Starving our Egos

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “starving our egos.”

Wherever you go, you will always bear yourself about with you, and so you will always find yourself.

-Thomas a Kempis

There is only one way to get a real vacation: get as far away from the ego as possible.

Worrying about your problems all the time makes for misery with a capital M. For getting away from misery, I recommend this "economy plan": do not feed your ego and your problems with your attention. They will slowly lose weight.

When we feed them, constantly begging them to have one more helping even when they are gorged, we acquire obese problems that hug us tightly and weight us down. So if you really want a vacation, do not brood on your troubles. Do not let yourself get jealous or say uncharitable things about anyone. In other words, do not give the ego breakfast in bed; do not pack it a bag lunch; do not fix its dinner; do not give it pocket money for buying snacks; do not even give it a glass of water. Slowly, surely, the ego will lose weight, until one fine day it will be nothing but a thin ghost of its former self.

You will be able to see right through it, to the divine presence that shines in each of us.

Words to Live By: Inspiration for Every Day – Eknath Easwaran

The homework is to use the concentration skills you are developing in your asana practice to starve your ego. Recall the extra effort you often use in class to stay in an asana a bit longer than you thought you could. Use this attention to help you to become aware of when you are worrying and try to “not feed” your worry.

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