Goodness within...?

Today I read a posting by my Yoga Therapy teacher, Marlysa Sullivan, and it struck me so helpful, hopeful, nice...yet, so difficult for me, and maybe so for so many others...humanity, maybe?

Yet, it seems that all traditions, and old Saints, Masters, sages, were telling us about it eons ago!

Her post is found at...anatomyofyoga.com and it is about understanding our nature, our nature at its deepest level. The post is titled...Understanding the Nature of Self as the Strength of the Container .

You can read it on the link, and might want to be patient as you go thru the quotes and terms of an ancient tradition, one which tells so much about our nature.

But there are two paragraphs that really "hit" me. They "boil it" down in terms I can understand, and maybe you the reader can too. They are:

"In my studies, I have often come across the idea of creating mindfulness, discrimination, the capacity to witness all that arises without judgment and had considered that to be the strength of the container. I was taught that developing this would help me see my patterns and to help release the experience of suffering.  As I practiced this- in my own practice as well as with clients- I began to see and experience a limitation of this idea. Just seeing the patterns, habits and stories of my body and mind were not enough to undo the knots that kept me and my clients in pain and suffering.  As I studied and contemplated the Upanishads I began to understand that the strength of the container may be something else. When we touch on Ananda Maya Kosha and begin to grow in our understanding of the nature of the Self underneath and beyond as this source of love and joy, we change. The beliefs, thoughts and emotions that keep us in pain, worried, anxious, and in fear begin to lose their hold on us as we look at them side by side with the experience of Ananda Maya Kosha.  The strength of the container seems to be something else- the stronger my experience of Ananda Maya Kosha, the more able I am to come outside of patterns that keep me in pain and suffering. The more I realize and understand my capacity for love, kindness, goodness, wisdom and joy, the more I am able to see my suffering and create a change in the relationship and reaction to thoughts, emotions, beliefs and interactions with others.

In many traditions in yoga and in Buddhism it is important to first understand and  find this space of being before we dive into the darkness of our beliefs, emotions, and conditioning. When we are not situated strongly in the experience of our own goodness, love and joy, we can often become lost in our habitual reactions and beliefs in the mind and body.  It is through the cultivation and strengthening of experiencing our own basic goodness that we can sit with our patterns of mind, energy and body and cultivate change. We notice we are something else besides these patterns, that there is an option and another way of being in relationship to our own body, mind and energy as well as with others."

I wonder why it is so hard...yet, it seems so simple.

Try it! I surely will.

Ref: The Center for Integrative Yoga Studies web site