Philosophy
What I teach rests on a few lines from the Yoga Sutras, the Bhagavad Gita and the Katha Upanishad. Here they are, as they were written and as I read them.
अथ
atha (uh-tuh)
Now
अथ योगानुशासनम्
atha yogānuśāsanam
Now, the teaching of yoga.
Patanjali could have opened with a definition. He opened with a word that tells you when: now. Not after you have read enough, or become flexible enough, or found a quieter week. The practice begins on the day you start it, as you are.
मैत्री
maitri (my-tree)
Kinship
मैत्रीकरुणामुदितोपेक्षाणां सुखदुःखपुण्यापुण्यविषयाणां भावनातश्चित्तप्रसादनम्
maitrī karuṇā muditopekṣāṇāṁ sukha duḥkha puṇyāpuṇya viṣayāṇāṁ bhāvanātaś citta prasādanam
The mind grows clear by cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion toward those who suffer, gladness for the good, and calm toward what is wrong.
Maitri comes first in Patanjali’s list, and for me it reaches past people: to the ant on the temple step and the tree I talk to on a good day. A practice that leaves you kinder to what is alive around you is doing its work.
अभ्यास
abhyasa (uh-byah-suh)
Practice
स तु दीर्घकालनैरन्तर्यसत्कारासेवितो दृढभूमिः
sa tu dīrgha kāla nairantarya satkārāsevito dṛḍha bhūmiḥ
Practice becomes firm ground when it is kept up for a long time, without a break, and with care.
Three conditions: a long time, no gaps, and care. None of them is effort or intensity. This is why the group meets at the same hour every weekday, and why I would rather you came for twenty quiet minutes than skipped a day for want of a perfect hour.
समत्वम्
samatvam (suh-mut-vum)
Equanimity
योगस्थः कुरु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा धनञ्जय। सिद्ध्यसिद्ध्योः समो भूत्वा समत्वं योग उच्यते॥
yogasthaḥ kuru karmāṇi saṅgaṁ tyaktvā dhanañjaya, siddhy-asiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā samatvaṁ yoga ucyate
Steady in yoga, do your work, Arjuna, letting go of clinging, the same in success and failure. That evenness is called yoga.
Krishna says this to a man about to go into battle, not to someone sitting comfortably. Evenness is not the absence of difficult days. It is meeting the difficult day and the easy one in the same way.
Ratha, the chariot
आत्मानं रथिनं विद्धि शरीरं रथमेव तु। बुद्धिं तु सारथिं विद्धि मनः प्रग्रहमेव च॥
ātmānaṁ rathinaṁ viddhi śarīraṁ ratham eva tu, buddhiṁ tu sārathiṁ viddhi manaḥ pragraham eva ca
Know the self as the rider and the body as the chariot. Know the intellect as the charioteer, and the mind as the reins.
The Katha Upanishad goes on: the senses are the horses. I find this the most useful picture of what we do on the mat. Asana keeps the chariot sound. Pranayama steadies the reins. Meditation lets the charioteer see the road. None of it is about getting rid of the horses.
Ha and tha
In the yoga tradition, the word hatha is read as two syllables: ha, the sun, and tha, the moon, the warm and the cool in us brought into balance. It is the same meeting I make every time I join my hands in namaste, left and right, sun and moon.
Atha is the beginning. Artha is meaning. You begin with no reason, but the breath, and in time, the practice gives the day, and life, its meaning.