrink back to your own presence.
  
• Open your eyes.

Fasting and Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage

Travel and pilgrimage are two different experiences. Travelling is a pleasure movement. While travelling, many people not only want to maintain the comforts and distractions which they had at home, but they actually want more heightened experiences of them in a short period of time.

Pilgrimage is travelling, not for pleasure or comfort, but to challenge the self, physically, emotionally and intellectually. Pilgrimage is done with humility and with an open mind, and one is ready to face the unknown at any moment. Pilgrimage brings strain on the person which may take him/her to a point where old boundaries and limits are broken. Such breaking of the boundaries of the old self brings changes, transformation and the emergence of a new layer of self or new self deeper and more broad than the former. This may lead to the union of Body and Mind (emotions, intellect) by which Soul (Mind-Body integration) is discovered.

Fasting

Fasting has two aspects. The first aspect is more important and relates to a withdrawal from what we don’t need. Every day we consume an excess of food, water, space, energy and wealth; this creates sickness, either to the consumer, or to some near or remote non-living and living beings who suffer from lack because of what we have taken in excess. With our limited planetary resources, excess is compensated for by a deficiency for someone, somewhere.

The second reason for fasting is to simply withdraw from the basic requirements of food, water, space, energy and wealth. Such fasting helps in breaking the comfortable and pleasurable boundaries which we have experienced and built on since the beginning of our life. This fasting has the same effects as pilgrimage – bringing new insights into our being and breaking down the structure of the old self to take us to new dimensions of living.

Experiences on the Path

1. Ego: World Knowledge
2. Soul: Self-Knowledge
3. Universal mind: God experience
4. Universal mind: Experience of Emptiness
5. The Natural Being and Naturals

Ego: World Knowledge

A healthy Ego is the first milestone on the path of Naturality. It is the foundation of the subsequent growth and development of an individual.
A healthy Ego has four components:

1. Self-Care: Self-Care includes sleep, eating, exercise, work and relationships, including sex
2. Care of others
3. Trust
4. Boundaries: to protect oneself and others

Soul: Self Knowledge

Movement from ego to soul begins with disillusionment with the ways of society and culture. The experience of Soul is the beginning of the experience of one’s original nature and is the first transformative step on the path of Naturality. The individual is filled with the fire of creative energy and moulds and recreates himself/herself into a new being. This is beginning of conscious evolution.
Soul is distinguished from Ego in the following four ways:

• Healing and Well-being
• Spontaneous Meditation
• Acceptance of Mortality and the Waning of Fear
• Discovery of One’s Destiny

Universal Mind: God Experience

Soul is the experience of individuality and when the boundary of individuality is shattered, an individual is released into Universal Mind or Consciousness.

Universal Mind is a vast memory bank in which the experiences of matter, plants, animal s and human life is stored in its totality and can be accessed. Universal Mind or Consciousness is also named as God - the sum total of human thoughts, memories and experiences.

The following experiences characterize the state of living in Universal Mind:

• God is felt as a transcendental, eternal creator of the world and universe.
  
• The individual becomes a universal being.
  
• The individual experiences universal love.
  
• Birth and Death become part of life and one becomes free from the fear of dying.
  

Universal Emptiness: Experience of Nirvana

In universal emptiness all things, events, states, thoughts and feelings are experienced as impermanent and emptied of any eternal substance or force sustaining them. Life moves and changes without an absolute self or mover. All is experienced as interconnected and interdependent.

The following four features are unique to Universal Emptiness:

• Stillness
  
• Universal Compassion
  
• Freedom from thoughts
  
• Birth and Death become two sides of the same experience.
  

The Natural Human

The Natural state is not an intellectual, emotional, mystical or God experience. It’s a biological state in which Body and Brain become part of physical nature. Body and Brain are at peace but simultaneously filled with explosive energy.

