Yoga and the Art of Practicing ... Yoga!

Try, try, and try again … and one day your yoga practice might help you to take flight!

If you’re like me, you wake up each day and make a to-do list. In some ways it’s one of the hardest things I do each day. I usually start by listing the things I know I have to do. But it starts to get hard when I list all the things I wish I could do today, then I have to pare back and be realistic and pick the 2 or 3 major things that I know I have to do. Aaah, my ego likes getting in the way and think I can accomplish everything it wants because I am Superman! Not!!!

This is where yoga can be helpful.

I don’t know where I read this yoga maxim, but someone wisely said:

What you can do is what you should do.

In my many years of teaching yoga, I have found that this is a difficult thing to practice for many, and particularly for newer, less experienced students, It’s easy for the ego to take hold and for students to push themselves through extreme discomfort, bordering on pain.

The stage of the ego belongs to the young and new, and the mature yoga practitioner knows when to hold back, do less. It’s similar in acting, by the way, as the most accomplished actors know how to affect their audience more by doing less.

So, the art of practicing yoga, in some ways, mirrors the art of practicing life. What’s been particularly helpful to me as I have grown older (60 this year!) is that more and more now I dislike pushing myself to the limit. Recently, for example, I have found I like shutting down my computer earlier than I used to, and putting my work day behind me. I am liking physical and mental comfort more and more, and I don’t think that’s always a bad thing. So what if I don’t reach enlightenment in this lifetime, despite my daily meditation practices? That’s not so important.

The art of practicing yoga also involves remembering what the goals, intentions of the practice are. From the yoga sutras of Patanjali, the first few verses are: Yogash chitta vritti nirodhah. Tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam. Vritti sarupyam itaratra. These words essentially mean that the outcome we are striving for in yoga is to quiet down the mind’s movements so that our true nature can be revealed to us, so that we can see a clearer reflection of who we really are. Our minds are like lenses that need to be polished and cleaned, otherwise we will falsely identify with the distortions and come to believe those labels we place on ourselves (Superman, billionaire, yoga guru, ??? – you pick!) are who we really are. Only when the mind is quiet, can we rest in our True Nature. When the mind is not quiet one identifies with the thoughts one is having and believes — wrongly — these thoughts are who one really is. In other words, the art of practicing yoga involves trying to slow down your mindʻs movements, so you donʻt believe every thought going through your head.

The accomplished and widely respected yoga master, B.K.S. Iyengar, said:

The primary aim of yoga is to restore the mind to simplicity and peace, and free it from confusion and distress.

I love this, as it serves as a good reminder for me that I should never make an important decision when I am feeling confused and distressed. The art of practicing yoga means that we should walk away the situation at hand at such moments, and take some good exhales.

Yoga is all about meeting yourself where you are at in this moment, not where you wish to be. That’s probably the simplest and yet the hardest lesson any of us will have to learn.

May you be happy,
May your mind slow down,
May you only do what you can do, …
May you be successful at practicing the art of yoga well, …
For the benefit of all beings everywhere.

Aloha with Metta,
Paui Keoni Chun

Aaah, the warmth of the sun on the back. Always a great feeling! This is truly the art of practicing yoga -- slouching toward comfort!