The Joseph Yoga Blog

You are the star. Is that enough for you?

If you come to yoga looking to be entertained you wont last long. If you
come to yoga with the same consciousness as when you go to see a
movie you will find yourself bored to death as the movie of yoga is running
over and over at this local theatre — it will never change. This is the beauty
of yoga. I was looking back at my ten years of practicing yoga and I
realized I have been doing virtually the same 60 or so poses for the last ten
years. I know them like friends. They are not new. They are not there to
titillate me or be my clown. If you are hoping for titillation or entertainment
you won’t be practicing yoga for very long. After a few months you will
loose interest and move on to your next quick fix. The secret is discovering
that you are the main attraction of yoga. Each time you practice you are
offered the tools to go within. What makes you tick? How is life
sustained? What makes you happy? Why are you sad? What are you
made of? Where is God? Is it outside? Inside? Everywhere? The internal
self-exploration is the number one movie at the box office each week and
us who know this run to the theatre to experience it again and again. This
is what keeps us practicing. Do you think those of us who have done yoga
for 10, 20 or even 50 years keep coming back because downward dog is
so exciting? No. We come back for more because we know yoga is one
of the doors that once opened will lead us to our souls. In the beginning
you may find yourself entertained by yoga but I promise you the day will
come when the entertainment is gone and what will you do then? You will
have two choices: Go within or go without.

Yesterday, we spoke about withdrawing from the senses and today we
speak about why we even want to connect to the senses in the first place.
In Gary Zukav’s book The Seat of the Soul, he speaks candidly about the
essence of an addiction. What Zukav reveals is at the heart of an
addiction is the mode of powerlessness. And this mode of
powerlessness is the root cause behind our desire to have an
imbalanced connection to the senses.

When a new yoga student begins his or her practice, they are just
beginning to feel their bodies and just beginning to develop a connection
with the body and the mind. Yoga does not expect a new student to be
able to feel at what degree the sacrum is tilt at or where the energy flow of
a particular body part is during the first stages of the practice. It is simply
too sensitive of a request. Nor I am going to suggest the next time we
reach out for a drink, for an outburst of anger, for a sexual affair, for a line
of gossip or for an extra piece of cake that we are going to be able to feel
that in that moment we are indeed feeling powerlessness and are
attempting to be filled by something outside of ourselves — but this is
precisely what we are doing. Zukav reminds us that every time we
choose ourselves over the addiction, we make ourselves more powerful
and the addiction less powerful.

Through meditation (yoga practice) you can begin to lift layers of
novocation and begin to feel what’s really going on. The next time you
reach out to feel good, and living in 2008 there are many many ways to
feel good, take a moment and see what are you really feeling? If you do,
you may find a wound you’ve been ignoring.

Set yourself free...

There are five ethical principles in the yogic philosophy. One of which is
something called aparigraha — it means non-coveting. Parigraha means
hoarding or collecting. And to be free from hoarding is aparigraha. At
the root of hoarding you will find the participant to be consumed with
doubt. Doubt in life, God and him or herself. We can clearly see how
taking something that which doesn’t belong to us is stealing, but can we
see how having things that one does not use when others can is also
stealing? Why hold on to things you haven’t used in months and years?
Yogic philosophy reminds us at the root of hoarding is doubt in the
Creator. Hoarding is an attempt to manipulate the physical world to
supply oneself with a feeling of security. But real security doesn’t come
from things. Things actually cause a feeling of insecurity. The more
energy circuits you ground to physical things (idol worship) the less
energy that can go to connecting to the Creator — the truest source of
power and security. Every unit of energy that is in your lawyer, your
money, your guns, your spouse or your home security system is one less
unit that can be put toward the energy that sustains the sun, the earth and
all the hearts beating on the planet. Today, let go of one thing you are
idol-worshiping. Take your power back and find security worth hoarding.

What can you teach us?

The monkey is forever restless, jumping from one activity to the next. And
he has a quick heart rate and short life span. The turtle, in contrast is
quiet slow, taking it’s time, living in the moment. The turtle has a slow
heart rate and a long life span. Are acting like a monkey or a turtle?
What will matter at the end?