I have a book that I often turn to for reference: Yoga: Your Home Practice Companion, compiled by the Sivananda Yoga Vendanta Centre (DK Publishing, 2010). In it, there is a chart entitled “A year of positive thinking.” For each month of the year, there is a quality and an affirmation. The idea is to … [Read more…]
In recent months, Ganesh has been showing up around here. A necklace given to me by a dear teacher, featuring this elephant-headed deity. A trip to the Sivananda Yoga Camp, where the morning and evening chants begin with “Jaya Ganesha” (“Praise to Ganesh”). Pictures of elephants that appear unexpectedly. Ganesh is the half-elephant, half-man deity … [Read more…]
There is a teaching in yoga about non-attachment (vairagya): Do not cling to the things that bring you pleasure, nor run away from the things that cause pain or fear. Learn to let go of your likes and dislikes, your desires, your aversions. Greet all of life with equanimity. There is also a teaching in … [Read more…]
I sometimes find myself wanting to be farther ahead in my yoga practice than I currently am. I sometimes think, “If only I had more time for practicing postures, doing breathing exercises, meditating, chanting, journalling, studying,” and so on. But with a young family and a household to run, the picture I have in my … [Read more…]
How do you know that something is a dream? During the dream, it all feels so very real. You seem to see, hear, taste, touch, feel, speak, move… and yet when you wake up, you realize that none of that actually happened. That whole time, you were asleep in your bed. Now how’s … [Read more…]
This is the last of our eight-week series on the “Deeper Dimensions of Yoga.” This week, we explore “isvarapranidhana”, which can mean either surrender or devotion, or both! Here, Patanjali (author/compiler of the Yoga Sutras) is referring specifically to surrender or devotion to God. But even if God is not a concept we relate … [Read more…]
Two weeks ago, we started our foray into what Patanjali calls “kriya yoga”, the yoga of action (Yoga Sutras, 2.1). Kriya yoga has three components: – “tapas”: self-discipline, self-restraint – “svadhyaya”: Self-inquiry, Self-study – “ishvarapranidhana”: devotion, surrender This week, we focus on svadhyaya. Svadhyaya is any form of “study that leads to knowledge of the … [Read more…]
Last week’s class focused on “tapas” – the energy of self-restraint. When we practice tapas, we choose to restrain ourselves from habits that in the end bring us suffering and/or lead us away from Truth. There are many examples of this, but today we focused on one such habit: thinking too much! (Recall Patanjali’s definition … [Read more…]
In the first chapter of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali defines “yoga” as “the cessation of the waves of the mind” (sutra 1.2). In the second chapter, he presents “kriya yoga” – the yoga of action – and prescribes three actions to alleviate our suffering and to bring about this state of mental stillness (sutra 2.2). … [Read more…]
Last week at Mill Road Community Space, we explored the five causes of suffering described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: 1/ the belief that this physical world perceived by our senses is the only Reality and Truth (This physical world is so changeable, so impermanent – how can we rest, where can we stand … [Read more…]