Table Of Content

Bringing Yoga to Life The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living Donna Farhi For Ray C o n t e n t s Part 1: Coming Home 1 1. We Begin Here 3 2. Motivation: What Brings Us to This Moment? 12 3. A Larger Life 22 4. Yoga as a Life Practice 38 Part 2:On the Means 51 5. Slowing Down 53 6. Cleaning Up Our Act: The Four Brahmavihara 56 7. The Freedom of Discipline 69 8. Embodied Awareness 80 9. The Window In 96 10. The Inner Teacher 107 11. Effort and Surrender 120 iv Contents 12. Trusting the Mystery 134 13. The Seasons of Practice 142 14. Intention 152 Part 3:Roadblocks and Distractions 161 15. Sloth 163 16. Assumed Identity 175 17. Measuring Up 188 18. A Box of Monsters 196 19. The Riptide of Strong Emotions 211 20. Blind Spots 219 Afterword:Like Any Other Day 229 Acknowledgments 237 References 239 Notes 243 Permissions and Credits 249 About the Author Credits Cover Copyright About the Publisher P a r t 1 Coming Home C h a p t e r 1 We Begin Here Monday night is the evening for beginners at the studio, and although it is only five-thirty the winter sky has begun to darken as students ar- rive, some tentatively, others in boisterous pairs who have egged each other on to come, and the silent furtive ones, not yet sure whether there is a special way to act when entering a Yoga school. Robin ar- rives a little late and searches nervously for the farthest corner, to hide behind the other attendees. “Why have you come?” I ask, and as we introduce ourselves Robin declares, with an edge of cynicism that I have grown to recognize as the thickening of skin over something far more tender, that she wants to lose a little weight, maybe learn to relax. “Seemed like a better option than ballroom dancing,” she says smugly, raising a few eyebrows. As the weeks go by, Robin begins to move forward in the room and to ask questions about the stiffness she feels in her back. “I don’t know,” she says offhandedly, “maybe it has something to do with my job. Some days I can hardly catch my breath.” At the end of the first course Robin signs up for another, and months turn into years. A life is unveiled: an ambitious career, a marriage that didn’t work out, a childhood much analyzed in therapy, and then an open question. How can this life become fresh again? How to peel away the veneer of self-defense and the sadness of disappointment? One summer Robin 4 bringing yo ga to life takes the leap and decides after much encouragement to attend a seven-day retreat. After a long and silent meditation one evening Robin comes to say good night, and we look into each other’s eyes. Something ineffable is exchanged: a recognition that something im- portant has been realized. For once Robin drops her guard, and without saying a word I sense a warmth and tenderness that belie her practiced bravado. This is not where Robin began, yet it is a place that has always been there awaiting her arrival. Over two decades of teaching I have witnessed again and again the power that Yoga has to shift seemingly intransigent negative pat- terns and to awaken the body, mind, and heart to other possibilities. No matter who we are or how long we have been entrenched in self- defeating behaviors, through daily Yoga practice we can become pres- ent to our own fundamental goodness and the goodness of others. Rediscovering who we really are at our core opens the way to experi- encing our most basic level of connection with others. This connect- edness lies at the heart of the practice called Yoga. Living in a unitive state is not an esoteric concept, and it is not an elusive higher realm that only very clever people can aspire to. It is the opening of the heart so that we have the capacity to feel tenderness, joy, and sorrow without shutting down. It is the opening of the mind to an awareness that encompasses rather than excludes. It is the startling and immedi- ate recognition of our basic sameness. It is the practice of observing clearly, listening acutely, and skillfully responding to the moment with all the compassion we can muster. And it is a homecoming with and in the body for it is only here that we can do all these things. Counter to the plethora of seven-step solutions and quick-fix for- mulas offered by so many contemporary self-help guides, the ancient science of Yoga does not pretend to be simple, quick, or easy. It is a practice that takes into account the very messy and often complex phenomenon of what we call a human being and the equally challeng- ing task of everyday living. What Yoga does promise, however, is that through sincere, skillful, and consistent practice, anyone can become peaceful, happy, and free. It does not matter who you are or who you