I loved this because there is truth in it. Talk to a Yogi and they will eventually drop some very new age lines, like "I must be operating out of my second chakra." Or "It's all love." This gives others the impression of some weird cult practices and yet, they also can see the general calming effect of all that Asana practice, (the poses most folks misunderstand as the breadth of Yoga). But this final image boldly displaying ENERGY really stuck and inspired this description of how I understand what I am learning through Yoga under the guidance of my teacher, Rod Stryker.
We humans are reactive beings. Much like a plant will grow toward sunlight, and like a pet will jump up when they hear you get their food, humans react to our sensory experiences and our interpretation of them. The reaction is how we use our energy. Yoga is about learning how to manage the direction of our energy. By definition, Yoga literally means to join or unite. As we get further along in the practices, we understand this to mean to unite our actions with our inner self; or in other words, to achieve self-realization. By adopting certain tools and practices, and there are many of them, many that do not involve a Yoga mat, we can learn to direct our energy, contain our energy or build our energy. To illustrate this, I will share this experience. Recently I read something that provoked me negatively. I resisted the ideas presented. Sensory input (the words) and my interpretation (the mind) resulted in a reaction - resistance. To resist something means to give our energy to it and, since there was no way to receive energy from this situation, the result would be a net loss of energy. Now I will throw in a little additional note here that interpretation is influenced by my past experience, my attitude in the moment, my energy level.
First step in practicing Yoga then is to become aware in any given moment to what our current energetic state is. Yogi's classify the states as Tamasic, Rajasic and Sattvic. Tamasic is very dull and lethargic, akin to a seed that has not sprouted and yet has potential life. Rajasic energy is the full blooming and growth of the plant. There is movement. Sattvic is quiet stillness; the state where we see the bloom and it is not changing and yet is expressing it's beauty fully. This is the desired state. If you think back a little, I am quite certain you could remember a time when you were fully alive and yet there was a sense of calm and non-doing in the moment. So humans fluctuate between these states and what a Yogi is learning in the initial stages, is to identify their current state and then what tools help them adjust their current state to a state they want.
These states - tamasic, rajasic and sattvic are affected by the foods we eat, the interactions we have with others, the degree of sleep we get, the number of responsibilities we take on and how we perceive all of this. On the Yoga mat practicing these poses, the teacher is often drawing our awareness to the experience in this pose and to our breath. Standing tall in mountain pose, well balanced and the body aligned, chin drawn in, we begin to experience a sense of inner strength and calm, purpose. This inner awareness is the point. It is our interpretation of the pose and our experience that begins to shift our energy, not just the pose itself. The dedicated attention to what our experience is at that moment begins to show us how to see our energetic self. As we continue to practice, we eventually begin to see how a particular pose can influence our mood, or emotions. We begin to understand things happen and we have choice with how we respond.
But that is only the beginning.
No comments:
Post a Comment