The following four features are unique to the Natural Being:

• Fully functional Body and Brain
• Communion with the Biological Universe
• Participation in Biological Events
• Life - Death union
  

Naturality and Its Applications

• Religion and Spirituality
• Arts and Science
• Economics
• Politics
• Education
• Language
• Guru and Teacher

Religion and Spirituality

Naturality, while going beyond religion and spirituality, still includes them and considers them to be essential steps for human evolution and growth. While religion is a social and a communal force, spirituality is more about going within to explore and experience Life’s Mystery. Both religion and spirituality differentiate between materialism and spirituality, science and mysticism, the organic and the artificial.

Arts and Science

On the spectrum of human experience and knowledge, the arts belong to one end and science to the other. The arts provide exploration into the personal, physical, mental and mystical world; the explorations of science delve into the material and mental realm which can verified, observed, and confirmed by many.

Science

The word Science comes from the Latin: scientia meaning "knowledge". According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, the definition of science is "knowledge attained through study or practice," or "knowledge covering general truths of the operation of general laws, esp. as obtained and tested through scientific method [and] concerned with the physical world."

Science can affirm and confirm the path and process of Naturality and make it more democratic and available to the majority. That is the true contribution of science in human life. Whatever is happening in humans at the physical, mental and mystical level is all reflected in the body and brain. We now know for certain that any happening from within or without brings changes in the electrical, biochemical and energetic composition of the brain and body.

Art

Britannica Online defines art as "the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others."

Middle English art from Old French art from Latin artem, accusative of ars "art". Displaced native Middle English liste "art" (from Old English list).

Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature.

Creativity’s biggest challenge lies in the process of recreating ourselves. A true artist’s life itself becomes an art. Fragments of life come together, fuse and become whole and living through the creation of a symphony, painting or a poem.

Art is a rebellion to the mass and mundane way of life. It’s an effort to discover one’s unique way of being in the world and express it fully - a realm between ego and soul. As a dissatisfied person, the artist wants to interpret the world and nature in a unique way, becoming both creative and the creator. For this reason, art can be a step towards discovering one’s naturalness on the path of Naturality.

Economics

The English words "economy" and "economics" can be traced back to the Greek words οἰκονόμος "one who manages a household" (derived from οἴκος "house", and νέμω "distribute (especially, manage)"), οἰκονομία "household management", and οἰκονομικός "of a household or family".

Money is indeed sacred if it doesn’t accumulate and become stagnant. The movement of money is a sacred movement and if it remains a means and not an end, it helps a person to be fully functional, moving towards wholeness and well-being. Money takes away the worries of basic survival in the beginning and later on helps individuals discover and express the destiny for which they were born, which is also the goal of Naturality

Politics

The word politics comes from the Greek word Πολιτικά (politika), modeled on Aristotle's "affairs of the city", the name of his book on governing and governments, which was rendered in English mid-15 century as latinized "Polettiques".

The purpose of politics is to find consensus within a group, community, nation or the world. Politics has the responsibility to make daily living safe and manageable for the people, providing them with equal opportunity and recognizing the inequities with which they are born. Such movement of politics helps people to walk the path of Naturality.

Education

Etymologically, the word education is derived from educare (Latin) "bring up", which is related to educere "bring out", "bring forth what is within", "bring out potential" and ducere, "to lead".

What is education? Education is a process of bringing forth what is within.

We all are born with an innate intelligence. The purpose of education is not to impose a specific mode of knowledge on children and students but to find out what their innate intelligence and then offer an education according to that. Then only education becomes a process which brings out what is embedded in a child as potential. Such education doesn’t neglect skill building to learn one’s livelihood but it goes also beyond to discover and express what is there within. If education takes that route, a child will remain in touch with his/her true nature and will live in harmony and flow with it. This is the essential condition of wellness and well- being.

