Padmasana

Padma is Lotus, Asana is seat. When we sit in Padmasana we allow all to arise and take on the role of the observer until we can eventually reside within the seat of our true Self, unmoved by what we experience and more able to be here now with clarity and purpose. 

The lotus flower grows out of muddy waters. It roots itself in mushy earth at the bottom of a pond or lake and spends its early phases of life journeying through the muddy, murky waters in search for the light where it eventually blossoms into its beautiful Nature. As it moves through the mud it keeps its integrity at the core, it doesn’t lose sight of where it’s going, and it doesn’t lose its essence, it preserves it deep within its bud. Once it arrives it just exists in its full beauty. It knows, it does not lose sight. 

This is very close to our own journey. We are born knowing, but as humans with sense organs constantly pulling us out of our center and attaching to things around us, we easily lose sight of our true Nature. We veer away from it, into darkness and then we hopefully, eventually come back towards the light of knowing. What steers us away from knowing?

Patanjali speaks to us of five afflictions or obstacles in the path, that obstruct the path and veer us away from the light. These are: Avidya - ignorance, Asmita - Ego, Raga - desire, Dvesa - aversion, Abhinivesha - fear of death/change/ things ending. 

In the words of Eddie Stern:

“Avidya is an incomplete knowing of who we are. Vidya is knowledge, and the syllable a indicates, in this case, the opposite. If vidya is knowing, then avidya is a not-knowing, misperception or mis-cognition. It is not total ignorance, for indeed we know many other things, but we do not know our true nature. Avidya is the ground for all of the other kleshas. In fact, it could be said that there is really only one klesha, avidya, because contained within avidya are the other four, which do not exist independently of avidya.”

Through Yoga we make our way through these and back towards the wisdom of the Self. We are less moved off balance, veered off the path by our ignorance, our ego-Self, our desires, our aversions, and fears and more able to see these as passing, and as separate from Self. 

We practice yoga to free ourselves of misperceptions of Self and reconnect to our true Nature, so we can live free of suffering, or at least able to see the suffering and not identify with it as the sole experience of Self. Yoga makes us resilient, more able to be in the discomfort of muddy waters, as we seek our way towards the light and blossom in the beautiful way our Self is meant to.

Join us in this exploration.