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.

DECEMBER  2018

Week I -  This week live each day fully, with all its pains and joys. Enjoy your life in the moment.

Week II - This week throughout your day repeat this mantra : everything changes.

Week III - This week ask yourself, " What isthe quality & intention of my relationships? Connection with others? Or power over others?

Week IV - This week don't respond to yesterday's bell.

Dearest yogi & yogini,

 
“What’s the world’s greatest lie?” the boy asked. “It’s this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie.”
― Paulo Coelho


When leading a practice of Upeksha or equanimity in my classes I’m always reminded about a story of a certain farmer who had only one horse and one day the horse runs away. The villagers all console him over his loss saying,”How terrible that your only horse has run away and harvest is due soon. What will you do, you are so unfortunate.”  And the farmer simply says,”We’ll see.”

A month later,the horse comes home bringing with her 6 other stallions.Now the neighbors are excited and praise the farmer for his good fortune and luck. The farmer simply replies,”We’ll see.”

Time passes by and one day the farmer’s son is thrown off the back of one of the stallions and break’s his leg and shoulder.All the neighbors are very distressed.Such bad luck,so unfortunate! And the farmer says,”We’ll see.”

A war comes to the country and every able bodied man is recruited for the battle.Only the farmer’s son is left behind because of his broken leg. The neighbors once again praise and envy the farmer’s good luck, while the farmer ever so serenely replies,”We’ll see.”

Upeksha or equanimity is  a state of even minded openness that allows for a balanced, clean and clear response to all situations rather than a response based on emotion or reactivity.Equanimity is a serene relaxed presence of mind that recognizes the changing nature of life and is unperturbed by anything or anyone.


Life is simply what it is. Things are simply what they are. The question is how do we relate to what is happening. If we see things as good - they are good, if we see them as bad - they are bad. But then again, good and bad for whom?  Good for one could be bad for another and vice versa. Fortunate or unfortunate, right or wrong- our experience of life always comes down to how we are relating and interacting with our life and its ups and downs. In this awareness and radical acceptance lies true peace and freedom. 

Or as Miguel Ruiz says in the four agreements, “There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally.”