and so it begins

1.1 ATHA YOGANUSASANAM
Now the exposition of yoga begins.

I thought this seemed an appropriate way to "re-launch" Sutra Monday. And yes Monday is almost over (at least the working day part) but I’m working on that whole blogger timing thing.

When I prepare for a sutra blog I don’t just read Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, I read several different version and explanations. Some of them written as late as 1951, so there are more modern versions out there which tend to have language easier to get your head wrapped around. But for this sutra it was the last line of Patanjali’s sutras, as translated by Sri Swami Satchidananda that gave me the inspiration for this blog, it reads: Without practice, nothing can be achieved.

I like to write, I like getting into a rhythm, feeling the creative juices flowing, finding the right words to line up in a sentence that relates not only a meaning, but imagery and emotions to. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t usually I just let it happen when it’s happening and don’t push it when it’s not. But that can often lead to a rather empty blog, so I tried to instill a little discipline to my writing via Sutra Friday. Well I didn’t account for how busy my life is right now so I moved it to Monday which didn’t make my life any less busy so I’m not sure why I thought I’d be more prepared to blog a few days later. But not doing something just because time is short isn’t the way to have discipline, so here I am blogging about yoga, how yoga begins. This is me beginning my yoga.

This is my practice. I am transforming my writing from a habit to a practice just like I did with my asana practice. I took my physical yoga from being something I did every now and again to something I did daily (when in yoga school at least) and not only did I start to love my asana (yeah, go ahead and read that pun into it) I began to love all of it, all the yoga, the Sanskrit, the history, the stories. A whole new world opened up to me when I simply had little discipline, a little practice. Now do think writing every week is going to crack open a new world of enlightenment, no. Well, maybe. Maybe this practice of reading sacred text and relaying what I glean from them will help their bigger meanings sink in better for me. Maybe I’ll start reading things I never thought I would and finding new paths along the road to enlightenment. Maybe I’ll start to love writing so much that I start writing letters to my family and friends far away, making their day better and then they call me and make my days better and we all find a little more happiness. So yeah, maybe writing will be a powerful tool for change in my life but I have to do it because just like the Swami says: “Without practice, nothing can be achieved.”