Mantra – “I return to who I’ve always been: whole, wise, and free.”

Topic 1 – CSI: Conscious Self-Inquiry

Tonight, we begin with a bit of inner detective work. Think of yourself as a forensic investigator of the mind. Just pick a few examples of your thoughts when they come into your mind. Trace back the ancestors of those thoughts and ask yourself. Who planted those seeds? Was it your mother, your best friend, your lover or your boss. Perhaps the seed was planted by the ego?

Often, our suffering today is the sprout of a seed we didn’t even know we planted—maybe years ago, or even inherited. Your ego is the caretaker of your thoughts. —persistent and well-meaning—has been collecting and storing these beliefs like evidence, convinced it’s protecting you. But here’s the shift: You are not the ego. You are the one who sees it. You are the awareness behind the thoughts. When you begin to witness your emotions instead of becoming them, space opens. Peace begins.

Metaphor:
Imagine walking into a library filled with books, each one written by someone else—parents, society, past versions of you. Tonight, you’re not reading them—you’re observing the titles and choosing what not to carry out with you. You are the librarian now.

Quotes:
“The goal of yoga and meditation is not to control your thoughts, but to stop them from controlling you.”
“If another can anger you easily it is because you are off balance yourself.”
“Be the observer in your practice tonight. Not everything needs a reaction.” – David Scott
“He who blames no one has arrived.” – Chinese Proverb

Topic 2 – The Ego as Overprotective Bodyguard

Let’s talk about the ego, but not as an enemy. Imagine your ego as a bodyguard—assigned to you as an infant. Its job is to keep you safe from embarrassment, rejection, failure, or emotional risk. And it does a great job! Sometimes too great. Like an overprotective bodyguard, it starts making decisions for you: “Don’t speak up.” “Don’t try that.” “Stay small, just in case.” But you are not the bodyguard. You’re the star. The ego means well, but it often keeps you from stepping into the fullness of your life. In today’s practice, thank it… and ask it to stand down, ust for a little bit.

Metaphor:
Picture yourself walking into a beautiful party, full of opportunity and joy, but your bodyguard keeps blocking you from the dance floor, whispering in your ear about what could go wrong. It’s time to gently say, “Thank you, but I’ve got this now.”

Quotes:
“Your faith can move mountains, and your doubts can create them.”
“Never make a long-term decision about a short-term problem.”
“Grow through what you are going through.” – David Scott
“You have your way. I have my way… the only way does not exist.” – Nietzsche

Topic 3 – Ātman and the Taste of Salt

Tonight, we remember who we truly are—not the roles we play, not the body, not even our thoughts. The Upanishads speak of the Ātman—our deepest Self—pure, timeless, undisturbed. And when we dissolve the ego’s illusion of separation, we reunite with Brahman, the infinite. You are like salt dissolved in water: unseen, but ever-present. This isn’t just philosophy—it’s freedom. When you taste your essence, suffering begins to dissolve.

Metaphor:
Picture a wave on the ocean. It may rise, fall, crash, or spray—but it’s never separate from the sea. The wave is temporary, but the water is eternal. You are not just the wave—you are the ocean.

Quotes:
“Remember, the entrance to the sanctuary is inside you.” – Rumi
“We were never born, and we will never die.”
“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may.” – Buddha
“Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.” – Maya Angelou

Topic 4 – Adversity is Alchemy

Every challenge you’ve faced has shaped you. Adversity, like the fire that tempers steel or the pressure that forms diamonds, isn’t here to destroy you—it’s here to refine you. The bones in your body remodel themselves through stress. Just like yoga builds strength through effort, life builds your spirit through hardship. But only if you allow it to.

Metaphor:
Think of a pearl—born from an irritant inside an oyster. The oyster doesn’t get rid of the grain of sand—it transforms it. Layer by layer, it turns pain into beauty.

Quotes:
“Storms force trees to create deeper roots.” – David Scott
“The one who falls and gets up is so much stronger than the one who never fell.”
“Life’s trials will test you, shape you, but don’t let them change who you are.” – Aaron Lauritsen
“Nothing is stronger than a broken soul, rebuilding itself.” – David Scott

Topic 5 – Compassion is the Completion

Finally, we arrive at compassion—not as a soft escape, but as a courageous return. The more you understand your own pain, the more you can hold space for the pain of others. Compassion is the highest form of strength—it melts the ice of suffering. It doesn’t need to fix or explain; it simply sees and holds. Let your heart soften. Let your breath be your offering.

Metaphor:
Compassion is like a lantern in the dark. You don’t need to chase away every shadow—you simply need to carry your light.

Quotes:
“A kind gesture can reach a wound only compassion can heal.” – Steve Maraboli
“Our sorrows are healed only when we touch them with compassion.” – Jack Kornfield
“Compassion is the wish to see others free from suffering.” – Dalai Lama
“In forgiving others, we heal ourselves. To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”

In tonight’s class I would ask you to do mental forensics – CSI of the mind. Consider tracing back the ancestorial roots of your current perceptions of reality and your suffering. These roots often originate from thoughts planted long ago, nurtured in the fertile soil of the mind by an ever-active ego. Our thoughts, like seeds, were allowed to sprout and expand, influenced heavily by the ego’s persistent gardening. In today’s practice, I invite you to shift your relationship with your ego and the emotions it fosters—fear, doubt, and the challenges you face. You are not the ego, but the watcher of the ego. By transforming your interaction with these emotions and consciously choosing your thoughts today, you can sculpt the landscape of your tomorrow. What were once obstacles can transform into opportunities. Each thought you cultivate today seeds a future of new possibilities.

