What is Yoga?
by Carol Hendershot
YOGA IS A WAY OF BEING AND A PRACTICE, both a noun and a verb. Yoga is often translated as "to yoke" as in yoking oxen together to plow a field. What this really means is "Uniting" or bringing all of the parts of ourselves together in one unified whole. It's about bringing together the body, mind and spirit, the Universal and the Individual. That's all well and good, but the problem with this viewpoint is that we were never separate in the first place; we are already whole and complete. It sounds easy doesn't it? Just "remember" your essential nature and everything will be perfect. Snap your fingers and all of your problems float away because you "know" you're fine just as you are.
Well, as you've probably already figured out, it's not quite that easy, as a matter of fact; we have to clear away huge amounts of mental debris to get back to this simple fact.
We need a practice, a way of clearing away all of the clutter so that we can see more clearly. When we talk about "doing" yoga, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about "practicing" being more present, about seeing with more clarity. We move our bodies, pay attention to our breath and try to stay in the present moment as much as we can.
It's not easy at first, our body rebels, sometimes a lot, but that's nothing compared to what our minds have to say. Your mind might say something like, "Wait a minute, I've got more important things to do. I have to worry about that report that's due on my boss's desk tomorrow. I have to figure out what I'm going to fix for dinner, how I'm going to put the kids through college, and when did I get that spot on the front of my shirt anyway".
Maybe you've heard this constant stream of chatter. We can be thinking about that report one minute, and the next minute we are trying to figure out how we are ever going to pay for our daughter's wedding because we will surely have a fight with our boss and then we will lose our job and then.......
What the practice of yoga does, is bring us back to the present moment, back to our body, back to our breath. It says that the past is over and the present hasn't happened yet and that the only time we really have to live is right now. It reminds us that no matter how bad it seems, there is a sense of ease and contentment that we can access at any time if we choose. And along the way we get stronger and more flexible, more content and at ease.
We start to be Yoga, complete and whole just as we are.
WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE if you lived each day, each breath, as a work of art in progress? Imagine that you are a masterpiece unfolding every second of every day, a work of art taking form with every breath.
--Thomas Crum