Brahmacharya

Reading from Tuesday and Wednesday, February 3 and 4, 2015 yoga classes

From "Guiding Yoga's Light"

Imagine reaching for your third candy bar and hearing voice in your head say, "Everything in moderation."  That's the foundation of brahmacharya, moderation, the fourth yama.

Brahmacharya is commonly translated as celibacy, but this is not the only meaning. For everyday living, brahmacharya means to stop wasting one's energies.  Patanjali's Yoga Sutras say, "When one is established in brahmacharya, or nonindulgence, one is endowed with inexhaustible energy."

Think about the things you indulge in--food, drink, caffeine, sleep, work, play, exercise, feeling depressed--the list goes on and on.  As the saying goes, "Too much of anything is no longer good."

As yogis, we practice moment-to-moment awareness and inner clarity in order to expand on the bigger awareness of life.

Brahmacharya on the yoga mat often teaches a new approach to our poses.  We begin to explore the hows and whys of poses we indulge in and of those we resist.  Many of us spend most of our practice doing poses that come easy, and we resist the ones that are challenging.

Listen and trust the voice within that always seeks balance, harmony, and peace in every movement and moment.

Brahmacharya reminds us that we aren't embodied in this form to feel dead but to feel alive! Brahmacharya invites us to be willing to walk around "turned on" to the wonders of life itself.

When our inner and outer lives are balanced, the mind becomes calm, our natural serenity flows, and we feel content with life.