6 of 30

Nov/17/11 Yoga and Beyond Studio/noon/60min/Gord

Today was a great class Gord , as a Teacher, was incredible! I have never had him as a guide before and it was a wonderful session. It was a yin yang class and his voice was both energizing and calming. I was so busy listening to his words and q's that I had no time to let outside thoughts distract my practice. At the end of class it felt like I had dreamed the practice but felt all the physical benefits.

I started to read Meditations from the Mat a book by Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison. I started the book the first day of my 30 day challenge and read one passage a day. Today's read was very insightful it starts with the quote "If you do what you did, you get what you got." It explains how there are two spiritual aspects to our practice. Non-attachment or renunciation ( vairagya) and practice ( abhyasa). I have started to feel the benifits of yoga practice in the short time I've been doing it. I feel more energy, I feel more compassion, I feel less stressed and excited for the day. I have even noticed I don't hit the snooze button. But this is only one aspect of my journey, with out renunciation how am I to grow spiritually. I need to work on both the physical and the inside stuff. Its the balance of both, that will make all this work.

As Gord said corpes pose ( savasana) is a way for us to take the hard work we did during the class. And be reborn to live off the mat. Savasana is a difficult pose. We spend a lot of time trying to perfect the ability to turn off our mind so we can be in the pose. I don't think this is renunciation I think when we turn off our busy mind we are avoiding the problem. It's all of our past moments, the ones we chose not to deal with catching up to us. That is because we were not living for that moment. What renunciation means is to acknowledge that business in our brain and remove it. As the book says, "The old behavior must be faced and renounced." The more we spend gardening our minds the more space there is for calmness and beautiful things we want. More time for us to view our present world with no attachments. Then we get to see the world as it really is. So next time you are in Corpse pose or have a moment to yourself, garden your mind, weed out the thoughts from the past or the future and start allowing space for the beautiful moments you're in to be planted.

As the reading states: “Once we take the first step of renunciation, our practice nourishes and sustains us as we are reborn. Practice without renunciation is avoidance. Renunciation without practice is not long-lived. Together, practice and renunciation make all our dreams possible.”

Have fun Gardening. :)