The wind this morning tried its best to intimidate birds and humans alike. Well, at least this human, who was reluctant to get out of bed to head to yoga class relatively early on a holiday weekend. But, once I got myself out of bed and gathered my wits enough to make coffee and then put out seed for the birds, I realized that this wind was all huff and empty howl, without the icy breath to back up the threat. Outside my doors, it turned out, there was a gloriously bright and balmy morning.
It didn't take long for the sparrows to gather for the seeds. They appeared in small waves, flying forth from the berry-ridden bush. But no sooner did they start on their feast, the quails arrived, in force, too, ready to claim their sizable share of the freshly dished seeds. There was no mixing among this group, as there usually is between the doves and sparrows and juncos. The quail ate fast, while one of them stood watch, then they disappeared as fast as they had come.
I had my coffee and since I didn't make it to class, proceeded to practice at home. I looked for a sequence of poses for shoulder problems, since I did strain that area with efforts to build some muscle, a reasonable plan, but not if you go about the business of it with the mind of a 30-year-old in the body of a 50+ person. I settled on a sequence of 30 poses, as outlined by Iyengar in his therapeutic yoga suggestions in The Path to Holistic Health.
The entire sequence took almost 2 hours, because of the way I was practicing, which was by engaging in a quiet dialog with my body. It's a common place new-agism to say to let your body be the teacher, but if you get your mind out of the picture, or rather, if you get the picture out of your mind of what yoga should be and what you should be doing while practicing yoga, your body will steer you in a direction that can lead to a place where you'll find that the least effort will produce the most benefit. Of course, this doesn't mean that you don't work hard; it's just that you don't need the effort, because you will have known how strength manifests as grace in a pose.
I suppose this effortless steady state is what The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali point to in the following verses:
- The physical postures should be steady and comfortable.
- They are mastered when all effort is relaxed and the mind is absorbed in the Infinite.
- Then we are no longer upset by the play of opposites.
