2021 Yoga Community 03/01

‘Acceptance’ is one of my words for this year. I’m still turning it over in my mind, but initially I am reminding myself that the path towards the end of suffering is non-striving* – letting go of the drive to improve and to attain, to judge and to escape discomfort. If I am able to sit, and invite a gap in the constant busyness, and to rest in that with a kind of confidence, I can practice accepting things as they are (even though there are a few things right now I wish weren’t).

There is a lovely enormous muddle of thoughts to follow from here:

  • I know there are things which must change in the world, in respect of which I have a responsibility and a part to play; how can I pursue those with a mind of ‘acceptance’?
  • At the same time, can I sit with the idea that, in the very widest sense, my life is but a tiny blip in the passage of time, and essentially utterly meaningless? Is this relaxing or terrifying?
  • How (without striving) can I find that balance of discipline, focus, allowing and strength?
  • And with all of this, have I just circled back into my neurosis?!

In practice this morning, I was reminded of a poem called ‘The Guest House‘ by Rumi, which feels apt; “welcome and entertain them all” “be grateful for whatever comes”. I’ll sit with it.

* This is the Third Noble Truth. I am by no means a Buddhist scholar, but I can recommend Cutting Though Spiritual Materialism by Chӧgyam Trungpa which was set reading in both the meditation courses I did at The Shambhala Centre in Clapham and as part of my Advanced Yoga Teacher Training with Jason Crandell.


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