An auspicious day
Today is the summer solstice for the north hemisphere which means that today is the longest day of the year and it marks the start point of the summer. Hence, wether we see the day light or not, there is a powerful and abundant emanation of Sun energy available for us to super charge our bodies. It’s a great day for celebration, for dancing, singing, walking on the ground with naked feet and connecting with our roots and ancestral existence. The Sun is action and manifestation, brings sharpness to the mind and brightness to the heart.
Today is also the world music day, so we also celebrate that we are vibration, that we are all united by this field in which we all expand, and dance, a field that is just one. Music is the expression of the heart, the language of the soul, the dance of the waves of our physical existence.
Also, today, we celebrate the International Yoga Day. Inspired by and in agreement with Mark Robberd post on Instagram in the memory of International yoga day, is that I felt to write about this celebration. Certainly to say what is yoga and what is not is not an objective enterprise, as it is also to take sides regarding recently exposed situations of abuse of power through yoga, and many other situations. We all have been partialized by our personal experience of yoga, right? We shouldn’t be so surprise to find so many interpretations and perceptions of yoga, we are all completely different beings, with exclusive and unique beliefs, experiences, habits and qualities. I believe our main problem is that we all want to be right. We are not only different between each other but we are also different in every moment of our lives. I could even say that my definitions of yoga have change throughout my life and have been persuaded by different teachers with whom I have studied in a particular moment, by the books I have read, and the practices I am holding.
Today, I could say that my personal approach to what yoga is very influenced by interpretations of Patañjali, because I have dedicated a lot of time to study it, or perhaps I could say, I am very influenced by those with whom I have studied, what they interpret as Patanjali’s definition of yoga, and this view has changed and flown from Advaita Vedantins, to western academics and so on.
I have been studying yoga history for a relatively short time, at least short enough to not feel comfortable to make a statement, hence I rather to express my humble opinion, which based on what I have observe from different traditions and texts that I have been studying recently, I tend to agree with Mark about how we make a war from everything, even from defining the limits of what yoga is and what is not. In the name of preserving what we believe is right we create separation, maybe because we have this intrinsic need to posses the truth. I believe that Yoga as many other paths, disciplines, arts, sciences, lifestyles, methods and philosophies, have two main sides through which one can experience and expand (or contract). In one hand we have this instinct of division and separation, a tendency to fight in the name of love in order to impose our own perception, what we consider to be the truth. On the other hand, we have this fine essence of pure love, that we can also connect with, through which we can transcend those tendencies of the mind and realize by experience that whatever we consider to be the truth is nothing else than our own perception of it. It is our call to be lead by our instant or by our essence.
For me, yoga has been many things, it has had many faces and qualities, it has been a tool to open doors and it has been the door itself, yet what is on the other side of the door too. To start this endeavor of diving in into the Universe of Yoga has completely transformed my life, beyond all the resistances I have placed in the middle.
Today I remember and honor every teacher that has broken me in pieces so I could be reborn and every student that have showed me to be also my teacher. Today I honor those ineffable moments that I have experienced because I decided to take this journey. Also through yoga, I met the love of life, twice: first, I found myself hidden between the ashes of many logs of suffering and conditionings that started to be burned out, and later, I found my husband, partner in love and life.
I am grateful for a day that reminds me in so many ways the sublime essence of life! Happy music, solstice and yoga day to everyone!