Transcript
Speaker: Hi, I'm Alan Finger. Welcome to the Genius of Nothing podcast. Nothing is no particular thing.
Speaker: It's all things at once. Genius.
Speaker: Welcome everyone to the Genius of Nothing podcast. I'm Katrina Repka and I'm here with Alan Finger. everyone, wonderful to be with you.
Speaker: And Sebastian Forsman. Namaste and good evening. And today is December and very dark and cold in the Northern hemisphere, except for Florida, where Al is enjoying a very sunny, lovely day. um Sparkling.
Speaker: But we're about to turn around and the days will start getting longer again. So I'm holding out for that. um And this is our special holiday extravaganza episode where we are going to talk about the intention and the importance of setting an intention I've always thought that the Ishta approach to setting an intention is interesting and turns some convention on its head um because we're coming to a time of year where traditionally people make New Year's resolutions and they want to improve themselves. And um the idea in yoga or Ishta of Sankalpa, the intention and making things First of all, finding what aligns with your soul and what your evolution is, is quite a powerful thing. But also, I've struggled with intention before and not done intention and in given years because I felt like it created an idea in me that I needed to improve, which is one of my constant bugbears. So that's setting it up.
Speaker: um Al, do you want to talk a little bit about, or Sebastian? Yeah. I was just going to say that it's also about how how do you make change lasting, really, yeah right?
Speaker: That's what we get want to get down to. How do you make change? Lasting. Last. Last. So it's very interesting because um intention is really not what,
Speaker: What we are doing, we're looking for what it is that we need to be doing in this moment of evolution. Because we're in the process of evolution as human beings. And every moment when we complete some of our karma, new karma is coming in.
Speaker: in the evolutionary way, information of how we're gonna evolve. And every one of us is controlled by a greater intelligence, almost like a queen ant with ants or bees, right? So we need to pick up the signal and try and find out what it is that we need to do, be doing,
Speaker: And usually we do the samkaupa every trimester, not just once, not really just in the new year. So so so why do you why do you do that? Because you do it at the equinoxes are very powerful to do it. And it's really four times a year. yeah But why is that? Why is it so powerful to do it those times? Why not just do it every time you meditate, you sit down?
Speaker: Because then we wouldn't be able to have anything for you to change. To sell. I can't send you anything. but we We do it every quarter, every semester, because it's good just to take time to check out, because there's too many practices.
Speaker: that i that we have to do for different purposes. So the Ishta Diksha is your daily practice, which you can all get from come to my class, go online um at ishtayoga.com. You'll see it all there, all the stuff we have for you. And you can learn it.
Speaker: And Sebastian in Sweden, Katrina, where people, all all the yogi razzas all over the world are teaching it. So that's your daily practice to know who you are. And if you do that, you're much closer to the part of your consciousness that's relating to the senses world.
Speaker: And that part of the consciousness that relates to the senses world is called the jiva atman. And your jiva atman that's relating to the senses, to the product of the senses world with all your feelings, emotions, and what you're doing, that's the part that tunes in and gets the kalpa, gets the next thing that you need to be doing.
Speaker: So if you're doing ishtadeksha, you most probably are living much closer in tune with your jiva atman, your consciousness relating to the senses, to your paramatman, to your consciousness that relates to the quantum field, which is governing everything.
Speaker: So, the samkulpa practice, two more sentences and you guys can chat. The samkulpa practice is to go into our heart to get in there, there's a ah practice process to do it, to double check on yourself and say, okay, I'm gonna go and bring back where the jiva resides in the heart.
Speaker: It is described, it there's a couch and you want to re-enthrone the jiva in your couch, in its couch, in its throne.
Speaker: not have it distracted by the senses because it gets a lost in the senses, in the emotions. So there's a process to bring your your jiva, your consciousness, out of your senses back to the couch, and it lies in the heart center.
Speaker: And then the the the the expression of this is there's a tree above the couch, and the tree drops the fruits of samskaras called kalpas into our consciousness.
Speaker: So we want to double we want every quarter that you go in And you do this practice so that you can really feel, okay, I'm tuning specifically to see how I'm doing in the world of kalpas.
Speaker: So to answer Sebastian's what he was saying, what's the difference? In the old days, you used to drive a motor car that had, you put gas in it.
Speaker: Today I just plug mine in. But you would take the car and every day put gas, check the every week, pack gas, check the oil, the tire pressure, everything, right?
Speaker: But then you would go for a service
Speaker: every thousand miles or something. They change the wheels. They'll look at the oil, the water, this and that. So the sankalpa is very much that.
