This week we are going to delve into the following:

• Being in the Present Moment
• Pose-Virasana and Supta Virasana
• Pranayama-Nadi Shodhana
• Exercise-Thought Watching
• Guided Meditation on the present moment

The present moment is what you are experiencing now. Unless, of course, you are caught up in your thoughts and are currently paying no attention to what you are experiencing right now. Yoga is to bring your unwavering attention to your present experience.

“Atha yogānuśāsanam” “In the present moment is the teaching of yoga”

Patañjali -Yoga Sutra

There are many definitions of yoga.

Union with the timeless present, the sage Patanjali tells us in his Yoga Sutras, comes not from grasping harder at the sense impressions and ideas that flood into the mind but from the stilling of the modifications of the mind. That union is the source of the joy and aliveness we are looking for. The understanding in yoga is that behind the veil of our thinking mind and behind the unconscious lies an eternal wellspring of natural happiness, intelligence, and loving kindness. This wellspring is the ocean of pure Consciousness from which all our feelings, thoughts, and their meanings arise. That Consciousness is our true Self. That Consciousness is the joyful Witness.”

Swami Anantananda

Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of consciousness [and in the next sentence, says:] Yoga is meditation.

B.K.S. Iyengar

The purpose of this discussion is not to define yoga. It is to gain an understanding and experience of being in the present moment. It is to identify all of the strategies we use to keep us from being in the present moment.

• Labeling things
• Anything in the future
• Anything in the past

In other words, Thoughts. Our constant involvement with our own thoughts. Our creation of stories which give these thoughts a path to continue and develop. Our reactivity to these thoughts and the emotions and physical responses that results from our thoughts . Our inability to regard our thoughts as being, for the most part, the useless byproduct of a small part of our brain which is neither highly developed, accurate or useful.

We will experience Thought Watching, Nadi Shodhana Pranayama, Virasana, Supta Virasana and a guided meditation on the present moment. Please refer to the Week 1 Course (link) and make sure you explore all of the resources included in the course.

Please check out the course Week One, My Practice, My Life August 21-27 listed under “All Courses”..

Namaste-Mark