On a hot day, while mounting, a hill in order to visit a certain basilica, I was questioning myself why do they always chose such a high place to put churches, monasteries etc?

The first thought that come into my mind was purification.

Of course!

“God whose love and joy
are present everywhere,
Can’t come and visit you
unless you aren’t there.”

Walking 2000 m up the hill, requires a certain intention, strength determination, will. By the moment you reach there, your body may be sweating, you hardly catch your breath, your mind is at ease for dealing with these intense “Practice”.

” Now you are prepared to meet God.”

And for your surprise, God is not hiding in the church. God was all the time inside of you, you were just not capable of feeling, hearing him, experience an infinity part of his presence.
Just sitting on a bench, on the grass, taking a big inhale, appreciating some rest, you see beauty everywhere, in silence, in a sandwich, in a cup of water.

Happy to have reach your target, no matter how many times you wanted to stop, with some effort and discipline, and a certain purification of body and mind, the mind gets empty, you don’t think about work, about your fight with your parents or friends, about the rent, car or school.

Just a breath of fresh air and some freedom to replace all that was occupying your mind. Some time for you and God, the pleasure of a silent mind, overwhelmed by the sensations in the body, the “rest” you where longing for so long.

“God…can’t come and visit you, unless you aren’t there” It is not about your home, it is about the temple “My body is a temple”, it s about your mind.

How can anything come in, while you are so full of your own ideas, your mind is so busy thinking and in a constant meditation keeping intact your  precious identity?

¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. Corinthians 6:19-20

So that silence and love and peace, you are experience every time you are doing an effort, that discipline, touching the limitations of the body, practicing yoga, you are more in touch with the holy spirit, the spirit, god, the universe, call it whatever you want, it is the experience that maters not the name.

This is the reason for a pilgrimage, for different rituals before “meeting god”, walking for 1000 km with an intention.

Wherever you find yourself on the earth there are different approaches to this.

Muslim, Buddhist, catholic, orthodox, any kind of religion or beliefs they all talk about a purification before conception, love, eating, walking, meeting god, any activity.

Now yogis discover this just some thousands of years before, experiencing the Holy Spirit on daily basis rather than to put everything on FAITH.

They don t need to travel for thousands of km, they just sit on a mat, on a stone, either in meditation, or preparing the body trough asanas or other forms of practice, for the next step in their evolution.

***Jesus captured trying to explain how to hold the finger when you practice “anulom vilom”, pranayama. He just chose index finger-pointing finger on the forehead 🙂 something to do with third eye :)), probably he was a monk or a yogi, his clothes and what he preaches sounds like Asia***—-just a possibility… 

“Some people talk about peace and spirit, as the goal of their existence, in yoga this is fundamental to a daily life.”

There are rituals before everything.

Probably this is one of the reasons we are the way we are today, we have forgotten how to respect the “spirit” in everything.

Japenese : Shinto tradition of purifying the body and mind before meeting others.

“Purify yourself before meeting others.” You don t want to bring your dirt, your clouded mind, you negative emotions into someone else’s life. This is seen as a duty, not as an optional task.

So the first thing before you eat, before you do anything, do yoga, pray, or any form of practice or ritual, that reminds you of your place in this world and respect your body, because it s trough the body that you experience this life.

If it s pain you experience lifting your body from the ground, no matter how many beautiful words you put, it will not feel better, so probably you slept to much,or your muscles are atrophying and you are in lack of physical activity – trough the prism of the body we experience life.

Your life is not about being a banker, or a husband, or a boyfriend or anything else. But being a spirit in touch with God, which is fundamental before you engage yourself in any other activity.

‘The world is a bridge, pass over it, but build no houses upon it. He who hopes for a day, may hope for eternity; but the world endures but an hour. Spend it in prayer for the rest is unseen.’

Nobility is not being better than someone else, is being better than your former self, and this is how you should spend your life, in being noble.