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: Okay, welcome everyone to the Genius of Nothing podcast. I'm Katrina and I'm here with A very well warm welcome to you all And Sebastian.
Speaker: Good evening. And we are working through the niyamas. So today we're going to talk about svadhyaya, which is self-study.
Speaker: And I always think this is an interesting one because it's not really about navel gazing or going into psychology the way al looks at it. But it is about really understanding yourself and what you need and how to find balance in yourself. And even earlier, I was talking about how I'm about to drop my daughter at university, and then I won't know really what I'm going to do with the rest of my life.
Speaker: and how to figure out what's your karma, what you're meant to be doing on this earth. And a lot of that is about sitting and understanding yourself. And things fall into place. So, Al, you've always been very reassuring that the right thing comes along. Yeah.
Speaker: Well, it's pretty obvious, Katrina, what you need to do next. to me nothing nothing you we need a second volume of the chakra book and you better we better just come to terms with it and start writing it so that's done um you see how quick things cure and you're in tune with the cosmos and the quantum consciousness
Speaker: But what about for people who are listening who might be trying to figure out, even you know my daughter's friend who has just failed miserably his A-levels and didn't get the place at university that he wanted and is now taking a year out. And I was saying to him, you know it's probably for the best because then you can really think about what you want to do and who you are and like kind of study yourself.
Speaker: What's an A level? ah It's like the final year of exams here that you need to get into university. And if you bomb them, so the universities are awful offer like conditional places in the UK. So if you get an offer based on the grades you're predicted, but if you don't get them, you don't get a place, which is a little bit like inhumane. And you have to wait a year to it again? Well, no, it's very boring. But then you have to go to a less good university and maybe not even do the course you want. and then But you can retake them if you wait a year. So it's all very annoying. very But I think people like struggle to find what they're meant to do and how to balance themselves. And all of that's really about the svadhyaya, knowing yourself. Yeah. yeah as i changes just for that Just to end for those people who are relating to what you just said, just want you to know that I have read one book in my life and the rest comes to me from the quantum field.
Speaker: Number one. Number two, it's really weird because so many of my students are all graduated from Harvard and Yale and all these fancy colleges, and they become a lot of them become yoga students and run yoga business. So sometimes these college things are a little overrated, not always. Sometimes they're amazingly correct. But if your destiny is taking you, look at where it's taking you and why.
Speaker: Don't be upset. But it's such a different knowledge, isn't it? I i mean, i have people, I've known people that that have gone to Princeton Harvard and they are amazed by, you know, when you're talking to them and or writing a book or doing something. Yeah. It's it's such a different knowledge, really. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. yeah which one i went to teach it um the medical, the national medical, i forgot, forgotten what it's called, the government-funded thing for in America, H-something or other. And I went to give a lecture to all the scientists, and there were a lot of Indians there and who were the working there, doctors and that.
Speaker: And they all came afterwards just amazed to hear this information, like how that's incredible. They never thought of it like that. And so, you know, it's kind of amazing. And my information, what I have and what I've shared with everyone comes mainly through quantum intelligence. In other words, when my mind is out the way, the information, quantum, you know, there is a, we all have consciousness and there's a universal consciousness. There's a collective consciousness. We're all part of it.
Speaker: And that consciousness that gave birth to all of the amazing things on our earth and how it's put together. Look at our earth, how amazing it is compared to Mars where there's just nothing.
Speaker: and buildings, and this, and motor cars, and jets, and it's kind of phenomenal. All of that comes from the collective consciousness through us evolving us.
Speaker: So bringing it to Swadhyaya, that's what a Swadhyaya is about. It's about studying the Sva, the part of you that is your self, your identity.
Speaker: looking at what what is your role in the collective consciousness, in its expression, in this plane that we live in of the five elements and the and the elemental chart and the five senses. Yeah.
Speaker: So svariyaya means self-study. It doesn't mean reading books, which people sit there and scriptures and doing that.
