Cosmic Partner Yoga

Yoga is more fun with a friend. Actually life is more fun with a friend and yoga is a great metaphor for life.  When I feel a bit alone or sad, I like to play with friends. I like to connect in different ways and explore the reality that I am not separate from anyone or anything.  The other day, I was sitting on the beach and realized that relationship does not necessarily mean connecting with one person, but means connecting with everything.  Yoga teaches us that there is not really any tangible, individual self. That we are a collection of thoughts/feelings/beliefs that relate to the outside.

Patanjali describes this idea in 2.6 of the Yoga Sutras

drig-darshana-shaktyor-ekatmata-iva-asmita ||6||

दृग्दर्शनशक्त्योरेकात्मतैवास्मिता ॥६॥

Confusing the immutable core with the transient shell is referred to as identification with the mutable (asmita)   

Patanjali says that we are souls who have a body and a mind. The soul, however, even though it’s the Seer, cannot perceive on its own, and that’s why it needs the mind. The mind, which is composed of our senses and intellect, is under the influence of continuous changes in our emotional moods, mental habits and the environment. Therefore, it is not the most reliable perceiver. Asmita, the ego, however, does a great job convincing us that it is THE perceiver, the one and only.

In deeper analysis, we can apply this concept to our entire being, to our cells to our thoughts, to our worries, fears, ideas, concepts.  Really to everything that passes through our minds.  

By practicing Partner Yoga, we can attune with another human in a deeply embodied way. We can meet physically and energetically synchronizing our breath, feeling one another’s body, moving together and supporting each other to go deeper in a posture.  We can support our partner in moving through their edge, meanwhile, we can have a good stretch as well in the processes.  By connecting with another and inquiring into the state of the self, we can gain valuable insight into the state of one’s body mind and spirit.