For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

What IS death? What "dies" exactly? Do YOU end when the body ends? Socrates described philosophy as "preparation for death", Nachiketha learned the secret of life in Death's house in the Katha Upanishad, the Shakyamuni Buddha pointed out that as much as we like to pretend otherwise, impermanence is a fact of life. But impermanence of what?To celebrate today's Pluto Retrograde and the Scorpio Full Moon, we explore the deepest questions of philosophy and find profound answers from Advaita Vedanta (Hindu Non-Duality), answers that not only free us once and for all from the fear of death but also give us tools to meaningfully overcome grief and loss. For more videos and instruction, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnishSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

We've got to understand what a thing is before we know how to use it meaningfully. We have to ask: what is this world made of? What is real? And what does it mean to be in the world? Today, we explore the Hard Problem of Matter and the Hard Problem of Consciousness: why is it that the more we look for "matter" through the lens of material science, the more it runs away from us? How come a Universe composed of mostly dark energy/matter and empty space appears to us the way that it does? We explore some central teachings of Hindu Non-Duality or Advaita Vedanta to answer these big questions so we can discover how to live most meaningfully in this world and to realize right here and now that you are IN the world, the world is in YOU; only awareness exists, all other things are mere "appearances" in awareness and YOU are that awareness. YOU are the only thing that is real.For more episodes, follow me at patreon.com/yogawithnishSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

We are often sold the narrative in New Age circles that we are broken and in need of "healing" which can only happen, of course, after paying lots of money to some self-proclaimed Shaman...Advaita Vedanta (Non-Duality) adamantly challenges this view by suggesting that you are already enlightened, whole and fulfilled at your very essence. There is nothing missing from you that needs to be added up, so there can be no growing.There is nothing broken that needs to be fixed, and so there can be no healing. The work of spirituality is not healing or growth but merely aligning your perception with the Reality of what you already are: Existence, Consciousness and Bliss itself. All it takes is one insight. To cultivate that insight we explore 4 different arguments to prove here and now your true nature beyond the illusory appearance of body-mind-personality that you've identified with up till now. Enjoy!For more videos and instruction, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnishSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

For more videos, episodes and instruction, visit me at: patreon.com/yogawithnishOne of our most advanced guided meditations yet: today, we cultivate Bhakti (devotion). The Way of Devotion engenders a natural, spontaneous and almost effortless kind of spiritual movement away from fear-craving-suffering and towards fearlessness-peace-bliss.Bhakti, the Path of Love is the Secret Sauce of spiritual life.It is the Spirit Juice.It is the practice par excellence for cultivating the necessary dispositions for advanced spiritual life; it is Bhakti that creates in us, effortlessly, the necessary preconditions for a spiritual awakening; it is Bhakti that gently clears the way day after day for us so that we may deepen further and further into peace.In this meditation, we start with a bit of preamble about the Path of Bhakti in general and then we move into a guided meditation to call up our Istha Devata (Chosen Ideal) to help us begin our life in Bhakti.May this transform you. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

For more videos, lessons and episodes, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish Happy New Moon in Cancer! Here is a guided meditation for overcoming pain, grief, and the inevitable transiency of Samsara. We use the Witness (Sakshi) technique from the Advaita Vedanta and Samkhya schools of Indian spiritual philosophy. Remember: All things arise and pass away.Entire worlds surge up and dissolvewith each breath.Knowing this, why become attached?Why be disturbed byThe rising and falling awayOf circumstances?Take a stand outside the transientFlux of Nature and Mind.Take a stand in the Witness.And be free!OM Shantih Shantih Shantih Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

For videos, instruction and more episodes, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish Happy Father's Day and Blessed Summer Solstice!Shiva-Shakti, Yang-Yin, Masculine-Feminine, Fatherhood-Motherhood Consciousness-Energy, Energy-Matter...all of these are two aspects of the same thing, two ways of looking at one principle.What is the unity beyond this seeming duality? Today we explore the Divine Masculine in Christian mysticism, Taoism and Tantra to celebrate Father's Day and welcome in powerful new energy for the coming Solstice. Enjoy :)Here is a householder prayer for all householder-yogis out there:"I vow  before the Divine to think never of myself, to take nothing for me, to surrender everything to family, society and Dharma. I will live simply and nobly.I will have no vices.For verily, I will harbour no sense of my own self for it is not "my" will but thy will be done! I will live and die by my Dharma, doing my duty as well as I can at every moment. I will not speak harsh words or harm anyone consciously and knowing that no good work is completely good (for there is bad even in good however unintentional), I will purify myself so that I no longer think myself to be the doer of actions. I will offer up all fruits now and always to you, to my family, to society and to Dharma. I will be beyond all karma for I know that works are done through me, ever by me. OM peace peace peace."Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

For more videos, episodes and instructions, join me at patreon.com/yogawithnish What does our suffering show us about our true nature? In this video: 1. A few central insights from Advaita Vedanta (Non-Duality) to cure suffering once and for all2. An inquiry into the innovations of Kashmir Shaivism to Non-Duality and 3. How this latter worldview articulates suffering as an auspicious teacher revealing our divine selves.Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

For more episodes and instruction, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnishMother Kali, the black skinned, wild-haired goddess wielding weapons and whirling in an ecstatic dance of awakening has been one of the most fascinating icons in Indian art for centuries on end.What is the hidden meaning of this Dark Devi?Today we discuss some folk stories about Kali and explore their hidden meaning to uncover secrets about how to deal with suffering and use suffering as a tool for deepening our spiritual practice.  Come and dive into the exciting world of Tantra, Goddess Worship and Yogic practice :)Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

For more episodes, guided meditations and videos, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnishIn this lecture, we explore the dizzying heights of Buddhist philosophy and practice, tracking the development of ideas starting with the profound insights of one of India's greatest teachers, the Shakyamuni Buddha 2600 years ago all the way to their development into the Tantrik forms of Vajrayana/Mahayana/Dzogchen as well as their more austere forms, Hinayana and Zen.  To celebrate Buddha Purnima, we explore the story of a young prince, living a life of luxury, sheltered away from the realities of life. Eventually the young prince feels the superficiality of pleasure, as we do in the quiet lull of the party. He leaves his pleasure garden and encounters old age, sickness and death, realities we pretend will not happen to us. This inspires him to take up a genuine spiritual inquiry culminating in the most profound insights of Indian philosophy. You see, the story of the Buddha is the story of us. It is the story of our own Buddha-nature and our journey of relaxing into what is already here now for us.May you have a blessed Buddha Purnima, Sagittarius full moon and Lunar eclipse!May you be a lamp unto yourself.May you awaken to your Buddha-nature daily!Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

For the video version of this and for more lectures, lessons and content, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish Many of us experience difficult disease on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level and often we use meditation and Yoga as a kind of numbing strategy to try to overcome, escape or suppress these movements of energy we call difficult emotions.  This never works. There is a higher path.If you are able to internalize today's teaching from the 9th CE Kashmir Shaivism school you will no longer experience grief and pain AS suffering. They won't go away. But when they arise in consciousness, you will learn to reframe your experience such that they will no longer be experienced as contraction (i.e suffering). They will turn into a moment of profound beauty that both enlivens you and enflames you with reverence and prayer.  Come and join us for this lovely evening of Tantrik techniques, the poetry of Rumi and a discussion on the Three Orientations to Spiritual Life.Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM