10 things my yoga teachers taught me
1. "everything is just as it should be"
~jamie shane
2. "you can do anything for one more breath"
~jamie shane
3. the gaytri mantra
~renee
4. mulabandha
~dama de y laurie lyons
5. "first you live your karma, and then
you live your destiny"
~gurmukh kaur khalsa
6. to stand on my head...the power of belief
~david san martin
7. "we are all in this together"
~carla olla
8 "life is short. have some fun."
~carla olla
9. "a true guru comes into child's pose much
more often than the teacher ever offers"
~marni task
10."your guru/(teacher) should be no more
than, and no less than, a friend."
~alanna kaivalya
“there can be no advancement without humility” ~sri k. pattabhi jois~
how do we truly disconnect from ego? or is it acceptable to have an ‘ego’ but balance it with humility? i was reading an ashtanga teaching the other day by pattabhi jois, and it focused on this balance between ego and humility. a concept i had not considered before. a concept to increase humility. mr. jois is known for bringing the vigorous physical practice of ashtanga, often referred to as the ‘original power yoga’, to the west, but as i read mr. jois’s words, i realized the true ‘power yoga’... is humility. for just one moment it sounded like an ‘oxymoron’ and that humility couldn’t possibly be powerful, but then i had the thought of my communion bible with all the pictures in it, and in my mind’s eye i saw the drawing of jesus, giving his ‘sermon on the mount’, and he is saying, ‘and the meek shall inherit the earth’, and i see this is the same teaching as the concept of the power of humility. that mr. jois is teaching the same spiritual lesson that jesus taught. and that with the growth of humility, the ego would become diminished, and so in this way the results would reflect a destruction of the ego, at least to some extent, (a prime consideration in many meditation practices~). mr. jois says there is danger if the ego grows without the growth of humility to match it. danger. jesus taught that humility leads to meekness, and that meekness is such an extraordinary quality, that, ‘the meek shall inherit the earth’. buddha taught that humility and meekness are 'spiritual powers'. meekness~power under control... a quality that brings out the true Self, no longer reflecting the color of moods and emotions- these things that have the power to control one’s thoughts, words and actions... and karma... these things begin to fall away in the presence of humility and meekness... the ability to stop the creation of more karma? yes, please. i’ll take a dose of that~ more humility please~
