'Why We Practice Yoga' with Aldona from Agama

APPROACHING YOGA WITH SPIRIT

Often, excuses and distractions keep us from starting with something. I have a daily practice, but sometimes in between having meaningful conversations with friends and family, cleaning my house, working, feeding my pets, cooking, eating, swimming, writing, spending private time with my beloved, and reading my favourite books, it’s suddenly 10PM and there was no time for Yoga on the mat. However, this does not mean there was no Yoga practice that day.

The more I do Yoga, the more everything becomes Yoga: practicing mindfulness, contentment, truthfulness and engaging in kind activities of selfless action (Karma Yoga) are all ways of practising Yoga throughout the day, keeping in mind that asanas (the physical postures we do on our mats) are just one of the eight limbs of Yoga. Waiting for your order at a busy restaurant can turn into a blissful moment of meditation (rather than a frustrating moment of impatience). When I practice Yoga on the mat though, I do it when it comes out of a place of spiritual aspiration, not out of a place of ‘having to do it because it’s good for me’. There is no spirit in doing Yoga just because it’s ‘Yoga time’. I have a little ongoing dilemma within myself: on the one hand, I think that if I’m going to do Yoga technically without any motivation or spirit, better not to do it at all; while on the other hand, I also think in line with the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita in which is said that action is always better than inaction, meaning that sometimes-if not especially- when we don’t feel like doing Yoga it’s actually when we need it the most. Anyway, when I practice Yoga, I prefer to practice with spirit. Then, I feel as if my spirit becomes all the more alive and in tune with a much greater Spirit who is much higher than myself and with whom I can tune into.

About two months ago, Swami Vivekananda Saraswati gifted all those who were interested a week-long retreat at Agama Yoga called Awakening of the Spirit Retreat. This special, free meditation retreat took place in honor of Swami’s birthday, and its goal was to cultivate enthusiasm and motivation for those who want to pursue (or continue pursuing) a spiritual path. Walking a spiritual path is not always easy; it is not a walk in the park. Sometimes things are going great, and then at other times there is no enthusiasm and it feels as if you are all the way back at the beginning, starting from scratch, or even worse: totally lost.

Spending five days with Swami was perfect for reawakening my spiritual aspiration. The program included daily satsangs, a bit of Hatha Yoga practice, various meditations from the Agama Yoga program, and a heart-touching closing of the retreat with a powerful guru puja. The lectures were amazing, as they went deeper into the chakra system, allowing participants to personally relate to what their main chakra is, and how to use this as a source of inspiration to awaken the spirit and increase their motivation for practice. Namely, depending on someone’s typology- and thereby considering their dominant chakra- people tend to be inspired, or moved by something appearing external accordingly. We went deeper into all the chakras, from Muladhara (the root chakra) to Sahasrara (the crown, more of a cosmic gateway than a chakra), speaking about their respective key elements- especially on the mental and emotional levels, and then sharing sources of inspiration related to that chakra through examples of quotes from great Yogis, and also many scenes from movies.

I would like to share a little bit more about the sources of inspiration dealt with in the retreat, as these relate to many of the reasons why we, or at least I, practice Yoga. Let’s begin with the term ‘spirit’, which comes from Latin spiritus- breath, courage, vigor and is distinguished from anima- expressions of your inner self. It is similar to the Greek neuma (air, related to the movement of breath) and psyche (soul and emotions). The word spirit is used metaphysically and metaphorically, it is incorporeal (in your body) and at the same time ubiquitous (omnipresent). Spirit is present in everything that grows, it is in everything that lives. In religion, the breath is linked to life, intelligence, consciousness, and everything which is sentient (having the ability to feel). There is also the concept of Zeitgeist: the spirit of a particular time and age (eg. Victorian times). And then there is livelihood, vivacity, quickness of mind and body--think of a piano player playing with spirit.

After meditating on the concept of spirit and all the things it relates to, it became obvious that if we are alive and breathing, we should live with spirit. By this I mean we should do everything we do with spirit! And practicing Yoga helps to awaken this spirit. In turn, we can practice Yoga with spirit for even stronger ‘results’ (if I may call it that for now). What came up for me during the meditation was an intense realisation regarding the miracle of being alive. What is this force that draws my breath in, and out? The intensity of my spirit that wants to give its radiance to this world showed itself to me, and yet its existence still remains a mystery to me. In a way, that’s part of the beauty.

