Sculpted or Free?

A recent New York Times article discussing the harm yoga can cause, has created quite a stir. It has also created an opportunity for us yoga practitioners to re-look at our yoga practice, an opportunity that I am grateful for.

I find it so easy to seek change while unconsciously holding the very patterns I am seeking to change. It is so easy to “sculpt” myself into the person and the pose I am desiring. It is this sculpting that tempts injury and harm.

The purpose of yoga is to free our bodies and our minds. The only way this can happen is through our own surrender. To the degree that we surrender to the pose, is the degree to which the pose can begin to show us where our unsupportive habits lie. To the degree that we are willing to be the recipient of the pose rather than the designer, is the degree to which the real change we are seeking can happen. This is true on and off the mat.

It takes real courage, I think, to surrender to a pose rather than sculpt ourselves into it. But the results are very different; one leads to continuity and harm, the other to real freedom.

What is Practice for?

If you are anything like me, you keep waiting for your practice to magically make you a better person. But in truth, is this the purpose of practice? And what is a “better person” anyway? At best it is an individual idea of perfection…..which ultimately is sought after only by the ego.

What is practice for, anyway? Perhaps, not to make us better, but to SEE ourselves better. To see clearly what is, what sits in the depths of us. It is the seeing itself which creates the real movement towards a different possibility. It is the seeing itself which allows a deeper compassion, a deeper acceptance, and a deeper humility to emerge. It is the seeing itself which allows us to hold paradox with grace and wonder.

We practice in order to see ourselves, not to change ourselves. “Seeing” is the fruit of our practice. “Seeing” is enough; indeed it is a miracle.

Resolutions

I am doing something radical for myself this year – no resolutions. For someone who loves accomplishments and goals, who expects and demands a lot from themselves, entering this New Year without a resolution is both disorienting and provocative.

You see, I have been getting more and more curious about who I really am. And I am finding that it is impossible to know the answer to that question when I impose strict routines and disciplines on myself. Those New Year Resolutions that I make every year only enforce who I think I should be.

What will remain when all that I tend to impose on myself is gone? Am I really a lazy slug at heart? Will I waste the whole year? Am I much different in reality than in expectation? Will I find nuggets of gold that have been hidden under rules? Will I find that I am kinder than I know myself to be?

Without images and impositions, what is left? I hope to find out, or at least see some glimpses, this year.

Giving Thanks

Here it is again, the holiday whose job it is to remind us to be thankful. And perhaps we need the yearly reminder, just in case we have forgotten. Holiday music is playing, turkeys and the trimmings are being purchased, family plans are being made, and underneath it all is the hope that somehow we can remember to give thanks.

As much as we may look forward to the break in our normal routine, the food that is likely to overfill our bellies, and the communion with people we love, there is the reminder to pause and give thanks. Give thanks for what is and for what isn’t. Give thanks for what we have and for what we don’t have.

Practice giving thanks until you become a thankful person. Practice giving thanks until you are expansive and generous in your being, until everything becomes an opportunity to say, “thank you.”

May Thanksgiving remind each of us to practice cultivating the act of giving thanks.

Infinite Potential

The philosopher Thomas Hanna spent his life pursuing an answer to the question, "What does it mean to be a fully realized human being; what does it mean to be free?" In his quest, he studied philosophy, sociology, history, and finally neurology. Hanna called human freedom "somatics" and is responsible for putting that word into the culture.

Many of us are seeking freedom and enlightenment, but I wonder if we have asked ourselves what we mean by freedom. For instance, sometimes I say I want to be free, but what I really want is for my life to feel easier. Sometimes I want to escape from life, rather than pursue what it might mean to explore the depths of myself.

We, as human beings, are wired for infinite potential. Perhaps it might serve us to contemplate what this means for our lives and to get deeply curious about what it means to be a realized human being.

I find it an exciting possibility.