Off the mat and into life: How Yoga teaches us self knowledge.
Self study and the power of a Beginner's mind.
Yoga is both the outcome — a deep state of connection/bliss — and the process of achieving it. It is said to be 'a state in which we lack for nothing'.
Throughout February, I have been teaching on the theme of the Potential of Knowledge. It has caused me to reflect upon the self knowledge we gain from practising yoga.
For several years I've said that yoga isn't really about the poses. At the same time, I've witnessed myself pushing, pulling and cajoling my body into harder asanas or tricky arm balances at the behest of my ego. Last week I had cause to look up some photos and found myself pictured in a variety of very impressive arm balances. I was stopped in my tracks — struck by just how much my practice has aged in the last 5 years.
Some of those poses I no longer 'perform' (thanks to a shoulder injury, a bit of arthritis and maybe a lack of ambition) but yoga isn't a mini performance. It's about practice. Unlike running or ballet, yogis aren't working towards a physical peak. It's all about the moment in which we practice, and then it's gone.
If Yoga is training for anything, it's training for life.
My physical poses may be less impressive if one measures them by a photoshoot, but my practice is deeper. I've begun to appreciate the poses are just a vehicle to bring us into a profound state of awareness and connection.
In Zen Buddhism there is a concept called the Beginner's Mind. In the beginner's mind there is no thought "I have to attain something". In yoga we can experience it the first time we do a new pose — we follow the instructions without expectation and the pose just comes. Why then does the second or third attempt become so hard? Because the ego becomes involved. This isn't inner wisdom, it's the mind commanding and controlling.
'In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's there are few.'
Be kind to yourself — poses come and go, but the practice remains. When we can discover that, then we really have developed self knowledge.