Yoga, practiced regularly, offers tools for
– maintaining stability
– supporting development
– coping with change.
Yoga is a practice that you can learn ‘for you’,
a practice that can be personalised for where you are now
and adapted for creatively meeting what is to come.
What is Yoga – Yoga as Meditation
“2.Yoga as Meditation
Now the concern is more with the mystery of life than the mastery of life.
Here Yoga is a means for meditation with self-inquiry as the primary focus.
“Who am I?” is the question that acts as a map for an inner journey into our psyche. It is a quest to touch and be touched by the “soulfull” quality of being that resides within.
In this approach Yoga is a tool for a movement towards a deeper relationship with our sense of soul, by searching both into and beyond what we experience as the everyday self.
It is a journey of discovery exploring and ultimately going beyond attitudes that, for better or for worse, have shaped our lives, work and relationships.
Now Yoga is a skill by which we seek to sustain awareness and clarity in spite of the vagaries of everyday life. The quality of this awareness engenders a freshness within which actions are less affected by our usual attitudes and habits. In other words we have more choice over how we respond or react. In those situations where our reaction would be automatic we now find we have different possibilities.
Here Yoga is a process by which we grow in our understanding of ourselves. From this we come to realise that we can change those aspects of ourselves that are unhelpful on our journey. This means firstly recognising the qualities that hinder our personal growth, an important, if not always comfortable stage in the journey. Secondly, having reflected on how we are rather than who we are, we go on to discover that there exists within us a resource with the potential to transform these undesirable aspects.
From this we can take steps towards living more creatively. Here again the help of a teacher is important as a guide for advice and suggestions on practices to support the process of growth into an understanding of how we are and ultimately who we are.
To quote another saying from the teachings on meditation:
“Before I can experience myself as nobody, I must first experience myself as somebody.”
This approach is known as the Yoga of Reflection and Discovery.
However, we all experience problems, poor health or illness from time to time.”
What is Yoga – Yoga as Power
What is Yoga?
“1. Yoga as Power
Firstly Yoga can be explained as a means to attain a degree of power or control over our body and mind.
Here Yoga links the body and the mind through intense physical and mental effort.
For instance through rigorous physical practices we develop and maintain a state of concentration which is used to hold power over the body and the breath. Within this approach such control is often seen as a prerequisite to the body and mind becoming free of disturbances and distractions.
This power arises out of three areas of personal development:
i) Mastery of the body through physical postures.
ii) Control of the breath through breathing techniques.
iii) The ability to concentrate through mental techniques.
The consequences of this intense effort are energy and control that is available for whatever purpose suits our direction in life.
Many people could usefully enjoy more power over certain areas of their lives. The question is, are we prepared to put in some effort to reach this point.
In the words of a teacher from long ago:
“Yoga is the means by which that which was not attained earlier is now attained.”
This approach is known as the Yoga of Energy and Will.
As such, this aspect of Yoga is an art and offers a fascinating field. It is appealing to many people searching for power in and over their lives.
However this approach is only a means towards a more important goal……”
If you don’t know yourself…..
“If you don’t know yourself how can you think of something which is more than you or higher than you?”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 29
’100 Years of Beatitude’ Sri T Krishnamacharya
“Downloadable film ’100 Years of Beatitude’ digitalised from a video of a 1989 documentary honouring Śrī T Krishnamacharya at the time of his centennial celebrations.” From Paul Harvey’s website yogastudies.org
The spirit of viniyoga…..
“The spirit of viniyoga is starting from where one finds oneself.
As everybody is different and changes from time to time,
there can be no common starting point,
and ready-made answers are useless.
The present situation must be examined and
the habitually established status must be re-examined.”
– TKV Desikachar
Faith
‘If we do not think of the positive
in the most difficult situations, we panic.
And once we panic we are lost.’
Read full article by TKV Desikachar
Śraddhā is essential for progress whether…..
“Śraddhā is essential for progress, whether in Yoga or any other endeavour. It is a feeling that cannot be expressed or intellectually discussed. It, however, is a feeling that is not always uncovered in every person.
When absent or weak, it is evident through the lack of stability and focus in a person. Where present and strong, it is evident through the commitment, perseverance and enthusiasm the person exhibits.
For such a person, life is meaningful.”
– TKV Desikachar
Sāṃkhya and Change
Sāṃkhya is about living more within that which doesn’t change,
rather than living more within that which does change.
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Some are satisfied with what Āsana brings them…..
“Some are satisfied with what Āsana brings them.
Others are curious as to where Āsana can take them.”
Paul Harvey (yogastudies.org)
Satviniyoga – To give the right thing to the right person…..
“To give the right thing to the right person at the right time is Satviniyoga.
Don’t look at the file, look at the student!”
– TKV Desikachar France 1983 – Paul Harvey
Yoga Practice offers the Soil…..
“Yoga Practice offers the Soil.
Yoga Study offers the Seeds.”
Paul Harvey
cYs Yoga Journal
In this solitude you will begin to understand…..
“In this solitude you will begin to understand the necessity of living with yourself as you are, not as you think you should be or as you have been. See if you can look at yourself without any tremor, any false modesty, any fear, any justification or condemnation -just live with what you actually are.”
J.Krishnamurti
The way you approach the present…..
“The way you approach the present isn’t just determined by the way you approach the past, but by the way you approach the future. The richer conception of the future you have, the richer your life in the present becomes.”
Ken Wilbur
Relationship
“Now where do we begin to understand ourselves? Here am I, and how am I to study myself, observe myself, see what is actually taking place inside myself? I can observe myself only in relationship because all life is relationship. It is no use sitting in a corner meditating about myself. I cannot exist by myself. I exist only in relationship to people, things and ideas, and in studying my relationship to outward things and people, as well as to inward things, I begin to understand myself. Every other form of understanding is merely an abstraction and I cannot study myself in abstraction; I am not an abstract entity; therefore I have to study myself in actuality.” – Freedom from the Known 22
The range of what we think and do is limited by…..
“The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.”
R.D. Laing
Your vision will become clear…..
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look inside your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams, who looks inside, awakens”
Carl Jung
Pedestals
Posted by Michele Harney, Yoga Rathgar & Dundrum – Dublin
“As a student, notice how putting a teacher on a pedestal affects your ability to see the teacher clearly and inhibits your ability to learn. As a teacher, notice if you enjoy being put on a pedestal. How does it feel to be considered important? Is your sense of self-worth dependant on the adoration of your students?”
Thought provoking quote from Donna Farhi
I looked, and looked…..
Opposites
Posted by Michele Harney, Yoga Rathgar & Dundrum – Dublin
“The moment you are truly aware of your opposites, of both the positive and negative feelings toward any situation, then many tensions connected with that situation drop out, because the battle of opposites which created that tension is dissolves. On the other hand, the moment you lose unity of opposites, the awareness of both sides within yourself, then you split the opposites apart, erect a boundary between them, and thus render the ejected pole unconscious where it returns to plague you as a symptom. Since the opposites are always a unity, the only way they can be separated is by unconsciousness – selective inattention.”
–Ken Wilbur