Yoga: Becoming Enlightened

Every enlightened master wishes to bring his beloved student to this highest point of development in the student’s meditation practice, but for most people who function in the every day world of going to work, avoiding something referred to as a ‘dark adapted eye’, is the first step to at least being enlightened at work. A ‘dark adapted eye’ refers to the way in which eyes recovers sensitivity in the dark after being exposed to bright light. I have often used this term to refer to avoiding the development of a cynical eye, an eye that always seems to find the worst or expect the worse of a person or an event. In Yoga practice we are always striving for the light, like the Lotus shoot that emerges from the depths of the mud to find the light of the sun above. Yoga teaches us that even in darkness we must ever strive to find the light, the best of any situation. Moreover to look upon unsavory encounters not with the dark adapted eye of wishing them away, but of rethinking them as being agents of clarifying dark areas. Sometimes we simply must clear the air or take a better look at things from a different vantage point. Sometimes we have to broaden our view.

There is no better place for this than the average busy, noisy work day with so many personalities available to test our ability to stay calm, remain positive, be grateful and think on our feet. I believe that we can use these experiences to become enlightened, sometimes more powerfully than being alone on a hill top or in a cave where we have no one or nothing to test our mettle. Remembering this, we can be like that Lotus that always floats just above the murky water, but is never touched by it and which always reflects the glow of the light it seeks.

Just in case you really have a situation that is simply unnerving, there is help. Try the MYSTICAL FIGURE EIGHT, for relieving anger and frustration. This breathing pose helps to re circulate the energy in the body while soothing agitation. While seated, cross your left ankle over your right. Cross your right wrist over your left, clasp hands together and carefully turn clasped hands under and up onto your chest. Hold the pose while taking a few deep breaths. Then uncurl and feel like your good old self again. Total time needed- two minutes. Yoga Works!

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