Welcome to Destiny. Now here's your host, Cliff Dunning.
Hey, how are you? Come on in? Have a seat. This is Cliff, your host of Destiny, and I hope you're doing well today. We got a magical sacred art to talk about. We haven't talked at all, well, very little about yoga. And yoga is one of these sacred arts that I firmly believe comes from that early period of the yogas, the Satya or the treat to yoga period, because whoever designed and came up and formulated the details of yoga understood the body down to a cellular level.
They have done tests on people who do yoga regularly and discovered not only is there a huge benefit for the circulatory system, the heart, the digestion, everything. It's a wonder exercise. That's why it's so popular. It also it also connects us to the brain, to the spirit, and to the higher levels. After I do yoga, I feel really,
really good. If you ask somebody who does regularly or who does yoga on a regular basis, how they feel after they do a session, most people will say, I feel amazing, I feel wonderful, and it's a it's really It's quite unique in the way it is designed around using the body's weight to anchor. I mean you've heard things like downward dog, cat pose, lion pose, and these different poses. Each of poe's that you perform has a directed ad, a group of organs, a group of muscles,
even bone, and it's brilliant, you know. I before I started reading about it in Great Lanths and this is years ago, somebody told me that during the Maha Barata Wars of India, and this is thousands and thousands of years ago, they think that yoga's seven thousand years old. It's actually you know, if you think about satya or treata yoga, that's one hundred thousand years ago. And of course some of you are listening and going, no, why are you talking about one hundred thousand years Cliff, You
are out of your gourg. It's possible, and don't I don't discount anything anymore. I mean I had to consider just how advanced yoga is. But anyhow, the story goes that when they had these flying craft known as Vamana, and they fight and the craft were passing through the atmosphere and the other planetary systems to our Cosmos. Yoga was developed as a exercise of the pilots of the crew so that they would get the needed exercise without having to fly to a gravity based planet and get
out and stretch and run or whatever. So and of course I don't know if that's true or not, but it sounds plausible. It really does. Of course, a lot of you are listening and going, here we go, here we go. Come on, how nutty does Cliff Dunning get on this show? Notice the quiet pause. No, I don't know.
I mean, I think it's very, very advanced. And so when we have people on the show talking about the Golden Age, the gardener viten of the yogas satya and the treta yoga systems, the Yuga periods, these Golden ages are prime for yoga, for meditation, for even taichi, you know, even though it's attributed to the Chinese, I think taichi is one of those universal systems of moving energy through and around the body. Well, yoga, yoga is just amazing.
I've done tai chi. I'm sorry. Yoga by far is more immediately beneficial, and I've done I've probably done it twenty five years and when I was just starting out, I had chronic low back problems. I had sciatica. I sat too much, and so I had compressed lumbar vertebra. And when I started stretching and started doing the downward dog and joining classes of others doing these exercises, I felt so good and it was relieved of such so much strain and pain that yoga began to be my
healing tool. And so I reduced my visits to the chiropractor almost in half, if not more. I'd go twice a month, sometimes three times if I was in a lot of pain. And so those of you who are sedentary, you know, there's all types of yoga. There's you can do. I don't want to call it geriatrics yoga, but if you're in your sixties, seventy eighties and beyond, you can actually send in a chair and stretch your legs and stretch your back and bend forward and just this amazing
stretching is such a benefit. And of course if you are able to stand, and if you are able to kneel and get down on a yoga mat or just on the floor and do a few of the poses, they are amazingly beneficial. So this is something we're going to talk about today, and we're gonna go one step further. We're going to talk about the meditative practice that is carried out in a lot of different teachings to meditate
with mantras to prepare the day. And you know what I've learned is that you do your stretching first in preparation for your meditation. So you unblock the arteries, you unblock the the energetic super highway that runs through the body. And you stretch and you release hormones, you release tension or knots or whatever. You take a break, a couple, have a glass of water, then you sit for your meditation. And I got to tell you, wow, wow, wow, wow,
this is something to really consider. So now, if you're interested in considering yoga, I really recommend that you try to go down to a local YMCA, YWCA gym fitness center, private class, pay your three, four or five class tuition for at least a month, and learn the basics. Learn the basics with a teacher. So once you have those basic poses in printing your brain, then you can keep going to the courses, to the classes or And this happened during the pandemic when you were not supposed to
gather together. You can develop your own ritual of stretching when you first get up, followed by your short meditation. You know a lot of my listeners are like, Cliff, I don't do that. I get up, have my coffee rushed to work. Well, if you can begin incorporating yoga and meditation, you're gonna do a couple of different things. First thing you're gonna do is you're going to begin reversing aging processes. You're gonna start reversing physical problems throughout
the body. And as we age, it's tougher to recover, it's tougher to heal, and we don't always have time to go to the gym. But if you do yoga every morning, it's a substitute some ways, not necessarily for the weight training, although there are poses that you use using your own body weight to practice various poses. But as you are working in these yogic poses, you are
benefiting the body on numerous levels. So if you can't get to the gym, at least you have the training the very and you can learn it in a few weeks, and perhaps your teacher will also give you recommendations for a book to hold on to as well. If you're not into groups, at least go and practice the basics, just the basics. But it's also great to go to fellowship in the community. When you're with others, you can chat about you know, how you're feeling, how you're doing,
and you develop fellowship. And that's also a big part of the program of yoga. So today we're going to learn about both aspects. That's the bio the brain, and that's the spirit of yoga. So today's program is the Yogi's way transform your mind, health and reality. And my guest here on Destiny is Rima Data. If you haven't been to Turkey, it is a fabulous country to visit.
Not only is Istanbul a cosmopolitan, very modern city, but the people are wonderful, the food, the beverages are fantastic and of course if you're with Earth ancients, we're going to see the ancient sites. Our tour this year is June twenty second to July second, and we'll be visiting go Beckley Teppe, the underground city of darren Kuru, the Kappadocia, the hill cities, Carahan Teppe, will visit Karahan Teppy and have private.
