"Let ego, go go go" - Swami Satchidananda.

My daughter, always a source for entertainment as well as thought provoking subjects, told me about going to a yoga class. As she has back issues, she is very mindful of trying to take care of her back, listening to different teachers, trying different things so that the yoga helps, not hurts, her. She is not always successful, but she is open.

 

At a recent class she was emphatically told by the yoga teacher to not double up her mats, even though Jen had explained she works on her knees and feet all day and appreciates the extra padding and that it seems to work okay, even with balancing poses. And, she was told by this teacher, not to check her posture in the mirror, even after Jen explained she does so because her knees rotate and so she checks in, but doesn't rely, on the mirror. End result? A frustrated yogi who is considering not going back to a class because she was doing what she has tried and found works for her and was told not to do those things by a teacher she is relying on for guidance. Frustration!

 

So I am here to say, that yoga is about shedding our egos. And yoga teachers are the first ones that need to let go of trying to control our environment, and certainly to let go of making students do what we want. I apologize for yoga teachers everywhere. May we all let go of what the head thinks and follow what the heart wants!

 

Swami Satchidananda speaks of Samadhi as the final stage of life, or going to heaven, or finding freedom. He says that when the ego “ceases to be”, and there is no longer an “I”, then you are free from the ego and are pure.

 

Here’s more from Swami Satchidananda, founder of Integral Yoga:

All you have to accomplish is to see that all selfishness goes away. Where does the "I" dwell? In ego. Where does the ego live? In the mind. The ego is, in a way, the very source of mind. All the expressions of the ego, thinking, feeling, willing, could be put together under one term, "mind." If the mind gets completely purified, then it's no longer an obstruction to your experience of the Truth. When it is clean and clear, the mind doesn't color the appearance of the pure Self. It becomes a pure reflector of the Self to see its own true nature. That is the essence of spirituality.

Here’s yet another definition of ego: “In psychodynamic theory, the component of personality that tries to satisfy the wishes of the id while being responsive to the dictates of the superego.” From wiki.answers.com

The superego reins in the other two so we do what is considered “right” and moral. The id seeks what it wants: pleasure. And the ego tends to balance the 2.

Or, from Dictionary.com, ego is “the “I” or self of any person; a person as thinking, feeling, and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from objects of its thought.”

For my purposes, I am thinking that the ego is what gets in our way. It’s the mind and the part of us that says we are separate from others. And sometimes, even makes a judgment about how we are different from others. In the instance with Jen in the gym with the yoga teacher, my concern is that the teacher tried to impart her knowledge without trying to become one with the student. To me it appears the yoga teacher wanted her student(s) to be a particular way and do the practice in a particular way, her way, if you will, instead of seeing it the way of the student’s good.

Okay, so I’m defending my daughter against a yoga teacher. Not really. As a student and as teacher of yoga, I attempt to seek knowledge. Sometimes that means the teacher learns from the student, letting go of the power trip that the teacher might be on, thinking that (s)he is right and all other methods are wrong.

That’s where I think the ego, the self, the individual “I” comes in and wreaks havoc.

Yoga is about letting go, surrendering the ego. We practice yoga mudra as the symbol of yoga, with the head below the heart. It’s a sign of letting go of the restraints of the mind and opening ourselves up to the boundlessness of the heart. Surrendering the ego can be freeing, liberating and powerful.

Here are some cues for letting go of the ego:

Don’t think you have to be right.

Let go of having to have the last word.

Let go of perfection. It’s okay to not be perfect.

Do breathe.

Allow yourself to be open to the experience, to new ideas.

May we all learn from one another. May we be open to listening to other thought and ways. May we continue to learn and grow, without allowing our minds to hold us back.

Namaste