Monday, October 25, 2010

Discovering the Higher Self

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Discovering the Higher Self.”

The Self (Atman) that is free from evil, free from old age and death, free from sorrow, hunger and thirst and whose desires and intentions are real - that you should seek out and know. He who has discovered that Self and has come to know it, obtains all the worlds and desires.

- Chandogya-Upanishad

The homework is to define for yourself what it means to discover the "Self." What is your own personalized path towards Self-realization and how do your Yoga practices support you on your path?

Blessings,

paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga
The BKS Iyengar Yoga School of Southwest Washington
417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607
360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com
info@rushingwateryoga.com

Serving Yoga to Camas, Washougal, and Vancouver Washington since 2003

Monday, October 18, 2010

Asleep, Awake, Enlightened

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Asleep, Awake, Enlightened”.

Yoga classifies individuals as "sleeping," "awakened," or "enlightened." The "sleeping" woman is not aware that she is using only a fraction of her great potential power. She plods her way through life in a conditioned hypnotic state as a prisoner of her ordinary mind and her five senses. She may be "successful" in all of the ways of the world. She may appear to be a woman who is "happy" and "satisfied" in the ordinary sense of the word. And yet, if she has not been able to perceive what lies beyond her senses and has not been able to transcend her ordinary mind, the Yogi will say that this woman is "asleep."

The "awakened" woman realizes that she is not using her great reservoir of potential resources. She knows instinctively that there are powerful forces available to her if she can but learn how to utilize them. The "awakened" woman is intuitively involved in attempting to contact and use her dormant power.

The "enlightened" woman is the ultimate objective of Yoga practice. She has aroused her latent forces and controls them; she has transcended her ordinary mind and is able to integrate herself with the Universal Mind. As such, she is no longer affected by the fears, anxieties, and weaknesses of people still in bondage to these things.

- Richard Hittleman

The homework is to ask yourself if you have fully tapped into your "reservoir of potential resources." Discover for yourself how your Yoga practices can help you uncover and utilize inner resources beyond what you are currently using.

Blessings,

paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga
The BKS Iyengar Yoga School of Southwest Washington
417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607
360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com
info@rushingwateryoga.com

Serving Yoga to Camas, Washougal, and Vancouver Washington since 2003

Monday, October 11, 2010

Toward Inner Freedom

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Toward Inner Freedom.”

The whole trend of modern civilization is towards external freedom. Free expression of opinion, free association, freedom to establish one's personal relationships on one's own initiative, and freedom to pursue a vocation according to one's merits are essentially needed for making life fruitful and happy. But external freedom, in the last analysis, is egocentric, and should not miss its spiritual counterpart in internal freedom. Inner freedom consists in the conquest of lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride and sloth. A happy blending of reason and love can alone bring about this freedom and give meaning to all forms of external freedom. The substance of all religions consist in the achievement of this inner freedom.

- Swami Avyaktananda

The homework is to evaluate all of the aspects of your external freedoms. Without being judgmental look at where you are going beyond meeting your basic needs. Apply "a happy blending of reason and love" to your situation and see how you can create more meaning to your external freedoms and at the same time cultivate inner freedom.

Blessings,

paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga
The BKS Iyengar Yoga School of Southwest Washington
417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607
360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com
info@rushingwateryoga.com

Serving Yoga to Camas, Washougal, and Vancouver Washington since 2003

Iyengar Yoga at Rushing Water Yoga in Camas, WA

Monday, October 4, 2010

Freedom and Happiness

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Freedom and Happiness.”

So long as we have not glimpsed our true identity, the Self or Spirit, we are enslaved to the mostly unsuspected habit patterns of our own mind. Even though our democratic ideals include personal freedom, we seldom understand that freedom lies beyond the well-worn grooves of our brain. Thus we settle for the kind of freedom that allows us to merely assert our ego-bound will. Real freedom, however, is living out of the fullness and spontaneity of the Spirit, without guarantees but with unlimited courage and wisdom. Yoga makes our realization of such unparalleled freedom possible.

- Georg Feurstein

The homework is to use the awareness that you cultivate in your Yoga practices to notice and observe your mental habit patterns - on and off of the mat. What is your true identity and how do your own mental habits keep you from recognizing it?

Blessings,

paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga
The BKS Iyengar Yoga School of Southwest Washington
417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607
360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com
info@rushingwateryoga.com

Serving Yoga to Camas, Washougal, and Vancouver Washington since 2003