Yoga. Everyone is doing it! Yoga studios are springing up everywhere. Yoga clothes from stores like Lululemon are creeping into everyday life. Yoga channels. Yoga sites. Yoga in schools. Even yoga for dogs!
But what really is yoga? Can we really "do" yoga......or is there more to it than that?
I have been practicing asana for 15 years now. After the first ten I was drawn to meditation. Then my diet began to change. And slowly but surely yoga has crept into my very perception of life and my aspirations of how I want to "be" in it.
I can see clearly now that we don't "do" yoga...... that yoga is a way of being.
The doing comes in the form of the discipline of the consistent asana practice. But asana is only one of the limbs that comprise the 8 limbs of yoga. It is where most of us enter the yogic path, yet is only one small part of the wonder that yoga can bring to our lives.
So let's step back to the beginning - the first limb - which are the Yamas. There are five yamas. They are guideposts on how to live ethically.....right living. And the very first Yama, the bedrock upon which all of yoga rests is Ahimsa.
Ahimsa in its literal translation means non-violence. OK check! I got that one. I have never killed anyone and I don't get into fights. I am not a violent person so I am good on this one......right? But ahimsa is not one we can slide by quite so quickly.
The most rudimentary concept that ahimsa, and all of yoga, is built on is that all things are sacred. All people. All creatures. The water. The air. The earth. Our breath. And that therefore we should not cause harm to any of them.
And not cause harm not only by our hand, but also not by our words, . Hmmm. Now that's a little more challenging. Ahimsa would mean no longer speaking ill of others, gossiping or degrading anyone who may be different than us. It is when the tongue loses its ability to injure.
But then one step further, not even in thought. Wow. No mean spirited thoughts. No inner dialog on how we will "show them" a thing or two. Not even any harmful or negative thoughts about yourself!
But even one step further...... the deeper meaning of ahimsa is not that we do not harm, but that the desire to harm within us no longer exists! That we are completely clear of any desire to cause injury to anything. So it is not "not doing harm" which would just be a form of restraint, but instead is such an expansive fulfilled strength within that the need to compare, compete, take from or lessen others vanishes. How amazingly freeing that would feel!
So ahimsa, like all of yoga, isn't something we do. It is something we become by following the practices.
One definition of ahimsa that I found in my reading which I believe begins to describe its sheer power is this:
~ the force that is unleashed when all desire to harm has been eradicated
It would be like comparing hate to love. Love isn't "not hating". Love is an amazing force whose brilliance shines when hate no longer exists.
Yoga....Ahimsa.....Love. Even the bugs.
Being,
SARAH
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