Learn to Lean on Your Own Spine
Learn to lean on your own spine, because the more things you depend on to tell you about your mind and body, the less you ever come to know yourself.
Asked about reaching awareness through psychedelics rather than repetitive practice, Dandapani answers with his guru's instruction: do not lean on me, because when I die you will fall over, learn to lean on your own spine. He describes how much equipment now surrounds meditation and yoga, contrasts it with people practising on the bare ground by the river, and asks you to get to know your own mind and body directly.
What this talk covers
- One of the big teachings from his guru was to learn to lean on your own spine, taught alongside the warning not to lean on him, because when he died the monks would fall over.
- People today lean on many things, from drugs and technology to the wires on your head measuring brainwaves so an app can choose the music for your meditation.
- Yoga now arrives with a mat, blocks, straps, special clothing, music and incense, when yoga has existed in the Hindu religion for thousands of years and people simply went out by the river and practised on the ground.
- When you become dependent on so many things, you never start to learn about yourself.
- For thousands of years people across Europe, Africa and Asia became sensitive enough to their mind, body and nervous system to know which leaf, root or plant healed what, because there was no doctor or pharmacy, and now we own the most amazing tool on the planet and ask technology to tell us about it instead.
Don't lean on me, because one day when I die, you're going to fall over, learn to lean on your own spine.Dandapani
Questions
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His guru told the monks not to lean on him, because one day he would die and they would fall over. The instruction was to develop your own capacity rather than depending on a teacher, a substance or a device to hold you up.
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He points out that yoga has been practised for thousands of years by people who went out by the river and practised on the ground, without a mat, blocks, straps, music or incense. The equipment is not what the practice requires.
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Because people once survived by becoming sensitive to their mind, body and nervous system, knowing which leaf or root healed what, with no doctor or pharmacy to go to. Now we have the most amazing tool on the planet and rely on technology and other things to tell us what is happening inside it.
Transcript
578 words · 3:22
How do you feel about the modern movements of reaching, you know, enlightenment or hyper awareness through pharmacology, through psychedelics, through using these drugs, rather than taking the time to do the repetitive meditations and the…? One of the big teachings I learned from my guru, and he used to say this amongst all the time,
and I love this quote by him. He said, learn to lean on your own spine. And in the monastery that I lived in, there were 27 months. And, you know, in the 52 years he taught, he had 27 months when he died. So it wasn't easy to get in. He was a tough teacher, very loving, wise teacher, and wasn't easy to stay in. But you know, the one thing he always said to us is that don't lean
on me, because one day when I die, you're going to fall over, learn to lean on your own spine. And I think in today's world, people lean on so many things, right? Whether it's drugs, or technology. You can't even meditate now without like, you know, sticking some wires to your head to measure brain waves so that it can play the right music based on how your
tetra or whatever waves are shaking in your head, right, it's giving you feedback. And then you want to do yoga. You got a yoga mat, a yoga block, yoga straps, and then you know your anti sweatpants made out of bamboo recycle from the Philippines. And then like you got music and then you got the you have those great. Yeah, and then super comfy. The mental one
on so great. And then and then you got like small you know like incense burning. I mean shit you're just trying to do yoga. Yoga has been around in Hindu religion for thousands of years people just went out on the dead floor by the river and just did yoga. And We just complicate things, right?
Everything is complicated. And when you become dependent on so many things, you never start to learn about you. And I had this interesting interview in London just last week, and I was telling the guy that was interviewing me that the way we're going is we're becoming just this piece of
meat. For thousands of years, I believe people learn to become sensitive to their mind, their body, and their nervous system. And that's how we survived on this planet.
All over the world, whether it was in Europe, Africa, Asia, people went out to the forest. They knew what leaf or root or plant healed something. And that's how we survived, right? There was no doctor or pharmacy to go to.
We understood our body. We knew how to connect with plants, with things. We were sensitive enough. And now, in today's world, we don't try to be – we are the most amazing tool on
the planet, our body and our mind. But yet, we don't try to understand it ourselves. We need technology to tell us about our body. We need other things to tell us about our mind.
Get to know your mind, get to know your body so that you can understand it. We have the most amazing tool in the world, yet we don't. We turn to other things like technology and drugs and everything. Why?
Just go within yourself and find out all answers are inside of you.