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BYC Newsletter #4 Dear Yoga students and those interested in Yoga, This morning, the quarterly Integral Yoga Magazine came. This issue
celebrates the 40th anniversary of Swami Satchidananda’s arrival
in the West and the founding of the Integral Yoga Institute, of which
Yogaville
is just one part. How odd, I thought, as I read this magazine, to feel that I am a part
of this yoga that was brought to this country as a seed in the pocket
of an Indian holy man. I met Gurudev once in 1986 briefly, and experienced
no connection, certainly not the one I feel now. So the physical form,
space and time, really have nothing to do with the yoga that is growing
in me and in this country. We talked last week in our class about the “eight
limbs of yoga,” which
go from the do’s and don’t of moral behavior to the tree
top of Samadhi, where one experiences oneness with life. This is the
tree that grows from the seed that Gurudev planted in the fertile spiritual
soil of America. The yoga seed can take root in soil that seems almost
barren. It can sleep beneath the surface for years, then sprout suddenly
at the first drop of spiritual water. Or it will just wait until the
ego tree goes through its seasons and comes crashing down from its
own weight. One never knows when one is ready for the yoga seed to
sprout. But when it sprouts, you can feel it. It comes like the first green shoots
of spring bulbs peaking through the newly thawed earth. Something new
is happening inside. Like when an baby in the womb gives its first kick,
we know that our life is stirring. So we come to a yoga class where we can feed this spring seedling. And
we start a yoga practice during our day so we can help yoga spread its
roots into our life. We notice that we are learning how to handle stress.
We feel stiffness and crankiness in the body retreat. We can turn and
bend in a new freedom, both in our bodies and in our minds. In place
of worry, insight rises, and relationships seem to smooth out as if by
magic. Instead of waiting for the Fall of our life and then the sleep
of Winter, Spring has returned...and it all came from this little seed
called yoga. Thank you, Swami Satchidananda, for bringing this seed to us and protecting
it through all these years. Because now it has matured, and so many are
able to share in its fruit. Now to some class business. I’m drawing up the next round of classes.
Check the schedule link to update. Just as before, space is limited,
so don’t wait. 10/20/06
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