Steady. Steady. Get your tickets ready.
That is a lyric from "A Star is Born" with Kris Kristofferson and Barbara Streisand. I can hear Kris growling it out. Yeah baby.
In yoga, we talk about steadiness. Patanjali tells us how to approach our yoga asana practice (the practice of physical poses) in Yoga Sutra 2:46 - Stihra Sukham Asanam - "steady, comfortable, positions." Groovy. So we practice pose after pose, asana after asana, refining, dissecting, evaluating. We get good at something, aka it gets easier, and we up the ante. Again, Again. And again. Each time do we get "a gain?" Are we gaining "ground?" Are we steadier? Are we more stable? Or more "dug in?" Buried? Or are we hanging on for dear life?
Let's just say our physical yoga practice is stronger. We look and hopefully feel more connected to our bodies. This act is supposed to help steady the mind. At least doing the physical practice of yoga asana is supposed to at least get our body comfortable enough to be able to sit in meditation without being distracted by our physical body's aches and pains and limitations. So let's just say that we have achieved a level of this connection and we can physically sit comfortably in meditation without a backache, neck and shoulder tension, or knee and ankle pain. We've built capacity to sit. Now what?
Get your tickets ready.
Ideally, we've emptied the body of enough material so now we can focus on the aches and pains and limitations of the mind. And what if we keep building our physical capacity? What happens if we say I don't care about my mind. I just want more physical capability?" Have we arrived in Yogatown? Nirvanaville? I'm Ok You're Ok City? We can keep this up as long as things go according to plan, which is a very physical point. The thing to pay attention to is that the mental body, which doesn't need to be bound by the physical, can lock into this point of view, even encourage it. Why? Because perhaps the mind doesn't want you to do "mental asana." Perhaps the mind wants to stay just as it is, running the show from behind the scenes. So it starts to convince the practitioner that there is still WAY too much work to be done on the body before you can, (insert big groan here) Meditate. Or be still. Or be still and Know that you are God.
Steady. Steady. Get your tickets ready. Are you ready to build capacity to know who you really are? Are you ready to ride the ride that takes you beyond handstand (I know I always pick on handstand, sorry about that handstand. you are an innocent here. just an easy target) and into the place that is ever steady. Are you ready to accept that you are steady? That you have always been steady? That you will always be steady? Even when sliding down the rabbit hole asana? The rabbit hole of where physical slides into non-physical and back into physical?
Be ready. Being ready is being steady.
And from where I sit, you were born ready.
That is a lyric from "A Star is Born" with Kris Kristofferson and Barbara Streisand. I can hear Kris growling it out. Yeah baby.
In yoga, we talk about steadiness. Patanjali tells us how to approach our yoga asana practice (the practice of physical poses) in Yoga Sutra 2:46 - Stihra Sukham Asanam - "steady, comfortable, positions." Groovy. So we practice pose after pose, asana after asana, refining, dissecting, evaluating. We get good at something, aka it gets easier, and we up the ante. Again, Again. And again. Each time do we get "a gain?" Are we gaining "ground?" Are we steadier? Are we more stable? Or more "dug in?" Buried? Or are we hanging on for dear life?
Let's just say our physical yoga practice is stronger. We look and hopefully feel more connected to our bodies. This act is supposed to help steady the mind. At least doing the physical practice of yoga asana is supposed to at least get our body comfortable enough to be able to sit in meditation without being distracted by our physical body's aches and pains and limitations. So let's just say that we have achieved a level of this connection and we can physically sit comfortably in meditation without a backache, neck and shoulder tension, or knee and ankle pain. We've built capacity to sit. Now what?
Get your tickets ready.
Ideally, we've emptied the body of enough material so now we can focus on the aches and pains and limitations of the mind. And what if we keep building our physical capacity? What happens if we say I don't care about my mind. I just want more physical capability?" Have we arrived in Yogatown? Nirvanaville? I'm Ok You're Ok City? We can keep this up as long as things go according to plan, which is a very physical point. The thing to pay attention to is that the mental body, which doesn't need to be bound by the physical, can lock into this point of view, even encourage it. Why? Because perhaps the mind doesn't want you to do "mental asana." Perhaps the mind wants to stay just as it is, running the show from behind the scenes. So it starts to convince the practitioner that there is still WAY too much work to be done on the body before you can, (insert big groan here) Meditate. Or be still. Or be still and Know that you are God.
Steady. Steady. Get your tickets ready. Are you ready to build capacity to know who you really are? Are you ready to ride the ride that takes you beyond handstand (I know I always pick on handstand, sorry about that handstand. you are an innocent here. just an easy target) and into the place that is ever steady. Are you ready to accept that you are steady? That you have always been steady? That you will always be steady? Even when sliding down the rabbit hole asana? The rabbit hole of where physical slides into non-physical and back into physical?
Be ready. Being ready is being steady.
And from where I sit, you were born ready.
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