The focus of the month is Wildness. First, let us get the biggest perception-- or more accurately misconception-- out of the way. When we say wild nowadays, we think of someone who goes out to party all the time, someone who throws caution into the wind, someone with loose morals perhaps, someone who does what he or she feels like without a care of what the consequences of his or her actions may be. And yet, these actions result to a numbing of the senses and emotions and spirit, and are complete opposite to what it means for a yogi to be wild.
So what does it mean for a yogi to be wild? In the yoga sutras, atha yoga-anusasanam means: Now this is yoga as I have observed it in the natural world. It is a reference to the wildness that belongs to nature, wildness in seeing things in their natural state, wildness in being connected to each other and all of life. Wildness is to be like a forest untamed, its growth unrestrained, its beauty unplanned. Wildness is to be like a child unconcerned with the approval of others. Wildness is to be uninhibited and un-self-conscious. It is an un-learning of the shyness and hesitation to come as we are. As a yogi, to be wild means to be free-spirited, unrestrained by materialistic or even societal conventions, uninhibited in the expression of the Self. Wildness, instead of being an escape, is a homecoming. It is returning to a sense of familiarity, knowing who we are always meant to be. In that space of complete acceptance, we feel the wildness that is complete freedom. Let us be wild in our asana practice-- not in throwing caution to the wind, but in knowing we have the freedom of choose, to express where we are today, to let go of self-conscious tendencies, and to let our bodies move in a way that feels natural. Let us be wild in our practice of life-- not in reckless abandon, but in being able to intuitively sense what we need to do and where we need to be, to be able to hold captive in our gaze what is truly important and let everything else go. Let us be wild in our relationships with ourselves and those around us-- not in fragmenting what is whole, not in compartmentalizing others according to how we will benefit from them, but in re-wilding ourselves and those relationships, seeing ourselves and others as we are, with complete acceptance, with a surrendering to love, and with an abandonment of all of our expectations.
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March 2020
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