Serenity of mind is Called yoga

I’ve dusted off the copy of the Bhagavad Gita that my dad gifted to me some years ago. I read it before my first teacher training, and referenced it for years to come. Then a long break. I closed the books and decided to let life be life for a while. Now I came back to the same pages I’ve once read and am drawn somewhere entirely new. 

I’d like to share a shloka from that faded purple copy of the Gita that stuck out to me as I was reading today. 

“Fixed in yoga, O winner of wealth, perform actions, abandoning attachment and remaining even-minded in success and failure; for serenity of mind is called yoga,” - Bhagavad Gita II.48.

Yoga is not limited to a series of shapes and postures. While those are very good for the body when done correctly, that is just the asana portion of yoga. Let me ask you this… Say you go to a yoga class, maybe you’re a regular and you’ve gone consistently for weeks, months, or years. On the mat, you still struggle to “do the pose right,” and off it, the mind and emotions run wild, jobs and relationships are toxic and/or unstable, you’re drained and feeling unfulfilled. What serenity is there?

Clearly, the weekly class is falling short of getting something across. Based on what I have learned about yoga, my understanding thus far is that yoga is a state of being, more than a thing you do. In other words, it’s not what you do but how you do it. 

“The cessation of the mind-stuff is yoga,” - Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras I.II.

Yoga is the state left over when the ups and downs of the mind have gone quiet and are finally still. This means yoga is a process, and what process is free of exploratory deviance? That’s right I said it. DEVIANCE! Skip class, stop reading, spend time with different people doing different things that you enjoy, perhaps on a deeper level than the one influenced by the cultural fad that yoga has become, i.e. the branded yoga offshoots and rigid routines making false promises, and others that are just silly. 

If yoga asana, chanting, and affirmations aren’t your deal, that’s ok! Find what makes you feel alive, connected, and present. See your passions, your joys, and favorite activities or new burning curiosities as invitations from God to come play a part in the Bigger Picture. 

Traditionally, the physical portion of yoga - postures, breathing exercises, formal meditation, diet - is designed to bring clarity to the mind and rid the body of stiffness, gas, and pain so you can sit in meditation and not be bothered by a needy, weak body. But yoga doesn't just happen on the mat, and meditation can look very different than sitting on a cushion or when wearing a certain outfit, or when holding your hands a certain way. 

It could be cycling, cooking, an instrument, your relationships, your job, a sport, a new art form, a building project or agricultural endeavor, or a new business. Each of those can be a yoga practice, each task required can be seen as a tool to return to now - a meditation. So within each yoga practice there is meditation. Don’t let it stop there though. 

If we just pursue things for our own satisfaction in a vacuum, what gift is there for anyone else? Share your gifts! Big or small. This falls under the practice of satyam, or truthfulness. 

It is not only being honest with others but also being honest with yourself about what you actually want to do with your life, time, and energy. After all, if people are just different fragments of God, then to refine and share your gifts for others is to do so for God, Universe, Creator, whatever you want to call it/Him/They/Her/Them. They are offerings and acts of service. 

For me, guitar, mountain biking, track cycling, and road biking actually… I like bikes… and of course freediving, are all forms of meditation. When yoga is understood as serenity, it becomes more about how you do what you do than whatever it is that you may actually be doing. At one point or another, I’ve done all of these activities driven by fear and ego, and through all of them I’ve learned humility, presence, alignment, intentionality, stability, coordination, and focus. That translates outward into other areas of my life, less glamorous moments like taking out the compost and trash at home, or navigating conflict within a relationship. They didn't start as meditations but they’ve become vehicles for presence in their own way. To me, that is the yoga. To you it could be pottery, or cooking. Anything at all so long as the attention is on here and now, not attached to desires or outcomes, and the intention behind your action is to give service, not to bolster your own ego. No worries of “I need to be the best,” or “I have to set the fastest time.” Those things may take care of themselves but they won’t have come from a place of force. They’ll have come from presence and flow, and a deep, radical honesty about yourself and what your being needs to do to ground and be present. Whatever teaches that lesson is the right teacher. 

Meditation is simply the practice of returning to now, whatever the task or activity at hand. Yoga is the union of breath and body to harmonize with the mind. So in freediving, it looks like not being attached to my numbers, though great numbers may come with attention, proper practice, and consistency. In cycling of any kind, focusing solely on speed and competitive ranking robs me of the joy of cycling, though I am naturally competitive to a degree and enjoy the process of getting better at things I like. When I think too much about numbers and comparison I lose what I’m doing and often perform worse. When it’s all treated as meditation, there is an accompanying sense of inner peace that is unavoidable. It’s also way more engaging and fun because suddenly, I’m aware of subtleties that had previously escaped me because I was busy thinking about the idea of what I was doing rather than the experience itself.