Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure. -George Edward Woodberry
Category: Yoga
Freedom
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. – Victor E. Frankly
effort and ease
Practicing the balance of effort and ease (asana) on the yoga mat gives us the tools to practice that balance off the mat. You can practice yoga anytime, anywhere because it is simply the practice of balancing effort and ease and acting along that line of balance.
sthira sukham asanam – Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 2:46
sthira = steady, stable, motionless
sukham = comfortable, ease filled
asanam = meditation posture
Right Effort
“Practice with ‘right effort’ will help you perceive the greater pattern that relates you to everything. Yoga aims to teach you that when you look accurately out upon the world, you will see that everything out there is simply YOU. How far inward do you have to look to know that you are the source of everything and you are also everything that manifests from that source? There is nothing that is not you, there is no way to get outside of the greatest pattern that connects and unifies all things. It is laughable in its simplicity when you can expand your consciousness enough to embrace the immensity of it.” – David Garrigues
Self Study
What do your thoughts about others say about you? Use the mirror of yoga for self study.
Yoga is
The following are translations of the the second yoga sutra (I.2) – citta vritti nirodha –
“The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is Yoga,” Sri Swami Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, 2003
“Yoga is the ability to direct the mind exclusively toward an object and sustain that direction without any distractions,” T.K.V. Desikachar, The Heart of Yoga, 1995
“Yoga is the control of thought-waves in the mind,” Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, How to Know God, 2007
“Yoga is the suspension of the fluctuations of the mind,” Gregor Maehle, Ashtanga Yoga, Practice & Philosophy, 2006
“We become whole by stopping how the mind turns,” Geshe Michael Roach & Christie McNally, The Essential Yoga Sutra, Ancient Wisdom for Your Yoga, 2005