"Yoga takes you into the present moment,
the only place where life exists."
-Unknown
Yoga can be and is defined in many ways, one of my favorites is the translation of Yoga Sutras line 1.2:
योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः॥२॥
~~ “yoga is the stilling, or controlling, of fluctuations, or modifications, of the mind.”
If your mind wasn’t sloshed about like a ship on turbulent seas or whipped like debris in a hurricane, what would the world look like, what would you experience? Or put another way, if you were aware of the fluctuations of your mind and learned how to move with them, rather than against them, what would life be?
All of the aforementioned distorts how we experience and perceive life around us. Not only that, it distorts how other receive and perceive us as well. So, knowing this what would it be worth to calm, still, the mind and experience life purely, authentically, in the moment? For me, it has been worth more than I can measure. To no longer suffer at the cost of unconscious living; reactive upon wounds that, often, I didn’t even know were there. To experience the expansiveness of a single moment, THE PRESENT, as there was nothing left to scrutinize, judge, and discern with my mind; PRICELESS.
Everything outside of the present moment, is just a distortion of reality, a poorly tuned radio receiver filled with just as much static as words, perhaps a fun house mirror, or for the more modern folks, a social media filter. Life as it is exists ONLY in the present moment; as IT is, to be clear. Everything else is perception overlain with guilt and shame of the past and or worry of the future, neither of which are here RIGHT now, except in your MIND. Our minds are crafty, so I am sure there are more examples, but that doesn’t matter, because it is still the practice of yoga that helps us clear the distortions of reality, to just BE in the moment, to be present in the present.
Life is what it is, living is what we perceive it to be. Wouldn’t you rather perceive it calmly, collected, and authentically; so you can experience Life for what it truly is, rather than what your pain tries to rationalize it to be, rather than your worries tempt you to stress over, or any other distorted version that our minds can take? I know the answer for me, because I have experienced those moments when time becomes magic, expansive, limitless, and I truly know the suffering that surrounds the mind minding. Where do you want to exist?
On this day, I will contemplate on the practice of yoga. I will read a few things about the Yamas and the Niyamas, and see what it brings up for me. I will meditate, even if only a minute, more if I am experienced or can tolerate, just to see what happens or what is possible.
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