Prana Journal: My hidden agenda

Saturday, August 28, 2004

My hidden agenda

I have ulterior motives for learning yoga and related disciplines. My puritanical streak will not let me just have pure fun or get exercise or improve my posture. I long along knew that I was not a good athlete so I never went on that kind of ego trip. There has to be a superior benefit, a higher calling in most of my activities. I am not just toning my muscles; I'm saving my soul (after all, I am a preacher's kid). That's why the mind-body-spirit connection appeals so much for me. By keeping those three elements balanced and grounded, then I am going to be make myself a more complete, healthy being.

All this intellectual snootiness can come at a price. I've never felt drawn to taking a vacation. In the past five years, my vacations and holidays have generally been opportunities for moonlighting. My wife has usually had to drag me kicking on holiday trips. My singlemindedness has kept me from relaxing and accepting the serendipitous encounter.

But yoga and meditation always come back at you to remind you that the only thing that matters is now, the current moment. Only in the present can we act as human beings in our fullnest dimension. By cutting back on our ambitions we will be rewarded.

This is not a momentous discovery -- I'm just trying to keep myself honest.

¶ 7:16 PM

Comments:

I think it's the difference between yoga and any other kind of exercising: it also affects your mind, what's going on in your head.

That's why you don't practice yoga like you practice a sport. You live yoga, and as a part of your life, you practice the physical aspect of it.

I know it's the one thing that makes it so good for me: a whole new way of seeing life and living it.

# posted by Julie : 8:43 PM

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: Name: Michael Smith; Location: Rockville, Maryland, United States

I thrive when exploring new realms of knowledge and experience.

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"The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye. One seeing, one knowing, one love."
— Meister Eckhart

"Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use."
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"You become a writer by writing. It is a yoga."
— R.K. Narayan, Indian writer

Men cannot see their reflection in running water, but only in still water.
— Chuang Tzu, philosopher (c. 4th century BCE)

Many people hear voices when no-one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing.
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