Many reasons exist why people step onto their yoga mat for the first time. They hear that yoga is great for increasing flexibility and reducing stress. They see their neighbor walking out to their car carrying a colorful rolled up mat wearing groovy and comfortable clothing and get curious. They hear that an NBA star was saying how much yoga has helped their back pain. They read in a weekly magazine about a celebrity touting how they keep their bodies lithe through practicing yoga. Oprah mentions its…
In our culture, most people perceive yoga as another form of exercise-that it’s a physical practice with some side benefits and that’s how most people step onto the path. It begs the questions, “Are we physical beings having a spiritual experience? Or are we spiritual beings having a physical experience?”.
My thought for the week is around those very questions. Although we may be drawn to our mats for the physical benefits, we can’t help but realize there’s more to it that lengthening our hamstrings. The ancient teachings of yoga were from guru (teacher) to student, through an oral tradition in order to reach a deeper spiritual attainment. The poses (asana) were initially thought to be practiced in order for the practitioner to be able to sit more comfortably in meditation. Enlightenment didn’t happen once your palms made it to the floor in a forward fold, but rather from moving to a deeper internal space, one that was disassociated with the physical self.
From this perspective we are definitely spiritual beings having a physical experience, that this embodiment was the vehicle to engage the physical world, the house to the soul. The physical is an important part of the journey, but it is only part of it. It is thought that we have five sheaths or layers, called the Maya Koshas that express our entire being.
Physical, breath, mental, higher consciousness and bliss are the five sheaths and we need to find balance in the outer three (body, breath and mind) before we can begin to tap into our deeper aspects of intuition, greater knowing and pure joy.
So when someone asked me recently, “Jayne, do you have a pose for losing belly fat?” I responded by saying that the pose is called “accept-asana”.
When we look into another persons eyes, we don’t see their belly fat…we see their heart and their soul.
