From Michael Stone (2008): Nirodhah is the releasing of habitual patterns or fluctuations in mind-body, but also the energy that comes from letting go of those old patterns. Yoga asks us to stay with our feelings [and experiences] without seeking to avoid them and without indulging them...We stay patiently and with an attitude of acceptance with whatever is occurring in the present moment as it arises, unfolds and passes away...
Yoga is sometimes talked about as the "stilling" of the mind or stopping of the thoughts (nirodhah). I hope we are working towards not so much a "still" mind, because it is important for us to think, but the ability to experience what we are experiencing, think what we are thinking, and notice our patterns with awareness and without getting attached or over-identified. Learning to rest in witness awareness and relaxing into the heart are keys to using yoga to wake up to reality
From Michael Stone (2008): Nirodhah is the releasing of habitual patterns or fluctuations in mind-body, but also the energy that comes from letting go of those old patterns. Yoga asks us to stay with our feelings [and experiences] without seeking to avoid them and without indulging them...We stay patiently and with an attitude of acceptance with whatever is occurring in the present moment as it arises, unfolds and passes away... We've been exploring madhya - the natural pauses between - this week, let's turn our focus particularly to the pause at the end of the exhale. This evocative pause has been referenced many times in the yoga traditions. In the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra it is suggested that if we ride the exhale all the way to its natural conclusion, we might come to realizations both about the interconnection inherent in the makeup of the world, and about our own most authentic nature.
From meditation notes with my teacher Richard Miller (2004): The first breath is the exhalation - don't let the inhalation disturb what you have found there. Allow the exhale to dissolve all the way out into the space around you; resting in the pause at its end, wait for the breath to arise again. In this way, the in breath becomes an invitation to remember your unique manifestation of all that is. Often - in our practice and in life - we rush from thought to thought, experience to experience. Our time on the mat, even in a flow practice, offers us the opportunity for moments of stillness...pause...and space in which we might more deeply experience life and who we are...
These momentary pauses are madhya - the spaces between (two breaths, thoughts, actions...) For the next few weeks, let's offer ourselves the generosity of a tiny moment of pause between movements, poses, and breaths and notice what difference it makes both on and off the mat. These pauses are not "holding" but rather moments of suspension such as the moment a ball thrown upwards pauses just before it falls back down, or a child in a swing is momentarily still before the swing glides the other way. The great teacher Shankaracharya taught this practice of pause in relation to pranayama: Knowing everything - the whole material world - is a manifestation of Eternal, Timeless Awareness (Brahman) is rechaka (breathing out); knowing “I am a manifestation of Eternal, Timeless Awareness” (Atman) is puraka (breathing in). Steadiness in that knowing is kumbhaka (natural suspension of the breath).This is the truest form of pranayama; the rest only torture the nose. |
AuthorMisha Butot RCSW, ERYT 500 is a longtime clinical social worker and senior yoga teacher living in Victoria, BC Archives
April 2024
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