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We have the full like tenerary for you to view and also more details available for registration. Turkey is not to be missed. We do it once a year. We take small groups of people so we all can see the museums, we can stay on one bus and it's a wonderful country to tour. For more information, go to Earth Ancients dot com Forward slash Tours and see all the details, or email me at earth Ancients the number four of the letter you at gmail dot com for
any specifics you might need. This is a special tour, it's unique. We'll be with SABA Tours and it is not to be missed. Again. For more information and to register, go to Earthancents dot com Forward slash Tours. You got a good one for you this week. You know, we talk about yoga, we talk about the various ancient techniques for wellness, and we haven't had anyone really present the material on the program. And this week we have a new author who has written a book called The Yogi's
Way Transform Your Mind, Health and Reality. And I had a chance to look at it. It's a good one, not only because it presents the basics of yoga, but our author today also has studied Vedic texts and presents details of that in the book. And as someone who's meditated for a number of years, this is important to know.
This is the.
Roots of yoga, the roots of meditation, and it gives us a sense of how old it is. So my guest today, Rima Data, has learned yoga and are Veda from her mother and her grandmother as well as her grandfather. She's been teaching yoga for over twenty years. Right there. That's something to consider. And this new book is kind of a distillation of what she's been up to and we're going to learn more about it today. Sorima, Welcome to Destiny. Great to have you on the program.
Thanks thanks for having me.
All right, I got to get right to it. Why this book, Why write all this material? And why did you need to present it? And that's basically the fundamentals of writing. But hey, tell us what it's all about and why, you know, One reason.
Is I've traveled so much and taught yoga and throughout Europe and Asia and North America. And one thing I've noticed is that yoga it's almost equated with asena, which is the physical postures, and it's almost like yoga and asna have become synonyms. And the way I grew up with yoga, we did asina and that's a part of yoga, and it's a very powerful part of yoga. And I
recommend that everyone practices asina. And there's so much more to yoga that I feel like is being lost, and there's not the awareness of the other dimensions of yoga. So I really wanted to write a book to share what those other aspects of yoga are and how to integrate them into our practices and into our lives.
Tell us how you feel about the beginnings of yoga. We don't really know where it came from. And you know, we talk on this program about the yogas this ancient system of mankind's dwelling on the earth, and there's these very early golden ages of the Satya and the Trita
yoga period. Does it feel to you like this yoga came from that time when we were supposed to be living in this garden of Eden, and we were these divine beings, and this was a practice that was perpetuated in those earliest periods.
It definitely feels like yoga came from a time when people were very connected to nature and to the cosmic energies, and their intention of their intention of the earth yogis was to live in alignment with the cosmos, you know, the Sun and the moon and the planets. And I think they lived such quiet and you know, lives that were grounded close to the earth that they were in sync. Yeah,
and they felt out of sync. They were like, okay, well, here are some practices to get us back into harmony, not just with our mind, body, and spirit, but with the greater cosmos. You know, how can we live in harmony with the land and the our surroundings.
It doesn't it feel like yoga is really I mean, I feel it's extremely advanced. It's like from another planet almost. It's like somebody understood our physiology and the mind body spirit connection that is brought forward. Talk a little bit about what your feeling is and your understanding on that.
I mean, it's amazing. I think even now, like science is just catching up with the Yogis, Like they're supporting a lot of Yogic wisdom how the mind, how the thoughts and emotions affect our body and even our reality. But I feel like even it's just science is just brushing upon what a depth of understanding the Yogis had of the subtle body, how our body is made of subtle winds and the thoughts and emotions right on those winds, and they affect our energy, they affect our health, they
affect the way we experience the world. And their knowledge of the subtle body was so profound. I think science and still catching up, and I feel like for them to have figured out what kind of thought patterns and emotions affect what kind of parts of the subtle body and the gross body, like they had to have such
a sharp awareness, you know. And I think, I mean, we know that the Yogis took themselves into deep meditative states, and when they got meditative and receptive, they realize these teachings, and I think we have hope that we can also experience those states. But it's just so hard because there's so much distraction in our world now, there's so much activity.
There's the internet, or like, you know, it's hard to actually like sit and be quiet and get that that all of quiet tune and awareness of how how thought not just like what we eat and how we exercise affects our health, but even what kind of thought patterns and emotions affect our wellbeing.
What have we lost by being so absorbed on the internet and constantly looking at our phones and being distracted. What does that do to us?
But I feel like we're losing so much, you know, And it's like not just adults, but even our children our suffering with like mental illness and anxiety and sorrow and depression and jealousy. And it's like all these emotions are gripping our minds and draining our energy. And the Yogis knew that our thoughts and emotions have that potential, but they also gave us these practices that we don't have to be gripped by these emotions. Like, of course
we're going to feel anxiety sometimes. Of course we're going to feel sorrow sometimes. But there's a way to experience those emotions and be in integrity and not brush them
aside or anything. Like be in our fullness and our wholeness, but not get gripped by those emotions and still have a deeper awareness of consciousness, you know, this deeper part of ourselves in the world, which I feel that is something we're losing because to really tap into consciousness, which is the deepest and most powerful part of ourselves, a really essential part of ourselves, does require quietness and practice.
I think we're losing, like the ability to focus and to have discipline because all these practices of the Yogis, you know, whether it's meditation or mantra or praniama movement, it's only powerful when we do it consistently, you know, like repetition, Like the neuro sciences are now saying, like we have to have repetition to create the new neural pathways.
The Yogis was saying the same thing. To have the new subscaas the new habits, there has to be consistency and repetition, and that requires focus and discipline, which is so hard to have when it's like our minds are on our phones and social media and every second is a different thing.
You know, it's really bad, it's really and I'm sure there's been medical literature written on this. But it seems like when we're constantly distracted, are constantly on our phones, our mental faculties are damaged, aren't they.
