10/06/2019
A thoughtful message below from David Garrigues on keeping the daily appointment with your mat.
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I'm noticing these days resistance tied tightly to an expectation - what if practice is the practice of glimpsing the expectation? And then, just like you would do with your breath in downward, smoothing it out, a few breaths..
"Through practice you learn to slow time down enough to really know that each moment arrives and passes away never to come again, and then knowing things come and go in a flash you stumble upon love of your life and life itself in this very moment becomes miraculous. Doing a basic pose like sitting firm with absorption has the power to help you know the miraculousness that exists in this instant. You find that it doesn’t take much to enrapture you or at least take the edge off of your suffering."
Each practice is an appointment with the present moment and your death. To keep this appointment day after day, and to embrace your death, to be ready to go whenever the end arrives is the fiercest battle you will ever fight. Unless you are yoked to a discipline, escaping the reality of your radical temporality becomes an automatic response. You adopt habits that help you press the eject button on dealing with the challenges that exist in the present moment. But by catapulting away from now you forget the power of living in remembrance of such basic facts as how change is constant and how you are never far from your death. As a hatha yogi a main part of keeping the daily appointment is to step on your mat and apply yourself to the smallest basic challenges. You go back to puzzles that pertain to the beginnings of your body and mind. You attend to things you long ago decided were not worthy of your attention. I speak of rudimentary and yet sublime things like standing or breathing, or giving your full attention to a single tiny act. Through practice you learn to slow time down enough to really know that each moment arrives and passes away never to come again, and then knowing things come and go in a flash you stumble upon love of your life and life itself in this very moment becomes miraculous. Doing a basic pose like sitting firm with absorption has the power to help you know the miraculousness that exists in this instant. You find that it doesn’t take much to enrapture you or at least take the edge off of your suffering. Practice helps you learn that simply being conscious right now, taking a skillful breath, perceiving sounds, sights, tastes, or relating to another being has the power to fill you up with wonder and empty you out of wanting. Fight the fight within yourself each day, keep the appointment, and learn to be a hunter of the great ally and friend: your death. Dare to lose your concern over what came before or what is ahead, be brave enough to ride with constant change, trust in your experience, and allow thankfulness to blossom within you. Then you’ll be a yoga siddha, one who truly lives while she is alive because her own death is her constant companion and she continues to quest after the power to remain rooted in sacred eternal now. --Photo by Meghan Powell Photography
My October newsletter went out today.
https://mailchi.mp/146ca02ab9e7/dgyogafebruary-1657449?e=f533880733
Also, autumn sale at my store continues through Monday. Use coupon code Autumn to receive 20% off on all dvds, video and audio courses.
www.davidgarrigues.com
