Pratyahara is situated directly in the middle of the eight limbs, its central position indicates that it is the point where the outer can become inner (and also the reverse).
It is my mission, my small little station in life to convey to you how to gain entrance into the techniques of Hatha yoga.
Each of us is meant to walk through our days finding our own unique ways of contributing to cosmic goodness. Each person’s sacred work is ongoing. It happens in the immediate moment in every choice you make and every interaction you have with your self and others.
There was a devoted man, a self-taught yogi on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean. He had all of these devotional practices that were half based on Hindu rituals and half what he had made up.
The yogi wants to drop all ideas and know reality from a place of no thought, direct experience without language or concept. The ordinary woman cherishes ideas above all else. Spends the first one third of her life in school, studying ideas, and then she goes to work generating and selling ideas.
...its important to remember that your struggles with the difficult physical actions are merely a warm up for the stances that yoga ethics demand.
There are no easy or fast solutions to many of the problems we each face personally as well as collectively. There is often great complexity in the even the basic matters that we must deal with. The complexity that is inherent to acting skillfully and responding fittingly to whatever circumstances we face requires us to be patient, caring, and compassionate with ourselves and with each other.
I’ve increased my tapas because I have one dream and one dream only, and that is to do whatever I can to help the world move towards peace instead of heading towards destruction through engaging in uncompromising, fruitless, imperiling conflict.
I practiced only Surya Namaskara for ten years. I recently had a student ask me what I was doing during that decade. Here is my answer.
Abhyasa is a Sanskrit word that is defined as the effort to remain steady in a state of yoga (citta vrtti nirodha) and thus be able to see beyond the visible, material world to the sacred...