Yoga: creating clarity, relieving suffering

It’s an important day, here in the United States. A new and controversial president is being inaugurated and emotions are running high. For many, this is a time of great concern, fear and worry.

As BYCF teacher Justin Riley says, ‘Times of transition threaten our foundation.’ (Justin was speaking specifically about the physical transitions in asana practice, but his comment is true in the broader sense, too.)

It’s an essential time for turning inward and taking comfort in practice.
Yoga is SPECIALLY MADE to help ordinary people like us–‘householders’– create order, meaning and safety in our lives. DAYS LIKE THESE are WHY WE PRACTICE. The ritual, routine, repetition and rhythm that we hone on ‘normal, boring’ days give us comfort and clarity on days like today.

For it is on the mat that our inner and outer lives collide.
This concrete, repetitive, defined THING we do on the mat, with our bodies gives us distance from and perspective on the comings and goings of the material world.

Yoga helps us distinguish

1. the permanent from the temporary.
2. the wholesome from the unhealthy.
3. the pleasurable from the painful.
4.  the spiritual (purusha) from the physical/material (prakriti).

We are all in this life, on this planet, in this hot room TOGETHER.

Today, please practice. To be alive is a positive miracle. Let us each remember that and help our loved ones do the same. Let us cultivate strength, balance and flexibility–physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual–so that those attributes are there for all of us–if and when we need them.

Source: David Garrigues