Yogis who came last night for our last class at Stamford House helped to create a lasting atmosphere of peace for all who are around and those who will come to occupy our beloved space for yoga at #02-16.
How?
Well the peace chant we did at the end of the class helped to send our wish for peace: "Om Shantih, shantih, shantih. . . " vibrating and passing into the walls, ceiling and floor, into the space, into all the beings seen and unseen. . . by the time the last "shantih" faded, we would have diminished our ego substantially ( I hope!) and only be sound and matter or only be mind and body, or experience of the phenomenon and the phenomenon. Ultimately, this is what everything is, what we each truly are: mind and body/matter. But we mostly do not experience this in our day to day living. We make our way through life with a distracted mind and cannot see things without obscurations and let our ego tell us what to do and feel. Thus, we need to sit still and bring our attention within. We practice yoga for this purpose; so that we can live in a complete way, experiencing our true nature, free from illusions, all the time. This is the reason chants work: they provide an immediate experience of our true nature, one that is inseparable from all of existence, this is why this type of practice is considered divine.
"Om Shantih, shantih, shantih. . . . " is usually at the end of many chants (sometimes also in the beginning). A nice one we often encounter in yoga that we can practise in the future is:
Sarve bhavantu sukhinah,
sarve santu niramayaha;
Sarve bhadrani pashyantu,
ma kaschid dukhhabhag bhavet.
Om Shantih, shantih, shantih. . .
May all be happy.
May all be healthy.
May all be enlightened and cultured.
May all attain peace and perfection.
May no one be afflicted with unhappiness or sorrow.
Om peace, peace, peace. . .
I think it is important to leave a place better off than when we first came into it; be it the world or a small room in Stamford Road. Do you know that even without chants to remind us and make our intentions explicit, by simply practising yoga and meditation in the studio at Stamford House, we have blessed it many, many times over? ;-) How so? When you practice yoga, you create an intention, a mental imprint in your mind, to be a better person, to be calm, to understand and become one with your true nature, which is already enlightened, wise and full of peace. This mental imprint, especially when it is reinforced by your weekly practice, snowballs into an unstoppable avalanche of goodwill which emanates out of your very being to infect all those around you. So much so that whatever space you walk into and occupy, you spread this goodwill and peace. Imagine that we have people like you walking into our little studio on a DAILY basis with these good vibes!! Can the space be anything other than a abode of peace? I have had seasoned meditators, and on an occasion, a Catholic priest, tell me when they first stepped into our studio that they feel the peace and good vibrations we have created.
Thus it was time for us to do the noble thing last night: to SHARE the merits of our practice with others. May these blessings now pass onto all others so that they also find their way to
yoga, that is, a reunion with their own divine nature. It is important to remember to dedicate our practice to the well-being of others because not all enjoy the blessing to experience
yoga. Also our union with the divine is not possible if we continue to be disunited from the welfare of our fellow man.
Om Shantih, shantih, shantih. . . .
