Yoga doesn't ask you to be more than you are. But it does ask you to be all that you are.
It doesn't matter what it looks like; it matters what it feels like.
Yoga doesn't want to change you - it wants to take care of you.
Fall with awareness and acceptance.
This is what our yoga practice is trying to accomplish. Not white light descending from heaven and engulfing you, not energy released from the base of your spine going up through your crown chakra so you become a human lightening bolt, not a halo floating on top of your head. Simply heightened states of awareness, enlightenment, becoming more and more aware which gives more and more insight, which brings wisdom and gives choice. With that wisdom and choice, we become the masters of our destiny and at peace in our life.
Yoga practice seems to be used to access some deeper dimension or some enlightened state. Understand right now there is no connection between flexibility and enlightenment.
Welcome to your body.
The goal of yoga according to Patanjali I am told is citta vrtti nirodha, which means to be silent or free from mental fluctuations.
No reason to get angry at anybody for slapping you literally or figuratively. It's just nature unfolding perfectly and obviously that slap is part of my process that is shaping me as I become all I'm becoming. I'm sure this understanding will be a big help to us in our yoga practice and also as a teacher. More than anything though, it will affect the way we look at everything in our life, which affects how we respond to things.
There are certain yoga laws and principles that are, shall we say, less tangible than others. For example, the law of karma. Science has proven what goes up must come down, but that's about as far as it's gone. To believe that for every action, word, and thought, there is an equal consequence takes something more intuitive, more personal; it's more metaphysical.
