Yoga Workshop, Espern, Hamar, December 2009 - Part Three

What Yoga is Not.

Practices that remove us from unity.  Every day practices that spring from the way we think.

I remember reading a woman saying that when she put on her make up, she put on her ‘war paint’.  How many times have we put make up on as a ‘defence’. Or how many times have you seen someone else put their jewellery on as a barrier or as armour?  But let us ask ourselves, a defence, a barrier, an armour against what?

A defence against … ?  (please answer)

When you put clothes on, do you think about what you are wearing, and why, and who for? Ask yourself the question, if I could wear, what ever I wanted to wear today, what would I wear? 

Do you dress to be ‘better’ than someone else? Do you dress as a way to make yourself different from someone/anyone else? Do you dress as a barrier to other people?  Do you want the world to see you are different.

Different from …..?  (please answer)

When we talk to people, including family, do we talk with a means to show we are smarter, better, different and they are less, worse, more inferior? Or do we say nothing and think we are smarter or dumber than others?

Know Thyself

Every action that is based on your feelings of difference, or separation, or alienation is not conducive to yoga. But it is helpful to know who you are. Division is within the heart. And its outward manifestation is separation and anxiety, mistrust and suspicion.

How can we be strong enough, to cope with the ‘hardness’ of the world, so we are not continually hurt when we put out our hand to help and it is slapped down?

How can we find the courage to find the inner strength to deal with the injustice of the world, the cruelty, the intolerance, the hatred, the suspicion, the fear – how can we remain vulnerable, open, sensitive, giving, in the midst of a world gone mad?

The Heart

Have you heard of this before? When your heart breaks, it gets a bit bigger, and one day, we sit there, with a broken heart that can fit the whole world inside. Honest to God, that is what its like.

Loving one, does not mean you can’t love another. Our heart is big enough. Maybe our minds do not understand, but the heart can take it. The heart can bring us peace and love and by practicing living from here, in the heart, by holding hands with the mind, with our experiences, with sense – we can live an integrated life. 


Part One of the Workshop 
Part Two of the Workshop
Part Four of the Workshop