“Disciplined freedom”

While driving to class a couple of days ago, I remembered a line I’ve heard and used many times, “Take the body, the mind will follow” and all of a sudden 20 odd years of that line was realized.

Later that night, I was reading Light on the Yog Sutras where Guruji writes, “Asanas act as bridges to unite the body with the mind, and the mind with the soul. They lift the sadhaka from the clutches of afflictions and lead him towards disciplined freedom.” and it seemed like something to consider deeply. The last two words have been food for thought since.

Running is similar to asana practice in that one has to get out and keep at it. Most runs are difficult and in the early days, the discipline of being regular is wrenchingly hard. Breakthroughs are few and far between and it can seem like a pointless endeavour to get out and run. It gets even harder if there is no specific event to train for except to see how far your body can go.

The discipline of getting out regularly trains the body and mind to move until it becomes natural and without too much of a fight. And slowly, one day you realize that there has been a transformation. The struggle of the early days has been replaced with a calm expansiveness. The goal is no longer that important, the journey has become enough in itself.

My mistakes in running have allowed me to embrace my Yog sadhana at its pace. The single most important thing running has taught me is the value of a sound base, a tadasana mastery in all I do.

In gratitude to my teachers.