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Yoga, Awareness, and Freedom

Written for and Published by YOGItimes April 2004

“Yoga, in its most difficult form, is our practice every moment of every day – outside of class--in the face of our lives.” 

By Lawrence Lanoff

Yoga, Awareness, and Freedom.

You are Awareness.  This is your True Self. Within your Awareness appears your body, your mind, your ego, your brain, and your identities, both conscious and unconscious.  When you first wake up in the morning, before there is body, identity, movement, yoga, or a story, there is Awareness.  Awareness is the background of who you truly are.  Awareness is the only thing that is real. However, your Awareness is covered up by who you think you know yourself to be. This is the dream. This is the illusion. This is Maya. This is life.

Your identity, the filter through which you perceive and live your life, is an accumulation of past experiences, karma, future expectations, rolls, goals, beliefs, fears, worries, job responsibilities, power or lack of power, sexuality, relationships, problems, money, exercise etc.  You are what you do, who you know, and the amount of money in your bank account today.   However this identity isn’t a fixed reality at all.  Who and what you think that you are is in a constant state of self interpretation, re-adjustment, and flux that seamlessly overlays itself on top of your Truth – your Awareness.

Yoga practice has the potential to create a new habit of questioning what the mind is telling you about who and what you are.   The mind is easily observed during yoga class.  When it enters your practice, you find yourself floundering, lost, looking at your toes, thinking of something else that you should be doing instead of what you are doing.  You loose track of Now.  You loose your balance. You loose track of your Presence, your Awareness. This is why your teacher has you focus on your breathing, the movement, or the instructions.   The teacher is offering you an opportunity to set aside the pressure of your mind for an hour, so that you can experience the freedom of simply Being.  

I assert that if you can learn to set aside your identity for an hour, perhaps you can learn to set aside your identity for the rest of your life.  If you pay close attention, you will see that your identity comes into play immediately after Yoga class quite effortlessly.  You check your phone messages, talk to friends, seamlessly slipping who you think that you are, your identity, right back on. In one moment you are floating in the peace of your being, the next you are in the tumult of your daily reality.  Before you know it, you have moved from openness to constriction.  From emptiness into habit.

THE KEY TO FREEDOM.  

Cut to: The end of class. Dead pose is over. The key to freedom comes from vigilantly watching the mind’s identity as it places itself on top your Awareness.  The sweet potential of your clear intention creates a gap in your story, a space in your inner world that can extend beyond yoga class and out into your everyday life. 

The practice of yoga in class is the opportunity to feel into the background of your Being while your body is in motion, so that you may experience action without the need for an actor. The practice of yoga in your life is to be who you truly are while your mind, body and emotions are in motion – yet all the while held in the clear presence of your Awareness. 

If you allow your body to unfold in the light of your Awareness, your body is free to be, feel, and move, moment to moment, unconstrained, in a state of open responsiveness. Silent readiness. Offering yourself the gift of Awareness means that you are giving and receiving a profound listening, a deep love for your True Self, and cultivating that love consciously into your daily life.  This deep, intimate self-love is also known as compassion. 

I invite you to get on your yoga mat today and be nobody. Completely let go of what you are not.  Surrender into the freedom of nothing. Let go of the actor and the doer.  Allow yourself to simply be. You may begin to discover that who you think that you are, your identity, your mind, and your story, can actually rest peacefully and compassionately in your Awareness. This is true self-love. This is yoga.