Independence Day is a day of independent thinking. Today in a country so divided, with each media source pushing their agenda, it is a time to listen to our inner voice. Yoga teaches us to seek first to understand and listen to our inner wisdom before we judge or take advise from the outside world. Just because something was written a long time ago does not mean it is right. There is also so many incongruencies in what we are taught.

Bhagavad Gita 2:31
Considering your dharma, you should not waver. For a warrior, there is nothing more honorable than a war against evil (your enemy).

Luke 6:29 (NIV)

“If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.”

Leviticus 24:19-20 (NIV)

“Anyone who injures their neighbor is to be injured in the same manner: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury.”

We talk a lot about Dharma but Adharma is the opposite and mean unrighteousness. But only our our own inner wisdom can determine for ourselves what adharma really is.

The Dead Rabbit

Mr Jones has a difficult relationship with his next door neighbor, the Lopez’s family. Mr Jones has a Labrador retriever, named lucky who was constantly getting out of his yard. Lucky was always bringing dead animals, such as birds he would “retrieve” or hunt back to Mr. Jone’s doorstep almost like a gift offering.

For Easter the Lopez family bought a big white rabbit, that the daughter Laurita names “fluffy.” Sure enough Mr. Jones comes home from work one day to find his dog with the neighbor’s pet rabbit “Fluffy” in his mouth. The rabbit is very dead and the guy panics.

He thinks the neighbors are going to hate him forever, so he takes the dirty, chewed-up rabbit into the house, gives it a bath, blow-dries its fur, and puts the rabbit back into the cage at the neighbor’s house, hoping that they will think it died of natural causes.

A few days later, the neighbor is outside watering plants and asks Mr Jones, “Did you hear that Fluffy died?”

Mr. Jones stumbles around and says, “Um.. no.. um.. what happened?”

The neighbor replies, “We just found him dead in his cage one day, but the really weird thing is that the day after we buried him we went outside and someone had dug him up, gave him a bath and put him back into the cage. There must be some real sick people out there!”

“The goal of the Science of yoga, is to constantly gain ground on our ignorance’s through the science of knowledge. Today we stand on the solid ground of our finite knowledge to date, but we look out upon the vast expanse of the unknown infinite. Our duty as humans is to constantly explore the fringes and boundaries of our darkness’s and illuminate them with the light of what has been discovered so far, thereby exposing more truths and taking back more land in our quest for understanding.” – David Scott

“The real enemy of truth is not ignorance, doubt, or even disbelief,” he writes. “It is false knowledge.”

“Our greatest illusion is understanding who we actually are. We are not our bodies; our body is simply the vehicle. We eat a banana, but we do not become the banana. Food and drink are simply fuel for our vehicle. We are the navigator, the warrior of light inside the vehicle, driving as close to the edge possible, along our life’s journey of adventure and discovery.” – David Scott

“Time was when I despised the body; But then I saw the God within and the body, I realized, is the Lord’s temple and so I began preserving it with care infinite.” “Let the entire world attain the bliss I have attained”- Yoga Siddhar Tirumular (or Thirumoolar) in Tamil, in more than three thousand verses, probably between the 4th and 6th centuries A.D., is the oldest and most important text of Yoga from south India.

We are always growing and evolving into a better version of ourselves. Socrates said, “I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.”

“Don’t listen to those who stir you up. Don’t listen to others who put you to sleep. Respect them all. Thank them all. Then remember, there is a bird singing only you can hear.” – Jack Kornfield

“The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without.”-Elie Wiesel

“Courage is knowing it might hurt and doing it anyway. Stupidity is the same thing. Wisdom is knowing the difference and making to correct choice.” David Scott

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

Understand your own self first, then you will be ready to understand everything else.

“The sharpest part of a blade is right on the edge. Find that edge in your practice.” David Scott

“The physical body is only an instrument used to play the projections of one’s soul on the canvas of the infinite.” – David Scott

“To keep the body in good health is a duty, for otherwise we shall not be able to trim the lamp of wisdom, and keep our mind strong and clear.” – Buddha

“To keep the lamp burning, we must continue to put oil into it.” – Mother Teresa

“We should not wait until the body and mind craves yoga. The best time to water a plant is before it withers up from thirst and becomes weak.”- David Scott

“Use your spare time wisely, constantly sharpening the sword of wisdom. A secret of success in life, is to be ready for opportunity when it arrives.” David Scott

“If a man would move the world, he must first move himself.” – Socrates

“I am still a child, having an adult experience. Always honor the child within.” – David Scott

Life only demands from you the strength you already possess.

“The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it.” – George C. Scott

“To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say and to finish, without know what you have just written.” – Jean Rousseau

“When Columbus started out, he did not know where he would end up. When he got there he did not know where he really was and when he got back, he was uncertain of where he had truly been.”

