Shift from Ego Posture to Yoga Posture, From Problem Solving to Creative Expression
By Gurudev

When ego mind is the performer of postures, your mind is actively engaged in self-criticism, comparing your performance with others, and judging yourself and others. You mind is agitated and engaged in internal conflict even as your body is engaged in performing postures. As a result of constant internal conflict, your mind is restless. Whenever you are mentally agitated, restless, emotionally reactive to whatever you are effacing at any given moment, you are engaged in the posture of ego.

In defining what yoga is, Yogi Patajali, the ultimate ancient authority, says, “Yoga means stopping the mental modifications.” Yogas chitta vritti nirodhah. (Yoga Sutras, 1:2). This means that whatever form of yoga you are practicing, its highest priority and the fundamental purpose for the practice is to eliminate mental agitations and emotional reactions. When performing yoga postures, you must change from an ego-driven posture that is externally placing the body in a so-called “yoga posture,” but internally, mind is engaged in conflict. This means we are practicing conflict and calling it yoga. Now, if you want to convert ego posture into yoga posture, you have to remove the ego mind. The posture of ego is engaged by external motivation. In the Amrit® Method of Yoga, practice is motivated by integrative intention.

Suppose you try to catch the moon by diving into a lake, where the moon appears reflected in the water. You will never succeed in catching the moon, no matter how good of a diver you are. In the same way, you will never succeed in solving the problem by changing your life situation, regardless of how hard you work, how creative you are, or how efficient you are.

Imagine a light shining on a painting. If the light has a red filter, then the colors of the painting will interact with the red light to appear differently; white will appear pink or red, yellow will appear orange, green will appear black. If the light has no filter, the painting will appear in its true colors. In the same way, when we view a life situation through the personalized, reactive perspective of our conditioned past, people and events may appear to be adverse or in our favor. But if we can remove the filter of our habitual way of thinking and seeing, we gain access to neutral reality. We see the situation as it is, devoid of any personal meaning.

External conditions are transitory. Working hard to change external situations is not a solution. When faced with the challenges of life, people who are caught in ordinary consciousness struggle to change other people, external conditions or life situations by increasing their creativity, efficiency, information and technical skills to change external conditions. The external situations you change are transitory. Even if they appear to solve the problem in the beginning, every solution turns into another problem in the end.

Lasting joy, success, and fulfillment in life comes from the internal work of removing our reactive tendencies. Many times, external conditions in life need to be changed, improved, modified, and made better. You must have the ability to manage external affairs in life. But external conditions, no matter how well they are organized for our comfort, pleasure, and fulfillment, cannot solve the stress-creating reactions and conflicts that you create in life situations that you face from moment to moment. If you haven’t worked internally to release the habits of mind that keep you trapped in reaction, nothing that you achieve or possess will ever make a difference in your quality of life.

Actions based on distorted perception may initiate changes in an external situation, but they are never effective in solving any problem. When you react to reaction, you are attempting to solve the problem of the past in the future, where it can never be solved on an internal or an external level. All problems that appear to be coming from outside are truly the problems of reaction. You react to what you perceive to be coming from the other person or the situation. When you try to solve the problem in time, by planning a solution in the future, you can only change external situations and conditions – the contents of consciousness – but you haven’t changed the consciousness that was distorted by your reaction.

By connecting with the part of you that is aware beyond conditioned perception, you have the opportunity to change your reactions to external circumstances. Your knee-jerk reaction is automatic and unconscious. It arises out of your past and can only be dismantled in the present. Unconscious reactions happen automatically, but there is a part of you that is conscious and can witness and change your reaction. When you change your reaction, you change from the core; that changes you, instead of just external conditions. This is your divine potential. Accessing your divine potential has nothing to do with what you are doing, but how you are doing what you are doing.

Reactive thinking is fear-based and is characterized by the projection of awareness into the past or future. Fear is what takes you into the external situation in the wrong way. Fear shows you a problem where the problem is not. Whenever you are caught in an internal reaction, your sensitivity is gone. You are completely out of touch with your body and your nervous system is processing the friction.

The shift from problem solving to creative expression happens in the integrated state of being, when awareness is grounded in the direct experience of the present moment. When you feel sweetness in your body and “Aha!” in the mind, you have entered the alpha state where healing begins to occur spontaneously. You get connected to your prana body – your own internal sense of being alive. You are relaxed, you enjoy life, and your creativity naturally goes up. Neither money nor convenience can give you this experience. When you begin to move into alpha-theta brain waves, scientists call it “whole brain thinking.”

This is an internal condition that you create which connects you with the joy of life and naturally brings fulfillment. The prana body gives you the connection to the soul. When your perception comes from the soul, it comes with great joy and ecstasy. You cannot get that from outside or from people telling you that you are great. Rather, external fulfillment will come as a result of your primary commitment to connecting with the source within. Then, you not only become prosperous, but you are able to maintain your quality of life. The rare combination of prosperity and happiness will begin to cur for you. This is the shift from problem solving to creative expression in life. The Amrit Yoga and Amrit Method of Yoga Nidra systems focus on how to enter the alpha-theta brain wave state.