Welcome to today's meditation time,
Inspired by the teachings offered to us in Yoga Sutra 112.
Let's settle in,
In whatever way that that looks for you.
If you're seated,
Settle into your seat,
Becoming comfortable and grounded.
If you're lying down,
Stretch out,
Allowing your shoulders to relax.
If you're moving around and walking,
Allow yourself to come to stillness,
Filling the earth beneath your feet.
Maybe you allow your eyes to close.
Perhaps you begin to soften the area around your jaw.
Maybe you release the muscles in your face,
The tension across your forehead.
And whatever you're doing that serves your practice best,
Begin to imagine that there now is a softening right in the area around your heart.
Not the muscle of your heart,
But the spirit of it.
As you settle,
And the restrictions begin to lessen,
Feel the softness growing.
Let's take a few cleansing breaths together,
Really arriving into this moment.
A slow,
Deep breath in.
And just as slowly,
Exhale,
Let it go.
Breathing in together.
Breathing out.
One more breath in together.
One more breath out.
And as you settle into the rhythm of breath that feels right for you,
Let your body settle just a bit more.
As we journey through the Yoga Sutras,
We begin to see how each of these beautiful threads,
These sutras,
All lead us back to that one teaching right there at the beginning where Patanjali assures us that Yoga Citta Vritti Nirodha.
The reminder that this practice really does offer the chance to calm the fluctuations,
The modifications,
The agitations of our mind.
There's a strong chance that each of us has experienced these today.
Fluctuations,
Agitations,
Disturbances in our mind.
Those moments when your mind was going one direction,
And all of a sudden you have no idea how it switched,
And you ended up somewhere else.
If we're not mindful,
The mind will continue to go and go and go until we are so far from this present moment that it feels like it's just too much effort to come back.
The Yoga Sutra chapter 1 verse 12 tells us there's one very simple way to do just that.
One way to come back.
One way to restrain and lessen these fluctuations in our mind.
And that is through Abhyasa,
Practice.
There are many interpretations about what this Abhyasa,
This practice is that Patanjali is referring to.
He tells us that Yoga is Abhyasa.
Yoga is the practice.
Yoga as in Asana,
The physical practice of healing our body.
Yoga as in the breath,
The physical act of regulating our emotions.
Yoga as in sitting in nature and becoming one with our surroundings.
Yoga as in being in community with like-hearted people who are also trying to calm the fluctuations of their minds.
And Yoga as in meditation,
This beautiful practice of coming back to the present moment again and again and again.
Patanjali teaches us that Abhyasa,
Practice,
Is our way of filling up our internal toolbox for this beautiful thing of life.
So that rather than being drawn so far from the present moment as things happen,
We have a tool to anchor us,
To tether us back to this present moment.
Imagine this real-world example as you picture this description of what it looks like to fill the distraction and to come back to this moment.
Picture a row of birds sitting on the fence line.
It's a beautiful day and the sky is blue as the birds just sit and sing.
Now picture a cat sitting in the yard right along that fence line.
See the cat looking up at the birds.
Now picture a dog sitting on the porch,
Minding his own business but still aware of what's going on around him.
And then see a person,
The person who lives in the house,
The owner of the dog and the cat,
Sitting in a chair,
Breathing in each moment as it comes.
There's this beautiful quiet moment where all of those things are happening on their own.
The birds are sitting,
The cat is sitting,
The dog is sitting,
And the person is sitting.
This is what it looks like when our mind is at ease,
When it's even and steady and calm.
But then all of a sudden the fluctuation,
The disturbance,
The agitation comes.
The cat decides to lunge toward the birds.
As he does so,
The dog immediately jumps up and leaps toward the cat.
As the dog springs into the air,
The person jumps up out of the chair and rushes toward the dog.
See in your mind how quickly the entire peaceful scene changed.
Now we know that cats will be cats and dogs will be dogs,
But this is such a concrete example of how fast these things can happen.
And then all of a sudden,
If we're not careful,
Conditioned pathways begin to be created in our minds,
Thinking that those disturbances are normal and that we have no power over them.
But this practice reminds us that not only do we have power,
We have a choice.
We have a choice that when that disturbance comes,
We have tools to apply to begin to shift it.
Do we lunge after the dog because that's what we're conditioned to do?
He makes a move and we respond?
Or do we remain calm,
Calling him back,
Placing our hand on his head as he returns?
Think about how you move through your world when all of these thoughts,
These disturbances come into your peace and into your calm.
Where do you fit in the chain reaction?
Do you allow the chain reaction to pull you in where you follow the impulses,
You follow the fluctuations?
Or are you the one in the chain that pauses,
That takes a deep breath and breaks this conditioned way of being?
Yoga Sutra 112 tells us that if we want to restrain the modifications of our minds,
We have to practice doing it.
We practice so many things.
We practice things that we want to get good at,
Things that we want to learn.
Shouldn't our peace of mind be just as important,
As important as learning to play an instrument or attain a new skill or speak a new language?
Just think about it.
If we practice restraining these modifications in our mind,
Wouldn't that be a beautiful use of our time?
So let's practice that right now together.
Abhyasa.
Abhyasa.
Watching the disturbances come just as we watch the cat leap after the birds.
And rather than conditioned ways causing us to leap ourselves,
We come right back here to the present moment,
Holding on to the breath,
Letting the disturbance go.
Let's practice that together.
Abhyasa.
Abhyasa.
Notice and return.
Abhyasa.
Notice and return.
As you bring your awareness back to this next breath in,
Know that Yoga Sutra 112 is a reminder of how amazing our minds are.
They're not stuck.
They're not conditioned and set in stone.
They can be changed.
All it asks is for a commitment to Abhyasa,
A commitment to practice,
A commitment to filling up the toolbox and then using what's inside.
When the fluctuations come,
We have the tools that are needed.
The cat lunges after the birds.
The dog jumps after the cat.
We restore the peace that was being felt just moments before.
Abhyasa.
Abhyasa.
Abhyasa.
Namaste.
