Inhale and [the Divine/Life-force/Eternal] approaches you. Hold the inhalation and [the Divine/ Life-force/Eternal] remains with you. Exhale and you approach [the Divine/Life-force/Eternal]. Hold the exhalation and surrender to [the Divine/Life-force/Eternal]
The past fe weeks, we've been exploring "opposites" of individual and global, localized and interconnected, wave and ocean... we'll continue in the vein this week with a breathing practice based on the teaching of one of my favourite yogis, the brilliant 8th century theorist/practitioner/teacher Shankaracharya or Adi Shankara speaking about the real meaning of pranayama (yogic breathing). This interpretation comes from Sri Krishnamacharya:
Inhale and [the Divine/Life-force/Eternal] approaches you. Hold the inhalation and [the Divine/ Life-force/Eternal] remains with you. Exhale and you approach [the Divine/Life-force/Eternal]. Hold the exhalation and surrender to [the Divine/Life-force/Eternal] Our reading this week, from ling time American yoga teacher Eric Schiffmann, points to the final niyama: Ishvara pranidhana, turning our mind over to the Infinite and interconnected unfolding of Life, even while remaining engaged in our own daily life...
Practicing yoga during the day is a matter of keeping [our] eyes on the road and one ear turned toward the Infinite. Our theme for this session is wholeness and the interconnection of all things (when is that never our theme?!)
This week's reading - very yogic in its flavour - is from inspired scientist, Albert Einstein. In it, he speaks of what the yogis call avidya (spiritual confusion about separateness) and asmita, (overinvolvement with the individual "ego-I").... A person experiences life as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this self-imposed prison, and through compassion, to find the reality of Oneness |
AuthorMisha Butot RCSW, ERYT 500 is a longtime clinical social worker and senior yoga teacher living in Victoria, BC Archives
May 2024
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