Movement and Observer

Have you noticed that we are always on the move? Physical movement, mental movement... as if we can't stay still and steady. And even when we happen to exist without 'action' it is as if something is eating us. As if our self alone is not enough for us, seems too 'small', 'uninteresting', 'unpleasant', 'uncomfortable' to hold our interest. And so, we begin to embellish and enrich the moment with stimuli by resorting to the thousands of aids that our age so generously offers (screens, relationships, substances....).

Instead of our exercise on the mattress helping us to overcome this tendency to speed, it often seems to adopt it. We find it difficult to endure even the simplest pose for more than a few breaths. We are comfortable with intense and fast, reflecting our inner state, our current fussy house. And even when we settle into a posture instead of experiencing the situation we often make (with body and mind) unconscious small mechanical movements. What (or who) are we trying to escape from, I wonder?

Try really staying steady in a posture and notice the feeling in it... physical, psychological, mental. What is happening with the muscles, with the breathing, with the temperatures, with the thoughts, with the heartbeat? This observation is the action. And it doesn't need anything complex... In fact, it's not really about the outer posture but about the deeper inner essence that accompanies it. Yoga, in its traditional application, is not so much concerned with the shape but with the awareness of the self that can arise from it.

It is this search for identification with the observer rather than the action that teaches us to exist peacefully with ourselves as we are, without adornment, without unnecessary additions, without demands.... It inspires us to value simplicity and not to feel the need to adorn the moment with props to charm us into giving it our presence. Practice in its most essential form is the ultimate reminder that spirituality is more about stripping down than accumulating. If I don't take off the clothes that cover me, how can I know who I am? If I don't turn off the noise, how can I listen?

To learn, add a little each day.
To become wise, subtract a little each day.
Lao Tzu