News from India
Feb 25, 2006
The pranayama classes are profound. They are teaching me things that go beyond breathing and leave me knowing that I need to make changes in my practice and life, and knowing that I may not have the where-with-all to do it. There have been other times in my explorations of yoga that I have been confronted by the knowledge that I had to change if I wanted to continue to study, but those seem by comparison to be less comprehensive changes.
Mr. Iyengar is fond of saying that yoga will hold a mirror up so that we see ourselves clearly. This is true and we must be prepared to not like what we see and when that happens we are faced with the decision of what to do, ignore the reflection, rationalize it away, or do something about it. "Liking or not liking" is not the same thing here as in "I like potatoes and do not like rice." This kind of liking is being confronted by the knowledge that what you thought was real isn't, and being confronted by the knowledge that you need to change. Change is difficult. Not liking your reflection can mean suddenly realizing that you don't stand up straight when you thought you did, you thought your mind understood how to be straight and you thought the effort you were making was sufficient, when it wasn't. Not liking the reflection can also mean that there are areas of total lack of awareness that you must consciously make an effort to awaken. It can also mean that there are psychological habits you must confront and overcome.
Practicing yoga is like peeling an onion, as you lift off one layer there is another beneath it. Yoga has also been likened to a diamond, with each side giving off a different light. Just as you think you understand something the light shifts and you see something more. Asana practice begins to peel away some of our layers and begins to let light shine through, pranayama practice takes the process a little deeper.