In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna teaches Arjuna yoga. If you’re not familiar with the epic tale, check it out. One of the great things about Krishna’s yoga lessons is there’s a practice for everyone. Better yet, there are four—jnana yoga, bhakti yoga, karma yoga, and raja yoga. We may gravitate toward one, but they’re all … [Read more…]
I’ve always been curious about different spiritual points of view. Even though there are many, they seek similar things, like liberation from suffering, salvation or enlightenment, and choosing the right path through life. The self in spirituality — that is, the nature, importance and reality of the individual self— is one topic almost every spiritual … [Read more…]
As a younger yogi, I craved enlightenment (yes, I see the silliness in that). Like many people, I was drawn to yoga because I was suffering. When I first learned about attachment and aversion in yogic philosophy, I thought, great. If I want to be happy, I just have to stop liking and disliking things. … [Read more…]
I remember my first yoga experience, a beginners hatha yoga class in my hometown. In every class, the teacher would remind us, “Our true nature is peace.” I felt it every time, for a while at least. After class, I’d feel like I’d come home to the peace that had eluded me. Then I’d return … [Read more…]
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t met a lot of angry yogis. I’m not referring to yogis who get angry. I’m talking about yogis who are angry at their core. I’m not saying anger is in some way not yogic (a lot of us turn to yoga to deal with emotions like anger), … [Read more…]
There’s sometimes a misconception that yogis transcend all the messiness of life. Early in our practice, we’re often taught to let it go, as one of my teachers pointed out recently. But she wasn’t pointing that out to encourage it necessarily. She was pointing it out to dispel the myth that it’s always a simple … [Read more…]
As we move into the month of March and transition from winter to spring, we may begin to think of spring cleaning. In yoga, the first of the five niyamas — guidelines for how we interact with the world and those around us — is purity, or saucha. Think about the first niyama for a … [Read more…]
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are full of wisdom. The goal of Patanjali’s yoga is Self-realization, but we can use the wisdom of the sutras in everyday life. While we’d love to be enlightened beings all the time, we’re human. One way the sutras help us is by teaching us how to deal with people. … [Read more…]
Recently, I had the opportunity to learn the basics of Buddhism at the beautiful Dharmakaya Center For Wellbeing in Cragsmoor, New York. Like any good yogi, I’ve explored Buddhism before, but what I knew about it was mostly some vocabulary words (like Nirvana, liberation, Noble Truths, and Eightfold Path) and meditation practices and philosophical ideas … [Read more…]
Love is a noun. It’s also a verb. So, when you say you love (fill in the blank), what do you mean? I’ll bet you mean something different almost every time you say it, because you’re defining love by what you do (or feel or think). Many people believe in the concept of unconditional love. … [Read more…]