Leave Room

A Yogic Principle worth Surrendering to

Most of the time, things don't happen exactly the way I plan them, the way I want them to, no matter how impressively my executive functioning skills may have been operating, regardless of my good intentions. I am an action person. I like to create movement. When things stop, I am still going. Sometimes I deal with grace. Other times it's not pretty. That's the defining moment in Yoga. Things going awry is so common in the human experience, that it lends itself to an overall progress marker on the path, and it the way Sri Krishnamacharya gauged a sadhaka’s sadhana.

In default mode, we may become fraught with old samskara-s, we may conclude, pass judgement on ourselves and others, high level emote and react hastily. We latch onto our goals, our plans and can even sabotage our own aims, holding on so tightly to what’s supposed to happen, the intended, hoped-for scenario. When Yogic perception infiltrates these default moments, progress is in the making.

Leaving room…that pause. My favorite interpretation of Īśvara Praṇidhānam is TKV Desikachar’s: Be open. When we’ve arranged our inner selves and outer circumstances, we have to release the results of our work. Better yet, while we are in the midst of the arranging, we have to modulate our guna-s so we don’t get too stuck or ambitious, both recipes for more challenges in the realm of the grey zone and the uncontrollable. That friction. Those action options, manufactured in moments of self-awareness. The work of Yoga is endless, but it’s particular, it’s rooted in practice, teacher connection and study of the Sutra-s, and it’s accessible to all who don’t get their way sometimes.

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