There is a saying from the ancient yogic text, the Chandogya Upanishad, which says “…we are like a person who unwittingly walks back and forth over a buried treasure.” Sometimes we need only to look in our own backyard to discover what we have been searching for. With the global travel restrictions currently in place many sincere yoga students have had to cancel plans to visit the exotic yoga hubs of Rishikesh, Bali, and even Byron Bay is now off limits.
During this time of confinement and challenge we need to engage in a pursuit that expands our energy and inspires our vision, without having to go somewhere or do something unique or special. Yogis have always understood that the secret to freedom is derived from deep within our own being, and can never been found anywhere else. The alarming increase in anxiety, depression and a host of other related conditions arise from a place where we feel bereft of resources to renew and overwhelmed by circumstances beyond our personal control. The dramatic upsurge in meditation-mindfulness app downloads points to a realization that changing the inner mental landscape is fundamental for mental health and wellbeing. This current crisis will create openings and potential for life enhancing breakthroughs if we understand that change is always internally self generated, while entropy results from inability to adapt, respond and reinvent.
Yoga has recognized that happiness comes from the capacity to develop vitality both physically and psychologically. A simple equation that encapsulates this insight is: Constant stimulation produces degeneration, consistent cultivation engenders regeneration. So, one of the essential skills developed from traditional yoga methods is learning how to clear and control the energy of the mind, so that it becomes a useful and purposeful tool. A mind that is well focused, clear and undistracted can begin to penetrate beneath the noise and clutter that characterizes an overactive mental state. Through skillful yoga practice the mind becomes reoriented towards stillness, insight and resourcefulness.
This time presents us with a unique possibility, to remove the misguided allurement of that mythical ‘promised land’ or the fix will come from somewhere out there. What is required is to find the “buried treasure,” present right here right now. All we need are the tools to uncover what has always been within our own grasp.
The good news is that if you are wanting authentic yoga instruction you need look no further afield. Shantarasa Yoga Darshana has been training students in Adelaide since 2004 in a whole gamut of yoga educational horizons right here and also right now. It’s founders and instructors are dedicated life-long yogis, who have continuously studied and worked with authentic yoga masters since 1974. They impart traditional yoga wisdom that conveys the very essence of what they have practised and imbibed. Their focus has always been directed towards revealing and resourcing an inner strength and clarity that can be applied to any situation, as the outcome of skilful yoga training.
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Specialists in Yoga Education