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I write a lot about asana, the physical practice of yoga. The yoga we all know from our classes. I also write a lot about yoga as therapy, how it helps my scoliosis, my sore back, the physical symptoms of fibromyalgia.

But asana is only a small part of this yoga. The most common part, granted, but still such a small part. And I feel I don’t address the other elements of this amazing, life-changing practice enough. I realised this as I wrote Friday’s post. And I realised that I don’t address these other parts because they are so much harder to write about, so much harder to find clarity in.

I have been teaching Hatha Yoga for nearly five years now. I can create asana sequences off the cuff. I can tell if someone has tight hips or a sore back or neck issues as they walk into a room. These things have come to me naturally after years of practice, practice, practice. 90% of the classes I teach focus on asana, and because of this I feel I need to push myself to write more about the other parts of yoga.  Create clarity for myself before I teach to others.

Yoga, like many mystical practices, was originally practiced by renunciates; those who chose to live away from the world to find oneness with Spirit. Consequently, it can be hard for those of us who want to live in the world, watch TV, listen to rock music, drink Pina Colada, get caught in the rain, whatever AND live a life dedicated to yoga. It can be more than hard; it can be downright overwhelming to try to incoporate yoga into ordinary life.

As most of you dear readers already know, sometime around 4000 years ago the great sage Patanjali (or many great sages going under the pseudonym of Patanjali) decided to compile the Yoga Sutras; a series of verses covering this all encompasing practice which have arguably become the foundational text of yoga. In the second chapter Patanjali lays out the 8 limbs, the 8 important parts of yoga that the practitioner must incorporate into their lives, of which asana is just one.

Over the next 8 Tuesdays I want to look at each of these limbs in turn and write about my interpretation of them, how I try to incorporate each limb into my very westernised, very chaotic life; a life very much rooted in the real world.

I hope you will enjoy my ramblings!

“Now the practice of yoga begins”
Yoga Sutra 1.1

“Lead me from illusion to Truth
Lead me from darkness to Light
Lead me from cycles of birth
and death to spiritual liberation.
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.”

– Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

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Hold onto your hats folks, this one’s a toughie.

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The yogic concept of Maya is the idea that everything is an illusion, from the chair you’re sitting on to the computer you’re reading this on, from the grass beneath your feet when you walk outside to the sea you swim in – it’s all a figment of our collective and individual imaginations.

It’s pretty hard to take in huh?  It’s pretty hard to take seriously at all.

As my yoga practice developed over the years on both a physical and spiritual level it began to have a deeper and deeper effect on my life in general and I knew that much of the esoteric ideas and philosophies relating to yoga definitely had something in them.  But then I learned about Maya.

Maya was a massive stumbling block for me for a very long time.  Yoga had taught me to open my heart and feel compassion and empathy to a much greater degree than I had before.  It also had an amazing effect on my physical body. But how could it if my physical body is nothing but an illusion?  How can this be an illusion, these things I can see, these things I can touch, smell, feel?

And yet….

The world is constantly changing, day by day, season by season, year by year, eon by eon; and to believe too strongly in it as something static can trap us.  Belief in Maya isolates us  by placing a mirage in front of us to focus on and preventing us from embracing our Atman, our true selves.

…a human being is part of the whole called by us a universe — a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and his feelings as something separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.

This delusion is a kind of prison for us; it restricts us to our personal decisions and our affections to a few persons closest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

–Albert Einstein*

Throughout our lives we are told certain things that we accept as fact. How the world works, how we should behave, the things that society deems right and to always back up our thoughts with material evidence.

Along the way we lose our innate intuition, the guidance within us all, so bogged down are we by what the material world has taught us to be correct. We lose the ability to believe that is so prevelant in small children. We lose our divine guides (imaginary friends if you will) to concentrate on the real world. Which may or may not be real after all.

We have forgotten who we really are. Behind our various roles we are all one energy — one spark of life. Our true selves.

