Compassion and Yoga Are One

18 April 2016

True compassion manifests as the sacred energy that flows through the heart chakra (Anahata chakra) to each and every living thing in the universe. Whenever it is accessed it enables us to feel a sense of oneness or unity with all. This is the goal and the essence of yoga.

Yoga students and teachers encourage compassion to blossom, becoming their inner guidance. This way it will constantly reminds them that it is not the perfection of a technique (or asana) that gives them the experience of Yoga, but the ability to access their own sacred energy.

Compassion is cultivated by observing our personal experience as we go through physical, mental or emotional hardships with an open heart and/or by perceiving the suffering of others with an open heart.

Whenever we experience a slight injury or pain, focus on allowing the awareness of that discomfort to expand, thus embracing and understanding those who live with chronic suffering or pain on a permanent basis. This expanded consciousness will aid tremendously in the development of compassion.

All the rules and structures that we have amassed will dissolve when we embrace another in their deepest suffering. This compassion then becomes the catalyst that allows the great yogic teachings to guide us in realizing that the physical body is simply a temple housing the Divine Self.

According to yoga philosophy and science, disease manifests not so much from physical forces, but from a disconnection with our source or spirit. Whenever we are able to recognize and realize who we really are, healing is accelerated.

When we study Patanjalis yoga sutras we see the reasons for this separation are defined in the Kleshas Sutra II-3; Avidya (ignorance of our true nature), is the prime cause of forgetting. Avidya is the individual cosmic hypnosis or illusion imposed on all forms that makes them express, perceive, and interact with one another as though each has its own separate reality. When we strive to become compassionate beings we realize our ability to help others is directly affected by our own belief in this most basic of concepts.

By constantly refining and rediscovering the many yogic practices each person is able to gain the benefits of healing. Many times the actual healing was not solely a physical cure, but a rebalancing of the energies that flow through the body, the mind and the emotions, touching the spirit. This rebalancing enables everyone to gain a sense of peace and clarity, especially when making decisions and changes based on the highest level of healing.

Yoga is the creation of this balance of energies and it grants the natural intelligence of the body and mind to correct itself. It is for this reason that most of the gentle and compassionate practices can positively affect any disease or imbalance. By facilitating the alchemy of connecting hearts and souls with spirit, we remember that inherently, we are all one!

Ordinarily much of humankind is dumbfounded by the alluring participation of illusory sense experiences, and clings to various delusive material forms as though they were the reality, the cause and even the security of his or her existence. The yogi however, is ever conscious inwardly of the sole reality and spirit, and sees maya and avidya (universal and individual delusion) as merely a flimsy web holding together the atomic, magnetic, and spiritual forces that give him a body and a mind with which to play a part in the cosmic drama of the Divine’s creation.

Rae Indigo is ERYT 500