Second Blog

Last Friday I found myself on a plane to Cleveland reading the paper. In the editorial section there was a story about the “string theory” which claims that the smallest constituents of the physical universe are tiny filaments whose vibrations give rise to the different kinds of particles that make up our world. This is to say that energetic vibration precedes manifestation. Yoga would take that one step further and say that consciousness gives rise to energetic vibration and energetic vibration gives rise to form. Still it is heartening that state of the art physics is verifying that if we want our outsides to change we have to change our insides. That life works from the inside out.

I was in Cleveland to teach a workshop at a beautiful studio called Evolution Yoga which was a powerful example of this theory in action. Sandy Gross, the founder of this studio, has held the intention to provide a certain kind of space for her community, the students had all held an intention for their own growth, and I had held an intention to be of service, and there we all were living out the fullness of our dreams.

This principle that, as Deepak Chopra wrote, “What we put our attention on grows in our lives,” is an extremely strong argument for having an asana and meditation practice. At a level we can not see we are creating constantly. Our attention is creating energy and that energy is giving rise to form. Unfortunately most of us believe we are at the mercy of a mind lost in compulsive thinking which croaks endlessly about things we do not want, like, or have and then about the fact that we keep on getting what we don’t want, experiencing what we don’t like, and lacking what we really want. Asana and meditation are a world class means for turning this around.

Steady effort in our Yoga practice reveals to us that we have the ability to bear witness to our own thoughts, that we are not our thoughts, rather the witness to them. As we come to know ourselves as the witness a freedom from our thoughts develops. We can experience the same egoic trains of thought, “sure the rich get to live in those kinds of houses”, “she only has that career because of her looks”, “the driver is #%*!” and on and on without them becoming who we are. Over time we begin to smile at the absurdity of the ego, we begin to pay less and less attention to it, to give its arguments less and less weight.

As less and less of our conscious attention is being absorbed by our compulsive negativity we become capable of experiencing what is true for us. Steady effort in our Yoga practice brings us in touch with the truth of who we are. As once we lived in the din of compulsive thinking we begin to live in the vibrant presence of well being. As we spend more and more time giving our attention to the sweetness, beauty, and sacredness of life, more and more time feeling the presence of grace in our lives, this becomes our reality; a reality which possess its own momentum.

Many of us have created a world of lack, but the same ability that creates lack can create abundance.