11 Nov What is appropriate sadhana?

Yoga sadhana, or yoga practice, can take so many forms and manifest in as various ways as there are people engaging in them. The essence still lays in the practitioners motivation to the practice. And willingness to look at themselves, and how they relate to their sadhana.

Some need to dive fully into ascetic practice, or being fundementalists, as Richard Freeman calls it, either Literalism or Relativism. Where fundamentalism can be understood as psychic equivalence (borrowing a term from psyhology approach of mentalizing) which means something along the line as what you think or feel is what you percieve as the truth. As Richard formulates nicely, “the world of description and thought can never embody that which it is attempting to describe”. So, easily yoga practice becomes just another manifestation on our conditioned patterns, and sometimes even being the excuse to isolate from society, to escape what is difficult, avoiding looking at yourself or your surroundings and so forth. Samsara (repetition of the patterns) keeps happening. Buddha, forexample, never taught to mistreat or oppress our bodies. I dont think Patanjali did either… Thus, treat yourself well, with love and compassion, and like so you can be the best for your family, your collegues and whomever passes on your way.

We all need different practices along our path of living, and most importantly, we need to engage in our own life and the rythm of our own everyday. What your practice is today, might be very different tomorrow.

Me doing some studying…;)

What is appropriate sadhana for you nowadays? Being silent and withdrawn? Engaging or acting more outwardly? Doing intense asana practice or soft restorative movements? Being more clear, setting more boundaries? Letting go of illusions and actions towards what seems to be more control? Breathing and pranayama? Writing? Asking questions? Other things?

Enjoy the investigation;)!
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