Habit of silence
Having an addiction sounds like a bad thing. But nothing is ever all good or bad. Fortunately, yoga practice is addictive, for example. So is meditation.
Ever wondered how it is possible that I teach and practise yoga every day? As you practise yoga, you will begin to find this impossibility falling away like many other impossibilities. . . till you find, as a recently ad campaign by a sporting goods company says, "Impossible is nothing". This is the real power of yoga practice: you understand the habit-forming process and make it work for you.
There are obstacles to overcome on the road to teaching yoga almost everyday. An unobvious problem lies in the way the class is conducted. When you guys are lying down in Shavasana ("Corpse Pose") I am still teaching away. I begin to realise how very important the final relaxation part is to a good yoga practice when I find it hard to re-energise myself the next morning.
So I need to do my own deep relaxation after all the classes are done for the day. How's that possible, since sometimes the last class ends at 10pm and I clear out of the studio at 11pm, have dinner at 12am? This is where habit comes in to save the day.
I started sitting in meditation before I sleep. Some days it is very hard to do this because I just want to crash unconscious into bed -- it is so much easier, so much less work. Still I know and I experienced that the quality of rest the mind gets in meditation is much better than that it can get from sleep. Some days, it is very hard to watch the breath, you think you can't hear it. You begin to follow your wandering thoughts, leading to other thoughts and other thoughts. Some days, you sit there for the most part wondering if it is enough sitting already and if you should come out of it and sink into sleep. This went on for a while. Then there is some breaking point -- and when you begin to sit, you fall, no, trip, right into a lovely silence, you don't even need to watch the breath anymore - - - - - - - - - - - - - It is almost unbearable come out of this beautiful state each time!
Then I realised. You cannot try to meditate. You can only allow silence to become a habit. That IS meditation. There is no big mystery about it. There is nothing to learn. Perhaps you only need to learn a little patience and persistence in the onset. Our habitual nature does the rest. The silence is already within us, awaiting our return, giving us rest and peace.
Ever wondered how it is possible that I teach and practise yoga every day? As you practise yoga, you will begin to find this impossibility falling away like many other impossibilities. . . till you find, as a recently ad campaign by a sporting goods company says, "Impossible is nothing". This is the real power of yoga practice: you understand the habit-forming process and make it work for you.
There are obstacles to overcome on the road to teaching yoga almost everyday. An unobvious problem lies in the way the class is conducted. When you guys are lying down in Shavasana ("Corpse Pose") I am still teaching away. I begin to realise how very important the final relaxation part is to a good yoga practice when I find it hard to re-energise myself the next morning.
So I need to do my own deep relaxation after all the classes are done for the day. How's that possible, since sometimes the last class ends at 10pm and I clear out of the studio at 11pm, have dinner at 12am? This is where habit comes in to save the day.
I started sitting in meditation before I sleep. Some days it is very hard to do this because I just want to crash unconscious into bed -- it is so much easier, so much less work. Still I know and I experienced that the quality of rest the mind gets in meditation is much better than that it can get from sleep. Some days, it is very hard to watch the breath, you think you can't hear it. You begin to follow your wandering thoughts, leading to other thoughts and other thoughts. Some days, you sit there for the most part wondering if it is enough sitting already and if you should come out of it and sink into sleep. This went on for a while. Then there is some breaking point -- and when you begin to sit, you fall, no, trip, right into a lovely silence, you don't even need to watch the breath anymore - - - - - - - - - - - - - It is almost unbearable come out of this beautiful state each time!
Then I realised. You cannot try to meditate. You can only allow silence to become a habit. That IS meditation. There is no big mystery about it. There is nothing to learn. Perhaps you only need to learn a little patience and persistence in the onset. Our habitual nature does the rest. The silence is already within us, awaiting our return, giving us rest and peace.
