"Why I Practice Yoga"

By Joseph Roberson

 

I practice yoga because it helps me experience Source. Yoga helps me to release
my fears, worries, anxieties and concerns more and more often during each day,
thus allowing the full flowering of love and the blissful radiance of Presence to
grow.

I have to practice. Yoga is my addiction, and a fantastic addiction it is! If I don’t
practice for more than two days I lose steam, I lose focus. Yoga is my life; if I
miss my practice my life is akilter. Practicing even a little each day makes me feel
better than when I don’t practice. Yoga is my energy management system.

Sometimes what I need is vigorous movement to overcome inertia; sometimes
my yoga practice is purely restorative, still and restful; other times I want to play,
to do handstands in the field! When I am depressed yoga practice keeps me
moving; when I am over-amped and frenetic yoga slows me down and makes
me feel centered and balanced; when I am feeling good yoga practice is like a
moving sculpture, a living breathing dancing celebration of my life.

Yoga connects me to the flow of life coursing through my body, breath, blood,
brain, mind, spirit. The aim of my practice is find the experience of flow, to dance
in the flow of this life. The highest energy known to humans is love; love means
accepting this body, this life, exactly as it is and exactly as it is not. From this
alignment with reality, standing in this acceptance and love of the totality of
existence one may, without fear, act resolutely and boldly without misgivings.
Yoga is the Warrior Way, acting from the highest faculty of human potential.

The real purpose of my yoga practice is to align with and to act out of the
deepest promptings of my heart and mind. Sometimes this is easy and
sometimes it is difficult; going with the flow is not laissez-faire; going with the
flow means acting on the choice to follow the scent of bliss even when it’s scary,
even when that means standing my ground despite disagreement, confrontation,
evidence.

This human body is the most marvelous creation in this universe. People study
one small part of the human system their entire lives and cannot understand
even that small part. Many different schemes and models have been devised to
explain this wonder of wonders: bones, muscles, heart, nervous system, mind,
spirit, chakras, sheaths, koshas, ojas, nadis, meridians. This human system is
beyond any human’s understanding. Yoga brings me into intimate contact with
the mystery and majesty of the human body.

On lucky occasions, when mind-chatter and heart-turmoil subside, I feel the
hush and the presence of the underlying Source, the energy or consciousness or
void which interpenetrates every atom, molecule, cell, bone, feeling and thought.
This Source has been called by many illustrious Names, including God,
Brahman, Allah, but none suffices because words can never express something
utterly beyond thought, beyond mind, beyond comprehension. This experience
is the only thing that can bring peace, the peace that exceeds all understanding.
Now that’s why I practice Yoga!