The sunsets of recent weeks have been characterised by fiery reds and dramatic oranges. The burning-off of excess fuel throughout over countryside has created atmospheric conditions that will make a safer fire season, but in the meantime we’re all sporting smokey lungs.
In yoga, we fire up our practices to burn off bodily impurities accumulated over the winter. Maybe you do this if you practice Bikram Yoga or Ashtanga Vinyasa or do the auspicious 108 salutes to the sun.
It takes discipline to keep up this sort of hard work, though, and many a beginner has fallen by the wayside – hopefully, not permanently – when the novelty of yoga has paled. We tell ourselves we should practice, don’t we? And, if we actually do stay with it, after a few weeks and months, we feel so good that we’re hooked. There might even a little pat on the back because the body has submitted to the discipline of the mind.
As we develop more of that discipline muscle, the mind may even learn to submit to the spirit, where the prize is the awakening of the heart.
Here’s a few suggestions to feed your spirit: wake up with the sun; find a beautiful place to watch the sunset; and, stroll in the moonlight.
Kay indriya siddhih asuddhiksayat tapasah
Self -discipline (tapas) burns away impurities and kindles the sparks of divinity.*
*Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, B.K.S. Iyengar.
1 Comment
Tony
on September 17, 2012 at 7:41 am
A bucket list well underway; gentle introspection, calmer mind, healthier body, strolling with no expectations of self or others, smiling with moons and sunsets and opening further to diversity. The commonality? Yoga and daily meditation. A fluctuating bounce is a considerable challenge, but weekly, grows less invasive. Thank you yoga and Onwards to The Shed! Txox
A bucket list well underway; gentle introspection, calmer mind, healthier body, strolling with no expectations of self or others, smiling with moons and sunsets and opening further to diversity. The commonality? Yoga and daily meditation. A fluctuating bounce is a considerable challenge, but weekly, grows less invasive. Thank you yoga and Onwards to The Shed! Txox