In just one week Jeff Carreira, a man who has taught meditation to thousands of people, will join me and a group of practitioners for a day-long Urban Retreat in Waterdown, Ontario. This is the last small event he is doing before his sold out 5 day retreat this summer where people from all over the world will traveling to spend time on a retreat like no other (I will be there too, leading daily yoga classes).
In truth, I feel very lucky that he agreed to visit Ontario to teach with me and I know that everyone who joins us on May 9 will feel the same.
This morning, Jeff sent me a gift that I want to share with all of you on why yoga and meditation need one another to be whole.
How the Union of Meditation and Yoga Opens the Heart of Practice
“Here is, in truth, the whole secret of Yoga, the science of the soul. The active turnings, the strident vibrations, of selfishness, lust and hate are to be stilled by meditation, by letting heart and mind dwell in spiritual life, by lifting up the heart to the strong, silent life above, which rests in the stillness of eternal love, and needs no harsh vibration to convince it of true being.”
― Patañjali, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Meditation and Yoga are different entry points to a single realization. They are not separate paths, they are aspects of one path – two doorways leading to the same inner chamber. They cannot be separated. The way I would describe the ultimate goal of both meditation and yoga is direct union with reality. It is the spontaneous and unquestioned connection with life as it is.
In the our post-modern market place these two aspects of the path to awakening are generally seen as separate when in fact they are not. When we meditate we are doing so inside the body. When we do yoga we use the mind. And when either practice is strong, our hearts are on fire with passion and possibility.
In our upcoming workshop, Erin Aquin and I will be bringing these two time-honored practices together in a beautiful dance of inner and outer release that take us to new levels of both practices. Over the course of just a few hours we will enter into states of deep meditative tranquility and approach our yoga practice with a mind as soft as water.
Our minds and our bodies are never separate. When the mind is soft and supple so to is the body. When there is fear and resistance in the mind the body will be rigid and tense. You can work with the mind to affect the body or you can work with the body to affect the mind, but when you work with both simultaneously you grow by leaps and bounds.
As you see yourself passing through one breakthrough point after another you will realize the true spiritual value of the union of meditation and yoga. You will begin to realize how effective practice will be and you will no longer be able to imagine who you will be after practicing consistently like this over time. This is when your heart bursts with a passion for profound possibility. As your passion grows you find that your heart, mind and body are all conspiring to produce the emergence of your highest potential.
“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”
― Patañjali, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
For those of you in the Hamilton/ Toronto area, join us on May 9th for The Practice of No Resistance: a day-long yoga and meditation retreat @ De La Sol Yoga Waterdown
Together we will find fluidity of the mind and body and let go of any resistance that may be holding you back on your mat, your cushion or in your life. Register here