Me, You, and the Universe.
samkhya*
Samkhya, the foundational philosophy of yoga, presents us with the story of how the cosmos can achieve harmony. Samkhya also means enumeration, and lays out a numbered flowchart that provides a way of identifying and understanding all the parts universe.
sam = harmony, balance || khya = knowledge, wisdom
prakriti
nature, matter, thoughts, emotions, everything worldly
Prakriti is all worldly things, and can only exist with the divine wisdom of purusha.
purusha
Purusha is the unchanging consciousness of the cosmos. It is all-pervasive. This divine wisdom exists of its own accord.
spirit, consciousness, divine, self
Nature is not a separate entity from humanity; it is the painting within which our brush strokes exist.
Everything that happens in nature, happens in us.
Therefore, by studying the cosmos, we can come to understand ourselves.
“The closer you get to real matter, rock air fire and wood, boy, the more spiritual the world is.”
- Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
If samkhya gives us a map to peace, then
the gunas
the ropes that bind
sattva*
love
peace
light
calm
joy
rajas
active
motion
ambition
tamas
heavy
dark
inertia
Like the three primary colors, rajas, tamas and sattva together come in infinite combinations, coloring everything we touch and everything we do - our food, our work, our relationships, and our actions.
Samkhya is in everything, and provides us with divine wisdom. But the three states, or gunas, keep us bound in suffering.
The goal of yoga is to achieve sattva.
Yoga Teacher Training: Personal Insights
Nadia
“Growth requires you to have some compassion for yourself, and patience. [Yoga teacher training] has taught me to really slow down and listen to my body and what it’s asking of me, and to have some grace for where I am. And that could change daily. So just meeting myself where I’m at, and having some compassion and patience. That’s something that I want to teach others as well.”
“One thing I’ve gained [through yoga teacher training] is awareness, which has been really important for me in my life because having gone through lots of different trauma, I’ve disconnected in a lot of ways from my body and my own emotions. And so being able to bring an awareness back to myself and the way that I live and the way that I interact with people has been a huge gift for me. I felt like I was floating for so long through life, and now I feel connected and grounded and stable. And that’s a new experience for me, in my mid- to late-thirties, to finally feel like I’ve connected back to myself and parts of my life that I avoided and ignored.”
Phoebe
“One thing I’m letting go of is attachment to the outcome. A lot of my anxiety is driven by really focusing on the outcome of everything I do, everything I think, every interaction I have, and there’s so much freedom in letting go of that. I can live more peacefully and move through my decisions knowing that I am part of a community but still my own person, and that I can only impact myself. There’s huge freedom in that, and in letting go of expectations of other people or what’s going to happen after I do or say something, or some other situation happens. I just have to let go of that outcome and not be attached.”
Noah
“Yoga is truly for everyone - people of all walks of life, of all backgrounds, ages, capabilities, strengths, weaknesses. I think it’s a place where people of all differences can come together and find a common ground, and peace, and awareness, and community. That’s one thing that I’ve learned and hope to share with everyone: that yoga is for everyone, and that there’s no one way of doing it, or one style, or one aesthetic of doing this practice. It’s for everybody.”
Madison
“One of the most invaluable things I’ve gained from [yoga teacher training] is the feeling of being truly capable. This has been the first time in finding something I can do, career/lifestyle wise, where even through the trials and tribulations, the chaos of busy schedules and feeling of self-doubt, I have continued to see it to the end.
One thing I’ve let go of during this training is the need for others approval. Yoga is a love and passion of mine, and my style may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I’ve come to terms that I don’t want to be anyone but myself. So I shall enjoy what I choose to do in life and how I choose to do it on my own terms.
This training has been a pivotal moment where I’ve evolved into a more authentic, true version of myself. Inside and out, I can see and feel the changes that have been made for the better. I hope to help others along their way as yoga has helped me find mine.”
Jen
“One thing I’ve learned in yoga teacher training is how a single conscious breath can change the direction of a moment. I thought it would stay on my mat to help with settling into a pose, but it’s been slipping into my life in ways I didn’t expect. In the middle of work stress, tense conversations, or when the news feels heavy, I catch myself pausing. Almost instinctively. One breath, and the moment softens. I can respond instead of just react. That same breath helps me notice the peaceful moments, too. The quiet mornings. The bees moving lazily through my garden. The wind rustling through the trees. The quiet, ordinary beauty I used to rush past without really seeing. That pause lets me actually feel those moments instead of letting them blur by. That one breath, that tiny, almost invisible pause, has become a way of returning to who I want to be in the midst of everything.”