October’s theme is “detachment,” and our affirmation this month is “I view my life/my situation from a new perspective.” I have two young children. Sometimes, when things are not going their way, they will say something like, “This is the worst day ever!” or “Mom, you have ruined my day!” From my perspective, their troubles … [Read more…]
September’s affirmation is: “I surrender to the cosmic will.” Now, compare this to August’s affirmation: “My will is all-powerful.” (These monthly affirmations are from the book “Yoga: Your home practice companion” by the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre.) So, how to make sense of these seeming opposites? Yogic teachings urge us to exercise and strengthen our … [Read more…]
This evening, as I tucked my little ones in, my youngest asked, “Mama, what cup is that you’re holding?” I responded, “You know, my cup – my favourite one.” And she replied, “Well, you know, it’s not really your cup, it’s the one that you like to use.” And I thought to myself, yes, how … [Read more…]
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…]
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…]