Every Friday morning after our Led class I give a short but sweet yoga philosophy talk on various aspects around practice. I used to e-mail all practitioners about what we talked about but will from now on put it here.
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:
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.
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.
Video from my evening walk yesterday. I love living in Groningen, some aspects are similar to being in India. Love walking a bit at the edges of Groningen, or even further away. Being outsides, witnessing the plants and trees, makes you realize that everything changes all the time, nature never stays the same. The fall season is in full embrace.
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