Last weekend I attended a day of Chase Bossart’s wonderful workshop on Chapter 4 of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. He made a useful analogy about creating the right conditions for practice and of how vairagya is the most important quality: a gardener cannot merely plant a seed and then demand that it flowers on Tuesday and produces 3 yellow petals and one pink one. A gardener can only ensure that the seeds are planted in the correct soil, in the correct location and given water and fertilizer when appropriate. The gardener then waits patiently for the plant to do what the plant is designed to do. In the same way, with our practice, we can merely create the best conditions over many years and with dedication. We cannot dictate when it will come to fruition or what form that will take. Just do your practice with faith and gratitude with no agenda or expectations and it will change you. Andrew Hillam has written a wonderful article on bhāvāna which is well worth a read:
sonima.com/yoga/the-goal-of-yoga
LYFE Yoga on Sunday, October 29 Please note that Gary Goldman will cover this Sunday’s class at LYFE.
Happy Halloween from KwaZulu, South Africa