Speaker: Svariyaya yourself. Study who what your role is. by And the only way you can know that is not by logic. You can analyze that.
Speaker: You've got to learn how to tune into yourself and the quantum intelligence. So I'm a little bit, yes, I know, Katrina, I'm a little of a cowboy, and I don't want to read and I don't want to do psychology to help you find it, unless it were really necessary. Of course, psychology has its role, but it's not really its role is not in spirituality.
Speaker: It doesn't teach you how to get in touch with a quantum collective consciousness. That is the job of us, of yogis, of tantrikas, of writing books like the chakra book and how it needs to manifest. I'll keep quiet now.
Speaker: But if someone's looking for finding themselves and in the world or in a certain period of their lives, I always feel like you teach that you can only really do that by surrendering and not by pushing, not by... excessively searching for the thing or like trying to overthink it and you know force yourself to like get out there and network or whatever it is that actually whenever I've spoken to you about it it's really about sitting back letting things come in their natural time Not stressing and being anxious about what's to come and just trusting that the right thing, if you can quiet in your mind and like surrender and listen to yourself and study what's right.
Speaker: Which is interesting because it's so different from anything we've been taught or learned or how we usually go about doing these things. And and it almost seems like wrong to us.
Speaker: and And it really takes time to understand that that there is such a the greater intelligence in that. I do need a moment to to answer that. So please, I know I'm talking a lot this time, but this needs a little clarification.
Speaker: Different human beings are born with different doshas, different makeup. The makeup is vata pitta kapha.
Speaker: Either we have a lot of air and space and movement and breath, electricity. Either we might have a lot of fire, which is gives us our metabolism and our thinking, concentration.
Speaker: Or we might have a lot of kapha, what makes our mucus body the flesh body. And they all have different kind of traits. Vata is moving and creating and reading and pitta is studying and looking and analyzing everything.
Speaker: And kapha is sitting and accepting. So yeah, I'm kapha, so I talk from that point. But yeah, I'm very compassionate and know that people need to get more of the mind stuff.
Speaker: And let me say it like this. In the Kulanava Tantra, if it says you need to, and when you stand up off the floor, if you're sitting on the floor, you need to push yourself up to stand up with on the floor.
Speaker: So yes, you're in your mind and life and this Maya, but So you need to learn how to use your mind to project you out of the mind. And that does take for kapha type. We much prefer to say, you know what, it's all there. Let me just sit down and absorb it.
Speaker: But it's very hard for a vata person or a pitta person to to accept that or just do that. yeah So therefore, we do need all all the different elements that to help people do that.
Speaker: Sebastian is working on neuroscience, and we're beginning to work some charts out, neuroscience, yogic concepts, and the layman term of what it's what it's doing for us.
Speaker: And that's that is very much to to satisfy people how to self-study. So, yeah, to look at yourself and analyze, why did I get in such a mess?
Speaker: Because you need that.
Speaker: So in all these things, there's a balance. But the vata or pitta person in looking for who I am can get so caught up in the looking and the reading and the studying and the analyzing that now they find a new self but not the true self. and It's a very easy trap to fall into, especially when you have a lot of vata.
Speaker: But I think it's it's funny because if you look at the translation or if you look at, I looked up some definitions of Svarjaya online and there's a lot of different translations of it, but observing you know one' one's thoughts, emotions, habits and behavior comes up a lot.
Speaker: And i think it's really funny from ah from a cognitive neuroscience point of view. it's It's funny because that's basically studying an illusion because the the illusion of the self and because we know that the self is kind of a sort of illusion, really.
Speaker: um And To that point, there's something actually called change blindness, which is kind of an interesting thing in cognitive neuroscience. It's a phenomena which we where we really fail to notice you know very significant changes in our and in ourselves and in our thoughts, emotions, and motivations and all this. And it also actually affects time also, or our our memories, I should say. So it it acts so you feel that you're one consistent person through time, moving through time. Like you were the same person in all your memories. If you didn't have that, if that thing didn't clog in there, it wouldn't feel like you were the same kind of person. wasn't you really that that observed that because you would see the changes in you. So we have to have a certain thing that...
