yoga
everything is achieved through discipline
nothing is achieved through discipline
marguerite yourcenar
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space which no one can draw because it is imperceptible as the medium and origin of our gestures and our constant dwelling is the absolute ground of our temporal being and of our endlessly renewed continuity
antónio ramos rosa
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start by evoking the empty, timeless space within your own body, in all directions
in the pause between exhalation and inhalation, proceed by witnessing the emptiness of the mind, free from duality, in fusion with its original source
the unsupported position revealed at this point is the true asana, accomplished through the surrender of the body, as the receptacle of the great emptiness, offered into the sacrificial fire
elements, organs, objects, the mind itself understood among them — this is the true oblation, received in the ritual cup of consciousness
vijnana bhairava tantra
(trans. & adap. nc)
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sadhana
we live in a highly mechanistic age, where we are used to explanations for everything
one gets the impression sometimes that the whole point in human life is to understand how everything works
i recall a remark by ralph waldo emerson in which he cautioned against becoming too conscious of the internal workings of the body
the eagerness of science to explore the sky has taken away a significant amount of the magic and fantasy that people once found there
in this mechanistic, rationalistic context, prayer may seem out of place
hildegard of bingen, meister eckhart, john of the cross, teresa of ávila devoted their lives to the interior life, to that area of religious experience where the mistery is approached carefully, slowly, and sometimes painfully
they advocated receptivity rather than activity, and they recognized an important connection between a person's way of life and their preparation for contemplation
the mystic may seem self-absorbed, but this is not necessarily the case
the inner life, just like the outer life, opens into a universe of mistery where the ego hardly exists
the interior life doesn't necessarily mean the personal life: it is no longer you who go in quest of stillness, stillness takes possession of you and overwhelms you
the point is not to make progress and achieve control but to surrender to the stillness that is within you
in psychological language we could call this a non-ego element in contemplation
our world is full of ego, full of strategies of analysis and manipulation of oneself and of reality
in the opposite sense, i like to recall william blake's statement that the body is the soul perceived by the senses
the body doesn't need the mind to justify itself, it isn't without life and meaning, it isn't even separate or distinct from the soul
therefore, when we make gestures, we pray - nothing has to be added
thomas moore
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the body is my temple
asanas are my prayers
b.k.s. iyengar
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freedom of the body
in general, guided by the image of an autonomous and bounded self, we use objects in the pursuit of security and the preservation of this imaginary identity: we use our car, our dog, our husband, our apartment, our children, our profession, our body — to prove something, to prove to ourselves and to others that we exist
we treat the body as an object: we make efforts to make it look like this or that, we train it, we try to keep it healthy, to feed it in one way or another, so that it conforms to the image we have fabricated of our identity — imposing upon it what we believe will make us more easily recognized by the world around us
in this way, we end up inhabiting an instrumental body — a body exploited, enslaved
when we deeply understand that we do not need to sell ourselves, that there is no necessity for external validation, when we begin to sense emotional autonomy, we look at our dog, our car, our husband, our wife, our carpet, our body — and we see something else entirely we no longer see material for our business card, nor a brand to market ourselves and others with — we see vastness, we see life, we see meaning that is listened to, not explained
then we begin to truly see the dog, and what is actually functional for it — the same happens with the carpet, the husband, the car — not to impress the neighbour when they appear, but simply as an evident response to what is most appropriate at that moment, when it is truly listened to, the body — like all other things — naturally takes its place, allowing us to discover our abilities, talents, ease or difficulty and we allow this sensitivity to express itself vividly — not according to our preferences, not for the sake of what it may bring us, but simply in response to what is present in each moment
this way of being present to the body may seem surprising, even incomprehensible from the outside — because we no longer listen in order to survive, or to trade — we listen out of love
other frequencies of listening begin to appear — much more intimate, much deeper than the superficial layers of comfort or discomfort, health or illness, function or dysfunction
these deeper frequencies are not disturbed by those polarities — rather, those polarities are naturally part of them
pain and illness need not be mistakes, health and comfort are not necessarily good signs, they are simply what they are
only in a mind free of opinion can we understand, non-conceptually, what consonance and dissonance truly are, seen from the common perspective, that understanding becomes reductive
a deepening occurs, the body reveals itself as a mystery — like our dog, like our carpet, like the moment we swallow a sip of water, what could be more extraordinary than drinking water, or being able to breathe in, or feeling a finger of our own hand, or watching a leaf carried by the wind?
depth and fullness are everywhere and when i stop trying to know and understand, they begin to reveal themselves more widely, less conceptually
this is the true beginning of intimate exploration, we begin to see clearly that the feeling of isolation comes from living at the surface of beings and things — it is living in thought
when we truly begin to feel the body, the idea of isolation becomes impossible, there is nothing but contact, the body is nothing other than contact
touch is constant, we are always immersed in the experience of touching
and it is there we encounter affection, deep connection — not psychological attachment, but a bond formed through the heart — one the intellect cannot grasp
in a living body, in awakened sensitivity, we can feel deep contact with someone who isn’t even physically present, it is a contact that is eminently physical — but not physical as the mind defines it
those who live it feel it as a bond, but one that does not bind, it simply re-unites
it is a current of energy, like that which connects certain trees, animals, places, countries, cultures
these are not imagined connections, they are resonances, we allow ourselves to be touched by all these forms of reverberation — which do not even belong to the past, the past exists only as a concept, resonance happens in the present
when we touch a ritual sword, for example, the rituals it was part of are present, they are not "past", before we meet the ritual sword, before we meet a father or son, a husband or lover, a friend or an enemy, the line is already there
within the subtle order of those lines, the meeting happens — in time, yes, but what truly exists is the underlying line, so the outer expression of the meeting doesn’t even require an expenditure of energy
human beings and objects are part of an immense cartography, one that has its own rules
in the same way, the practice of yoga postures is not a conquest of random forms unrelated to the body, it is a celebration, a return to fundamental archetypal shapes
the yoga posture already exists in space, the physical body flows into it — until it merges with it
there is nothing that is truly outside us, a lightness appears, there is nothing that is foreign to us, everything we encounter is our own intimacy
eric baret
(trans. & adapt. nc)