Turning Inward

“If you want small, petty things to happen to you, you can do it. But if you really want something enormous to happen to you, you are not needed.”

—Sadhguru

Q: How can the Isha Yoga program help us to focus on the inward?

Sadhguru: These seven days are an opportunity for a person to explore himself. It is a personal exploration with the assistance of a master so that one can look at himself like he has never looked before. The practices are a great support in that direction. Whatever we individually understand, unless it is substantiated by personal application, it will not become a permanent process within you. Intellectual processes will have an impact today, but will be totally forgotten tomorrow. Today you read a book and it seems to be so wonderful and life changing, but the day after tomorrow you have forgotten it. Unless the intellectual dimension is reinforced with an experiential dimension, it does not really become a life-altering process.

The program is an opportunity for a person to really seek the innermost core within him. What you are doing in terms of practices in the program is just to mature your energies in such a way that, if you sit down, you do not need to do anything. You are willing to allow whatever happens to happen. The very fundamentals of Shoonya meditation (a powerful process of conscious non-doing) are just that: you are not needed. If you want small, petty things to happen to you, you can do it. But if you really want something enormous to happen to you, you are not needed. If you know how to keep yourself aside, it will happen.

“How do I do that?” You cannot do that; you just have to allow it. The practices that you are doing are just to bring your energies to that level of stability where you can just be. Not trying to do anything, not trying to get somewhere, simply allowing it to happen.

Editor’s Note: Find out more about Inner Engineering and Shoonya Intensive, including upcoming program dates and venues.