Letting Go

Jim Tarran

Yoga means union when translated from Sanskrit to English, or engagement.
It is through the process of engagement that the process of letting go is facilitated.

The more we endeavour to move towards the asana or to be fully concentrated on the mantra, meditation object or breathing practice, or whichever other Yoga technique we employ, the more the mind’s presence is required and so pre-occupation has to diminish.

At first, one finds minor pre-occupations (niggling worries, day-to-day anxieties or tensions caused from future anticipation and the like) releasing as the mind drops what keeps it from the engagement necessary to concentrate on the breath or move deeper into the pose, but over time and given an atmosphere of trust and support, deeper pre-occupations release, such as old wounds and the self views that have arisen around them.

In fact, it is eventually self-view itself that begins to release. The consequence not being some kind of attack or destruction of one’s being, but to the contrary the very liberation and discovery of who we really are behind all the social/cultural expectations, and behind all the projections formed through holding onto to incidents, moments, as self. When we let go of self we don’t just disappear in a puff of smoke, instead, we appear from the smoke of delusion. We emerge from a held self that narrows our potentials and limits our possibilities, a held self that makes us feel that we are separate and distinct with all the vulnerability and loneliness which that entails. To a self that is limitless, where all human possibilities are possible, a self where grudges and opinions are released to forgiveness and open-mindedness.

Hence in yoga traditions throughout the east, we find self-surrender as the central practice in all techniques, and in its wake the deeply open state where understanding and profound affinity inspire the practitioner to describe their feelings as ‘union with the absolute’, ‘knowing God’ or the ‘Bodhicitta’ (the effortless desire to see all beings realise the freedom that lies at their own centre.

All these aphorisms are only the clumsy attempt that words allow to describe the deep experiences that the individual may have through yoga’s beautiful cycle of engagement, release, engagement. It is therefore clear to see why this ancient practice is an art to be wielded by practitioner and student alike with the dexterity and balance of a great swordsman artist or poet.

Quotes

‘stira sukham asanam’; alertness that is comfortable and light is to be practised during the posture.

He continues: ‘prayatna saithilya anata samapattibhyam’; the conclusion (the return to its essential form) of yoga is found when exertion has a relaxed, spacious quality.

The yogi’s mind then moves into an unbounded limitless relationship (with life and practice).
Concluding, he says: ‘tatah dvandvah anabighatah’; then duality no longer causes disturbance.