Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodhah

I'm on day two at Amrit Yoga Institute.  The days start at 7 am with the Amrit Yoga practice.  It's 26 postures designed to elevate the pranic body and still as Guru Dev says, the "modifications" of the mind.  Press points, or establishing yourself in your feet, and then drawing the spine up become your focus.  Your breath becomes your focus.  As you hold the poses for what some would say are excruciatingly long periods of time, the discomfort and sensations in your body become the focus.  All of these serve to bring you back to that sweet space in your mind where you are that, this is that and that is all there is. 

In other words, it's a tangible experience of oneness.  It's the settling and quieting of the mind that allows you to have "no mind" and therefore an experience of who you really are which is not your mind.

 

During practice today I found myself not wanting to move.  Holding a warrior for 1, 3, 5 or even 10 minutes would have been nothing.  The practice is so beautiful.  As you feel the obstacles and blocks in your body you send prana to that spot.  You softly move and adjust until the spot releases.  It's gorgeous.

Relaxed into my body and stilled in my mind, the mind which can be your best friend and introduce your to God or your worst enemy and keep you away forever, went still.  Gone.  Nothing.  No time.  No space.  No....  Spontaneous  mantra came to me:

Yoga Chitta Vriti Norodhah Yoga Chitta Vriti Norodhah Yoga Chitta Vriti Norodhah

Now this would make sense to me if this mantra had been present before practice or if I was focused on this, but I haven't thought this mantra for a very long time.  Honestly, I didn't even know I knew that by heart.  My Sanskrit is poor.  

Yoga Chitta Vriti Norodhah Yoga Chitta Vriti Norodhah Yoga Chitta Vriti Norodhah

Translated.....

"Yoga is the individual discipline that leads to the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind."

Wow.....

Om Shanti,  Pamela

Learn more about Amrit Yoga here>>>

What is yoga?

I'm in Salt Springs, Florida hanging out at the Amrit Yoga Institute for a few days.  It's a chance to observe their teacher training program and learn about Amrit Yoga from Desei Amrit, affectionately know as Guru Dev.  He is truly one of the last living Yogi Masters and it is a true blessing and honor to sit in his presence. 

Today he talked about Yoga and what it really is.  We tend to think of Yoga as this physical practice of becoming strong, lean and flexible.  Certainly, yoga postures are part of yoga, but yoga is much more than that.  As Guru Dev said, yoga brings spirituality into practicality.  It is a system or a technology that allows a person to feel harmony, inner balance, unification and most importantly integration.  It is a way in which you learn to disconnect from what you are not, and connect to what you are, a soul.  

What are you not?  That's a good question.  You are not your name, your occupation, your house, your body or your mind.  You are that quiet place in you that can observe all of those things.  For a moment, just sit with your eyes closed and notice your thoughts.  Just watch them.  Thoughts are simply fluctuations of the brain.  If you can watch them, who is watching?  That's the real you.  The silent witness that observes and does sometime participate in this drama.  This part of you is a constant.  It doesn't change.  It is eternal.  It is Soul.

The reason that you suffer in life is because you have become detached from Soul.  You think that you are your name, your occupation, your house, your body and your mind.  Anytime anything doesn't go right with one of those, you become unhappy and suffer.  You suffer because you are unable to sit with the fluctuation.  For example, on a typical day you make dinner.  This may be something that you enjoy doing.  On some days, however, you are tired or in a hurry.  Making dinner gives you no pleasure and you become resentful that you are the only one who cooks.  You wish your partner or children would help.  This makes you angry and bitter. (It also makes the food angry and bitter so be careful!)  The fact that you make dinner didn't change.  It's just your attitude around making dinner that changed and made you unhappy. 

The physical practice of yoga on your mat is a safe place for you to begin to notice the fluctuations in your mind and cultivate the ability to take that practice off of your mat.  In Hatha Yoga, you get into a pose, you hold it.  You hold it for a long time.  It's uncomfortable.  Your mind will start to tell you a story.  Mostly it's telling you that you can't do something, that you are out of shape, or that the person next to you looks better than you.  You pause, you realize that that is just a story.  You feel the sensations of the pose and you realize that is just a story too.  Your mind goes quiet and you connect.  Back to our dinner example, you would realize that you are just having uncomfortable thoughts that are changing your experience of making dinner which usually makes you happy and doesn't have to make you unhappy.

Do you have to do yoga to have this experience?  No.  Lots of people run, clean or paint and end up in the exact same place.  Yoga is simply a directed approach to making spirituality accessible in your daily life.

Om Shanti,  Pamela