Why do we practice yoga? Is it for strong abs? To be able to touch our toes? To stand on our hands? To get our heart rate up? To calm our minds? To lower stress? To know God?
Yogis practice for all of these reasons and many more. There are as many reasons as there are people on the planet. But what is the true purpose of yoga? It is a practice with many physical, mental, spiritual and emotional benefits. Which of these is yoga's true purpose and which are side-effects? Playing guitar will make your fingers tough and calloused, but few would claim that callouses are the purpose of guitar playing. Yoga is a complex endeavor. Traditionally it has between 6 and 10 diverse areas of focus, or limbs. These include Disciplines and Values, Physical Postures, Breath and Energy Control, Inward Focus of the Senses, Concentration and Meditation, Chanting and Ritual. Some yogis focus intently on one area, others dabble in all of them. I will explore each of these areas in some depth over the coming weeks, discussing how they aid and hinder us as we progress toward the true goal of yoga. It is simple in concept but unending in practice: to see things as they truly are. We see the world through a filter that is unique to each of us. Our perceptions are colored by our own experiences and the mental constructs that we have in place to explain the world and the people in it. This is why, if you ask 5 different people for their explanations of an event, you will get 5 different but equally plausible answers. We all see the world differently. The purpose of yoga is to purify our perception of the world. In the words of Pattabhi Jois it is the "purification of the sense organs." We change the way we see the world, how we interpret and interact with it. Step by step we notice and dissolve our individual prejudices and preconceptions, from the most obvious all the way down to the ones we don't yet know we have. As William Blake put it, "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern." With this in mind, let's explore the various practices of yoga, starting with the most common: Physical Postures (Asana). The Purpose of Yoga, Part 2: Physical Postures/Asana The Purpose of Yoga, Part 3: Energy Control/Pranayama
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"There is a proverb: 'Many sages, many opinions'. The highest goal in yoga is attainment of kaivalya, the point at which raja yoga culminates. Ultimately, all spiritual practices and branches of yoga lead to that state, but there are as many ways of reaching the goal as there are individuals in the world."
From Muktibodhananda's commentary to the Hathapradipika. If we are weak, yoga makes us strong.
If we are rigid, yoga makes us fluid. If we are shy, yoga makes us confident. If we are too bold, yoga makes us humble. If we are selfish, yoga connects us. If we are altruistic, yoga connects us to the self. If we are quiet, yoga shows us our voice. If we are loud, yoga shows us silence. If we are of the ether, yoga brings us into our body. If we are of the earth, yoga shows us the universe. Most spiritual traditions have codes of conduct to guide us toward a better spiritual life. Judaism, Christianity and Islam each have a set of 10 commandments that are ethics and guidelines for worship. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali sets forth a similar group of ethical guidelines and disciplines.
The power in these ethical codes is that they are absolute: if we lie, we are not honest; if we kill we are violent. In this way, all that we have to do is follow the guidelines to be good people. It is really that simple. My current favorite is Cleanliness/Purity. Keep the body clean, eat clean food, avoid dark and angry thoughts. When one acts and thinks in a clean way, one is and becomes clean. It is even easier to be an honest person. All we have to do is tell the truth. Always. It can seem like an insurmountable expectation, but after a little while of being completely honest, the mind develops a clarity that is hard to ignore. After that, anything other than the truth clouds the mind and becomes intolerable. We want to tell the truth. We have to. Being "good" is a little more vague, but that is why all these traditions specify behaviors to do and avoid. Don't be violent, don't lie, be generous, be kind. If we do these things, we embody the person that we have always dreamed of becoming. We cease to be in conflict with ourselves and our better nature. ps. The same is true of happiness. To be happy, what we must do is be happy. I have been working with a lost manuscript by the great yogi Buddha Bose (much more about this later!), one of Bishnu Ghosh's early prodigies (a couple decades before Bikram). In the preface to this volume, Bose gives the following insight about yoga practice.
"Yoga means union - union of the human soul with the Spiritual Soul or Spirit - God. The Yoga Asanas or exercises greatly facilitate this union for they aid the aspirant in achieving that most necessary and desirable quality in approaching that state, viz., the power of concentration." "The student requires perseverance, patience, the ability to concentrate, and above all, a willingness to adopt healthful and regular habits." "No one, however skilled, should perform all of the asanas every day. It is better gradually to increase the duration of practice of each exercise than to strive to practice a large number of them for a brief period." When practicing Postures/Asanas, move slowly.
Enter the postures slowly, with control. Hold the posture where you can have proper alignment in the body, especially the spine. Find stillness in the posture. Come out slowly. Return to standing, sitting or lying and rest for a few moments, letting the circulation, heart and breath return to normal. This may seem like oversimplification, but it is harder than it sounds. Moving fast and clumsily is easy to do. Moving slowly is difficult, stillness even more so. Remove the complexity and the rushing from your practice. Practice slowly and simply. The body and the mind will develop quickly. Stress will dissipate. Clarity will emerge. How do we find our path?
I, like many others, came to yoga through the Posture/Asana practice. I wanted to "get in shape." I wanted to be strong and flexible and be able to stand on my hands. I wanted to be graceful and beautiful. Over the course of about 2 years of daily practice, the Practice did its work on me: the mindful breath, the quiet mind, the linking of mind and body. I found my mind a quieter place and my life more peaceful. I was happier. It was only when I discovered this deeper layer to yoga that I found the beginnings of my path. So if you are new to yoga or struggling to find meaning, I say simply: persist and practice. Practice mindfully, stay present, give honest effort. Practice often, every day if possible. If you persist, the path will reveal itself and you will find that you were walking along it the whole time. Having beautiful postures or a beautiful body is not the point of yoga practice. Quite the contrary really. Exploring and challenging our conceptions of the body is fundamental to the Posture practice. We are only as strong and flexible as we think, no more and no less. To me yoga is about one thing: happiness.
We walk the path toward happiness Through health, strength, resilience, humility, compassion and inner peace. The path of yoga is different for everyone. It is the goal of the yogi to find his/her own path And then to walk it. It is the goal of the teacher to aid the yogi in finding that path. Most every day my teacher Tony Sanchez posts something about yoga to his Facebook page. Every now and again he writes something that really resonates with me. Yesterday was one of those days. His post is below. I love the encouragement that self-confidence, like everything else, can be practiced and developed. I also love the reminders to stay humble and true: "Practice for understanding and not for power over others." His complete post is below.
"GUIDED YOGA PRACTICE Empower your practice with faith in yourself and in yoga. Don't expect progress when doubting yourself. Personal doubts are apt to backfire and set you back. Indifference and lethargy grows out of lack of confidence. Work on self-confidence for best results. In the beginning of yoga practice bad days are common. Persist and good days will shine forth. Practice for understanding and not for power over others. Be effective, not vain." "This is the essential difference between a spiritually minded person and a worldly person. Worldly doesn't mean that you have money or stature. Worldly means that you think the solution to your inner problems is in the world outside. You think that if you can change things outside, you'll be okay. But nobody has ever truly become okay by changing things outside. There's always the next problem. The only real solution is to take the seat of witness consciousness and completely change your frame of reference."
From "The Untethered Soul" by Michael A. Singer |
This journal honors my ongoing experience with the practice, study and teaching of yoga.
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