not absolute

A little over a week ago my teacher, Tias Little, was in town and teaching a weekend intensive at The Shala.  Of course I attended and, as always, left the weekend feeling rejuvenated, inspired, and a bit overwhelmed. There was so much information and much of it was in the subtle details.  What kind ofteacher am I going to be now?

In my past four years of studying with Tias it’s very clear that he is constantly refining his teaching.  In fact, things he wouldn’t have us do years ago, he’s now inviting us to experiment with.  This fact got me to thinking about something Robert Thurman talked about when translating a the text Spirit of Enlightenment  (by Nargajuna).  He said, “Anything that is relational is not absolute.”  Our asana practice is very much something we can relate to; we sometimes joke it’s the longest relationship we’ll ever have.  There are days the body will cooperate with what we ask of it and days when we feel like we hit a brick wall.  Ok, maybe a little exaggeration there, but maybe not.

Instructions are the same way, they are given to us at a certain time in our practice, and although they might serve us for years, it doesn’t mean that same instruction will serve us forever. It is our choice to try on an instruction, see how it fits, like a pair of shoes –if they are too tight, they restrict movement but if they are too wide we continue to slip out and trip. Once the shoe fits…(sorry couldn’t resist saying that) It is then our responsibility to pay close attention to how our practice grows and evolves, to see if that same instruction still fits, or have you worn out the shoe’s heel so much it reveals you collapse to the outer foot as you walk, which then makes the shoe no longer supportive to the frame of the body. We have to keep a close eye on our practice.

And although having to pay constant attention to our practice can seem challenging, doing this without the critical mind is way more supportive.  How will it help us if we curse our half moon pose (Ardha Chandrasana) every time we fall out of it?  I’ve been reading from the Jack Kornfield book, “After the Ecstasy the Laundry.”  He’s got a section in the book titled, Beyond Praise and Blame where he calls these self-criticisms and judgments “second had opinions about our experience.”  I love that!  It’s an opinion, it’s not absolute.

And speaking of absolute –  I mean things not being absolute
– keep your eye out on the schedule page and workshops page for updates on
classes, subs and some pretty amazing workshops!