Reciprocity

In 1862 Darwin was sent a sample of the Madagascar Star Orchid which has a very long nectar tube. Upon seeing the orchid Darwin predicted that somewhere in the orchid's environment there must be an animal with an extremely long and thin tongue to be able to suck the nectar out of this orchid. People ridiculed him for making this prediction. A few years later a variety of the Hawk Moth was discovered. This moth has a tongue that is about 11.8 inches long. Apparently the moth had never been seen sucking the nectar out of the orchid because it feeds at night.

The orchid and the moth have both evolved to be able to support each other to survive in their environment. They reciprocally affected each other's evolution. In yoga philosophy it is said that everything in the universe reciprocally affects and is affected by everything else. It is an unescapable reality. Both subjects and objects are continually changed as they interact with each other. 

This happens at all levels and even within ourselves. In our yoga practice we are asked to observe the quality of our effort and our breath. Our body will respond and evolve according to the quality of the effort that we practice with. Our attitude can very easily create healing or pain in our practice. In turn the body affects us in the way we experience and navigate through the world. A healed body or a hurt body affects us because it creates a very different experience of our life and the world. We evolved differently.

We are going to explore a more subtle way to engage with our muscles this week so that we can continue to grow in our practice

Look forward to seeing you in class

Blessings

Jorge Nihāl

PS A disclaimer neither of the picture in this email are of the orchid or the moth I talked about. I could not find pictures of them that I could use but you can see them if you click on the link bellow.

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2021/september/moth-predicted-to-exist-by-darwin-and-wallace-becomes-a-new-species.html