Yeah, I think science is proving that that, you know, our ability to focus diminishes so much. And science has also shown us that the more we can focus on
the present moment, the happier we are. You know, there's a study that I mentioned in the book that even when the mind is distracted by a happy thought or a happy memory, we feel less content than if we're just present in the moment, just like what all spiritual traditions are teaching us, you know, to be present, to be in the moment, not get gripped by the past or concerns about the future. But I think the way our society is today is becoming more and more difficult.
But I think that's why it's becoming also more and more important to be part of a community and practice together, because otherwise it's like we're so easily distracted and a day goes by, two days go by, and then you know, it's like starting from scratch again. But communities, I mean, they can really motivate us and keep us up with
our practices and then the journey becomes fun too. It doesn't have to be like a drag, like oh, I have to sit and meditate and it's lonely or you know, it's like it's fun because we share our stories and our breakthroughs and our breakdowns. And I think community is
just what it's like more. I mean, yoga was always passed down in community, Like traditionally in the Vedic era, they had schools for yoga, and all the students and the teachers lived in the same vicinity and had each other's support, So that was always part of passing down the teachings. But I feel like now like we're in this epidemic of loneliness and isolation and we're disconnected from
our ourselves and from each other. And I feel like without community, I don't know if we can really get that discipline and motivation.
It's tough though, because we've just finished with this pandemic where we were forced to isolate. Yeah, and I think, I mean, I'm one of them, of course, my girlfriend and it forces me to do stuff, but I'm still reticent about going out and doing things because in the back of my mind, I'm like, Okay, who's sick now you know.
Oh yeah, yeah, well there's online communities you can Oh that's a good point. Even that that's much better than doing things on your own, you know, just to have that accountability. It's like it's really I mean, I feel like the ancient use their wisdom was just mind blowing because now we have the science. Like I was researching for my book and found that people who have an accountability partner are sixty five percent. They have a sixty five percent and success rate at creating change in their
life and reaching their goals. And those who have regular check ins with their accountability partner, the success rate is ninety five percent.
I believe it.
Those who don't have an accountability partner ten percent success rate.
Okay, Rima, that's your next book, The Accountability Partner and how to get one, because I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I think what you're talking about is finding a community and then you'll pair up with people and that's your accountability or maybe the group. Is it the group or what?
Well, so the way we do it, like we have a community and you know, we have a twelve week course coming up, and so I'm encouraging people to either sign up with a friend or they'll be paired with a friend. So you only have one accountability partner within
the community, and we call it matre. Like in Sanskrit that's a is a friend, but it's like a very special friend that protects you from harm, not just the harms of the world, but the way we harm ourselves through our own thoughts and words and actions and choices. So with our Matra, we have even more chickens, not just once a week, but we'll give our Metra our
phone number. And just like anytime we're where we feel like we're sliding from our practices or we're going through a big thing, whether it's a breakdown or a breakthrough, like we have someone to share our experience with and to vocalize it and in that way process it.
I really like it.
You have a question like I did this practice and this crazy thing happened, I don't get it, Like you have someone to share your experiences with and in that way process it and then you can it's your choice if you want to bring it to the larger community or not, but just to have that person that you have a commitment you're sharing this commitment or X amount of days. In our case, for this twelve week program,
we're going to do these daily practices. You know, we're going to do certain practices daily, certain practices once a week, and you're on a journey together.
I really like that a lot. Before we move forward, I want to ask you how did you get connected to the musicians staying? Because he's all over the place and there's a big hug. It's a photo you'll give him giving you a big hug. I'm like, well, did she give a class or something and he showed up? Or is it more he recommends your classes?
Well, you know, years ago, I think it was two thousand and four or five, I think I mentioned to you I was living in San Francisco. I had decided I was actually working full time at a yoga studio called It's Yoga and San Francisco, and I decided to leave that studio. I had told my boss that, like, I grew up with yoga, and I just had this curiosity of other spiritual traditions that I wanted, and I had an opportunity to go to Brazil and and so I decided to leave that studio. And one of the
a friend that I had went to Brazil with. He said, you know, you should meet my friend Danny, Like he's really he's a great yogi. He teaches yoga all over the world, and he also is tapped into other spiritual traditions and you know, brings them into his workshops and classes. So I said, okay. So after I came back from Brazil, I call him Dairy Paradise, who's this amazing yogi and teacher, And ended up he invited me to teach yoga with
him all over the world. Actually he was about to tour all through Europe and Asia, and so he said, why don't you come and teach with me? And I said, okay, I just left my job, so I said all right. And he was Sting's first yoga teacher and Madonna and Paul Simon and you know rock stars, and he was also one of the first traveling yoga teachers. Like now there's so many traveling yoga teachers, but he was kind
of the pioneer of that. And so he brought yoga you had to Sting, and then Sting brought it to his bandmates, and you know, it spread like wildfire. But he was he was a huge figure in that. And so when I was traveling with Danny, I met Sting we want some of his homes in Italy and England, and then we would often meet him backstage for concerts and he often does yoga right before he goes on stage. Yeah.
Oh yeah, that's years he's been doing that, and so he he has several yoga instructors he works with, but then I became one of them, and you know, I've met him, I think it was two thousand and four or five, and to this day where we're in touch and I'll try to meet him as often as I can.
So do you show up when he's in the area and you know, go work together in some yoga?
Yeah? Yeah, he Actually it was kind of amazing. I moved to Tallas about five years ago, and that summer he did a concert in Taos, which was which was kind of mind boggling because he went do concerts in small towns. So I met him backstage and we did some practice together.
Fun for you, Yeah, so wonderful.
Wow. Sometimes I travel to meet him and sometimes you know, like in Tows he showed up and.
Yeah, fantastic. I want you to explain a little bit about the meditative aspects of yoga. I typically do the physical because I've practiced yoga. Excuse me, meditation, uh to another technique I use, but it is Indian. What is the benefits and why is meditation part of the yoga system?
