Photo by Bob Mata.When the dove cries
Will it be for joy or pain
When the dove cries
Will you feel the gentle rain
As His Glory falls around you
Will your life be changed.
When the Dove Cries by James Moore.
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That's not me in the photo but my friend Fritz. Still working on kapotasana and this morning... I can feel it coming. The words in James' song speak some truth with regards to one's asana practice.
When we perfect certain asanas, does it mean we have conquered ourselves and have reached some level of enlightenment? Will our lives be changed? Is practicing yoga simply mean getting the pose and flying through the vinyasas? The shastras warn the sadhaka about the rollercoaster ride that he/she will experience in the course of his/her practice. Until the sadhaka learns detachment, he/she will surely experience doubt, impatience, and boredom.
Patanjali said the keys are abhyasa and vairagya... practice and non-attachment. In Zen, it means always maintaining a beginner's mind. There's nothing wrong with having a goal or aspiration. It's getting attached to it that brings suffering.
Let us be reminded of Guruji's eternal words, "practice, practice, practice... all is coming!".
Om shanti, shanti, shanti.
2 comments:
Abhayasa and vairagya...these are concepts teachers should discuss with novices in order to make their practice more meaningful and lasting. It would be nice to inject such discussions in class.
you’re in a rhetorical-questions-mood. contemplative. I would settle for: “Hoy, mag-practise kayo, tawa kayo nang tawa!”
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