Comparison is a disease, one of the greatest diseases. We are taught from the very beginning to compare. Your mother starts comparing you with other children. Your father compares. The teacher says, “Look at Johnny, how well he is doing, and you are not doing good at all!”
Do you compare a marigold with a roseflower? You don’t compare. Do you compare a mango with an apple? You don’t compare. You know they are different ……
The other day I got a question from a student about her home practice:
‚I am enjoying myself and my practice – but sometimes i am worried that I am lazy in certain poses. That I am not deep diving into my sensations at all moments, that I am cheating myself a little bit as there is no one to correct me and i am afraid that I am getting lazy.
On the other hand I have started to practice headstand successfully – even though I only do it using my forearms as i fear for my cervical spine in the Tripod headstand (this part of my body is extra sensitive). Also the rabbit with straight legs is not a variation that I am yet comfortable with as I do feel that I am pushing too much weight into my cervical spine while it is in a diagonal position. But hey – I was in crow pose for a second maybe for the first time in my life !!!!
Awake Aware Ananda
I was really happy to read these lines and was thinking ‚how wonderful – the discipline, passion and honesty she is bringing to her practice is paying off and she even feels lazy while doing Asana, she was not able to do before she started out her self-practice. She is studying her-self – physically, energetically, mentally and emotionally. That is all that is needed. Awake, Aware, Ananda !
Ha-tha
So what her lines clearly tell: No, it does not have to be strenuous all the time – sometimes it may feel tough and you might think you have to fight to get ‚somewhere‘. We learned this behavior: ‚Work hard because you have to get somewhere’. Yet you are already where you are supposed to be. You are here, and today your are working hard – as this is what it feels like today. At other times all will come by itself easy and smooth – you will feel yourself being receptive, light as a feather, playful. Yes, it is natural that those times where you feel heavy, lazy and it is hard to motivate yourself are difficult to accept. It is a dance, it is a ride – watch what is happening and please: enjoy yourself. That is all there is. Sometimes it is hard, sometimes it is easy – the everlasting play of Ha-Tha. Both are needed – you will not enjoy a balanced life if one of the aspects is missing.
Union
There is endless discussion as to what is the ‚superior‘ Yoga. This topic bores the hell out of me as it usually gets stuck in the naming and describing of different ‚brands‘ of Yoga be it Yin, or Yang, or Asthanga or whatever. Please, as a Hatha Yogi use your body – as this is where you reside in in this life. And make sure you practice in the right balance between challenge and receptivity, strength and receiving or any other opposites – however you may name them – to achieve Union = Yoga. Solely sitting on the couch after work or hanging in some Yin poses for an hour will not quiet cut it in the long-term. Yet going our for excessive hours of partying or pushing through strong pre-fabricated vinyasa sequences every day will also not do the trick. All this is certainly no news. So try to establish a routine that works for you and: Make sure you do not compare yourself !
Community
Sometimes when traveling I practice ‚in public‘ for the simple reason that I find a nice and empty Shala somewhere, a sheltered place for a change – no sand, no water, no sun, no wind. And even though I start my practice alone I hardly ever end it alone. Be sure – you start practicing Yoga somewhere, someone will join. And sometimes I catch myself sometimes feeling ‚Oh no, can I for once practice by myself ?‘ Only to end up one more time accepting this spell that Hatha Yoga has on people and that never fails: it makes you want to join. And this is not true only for humans, just watch your pets. Every body wants to feel the Union = Yoga. As for me? I remember that this is what I do as a Hatha Yogi for community – i practice and inspire others to practice too.
Self-practice
Now unless you have some sound experience practicing by yourself it is often easier to stay focused when someone else is practicing with you. We have all experienced that in class together. But as most of you will not have company right now for your yoga practice take care not to be hard on yourself. It is time for self-practice right now – be it guided by online inspiration or all by yourself. It is time to explore and experience your own energy. This will deliver fruit that are different from what you enjoy in class – yet no less precious. What I promise to you is, that if you start the right practice – the practice that is right for YOU, you will be looking back at these times realizing how special your self-practice was. And if you don’t start enjoying it right now you will end up looking back with regret: ‚OMG – i was downplaying my experience by comparing it to group classes thinking how lazy I am. Please don’t.
Dis-Ease
What you have to understand is that comparison has come to be a disease, one of the greatest diseases of our times. We are taught from the very beginning to compare. Your mother starts comparing you with other children. Your father compares. The teacher says, “Look at So-and-So, how well she is doing, and you are not doing good at all!” Very soon in your life you are being told to compare yourself with others. If you don’t take action and stop this demeaning behavior this will destroy your very uniqueness, your very soul. There is nobody else in the world to be compared with. Do you compare a bamboo with an oak tree ? You don’t. Do you compare a banana with an apple? You don’t compare. You know they are different – comparison is not possible.
No Tantra without Ha-Tha
On the other hand some people already got this half but they go to the other extreme thinking no action is required. They call themselves Hatha Yogis but instead of practicing they set up digital personalities as yoga teachers that go ‚beyond Asana‘ without having really been there. They call themselves ‚Tantrikas‘ without the doing the actual Hatha Yoga. The thing is – there is no Tantra without Hatha Yoga. The revolutionary thing that happened in the last century that Hatha Yoga was given back to society – especially to women – after so-called spiritual leaders had before stripped Yoga of its tantric tradition knowing it to be a powerful tool and not wanting to give this power away.
Receptivity
I promise to you if you do your Hatha Yoga practice and you stay receptive – and here we go – this is maybe the most interesting topic for a future blog post ‚Receptivity‘ – if you stay receptive, you will venture on a path that really is your path. No walking in another person’s footsteps. You will arrive where you always wanted to be – but let me tell you it might be a very different place from what you imagined.
Imagination
here is another interesting topic ‚Imagination‘, not to be confused with its modern and fashionable variant the pitfall ‚Wishful Thinking‘. Now if you walk the path with discipline, honesty and passion – and yes, some courage will be needed at some point as well – you might not end up where you thought you will end up. You will end up being where you need to be. What is more – you might not feel you are who you wanted to be. This YOU might feel much more humble and at the same time much more confident. What you will be doing might not feel spectacular – but maybe it will be majorly satisfying. You might simply find your ‚Dharma‘.