During the daily meditations, we mainly practiced the Ham Sa (‘I am That’) and AUM methods. Shiva Hall, where the retreat took place at the Agama Yoga campus here in Srithanu, was packed with 80-100 people. It was really inspiring to be in a hall filled with so many people who had a yearning to walk the spiritual path, and find bhavana through various forms of sources of inspiration. The beauty of being surrounded by aspiring yogis and the sangha –spiritual community- was overwhelmingly powerful. Towards the conclusion of the retreat, participants who wished to do so shared their personal sources of inspiration with everyone else: pieces of music, dance performances, movie scenes, poetry, and sharing life experiences.

The retreat finally ended with a guru puja and bhajans, in which participants of the retreat offered their gifts, venerations and prostrations to Swami. The energy was indescribable. I was at a certain point breaking out in tears of love, gratitude and devotion; experiencing what some call the tremor of the heart. I was not the only one. The event was one I hope to remember throughout the rest of this life, and many lifetimes (should they come).

SIMPLE RITUALS TO CREATE SACRED SPACE
There are several things you can do to set the mood for your Yoga practice, and to make the space sacred. Examples are: acknowledging the four directions (North, South, East, and West) with an incense stick, lighting a candle, performing prostrations, surrounding yourself in a circle (so that the space within the circle is sacred for your practice), using mudras-gestures - (we learnt the mandala mudra- the mudra of the universe, and practising the  kapalarandra cleansing technique to purify ajna chakra (the third eye). These rituals give your reptilian brain a message that you are in a sacred space. The reptilian brain reacts to rituals. This sets the tone for your Yoga practice/meditation.

YOGA TO ACCOMPLISH….WHATEVER YOU WANT!

We can practice Yoga to awaken the spirit. We can practice Yoga for health. We can practice Yoga to achieve goals. We can basically set a purpose for any practice we do, not underestimating the power of intention. I’m for instance currently working on improving my time management, setting priorities, and open communication. And so in my Yoga practice, I try to integrate these ideas (eg. open communication also means being honest with myself, not forcing myself through painful boundaries, and allowing my body to communicate openly and harmoniously in my life. I can then take this work off the mat, where more work continues). Let us always remember that Yoga is Sanskrit for union, and so ultimately, when we practice Yoga we are doing so to achieve union: both within the microcosm of our being (mind, body, soul) as well as with the macrocosm of the Universe. I practice Yoga to become one with the Divine Consciousness.

To become more conscious of what is happening to us when we practice Yoga, at Agama Yoga we practice mostly with our eyes closed in order to interiorize our awareness, and each asana and meditation performance is followed by an awareness phase in which we recall the memory of the experiences we had during the respective practice, also bringing attention to the current state of mind, and the chakra activation. This practice of awareness has helped me live more mindfully, fully present in the here and now. In the bigger picture, becoming more aware of what each technique does, you can start to discern which techniques you want to start using more to attain specific goals. For example, if you want to invite more love into your life, you would choose to practice more asanas and meditations that focus energy on anahata chakra (the heart chakra). This is one of many approaches. And as there are different typologies and preferences out there among people, there are several lineages and traditions of Yoga, among others: Raja, Hatha, Kundalini, and Nidra. A variety of styles such as Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Anusara, Iyengar, Bikram, Jivamukti, Virayoga, Ananda, Integral, Kripalu, Power, Prana, Sivananda, and more have branched off from Hatha Yoga throughout the years with some adaptations and different approaches to the practice. There is Restorative Yoga, spiritually-oriented Yoga (adding meditation to asana practice and emphasizing Yoga philosophy, chanting, mantras), Flow Yoga (typically more physically dynamic), Alignment-oriented Yoga (focus on precise bodily posture, eg. Iyengar), Fitness Yoga (focus on the physical dimension), Hot Yoga classes (heated rooms, eg. Bikram). The list goes on, and is ever-expanding as new styles of Yoga continue to emerge today, mostly branching off from Hatha Yoga and adding modern elements or mixing styles. All in all, there is a type of Yoga for everybody.

THAILAND YOGA FESTIVAL
So what better way to find out what your type is than by trying them out and finding out for yourself through your own experience? Last weekend there was a great opportunity here in Thailand at the Thailand Yoga, Art, and Dance Festival 2016 (14-16 Oct) presented by the Yoga Journal, to explore different types of Yoga. Agama Yoga was the event’s exclusive Thailand Island Yoga partner. The festival featured the world’s top Yoga styles and instructors. I am humbled to have also been offered an opportunity to participate, and taught the Agama Dynamic Sadhana on Saturday (15 Oct) 08:30 - 10:30 and on Sunday (16 Oct) 11:00-12:30! I’m so grateful to have been a part of it.

Love & Light,
Aldona