The Yoga “Journey”

by Dec 19, 2011

I often hear or read people talking about their “Yoga Journey”. Today it occurred to me that this concept of a “journey” has a fundamental flaw. In essence, Yoga is about dwelling in the moment. Forget how good or bad you were yesterday or whether you will get that new asana tomorrow. Be totally in the now.

The concept of a journey, or a progression, seems to me to be based in the ego. It comforts us to think that we are heading towards a goal and that we are getting better at what we are doing. But is this is missing the point? If you are on a journey it is inevitably away from the goal of Yoga. A journey implies action and action is karma. Yoga is the state of no karma.

Use the concept of a “journey” or a “river flowing to the sea” if it helps motivate you to put your mat down, but know in your heart of hearts that there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. You are abiding in the pot of gold at every moment. You just need to realise it. 

Xmas Hours

Recent posts

From the archives

Christmas 2017 — Keeping it Real

Christmas is almost here and we are enjoying weather that is more like February than December. I...

No Difficulty

One of the wonderful things about teaching yoga is how much you learn from your students. I have a...

“Mysore Style” Ashtanga Yoga — Adjustments and Consent

I first started teaching yoga in 1994 as an assistant to Peter Sanson in his “Mysore...

Post Pandemic Ashtanga — Sitting in Silence

It is starting to feel as if we are finally coming out the other side of the Covid pandemic and...

Practice, Practice, Practice….What Practice?

Thank you for the intelligent questions in relation to my Blog post “Time to Give up Asana, Old...

0 Comments