I am grateful to be learning and sharing with all of you too. I appreciate stories such as your own because it gives others hope to find similar joy in Yoga. In that appreciation, some people, some of the time, myself included, overlook an important and simple truth, that what may be right for one is not necessarily right for another. Our joy is there for us to to have, but it doesn’t come from doing another’s practice; it comes from finding and doing our own. Being our own.
I have been thinking about your last question. I need to choose another word other than “doom” to answer though. Here are 3 types of “difficulties” with Yoga practice that I have seen for myself, with my friends and colleagues and with clients: 1) difficulty arising from doing a practice or an aspect of practice of improperly, 2) Not adapting Yoga practice to the individual (approaching this through the tools of koshas, gunas and doshas) and 3) Experiencing pain in your koshas as you shake off the numbness and wake up.
I believe you are speaking, more or less, of number 3. I am right about that?
I think that going deep into a practice and committing yourself to be open-hearted, open-minded, to have a teacher who will help see through where your mind gets hooked by fear, anger, confusion, etc., and to rest when you need it will help you in burning through your karma. That commitment comes in many forms, but all keep you close to those tender parts of you that get scared and angry and confused; your immersion is your promise to yourself to never abandon yourself in the face of it and to also keep a wise, healthy and compassionate pace to the process. You need to be able to integrate the fruits of your practices and that means loving kindness and sweet patience. I know there a few members who share here that say one does not need a teacher, but I respectfully disagree. I think that there are very few in this world do not need a teacher to offer them unshakable and loving reflection.
When Mukunda speaks to us about working with clients, he often says that when people don’t come back for sessions, that it means that the practices are working. The emotions around a particular issue become more intense than appears to be manageable, at least for now. We all need a rest, a chance to regroup before going back in to do this holy work. Some people are not interested in doing this type of work and they simply want what can be offered in a hour-long asana class and that is OK too. As practitioners, we need to honor it all. Rather than being doomed, I think we will just get more opportunities to work through what we need to work through. As Pema Chodren says, this is the wisdom of no escape!
Sometimes it takes me a little bit to get to what I am trying to go, but I think this is it for now. So, what do I think?
Encourage everyone in Yoga practices that will connect them to their inner teacher, their Sadguru. Everything else, in the Sadguru’s grace, will fall into place as it should.
With my respect and love,