LIVING YOUR YOGA

Living your yoga assignments are given out in Aparna's classes each week.If you missed one you can also find them here.

FEBRUARY  2019

Week I -  This week learn to respond , not react.

Week II - This week as you travel through life, offer good wishes to each being you meet.

Week III - This week stay centered, do not overreach. Extend from your center, return to your center.

Week IV - This week remember everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.

Dearest yogi & yogini,

 
"To believe that our beliefs are permanent truths which encompass reality is a sad arrogance. To let go of that belief is to find safety. "

- Ursala Le Guin


A woodcutter went out one morning to cut some firewood. He looked around for his favorite ax and discovered to his alarm that it was missing. He anxiously searched around the wood pile,behind his house and in his shed but could not find it anywhere.

The longer he spent trying to find his tool, the more agitated he became. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed his neighbor's son standing near the woodshed. The woodcutter looked at the boy and thought, ‘Look at him lurking about the shed, shifting uneasily from foot to foot, greedy hands stuffed into his pockets. What a guilty look on his face! I cannot prove it, but he must have stolen my ax.!”

The woodcutter fumed  and promised himself he would get even for this crime.

The next day, the woodcutter stumbled on his ax lying beside a pile of firewood. “I remember now!” he exclaimed. “ It is just where I left it when I was splitting wood.”

The next time he saw his neighbor's son, the woodcutter looked intently at the boy. He scrutinized him from head to toe. “How odd,” he thought, “somehow between yesterday and today that boy has lost his guilty look.”
( taoist parable - wisdom tales, Heather forest)

How often do we believe our perspectives to be the most solid truth, the absolute reality?  We forget that in any situation, our point of view is really only one point of view. And interestingly, this one point of view is supported by all of our  own fears, beliefs, perspectives and stories. While out there, there are a thousand different ways to look at the same situation. Ask anyone who is not emotionally involved in that situation or shares the same fears that you do.

We hold on to our beliefs like a lifeline believing that we would be nothing without them and yet, as we learn more about life and things, as we grow more fully into emotional and intellectual maturity with each passing day, our beliefs about ourselves , life  and others are constantly being churned ,redefined and re- evaluated.

Could you imagine what it might be like to not hold on to your own point of view like a thing that is essential for your continued existence and instead , to  open your eyes wide enough and look at things in a new way ? Could you soften your mind and heart just enough to acknowledge other realities and truths? The next time that you believe your belief to  be absolute , could you   take a moment & examine the idea of absolutes ? Could you take ownership of your own experience?