The Highlights of weekend 1:
YS 1.1: With great respect and love, now the blessings of Yoga instruction are offered.
( As interpreted by Mukunda Stiles).
Thus begins Patanjalis Yoga Sutra.
This weekend in advanced teacher training at Inner Vision Yoga we studied chapter 1-Samadhi Pada of the Yoga Sutras.
In chapter one, Patanjali tells us that yoga is a path of direct experience. You can read about it all you want to, but to know it, you must live it. You must practice. Clarity happens through the practice. Through direct experience only.
Patanjali also tells us that you can use the mind to find freedom. Freedom can be achieved. But freedom is not in the mind.
The Yoga Sutras is one of the original yoga texts that may as old as 2,500 years. Nobody really knows who Patanjali was or when he lived. But his text of sutras (or threads) are flowers that keep blooming and flowering for us still today. Patanjali weaves the threads of ancient yogic knowledge into a detailed map of human possibility for us to navigate, even today.
It is important to know that the process of yoga, as described by Patanjali in the sutras, does not talk about changing the outside world. But rather, doing the work from the inside. From the inside-out. There is nothing wrong with the outside world. You already are what you are seeking, you just have to find the right path to it. Yoga can be such a path.
One last beautiful note on the teachings of this last weekend. *When you are not in the state of yoga (or union), you let the "Chitta Vritti" (chattering mind) drag you around. Drag you around through life. You are no longer the leader, you are the follower. When you follow the mind, you don't know who you are. Be the leader, take control of the mind stuff. Get on your mat, or on your meditation cushion and get in there. Get quiet and find out who you really are.
YS 1.1: With great respect and love, now the blessings of Yoga instruction are offered.
( As interpreted by Mukunda Stiles).
Thus begins Patanjalis Yoga Sutra.
This weekend in advanced teacher training at Inner Vision Yoga we studied chapter 1-Samadhi Pada of the Yoga Sutras.
In chapter one, Patanjali tells us that yoga is a path of direct experience. You can read about it all you want to, but to know it, you must live it. You must practice. Clarity happens through the practice. Through direct experience only.
Patanjali also tells us that you can use the mind to find freedom. Freedom can be achieved. But freedom is not in the mind.
The Yoga Sutras is one of the original yoga texts that may as old as 2,500 years. Nobody really knows who Patanjali was or when he lived. But his text of sutras (or threads) are flowers that keep blooming and flowering for us still today. Patanjali weaves the threads of ancient yogic knowledge into a detailed map of human possibility for us to navigate, even today.
It is important to know that the process of yoga, as described by Patanjali in the sutras, does not talk about changing the outside world. But rather, doing the work from the inside. From the inside-out. There is nothing wrong with the outside world. You already are what you are seeking, you just have to find the right path to it. Yoga can be such a path.
One last beautiful note on the teachings of this last weekend. *When you are not in the state of yoga (or union), you let the "Chitta Vritti" (chattering mind) drag you around. Drag you around through life. You are no longer the leader, you are the follower. When you follow the mind, you don't know who you are. Be the leader, take control of the mind stuff. Get on your mat, or on your meditation cushion and get in there. Get quiet and find out who you really are.
