With posting this here I will not in great detail talk about these aspects (my talking and explaining happens during the actual talk on Friday), here I rather inform about what we talked about so that practitioners who attended the talk have a reference to what we talked about and those who could not attend also have a reference to potentially do their own reading / research on those aspects. Hope this is helpful to all of you at the shala!
TODAY:
I originally had mapped out to talk about one of the niyamas today. Yet, through obsevations of the last week's practice and also since we have some newcomers I found it useful to talk about why are we are practicing yoga (what is the purpose of yoga) and the essential aspects a practice should be rooted in to bring about that purpose - as stated in the yoga sutras.
Herein I explained and discussed:
- the opening of the yoga sutras and what it means; yoga sutra 1.1 - atha yoganusasanam
- the purpose of yoga; yoga sutra 1.2 - yogas citta-vrtti-nirodhah
- (some of the) aspects of a practice that are essentail to be able to attain this purpose:
- 1.12 - abhyasa-vairagyabhyam tan-nirodah
- 1.14 - sa tu dirgha-kala-nairantarya-satkarasevito drdha-bhumih
- 2.46 sthira-sukham asanam
I also talked about the importance of the breath and not analyzing during practice, that yoga (when we step onto the mat for asana practice) is not thinking and analyzing in a pose, it's being in a pose. Don't judge it while you're doing it.
And I also talked about that the only constant in life is change, and how we bring about great suffering to ourselves resisting change.