The principal of Atman and how Atman dissolves into Brahman

Certainly! Here’s a refined explanation to use during your yoga class that simplifies and clarifies the concept:

---

“Today, let’s delve into a profound concept from the Upanishads, an ancient text that informs much of our yoga practice. The word ‘Ātman’ in Sanskrit refers to our deepest self – not our thoughts or our physical body, but our true spirit or soul.

In Hindu philosophy, and particularly within the Vedanta school, Ātman is seen as the core essence of an individual. It’s beyond our day-to-day experiences and identifications. It’s not something we can separate or remove because it is our true nature, our unchanging self.

Let’s consider a beautiful metaphor from the Upanishads, where a father explains this to his son using the example of salt dissolved in water. Although the salt cannot be seen, it’s always there because we can taste it. Similarly, our soul, our Ātman, permeates our existence. It’s invisible yet ever-present and can be ‘tasted’ or felt in moments of deep awareness or spiritual experience.

Understanding Ātman is essential because it leads us towards moksha, which is freedom from suffering. The realization here is profound: we are eternal. We were never born, and we will never die. Our essence has been part of the universe from the beginning, and it will exist forever.

And when someone achieves this realization while still alive, they are called a ‘jīvanmukta.’ This means they are liberated, free from the cycles of birth and death, even as they continue to live among us. They live in the world but are not of it, embodying the ultimate goal of enlightenment and liberation.”

“We often over think our challenges in life. We tell ourselves why something is impossible instead of just doing it. A bird does not understand how it achieves flight, it simply flies. I read that a centipede can have up to 300 legs. If it thought about walking it would fall over and never move an inch, instead it simply walks and all the legs synchronize moving in place. Flow towards your dreams and the impossible things will take care of themselves.” – David Scott

On this day – May 6th – 1954 Roger Bannister of the UK becomes the 1st person to run a 4 minute mile, recording 3:59:4 at Iffley Road, Oxford (68 Years Ago)

“Remember the entrance to the sanctuary is inside you.” – Rumi

“Yoga is a light, which once lit will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter your flame.” — B.K.S. Iyengar

Yoga teaches us to create a life that feels good on the inside and not just the outside.

“The goal of yoga and meditation is not to control your thoughts, but to stop them from controlling you.”

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” – Buddha

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” – Nietzsche

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” – Nietzsche

Be soft, do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.

“Grow through what you are going through and do not listen to your fears, for they have no idea just how strong you really are.” – David Scott

“Storms force trees to create deeper roots. Adversity can make you stronger” – David Scott.

In the same way stresses in nature cause natural things to grow stronger, yoga stress the skeletal system just enough the help increase bone density. 20% of the human skeletal system is replaced each year through a process or “remodeling” and Osteoclast, which dig out and create cavities called “resorption pit” and then Mesenchymal Stem Cells appear, becoming Osteoblasts which remodel our skeleton

The one who falls and gets up is so much stronger than the one who never fell.

Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.

Your faith can move mountains, and your doubts can create them.

“Nothing it stronger than a broken soul, rebuilding itself.” – David Scott

“Life’s trials will test you, and shape you, but don’t let them change who you are. There is strange comfort in knowing that no matter what happens today, the Sun will rise again tomorrow.” – Aaron Lauritsen,

Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.

“Smart people learn from everyone and everything, average people learn from their experiences and stupid people already have all the answers.” – Socrates

“Never make a long term decision about a short term problem.”

“If another can anger you easily it is because you are off balance yourself.”

Explain your anger, don’t express it, and you will immediately open the door to solutions instead of arguments.

“Be the observer in your practice tonight. Not everything needs a reaction.” – David Scott

“Just as a wounded dear, leaps the highest, damaged people are strong because they have learned to survive.” – David Scott

“The secret of change is to not focus all your energy on resisting the old but on building the new.” – Socrates

“A seed grows with no sound, yet a tree falls with great noise. Destruction has noise but creation is silent. There is power in silence. Grow silently.” – Confuses

“He who blames others has a long way to go on his journey. He who blames himself is halfway there. He who blames no one has arrived.”- Chinese proverb.

“Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.” -Maya Angelou

“A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal.” Steve Maraboli

“Compassion is to look beyond your own pain, to see the pain of others.” Yasmin Mogahed

“Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion.” Jack Kornfield

“Compassion is the wish to see others free from suffering.” Dalai Lama

“Constant kindness can accomplish as much as the sun making ice melt. Kindness causes misunderstandings, mistrust and hostility to evaporate.” Albert Schweitzer

In forgiving others, we heal ourselves. To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.

“Grant yourself a moment of peace, and you will understand how foolishly you have scurried about. Learn to be silent, and you will notice that you have talked too much. Be kind, and you will realize that your judgment of others was too severe.” — Ancient Chines