Where do I go during my yoga practice?

By Janya Wongsopa

This is a short essay I submitted to my mentor John Berg during my yoga teacher training at the Avalon Center in Palo Alto, Ca.

Where do I go during my yoga asana practice?

I go deeply inward. My whole body sensation and breath surface to the foreground and mental thoughts and sensory impressions fall to the background. My journey into Yoga is one of ease and at the same time intense focus. I often closed my eyes naturally as I take more steps inward. My body becomes a sacred space that expresses itself through flowing breaths and movements. It is a place of unity between me and that aspect of myself which is beyond names, shapes and forms.

Yoga asana is my creative expression through the body. I am an artistic being in that I cannot live without expressing myself fully in body, mind and spirit. When I see nature like a sunrise over an ocean I deeply feel the beauty of the scene because of my artistic appreciation for it. Bliss is that appreciation unbroken and unchanged by any scene. Yoga is my path of integrated self-expression yearning for that bliss.

In my asana practice I steadily perform the movements and deeply engaged with my breath. It is a model of how I live my life. I try to carry out my thoughts, words and deeds consciously while I move through life and relationships. Where I go in my yoga practice is where the essence of a moment is. It is simply being without dramas. I am just happy to be with myself without outside gratification. As I journey deeper into my yoga practice on a mat and in life, I become more established within my self.

How am I practicing my yoga?

Yesterday was my last day of the yoga teacher training I have been attending for the last three months. It has been a wonderful learning experience not only in the context of my professional teaching but more importantly my personal life. The material I learned graces me daily and propels me to explore more deeply about my own actions, thoughts and beliefs. There is an investigation in each of my days as I encounter various situations and relationships. How am I practicing my yoga?

My internal fire or Agni became stronger as I questioned my teachers’ practice and my own practice. Agni is the force of transformation and through agni we process all of our intake of food and information for body and mind. When the agni is balance the transformation results in a shift toward clarity and spiritual transformation. When it is not we are clouded by our own ego and judgment and are unable to break free from our habitual ways.

Purifying the agni is done through the practice of yoga. The process starts with Yama and Niyama. Before we should bring ourselves to the practice of asana or the physical discipline on our yoga mat we need to establish a balance relationship with ourselves and with others and the world. Only then we can gain the mastery over our senses and our physical body that are fit to meditate on the indefinite light within us.

Questioning and investigating the truth within the relationship without judging can be the greatest challenge. By directing the question “how am I practicing my yoga?” time and time again as I question the relationship with myself and with others I began to feel a shift toward clarity. With that clarity came the realization that everything in life is an opportunity for me to practice my yoga. I am grateful for the teaching of all the teachers and student teachers in the program. Each contributed their own light to my flame and supported me in overcoming my darkness of ignorance.