Russells Astanga

The effects of practice are felt most over an increasing length of time spent attending to your practice. This is something I can now see for myself, for those of you who follow the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali you will know this is Sutra I.14.

So how then do I see this in my own life, proving for myself the path of yoga to be fruitful?

Firstly I have seen it emerging  within me during the years of my yoga practice. Little bit by little bit, obstacles falling by the way side freeing me up. This is a lesson in non-attachment as much as it is about staying with your own yoga practice, see Sutras II.30, II.32 and II.37 (although probably others too).

The other way I see it is when I see how others take their happiness from things external to themselves, and how that all goes horribly wrong for them when their expectations are not met. I am reminded of how more and more I am going within to that which is unchanging, to that which is not dependent on the external world. The longer I practice the bigger the chasm between my reactions (or lack of reaction) to external events in comparison to others. The difference in how external things affect me in comparison to how they effect others becomes a more obvious indicator of progress on the path.

Along the way I have found as Gregor Maehle discusses in his book “Ashtanga Yoga: Practice and Philosophy“, that studying the Yoga Sutras, Upanishads and other  yogic/spiritual texts are in balancing a daily asana practice. The two help each other, in fact Gregor says that these are “two sides of the same coin”.

Copyright © 2008 Russell Smithers