Taking
variety of poses, I usually notice that my body is stiff. Sometimes I lose my
confidence when I face difficult poses. Especially when I cannot but everyone
can do it, I tend to feel embarrassed.
So
I have a will “to become flexible”, but there is a misunderstanding here.
If
I become more flexible and become able to take more difficult poses, will I get
more confidence?
No,
even if I get confidence by becoming more flexible, this is a mere relative
confidence. Even if I get confidence
by comparison with “my past self” or other people, this confidence is easily
shaken if I face more difficult poses or comparison with more flexible person.
Relative confidence
is not reliable.
Therefore,
it is much more helpful to make efforts not
to lose confidence even if I am inferior to others rather than to make
efforts to become superior to others.
The
essence of yoga is not becoming flexible but allow myself even if I am weak or
stiff. In other words, yoga is an approach to become happy on “my present self”.
If I exaggerate, those who practice yoga with having a will to become flexible cannot
taste happiness if they die before they become flexible enough. On the contrary,
those who practice yoga to make “my present self” happy can taste happiness on the
process of daily practice. Even if they come to an end today, they can taste as much
happiness as they can during their lives.
This
is different from seeking a fleeting pleasure or making other times sacrifices.
Yoga is, so to speak, “a double amplification
of happiness”; to taste happiness on “my present self”, and make “my future
self” happy by making body and mind healthy and stabled. I don’t think the former
should be forgotten.
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