For some it may be very interesting to know that one of the most influential Yoga teachers was an Italian monk, St. Francis of Assisi.
ST. Francis performing the Yoga pose “The Tree of Yeshua”.
When we look at Yoga there is more than one Lesson in our practice. The actual physical part is the lesser teaching, or exterior, then we have the interior part of the lesson and on top is the spiritual lesson or understanding.
Truth be told there are many Yoga teachers amongst us that have never performed one pose but have a great knowledge which will help us uncover other benefits and deeper understandings. If we can start looking a little deeper into the interior or spiritual teachings, then not only will we benefit from the physical changes but we will also benefit from the interior teaching which helps the mind, this then helps us at looking at things differently which is the path to a spiritual understanding.
When we find interior or spiritual understandings, more and more things which hurt or upset us lose power over us. What we mean by this, is that we become less effected by what goes on around us, who said what, tough situations, stress, worry, financial woes, illness and even death. To put it very simply, we find peace in what ever life throws at us. To achieve Union we have to be at peace and with our Western lifestyle finding 2 minutes of peace is difficult, but what does it feel like to find peace, be it of the mind or spiritual?
When we practice Yoga here in the west we are only scraping the surface of the benefits, this is because the vibrations in the East are very different from here in the West. As much as this may be a problem to reap the benefits there is a great safety mechanism in this, this we will explain in another talk, something that seems to be glossed over or not taught at all !
So to give us all something to think about to and try to add to our daily exterior practice we will share a few words of the words of ST. Francis of Assisi, as we have discussed previous ( see blogs), hold these words in the heart, think of the swastika and opposites.
” Where there is injury, Pardon”,
Now we will practice some Yoga of the mind, think of all the people who have wronged us or one of them. Pardon them or simply let it go, take the external anger, any hate or upset and push it towards the heart use its real power but do not send out any negative thoughts, we use the heart, we take a physical problem (external) and use the heart (internal) to disarm it, use your mind to control emotions, we do not let the exterior control the interior. If a situation makes us angry or upset we can send out negative or very disruptive thoughts, we let the exterior control the interior. It is very difficult to do, so we start simple and do not worry if we get more wrong the right. Remember what we send out comes back double.
Not that easy is it !
Now what is harder, standing on your head or Yoga of the mind, what is more important, mastering the physical or exterior or the internal, solely focusing on the external can cause us to fixate on the external and the external world and be subject to those material forces but when we focus on the interior the exterior world doesn’t bother us, and what ever trouble pain or hurt we find ourselves in, its not that bad and we cope a lot better.
Want to know more then come and speak with us on our next Healing Day