Language

Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication. The scientific study of language in any of its senses is called linguistics.

late 13c., from O.Fr. langage (12c.), from V.L. linguaticum, from L. lingua "tongue," also "speech, language" from Online etymology dictionary

Language’s primary function is to communicate from one’s heart and nature. Beautiful language is not the literary, refined or grammatically correct but one which comes to a person naturally and helps in communication within and expressing oneself in the world, which is the path of Naturality. Such language can’t be prisoner to many rules of the past.

Guru and Teacher

In the path of Naturality there is no guru. Guru comes from two words Gu for darkness and Ru means remover. No outside person can remove the darkness of another. That is why the term guru requires replacement by the word, teacher, a word which means ‘who points’. A teacher is a pointer, one who can point towards that which is not familiar, that which is unknown. Once the student is on the path the teacher has no further role on the journey

Further Readings

J Krishnamurti – a Biogrpahy by Pupul Jayakar Penguin Books 2003, ISBN-13: 9780140103434

The ending of time, J Krishnamurti, David Bohm, London : Gollancz, 1985 ISBN-10: 0060647965

Krishnamurti's notebook, J Krishnamurti, Bramdean, Hampshire, Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Ltd, 2003. ISBN 9781888004632

The Other Side of Belief : Interpreting U.G. Krishnamurti, Penguin, Rao, Mukunda ISBN-10 : 144000350, Year: 2005

Meditation: First and Last Freedom, Osho Publisher: St. Martins Press, USA ISBN: 0312336632

Self-Realization: The Life and Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, by B.V. Narasimha Swami ISBN 81-88225-74-6

Sri Aurobindo, or, The adventure of consciousness, 2nd ed. Satprem. Published 1984 by Institute for Evolutionary Research in Mount Vernon, ISBN 10-0938710044

The Mind of the Cells by Satprem(1982) Institute for Evolutionary Research, New York, NY ISBN 0-938710-06-0

Molecules of Emotions by Candace pert - Publisher: SIMON & SCHUSTER ISBN: 068484634

Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution, 1st ed. 1995, 2nd rev. ed. 2001: ISBN 1-57062-744-4

Mindfulness Meditation for Everyday Life - Jon Kabat-Zinn- Piatkus, 2001. ISBN 074991422X

Brain That Changes Itself - Norman Doidge -Publisher: PENGUIN GROUP-2008 ISBN: 9780141038872

Buddha's Brain: Neuroplasticity and Meditation, Richard Davidson: ISBN 0618378294

How God Changes Your Brain: Andrew Newberg, (coauthored with Mark Robert Waldman), Ballantine Books, 2009,ISBN 978-0-345-50341-1

Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, Antonio Damasio, revised Penguin edition, 2005 ISBN 1-56170-885-2

The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness, Antonio Damasio, 1999 ISBN 13: 9780151003693

The Birth and Death of Meaning, Ernest Becker 1971. ISBN 0-02-902190-1

The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker Collier-Mac, 1973. ISBN 0-02-902310-6

Escape from Evil, Ernest Becker Free Press, 1975. ISBN 0-02-902340-8

External Links

• Jivasu
• http://www.samagarpath.com (dead link 15:56, 15 August 2011 (UTC))
• Sri Aurobindo Ashram
• Sri Ramana Maharshi
• J. Krishnamurti
• U.G. Krishnamurti
• Ken Wilber
• Mindfulness tapes
• Ernest Becker
• Osho

About Naturality

Founder: Jivasu
Inspiration: UG Krishnamurti, JKrishnamurti, Osho, Sri Aurobindo, Mother of Pondicherry.
Teachings:
Living according to one’s own Nature, Walking one’s own path
Path: Naturality’s Seven fold path
Core Learning:

• Innate Intelligence or prakirti
• Energy centers and energy ( Chakras and Kundalini)

Goal: Naturalness and become Naturals
Experience: Freedom from Fear, Conflict and Discontent. Experience of Harmony, Movement and Playfulness
Specific practices:

• Pooja Yoga or prayer yoga
• Kalajayi breath or breath of Dissolution
• Expansiveness or Braham meditation

Headquarters in Canada and India