“The man who removes a mountains, begins by removing a small stone.” – Chinese Proverb

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

“A good rule of thumb is that any environment that consistently leaves you feeling bad about who you are is the wrong environment.” ~Laurie Helgoe

“Real people are never perfect, and perfect people are never real.”

“Some days I amaze myself, other days I look for my cellphone while holding it.”

“I have been a seeker and I still am, but I stopped asking the books and the stars. I started listening to the teaching of my Soul.” – Rumi

“In a forest of a hundred thousand trees, no two leaves are alike. And no two journeys along the same path are alike.” – Paulo Coelho

“It is of practical value to learn to like yourself. Since you must spend so much time with yourself you might as well get some satisfaction out of the relationship.”- Norman Vincent Peale

“As long as you search for the Buddha in others, you will never find it within yourself.” – David Scott

“Do not look for a sanctuary in anyone except yourself.”

“A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise.”

“Never appoligize for who you are. It lets the whole world down.”

“A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not in the branch but in her own wings. Always believe in yourself.”

“We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things from our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, you are the brave survivor that continues moving forward in spite of them.” David Scott

“Never trade your authenticity for approval. When we create an “image” of ourselves, that is not real, such as a fictional character for social media or a dating site, we are just attracting our Dukka (suffering). The wrong person just may fall in love with that false self we are projecting, while the right person may just pass us by. Then what will we do? We find ourselves living a lie, and become exhausted trying to keep this pretense of our false creation alive. Be yourself from the start and project yourself to others as the beautiful, rare and vulnerable soul you truly are. If they do not love and appreciate you for what you represent, then let them go as quickly as possible, they were never for you and you not for them. It is better to know now, than later after the veil of facade falls off through the weathering of time.” David Scott

“In order to live our best life, we have to calm our anxiety about disappointing other people and not being good enough, and find the courage to be true to ourselves.” ~Eugene Choi

“One of the greatest impurities of man is a lack of knowledge of self.” – Dharma Mitra

We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want. – Dao De Jing “The book of the way.”- Lao Tzu

You learn nothing from life if you think you’re right all the time.

What would you tell your 18-year-old self? To be easier on yourself? To stop worrying and have more fun? To trust that things will work out? From this perspective, what do you think an older version of yourself would tell you today? Probably the same.

Butterflies can’t see their wings. They can’t see how truly beautiful they are, but everyone else can. People are like that too.

Never assume that loud is strong and quiet is weak.

“The things that make me different are the things that make me me.” – Winnie the Pooh

Don’t go where there is path, make your own path and instead leave a trail

The power of one. The ocean is nothing but a bunch of drops of water. The power of one, Martin. Luther King, Gandhi, Mother Teresa… The guy in front of the tank of Tienanmen square. You can blow out a candle, but you can not blow out a fire “Nothing in the world can purify as powerfully as wisdom; practiced in yoga, you will find this wisdom within yourself”

“All the wonders you seek are within yourself. We should seek to discover our own special light. Know how to live within yourself; there in your soul lives a whole world of mysterious and enchanted thoughts; they will be drowned by noise of this world. Be still and listen to their singing and be silent.” ~Combination of Tyutchev, Brown and Dunbar

“Forget about enlightenment. Sit down wherever you are and listen to the wind that is singing in your veins. Feel the love, the longing and the fear in your bones. Open your heart to who you are, right now, not who you would like to be. Not the saint you’re striving to become. But the being right here before you, inside you, around you. All of you is holy. You’re already more and less than whatever you can know. Breathe out, look in, let go,” ~ John Welwood.

“My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

You are what you want to become. Why search anymore? You are a wonderful manifestation. The whole universe has come together to make your existence possible. There is nothing that is not you. The kingdom of God, the Pure Land, nirvana, happiness, and liberation are all you. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

“Those who danced were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” ~ Friedrich Nietzscheh ‎

“And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” ~ Anais Nin

“Samskaras are like ruts on a muddy road. The more the wheel travels over them, the deeper the groove gets and the harder it is for the wheel, like our emotional tendencies to break free from them.” ~ David Yglesias

“A yogi starts each day a new. Every morning we set our intention for the day. We live that day and then we are done with it. Some days we reach our goals, some days we do not, but in the end we steadfastly accomplish our intentions.” ~ David Yglesias

“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” – T. S. Eliot

Saint Thirumoolar said, “A person was running and running in search of the Light. He spent his whole life doing that. Ultimately he collapsed and died because he could not reach it.” millions and millions of people collapse in this way, because they don’t know that the Light they seek is within them.

What is one thing you are so passionate about that you loose track of time?

Mother Theresa taught that the best way to find yourself is to loose yourself in something you are passionate about. In her case it was serving others.

“Through our wounds, we are healed. Find your wound and you will find your purpose.”

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself,” Rumi

At the end of our lives we will all asked, “Did I live… Did I love… Did I matter?”