Speaker: It's your thousand mile or ten thousand mile checkup on what the kalpas are, how you're doing in that area of sankalpa.
Speaker: Okay, I'll give you all a chance to talk. That was lot of talking. Well, I think this approach is different from, well, it is much different from setting a goal or an intention. And I found it helpful because, for example, with setting an intention in the past or a New Year's resolution, and I know you talk about this in terms of things, ideas in the conscious mind, you can say to yourself, oh,
Speaker: I'm gonna get rid of my OCD this year. And the minute I try to get rid of my OCD or think about getting rid of my OCD, it gets worse. Or you know the minute you think, oh, I'm gonna lose weight, I'm gonna go on a diet this year. Like the minute you do that, you start to binge eat. So there's this kind of um reaction to trying to eradicate bad behavior bad in quotation marks because I've come to love my OCD. Not really, but um you know it's a like it's a signal of something to me. It's a way of managing anxiety. um But the more you try to
Speaker: with your mind tell yourself not to do something the more it comes back and when I had an eating disorder you know that was the whole difficulty of getting over that is like you try to control things and then the more you think about it the worse it becomes and something that's very much helped me with being freer in the world is to not try to change myself and just accept the parts of myself that maybe aren't perfect, but they don't need to be. And what I like about the distinction with the sankalpa is that it's actually more aligned with, it's not about improving yourself or like changing yourself or fixing things. It's more about really, like you said, just checking in with yourself and seeing where
Speaker: you might have opportunities or you might want to grow or what your soul is really doing rather than what you think you should be doing in life. It takes away the shoulds and it sort of puts in this sense of like ah ah deeper ah deeper honesty about where you're at and not what your mind thinks you should be, but what your soul is requiring.
Speaker: Beautifully put. yeah Beautifully put, Katrina. Because the sankalpa, like you said, like it can become like a coping strategy almost dressed in spirituality otherwise. Yeah. For the ego. Wait, say that again? Your sankalpa? Sankalpa kind of becomes like a coping strategy almost, dressed but dressed in spirituality. Yeah.
Speaker: You know, also, guys, just just think of this. When you try to do something, you go into a pattern in your brain and highlight it and awaken it.
Speaker: And once that pattern is being awakened, it's kind of like, no, that's my pattern. That's what's cut in my brain. So the way to deal with things is not to try and change things that you do.
Speaker: It's almost opposite, called pratipaksha bhavanam. You want to take something opposite. So usually it's love. It's recognizing your problem or what it is you're going through in your karma and saying, you know, this is what I am. This is in my nature. How can i what are the things I could do to alleviate the pressure of these patterns that are coming through me?
Speaker: But I also think that the daily practice is so important. Those small check-ins you do all the time, it's it's vital for you to be able to last. and to oh Oh, absolutely. If you don't do daily, you'll never keep the samkalpa going. so You find it in your daily practice is what sustains it for sure, Sebastian.
Speaker: Yeah, and and it's it's really how we rewire our brain to align with, you know, what what you should be doing in this the evolutionary process at this time. And in in psychology or neuroscience, you know we know that that if you're trying to change something or achieve a goal, this is not a goal, but it's not by having one major goal, like stop smoking or something. We know that it is...
Speaker: having multiple small steps along the way. yeah So it's really proven in that way that, you know, having the daily practice is just like that, like you you do these small check ins all the time to see where you are in that process and checking back to your sunk up every day. That's what's going to rewire your brain. That's also what's going actually change, make that lasting change.
Speaker: But also the love component, because so much of what we set for ourselves is a form of punishment yeah or should. Like, I need to be doing this. I need to be doing this. I should do this. and then yeah But if you just give yourself a hug and or or like kiss yourself on the arm and sit sit on the sofa in your heart and kind of let the fruit drop, then...
Speaker: It's really the key to transformation because so much of us, so much of our lives are spent beating ourselves up about things. And I think the intention in particular has that connotation, like, I'm going to resolve to be better, I'm going to resolve to improve myself. And that just kind of it like sucks.
Speaker: think Can I make a suggestion, just a nice little story? When you when you get a pattern going in your brain, you've cut a pattern and it's called it's like a rut.
Speaker: And I love the saying stuck in a rut because in the old days, a cart going on a dirt road would cut the rut as people all traveled in that pathway between two points. But if their house was to the side,
Speaker: and you had to make a turn out of that rut, you'd have to get out the cart, cut a little pattern for yourself so the wheel could turn out of the rut.
