Embrace life’s pleasures. They have the potential to lead you to the highest of joys: inhabiting your true Self.
A woman named Rita called me recently in a mild panic. She’s a committed vegan who has followed a strict diet for the past five years. But for several months, she’d been craving—and eating— ice cream, pizza, and other foods she normally avoids. She worried that she was falling into self-indulgence.
My immediate intuition was that her system was seeking balance. If you’re healthy, craving a particular form of pleasure is often a sign that you’ve gone too far in abstaining from it. That’s true whether it’s sweets, love, or deep practice.
But Rita isn’t the only yogi I know who gets confused about the line between pleasure and self-indulgence. It’s understandable because yoga traditions are somewhat split on the subject of pleasure. Some, especially classical and Vedantic yoga, see a basic contradiction between yoga and enjoyment. This viewpoint is summed up in a famous verse in the Katha Upanishad, a text of Vedantic yoga: “Both the good and the pleasurable approach a person. The wise choose the good over the pleasurable.”
Generations of practitioners have taken this as a call to seek the bare concrete floor rather than the cushy rug—celibacy rather than coupling. (Perhaps it would be more to the point to interpret the statement as an encouragement to choose your early-morning practice over an extra hour of sleep!) Concrete floors aside, there’s truth in the text, especially if you substitute the phrase “comfort zone” for “pleasure.” Transformation does require you to be willing to move past what’s comfortable.
Denne historien er fra May - June 2019-utgaven av Yoga Journal.
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Denne historien er fra May - June 2019-utgaven av Yoga Journal.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Learning to Hear the Voice of Self-Care
How to discern what really matters.
Inclusive Yoga for All
A Down syndrome diagnosis set this family on a path to make yoga accessible to everyone.
For the Joy of Practice
Doing yoga without attachment to the outcome can bring unexpected gifts.
Be Kind to Your Spine
Your vertebral column is a series of complex, interconnecting parts that support your every movement. Here's how to keep it safe.
A Skeptic of Chakra Balancing
The experience helped me make peace with things that can't be explained.
Are We Having Fun Yet?
Bring play back into your practice with three styles of yoga that can get you out of your head and bring a smile to your face.
12 Ways to Use Blocks You've Probably Never Tried Before
The beauty of blocks? They not only meet you where you are in your practice, they take you beyond where you ever thought you could go.
THE SCIENCE OF AWE
THOSE MOMENTS IN LIFE THAT STOP YOU IN YOUR TRACKS IN ASTONISHMENT? RESEARCH SAYS EXPERIENCING MORE OF THEM CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE.
What Your Doshas Say About Your Dharma
Ayurveda can explain so much more than what's out of balance.
The Future of Yoga
Yoga has been evolving for thousands of yearsfrom a mind-and-body spiritual practice to a billion-dollar "lifestyle" practice. What's next? We asked futurists, teachers, and thinkers what to expect in the next decade and beyond.