I finished reading What Are We Seeking by TKV Desikachar for the second time last night. Rather than write my own commentary today, I'd like to share with you a passage that reached out and grabbed me. I suggest letting it marinate in your brain for a while -- a little food for thought. Here it is:
"When I started learning yoga with my father in 1961, I concentrated all my interest on the physical side and, because of the way I was built, in six months I had mastered all the posture [SIC]. I thought that I had really made it -- three hundred and fifty postures -- it was like a status symbol for me. Slowly my teacher brought me to see that there were other aspects. Gradually he helped me to understand that our progress in yoga is measured by other parameters -- in particular the respect and concern we show for others and the spirit in which we act. This sort of evolution comes about on a different time scale -- from what is involved for mastering the body. Furthermore, although our health and physical capacities affect our personality and action, it is not simply through an efficient body that we become more caring. No posture makes us more concerned about others. This is worth meditating on."
And meditate on this, I suggest you do. I will be doing the same.
Namaste!
I finished reading What Are We Seeking by TKV Desikachar for the second time last night. Rather than write my own commentary today, I'd like to share with you a passage that reached out and grabbed me. I suggest letting it marinate in your brain for a while -- a little food for thought. Here it is:
"When I started learning yoga with my father in 1961, I concentrated all my interest on the physical side and, because of the way I was built, in six months I had mastered all the posture [SIC]. I thought that I had really made it -- three hundred and fifty postures -- it was like a status symbol for me. Slowly my teacher brought me to see that there were other aspects. Gradually he helped me to understand that our progress in yoga is measured by other parameters -- in particular the respect and concern we show for others and the spirit in which we act. This sort of evolution comes about on a different time scale -- from what is involved for mastering the body. Furthermore, although our health and physical capacities affect our personality and action, it is not simply through an efficient body that we become more caring. No posture makes us more concerned about others. This is worth meditating on."
And meditate on this, I suggest you do. I will be doing the same.
Namaste!