In this
first post, I would like to invite you to experience the full fruit of Yoga
practice, here and now. All too often in our culture, we experience life as a
series of hurdles and goals we must tackle in order to feel any sense of value.
This is all too true in Yoga culture as well. This isn’t merely a western
phenomena, though in the west it has taken on new dimensions as the practice
has been dissected and commodified within the marketplace. We find ourselves
experiencing a world of Yoga as achievement-oriented sport, or as a heroic
spiritual path, wherein the practitioner is ever seeking “higher states”, ever
deemed inadequate in ones own skin, with no value toward the embodied life
existing right now. We are to often encouraged to ever looking outward, or turn
inward into a space that still can seem so out of reach, couched in beautiful
but sometimes overwrought and unattainable cultural imagery, and all of this can
turn into a truly torturous process. There is certainly some joy and thrill in
peak experiences, and imagery and ritual can be a truly lovely experience, but
all too often the stories and contortions of the practice contain hidden
pitfalls that leave us ever hungering for more knowledge, flexibility,
strength, insight, clairvoyance, or a different body, such as a “Yoga butt”,
whatever that is.
The real shame here, but also the
beautiful gift, is that all this seeking truly isn’t necessary. The real
experience of yoga, deep connection to oneself and the universe, is always
available, here and now. Further, it doesn’t have to be some big deal. Just
because a dramatic peak experience isn’t happening, this doesn’t devalue your
experience right now. If you connect to your life, through a simple and clear
practice, through your interactions with family and friends, and are present
for it, then you are experiencing yoga; you are experiencing the fullness of
the path.
The really really good news is that
you can’t avoid the here and now, no matter what you do. You don’t have to make
yourself be present. You always are. Your feet are always on the ground, even
if you aren’t currently attentive to the fact. Giving up the quest for more,
better, and elsewhere can be a huge gift to yourself, because you have the
opportunity to relax and enjoy where you are, whether it be doing yoga, driving
in rush hour traffic, playing video games, making love, or creating a work of
art. So, please lay off yourself a little bit. Enjoy where you are, or at least
allow where you are to exist with less manipulation. Even if you are sad,
that’s okay. There is no requirement to be happy all the time. No need to beat
up on yourself for being sad. If you are able to give the sadness space, it may
change, but it doesn’t need to in order for you to be a divine and valuable
human being. It’s our human condition, it’s the experience of being alive, and,
just like all the spectrum of human experience, can be truly rich.
In this vein, I would love to offer
a small practice, as a laboratory for honoring your present experience. Lie on
the floor, couch, or bed, or sit comfortably, or stand if you prefer. Put one
hand on your heart, and one on your belly, and bow your head slightly. Gently
pay attention to your natural breathing. Feel the breath moving in, and feel it
going out. Make no changes to your breathing; simply listen to it happening,
though some changes may occur due to your focused attention. After a minute or
so, expand the breath, a little bit per breath cycle, until it is comfortably
expanded, a bigger breath than normal, but not strained, not at your edge. Feel
the chest expand first on inhale, then the belly. When the inhale transforms to
exhale, slightly draw the belly toward the spine. Keep doing this as long as
you are interested, with no force, and no goal. Simply be in relationship with
your breath, following its natural course, albeit somewhat expanded. When you
do this practice, you are taking part in a conversation with your own natural intelligence,
expanding upon the natural, wave like nature of your breath. You are
experiencing the true wonder of what you are. You are an innately intelligent
and powerful being. With each inhale, you accept into you the power and
strength of your environment, and with each exhale, you offer your strength,
and in a very factual way, you offer absolutely essential elements to this
planet’s survival, offering CO2 for the plant kingdom, which in turn offers you
back pure sustenance in each inhale. In every moment, you are in relationship
to the universe, and it is simultaneously a connection to the bigger picture,
while totally including you as the big picture. You are not less than the power
of the earth. You are its power, as is everyone you encounter. And, in my
opinion, this is an expression of intrinsic love, with no agenda attached to
it, and you can’t avoid doing it. You are built to give nourishment to your
environment. You evolved in order to express and experience love. In each
moment, you will experience other beings who are doing the same thing. And I
don’t mean special, evolved beings. Rather, all beings are doing this, all
beings are taking part in this relationship, by the very nature of how the
universe works. We are breathing all the time, and we are all offering each
other nourishment. Even the most distorted among us are absolutely essential to
our survival. We are all contributing good, even if much of our outward
behavior is destructive. In this, we may be able to release some of our own
guilt, our own hunger for being better. Sure, we can improve, but that doesn’t
make us a piece of garbage as we are right now. That is never true. Also, we
might use this awareness as a way to meet our perceived enemies with just a
little more love and compassion. It doesn’t have to be a lot. Please don’t be
contrived and fake nice with this way of seeing, but perhaps just allow for it
as a potential, that underneath all of veils that are put on by some in order
to excite our disgust and hatred, there is a breathing human being. May they
have the opportunity to experience their own worth, and never have to run away
to a better place than right now, and that they may be able to experience their
own intrinsic loving, and that of all beings surrounding them.
None of this has to be overdone or
dramatic. You may feel no great surge of ecstasy or emotion. That is fine, as
neither one is the point. Life isn’t about fireworks. The fruit of the practice
is to simply be in your own innate goodness, to be in your experience, whatever
it may be. You are everything you need to be, right here and now, and your
every moment of living is a gift to all who you encounter. May you be filled
with love, may you be at peace, may you know that you are everything you need
to be.
