October 2024 Week 3

This week in class I read from B.K.S. Iyengar’s book Light on Life. “Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of consciousness. Why? Because yoga is meditation. A ruffled mind cannot meditate, which is why we must identify and pacify all disturbing patterns.” The last 5 months we discussed the 5 “ruffles” of the mind in the Yoga Sutras which brings us to this months Sutra and the solution to the mind, Sutra 1.12: That can be controlled through practice and non-attachment.
In class I reminded us all that the yoga poses, the asanas, are only 1 limb of the 8 limbs of yoga. The reason yogis practiced physical poses was to prepare for meditation - after the physical poses the body was open and receptive to sitting and the mind was more receptive to stillness. We often forget this and get focused on stretching and strengthening our physical bodies. Yoga is a gift we can give our whole selves so lets not forget that. Next week I will write more on the Sutra. For now, Please Get Out Of The Way, You Are Slowing GOD Down.