A new 8-week session at Mill Road Community Space is underway. Each week, we will explore one aspect of yoga philosophy, drawing from ancient and modern-day yoga literature. Here is a summary of what we explored today:
Yoga philosophy divides existence into two main realms: 1/ the physical or material (body and mind are included here), and 2/ the spiritual.
The physical world is governed by three main forces or energies, called “gunas” in Sanskrit:
1/ tamas – stillness, heaviness, inertia
2/ rajas – movement, growth
3/ sattva – balance, steadiness, goodness
We can observe these forces at play on many levels: the cycle of a lifetime, the cycle of the seasons, the cycle of a day, the cycle of a single breath, the cycle of a thought or emotion… Everything in the physical world has a beginning, a middle and an end. The physical world is always in a state of change, or transformation. Buddhist philosophy calls this “impermanence.”
Our focus today was to observe how these gunas manifest in body and mind. We began with corpse pose and yin yoga postures – the body loose, relaxed, heavy and still – tamas predominating.
We moved onto dynamic yoga postures – active cat & cows, twists, and sun salutations – the body flowing from one posture to another – rajas predominating.
We followed with balancing postures – the body steady, the eyes focused on one point – sattva predominating.
Then, back into some yin yoga postures (long-held stretches), to shift our focus to the mind, to observe the movements of the mind. The mind can be dull (tamas), active (rajas), or clear and alert (sattva).
While movements of the mind (thoughts) are by definition a manifestation of rajas, the thoughts themselves can be tamasic (leading to lethargy), rajasic (leading to more activity) or sattvic (leading to clarity and balance). Sylvie Gouin teaches that tamasic thoughts are basically versions of “I fear/I wish”; rajasic thoughts, “I need/I want”; and sattvic thoughts, “I value.”
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali defines Yoga as “the cessation of movements of the mind.” Now, stopping all thoughts permanently is… well… nearly impossible, and so many scholars interpret this statement to mean that we cease to identify ourselves with our thoughts. We still have thoughts, but we are not drawn into them; we are able to observe them with some detachment, and to let them flow on their way. Thoughts come, and thoughts go. Feelings come, and feelings go. We can observe these movements within our being with clarity and acceptance. We can resist the natural impulse to cling to our more pleasant thoughts/feelings, and to repress our more painful ones. With open heart and open mind, we allow life to flow through us. More on this next week, as we explore the aspect of Self that NOT subject to the gunas – the aspect of Self that is unchanging, eternal, ever peaceful, ever complete.
If you are interested in joining this class, please do. It is a moderate yoga class, suitable for all levels of experience, combining traditional hatha yoga, yin yoga and philosophy. $15 drop-in rate, or $96 for 8 weeks.