Yoga is an amazing practice.

It unites our body, breath, and mind. In asana we move into poses with inhalations or exhalations, and we maintain our concentration through drsti or mantra. In meditation we do the same in stillness. This unification is a spiritual practice in that it helps us understand what we are and are not.

My own Guru (Yogi Gupta) would often have us chant a mantra in English: “I am not my body. I am not my mind.” I know for many this can be distressing. If we aren’t our bodies or our minds, what are we? What else is there to us?

Our soul.

In many Indian texts our life’s goal is to know or experience union with our soul, or Atman, or Brahman, or Purusha, or Self. Many words, with subtle variations on meaning, but, ultimately, it is our imperishable and eternal aspect. That part of us that transcends both ego and death.

There are many that are rational and logical, believing in what they see and touch, what is measurable and quantifiable. These people excel in science and logic. But yoga is not science. Yoga is a spiritual practice that has always been meant to be experienced and not understood.

Aging is a great blessing to the practice, especially for those that practice Hatha Yoga. As we age we lose our flexibility and our strength, our vision fades, we gray and wrinkle. We can no longer eat many of our favorite foods, and we are no longer interested in the topics or fads of our youth. We also care less for the opinions of others and find inner peace easier to access. We can see how much our bodies and minds have changed, often drastically, and yet we remain the same. Our inner Self is a thread that connects us through the incarnations we embody from infancy to old age.

A meditation I share with students and clients alike is one to connect with our unchanging Self. We begin recalling our experiences, from our earliest memories to right now, and find that parts of ourselves that have remained the same. At first, these unchanging aspects can seem silly (personally, I’ve always loved ice cream and cartoons). But as we explore these eternal aspects, we find they go from surface things (what we like or dislike), to the deeper and more transcendent parts of us, like feelings or attitudes.

By tapping into those deeper threads, we can begin to get closer to our immortal Self, and closer to the goal of yoga.

 

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