More on Self-Sufficiency and the Way of the Yogis

When one steps upon the path of yoga and takes it as a life, it is called 'yoga-marg'. Yoga-marg is not simply showing up to a class every week and sweating on the mat. Yoga-marg is much wider and more revolutionary; it is the full commitment to yoga's principles in daily life. Every breath is yoga, every thought, every action, every feeling.

This may seem like an ideal to live every moment as the integration of yourself with the universe, and it is an ideal. An Ideal which can be realized in time.. Sometimes,though, we just feel selfish and self involved and not connected with the higher. Welcome to being human! Just because we cannot be present every moment does not excuse us from trying. The real yoga, for us mortals, is in the effort at being larger and freer than our current selves.

Yoga seeks the unlimited within the limited: this is the fundamental idea behind Tantra and Yoga. We embrace the physical and the material as just an expression of divinity in another form. If you look, you will find, and this maxim applies especially to the seeking of the divine amongst the mundane. Open your eyes to possibility and possibility will open your eyes. When your vision of potential is limited then you will remain limited.

The difficulty in this is that the universe conspires against ignorance. Souls evolve towards the higher, moment by moment and birth by birth. Even if we attempt to retain our limited vision of the world, eventually we are forced to grow. Our eyes are pried open by force if we don't volunteer to see. The divine can be a cruel teacher! It is best left up to your own sadhana, to work towards opening and expanding within our comfortable limits (but not too far within comfort).

This is a funny thing about Yogis and Yoginis, they are more willing to step forward and embrace the difficult and painful when they know it is for the best. It is not masochism, it is spirituality. We do not do it for the pain itself, but even pain can be sweet if we know it more deeply to be growth. Take the example of asana practice. Those outside the yoga see it and wonder why one would so willingly embrace such bizarre forms of discomfort. They cannot see nor feel the end product, the bliss of savasana and after, not can they understand how we step forward with virya (courage) and force our eyes open to reality.

I am sure you know someone who has avoided facing life for so long and eventually was forced to come face to face with their issues. Health is a great example. People ignore their physical well-being, taking it for granted but annoyed with the body does not cooperate. After some time, this neglect of the physical manifests into disease. When illness comes, one is then forced to deal directly with the part of themselves that they have been ignoring for so long. Most often disease manifests because there is not enough consciousness in certain places in the body. Enter the yoga. (Hey, that should be the name of my new yoga-martial arts film: ENTER THE YOGA.)

Then how can we work well in life? By doing the best we can with what we are given. We can expand by working on ourselves but avoiding selfishness and egoism. This kind of yogic self-involvement leads to great things, not to imbalance or disease. The real work of the yoga brings us into harmony and thus brings life around us into harmony. A happy person lives in a happy home, and other creatures benefit from that. It is like having little hidden temples around the world, vibrating just a little bit higher...

Thus, yoga-marg is the path of yoga on a moment to moment level. Every decision you make can be on or off the yoga-marg. Each word you speak or feeling that you have can be an expression of the higher. It is up to you. Why not choose the higher? Maybe because the lower seems easier in the moment, or our habits are too strong. But don't make excuses and let yourself off too easily. Embrace the work on the level of the now. It can be hard at first, but the rewards come quickly and the life of the spirit shows itself to be a life of beauty and happiness...

Keep going!!

OM