While in my yoga class on Sunday I felt the need to give thanks for Ashtanga Yoga
I bow at the foot of the lotus. Saluting the Sun in mindful repetition. Warming my body. Stretching to and past my limits. Exercising my strength and power, never ceasing to breath, steady and rhythmic. The heat builds, circulating my blood moving energy clearing toxins (the poison of samsara), making the tight places looser and the loose weak places stronger. Extending always extending into space, relaxed energy, directed and focused but never rigid.
Honesty with self about limitations, fear only in the mind, pushing it out of my body. The sweat like a river carrying it all away. Balancing all my energies, never sacrificing form for ego. No matter the asana we continue to breath. At times wanting to give up and accepting this…accepting it all. Slowing when my body says so. We adjust. Honoring the precise moment in which we find ourselves.
Always moving and flowing, un-damned energy, fresh and alive. Finally… finally assuming the pose of the corpse, a reward after a long, arduous, beautiful life. We are allowed to rest now, released, the breath is free…we are free and we revel in this truth. My practice and all the attendant awarenesses…a metaphor for life.
I thank my body and the spirit that illuminates me.
Namaste
(first posted 11.9.09)
