From a talk by Richard Freeman, 2006
The Yoga Sūtra, which as you know was composed by Patañjali, is kind of a universal text that comes in four different chapters called Pādas. Pāda means foot and so you can look at the Yoga Sūtra as four-legged animal with good balance, good footing. The subtle and complex teachings are organized so that they loop back on themselves from different perspectives as you work your way through the text. In that way, if you make it through the entire book, you might be enlightened. But don’t count on that because, clinging to the idea of enlightenment pretty much guarantees you’ll never get there. Regardless, any one sūtra is enough to keep most of us occupied and happy for years.
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We get glimpses through yoga practice of how intricately everything is connected. Without a conscious directive of mind, an inhalation expands the chest making room for the heart to float as a reminder that our true nature is spaciousness of heart. Love. If we’re lucky, we breathe out and notice feet touching earth. We become grounded and awake, tuning in to layers of perception—mind, body, and emotion.
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Back in the early ’90s, Richard began giving Studio Talks at the Yoga Workshop on Sundays after the afternoon Mysore class. Often he would begin the talks by leading a chant and then as he explained the chant, the lecture would unfold from there. Chanting is a way not only to focus the mind on ideas presented in traditional texts and to offer devotion to powerful messages of the teachings, but it is also a remarkable way of dropping into the body. It’s a practice. When we chat the exhale is extended as in pranayama, but because we’re not calling it pranayama it can sometimes be a more easeful exhalation. Vibrations from the chant can be experienced throughout the body. This automatically calms the mind as we become absorbed in the sensations, sounds, or meaning of what we are chanting.
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Back in the early ’90s, Richard began giving Studio Talks at the Yoga Workshop on Sundays after the afternoon Mysore class. Often he would begin the talks by leading a chant and then as he explained the chant, the lecture would unfold from there. Chanting is a way not only to focus the mind on ideas presented in traditional texts and to offer devotion to powerful messages of the teachings, but it is also a remarkable way of dropping into the body. It’s a practice. When we chat the exhale is extended as in pranayama, but because we’re not calling it pranayama it can sometimes be a more easeful exhalation. Vibrations from the chant can be experienced throughout the body. This automatically calms the mind as we become absorbed in the sensations, sounds, or meaning of what we are chanting.
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