Living Breathing Yoga

At the beginning of the month Sharath had taken a two-week break from teaching at the Yoga Shala here in Mysore.  Students were given the option to practice with Saraswathi or on their own at home.   During this time Guruji came down to lead a couple of led-primary classes, and to chant the invocation, which was a real treat for all of us practicing in the Shala.

Around this same time, one of our students from Canada had written to us asking: “what do you do when your teacher is away?” and “how do you practice when left on your own?”

It seems that this is a question was on the minds of many people, as it was asked during our last conference with Guruji and Sharath the week before.  The answer was simple: You continue to practice as your teacher has taught you.  Yoga is a personal practice that when practiced correctly has positive effects on the whole of humanity.  Finding a teacher to guide and instruct is an essential component of the Path, as is being surrounded by a sangha (community) to help motivate and encourage each of us along the way.  However, there will be many times in our lives when we will find ourselves far from any teacher, and without a community of practitioners around us.  In fact, it may be the case that most of our lives we will practice alone, without the direct presence of a teacher.  This being the case, it is important to figure out some ways to keep our minds focused on our practices and to stay motivated so we can continue to grow.

One thing that  will help is to take a close look at the how and why we practice.  If we are truly practicing in a correct way, and for the right reasons, we cannot help but experience the positive effects of the practice in our daily lives.  The more self-awareness we can develop, the more we will observe the benefits of the practice, and we will find ourselves encouraged to continue making a strong effort in our daily practice.

It can also be helpful to find time once or twice a year to devote a period of time to just practicing and studying yoga.  This can be done by going on a specific “yoga retreat,” or by just taking some time off from the demands of your job and the obligations of daily life to focus on your practice and reconnecting with yourself and if possible, your teacher.  These periods of intense study and concentrated practice can help to revive your practice, create inspiration, and rekindling your passion for the practice of  yoga.

Sometimes students ask: “What should I practice and how can I progress while you are not here?”Sharath and Guruji have said: “practice what you’ve been taught, as you’ve been taught.”  When you practice the postures your teacher has given you with earnest devotion you will certainly “progress.”  In the modern world we tend to associate this notion of “progress” with the idea that “more is better” and we get caught up in the idea that if we are doing more it means we are getting better and “progressing.”

Contrarily, progress along the path of Yoga doesn’t amount to “more.”  We don’t progress by doing “more postures” or “more difficult postures” or “more practices” or “longer practices.”  Progress on the path of Yoga is determined by the internal condition of our mind and attitude.

When we can be completely satisfied with exactly what we have and who we are at any given moment then we are starting to walk along the path of santosha (contentment) the second niyama, and that is the sign of real progress.  We will be happy to practice less with more awareness, instead of more with less satisfaction.

.As Sharath reminded us in conference, doing advanced asana doesn’t mean you are a more “advanced practitioner.”  It doesn’t guarantee more “self-knowledge” or “enlightenment.”  A student practicing primary series can be learning more, and growing more by focusing on the internal form and starting to “still the fluctuations of the mind,” then a student who may be practicing an advanced series but who is still fixated on the external form without developing any kind of control over the mind.

The “inner asana” is what we must strive to perfect.  When we can humbly surrender to a practice, and commit ourselves to following one method and one teacher, this “inner asana” the “seat of God within” gets perfected.  Gratitude grows when we can accept what we have been given instead of always acting from that deeply ingrained pattern (samskara) of asking and wanting and taking more and more.  As Sri O.P Tiwari has reminded us time and time again, we should strive to be a “person of the needs, and not the wants.”      

Sharath gave a conference last night and I was reminded of a practice I had last year when out of frustration I choose to quit early. 
I was fed up, had had enough, my back was sore, I had no energy, and in my mind I wasn’t “progressing.”  

As I left the shala my teacher looked at me and said, “weak mind”.  Something sunk in my chest. I was heart broken, angry, and wanted to cry.  But honestly, Sharath was right, he had nailed me.  Of course this led to a little reflection for me… 

The yamas are known in the yoga sutras as the mahavratam  (the great vows).  These fundamental teachings are the corner stone of yoga.  Asteya is the third yama, and is translated as “non-stealing.” For most of us it is obvious we must not steal in order to maintain our practice of ahimsa (non-violence). We know that if we take something from someone else we are harming him or her.   