Speaker: you know paints in almost, almost like the blind spot you have in the middle of your eye, and that you're that you're kind of the same person, like in the illusion. And it's kind of interesting because it is really illusion. It's just a ah bunch of thoughts and analyzing the brain does, and it kind of merges together to feel like a self. But there is no real self. So isn italyly isn't that what my father used to teach?
Speaker: The science of lies. Yeah. Because your mind is all lies. it's temp It's not real. They just believe structures that are remaining as memories in your brain.
Speaker: It's trying to interpret the world from outside and interpret different outcomes constantly. that that That's what it's trying to do based from your history, from your genes and you know everything like that. But yes, it is pretty much lies because it could be totally false and wrong. So get that.
Speaker: That's why... The kleshas are there in yoga because they people interpret the kleshas as afflictions, something that's been afflicted on us. But really it's just errors that we develop in patterning of belief.
Speaker: When asmita is the first one, it's it's all of the the memories that are there. that make this world of avidya, of beliefs.
Speaker: yeah And so the Klisha says, once you get trapped in the likes and the dislikes and the memories, well, you're lost and you're going to forget that you're going to die. yeah And when you forget you're going to die, you become very scared of dying.
Speaker: And we feel that dying. Come on. People feel even the word when I say dying, death. You shiver. You shiver because ah I'm going to lose everything. Where am I going?
Speaker: You're not going anywhere in the mortal world. You're getting out of the mortal world. And when you get out of the mortal world, collective consciousness, anandam, There's another kind of loving and inspirational intelligence. And that's why I keep saying and act so strongly, Katrina, because I want people to reach that inspirational intelligence. And it's not just knowledge.
Speaker: But yes, we have to satisfy the knowledge to reach it. Let me ask you this, because before we jumped on the podcast, you were talking about how grateful you were that 79 you had work and you were really, you know, happy to work. And do you think everybody needs to work? I mean, that word is a bit loaded. well for well God, I don't really work.
Speaker: yeah I sit and talk about the cosmos and help people evolve. And if I didn't help everyone have this to do, I wouldn't be able to try and live to 108 years old, one mana. Is that what you're going for?
Speaker: Well, you know, everything is around that number. That's double the age I am now. Oh, wow. Do you think I should go for it? I'm 54. Should I try for 54 more years? Yeah, absolutely. Stop writing the chakra book already. Oh, my God. I'm already tired. yeah That's going to be like 18. chakra books. Yeah. So if we're going for 108, then... Because I was thinking about this the other day, when we lived in the caves thousands of years ago, we got to the age of the middle age of the whole world population, basically, was ah basically 29, 30. That's when you were most people were dead, basically. Then
Speaker: then fast forward to eighteen i think it us eighteen fifty about it was 35, 35, 36. So it gained, you know, what is it, like five, six years there um on it. And then from 1850 to now, where the age for worldwide is about, i think it's 68 or 69. So 30 years in in a very short time, you wonder what happened during that time? What is it that really made that huge leap?
Speaker: And that actually, i have to say, is science. because Yeah. What happened? Science, medicine, drought. Exactly. You didn't die every time you stepped on a rusty nail. didn't get a cough. You didn't die.
Speaker: Internet and all these things are creating the evolution. That's why I get angry when people want us to stay stay stuck in the old mode and stop evolution. And these things are bad. They need to be done correctly, not over. Yeah.
Speaker: But they're all part of the evolution and we need to realize that and not deny them, but ride the wave correctly. And that's why when people come to me and they have a problem with taking a medicine, I'm like, what?
