The Artist Within

The experience of yoga is like being in the presence of a great artwork. Multi-faceted and multi-leveled, great art can be understood in as many different ways as there are people to experience it. Interpretations may differ even to a single individual as he or she travels through the different stages of life. No two people interpret an artwork in exactly the same way, so it is with yoga. Even teachers who have studied with the same master will ultimately teach with varied approaches. With that in mind, I am reminded of a quotation that our daughters' piano teacher had framed on the wall above her piano. It went something like this:  "A person who uses his hands and plays the piano is a pianist; a person who uses his hands and his brain to play the piano is a musician; and a person who uses his hands, his brain, and his heart to play the piano is an artist." So some days we may experience yoga in a very mechanical way, other days with intellectual understanding so clear as to glimpse the infinite, but it will be the times we experience the artist within that will be the most fulfilling, transforming, and transcending. So what do say we open our hearts and give a tip of the hat to the artist within?  

The Circle

I think it was fairly early on when I first began teaching yoga that I realized how much more comfortable I was when the class was formed in a circle. From a purely practical point of view, I found it easier to see everyone, which enabled me to adjust the sequence of poses to better adapt to the strengths and weaknesses I saw. As time passed I became aware of deeper meanings of the circle. A circle naturally lends itself to having a centerpiece. I most often use a candle as a centerpiece. From a practical perspective, the candle is a point of focus which enables students to detach from the group and go inward, and yet still feel part of the whole. On another level, the candle and flame represent a journey to the center, to the spirit. Forming a circle also lends itself to an earlier time and to a connection to our roots, a time when we gathered around a fire beneath a starry dome. Unlike the feeling of regiment with columns and rows, a circle promotes a feeling of community and of democracy (“democracy” in that all are equal, possessing different perspectives). Even our beliefs of justice have a circular nature, whether it be karma yoga ("what goes around comes around") or just reaping what we sow.

A circle is often used as a symbol of the passage of time--the face of a clock, the migration from season to season, or the cycles of life. On a grander scale the circle is a representation of celestial bodies: earth, sun, moon. And so it is with Hatha yoga: Ha = sun and Tha = moon. Hatha Yoga deals with optimum health and physical well-being, focused on achieving a sense of balance, whether balancing one set of muscles with another, or balancing the logical and artistic aspects of the mind, or bringing balance to the heart and emotions. With greater awareness of balance, so too comes awareness of the relationship between silence and sound, of darkness and light, of inhaling and exhaling, and the ebb and flow of life. The ultimate goal is to perfect the balance, to transcend the opposites, to go beyond the waves of inhalation and exhalation and to achieve the circular unbroken breath, where there is no beginning and there is no end, just stillness and peace

In celebration of the circle, I'd like to share three songs that I've enjoyed and hope you will too.

The Beatles: "Because"

Joni Mitchell: "The Circle Game"

Donovan: "Happiness Runs"