Para Yoga

The four desires in Australia

How do I bring yoga’s teachings into my everyday life?

Yoga is a means to honour the body and develop a personal peace in relationship with our worldly experience. How do we do this? The answer lies in the understanding our true ‘self’. Using yoga’s teachings, you can gain a deeper knowledge of you, your purpose in life and the choices you make in relationship to the world around and within you.

In Tantric teachings we see all of life as connected, sacred and as an embodiment of the Divine. To assist in our understanding of our unique soul’s purpose in this life and to support us to live a life fully aligned with this purpose we have a process known as The Four Desires. The Four Desires is based upon the work of Yogarupa Rod Stryker and his best-selling book, The Four Desires.

What are the Four Desires?

The Four Desires is a method of self- inquiry that opens the path to the four desires of our soul. These are known as Dharma, our life’s purpose, Kama, the soul’s desire for pleasure, Artha, the means or resources to fulfil our dharma and Moksha or the soul’s desires for spiritual liberation. A Desire lies at the source of every action we take, they are the seed of all our thoughts, words and actions.

As we have the soul desires for our purpose, so too we have blocks or resistance to living it. Mind thoughts, feeling and experience patterns, (which are known as vilkalpas), take us out of alignment with our true purpose, and keep us in the illusion of pain and suffering.

To move past these obstacles, we need to change the way we see so that we can make a different choice to ‘what’s next’ for us in life.

What happens when we use this process?

How much of our time do we use to take pause, to notice our thoughts, words and actions? How often do we observe and consider the direction we are writing the story of our life? The answer I would assume for most of us is very little. We go about making choices and actions without contemplating the path we might be on. Each day we also have the power to change the trajectory of our life. All it takes is an action. A practice that keeps you on your path, one that points the way for your next choice, and supports you for the rest of your life, this is what The Four Desires does. We are given a process to guide us to fulfil our purpose in daily life with practices for self-reflection or vichara, meditations to focus awareness and the deep relaxation of Yoga Nidra to tap into subconscious.

As the themes of our life come around again ‘this time’ we get to make a different choice to create a different outcome. And so, we take a step along the path with our ever increasing ‘clear seeing’ mind. We can now discern and see what’s real, what is true for us. We can develop our own guidance system, stay true to our purpose to make choices in alignment with our Dharma.

We can create a life filled with peace, happiness, prosperity and freedom — A life lived to the full!

Want to know more? Click here to register your interest https://bit.ly/2PFyeui for Change The Way You See with The Four Desires — First Time in Australia Workshops March 13–15th on the Gold Coast, March 20–22nd in Melbourne and March 27th-29th Sydney 2020.

• * The Four Desires workshop is also a certified training for the Para Yoga Master Training (PYMT) program.

WRITTEN BY: Kel Green M.A. Transp. Psych, RYT 500 RYS 200 & Rene Quenell Director of Certif. Para Yoga & Level 3 PYMT Teacher