Foundation

I hope you are all having a great Autumn. I have particularly been making the point to go for walks and be outside to enjoy the great weather we have been getting.

As I was preparing for the classes I will teach this week with the focus on the foundation of the yoga poses I came across a photograph of Mount Rainier. I used to live in Seattle and I was reminded of the  steadfast presence of  Mt Rainier which inspires both respect and awe in all who look upon it.

Steadfast means to be "resolutely and dutifully firm and unwavering". This is the feeling that a good foundation in our yoga practice can help us to experience. Steadfastness can be a quality that we not only admire in some things outside but ultimately admire within ourselves. A good foundation in the yoga poses that we practice is a firm, steady, and continuous connection of the parts of the body that touch the floor to the floor itself.

When talking about the Foundation of yoga my teacher quotes a verse from an ancient text, the Taittiriya Upanishad:

Brahman, the absolute reality, is bliss.
All these beings are indeed born from bliss;
being born they live by bliss,
and after death, they enter into bliss.

For many reasons, she said, we do not experience this. So even if this is the case, we should have or develop the greatest confidence in this bliss. Gradually we will learn the skill that helps us to understand and experience what this verse is talking about. This confidence that bliss not only exists but can be known and is attainable is the ultimate foundation of yoga. This confidence, she said, goes hand in hand with humility. This can start with learning to ground our feet on the floor in our yoga practice.

I look forward to seeing you in class.

Blessings

Jorge Nihāl