By the very nature of our lives and by the requirements of everyday living our lives become very self centered. We are forced to focus on our needs and as soon as our basic needs are met, we find ourselves focusing on our wants. Many of us exchange the business of doing for the joy of being. The more we pack our lives with responsibilities and events the more we perceive our sense of self worth to increase. We end up racing from place to place, from thing to thing and find that we don’t really experience anything fully. We are left with a feeling of emptiness and a sense that our lives are passing us by.
Iyengar Yoga and the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco have introduced me to the gift of experiencing my life in the moment and of holding my self awareness in a larger container. Something that goes beyond the sense of John, my needs, my wants. This Yoga and this Institute come from a long tradition of dedication to the study of self awareness. Not the awareness of the small self (that self that has needs and wants) but the awareness of the larger Self-that part of us all that is perfect, in every moment, doing exactly what what is needed to learn the thing we need to learn, at this moment.
My challenge is to bring this practice of self awareness to every aspect of my life. To move through my life, through all its’ business and doing, while continuing to dissolve some part of my smaller self (ego) into this larger container of being. Iyengar Yoga and IYISF help me in this process by providing the larger container. The concept of Guru and the Senior Teacher allow me to be a part of a greater whole. Even when I am the teacher, it can be less about me and more about the transmission of the teaching. This is the larger container.
Yes, I want to be a better teacher, I want to be a better board chair, I want to be a better person. The peculiar aspect of this is that to accomplish these things is not just about me, in fact, it is about letting go of me. It is about quieting my mind and letting go of some ego and holding myself in the larger container. That is when intelligence (buddhi) can emerge.
John
August 29, 2012 at 8:04 am, vivian araullo said:
this is so succint yet so wise and inspiring. thanks, john.
August 30, 2012 at 12:04 pm, Cynthia said:
Hari AUM!