Good Space (It Doesn't Always Have to be so Hard)

I have decided to revisit a yoga reference book of mine from several years ago, which is now in its second edition.  In Yoga Anatomy (2^nd edition), Leslie Kaminoff offers this quote:

“Another ancient principle tells us that the main task of yoga practice is the removal of obstacles that impede the natural functioning of our systems.  This sounds simple enough but runs counter to a common feeling that our problems are due to something that’s lacking, or missing.  What yoga can teach us is that everything essential we need for our health and happiness is already present in our systems.  We merely need to identify and resolve some of the obstacles that obstruct those natural forces from operating,….This is great news for anyone regardless of age, infirmity, or inflexibility; if there is breath and mind, then there can be yoga.” 

Sometimes I still start to get competitive in my own personal practice.  I am a silly human, after all, with more than my share of "obstacles". But when I feel ego come creeping in, secretly judging the poses I am or am not doing, I remind myself of this concept of de-cluttering.  Sometimes the struggle of a challenging pose may not be good work, helping me progress in the right direction; but may be actually creating more obstructions and roadblocks.  So I back off and instead go really deeply into a more accommodating pose with a sincere focus on breath, alignment, and surrender, in hopes of achieving another concept Leslie Kaminoff reminds me of, Sukha, or as it translates, “good space”.

Sukha is the “good space” created when you can remove the obstructions.  You recognize it immediately when you encounter it. I like to think of sukha like an endless horizon of sky meeting water.  It appears and feels infinite.  It is gorgeous.  And, best of all, its inside of me.

I usually experience sukha in a pose, but I’ve been known to encounter it on a hike, in the garden, or while painting.  I’ve glimpsed it in my meditiation practice; like I can see it or observe it, but not quite “reside” there yet….

The following passage reminds me Sukha.  I find it so inspiring that I want to leave you with it.  This is a passage written by Sue Bender from Everyday Sacred:

“On a trip to New York my husband and I went to see the renovated warehouse that had become the downtown Guggenheim Museum. 

The uncluttered long white exhibition space floated – a limitless expanse of calm and stillness.  I was not prepared for the beauty of the white walls.  And the walls were white paintings.  White walls, white paintings.  Placed at intervals were four or five Branxusi sculptures.  That was all.  My heart was pounding.  This was what a temple should feel like:  a “temple of the soul.”….

An “inner light” radiated from the paintings.

The space was silent --- with that respectful, muffled silence of a cloister.  The word Purity came to mind. 

And immense.

This was the “immensity within ourselves” I had read about and hadn’t understood.

“It doesn’t always have to be so hard, “ I heard myself say – the Judge nowhere present at the moment.”

Namaste~

Tammie