Guest Post: Cultivate Stillness
Estimadas Yogis, hola desde Guatemala, soy Annie. As a new teacher and a yogi with a love of variety and mixing it up, I'm thrilled to have discovered The Joy of Yoga and the delicious sequences that are graciously shared. At La Shala yesterday, my class experienced the Yin Sequence from Sarah at Do Restorative Yoga, with some additions to extend the length of the class to about 90 minutes. Ooh, soooo nice, thank you Sarah. During each pose I read one chapter from the cherished wisdom of the Tao Te Ching (the Brian Browne Walker translation), starting with Chapter 1. It's the Tao in action (or non-action), that our reading for final Shavasana was the sublime chapter 16:
Work toward emptiness and openness.
Cultivate stillness.
Breathe harmony.
Become tranquility.
As the ten thousand things rise and fall,
rise and fall,
just witness their return to the root.
Everything that flourishes dissolves
again into the source.
To dissolve back into the source is to find peace.
To find peace is to recover your true nature.
To recover your nature is to know the
constancy of Tao.
To know the constancy of Tao is insight.
Insight opens your mind.
An open mind leads to an open heart.
Openheartedness leads to justice.
Justice is an expression of divinity.
Divinity is oneness with Tao.
Oneness with Tao is freedom from harm,
indescribable pleasure, eternal life.
Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu / Brian Browne Walker Translation
What a delight! Reveling in the loveliness of Lao Tzu's poetic wisdom, I used this same reading in class this morning. Opening class with it, in the stillness of the rainforest of Guatemala, and returning to just the first four lines for final Shavassana, mmmmmm, we cultivate stillness, we breathe harmony.
Annie
