Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Be The Seer

In Sutra 1.3 (Yoga scriptures)Patanjali says that as a result of yoga or sustained, focused attention, the Self or Seer is established in its own form. By focusing the mind through yoga, you gain clearer perception and learn to distinguish the mind, body, and emotions from your true Self. You come to know that Self and act from that place of the Self, Thus reducing your experience of suffering.

It’s the Seer who helps you when you want to stretch deeper in a pose. The Seer does not look at the other students in the class, he stays within himself guiding the pose. Within the mind exists not only the the Seer but also the clamoring ego, the ego looks at the other students  in class and wants to do everything they are doing, so you get into reclining hero, not knowing if you have the ability, you lay all the way back. It doesn’t take long for your nervous system to literally kick you out of the pose and send you fleeing from your emotions. The Seer would have taken it a little at a time, paying attention to every little movement, taking it to the edge for a good 30 second stretch. When you are working from the ego you deny yourself the pleasure of a stretch at all.  The Seer can watch the ego mind-controlling, freaking out, calming down. If you can stop, take a breath, and step away from your panic, you can be the Seer.

You can use this same principle in everything in your life. The next time you get into an arguement, stop, take a deep breath, step away from your anger, and be the Seer. The next time you are in pain, whether it is emotional or physical, stop, take a deep breath, step away from your pain, and be the Seer. Whenever there is pain, there is fear, but if you can quiet the distractions of the mind and connect to that still, deep place within, that resource of wisdom and inner knowing, you have reached the real goal of yoga: to distinguish between the mind and the Seer, to connect with and act from that place of the Self, and, as a result, to suffer less.  

My goal is to help empower my students with tools and practices they can do anywhere, in any circumstances. As you go through this process, you begin to know the difference between your fluctuating and impermanent mind, body and emotions, and something else deep within you, the steady, quiet, knowing place of your true Self. From this place of connection, you can observe your emotions and reactions and recognize them as separate from your true nature, valid and painful though they may be.  

In this lifetime you can attain the highest rung of life, a state that is free from pain and misery. Don’t postpone this as you postpone the other joys of your life. Enlightenment, that state of freedom from pain and misery, is your birthright. It is not something acquired or new--it is already there.



Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist
Certified Yoga Instructor
and Ayurveda Consultant
These are my own thoughts. I sometimes take writings from others to support my own ideas.