Wherever you are, is the entry point.
Been teaching with the theme of gratitude lately. So it came as a surprise when I woke up tired and grumpy yesterday and my first thought was "Oh, I cannot teach about gratitude today. Let me change my theme." And as my morning progressed I realized that I have a tendency to want things to be right before I embark on something.
In other words:
I need to be at peace and in a good mood before I sit and meditate.
I need to be feeling strong before I come to yoga class.
I need to be inspired before I sit down and write.
I was reminded of something my writing teacher Jack Grapes said to us in class one day. He said that if you wait until you are inspired to write, then you will only write when you are inspired. And that can be every week or every other week or every few months! That instead of waiting for the inspiration to come we show up no matter what and write.
To quote the great poet Kabir, "Wherever you are, is the entry point." In fact no matter what you are feeling you can still drop into presence, even if you are in a bad mood. Even if you feel sad and uninspired. Or to put it in another way, as Carlos Pomeda once explained in the 6 month philosophy course I took earlier with him this year, "because we are a contracted form of the divine, the possibility of expansion is always there."
So I took my grumpy self to the studio along with my theme of gratitude. And of course as to be expected, a shift happened.
When you show up and let the teachings settle in your heart and share with the highest intention an alchemy take place in class. Not only for the students but for myself. I always leave in a better place. I shift as a teacher in yoga, not just as a student.
I encouraged students in classes this week to think of someone they are grateful for. And also to be grateful for whatever emotion is there. To be grateful for their bodies, their tightness, their challenges. The whole universe is contained inside of us. So whatever we are feeling is an entry point into deeper consciousness. I've been re-reading "The Splendor of Recognition" and find it so helpful to infuse my teachings with Tantric philosophy. It is after all the framework which underlies Anusara yoga.
And at the end of classes from today and yesterday as the students came out of savasana, I placed an blank card and envelope, as a gift for them to write a thank you note to someone who they are grateful for. It was a little offering at the end of class and when they opened their eyes saw the thank you note, they seemed touched.
I love my students.
On a funnier note, one of my students Ira came to support me yesterday night at Black Dog but he had left his yoga pants and was wearing jeans. He said before class that they were a bit uncomfortable so without thinking I went to the changing room, dropped my yoga pants and took his jeans! Everyone was laughing! But because of my, uh, voluptuous booty, the jeans were so tight that I had to go to the lost and found bin and find some other pants.
Good night!
Anusara Poster Project Pose: Parvrrta Parsvakonasana
Going through the poster one pose at a time!
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