Tradition
Why practice?
When you do the sun salutations with your mind still attached to the mundane world, you get a good calesthetic workout.
When you do the sun salutations with your mind focused on your breath you begin to surpass the limit of this material body.
When you do the sun salutations with your mind fixed on your breath and the divine within you, you are in union with the Cosmic Energy.
When you do EVERYTHING in life with your mind fixed on breath and the divine, you attain bliss!
The mind is our worse enemy and our best friend. “To control the mind is like trying to grasp the wind in your hands,” as said in The Bhagavad Gita.
But the Yoga Sutra says one can attain the goal of yoga through Dispassion (Vairagya) and Practice (Abhyasa), which means mental detachment and sincere and persistent practice. This is why we need to practice.
The Ayurvedic Approach
The traditional Ayurvedic doctor says one should chew at least 34 times a mouthful of food before swallowing, and one should eat only until the stomach is three-quarter’s full leaving one-quarter space for water. In Ayurveda this is called Mitahara or moderate diet.
More people are becoming aware of what they are eating but few pay attention to how they eat. When food is improperly digested by over-eating, eating too fast or eating with a busy mind or under stress, the digestion process is poor and as a result the semi-digested food turns into “Arna”, or toxins. This is a gluey substance that flows through the entire body. This toxin first lowers our mental energy and make the skin lose its natural luster, then it forms the initial stage towards diseases later. This is why we practice mindful eating during the weekend intensive and retreat.
Mitahara is not limited to food but also refers to anything going into us through our senses (eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin). Undigested information, thoughts and emotions also become toxins. They stay in our deep tissues and psychic body for a long time. This is why we practice periods of silence and limited use of electronic devices.