But what about stealing from ourselves?   

We all face challenges both on and off the mat.  One challenge I have in my practice is urdhva danurasana or back-bends.  It’s not so surprising that this posture became much easier when I realized I was actually sabotaging myself with my mind.   

I had developed a pattern of berating myself, and it needed to be broken.  Somehow a resistance towards bending-back had crept in, along with an attachment to what I believed was “ideal progress.”  I realized that I needed to release the feeling of fear I was having patiently over time.  I needed to stop stealing my ability to see the positive. 

This brings up the question: “How do we steal from ourselves both on and off the mat?”  Do we steal time from ourselves?  Do we push into and through pain in an unhealthy manner?  Are we overly critical of ourselves?  Do we mentally beat ourselves up? 

We can start to find our own answers by asking ourselves the right questions:  Am I being patient with myself?  Am I allowing myself enough time to learn the lessons I need to learn before moving forward?

Louise Hay, in her book You Can Heal Your Life, asks her readers to: “Stop for a moment and catch your thought.  What are you thinking right now?  If it is true that your thoughts shape your life, would you want what you were just thinking right now to be true for you?”   

This is a great question to ask your self.  Are we thinking supportive thoughts?  Or are we playing old tapes in our heads that no longer add value to our present circumstances. 

Are our thoughts, and consequently our lives, filled with the mantra: “I can do it!” or are we in subtle ways stealing happiness and contentment from ourselves simply because we have not examined our own patterns of thinking?  It is so easy for the mind to simply default into its old self-sabotaging patterns, so we need to make a conscious effort to increase the awareness of our own thoughts. 

Ultimately we need to support ourselves in the yoga practice we have chosen.  This is vital.  We need to give ourselves lots of positive encouragement the way we would encourage others. Learning to love and approve of our actions in every moment is one of the most important practices that we can do. 

I leave this week with one more quote from Louise Hay:  “If we want a joyous life, we must think joyous thoughts.  If we want a prosperous life, we must think prosperous thoughts.  If we want a loving life, we must think loving thoughts.  Whatever we send out mentally or verbally will come back to us in like form.”  (You Can Heal Your Life) 

If it is true that we only get what we give, then perhaps it’s time to reflect upon what you have given or withheld from yourself lately.

After 44 straight hours of travel, sleeping seat-belted in airplanes, muddling through various time zones, enduring indigestion from bad airplane food, and finally surviving a scary Indian car ride, we are back in Mysore!Mother India always presents a plethora of sights, sounds, smells, and tastes – a real smorgasbord for the senses! And all I can say is … Yippee!! The effort to get here is a small price to pay for the great blessing of being back to study with our teachers.   

Thank God for the next three months!  While we are here in Mysore, the practice becomes the sole focus of our attention, pretty much of our whole existence, and although three months might seem like a grand amount of time, for us it seems more like a short, but intense, check-in.  It is nice to have some time to step away from the demands of “big city living,” to find a quiet space to sink into where we can practice, study, and delved deeper into the inner-Self once again.

 The truth is that most of us need to deliberately dedicate some time every now and again to make our yoga practice the focus of our attention.  Amidst our busy lives we need to find those moments where we can rededicate ourselves to a consistent practice and review our growth along the path. 

As we move through life, a multitude of things can become obstacles to our spiritual growth.  The daily demands of “modern living” are just some of the obstacle that can take a toll on our mental, physical and spiritual well-being.  With the help of our yoga practice we can begin to recognize a little sooner when we need to take a personal “time-out” to rejuvenate, re-vitalize, and possibly modify our approach to the journey. 

Taking time to focus on what we really want, both on and off our mat, and pausing to honestly assess the barriers on the path is a very important process.  It is satya (truth) that helps us find the answers to the questions that lie within ourselves. 

Sometimes it is only after taking a step back that we can truly assess our choices and correctly decide where to invest our energy and resources.  Life is a series of choices, and as Louise Hay would say, “the point of power is always in the present moment.”  Breath, Be Present, Choose Well!