Yeah, you know, there's so many practices that are meant to become to be meditative, you know, and then eventually lead to just seated and silence and stillness. But the I think what is special about what yoga brings to meditation is this awareness that the body is made up of these subtle winds and what affects the winds. Again, our thoughts, our emotions affect the winds more than our nutrition, more more than the way we exercise, you know. Our
thoughts are so powerful. So there's a lot of understanding of how different thoughts affect different parts, different winds in the body. So just for example, there's five major subtle body winds. There's more, but there's five major ones. And like the winds at the heart are affected by anger and thoughts and emotions around anger, the winds that the belly are affected by jealousy and confusion, and the winds that the reproductive organs are affected by isolation and fear.
The winds that the throat are affected by attachment and addiction and shame. And then there's vi ana value, which is an all pervasive wind that's affected by anxiety. So when we so meditator practices, it can be you know, breathwork, but it's the ancient practices. They often include awareness of our thoughts and like noticing what thoughts are harmful and what thoughts create blocks and our subtle winds and what kind of thoughts are actually uplifting and loosen of the
subtle of the subtle body. And so the practices, you know, ultimately they're about they're about recognizing that we have blocks in the body and we have blocks in the mind. But how do we work at the level of our thoughts and emotions and breath and awareness to loosen those knots.
And you know, in Sanskrit, those knots are called grunties, which literally it translates to very difficult knots to untie, Which is why we have practices with breath of movement, of working with our thoughts of you know, healing our emotional wounds, like, because those knots are so hard to so difficult to untie that. It's like we work from the inner body, like from the inside out through our thoughts and emotions, and we also work from the outside
in with our breath and our movement. So it becomes like for it to really work, for us to really loosen the knots, we we have this like holistic approach.
We're gonna take a short commercial break to allow our sponsors to identify themselves, and we will return shortly with my guest today, Rima Data, discussing her new book, The Yogi's Way. We'll be right back. My guest today is Rima Data. She is really the new book on yoga called The Yogi's Way, Transform Your Mind, Health and Reality. She has been teaching for over twenty years and has developed a system based on the ancient sanscript Vedic texts
from ancient India. And in your practice and how you teach, do you open the class with a short meditation followed by the actual postures or how do you how do you work?
Yes? You know what I started to do as I was creating the content for this book. I it's flayed in the book. How you know a lot of this approach was born out of my own. I went through a difficult time in my life, and I was actually overcome with anger and attack.
That's the beauty of the book, though it's a hard times to glory times.
Yeah, So I felt disconnected from these deeper teachings of yoga, you know, and I felt like and then I knew that I wasn't the only one who was dealing with mental turmoil and having a hard time getting a hold of my mind, because I saw it all around me, you know, and then we know the statistics like anxiety
and depression, it's just skyrocketing right now. So I went back to the texts and really studied this wisdom and was and just continued to be kind of shocked that it's so lacking in the mainstream yoga world and in the dissemination of yoga today, you know, because again it's
mostly the physical aspect. So so I went back to those teachings and what I started to do is I noticed, you know, how I was mentioning how certain emotions affect certain winds, and then that affects that that leads to certain diseases and balance is so I I, you know, with the backup of these ancient teachings. I started to create a yoga sequence for each emotion, and so if you're feeling afflicted with anger, then you can do this sequence.
And each sequence has a meditation, a breath practice, a movement practice, a visualization practice, a mantra, and so I kind of like focused on the emotion and in Sunsprit we call it a clasia. Claysia is like a harmful thought or emotion and anger, attachment, anxiety, shame, those are some of the big ones. Fear, so the and so what I started to do when I teach, you know, I would say, okay, today we're working with this emotion.
This is how it affects the subtle body. These are the types of illnesses or imbalances it can lead in our physical body. And we're going to go through this specific set of movement and breath work and meditation and visualization and mantreat to work with this particular clasia.
Yeah, the clachias are kind of the foundation of your book, and I really like that you brought them out because these are serious issues. If you are not resolving your cliches, it can cause disease. Right, So give us first of all, describe what it is I think you just gave us the majority of what the description is, but what are they specifically and how do they come up in our system?
Sure, so the definition of clacia in the yoga texts the sensor texts is a mind poison or a destructive emotion, And those are strong words, but it yeah telling of how well the Yogis knew about the power of our thoughts that they can literally destroy our health, which science is showing us. Now you know certain thoughts can be harmful and and emotions, you know that is trickier to
look at. But to be clear, what the teachings are in the text is that no emotion is a good or bad in and of itself, Like there's nothing wrong with feeling anger, or there's nothing wrong with feeling fear, like that's just a natural part of being human. But whether our emotions become something wholesome that leads to healing or something harmful that leads to a disease depends on
how we experience and express them. Right, So in a way, emotions are not intrinsically good or bad, but it depends on like do we have the tools and the practices to experience them and constructive beneficial ways, which is what I was, you know, giving practices for that in the book. But that's so oor clacias. Clacia is the word when
the emotions and thoughts become harmful. You know, if we experience anger and we just understand that that's part of being human and there's a message behind this anger, there's I can catch the energy of the anger and use it in a way that's useful. It's not a clachia.
So you just describe the resolution of it. So you recognize that you're angry about something and you just can't see straight because you're so angry. And then by recognizing, wait a minute, I'm angry and I'm angry about this, So you're doing some self therapy, is what it sounds like.
Yeah, Like, you know, I can be angry that there's violence in my community and it just really pisses me off, and I'm just like, I have a daughter. I want her to be safe, you know, So instead of just sitting in my house and just brewing on this anger and it's creating notts in my body, I can recognize, like, you know, my daughter's safe is important to me, and I'm going to connect community. I'm going to figure out I'm going to work with some people figure out solutions
to this problem. And then all of a sudden, I'm using that energy behind the anger in a way that's helpful instead of in a way that's harm harming mostly myself, right, because I'm the one who's creating notts within. So that's like how an emotion isn't really good or bad, but it's how we experience it, how we express it. So when the emotion becomes something that we're not processing well
and that's creating nots, then it becomes a clacia. Then it becomes a poison in our body, and it's creating blocks in the body which can lead to illness and imbalance and disease.
