“Reading” Yourself
Thursday morning with Prashant was a very nice class that makes me eager for Pranayama class this evening.
He began by reminding us that we need to learn to “read” our own embodiment through all the means he lays out for us. Breath, Body, and Mind all have roles to play, along with all of their smaller and more sensitive components. The combinations are truly endless. And, as Raya mentioned different ways and means to “read Iyengar” in text forms, there are also so many ways and means in yoga to “read” and gain wisdom of our own Self.
His next point was the idea that there is no actual “independence”. We all want to “be independent”, or think we are “independent”, but that state is truly impossible. Every aspect of our lives and every aspect of ourselves is in dependence of something else. We are not students without a teacher and visa versa, we are not children without parents and visa versa, we are not even our own boss as entrepreneurs as we are dependent on being paid by customers or in some other way that relates to someone else, etc… Our embodiment works in the same way. We go to sleep without worrying about stopping breathing. We eat and do not have to think about digestion. These things, and all of the workings in our life, are in relationship, dependent on each other to function.
Within all of these relationships, we also have to watch out about “using” and “over using”. Who likes to be “used” in any relationship? No one. It is a negative state. So also in our embodiment relationships. To be overly physical, hyperventilating, or trying to only think yourself through things instead of putting yourself into action can all be forms of “using” parts of ourselves in unhealthy and unbalanced ways. In yoga, we look to find equality and balance in all the relationships we have, inside and outside, within our internal and external Universes.
Prana, the energy that infuses all of life, is the glue and the connectivity that underlies everything. Prana creates the sensitivity and clear “sight” to be reading our Self. Prana is our connectivity to the Divine. Pranayama (the regulation of prana within our embodiment through breath patterns), in all its formats – including the normal breathing of different states, regulated breathing under certain direction, sound forms that create specific vibration, etc… – all give us more and more sensitivity to do our “reading”. Pranayama is like the microscope to see ALL of what lies within.
Where we will go with that tonight is anyone’s guess…
