"The Work is Never Done ..."

Today while in meditation this phrase maneuvered itself into my mind....and the proceeded to become the center phrase of my contemplation....

Inhale: The Work
Exhale: Is Never Done

It makes me ponder about the "practice" of yoga.....

Here in the west we have been conditioned to think of practice as something we do in order to perform well at a set point in time.....for example the football team has two-a day practices before the big game to ensure that they know the plays well enough to perform well and win the big game......

The practice of yoga is very different we practice...to simply practice....we do the work involved...to simply do the work.....A lot of times we get so excited and fixated on the big pay-off, the big game, the big vacation, and when it never comes along....the depression comes in its place, and along with depression comes bad health, lack of self care, and more depression...all because of how we view WORK.....

"The work" this is our everyday life, the simple things that we sometimes see as a hassle, as drudgery as somehow an evil intruder on our leisure time....you know...things like opening the mail, returning e-mail and phone calls, cooking a healthy meal, exercising, making it to bed at an decent hour...after working eight hours on "real job" who wants to come home to more WORK...we would rather grab a nice nerve numbing alcoholic beverage, turn on a nice mind numbing television program and be still....

The practice of yoga can teach us to be still, while engaging in our work as householders, and members of society. The asana these tiny groups of movements and pranayama the manipulating of the breath are just like those sometimes pain-stacking tasks of taking out the trash, and walking the dog. These two things are the work that prepares us for the practice of meditation. The practice of meditation reveals to us that we can be still, and numb to the noisiness of our mind and society and guess what we don't have to get plastered with alcohol and t.v advertisements in order to do it. We can disconnect and re-connect to our energy source and we didn't have to drop a lot of money for a airplane ticket. This feeling of ease and this connection to an unlimited source energy is the gift of yoga, which we must make good use of in our daily lives.

But even while meditating we are sitting in the asana of Sukhasana and remaining sturdy and strong in the body and we are taking deep, long inhales and exhales as we do in Pranayma practice...Therefore the work and practice are an amazing cycle of discovery and we are never done even when we are tuning out we must still work in stillness....What if there was never a pay-off in the end...What if you never are able to get into a full hand stand in your yoga practice? Do you simply stop practicing? Even leisure can be viewed as work...we are working to allow our bodies the time it needs to relax while the mind is fully aware of this state of relaxation, unlike when the mind is unconscious of this state when we are sleeping....Mmmmm....


Be still in your work. Know that whatever it is you are struggling to achieve you are achieving it every moment you are engaged in the work....therefore why would you every want the work to end.....YOGA is a LIFELONG PRACTICE and THAT IS THE ONLY THING THAT CAN BRING ABOUT LIFELONG CHANGE.