Yoga Lessons from Ecuador
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El Chato Ranch, Isla Santa Cruz, Galápagos
As I write this, I am sitting in a lodge in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Through the sliders on our balcony, I am viewing the jungle. Green, lush, and dense, with each plant and tree competing for light and water. God’s diversity is in full display here. It’s been an emotionally overwhelming experience, one that has caused me to choke up several times already since we arrived.
My husband and I are celebrating our 5th year anniversary here today, Nov 30th. He wanted to create a trip-of-a-lifetime for us and has been planning this vacation for almost a year. And so, here we have been for close to two weeks, experiencing once-in-a-lifetime things. From the exquisite beauty of Quito – a UNESCO World Heritage site – to the rugged islands of the Galápagos islands with all its one-of-a-kind creatures to the incredible biodiversity of the Amazon where more plant and tree species exist in one hectare of land than all of North America, each day has been a discovery of something new, unexpected, and extraordinary.
Along our journeys, several yoga related themes and practices have come to my mind:
Equanimity
One of the fascinating things I learned is that animals have rights and they are written into the Ecuadorian Constitution. Ecuador is known to be a peaceful country (recent political assassination aside), and I think one of the reasons for this is that there is such a balance of man and nature here, and that man pays nature a high amount of respect.
In yoga, one of the goals of our practice is to develop equanimity. A benefit of having such a mind-state is described here by the British author, Stephen Batchelor:
A compassionate heart still feels anger, greed, jealousy, and other such emotions. But it accepts them with equanimity and cultivates the strength of mind to let them arise and pass without acting upon them.
When we can maintain our composure, we can act in right ways in the face of difficult situations. I have a sense that the people here have a good grasp on how to keep their cool. For example, we visited the Kichwa Tribe in the Amazon and were told that on some days they have success in their hunting and on other days they bring back nothing. But they just try to live in the present moment, and let each day be what it is. They experience happiness and sadness just like we do, but they know no feeling ever lasts, and they let things pass and come back to the present moment. To me, this is very much a yogic-like practice, and is a way to develop equanimity.
In the silence, there is richness.
We passed a little stream near our hotel called Laguna de las Ninfas. Above the entrance was a sign reading: Escucha el silencio. Translation: Listen to the silence. From that point on, as much as possible, I tried practicing listening to the silence. And of course, out in nature, there really is no such thing as silence, with all the hum of activity going on. But during those moments of me practicing being silent, there was an awareness of a world that I normally don’t know exists. Similarly in meditation practice, we simply sit in our own silence, so that we our minds can move in the direction of further self-realization and toward deeper states of awareness of the interconnectedness of all life.
Staying curious helps keep the mind open and free.
If someone were to ask me what I was expecting before the start of our trip, I would say I knew I would be blown away, I just didn’t know how I would be blown away. I didn’t do a lot of planning in advance for this trip. The result was that each day felt full of delightful and unexpected surprises. When we initially arrived in Puerto Aroya and were trying to learn our way around the town, we were feeling a bit stressed about the unknowns. Yet even these moments of discovery were rich experiences and necessary parts of our journey. By the end of our stay there, we felt super comfortable and safe walking about the town. As yogis, one of the ways we can maintain a spacious mind is to remain curious.
I’ve been posting photos, videos, and commentary of my trip on my Facebook page, if you’d like to get a glimpse of what this part of the world looks like.
Thanks for letting me share a bit of what I’ve learned and experienced on my journey here with you.
May you be happy, …
May you be healthy, …
May you listen to the silence, …
May you know a peaceful balance between yourself and all other beings, …
May your mind remain curious and open, …
May your new found freedoms somehow benefit all Beings everywhere, including those that exist in Nature.
Aloha and Metta,
Paul Keoni Chun
Listen to the silence
