The Path of Transformation: Pillar Two

By Sensei Yula

When we mistake the two aspects of our nature for one another, as most people usually do, we experience conflicts in our lives, some of which may seem sometimes endless and even seemingly insurmountable. These can be internal conflicts, conflicts with our family members and/or friends, as well as conflicts on societal levels. On the contrary, when we are able to properly distinguish between these aspects and apply that knowledge to our daily lives, the level of stress, anxiety and depression we experience diminishes greatly. In addition, our interactions with others improve, which benefits them as well as us, and our role in society deepens.

This is the second pillar of eight. The first pillar is available on Smashwords, and the rest will be available shortly. Reading Reality and the Truth: Pillar One is highly recommended before reading this book, but not mandatory.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sensei Yula
• Release date: Mar 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9780986734342

Sensei Yula

Sensei Yula has been practicing and teaching yoga, martial arts and healing arts for over 36 years. In the late eighties, he founded Centre for the Ways in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Prior to that, he ran a successful business in Halifax, Nova Scotia that included a health food cafe, several health food retail outlets and martial arts classes.As an acupuncturist and traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, he successfully treats people with conditions including heart disease, digestive problems, lower back aches, headaches, insomnia, mental disorders, gynaecological problems, infertility, and many others.From this experience as well as his training in Shiatsu, he has developed a system called Zen Kiatsu-Tao TCM. It is very relaxing and effective for the prevention and cure of many disorders.After decades of practicing and teaching Karate-Do, yoga and Yang style Tai-Chi, he founded the Zenki-Do System of Martial Art, a Yang-Yu style of Tai Chi called Tai Chi Chuan-Tao, and Chi Kung-Yoga Energetics.To share this experience, he has co-authored The Eight Pillars of the Heaven (Volume One, 2010; Volume Two, 2013) as well as Chi Kung-Yoga Energetics for Health: A Manual for Daily Practice (2012). He is currently working on books related to his repertoire of experience in healing and martial arts.

Book preview

The Path of Transformation

Pillar Two

Sensei Yula & Becca Mukti

Published by Centre for the Ways at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Sensei Yula and Becca Mukti

There are eight pillars in all and each is available in ebook format:

Reality and the Truth: Pillar One

The Path of Transformation: Pillar Two

Body Physio-Energetics: Pillar Three

Environmental Righteousness: Pillar Four

Tao Eating, Zen Digesting: Pillar Five

Yoga Energetics as an Alternative Medicine: Pillar Six

The Tao of Intimacy and the Ultimate Gynaecological Reality: Pillar Seven

Enlightenment: Pillar Eight

The first four pillars are available in print at Centre for the Ways.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is for your personal use only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. You may, however, encourage others to purchase a copy for themselves or purchase one for them as a gift. If you are reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the authors.

~~~ ♦ ~~~

This series is dedicated to humanity and Mother Earth.

~~~~ ♥ ~~~

Table of Contents

Introduction

Statement

Part One: Self-Realization

Who in Heaven am I?

Who on Earth am I?

Part Two: The Tao of Leadership

Am I Follower or a Leader?

The Effect of Followership on the Path of Transformation

The Five Stages of Leadership

Part Three: The Art of Being

Where on Earth am I?

How to be Happy

Being Nobody

Part Four: The Spin of Spiritual Wisdom

Taking Responsibility or Shovelling the Blame?

What is the Law of Karma?

What are My Responsibilities?

What are My Attachments?

What is Inherited Ignorance?

Conclusion

Affirmation

Appendix

Reasons for Writing this Series

About the Eight Pillars

Caveats

About the Authors

List of Publications by the Authors

About Centre for the Ways

Connect with Us

Support Us

~~~~ BEGIN ~~~

Introduction (return to Contents)

The very meaning and purpose of transformation is to differentiate between our reality and the truth, between our deceptive ego and our true self. Our ego is deceptive because our reality as a whole has been deceptive. Our reality is deceptive because it has been in constant change. We cannot bring our old realities back, we cannot hold onto them, and we cannot go back to them. They are gone. Just like dreams, they come and go constantly with or without our permission. We may have some memories of them or we may think we have some control over them, but, in fact, we are being reminded as well as being controlled by them, not the other way around. This is because we perceive the changes in our material life as losses or gains rather than accepting them as the law of nature which is unavoidable. Consequently, we experience grief with the former (losses) and excitements with the latter (gains).

In our clinical experience, we often ask individuals who are suffering from the loss of a relationship, a break-up to be precise, How many relationships have you had in the past? The answer is usually, Oh, several…, depending on the age and circumstance of the person responding. And then we ask, How many times have you gone through this grieving experience caused by break-ups? Most of them will say, Every time, or, Most of the time. Then we ask, When you were in your last relationship, did you still want to go back to the previous one? In most cases, the answer is, Not really. Of course, nothing is absolute, and there are always some exceptions. What makes you think that this time is any different? See, this is our problem. In some cases, we do not want some aspects of our reality to change yet in other circumstances we want them to.

When we are obsessed with something, let’s say our job or wealth, we do not want it to change; instead we want it to stay with us forever. This attitude creates a fear of losing and grief after it is lost or changed in a direction other than what we wished for. What we want is for something to change the way we want, and it changes alright, yet not necessarily in the way we wished. Or, on the contrary, we do not want something to change, yet it changes anyway. Either way, there are constant dissatisfactions and consequently sufferings.

The irony is that, in many cases, we want change: we want our children to grow up, we want the winter to go away, we want our disease to be cured and so on, but we grieve for other things if they change such as our wealth, our relationships and other possessions, those aspects of our reality that we want to hold onto forever. When we take the reality to be our truth, we expect that our reality is going to stay the same, particularly the parts that we like and are attached to. But the only truth about reality is that everything in reality changes moment to moment and that cannot be changed.

Until we differentiate between the two aspects of our human nature, our ego and our true self, we will continue living like a blindfolded person who is dropped in the middle of the desert trying to find his way home with either no map or a misguided one. As we travel on the path of transformation, we travel the Tao from the Baqua of later heaven where all the elements of nature go against each other towards the Baqua of earlier heaven where all the forces of nature, humanity included, support and promote one another. Stepping closer towards this state of being requires knowing ourselves better. To know ourselves better, we need to take our time and figure out who we are, what we want and why we are suffering. While travelling on this path and exploring such questions, new insights and power will become available to us. When we apply these to our daily life, they will bring about great improvements to our health and relationships, to our tolerance and understanding, and they also open the doors to true inner peace and happiness. We see this state as a reality in the process of transformation. This is called the transformation from reality to the truth, from the shadow of ignorance to the light of knowledge.

Statement (return to Contents)

Suffering is a reality, which is