Dear Yogis,
If you’ve ever gone swimming at the beach, you know what it’s like to get caught up in the current. Bobbing happily along, riding the waves onto the sand and running back in to dive under again.
Suddenly, as time passes, you look off into the distance, becoming aware of the shore line. You can no longer see your umbrella and have ended up about a 10 minute walk back to where ever you started.
The nature of the world that we live in has an aspect called Maya (illusion). The nature of this existence is illusory because the brain is always making sense of things (that maybe don’t make sense in the moment) so it puts pieces together for us so we can function. But the way those pieces fit may not be necessarily true.
A study done by Columbia University tested this power of the brain. The scientists disordered the letters of words to create a paragraph. Only the first letter and last letters were the same. (Olny the frist and lsat ltteers wree the smae.)
Test subjects were still able to read the paragraph as if nothing had changed in the language because the brain takes it upon itself to put all the pieces together according to your past experiences in life or your past impressions.
This is great for functioning in the world but it can get us into trouble when the brain may be putting the pieces together incorrectly.
Then our perception is super far off from reality.
My teacher talks about the drift away from truth. We are born knowing and resonating as who we are. But with time, as we swim through this world, we start to get pulled here and there. The pull between what’s pleasurable and avoidable can envelope our awareness to such a point that we forget the importance of connecting to who we are.
This pushing and pulling like the tides creates deep avoidances and addictions that create traumas that the brain tries to keep you surviving from- to such a point that we are miles away from truth. That we can no longer perceive truth as it is.
We only see the coloring of the lens through which we look at the world (the first and last letter without reference for the truth of what’s inside)
While it’s a function of the mind to do this, the Yogi is aware of this phenomenon and has been for thousands of years. So, the Yogi knows the remedy and is always making that extra effort to remember what they forgot.
This remembering may have to be initiated hundreds of times a day, thousands of times a week, millions of times a year. That’s ok. What is it that we’re really remembering through the yoga practice?
The Yogis say we’re remembering who we truly are —you may have forgotten, you may have drifted. The yogis teach that you are something whole, something already perfect. There’s no seeking outside of yourself that’s going to help you discover the peace and bliss and perfection that is already within you, but we simply forgot.
Every time we step into class, onto our mats, sit down to meditate, to write and contemplate, we create space for remembering ourselves. It’s an honor to create that space for transformation for you all. Hope to see you in studio or online soon!
Peace and Love,
Amanda and the good folks at Revolution Yoga
Originally shared in our August 2023 newsletter.