Tall Grasses
The spring rains brought the wild grasses out.
We are new to gardening in our household and each year we get new surprises in our yard, but this year has been particularly interesting because there was a lot of rain and no time to mow the lawn between rains, so the grass got wild. We got to see all that lives in the seemingly grass field of our lawn: flowers, weeds, and tall grasses.
One night as we sat on the porch looking at our yard my partner said well this is kind of nice, we get to see the true nature of our lawn, what everything is before we mow it down. I thought about this statement for a whole week and how yoga so deeply relates to this. The mind is like a field of grass, when it is not attended to it’s wild and unpredictable and creates much suffering. When we practice yoga we begin to see the field of our minds with clarity, at first it may in fact be like a wild field of tall grasses and weeds, we watch it exist as it, we see all that lives in it and we try not to judge it. This is becoming aware. Then eventually we start to notice when we get caught up with the content, and we get lost in it, unaware of this present moment and the bigger picture of existing in this moment. This is becoming the observer of our minds. Learning to move in coordination with breath we are able to see, become aware and eventually guide the mind to be here and now.
Just like with the grass, there is its natural state which may be chaotic but in harmony, or chaotic and in disharmony. As tenders of the garden we set order to it, we tend to it so that it can thrive. So with the mind, if chaotic, but in harmony, we cultivate the harmony until the chaos subsides, if chaotic and in disharmony, we, over time, realign to bring order and structure and harmony.
In ashtanga yoga this is seen best, as there is no music, no distraction other than what exists in the mind and in the body. As we daily sit with the content of the mind and the experience of being in the body we begin to see change happening.
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We are hosting our next 200 hour Yoga Alliance Certified Teacher Training this fall/spring. See all the details here.