transition, vrttis, & David Bowie

The concept of transition in yoga is enormous. Check out my transition from Warrior II to Triangle for an example of what this looks like.

Moving from one pose to another is the time when we are most vulnerable to distractions: thoughts, sense perceptions, egoic pride. These disturb the single pointed concentration of practice. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali call these disturbances vrtti (VHR tee), aka mental fluctuations (aka thinking ceaselessly), which yoga seeks to eradicate. If you don't engage with it, a single vrtti can pass through the mind in 90 seconds or less. When engaged, vrttis multiply. Like rabbits.

Numerous vrrtis that we engage over and over, without examinnation, become belief patterns that can dictate the course of lives, for better or worse.

When consumed by vrttis, we are easy prey for delusional thinking, anxiety, depression, mania, anger, envy, despair, and laziness.

The breath is the thread. A smooth flow of motion, led by the breath, ie: yoga, calms the vrttis, giving us the tools and wherewithal to notice them without becoming disturbed by them.

My experience with belief patterns has changed radically since I started practicing yoga consistently. Seeing them as a collection of thoughts, impressions, forms, and concepts, helped me recognize they function through limitation: this, but not that. So many things seemed mutually exclusive of one another. You can't be on a spirtual path and enjoy the material world. I struggle often with this one. Standing with one foot on the black square and one on the white square, Tom, my principal teacher, calls it.

Seeing how the vrttis create division rather than union in my mind led me to start tossing certain belief patterns out my mental window. Freedom.

Freedom is always the goal.

David Bowie knew this. I don't know if he practied yoga, but it doesn't really matter. He exploded convential belief patterns of gender and art that are visually stunning and incredibly . . .

S P A C I O U S.

His TVC 15 is a favorite of mine. Television, a virtual vrtti factory. Traaaaaansition, traaaaaansmission. Ziggy knew what was up.

Turn off the box, transition to a yoga pose, breathe. The transmission you're missing out on is coming from within you and it is always beneficial to Self and others. Can the same be said for binge watching Netflix?

Namaste and RIP, Thin White Duke.

xo

L

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