Living Yoga

Bylakuppe was a bit of game changer for me. As I attempted to convey in the previous post, it exposed me  to how different life can be for people based on luck (both good and bad), circumstance and belief systems.  Of course I’ve read about these circumstances. It’s our world’s history. I/ we probably all know people, families from around the globe who have faced and survived similar displacement and extreme challenges to their culture, identity and maintenance of community. I can’t help but to admire their strength and ability to continue pressing forward for the sake of all these things I admittedly sometimes take for granted with the odds stacked so high against them.

I also wonder. How do they do it? How do they carry on? How do they wake up each morning and begin their day? What happens when they arrive at an even bigger obstacle than the one they already exist within? I think there must be some tool people use to help them survive.

Throughout my studies here in India, I’ve had a chance to begin reading and to understand in greater detail the English translation of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, a text that outlines traditional Hatha Yoga and how to practice it. I was raised with a moderate amount of religious exposure and practice, and I identify culturally and traditionally to aspects of it. Spiritually, however, I’ve always been searching. For me, in this moment, Hatha Yoga helps guide me in this way. It’s honest. It’s hard. It requires a discipline and commitment that I’ve tended to shy away from in the past. I know that if I continue to practice and include all the facets or limbs of Yoga into my life on an every moment basis, it will frankly be a great help in living my life. Now, as I’ve chosen to immerse myself in this world and the teachings of Hatha Yoga, I think I can begin to understand how the human race has survived all the trials and tribulations so many generations have had to face or have bumped up against or slammed into throughout history.

Whatever it takes…a religious belief, a spiritual practice, an exercise routine or an expression of self through music or creative art…I suppose I think these are all examples of building blocks of survival in life. I don’t know that I really saw and committed to the value in identifying and cultivating such things until now.

It seems only too appropriate to acknowledge my friend and teacher, Jill who, with her friend Liana recently had the opportunity to travel to Jordan for 2 weeks to practice and live their Yoga in every sense as they shared their knowledge and compassion with with refugees from Iraq. Here’s a glimpse of what their experience included:

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