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OPEN MIND OPEN BODY The Yoga of Connection |
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Week 40: Who Am I? I recently edited an interview with yoga and meditation teacher Richard Miller. The interviewer, yoga therapist Janice Gates, asked Richard to discuss the difference between yoga as a "secular" practice and yoga as a "spiritual" practice. His answer focused on whether or not the yoga practitioner was interested in the question "Who am I?", or whether the yoga practitioner was simply pursuing yoga another attempt to create a "happy life." In psychology, it is commonly believed that how someone answers the question "Who am I?" reveals a great about how that person not just him- or herself, but how the world works, and what it means to be a person. In yoga, the way someone thinks about this question reveals what he or she thinks about spirituality, and the purpose of a spiritual practice. I want to pose the question this week and save the analysis for next week. As I typically recommend, an asana practice and/or breath awareness meditation practice is an important centering practice for such a contemplation. There are essentially two levels of this contemplation: "Who am I?", with the "I" being the actor in my life, and "Who am I", with the "I" being the witness consciousness who is able to contemplate the actor "I". I encourage you to see which of these two reflections you are naturally drawn to; contemplating and understanding the way you create and respond to your own experiences, or contemplating the more mystical question of how one is able to have any kind of experience as a human being. Explore the class archives and audio files at http://www.openmindbody.com/2006emailclass/archive.htm Share your reflections at http://www.openmindbody.com/discuss For both sites, use the Login: yoga and the Password: connect
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