Self-learning

If someone asks you to look at a flower and observe it, you will probably start making mental notes as “the flower is pink, the flower is small, the flower has a green stem”etc. In this case, you are no longer observing the flower but labeling it, using your mind.

In yoga, when you are working your way through a hard pose, the easiest way to get along is ignoring the present moment, ignoring the pain and think about something else (after all, that’s what we have been doing our whole lives).

But then the teacher says: Don’t quit, observe the pain.

You become conscious of your body, of that burning sensation and you want to quit. Hence, one is still not observing, one is judging the pain. The mind sees pain as something bad, so it will want to remove itself from it.

One has to contemplate the feeling, it’s a meditation. It requires effort and concentration. If you let your mind take control (when is this gonna end? I’ve been holding this for a long time! I’m tired!), the force to stay in that pose will decrease, why? because that force comes from presence.

This applies to life. When you are in a situation that your mind labels as bad, try not to judge. When you experience emotions that your mind labels as bad, treat them as if they were just another pose, contemplate the pain from a state of presence until it’s gone. None of that will last forever.