The courage to stay open

Reading from Tuesday, April 16, 2013 yoga class

Seems like I am being guided to talk more about staying open... in our bodies, minds, spirits.  My musing continues on "opening" this time with some thoughts from Cyndi Lee and the book "Yoga body, buddha mind."   Here goes:

"The third weapon of the warrior is the courage to stay open... But how do we stay open?  What does that mean--physically and mentally?  There is a popular notion of yoga as a stretching activity.  Sure, there are muscle-lengthening movements, but yoga is not really about stretching.  One of my favorite yoga teachers, Judith Lasater (mind too!!) said, 'The only thing that can create a stretch is the ego.'  She teaches the jar theory of hip opening, which involves moving the pelvis in the opposite direciton that the thigh bone moves.  The theory is that you do not open a jar by turning the lid and the jar in the same direction.  Jar theory and yoga theory agree that you have to go in two different directions for opening to occur. 

Yoga is the practice of creating the conditions for opening to occur.  One definition of yoga is the union of apparent opposites.  If we just relate to the mind, it's not yoga.  If we just relate to body, it's not yoga.  If we just relate to soft and flowing, or upbeat and happy, or love, love, love, we deny who we are.  It is part of our humanness to feel anger, boredom, joy, agitation, elations, dullness, disappointment, and surprise.  If we only allow ourselves to feel one way all the time we are not open, we are robots.  Totally shut down and programmed. 

As warriors we learn to face ourselves with a gentle heart that doesn't choose only some things to open to and others to reject.  We learn to relax and open up to more feelings than just those that are comfortable and familiar.  It doesn't mean we have to act out all our feelings, but we can watch them arise and pass... If we are one-dimensional, we cannot be open.  If our mind gets hard in an effort to hold up our body, we cannot be open.  It is only when we have the courage to stay open and awake to every moment, to flame the fire of burning enthusiasm just enough by applying precision and gentleness to our practice, that we can be warriors with open hearts and strong bodies."