And I love this because you are working with these cliches by acknowledging them, doing a meditation with the mantra, and then physically doing your your poses to release it mind, body, and spirit. Is do I got that right?
Yeah? All of that because it's that's what I wanted to bring. What through this book is just saying that, you know, yoga really is holistic, like we have to approach it from all these angles. If we're just doing the movement or we're just doing the meditation, we might not actually get to the roots of our blocks and our wounds and have like lasting healing and growth. Because as you know, and all of us experience, like we do a yoga class, whether it's movement or meditation, and
we feel so good after, Like they're powerful practices. Yeah, but you know, after traveling so much and talking to people, but people would come to me and they would say, like, I do yoga and I feel peace for like twenty minutes. But that that peace and freedom that's written in the ancient texts, that like not many people are experiencing that,
which is like a lasting piece. It's like a piece that no matter what's going on in our inner world or outer world, we're like rooted in this okayeness, and we can bring that piece to our surroundings. Like that's something that's become rare. And I feel like that does require a holistic practice. You know, we're working on all these different layers of ourselves.
Yeah, I like that. In your research for your book, did you discover that the Sanskrit passages of ading passages give examples of these class and people having these problems.
I mean, it's very like in the Yoga sutras, it lays it out very clearly that they identify five major cliches which are anger, attachment, fear mostly fear of death. What are the other ones? Pride or feeling of separation between self and other and then the other biggest cliche's delusion like illusion, illusion like thinking that you're separate, you know, are thinking that the divine doesn't live within you, powerless.
You're totally disattached.
Yeah, to be you know, detached from that that wisdom and that that those eternal truths that we are connected, what science is telling us now that we are all interconnected, we're part of one big energy field. You know, that's delusion when you when you live not in accordance with those eternal truths.
This do do another emotional uh problem that a lot of people have, which is depression. Yeah, let's talk about how you would go about processing that emotion. What would you recommend?
You know, I would like contemplation and journaling are huge parts of the journey, So I would recommend writing about it, like getting try to get clear on like what is causing the depression, Like where did it start? How is
it deepening? What what am I experiencing in my body and my mind, my heart when when I'm feeling afflicted with the depression, and then doing a certain certain breath works that are uplifting, you know, Like a lot of praniama practices, they each have different effects, you know, So for depression, I would probably recommend like a faster like a bastrika kabati where you're doing more like rapid breaths that are uplifting and energizing and.
What do you call it the shan asanas as excuse me, Yeah, that's what you're doing with this kind of stuff.
Right, that's funny. I'm the breathwork is pranyamayah and then the asna is the postures. And depression really affects vian a value, which is the full body. So doing any kind of movement is great for depression. So a movement practice that's touching upon all parts of the body would be good for depression. Then nurturing yourself with rest and
good food, nutritious food, good community. And one of the practices that I offer for depression is actually service, you know, to get out of your mind a little bit and distract yourself in a good way through service by getting absorbed and giving to someone rather than like letting the mind ruminate about what is causing the depression and.
Services that it's fantastic. In the book, your book, Yogi's Way, you have the twelve pillars of the Yogi's Way. What are the twelve pillars? Talk about that?
Yeah, so the twelve pillars. One is community ar matras, which I mentioned breath, you know, to expyand our energy through breath. The third is healthy thoughts to recognize the thoughts that are harming yourself and others and to engage in practices to create new habits a positive thinking. Another is mantra mantras. A lot of manthras are like affirmations, you know, if we have the habit to being down on ourselves and thinking like I'm stupid, I'm incapable, I can't.
A lot of manthras are very uplifting, like giving us the message that I am powerful, I am capable, I'm strong, i am pure, I can you know, I can face my challenges. I can overcome my challenges.
Let me stop you real quickly, Rima. Are you suggesting that we can use lautras in our meditation. Absolutely, I mean that's what I use mind for but mine's just a sound that helps me harmonize. So you're suggesting, and they feel almost like affirmations in the form of a mantra.
There are a lot more about that.
I love that.
Yeah, but you can also do mantras while you're folding her laundry or doing the dishes or driving, you know, which is like that's I mean. I speak about my grandmother in the book, and her main practice was mantra. But she she had mantras in her mind all day, you know, while she's cooking, grocery, shopping, sewing clothes for her daughters, you know. And so there's like and I
write about how her life was very challenging. She was a lot of oppression and patriarchy that she dealt with, but she had so much in her joy and like this like unshakable peace, and it came from those mantras, like just constantly having them moving through her mind. She had so much resilience, you know. So the mantras are very powerful.
Talk about how that would work because I think our listeners are like, what I'm just talking about something, I'm just you know, what's she talking about? Give us the meat and potatoes of it, because I can't explain how the mantra works for me because I remember when I I mean, I was like eighteen or something and I was given my mantra, and the first time I did a meditation, I went so deep. It kind of scared me because I wasn't asleep, but I was deeply altered.
And I want you to talk a little bit about how a sound repeated can change us.
Sure, I'll mention the mantra that I introduced in the book. One of them is so hum and there's so many layers to it.
So it's only ten thousand years old, Clerk, it's just.
