Do you think everyone should do yoga? - My 10 year old step daughter asked me on Saturday, my day off in which I can eat some carbs, and as I gorged on French Toast. Two things dawned on me, a) she is smarter than all of us put together at her age, and b) A huge trap in yoga can happen when we realize something is working.
If we start respecting some of the yamas and niyamas and consequently tell the truth, keep clean, maintain an attitude of contentment, read spiritual texts, etc, suddenly we might find ourselves pausing, taking our time, and in silences.
In other words, we totally change!
NEW DANGER: We may want everyone to do it too. I mean it works, sometimes we feel relief, shouldn't everyone try it out? Should it not be for all? Shouldn't we preach it from the mountaintop?
And there it is: the born again effect!
There is NO way to make another person change. It is deluded to think so. I used to think I could change a person (mostly men, always men?, usually men) and then I attended 12 step meetings. Those showed me loud and clear the impossibility of it.
A person will change when he or she is ready. He or she might ask for our advice if he or she is ready, but whether they will listen or not, we have no business on that part. Unsolicited advice or preaching is the worst attempt we can do to try to change anyone.
My step daughter and I were walking along the river after breakfast. There were mountains spiraling up on every side of us. Just breathing in the air felt like Yoga to me.
The essence of yoga is that we disappear, there is no more "I", we merge onto the divine presence of the now and take things as they come with renewed sense of aliveness, nothing is as it was.
"I don't remember what I said, I have no memory" answered Nisargadatta Maharaj when asked about a lecture he had just given - He was fully in the present, living from the stream of consciousness, and after the talk was done, there was no memory of it, he was back in the now.
To my stepdaughter I answered that it depended on how she viewed "yoga", what she perceived it to be. She was walking next to me, maybe trying to understand what else could yoga be other than the standing on my head she sees me do, or the stretching or jump-backs or whatever. I explained more. If it was just the poses (exercise, America, exercise!) then probably no, as some people do not like doing asanas.
But if it was the goal of yoga, that of coming into the now, I think yes, everyone should do it, but just now after reading my own post I notice that the real answer is that I should do it, and let all others follow their own path. We got home, and everywhere I looked: the dishes in the sink, the two girls, the books scattered all over, my husband, everything was Yoga.
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| Hmm, love Saturdays |
In other words, we totally change!
NEW DANGER: We may want everyone to do it too. I mean it works, sometimes we feel relief, shouldn't everyone try it out? Should it not be for all? Shouldn't we preach it from the mountaintop?
And there it is: the born again effect!
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| The Apostle |
A person will change when he or she is ready. He or she might ask for our advice if he or she is ready, but whether they will listen or not, we have no business on that part. Unsolicited advice or preaching is the worst attempt we can do to try to change anyone.
My step daughter and I were walking along the river after breakfast. There were mountains spiraling up on every side of us. Just breathing in the air felt like Yoga to me.
 |
| Walking by the river |
"I don't remember what I said, I have no memory" answered Nisargadatta Maharaj when asked about a lecture he had just given - He was fully in the present, living from the stream of consciousness, and after the talk was done, there was no memory of it, he was back in the now.
To my stepdaughter I answered that it depended on how she viewed "yoga", what she perceived it to be. She was walking next to me, maybe trying to understand what else could yoga be other than the standing on my head she sees me do, or the stretching or jump-backs or whatever. I explained more. If it was just the poses (exercise, America, exercise!) then probably no, as some people do not like doing asanas.
But if it was the goal of yoga, that of coming into the now, I think yes, everyone should do it, but just now after reading my own post I notice that the real answer is that I should do it, and let all others follow their own path. We got home, and everywhere I looked: the dishes in the sink, the two girls, the books scattered all over, my husband, everything was Yoga.
Claudia...you had me at that photo of the french toast! I want this tmw!
ReplyDeleteha ha ha!, sorry about that... I am pretty peculiar about my saturdays these days, sometimes dream about them!
ReplyDeleteI love this! Thanks for sharing the perspective.
ReplyDelete:-)
DeleteBeautiful ending. Just beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThank you K! :)
ReplyDelete