You and your heart shouldn't be so far apart...
Jack Johnson
I love to encourage students to set 2 intentions when they begin a Yoga practice. The first intention is concrete and timely- the honest reason why you walked into a Yoga class- a friend invited you, you are going through a stressful time in life, you want to lose weight, tone up, etc. This bhavana is easy. For the next intention we need to get loftier and more expansive. Allow yourself to explore the world of magic and fantasy. What is the secret desire of the spiritual heart?
Joseph Campbell calls the divine the Great Mystery. The spiritual heart is the part of us that is most connected to the Great Mystery. Throw practicality and logic out of the window. If you could move heaven and earth with your thoughts and your desires, what would the spiritual heart fancy? Would you like to fly? Would you like to know the time of your death? Would you like to see all of your past lives? Would you like the strength of an elephant? Would you like to know all there is to know and have the answer to every question revealed to you? The recipes for all of these siddhis, psychic powers, and more are written in the Yoga sutras. The way to mystery and magic and the path to the world of what we call impossible is the science of Yoga. Those things that we call miracles now are those events that science will explain in the future.
Of course this path begins with the first step and the acquisition of power is progressive and gradual. Maybe we start with those things that seem impossible right now......the ability to overcome anger, the ability to love unconditionally, the ability to do what we love for a living, to know absolute abundance, to become master over our senses and our emotions and maybe even to do a handstand.
Yoga makes that which seems impossible, possible, and with regular practice that which is now possible becomes easy.
Krishnamacharya
