When we meet people, we usually have a gesture that symbolizes this meeting. Depending on the nature of the relationship, the culture that we live in, and a number of other factors, the gesture could be shaking hands or hugging or bowing or saying hello or namaskar or namaste. We have these gestures to meet other people, yet it seems as though we don't have anything concrete in our daily lives to meet the person we spend the most time with-- ourselves. Do we ever get to meet ourselves? I think in asana, we do. When we move our bodies, we cultivate awareness that there is a consciousness inhabiting this body. On the physical level, we pay attention to sensations that may be new or unfamiliar. We may even feel our hamstrings for the first time. On the emotional level, we are able to observe how we feel. We take note of our reactions and tendencies when these emotions come up. Sometimes we may think nothing of feeling, and yet it is this ability to continue to feel that grounds us. The violence that we see in the world is due to people forgetting how to feel. The systematic desensitization has caused us our humanity. When we practice asana, we train ourselves to feel, to continue to feel, to see this ability to witness our feelings as a necessary component of being connected to ourselves and others. When we practice asana, we experience that there is this body that moves, the mind that reacts, and the soul that observes. The practice of yoga is seeing that we are not just one aspect of ourselves; but the whole of this self; and the whole of this self connected to the whole of all "others". The oneness is no longer an intellectual concept that we read about. This oneness now becomes experiential. And every time we do asana, we meet ourselves again and again, until eventually and inevitably, we realize that we have arrived.
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