And this is another example of how in tune the Yogis were because they've found that and they I'll just say one of the basic teachings in the Vedas, the oldest yoga scripture, they say, don't believe anything until you experience it yourself. So these practices are totally non dogmatic. It's like reiterated in the Upani sheds and a lot of the Yogic wisdom texts. Only believe what you experience directly. Like the purpose of all the practices is again, loosen
the knots in your body and in your mind. Why so that you can have a direct experience of what lies inside of you, you know. So it doesn't on one level, it doesn't even matter what anyone says. It's nice to have the seeds of the potential of the practices, but it's like only believe what you experience. So even what I'm about to say about so hum, the ancient yogis they they were so in tune that they found that the vibration of the inhale is so and the
vibration of the exhale is hum. So they said, when you meditate, when you do a breath meditation, you can add this layer of mantra with your meditation. So with the inhale, hum, with the x hill, and another layer of that is in Sanskrit, So comes from the root verb sa, which means to be, to have to have agency, and hum means to let go, to release, to yeah, just to let go of. And so with every inhale sake. So with the inhale, you're connecting with your inner power,
with your possibility that lies within. And with every exhale you're letting go of what you don't mean that's inside of you. And and but even if you don't know that that meaning, just you know, meditating with the breath and tapping into the vibration of soul and hum can put you into an altered state.
You know, you're thinking it in your mind, So hum so and relaxing and breathing, and you're shifting. I guess you're suggesting that we're begining to shift by using those mantras.
Yeah, so with the inhale and hum with the x him and another layer of that meaning of so hum is I am that. So I have to say that I don't actually agree with how even the definition of yoga that's mainstream now, which is union and mind, body and spirit. Like we do align mind, body and spirit and yoga. But I feel when I look at the ancient texts, the meaning of yoga is very clear that it's union with your soul or union with consciousness, your
innermost being. And we work with the mind and body, like we loosen the knots in the mind and body so we can connect with our soul or consciousness or the deepest part of ourselves. But really the meaning of yoga's union with soul or union with consciousness. I love that and what's so hum getting back to the mantra. Well, but it also means I am that which is saying that I am not my body, which is constantly changing. I'm not my mind, which is full of thoughts and
emotions that are constantly changing. I am that. I am that infinite consciousness, you know, that infinite field of possibility. That's what I truly am. So soham means that I am that. And if you're meditating and your mind gets gripped by the paw to the future, you can come back to that monthra. So I'm not that thought, I'm not that fear about the future. That I am that infinite consciousness.
I love that. We're going to take a short commercial break to allow our sponsors to identify themselves, and we will return shortly with my guest today, Rima Data, discussing her new book, The Yogi's Way. Will return shortly. Today's author is Rima Data. She is the author of The Yogi's Way. Brand new book just came out and it's available on Amazon. This is really a good text for those of you who are interested in yoga, and it's a beginner's guide to addressing the ancient wisdom of the
Hindus and the Vedic text. You're a Yogi sage, you've been practicing and learning. Is the use of a mantra as you're within a pose recommended or is that post supposed to be the aftermath of the meditation?
Well, the pose leads to meditation, you know. So the purpose of the pose on one level is to get the body open and comfortable enough to sit and meditate, because sitting in like we get fidgety, the legs are we just pain that pain right, then that like, if the body is open and you know, centered and grounded, that whole purpose originally of usna was to be able to sit and meditate.
Oh, so the poses are the prelude to the actual deep meditation, So they kind of prepare the mind.
Yes, and mantras are also. It's all kind of a preparation. Breath work, mantra, it's all a preparation to be able to sit in quietness, because when we're sitting and we're just quiet, that's when we can really connect with consciousness and con rciousness. Is this like vast, like infinite field of possibility as we say, it's like the underlying reality, which to me, it's very interesting that quantum physicists are
saying the same thing. They're saying, behind every person, behind every object is just a field of pure potentiality, right Like, we're ninety nine every object, including each of us, we're ninety nine percent empty space, and so we don't have to be attached to any label, right Like if I grew up thinking I am stupid, like that's just I'm actually nine nine zero point nine percent empty space like pure potential. So I can change that thought I'm stupid to I am brilliant, you know, And we start to
experience what our mind dwells on. We experience like that's a teaching from the Vedas.
You touched on the divine. When we meditate with these mantras, are we automatic connecting to the divine? Or is it a process where we step by step release, unfold and evolve and then at some level, I'm connecting with universal mind. I don't know what that means. Universal mind. I think off the top of my head, I think of the Akashik records that everyone talks about, this universal library of data that I have a question. Oh, I'm downloading it now, but what's your what's your explanation?
For that, I think it depends on the person and where they where they are, you know, like for some people mantras can be tools to loosen knots and blocks, and for some people who are more open, the mantra can just directly connect you to the divine and to pure consciousness, which like you know, maybe that what did you call universal mind? Yeah, I think of it as pure consciousness. That's kind of the Yogic term for this dimension that's within us and around us, that's just vast
and eternal and infinite and quiet. And when we're when we can rest our mind on consciousness, that quietness and that vastness, we can connect to wisdom, and we can gain insights and we can even heal because it's it's it's like a source of energy.
Yeah, I'm kind of moving a little h into heart edge stuff, Rima, I'm kind of I'm asking you, like Rema, I want to download a new musical piece. I want to download, you know, not that I want to do that, but it's far like and I hear there's people on my shoulder thinking, you know, can I get can I connect with Tesla or connect you know, I'm not going that far, but you know, what level can we gain
from this practice? Because I keep thinking, you know that the ancients who invented this stuff were really aware of universal mind.
Yeah. I mean it's a great question because in the text they talk about Sidney's like, if we really get clear and open, if we really loosen all those grunt thies, those knots, we can start experiencing Siddy's which is like clairvoyant's bilepathy. Remote viewing, so maybe you can actually connect with Tesla or like whatever, you know, because that's what
remote viewing is. And it's fascinating to me that, you know, the American government has spent billions of dollars researching remote viewing, yes, the CIA, and you know, you for intelligence purposes, but also to explore consciousness. So I mean, I think that's what it can lead to. Yeah, but yeah, sorry.
So go ahead, I want you to finish. And here's the secret to talking to Tesla.
Right, But since there's that potential, at the very least, we can experience peace of mind, you know, and just calm and stability, which is huguis in a world where so many people are suffering with anxiety and depression and stress.
Yeah, So I think what you're saying, and this is an important message I think you're passing on to us, is that because of the complexity of our world right now, unseen energy wi fi people who are upsetting to us cause trauma. The more important thing is to have the vessel, the body in harmony with the universal forms of energy and nature. And this is what we do with these mantras and with these poses. That's the key. If you're then if you're a pure soul, then asks Tesla, what's going on?
