It’s not Yoga, It’s You

A Yoga pracitioner who recently resumed practicing wrote to me that “[Yoga] has had a wonderful impact on my body and mind”. I feel that the credit in this sentence is misplaced.

Yoga is essentially a “guide for better living” based on an assumption that existence is a meeting of Spirit & Matter (as described in Samkhya philosophy). It is a rich set of tools and techniques that can be used to play the magical instrument that we are. Yoga has no self-inherent existence or value. It comes to life only as an individual and intimate personal experience in practice.

We live busy and demanding lives – interacting with so many people in so many ways with so many self-reflections coming back at us that we become super-self-conscious. Something gets lost amongst a mirage of self-consciousness – to the point that we lose sight of it. Then, when we are gifted with a graceful Yoga practice – the busy-ness settles – sometimes long enough to enable something else to shine forth.

It isn’t Yoga that has a wonderful impact – Yoga has no “is-ness” that can make any impact. It is your interpretation and application of yoga – your practice that has a wonderful impact. Even that isn’t quite right … what you’ve “impacted” is disturbances that got in the way.

This isn’t about self-congratulation or taking credit – it is about clear perception and the responsibility that comes with that.

It is you that comes to Yoga – sometimes disturbed, sometimes peaceful.
It is you that practices Yoga – sometimes distracted, sometimes present.
It is you that walks out of Yoga – sometimes sweet, sometimes bitter.
It is you untangling knots you created.
It is you that are wonderful.
It is you that gets lost and found and lost and found …