Speaker: Who do you think made that medicine? said Human beings? Exactly. It came from the elements of the earth, that Brahman, the you the the unfr the unbound consciousness put here, not us. Yeah. We're just unfolding it.
Speaker: Yeah, and for for me, that's a lot about what svajaya is. Svajaya is studying yourself and um not from an ego point of view and understanding that what you need to move through this evolutionary process and work at your dharma, karma, whatever it is.
Speaker: And if that is, you know, antidepressants, if that's blood pressure medication, you know, doesn't matter, whatever it is. If you, to understand the svajaya is really that, to understand that I need that to be able to work out my karma, dharma,
Speaker: And do it the most efficient and graceful way. And that's a lot of what Svajjai is, to come to that realization, to understand what you need.
Speaker: So before we were talking about, you know, when we lived in the caves thousands of years ago and we, you know, hardly became 30 years old. And we ate, we ate kind of well then. I mean, we ate, everything was free range, ecological and well-earned.
Speaker: But I will say that that science is great and medicine is great, but it is actually, we do need to bring in medicine into more of a holistic kind of healing practice also. So therefore, it's there's a balance of it all.
Speaker: And he's sure, the doctors need to evolve in their little archaic in their design too, but they are. They're all evolving. We're all involving. Yeah, they're coming around. Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, how much of of meditation is starting to be more and more involved in medicine today? There was a study from Gothenburg University that said that where they wasn't huge, but it was still a study from the university that said that people, they studied people who had operations, that people that meditated or did breathing pranayama did actually, they held healed faster than people that didn't meditate. Yeah. That's kind of interesting. So it does have a very strong effect on our physical body in healing. My son, Diva, had brain cancer.
Speaker: They cut it out and the doctor said to him, there are four things that are going to carry you through this with whatever treatments we give you.
Speaker: But if you don't do these four things, they must probably won't work. Get enough sleep at night. Eat ava a vegetarian diet with, you can have fish twice a week.
Speaker: And for the oils of blah, blah, blah. Then walk for 20 minutes, keep movement. and meditate for 20 minutes a day.
Speaker: This was his prescription. And Diva, thank goodness, as they've seen. And he hasn't been on medication, but he has started one now. That's another story, but not it's just something that they use for this type of cancer, which definitely...
Speaker: cures it or doesn't allow it to come back. But he has had no cancer growth. He had a seven centimeter tumor. that's amazing. Cut out cancer.
Speaker: and And he's followed that and he started meditating. He comes to class every week with me. But from being a banker at Goldman Sachs, et cetera, he's meditating. so what you're saying is that there's even hope for bankers. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Speaker: So, guys, it always comes back to that. it that Slowly we will evolve back to that because there's so many from Sebastian's studies, Deepak Chopra, how they're studying science and what happens in meditation, which is kind of amazing.
Speaker: but But you come back to it all, and the tantric tools and the Ishta tools that we have extracted, they're still standing strong as tools for the future.
Speaker: And two, let me find yourself. Okay, so so let me ask you this little more straight on. One of the core roles of Svajaya, one of the principles is really to uncover, understand, and really transform what is called our samskaras. And samskaras like deep subconscious imprints and from from from our past experiences and patterns that we have. And is there effective way really to become more aware of our samskaras?
Speaker: to be To see them, you know, not not judge them. I'm very specific about not judging anything here because there's nothing wrong with those. But to see them, to understand them compassionately, to be able and to be able to release them. Is there an effective method that you can share that you think is good to release these samskaras? I taught you yesterday in class.
Speaker: The Krama breath, three-part breathing, which takes you down and when you breathe in for three, pause, in for three, pause, from the top down. It takes you down into you unconscious.
Speaker: And then you do a traversa where you breathe in for nine, out for three, out for three, out for three, which opens your unconscious and subconscious... Sorry, got it tickled, to reveal itself. That's interesting because that was basically stolen or science kind of stole that and court and now they call it the physical psi and it's the...
