The Goal to Achieving…Nothingness.

“When you allow your mind to dwell in the intimate of Atman, the ego disappears into the nothingness that it is.” – Darren Main: The Path Of The Urban Mystic

My husband recently has began showing interest in doing yoga with me, we often do yoga together at the end of a long work day to help relax and unwind and to help him decrease his back pain as well as gain a bit more flexibility. However, my husband will not go to a public yoga class, because he does not want to look bad, he does not feel he is good enough yet to do yoga in public. Which is something I notice a lot with males, and I try to explain to him how that is not what yoga is about and though he knows that it is still what he feels. But lets be hoenst here, we have all felt like this at some time with yoga and even outside of yoga. I know when I first started doing yoga, coming up on a year now, I was that way I was afraid to go to actual yoga studios becuase I did not feel I was good enough yet. But we need to let that idea of good enough, and the idea of perfection go because that is not what yoga is about, and once we let that go and step out of our comfort zone we will see that as truth and realize how it was just our ego getting the best of us.
The ego is in direct correlation with desire, greed, and ignorance there is such an attachment to the desire of things, that the ego gains more and more power because the ego needs activity to exist. The more we desire and fixate on the superficial the bigger and more powerful our ego becomes. one area were We can find ego very powerfully in a fitness type setting, the gym, dance classes, football games, and yoga. As we settle into the pose the more we become aware of this idea of how we should look we begin feeding our ego. Have you ever done this, you flow into a pose…say a warrior pose and you find yourself in the mirror and think how you should be deeper into the pose, because it looks better, you look stronger the deeper and lower you are. Then you begin to scan the room, seeing who is achieving this idea of the perfect warrior and then you mentally try to do the same. I do not need to state how this is our ego taking hold, when we allow our ego to drive our practice we become the victim of our own self-criticism, by comparing ourselves to the others in the room, but also this leads to the judgment of everyone else in the room aswell. Not only is this the opposite of what yoga is about, it is also a potentially dangerous mental activity to feed. This is because many yogi’s begin to create this idea of what they should look like in a pose, and begin to push themselves too hard to meet this image of perfection and strength and end up damaging their bodies with back injuries, pulled muscles, etc. This idea of what you should look like in a pose has become a focal point in many studios and gym yoga practices, often times you will hear an
instructor state how you need to be in poses, by this I do not mean long spine, and open heart. What I mean, and have personally witnessed is when an instructor tells you that, such as in a warrior pose as mentioned earlier, your leg needs to have a 90 degree bend, while this is the full expression of the pose and hopefully what we all will someday achieve, this is not realistic to every body which only feeds the ego by planting in the mind how you should look, and if you do not have a 90 degree bend in your front leg you must have one and so you push yourself into this pose deeper than you may be ready for. The yoga classes i attend typically start off in a comfortable seated postion, and it is explained exactly like that…comfortable seated position. This is the same standard that should be carried through out the entirity of a practice, no expectation no standards just what feels good for your body today. This comfortable seated position for you, maybe criss-cross applesauce, or half lotus, maybe even full lotus but you do not typically hear an instructor start off a class by asking you to come into full lotus, because this immediately appeals to the ego.  Critizing yourself if you cannot get into full lotus, comparing yourself to the others in the room.

” Ego has a voracious appetite, the more you feed it, the hungier it gets.”

It is important to go into your practice, and every situation in your life with out any expectations, and having lots of humility. if you fall out of a pose its ok, and its also ok to laugh at yourself. you’re probably not suppose to laugh outloud at yourself while in a class but I always do, if you do not go as deep into a pose its okay! acknowledge the difference, and honor it and then let it go, and get lost in the pose, in your breathe. Pranayama is a powerful tool! whenever you feel your mind start to drift gently bring your awareness back to your breath. Also try closing your eyes in poses and allow yourself to really feel your body, this helps you to move inward and also prevents you from comparing yourself to others! Remember why it is you are doing yoga, if it is to achieve a lean body that is ego, if it is to be able to do all of the inversions and other challenging poses that is ego. Yoga is to help you stretch, and become more flexible, both physically and mentally. Yoga is to help you connect to yourself, as well as all other beings. Yoga is much more than physical postures, that is only a small portion of yoga.

be true to yourself, and to your body

namaste

and just because I think its hilarious;Let us not be so concerned with the image in the mirror, and be more concerned with how we feel and what truly matters on the inside. Let us remember why we practice and stay focused on the truth.