Right? Yeah?
Was that kind of the message?
Yeah, I think it's more important than ever for us to you know, find alignment within ourselves, take care of ourselves, nurture ourselves, change harmful patterns, not just for ourselves, but just knowing that so many people around us are suffering and we could become a healing force, you know, for our surroundings, like not just the people, but the environment.
And because that's you know, one of the teachings of ancient yoga that's also seen throughout the world is that we our energies affect each other and the and the larger unit that we're all a part of. So even if you're like, oh, well, I'm fine, you know, I
have peace of mind, my body's healthy. It's just it's good for us to remember that we don't actually do these practices just for ourselves, like for our own peace of mind, our own physical health, but we do it to create a vibration that helped the whole.
You know, that's important. So you're talking about being a beacon, a stable force for the for the collective.
Is that what you're suggesting, And it's really important, you know. In the in the text, it's emphasized to have that motivation, and they actually say when you have a motivation to practice, you know, for the benefit of all, then the universe supports you. It's like you're blessed. Your practice is blessed.
You are blessed, and you'll be able to practice daily, you know, because even like it's almost a luxury right to have a daily practice and to carve out time every day for your practices, but you'll have that blessing to be able to practice when you have that bigger motivation.
You know, this is amazing what you're saying. This is just exactly the genius of the Vedas is that through practice you open space and actually you're creating your own reality. Yeah, of betterment, right, absolutely? Yeah, can you talk a little bit about reality creation through the vessel of yoga.
So it again comes back to our thoughts, like all of these teachings about how powerful our thoughts are, and the Yogis would they explain how every time we have a thought, it's like planting a seed in the mind, right, and what happens with seeds Someday they sprout, right, and so the world. The Yogis would say the same thing as the quantum physicists, that the world is a field
of pure potentiality. But the way that we experience the world is based on the seeds in the mind that come from our own thoughts, you know, And so so as those seeds sprout, they color our reality. So if I have these thoughts that you know, everyone is cruel and I'm cruel to people, and I'm going to be I'm going to live in a world where everyone's cruel
to each other. But if I really do my best to be kind and my thoughts and my words and my thoughts not just my words and actions, but even my thoughts, then all of a sudden, I'm living in a world where I just see kindness everywhere you know, and then that snowballs and expands. But the basic teaching is that the world is actually empty of any fixed quality or characteristic, and even you and I are empty
of any fixed quality or characteristic. But the way we experience ourselves, other people, the world itself comes from the seeds in our minds. And a lot of us have experienced trauma, and you know, some of the seeds are painful. But what the Yogis emphasize is that as traumatic as anything has been, like we have, we can change those seeds, we can plant new seeds, and we can create a new reality, a new personal reality.
Do you read in these scriptures about resonate, resonating at certain frequencies, you know, being your pure self. The best way to do it is through these practices and clearing out traumas and clearing out crap so that you're a you're resonating a certain frequency for and opening to the ability to create the world that you want. It might be a little metaphysical, but I'm just wondering what your feelings are.
Yeah, So the texts say that we are inseparable from the divine, So it's like if the if the divine was the sun, then we're like sun rays, you know, we're inseparable from it, and we are made of the same essence. The divine is like pure potential again, the
field of infinite possibility, and so are we. So when we get into tune and alignment and vibrate with the frequency without all those knots and blocks, then we can experience ourselves as that infinite being, and then we really tap into the gifts we were born to give and nurture those gifts and give them because again it's about the practice. Is it not about getting anything you know from the world, but it's about getting into such a
beautiful alignment that we can connect. We can discover what our gifts are, and we can nurture them, and then we can actually give them. And that's where the peace and happiness and fulfillment come from.
And the thing that that's wonderful about what you're saying, Rima, is that we're connecting with the soul, and the soul is the higher wisdom, the higher self that had a plan in place when you incarnated, right, So when you're clear and pure and trauma free, you're able to connect with that soul level existence, which is you know, you're a pretty cool person, male or female.
Yeah, at the sole level, we're cool definitely. You know. I'll tell you a story because all of these teachings I've learned because at some point or another, I forgot myself, you know. So I mentioned in the book that I learned yoga initially from my grandparents. Yeah, tell you. Like I after one year of teaching yoga, which was like around two thousand and three, I went to India to visit my grandfather, and I was so happy. I was so excited to tell him that I had like quit
my job and started teaching yoga. And I and so I went to the village where he lived and I and I called him Bapuji, and I said, Bapage, I'm so happy, like I quit my job. I'm teaching yoga full time. I'm practicing. I was like, so, I've never been so strong and my body I feel so good. And then he turned to me and he was like angry. He was really upset, and he said, Rieman, this is not about you. He said service. He took his two hands. He said service and spiritual. Spirituality and service go hand
in hand. We do yoga for others.
Oh right, what did I do?
Like? Oh man, So it's like, you know, we forget. I'm just saying we forget. There's so much to it. There's so much depth, and yoga feels so good that it's like, oh, yeah, I'm doing this so I have more energy to give.
So decipher that a little bit. He was angry that you had quit your job or no, you're ecstatic about what you were doing but for the wrong reasons.
Yeah he was. He was totally fine that I quit my job and was teaching yoga. But it was more my Yeah that I was just thinking about myself that I feel.
Goodlffish you selfish?
Yeah? Yeah, he was like me and feeling good. This is about giving.
You know, Hey, as we conclude, I want you to talk about this book and the twelve. Basically you break it into twelve weeks of practice and without we don't have time to go through every week. But the purpose of that is for to do what from week one to week twelve? How did you why did you design it like that? And what is your expected results for the practitioner.
So I wanted to give people by the end of the book, you have a seventy minute practice that you can do it on your own at home if you like.