And our yoga practice can bring us back to where we are meant to be.  The illusion of Maya is a series of judgements, positive and negative and through yoga we can begin to break through these judgements, theses illusions, if only for a moment, and set ourselves free.

Everything will change. It is the nature of things. But the energetic spark of life within us all will never change.

And that is reality.

True happiness does not come from a wide screen tv, or a designer handbag, or (in my case) another pair of shoes.  It does not even come from the beauty of literature, art or nature (although all those things are worthy of our time too). It comes from within and it is right there inside if we are willing to look. It may take many lifetimes to find, but it will be there.

Forever.

The Mona Lisa is a great piece of art, but you would view it as a weapon if you were hit over the head with it.  Likewise, understanding Maya doesn’t make the physical a bad thing.  It allows us to step back and appreciate its beauty without having it blind us to our true nature…**

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*From “I am with you always” – Douglass Bloch
**Yoga and the Path of the Urban Mystic – Darren Main (p.27)

I have declared myself before as a yogini of very little brain (clearly, there was a reason he was called Yogi Bear ). One of the hardest struggles I had during my teacher training was grasping Yogic philosophy and the hundreds and hundreds of Hindu gods and goddesses. I loved Anatomy and Physiology, I couldn’t get enough of Sequencing and I never got cold feet or a butterfly tummy when I had teaching practice in front of my peers. But when it came to the philosophy and the ancient texts my mind boggled.

When I was at university I did a course on Greek Philosophy. My module on Ancient Warfare suddenly seemed like a walk in the park. The concepts of philosophy were just out of my reach. Every time I thought I could grab them they disappeared into thin air. During my teacher training this same thing began happening again.

I came to the conclusion that I needed some context to really grasp what I felt to be rather esoteric ideas. At school I never understood Pythgoras Theorum until Pa Yogini explained to me how a surveyor would use it. I needed some way in which to adapt Yogic philosophy into my practice.

Luckily for me, Darren Main came to my rescue allowing me to take the concepts of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva onto my yoga mat*.

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Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are the “Holy Trinity” of Hindu mythology; top gods if you will.

Brahma is the Creator, who brought the whole universe into being; the impetus for all life.

Vishnu is the Sustainer, the provider of all we need to grow and evolve in the physical universe.  Without him life could not exist.

Shiva is the transformer or destroyer, responsible for the changes of everything, breaking down the old to allow it to be reborn.  The concept of Shiva is sometimes feared because he is associated with death, but without the transformation, new life could not occur.

These three aspects of life can be brought into yoga practice – and into our life off the mat – by remembering that we, and everything around us, is born, will live and will die.

When I first come into a yoga pose, I am creating it, finding my alignment and my breath, by breathing into the pose rather than resisting it I can open myself to the pose and the aspect of Brahma.

Then I must sustain the pose, quieting the mind and surrendering into it.  By experiencing Vishnu sustaining the posture, I can move more deeply into it.

Finally, I release the pose.  Rather than just stop doing it, I must come out of it mindfully using the breath.  By remembering Shiva when exiting the pose I can transform the pose ready for the next one.

Away from the mat, these three aspects can then be applied to life, by everyone.  By finding these three aspects within ourselves we can live a more balanced life.  It’s not easy because each aspect brings with it fear.  We have to learn not to fear the new territories and experiences that Brahma’s creation brings, we must learn to trust in Vishnu’s sustenance, letting go of worries about safety, security, finances and love and trusting that there is enough of everything to go around, and we must move away from our fear of death, not just of ourselves or our loved ones, but the little deaths of various stages in our lives.

You don’t even have to think about it in terms of mythology of any kind.  It’s a simple paradigm shift, a change in behaviour patterns.  In 12 months time every cell in your body will be new.  A lot can happen in 12 months!

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*Darren Main’s book probably saved my ass several times over during teacher training. If you want to delve deeper into yoga but in a way that actually applies to modern life, I cannot recommend it enough (and I know I’m always recommending it, but honestly, I don’t get a cut of sales, I promise!).