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Namaste
Many of us are familiar with the benediction of “Namaste” given
in our yoga classes. Some may even know its general meaning. I
personally love this word and all the meaning it offers; and as
I’ve grown in my practice, this word, like every yoga posture,
continues to offer limitless depths of wisdom.
If you are not familiar with Namaste, it is
a word generally given at the end of yoga class and means something
along the lines of:
As I become aware of the divine within myself, I recognize the
divine within others and honor it. I’ve heard this equated
to the idea that you can begin to see the person behind the personality
and honor that being, rather than be distracted by the characteristics
of the individual. This word has been a wonderful tool for me to
remember to see and to connect with the spirit in each person.
This word has also brought up some surprising
explorations of my personal beliefs--in particular, what “divine” means
to me. In one of the chapters of the Artist’s Way, by Julia
Cameron, we were asked to explore what God meant to us--what we
believed God to be and what we would like to believe God is like.
The God I believe in today is much different than the God I grew
up with. Much of that transformation has occurred through learning
to love and honor myself in a truly unconditional way and through
my relationships with others--learning to love them and receive
their love without attachments and conditions.
The power of divine love is unlike anything
I had ever dreamed of. It can rend you asunder. It forces you
to let go of things
that weigh and hinder you. It challenges you to keep moving to
that place of perfect existence and prods you when you slack. It
is completely unlike the passionate, romantic, fairy-love that
I unknowingly had embraced. It is true that divine love is kind
and powerful and passionate. Yet it also has the higher purpose
of bringing about awakening, and sometimes living “in love” is
downright hard, causing difficult but very revealing moments along
the way.
Maya Angelou has the most magnificent poem on
love called “Touched
by an Angel” (see below). It beautifully captures how each
of us is an isolated prisoner struggling along in our darkness.
Then real love comes along, slashes our chains and forces us into
the light where our true freedom and happiness lie. It can be a
rough journey, but the rewards at the end are worth every tear.
Sometimes in our practice of yoga, we encounter such struggles
and difficulties. As we awaken to ourselves, we must face all those
things which have tried to cover us and dim our light. As they
say, ignorance is bliss and sometimes it seems easier not to face
the deception we have fed ourselves in order to survive. Yet when
the time does come to step into our unlimited joy and peace that
is the divine, the choice to stay in darkness is easy to walk away
from.
Namaste reminds us of this place. It encourages us to stay on
our path of awakening to bring light into the world. It tells us
to believe in our worth and divinity; and if we doubt this, to
look at what is holding us back from accepting our full worth--is
it past conditioning, is it resistance to change, is it an environment
that weighs us down instead of uplifts? Breath by breath, step
by step, gently we can begin to look and see what holds us back.
As we progress, slowly the divine begins to shine so brightly within
that we cannot help but know our worth, and it cannot help but
be seen by all we meet. We are truly divine. Namaste.
Heather Antonissen, October 2003
Touched By an Angel
by Maya Angelou
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
You can write to Heather at heather@yogaisyouth.com
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