Do Your Practice And All is Coming

A small miracle occurred this morning.  I made it to a Mysore class after a rough battle with my alarm clock.  I wonder if the person who invented the snooze button was mad at the world and wanted a way to make them suffer in the mornings.  Nonetheless, I made it even if it was 30 minutes later than I had wanted to start my practice.  I made it, rolled out my mat, and asked my stiff, achy, and tired body to move. 

Altar at Tim Miller’s Ashtanga Yoga Center

Half way through the seated sequence, my drishti shifted onto someone being adjusted in supta kurmasana and I lost my focus.  Thoughts flooded my mind.  I didn’t remember which pose was suppose to come next and then I remembered that I was suppose to write this post on what Sri K. Pattabhi Jois’ famous quote, “do your practice and all is coming”  meant to me.  

In the moment of losing my presence, I wondered when I was ever going to be able to get my feet behind my head in supta kurmasana.  When is it ever going to come when my hamstrings are always tight and my hips are always something other than open?   Hmm!!!  I’ve been doing yoga consistently with little to no gaps for about 6 years and still seem to have tight hamstrings.  

When is it coming?  

“Ask and ye shall receive!”  It happened today.  I was sitting in kurmasana and attempted the transition into supta version.  The same teacher that helped me last week came over to help me again.  Last week, he stopped when my feet were about 6 inches apart and said that was enough for that day.  Today he said, let’s keep going (of course he asked if I was ok before proceeding).  He bent my knees and helped me slide my shoulders down my leg further, picked up my feet and hooked my big toes together.  It wasn’t the deepest, fullest expression, but the moment came… he let go and I held it together while still breathing evenly.  Tada!

Watch Kino give tips on this pose:

“That was it?”

This was what I was waiting for all along?  I mean it was cool that I hooked my feet and possibly felt a fleeting moment of enlightenment, but after the pose was over, well it was over.  On to the next pose and I thought perhaps this wasn’t the pose that ALL would be coming for me. So what is it that will come?  And when is it that will come? 

And then it came.  

All of it.  I was in shavasana.  I realized that just because I got into a posture doesn’t mean I was doing my yoga and sometimes I’m doing my yoga and not a single asana was involved.  

So I ask, “what is my yoga?”  

What is it that is coming when I do my practice?  To that I answered, “to get present, to love, to give.”  And now I see that ALL did come when I got into supta kurmasana.  I got present to the fact that I held myself hostage by my own thoughts of how tight I thought my hamstrings were.  My heart was flooded with love for the teacher that compassionately helped me get into it with such care.  And in the act of trusting  the teacher to assist me, I’m certain I gave the teacher the gift of giving, which he loves so much to do. 

So is this enlightenment?  In my book, I’d say it’s a glimpse.  I’m certainly more awake and definitely more aware than I was when I was fighting with my alarm clock.   All this wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t show up. 

Practice and all is coming!  

It’s the truth to any questions you might have. Whether it’s a meditation practice, yoga, work, relationships, life! or whatever your “practice” is…

Show up!  (even if you come with your fighting, kicking, screaming, stiff, achy, and tired self)

Because all is coming.  Yes, all of it.  

First you have to show up because how can it come if you’re not there to receive it?  

What does “practice and all is coming” mean to you?

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