Once I was asked how I kept focused during yoga class. I was maybe 2 years into my practice and had begun taking my first series of classes in a studio, with a non-video yoga teacher. I realized the answer to that question was: I don't. I was in a constant state of flux internally, regardless of how stoic my facade. It is true even today. While it is easier for me to achieve a quiet interior and to focus on something, there's still a lot of movement, particularly when practicing pratyahara, and especially at home.
Today's class is about dealing with that voice/eye. Our minds eye and voice is made up of our conscious mind. Our conscious mind is made up of our ego. We can't turn it off. The conditioning we go through on a daily basis either rewards parts of our ego, and they become more prevalent in our personalities, or punishes them, which results in a diminished presence in our personalities. Regardless, they are a part of who we are. Using different techniques we can quiet this part of the mind and discover what all this noise distracts us from.
I have to say I admire those people who unequivocally believe we are divine. What joy their lives must be filled with. To know you are, at your essence, beneath all the physicality, a being of light is a beautiful, freeing knowledge. You don't have to be what the physical world, which includes ego, demands you be.
I don't mean to imply that I don't believe this to be true. I do. But, I don't feel comfortable shouting it from the rooftops and that's the kind of feeling I would like to try on. As a scientist I cannot give myself over to the idea with abandon because there isn't enough evidence. I can say with confidence that we are beings of energy and matter. Which are both of the physical plane. What I believe we are, and believe science will eventually provide a way to detect, is that physical energy and matter, as well as an animating energy that is not of the physical plane.
I get caught up in the semantics. Do we call it a soul? Chi? The yoga/sanskrit word for it is prana.. I have only recently been able to feel it. And that's ultimately what keeps me doing yoga. All of the anecdotal evidence I've experienced that it works. That, and a Roman Catholic background that pre-disposes my mind to accept wildly unprovable (read untestable) phenomenon.
Excitingly for those of us with the need for proof, there have been tremendous strides made in the scientific discipline of quantum physics about the nature of our universe. I love science and the feeling of concreteness if affords me. The language of mathematics, while I do not speak it well, has a sensation of satisfaction upon the completion of a problem. There have been many exciting developments in the world of quantum physics. I take it to mean that our level of understanding of the universe is incomplete. Which is true. And that were discovering all the time how wrong we can be. Which gives me hope that some of these things we have faith in will eventually be testable.
On a more "down to earth" level of science, I have begun to see articles almost daily that expound yoga as being able to bring about positive health changes in people. It is an exciting time for those who have known this for a while now.
http://www.drmccall.com/
http://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/the-health-benefits-of-yoga
We will continue the pratyahara practice this week. As the influence of the outside world is reduced, the even bigger challenge becomes to turn down the influence of your own mind. We want so badly to do things the "right" way that it becomes a stressful struggle when things to don't turn out the way we think is right. To have thoughts encroach when we're trying not to think is incredibly frustrating.
We can practice occupying the mind's ear/eye with tasks relevant to the moment until we can quiet the chatter. Maybe the repetition of an uplifting phrase helps you to keep your mind in the present. Maybe the flow of your breath anchors you to the here and now. Perhaps the feeling of your body moving through space works.
Instead of trying to push thoughts away or make your mind a fortress to keep thoughts out, try to let them go. There they are, they exist, now they can go. Move yourself back to the space you've created. Don't follow them. Don't tighten around the fact they exist. If letting go is a challenge, then use whatever technique works to bring you back from the wanderings of your mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment