If everybody hurts, how can my true nature be bliss???

In The Yoga Sutra, Master Patanjali says "The physical practices of asana must be performed with equal qualities of both steadiness and joy.".........sthirasukhamasanam 2.46 . Having both steadiness and joyfullness it makes it possible to reduce the obstacles in our path to Yoga. By Yoga (with a capital Y), it means that we realize that our own true nature is bliss , or wellness, or oneness with all there is...... How ever you want to think about it.
That being said, how was your day today???? Did you get to realize your own true nature?? No, it hasn't happened yet...a lot of things were wrong today. For one, it was really hot today....and humid. You are in the middle of problems at work, your dreams have not come true, your ship has not yet come in, your kids are menaces, your spouse is greedy or wants a divorce, the septic tank has over flowed, your colon has gone spastic, no publisher will publish your writing....Boo Hoo. No Steadiness or joy for you.

Well-being or oneness or whatever you are calling it, is a part of everything. Not often do we think like this, we are programed to sense and report our discomfort especially at the physical level. Then you take a pill and you are no longer able to feel your discomfort. And you are far away from oneness.

The first step to realizing oneness is allowing yourself to feel and feel accurately. Feel your pain now. Notice that other people are feeling similar things. Everybody hurts.

The next step is to let go...especailly of your pain. when you practice yoga asanas regularly, it's like clearing the slate. After a while, your body no longer aches. "Sukham" is sanskrit for lightness, comfort, and happiness.....it also means the possiblity to experience expansion of movement in the body. Yoga asana works on the body at the gross(large) physical level but it also works mysteriously on the subtle body and the emotions tied to it.

Then after the letting go step, your mind is able to rest more easily on things that are not physical discomforts or mental discomforts. Your mind can move in the direction of a single pointed focus...."sthira" is sanskrit for steadiness or alertness.....it's the kind of steadiness without grasping or trying. Trying is never part of this....it's more like arriving or placing your attention well.

The practices move you away from physical and mental dullness toward the direction of joyfull well being....without medication....Yoga is independence or more correctly "dependence inward".


BKS Iyengar says, " the minds of men are in a thousand pieces and their bodies are in one single piece.... but the mind of a yogi, is in a single piece and their body is in a thousand pieces."
The comfort of the body and the ease in which it moves , feels and experiences freedom contributes greatly to the quality and the steadiness of the mind. Contentment is the entry level state to experiencing Yoga as innate joyfullness...when you practice asana, you practice contentment.