Sometimes practice is hard.  We would all like it to be easy, but realistically this is not always the case.

We have a student who comes to us intermittently.  He is an artist, and a yoga teacher, and has a loving free spirit.  After working through some strains and sprains, aches and pains, he asked us if his practice would always be this difficult.  He was referring to the many struggles he was having with discomfort in his body:  “Isn’t yoga supposed to be all about bliss?” he asked.  Physical suffering can be hard on us psychologically, and our motivation to keep up with the practice can decrease.

It is a great question though, “Isn’t yoga supposed to be all about bliss?”   I guess the simple answer is NO!  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out however.  We need only to observe the nature and the truth of our existence.  Pain comes, and pain goes.  Pleasure comes, and pleasure goes.  There is an arising and a passing away.  Yoga is the ability to keep our mind steady during the rise and fall, the ebb and flow of life, and the successfulness our practice shows up in our ability to deal with the changes, great and small, that manifest within us and around us in every moment.

The most difficult form of satya, or truthfulness, starts with our own self. One good question to ask of ourselves is this: “Am I being serious or sincere?” 

Our teacher Tiwariji encourages us to be sincere, as seriousness is an expression of the ego.   When I get “serious” about my practice, I push too hard, I tend to move out of a balanced state and into an ego-driven state, and I increase the potential for injury.  Yoga practice is difficult enough, without creating more obstacles with our ego.  Finding the balance beyond pain and pleasure, and creating steadiness of mind and body to help us move beyond the dualities of existence, is an essential part of our quest.  Searching for “bliss” results in a constant disappointment.  To crave bliss is really a craving for misery, as all sensations, pleasant or painful, are conditioned by our temporal existence, and so are always impermanent and changing

I am reminded of what my friend David Swenson says, “If at first you find this practice hard, don’t worry, it gets easier!  And if at first you find this practice easy, don’t worry, it gets harder!”  In my opinion, David is one of the great Ashtanga Yogis of our day, and what he said pretty much sums it up: Sometimes practice is hard, sometimes it is easy.  What is important is not to crave the easy, energetic, light, enjoyable practices, as this is a recipe for disappointment, but we must strive to keep our equanimity during both the pleasant practices, as well as the difficult ones.

Satya or the second yama arises out of ahimsa.  It is a continuation of the foundational practice of non-harming, as it is the application of truth in our lives.  It not only refers to being truthful with others, but it also includes the awareness of being truthful with ourselves, and this means meeting ourselves each day on the mat as we are, as we practice.

We had a new student came to our Mysore class this week to begin learning the wonderful practice of Ashtanga Yoga.  His wife practices with us, and so he was familiar with the practice and brought with him many pre-conceived ideas, expectations, and concerns about what a yoga practice should look like, and how long it needed to be.  He was worried that he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the other students, and that he had to do it for over an hour every day. I think he was pleasantly surprised to find out that this practice “truthfully” can fit into his busy schedule and that it doesn’t have to be a long and laborious activity, and that when practiced with awareness it could add value to his life. 

This brings up a few questions though: Are there times when the practice truthfully doesn’t fit for us?  Are there times when the practice is too much for our day-to-day schedule?  Can we approach the demands of life, and the demands on our time in a truthful way and still make the effort to find the middle path between laziness and egoistic ambition?  I believe we can. 

Finding this middle ground is vital for us.  Our yoga practice should be something that creates more balance in our lives not further imbalance.  We must find ways to integrate our practice into our daily living without increasing the stress we already have.  Only in this way will the practice be maintained over the long term, and can we hope to find the true benefits of a yoga practice.  Patanjali says: “Sa tu dirghakala nairantarya satkarasevito drdhabhumih” – which means: “Only after a long time of continuous practice with sincerity will the benefits of yoga be achieved.”

This then must be our aim.  To be truthful with ourselves and our capacity each day not only when starting and integrating yoga into our lives, but also when sustaining the practices we have already established, and in doing so we will gain all he benefits that come from a daily practice of Ashtanga Yoga.