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