Speaker: the breathing that is actually medically proven to you know get you down in cortisol levels and stress hormones in the most effective way. And it's called the physical side. And it's actually two inhales through the nose and one long exhale through the mouth. They kind of just took that from from pranayama and just changed, tweaked it a little bit, made some differences, some changes. But yeah, basically they took that so and called it another name. Yeah. Most probably with letters.
Speaker: Instead of, most probably, Krama breath. Tantric Krama breath. TKB. The TKB practice. In the store close to you soon. Only 999. Breath not included. everyone Oh my God.
Speaker: that
Speaker: So if you do that breath, it will help you every day. Three times on the inhale, in for three, in for three, in for three, out for nine to go deeper, deeper into your sub and unconscious. yeah Then you reverse it to open the unconscious so surfaces.
Speaker: Svartyaya, so this unconscious can be seen and subconscious. Out for three, out for nine. Then you do the reverse, in for nine, you go into your unconscious and from the bottom, out for three,
Speaker: Out for three, out for three coming up. And that's how you release. You bring the unconscious up. And that is Swariyaya.
Speaker: Because the real goal is to see what have I locked into my sub and unconscious that's haunting me and become a pattern. That's a pattern of beliefs that are haunting me.
Speaker: And the breathing control circuits in the brainstem, which is functionally connected and interact really with the, to something called the basal ganglia and what is called habit loops, which is like unconscious behavior, stuff we do that we don't really know about that we're doing perhaps that that are a little hidden from us. And the basal ganglia is to explain what that is in layman terms. It's like...
Speaker: gatekeeper for voluntary movement. Or in other words, if if your if your brain is a party, it's the the guy that tried that is sober trying to make all the other people not jump off the roof, basically. yeah But it does actually help us to understand that breathing actually has a purpose and can actually help us to connect to you know those deeper unconscious parts of the mind and behaviors that we have, which is interesting that they're so close together in the brain.
Speaker: which is really kind of amazing. but it so That is really Swadhyaya. Not just sitting there and gossiping about concepts and talk and, you know, why. It's not really just a psychology.
Speaker: It's just study back and get rid of all of these things, how we've locked stuff into our brain so we can know who We are.
Speaker: We are who. We are the one that's asking. And that who is inspiration, guidance, and direction, and it's always there.
Speaker: Have you gotten that, Katrina? I mean, you've studied for a very long time with Al, and you've been, like, do you feel like Svajaya's really, you've gotten a deeper and understand yourself very much more now than you ever have before? Yeah, I think I understand what motivates me. i think I'm able to be more self-reflective. I can see myself having emotions and that they are emotions and it helps me to kind of, i mean, it's not that I don't have emotions because I certainly do and I like get angry and all of that, but I can quite quickly see where it's coming from. And then i guess the only thing really for me with
Speaker: Svadhyaya now is just moving into a new chapter of my life and kind of thinking about like who I am now and trying not to think about it really and trying to just, you know, let what's meant to happen, happen and get out of my own way. um because I think we're constantly evolving. And I don't even know for myself, like what the next chapter is that's going to fulfill me in like intellectually, because I need that. um
Speaker: And yeah. no Nobody, nobody ever knows. yeah You don't know. So you just sit and you become present. And when you're present, you don't need to know.
Speaker: It unfolds. But to analyze it, nobody can tell that. You've just go to be pay you got to patiently go back, go back to Svah, to your pure self.
Speaker: And it it will unfold. Like I've told you in everything in your life, Katrina, and slowly it's all unfolded. Here it is, 54 more years to go. yeah Before Katrina used to need a Dharma session twice a week, now doesn't even need me.
Speaker: Which is a compliment. Okay, well that seems like a good place to finish up. Wonderful everyone, I hope that you find the who in who you are.
Speaker: And have a super wonderful day expressing that into each moment of your living. Namaste. Namaste.
Speaker: Thank you for joining us today and have a super wonderful week. Namaste.
