What is Yoga?
Namaste Friends!
Recently I was asked by a friend to explain to him exactly what “Yoga” is. I was trying to explain to him about how Yoga was a great method for learning to end suffering in our daily lives when he asked; “How exactly are some stretching exercises going to help me learn to stop suffering!?” So I figured perhaps it would be a good idea to write a blog post on what “Yoga” is, and how it can help us stop suffering.
The word “Yoga” is an ancient Sanskrit word that means “yoke” or “to join”. But what exactly are we “joining” with the practice of yoga? Yoga teaches us to join the subject and the object, the observer and the observed, the small self with the larger Self. The small self is what most of us think of as “me”….this is our ego, our conditioning, our biases and beliefs….the things we think we are. The larger Self is an unbound awareness or pure consciousness that lies under our “thinking mind” and permeates all of existence….there is nothing that is not a manifestation of Pure Consciousness. When the mind is still, we are able to rest in pure consciousness….and the essential nature of consciousness is Blissful Silence. It is a storehouse of peace, bliss, and creativity. This is why in the Bible in Psalms it says “Be still and know that I am God”….to access the Divine all we have to do is know how to be still.
So how do we learn to “be still”? Well, with yoga practices. But “Yoga” is not what many of us in the West think of as yoga. Yoga is much more then stretching exercises, although it is that too. Patanjali, the Indian sage who wrote “The Yoga Sutras” outlines an eight-limbed path that is Yoga. One of those limbs is asanas or yogic postures/stretching exercises. But there are 7 other limbs! There is much more to yoga then just stretching the body. The word “asana” means “seat”….the purpose of the asanas is to stretch the body so that it is comfortable to sit for a period of time in meditation. Meditation is how we learn to still the mind. With the practice of meditation we learn to go past the thinking mind into that great storehouse of Bliss……Inner Silence. When we learn to still the mind for specific periods of time during the day (with a consistant meditation practice) we find that as we go about our daily lives we begin to react to Life a little differently then before we started a meditation practice. We find that the things that used to really bother us, don’t really bother us so much anymore. We find that we have more “space” to see our mind’s tendencies and we are given the option to not react as we instinctually would. This is the beginning of the end of our suffering. When we tap into that storehouse of peace that is Inner Silence/Pure Bliss Consciousness with a daily meditation practice, we begin to be able to choose to not suffer over things that used to cause us endless suffering. We begin to see that all suffering is an option. As the old saying goes “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”. With a consistant daily meditation practice we start to see that all suffering happens when we believe our thoughts…thoughts about Life and the way it “should” be. We begin to see that Life is perfect just the way it is, and that fighting with reality is a lost cause. As Byron Katie says in her book Loving What Is, “When you argue with reality, you always lose – but only 100% of the time”. She goes on to say that “The only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is”. And a consistant daily meditation practice allows us to begin to see that “what Is”, is just perfect….how could it be any other way!? 
So, yoga is much more then just stretching exercises…..it is a set of practices designed to help us find peace within ourselves….a way of realizing that everything we could ever want, everything we could ever desire, we already have….we already ARE. Everything we could ever need is already inside of us. It is just a matter of getting in touch with, and coming to Know, That which we each and all are….Pure Bliss Consciousness.
I wish you all a Happy and safe New Years….may we all come to Know and rest in our True Nature.
Love,
Carson
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Hello! My name is Carson and I am a Hatha Yoga Teacher (RYT). I teach a blend of postures, breathing exercises and meditation helpful for finding Inner Silence.
