Cultivating the ground within

Hello dear yogis

I have heard some beautiful references to training the mind recently. Etty Hillestum took 'herself in hand' when she realised that her world was shrinking quickly as a Jew in Amsterdam under Nazi occupation. How could she prepare for what was to befall her and her race? How did she go to her death and take, singing, the others with her?*

Geeta says that religions are about 'raising ourselves up'. In yoga we start training ourselves in our physical being. "Lift the sternum, lift the inner energy up, quieten the brain, draw the eyes back, soften and broaden the diaphragm, so as not to collapse". When these things are done we change, we are taken within,

Geeta Iyengar (BKS Iyengar's daughter) was named after the Bhagavad Gita- and you felt that not only was she named for it but she lived the truth of it. Her teaching reached deep within, we felt the Gita through her as a person and her teaching. (Did you know that Gandhi from the age of twenty dedicated his life to living the Gita?)

She was very matter-of-fact, she did not seduce but spoke with the clarity of the truth that guided her. She did not want to please us, but expected us to grow, developing ourselves as humans,

I believe that all of us attracted to yoga want this. But we are muddled. What is needed, what do we need to do? We usually do not have a background that names us after religious texts nor a family life that blesses all small and large proceedings that go on in day-to-day life! Western spiritual traditions are just as rich as the East, but rot has risen that obfuscates the great beauty, power and depth, indeed the love. (I am a Catholic, it was where I was called to make my home) So we must start fresh with our own instincts and open our hearts to being taught.

I believe the first thing we must do is understand the magnificence of the yoga tradition that we practice within. It has the breadth and depth for guiding us in our lives, to train our minds, sensitising our beings to living a real life, not the one dictated by our culture.

'Who am I?', we are asked, 'What is happening in my mind? What are my values? What are these thoughts that shape my existence, mind, body and relationships? Its strong to think about and then really understand that each of us is becoming these thoughts. It is as if we live like fish in this water, oblivious to what we are unaware of. It is just what is.

When the thinking stops we can discover the silence that will show us the way. Geeta taught to this silence, taught us to be in it.

Most of us need a guide to move our inert and repetitive energies so as to experience and live more closely to who we are. I trust that if you listen well to what moves you, connects for you, there will be a way. Finding this is not always so hard, but it is learning how to stay near it and your self. This is the path of transformation. The Gita gives us understanding of our own nature.