Just thinking about Yoga and Time

The universe is timeless, eternal. On earth, this timelessness is expressed as the illusion of linear time, expressed in single moment awareness. Breaking reality down into moments gives us the illusion that things are separate. People are born at different moments, so we sometimes have the illusion that they are separate from us rather than facets on the same gem. This is one way that time hinders us. But we also use this separation as a blessing. It is what creates manifestations of life (or as Erich Schiffman would say, eruptions of infinity), plants, people, weather. It is what helps us understand process as we interact with the manifestations of life through art, cooking, relationships, work. The separation is a tool for us to understand unity better. The physical nature of earth is dualistic. So all earthly conditions have an equally true opposite.

Yoga means union. Suffering is caused by the illusion of separation. The technology of yoga practices (for the sake of this article I just mean the 8 limbed practice which includes: restraints, observances, postures, breathwork, withdrawing senses, concentration, meditation and absorption), are designed to dissolve the separation that linear time creates. In turn a deeper connection to the progression of every moment is felt and more synchronicity is experienced. The natural flow is there waiting for us to experience it, but we hold ourselves back by tricking ourselves into thinking we are separate. "Unpleasant" things get resisted rather than revered as teachers. The 'teaching' patterns occur over and over again until we can learn them. But resistance is the cause of suffering and therefore separating. Yoga brings attention to what these hot spots are and my hope is that my blog equips you to do the letting go you are ready for as it comes up through your yoga practice.

One thing yoga does is to help us be in the moment more, through the illusion of the koshas (body, breath, emotions/thoughts, higher self, bliss). In other words, to really feel what's happening in each moment, through the experience of those layers, more can be experienced. Through these ways of experiencing reality, we can come into contact with what is ready to be let go, whether it is a memory being held in the body or a belief that we have held about ourselves. These old practices are designed to help us see our inner experience more closely and when we can see it we are more likely to understand what we've been unconsciously carrying around this whole time. We can begin to see just how intricately the 'outer' experience is really just a reflection of what is happening inside. There are lots of wonderful authors explaining to us the power of our thoughts and how we create our reality with our thoughts and this is true. But what about the unconscious patterns we hold? Those create our reality too. And yoga can bring light to those unconscious places. Being with the fullness of self is empowering.

By increasing awareness of the inner experience, attention expands and clarifies. Each moment has more spaciousness as a fuller attention is cultivated. Time expands. When I feel small, time drags. When I feel empowered, time feels timeless. Have you ever been at job that didn't work for you and it just felt like time was moving in slow motion? Have you ever been 'in the flow' at work? Did time fly?