Speaker: So when you're cutting that, when you go and you take the shovel and cut the span to make it so your cart can go, you're not doing this as a discipline.
Speaker: You just lovingly are moving the dirt away so your wheel won't pop off when you turn. So the Sankalpa practice helps you to see what it is that you need to be doing that will help you out of those patterns.
Speaker: So if they're OCD or whatever or smoking or drinking or whatever, you're some couple will just give you a word, a feeling that you need to apply into your living that will help you make that change. And, of course, you've got to sustain it, of course, with your daily sitting.
Speaker: You've got to be able to to get out of your mind and observe your mind. which happens in the in the meditation process.
Speaker: Because you can't just do the talking. You have to stop your mind. yogas chita ritiniroraha You've got to stop the vritti, the flux between all these synaptual patterns that are firing in your brain. It's not just stop your thought.
Speaker: It's there's the flux of your brain, this buzz from all the synapses that are going on consciously, subconsciously, and unconsciously in your brain. When you slow those down, it's like a lake that becomes still.
Speaker: When the lake is still, you can see what's at the bottom. When there's a lot of waves on it, you can't see.
Speaker: So because the sankalpa is to really understand where you are in the evolutionary process and what you're supposed to be doing, the sankalpa is kind of happening all the time. And it's one of those things that we really just give name to.
Speaker: so But basically, it's just you find the intention first. And when you have the intention, you want to plant it into the different parts of your consciousness, really. Traditionally, it's done for 40 days. But I would say if you're a regular meditator, you don't need to do that.
Speaker: Because you in Ishtar, we have something called the Arta Vatva Samyama. which is really where we bring it back and bring the consciousness back into each chakra of the body and plant it there.
Speaker: To find it, the practice that we offer actually helps you find what that sankalpa is. And it's not what you go in thinking about.
Speaker: No. You sit there and you open, you're quiet, and there's a process to open your heart because it's all in the heart chakra. That your samkalpa lies.
Speaker: Yeah, so it doesn't come from the ego mind. It comes from the yeah the heart mind. and and so and But you know you you both mentioned loving. you know about how to You want to love yourself into shape. You want to love the samkalpa.
Speaker: But you've got to find it first. And then you can use that lovingly. to make the changes in your in your whatever the situation is that does that has been haunting you in life. The other thing I like about the sankalpa as it's traditionally practiced is that you have...
Speaker: a series of the meditation so that you spend a few days or some time finding it and that also that process allows it to evolve and become the right one and then there's a period of reflection and silence where you take time to really like sit with it you look at it you write it down and in your handwriting and see it and then you plant it into the chakras. And so it's quite a thoughtful way of not just on December 31st, like making a snap judgment about what you need to change, but you gradually find the exact perfect word or, well, okay, i'm perfect is wrong because there's no perfect, but... The word that that reflects what your samkalpa is and that surfaces up
Speaker: and then you give Over time. yeah Well, sometimes it can come immediately and sometimes take a week or two. But as it comes up and you feel what that energy is, you give it a name.
Speaker: Oh, my God, it's emotion. my God, it's being loving. Or whatever it is That's some kalpa, that's a, you give it a name. And I remember you you said to me once that, because I was, there was a ah certain amount of days, we did it 40 days after, and then you said, well, you just do it until you feel like it's planted. So that might be also two days, that might be nine days, it might take 40 days. But I always question,
Speaker: how you actually feel it's planted because that's a good question. That's not a vernacular that I'm super familiar with. So I tend to do it for the set number of days because I just want to make sure that it's, it's in there. And I don't trust that I feel it's planted in a way because that's the mind again telling me. Yeah, and also why it's most the most powerful when you plant it back into each chakra, if you can ask that out. Just to answer so Katrina's question is when you feel the ease, the flow in your heart, you'll know then, okay, it's flowing.
Speaker: I don't need this anymore. So yeah it's not something right or wrong or you've done it or you haven't done it. when you say it' It's common sense. You're just sitting there. You do it. You feel it.
Speaker: And then when you see that, wow, I'm flowing with it. I i no longer am desiring this pattern. It's made the change. And if you've got to do it your whole life because there's a strong karmic tendency that you need to be working on,
Speaker: this life then you lovingly do it your life so okay that's something i need to to every day in my meditation just feel until i feel it in my imprints of my consciousness and then you can let it go and if it's still there the next day do it again but eventually it changes So Al, can you just shine a little bit light on, you know, what a lot of times it's hard not to have the intention or the sankalpa being affected by the ego or past trauma or whatever it is that's already have those neural pathways laid out in your brain. So we have techniques, Nishtha, to help us to to not let it be ego-driven or trauma-driven. The very tools that we use Ahamkara Mudra into the heart, putting your...