And it's a holistic practice, So I was I wanted to give people a practice that they could do on their own and their home, and that is holistic that incorporates meditation, visualization, mantre movement, subtle body awareness and understanding of how thoughts and emotions affect the inner winds, and also like journaling and awareness practices, how to actually change our thoughts, Like, once we realize how certain thoughts are
creating harm, how can we actually change them? And not just for a moment, but like, how can we actually lead to lasting change? So that was the purpose of the twelve weeks, to give at least a feeling for all those pillars, visualization, meditation, breathwork, all of it.
Okay, and you design the book for the beginner, for the intermediate, or for the advanced user.
I designed it for a beginner that anyone, you know, even if you don't have a background in yoga, that you can pick it up and get a practice from. But I also designed it for you know, seasoned teachers who haven't been exposed to these other dimensions of yoga, so that they can bring it into their practice into their teachings. So it's it's it can be good for beginners, and if any beginners are having find it difficult, then they can always join our online community because we go
through the practices as a community. I do twelve week courses where we go through the book together.
Excellent, so they can are you on Zoom or another video channel.
We do the classes on Zoom, but all the information is on my website and I'm actually starting a twelve week journey March sixteenth, so if anyone would like to hop on to that community.
So the book's called The Yoga's Way, excuse me, the yugas the Yogi's Way transform your mind, health and reality. And my guest has been Rima Data. Give us your web dress how people can get a hold of you, and you just give us your twelve week program, so you know, give us the details.
Yeah, So the easiest is to go on to Rima yoga dot com, r E E m a yoga dot com and then that'll have all the information about the book and the twelve week course And if anyone's interested in teacher trainings, then that's also. Rema Yoga is also my Instagram and social media.
Excellent, and that's fantastic. What do you want to leave us with, Rema, What's what are you feeling about where we're at right now? As as I'm talking about Western culture, not the world, what's happening with us in the United States.
I think I think like yoga has helped so many people with their physical health, but I feel like peace,
like in our peace has become something very rare. Yeah, And I just want people to know that, like, whatever you've been through and whatever craziness is going on in the world, like we can cultivate in our peace, and we can bring that to the world because I think a lot of us right now are more sensitive to the types of oppression that exists, racism, sexism, all the things that are going on, and we want so badly to change things and for the world to just be
a better place for all of us. And that's great, and may we may we make the efforts to do that. But at the same time, what we do have control over is our own you know, thoughts and emotions and what we're what we're cultivating within ourselves, And if we can cultivate in our peace, then we can bring that to the world. And that can be a powerful way
to change things, you know. So I just want people to know that that's possible, because it can feel really impossible, and especially when we're gripped with these kinds of emotions like depression and sorrow, anxiety, shame, anger, it can feel really hard. But just to know that it is one hundred percent possible to create peace inside of ourselves and bring it to the world.
Fantastic. It is a well written book. It has a lot of good material in it, and it is a it's a I guess you're writing it for the beginner. It has a lot of technique in it as well, which is fantastic. So, hey, much success on this and is it when did it come out? Did it come out in December?
The book?
You know what?
Then? Release date is today, February.
It's available now, I hope.
Yeah, just today was the official release date on the first interview.
Fantastic okay, So I would imagine it's available on Amazon for people to get it. Yeah, okay, Hey, much success on this book. And I really appreciate you being on the program.
Oh, thanks for having me. It's been so fun to talk. I want to.
Mention that yoga is a progressive practice, and that means that you get the basics of the postures and then you can choose from the different techniques. I do Hatha yoga, which is about holding postures for a periods of time let them sink in a little bit. But there's other types. There's even a hot yoga where you could go to a studio and it's hot. They turn the heater up and it loosens your muscles a little bit, and some
people love it. I am not a big fan Birkham yoga, but the point being, there's various types of settings and various styles. She talks a little bit about him. Rihima brings it up in the book, so get something to choose from. I honestly believe that everybody who can should do some form of stretching, especially the of the spine.
That's a long energy cords, a long spinal cord. And if you stretch that and you keep it flexible, your chances of being ill, of losing flexibility, of being infirmed, you know, kind of like locked to your chair as you're elder, as you're getting older, is lessened. And I also think that your chances of longevity increase substantially too, and I think there's in fact, I know there's a number of studies that show that people do do yoga into their retirement ages are much better off than those
who don't. So great to have her on again. The book The Yogi's Way Transform Your Mind, Health and Reality just came out, and it's funny because today was the day that it hit the streets. So fun fun to have around the program that kind of is another concluding show on these ancient techniques. And you know, it's funny because I was considering adding yoga to the biohacking It's not really considered a biohacking tool, but it is a
bio hacking tool because it has such great benefits. And you know, people go to the gym and they do cardio. I mean, I'm one of these people. I go to the gym and do cardio and I do some weights, but I'll tell you I don't feel as good as when I'm done with doing a yoga posture. And my yogas sessions and only go for about half and half an hour thirty minutes, so they don't have to be longer drawn out. And I even do a yoga session when I'm not feeling well, and I think about at
least six months ago. Six months ago, I ripped my intercostal muscles, these are the muscles between your rib cage on the right side, doing some uh weightlifting, and I couldn't do anything. The only thing I could do was a few other weightlifting exercises and my yoga. Now I had to be very gentle when I'd bent and turned on that right side, but I still got through it. I healed a lot quicker. And I'll tell you it is not to be missed. Yoga, yoga, yoga. It's really
you know, and we talk about this. It's one of our ancestors health wise techniques. So we need to consider these ancient but very very sophisticated sachia and treata yog yoga technique. So get back on, get back to where your ancestors were and do some yoga. If you're enjoying Earth Ancients, Destiny and Earth Ancients Special Edition The Archives, please consider becoming a subscriber. For as little as five dollar five bucks, you can become a subscriber to the program.
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taois New Mexico. As always a team of Gil tour, Mark Foster and everyone who makes this thing happen. You guys rock all right, take care of you well and we will talk to you next time. COMMU