In yoga we have an opposite notion or a contrary image about how wisdom takes form within the human mind. Instead of thinking that attaining knowledge is about filling up our minds with learning, facts, information, viewpoints, stances, opinions and such—the yogi aspires to empty out of all thoughts and become ‘void minded’.
...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.
Every exercise in practice provides you with a microcosmic opportunity to advance along your solitary path to the macrocosmic pinnacle of yoga.
Sansaya (doubt) is one of the 9 obstacles that clouds the mind and thwarts practice. Skepticism, cynicism, jadedness, lack of trust, fear of trust, worry, anxiety, anticipating the worst, finding the worst, all of these are reflective of doubt.
I’m a bit of a nut when it comes to practicing in solitude. I imagine at times this can be hard on my practice partner but she also knows how thankful I am for her and our practice time.
What is the first waking moment you can remember in your life? I remember being 3 years old and locking myself in an unlit closet. I was trapped and crying for help.
One week you are springing out of bed to practice and the next you are dragging yourself to the mat. It is like being in an ocean where the current is deceptive, you think you are in control, in one place, and then in a snap you are downstream!
Yes, the road behind me is strewn with my failures and as painful as all these mistakes were, and are, at least I can say I took on my darkness.
I used to hear my teacher Sri Pattabhi Jois during conferences go out of his way to remind us that beginning practice with Surya Namaskara was an act of devotion and not a warm up.
