Take Up, Don’t Give Up

Rowing on glassy water can be mesmerizing. To pull an oar and watch the surface of the water glide by silently can be a very powerful experience. As we move forward in life toward realizing our true selves, today’s lotus and muck can quietly fade into the past.

This week’s posts have been dedicated to starting the new year with an intention. I hope that some of you are sharing with me inspiration to set our course in a positive direction and then pull in precise, rhythmic strokes.

We have the wisdom to refrain from either grasping at the irresistible or pushing away the unpleasant. We let it all slide by and feel the power of practice.

In yoga theory, the process of letting both the lotus and the scum (the pleasant and the unpleasant) slide by is called vairagya. Vairagya comes from the root virya, in which English-speakers will recognize the source of the words vital and vitality, and, yes, even Viagra.  The root means strength, and is the same as in virabhadrasana, the yoga pose often called Warrior Pose.  Vairagya means the strength we get from being free from anything that weighs us down.

Vairagya is the natural counterpoint to abhyasa, which comes when we make a sankalpa (see previous post) or commitment to living yoga.  We commit to practice and let our experience tell us what is good (or not good for us).  Abhyasa is the work and vairagya is the wisdom of letting be.

In Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga we have specific instructions for practice, and principles for applying the practice to life.  But nobody is telling us “Hey, put down that cheese sandwich” (or cigarette, or whatever).  In fact, we cannot be told ‘don’t do this or that’.

If we are true to our practice, listen to our experience, and act on that wisdom, yoga will happen, and the stuff that is not serving us (like maybe late-night television) will naturally fade from our reality.

We can let our practice inform us about choices of diet, entertainment, lifestyle etc. We can let our practice inform us about our success being loving, caring members of family and community. We can  follow the example of those whose wisdom may shine in our direction. Practice keeps direction our attention inward, especially when we feel like we want to be told what to do.

In our practice, we observe the thoughts, the sensations, the emotions, the reactions and dialogue. Some students can hear the sound of the cigarette tar as they breath in twists.  Some students can smell the previous night’s food and beverage oozing sweat out their pores.  And we listen…

We live, learn and let be, knowing that by methodical practice the truth will be revealed.   In the act of ‘taking-up’ and ‘keeping-up’ practice, we need not ‘give-up’ on anything.

Vairagya in the modern world can easily be mistaken for ‘not doing’ or ‘giving up’ something (eating meat, telling lies, whatever). ‘Giving up’ is an expression of dvesha (aversion) which gives those very things power over us. These things should naturally fade into the past for earnest practitioners when the time is right.

As yogis we are learning to be at ease with the good and the bad (and, in advanced stages, the ugly too;-). We have positive motivation and inertia that we encourage in ourselves and in others.

Just keep rowing!

Intelligent Practice

Intelligent practice of an authentic yoga tradition will itself reveal the Truth that physical and mental health and well-being are ephemeral benefits or mere perks, which pale beside the value of realizing the spirit.

Over years of practicing Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, my health and peace of mind have become more valuable, more sacred to me than ever. Meanwhile, my own sense of wellness seems to be coming from something deeper.

The more I practice, the more I feel a longing for this something deeper.  I am content, but not satisfied.

As practitioners, we must accept that we cannot dictate the state in which we as students seek yoga in the present. We are who we are, with physical, emotional and psychological patterns developed in the past. Yet it is only in the present that we can free ourselves from the past.

As teachers, we try to consciously accept and acknowledge students as they are in this moment, while seeking a way to best support them in their aspirations to be their best.

One should not fool oneself into thinking that since one has now taken up yoga, suddenly s/he is holy, or liberated from any struggle of the past. Or that if one is teaching yoga, they are beyond the need for daily self practice.

Nor is it helpful to suddenly renounce or reject bad habits or thought patterns. As the new year approaches, we can observe how many people try to ‘quit’ whatever they or society may label as wrong, bad, etc..

The yoga tradition suggests that we take up a life-promoting practice; rather than not do something negative, we do something postive (abhyasa). In doing so, our resolve and steadfastness improves, so that quitting the other stuff becomes simply another manageable step (vairagya) on the epic and magical journey of life.

Listen to your teacher. Follow the instructions. DO THE PRACTICE while being compassionate and forgiving for yourself. Get out of bed early in the morning and head for your yoga mat or meditation cushion every day you can, and the not-so-spiritual habits of lifestyle may in a bit of time change.

This practice is about cultivating consistency and steadiness in our perspective, to view the stillness within through the movement of life.  This is intelligent practice.