Prompt #9

This all brings me back to the focus of yoga. What is yoga? Why is yoga? Where is yoga? Who is yoga? And so on and so fourth. And then I think about the pages I just read and what connects this idea of internal stability to the words of Ketut Liyer. With out thinking to deeply, I notice a universal center connected by Elizabeth Gilbert and The Medicine Man, which in my opinion, is absolutely brilliant. The center is of this: Take each element in your body, each chakrah, the head, the face, the throat, the chest (or heart), the navel, the lower abdomen, and the spine, then connect it to what Elizabeth Gilbert received two years ago on her yoga tour, this idea of combining each element into one, to become one, to love one and to believe in one: "So I describe the picture [Ketut Liyer] made for me, the figure with the four legs ("so grounded on earth") and the missing head ("not looking at the world through intellect") and the face in the heart ("looking at the world through the heart")." (Gilbert 222) The picture describes full awareness of thought and full awareness of placement in the world, to have your feet planted, your mind slightly astray and your heart fully present. And in my ammeter experiences of yoga, I believe these are the hopes. The goal is to gain all of these.. lets call them "powers." The power to get your fleet solid on the ground, so strong it seems you have four legs and four feet, four foundations. (This explains the positions of yoga and the strength needed to gather utter most balance.) Next, the power to shift your mind away from the clock, away from the people around you and away from your troubles and worries. To gain a full yoga experience, one must learn to control their mind and their thoughts and to block out the negative and embrace the positive. The next power is to learn the control of your heart. I will not lie, this is a difficult task, so difficult it seems almost impossible. However, the goal here is to look at the world with the heart, not the mind. That is pretty self explanatory because it will be so completely and almost stupidly different for each soul on this planet that explaining it will just be too difficult. But lets answer the first questions. What is Yoga? Why is yoga? Where is yoga? Who is yoga? And so on and so fourth. I think the painting made by the oh so glorious Medicine Man given to the used to be oh so miserable Elizabeth Gilber pretty much sums it up as a "let me be one within myself as a powerful soul and let me embrace the remarks of my mind and contrast with the remarks of my heart" concept, don't you?





                                       See you later, alligator.