Know, nourish & grow
To understand Self and Oneself, in the world, is to nourish oneself in self-knowledge, and grow in wisdom. This is what I share in my yoga classes and training, because this is what interests me, and it makes more sense to me than anything else.
Early on in my teaching career I had three symbols made for my first yoga studio. Each one was painted on a small canvas, so that I could move them along to future studios. Nearly thirty years on and I still have the yin-yang, AUM and The Way of Tao in my current studio. Symbols represent a practice, philosophy and a way of being. Exactly what “the way” may mean is open to individual perception, but the broad strokes are as follow:
Nourish this understanding, of Self, in Life, and you balance yin and yang (doing, non-doing, form and formless) with, according to The Way of the Tao, Lao Tzu’s poetic, deep mind experience of nature and inner nature (a lovely companion to Patajali’s 8 Limb Principles and Sutras). And of course all of this happens in the Universe, or All That Is. The undifferentiated A-U-M is the Totality, the sound mantra, is the vibration we make in our practice, and it resonates with the vibration or multiple octaves of matter and subtle energy frequencies of Everything. Jesus said for us to build our lives on the rock of the Love of his parents, God/Goddess, or call it Shiva-Shakti.
This is what we are to surrender to if we are to be in the flow of the great Yin and Yang of duality, within the liberating Non-Duality of Pure Awareness. Practice of the Yoga of Self-realisation, Union is a practical day-to-day reality. It is a process where yoga is self-development therapy that supports change. We are the change, made possible by our surrender in our practice. Nourish this Way, Know Self, Know the Way and Grow. Realise Self, Be Bliss.
Practice Yoga and keep warm – I write this from a wintery Yoga Studio,
on Muizenberg Beach, Cape Town, July 2019.
Regards, Johann.