Today, as I was getting ready to leave my cozy yoga mat, one of the girls started chatting about how nice it was to take a "beginners" yoga class once in a while. I told her I didn't feel like that our Hatha practice had been a beginners class to which she corrected that she just meant it wasn't as active as a Vinyasa. I'm glad we have many different styles of yoga as well as different styles of teachers from which to choose from. Some days you feel more active and you want a power flow class, but on other days you just want to breathe and let go of your day. Yoga for me is a movement prayer. Learning how to breathe had such a big impact on my peace of mind that I tend to choose classes that are more meditative and focus on the breath than those which feel more like a big work out. Don't get me wrong, those classes are great too, but they encourage those who come to yoga for fitness reasons only. Yes, I know that we're all just doing our best from our level of awareness and that it might be that some of us started just to exercise and ended up discovering that yoga is so much more than a sweaty asana practice.
The picture below shows the 8 limbs for yoga. Explanation is not necessary, but you can see that the asana part is just one of the 8 steps to reach Samadhi ~ Enlightenment, freedom from the cycle of life and death.
But that is not even what I wanted to say. I was reading Rolf Gates book "Meditation's from the Mat" and I must confess I was surprised by his definition for one of the Yamas: Asteya - non-stealing. The reason why I was surprised was because I never thought about what he said but it makes so much sense. We're used to thinking that as long as you're not taking something from someone else or taking something that does not belong to you, you're not stealing. What Rolf Gates says, is that every time you are at work but you procrastinate and use your time for you instead of work or when you call in sick but you are not sick at all, you're stealing from your employer. Also, if you have a meeting with a friend and you're late, you're "stealing" time from them. In this sense, Asteya become so much more. I would go beyond. I would say that even by saying a lie, or not saying the truth, you're also "stealing" someone. You're taking away their right to have an honest answer or your honest opinion. Also when someone is talking to you and you're not present, you're not listening, you're robbing them the right to be heard.
In this sense, being a yogi goes so much further than just sharing the props or not stealing someone else's yoga mat. It goes from being honest with yourself and not "stealing" your precious life moments by worrying about the past or being anxious for the future. You need to be aware, present in the moment, of your every breath and your every movement because just by being aware are we able to fully engage in fulfilling this Yama since we will understand the deeper meaning behind non-stealing.
May we be light, may we be love, and may we all be present here and now.
Namasté ॐ
No comments:
Post a Comment