Speaker: your thumb and your ring finger together and letting them touch and others just extended gently and you put this into your heart, that immediately starts to bring you in that you are listening.
Speaker: to your jiva atman. You're letting the jiva atman, as soon as you do that, your consciousness that goes to the senses. See, the Sanskrit word for that is jiva atman.
Speaker: And I keep using both because eventually when you realize that jiva atman is the consciousness that where I'm putting my consciousness to my senses,
Speaker: it's not ah It's not a person, there's nothing and it's your own consciousness that goes away from your senses back to your heart. Ahankara mudra stimulates that.
Speaker: Then we get you to feel mantras and things to help you go to the rhythm of the heart and come back and then to sit doing nothing and waiting for your samkalpa to appear.
Speaker: We give you five minutes to do that. It'll come through. So why is the heart so um important? Well, as we know, your heart has 40,000 neurons, the same in your brain.
Speaker: neuroos neurons neurons the same as in your brain So your heart... It's actually called the it's called the intrinsic cardiac cardiac nervous system. What's it called?
Speaker: Say it slowly. The intrinsic intrinsic cardiac nervous system. Very good. The intrinsic cardiac nervous system... his has its own little brain and your jiva is seated in your heart because your heart is works with your jiva to keep you alive, pumping.
Speaker: Two things that you know you're alive. The jiva is pumping, creating your heart to pump and your breath. If your breath stops or your heart stops, you're finished.
Speaker: Your time is up. Yeah. So you want to learn how to go back and feel in your heart where the jiva is. You want to come back and sit there. Even in your heart, it commands next door.
Speaker: The neighbors to your heart are your lungs.
Speaker: And so your jiva commands the breath.
Speaker: And it's linked to your heart and its relationship to nerves to the brain. Yeah, it it actually commutes communicates most mostly to the through the vagus nerve and sympathetic pathways and hormonal signals. But it's interesting that the the heart actually sends more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart, which is interesting. Thank you.
Speaker: So that's exactly what I'm saying. So he's validating this from ah neuroscientific studies, which he's done, Sebastian. That's nice to have him here.
Speaker: I'm useful for something. it it's nice to it's but no but It's nice to know that, Sebastian. Like when, okay, yeah, this actually this is what it's doing scientifically.
Speaker: And there is this connection. So you'll when you use these techniques, You're learning how to come into the heart's language, which is not your your normal language would be, okay, heart, tell me what to do.
Speaker: What the hang? Tell me. I'm here. Tell me. I'm open. I want it. but Not going to come. That's your head. So how to get out of your head, but still be present in your heart, there is a process.
Speaker: And that's why they say you want to come and sit in the couch of the heart. The jiva on its throne. means you want to come back, pull the energy away from your senses, back in concentrated to the heart.
Speaker: And when you just can sit there in that consciousness in the heart, it will trigger your brain to go out the way, the ego. And suddenly the kalpas come through.
Speaker: The fruits from the tree, the kalpa trees, will drop. called The kalpa or the kalpa. I don't know the full name. an Interesting part about the heart and it's actually called the heart brain. doesn't mean that there's a brain in the heart and those neurons aren't the same as the ones that we have in our brain. They're different, but they have similarities to the neurons we have in our head. But there's there's something called the Tukotumbo syndrome.
Speaker: And it's basically that that it becomes ah kind of cramp in your upper in your in your upper ventricle, and it can actually stop your heart.
Speaker: So feelings and emotions, really strong emotions, physical stress also can actually affect your heart to the way that it can actually stop. And one of those studies that was done ah that this was based on in the beginning was in Brazil, there was a soccer game, some kind of final. And this couple who loved football were sitting watching it. And the team that they had for the final was losing. And the husband actually got a heart attack. The ambulance came, picked him up.
Speaker: you know, and he went to the hospital. 15 minutes later, someone calls from that home and orders a new ambulance because his wife actually got this because of the stress and the sorrow that she felt, you know, for him being, getting a heart attack. and they concluded that when she got to the hospital in the way to save her life. um So actually, it's a legitimate symptom. You can actually...
Speaker: gets seriously injured from you know sorrow and and and broken heart syndrome, as it's called. It's kind of interesting. New ways of thinking about the heart, really. So don't do your samkhalpa practice, the essence of the story, at a football game. No. Or don't go into life so hard. Be detached from it and be detached from the ego. Totally. The only way what Savatsin is sharing with us,
Speaker: the scientific view, is you've got to let your mind go in order for the inspirational intelligence to come through your heart.
Speaker: If your ego is in the way, that other intelligence, your heart's wisdom can't be fed to you. And so the samkalpa practice is just that.
Speaker: The techniques and tools, how to quiet the mind, unfold, unravel yourself from your senses, to sit in the heart and how to get in and be there and wait to see what the kalpa is.
Speaker: When you got it, Then you learn how to plant it back into your chakras, which are your senses world, so that you can bring that, you're actually planting it into your senses.
Speaker: And when you do that, it takes out all the trying and doing. You do that and your life begins to change. But Katrina, you were saying before that you had you had a lot of problems with personal sankalpa about intentions. and And how did that change? What changed that? was it Well, I think just stopping doing it.
Speaker: Like just stopping feeling like I needed to do an intention or a sankalpa and letting myself off the hook. So you're not doing it this year? you're not doing it this year? know like I might do it this year i don't know it's something it's all about the feeling around it like if I feel like it's giving me anxiety because I need to do it or like the the the instead of feeling it's easeful I'm riddled with anxiety that I'm not going to do it well enough or that it's something that needs to change and it backfires if I'm like chill about it which I kind of
Speaker: feel these days. It feels like you are. kind of Yeah, well, it's just like, you know what, I'm old enough now that like nothing I do is really going to change much, so why bother being too worried about it? um But that self-acceptance is really key to just being like chill chill about the actual song called, but none of us, you know are it's not like you're giving yourself a lobotomy you are who you are despite like the yeah everything.
Speaker: So just, you know, chill, have a really happy new year, like 2026 is hopefully going to be awesome for everyone. And, you know, let it be. Just like the Beatles song. Just let it be.
Speaker: Yogananda told my father, who was a drug addict and shell-shocked in the war, Second World War, when my father met him, he said, just do the Kriya that I've taught you.
Speaker: Don't worry about your drinking and your drugs. don't Don't even bother about that. Do the Kriya and let yourself change. And my father did the Kriyas.
Speaker: Instantly they changed. And he stopped drinking and drugs. But it might take other people a little longer because the path my father took was pretty extreme, from nothing to three hours a day.
Speaker: Yeah. So that's okay. But I think it will happen quicker than 15 years. when so but When Sebastian came to New York and spent time with his teacher, me, and got the Shakti, he never drank.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I really didn't. But it's not something that comes just overnight. Like it is something that truly ebbs out like over time. It it it loses its grip on you. Yeah, but like you said, like with your father, it's very individual. For some people it goes really fast. Some people it takes longer. It's not good or bad. It's just, you know where you are in that evolutionary process and, you know, what you need and and how much time you need. And it's not good or bad.
Speaker: i like a beer once in a while. Why not? If you do that's great. Well, because if I tell myself not to drink, then of course it becomes an issue that I need to. So once in a while, like, let's just chill. wanted a beer, wouldn't drink. Totally. That's okay. yeah If you like to do that, that's okay. i To me, beer tastes like a copper ashtray. You just need to push past that. You never drank or smoked or anything.
Speaker: Really. When your nerves purify, they become so sensitive that you'll find that you can drink, you can smoke, you can do anything that's destructive to your system.
Speaker: mental like Mentally or physically. Well, I feel like my nerves are very purified. And i can yeah and you and you've changed dramatically. It kind of sounds like you can't have fun at all. like you can't Right. like oh Guys, thing like like how bored do you want to be in your life? yeah we so Welcome to Ishta. like You want to be as bored as you've ever been? Please. like Here's a list of what you can't do, okay? Yeah. yeah yeah
Speaker: That might be it for you. There's nothing you can or can't do. That's just mine. Yeah. All right, guys. Well, that's, some you know, insightful.
Speaker: That's good. Have a super wonderful 2026. Yes. Thank you for listening. namate thank you for listening this do Join us for the samkalpa. It will really help you easefully and lovingly th growth flow through what your life is. Namaste.
Speaker: So to learn more about the Sankalpa and actually take the Sankalpa class with Alan and Sarah, they have the Sankalpa on Thursday, January the 8th, 2026.
Speaker: And it's from 12 p.m. to 2.30 p.m. So just go to ishtayoga.com and we'll forward a link in the description. And you can just follow that and join the class.
Speaker: Bye.
Speaker: Thank you for joining us today. And have a super wonderful week. Namaste.
