Santosha (Contentment)

Tonight I put on a favourite, soulful album and yoga'd for the pure joy of moving and breathing.  I didn't think about teaching or alignment.  I didn't care what the pose looked like.  I just closed my eyes and felt my way through each lift, push and twist.

The lesson:  Live without regard for what it looks like and go with how it feels.

There is so much magic when you let go of all that other junk.  This is where freedom lives.  Now.

A Pose

There are so many beautiful ways to express yourself.  How are you finding expression in this life?

Time

Dear Universe, I am open to direction.  A

Older

The last few days I just can't get enough George Michael.  Tonight I'm listening to his album "Older".  It was released in 1996 and apart from having heard a couple of the tracks before, most of the music on this cd is new territory for me.  I LOVE IT.

If you are so inclined you can have a listen here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp7JDdiUwuQ

Think About It

In your life right now, what are you at the beginning of, in the middle of and nearing the end of?  We are at all times, simultaneously, in each of these 3 stages of being.

The Yoga Sutras

The Yoga Sutras were written down somewhere between  500BC and 250BC by Patanjali (Pa-tawn-ja-lee). Patanjali is considered to be the organizer and recorder of the Sutras not the originator.  While the practice of Yoga predates Patanjali by 2500 years, he is still considered in the modern world to be the Father of Yoga.  He knew and understood Yoga to be first and foremost the scientific practice of understanding and mastering the mind.

Patanjali wrote down 196 Sutras (ideas or threads) on the practice of Yoga.  These threads comprise a road map, leading one to the ultimate goal of Samadhi or absorption with the Divine.  Some have called this place super-consciousness or enlightenment.  You cannot travel outwardly to Samadhi, it is a journey through the inner workings of one's own self.  Do not be fooled, the terrain can be rough and at times down right obnoxious!  Over and over again, you meet yourself round corners and stumble through the obstacles of who you think you are... only to realize that it was equivalent to a dream.  What you always thought "was" really wasn't after all.  To ad insult to our injured ego, Yoga asks us to accept all that is, as it is.  To become the Observer not the Judger.  Further still, be the observer of the Observer.  At first it all sounds kinda crazy... until you begin to see... begin to become the observed and the Observer.

The first Sutra is the introduction and tells us that what we are about to read is an exposition on Yoga.  The second Sutra says that Yoga is the restraint of the modification of the mind-stuff.  In Sanskrit it is written as chitta vritti nirodhah.  When I think about chitta, which translated means mind-stuff, it sounds a lot like the word chatter.  Vritti means to swirl, go in circles at a dizzying pace.  So to practice Yoga one is committing to restraining the chattering vortex of the un-restful mind.  The next 194 Sutras are a how to guide on bringing calm to the storm and liberating one's true self from one's mind.

While Yoga is highly beneficial for the body, all physical practice is meant to aid in the focusing, cleaning and clearing of our thought processes and assuaging the endless chatter and changing thoughts that can swirl incessantly.  Yoga is quite simply about transcending the mind.  To transcend we must practice.

Peace

Whatever the 'thing' is, you have to make peace with it.

Peace is not a truce.  Peace has no room for anger or resentment.  This is why peace isn't easy, why sometimes we have to come to the end of ourselves, wear ourselves out with resistance to the 'thing' until there is nothing left, not even resistance.  When every effort fails us, every turn thwarts our progression, anger has cresendo'd and can no longer be sustained...  Fatigue takes its place.  Change seems absolutely beyond the realm of possibility.  We break down.  We give up.  We stop caring and say to God, FINE, DO IT HOWEVER YOU WANT.

In that exact moment, you make peace.  The door swings open.