In India, there was a very well-known saint named Ashtavakra. In Sanskrit, the name Ashtavakra means "bent in eight places." When Ashtavakra was still in his mother's belly, his father, who was a very holy man, used to read to him from ancient scriptures. One day, while his father was reading, Ashtavakra interrupted him from his mother's womb (it happens in India) to tell him that his pronunciation was wrong, and asked if he would please correct himself. This made his father so angry that he put a very bad curse on Ashtavakra. He said, "when you are born, you will be deformed and bent in eight places."
2 Comments
As a yoga student, I have realized that when you practice with the same teacher for many months or years, you don't always listen to every word your teacher says. Especially if your teacher has a tendency to say similar things in class each week.
As a yoga teacher, I am guilty of saying similar things in each of my classes. In fact, always close my class the same exact way. When I bring my students out of savasana, I say: "Thank yourself for making the time to be here. Feel grateful to have a body that is capable of being here." At the beginning of each year, I like to review the previous year to see how much my life has changed in the past 365 days. What were my goals for the previous year? What have I accomplished? What were my interests and priorities and how are they different from my current interests and priorities?
Of course, asking these questions about my past, only forces me to ask myself these same questions about my future. |
CategoriesArchives
June 2023
|