Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are DOING! This is the ultimate, writes 4th century Chinese philosopher, Zhuangzi. And yet, a professional yoga teacher posted last night on my timeline that I teach yoga incorrectly by not holding in pose, by moving too much between positions. One must use the asana to stop the mind from all of its ambition... to yoke it down and not let it run crazily from one thing to the next. What we impose on others reflects our internal state of perception. This young man struggles to stop his mind from his ambitions to become a professional in yoga. Quite a quagmire into which his intentions have been sucked. We have all been in this catch-22. Our minds feverishly work, and our futile attempts to silence our mind is like trying to hold the tail of a tornado. Similarly, ambition to become a professional in yoga is like trying to become a philosophy teacher. Wisdom isnt like knowledge we can accumulate. We cant have wisdom before weve had the experience to earn it. As Ludwig Wittgenstein noted primum vivere, deinde philosophari - “first one must live, then one may philosophize.” Our own yoga process must be internalized, and only then can we communicate it in a way that others learn - not OUR process - but their own. The mind cannot be stopped; especially in the West. And this... Is... NOT... Incorrect! Our Western mind isnt less or broken because of its constant goings. It is our greatest virtue, a perpetual muse unlocking riddle after puzzle. As my yoga guru from India advised: In the East, spiritual gurus sit on each corner, so it can be difficult to spark motivation for ambition and achievement. In the West, everyone is so busy with those that they silently suffer a void of guidance on their internal experience. Easterners have their own yoga process. Westerners shouldnt try to force an Eastern yoga, but instead follow their own process. This remains the single, most beneficial yoga lesson I have ever received. Yoga isnt a generalized method but an individualized process. The West is the arrow and the East is the bullseye. Both are needed, but each has its own unique process. So, where Easterners leverage their cultural strength in centered stillness, Westerners capitalize on their cultural strength of perpetual motion. Our individualized process in yoga is born out of our cultural acumen. For the East, that is the ability to remain in position for long minutes, and hours of seated meditation; for the West, that is the ability to move through step after step for minutes and hours of continual activity. Progressive yoga is the act of movement, step by step, closer and closer to an edge. By the time we arrive at our true edge for the day, our mind has shaved off layer after layer of resistance, and the melting requires seconds at the edge, rather than minutes. It is a yoga based upon movement. Stillness happens from allowing the body and mind to be free. This is why we feel so relaxed after activity: we have STOPPED RESISTING the natural state of flow. Telling a person theyre doing yoga wrong because theyre moving is not only physiologically inaccurate since holding position is not stillness but an act of internal movement, it is also counter-productive: through shaming their active mind into the believing it is should be still, rather than allowing it to have its objectives, steering it to productive outcomes, and thus setting it free to embrace whatever its doing. Flow is the ultimate expression of our fitness, perhaps only in the West, and certainly not for everyone in it; for there is no such thing as an Eastern mind and a Western mind. These arent conditions, but rather points of origin and directional tendencies as we move through our deepening experience as humans. Find your origin, follow its direction at that period in your life, and find your flow, either through internal stillness or external motion. Theyre all right and its all good. We are Legion, Scott Sonnon Chief Operating Officer RMAX International RMAXInternational TACFIT.tv
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 14:21:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015