Jim Tsinganos

I confess, I am a collector of words. Not just the everyday words, but the ones that seem to manifest from a pause in thought and the drawing in of a longer than usual breath. In my palm size book I have collected words from known and unknown souls that share a passion for linguistic dance. Small snippets of insights caressing my mind away from chaos, swirling whirlpools in my being to cherish beauty in all things.

Each have expanded my horizon to see beyond my peripheral vision and into that place that only the radical of thinkers would dare to couple such images together. Like this one…. a hindu proverb “The poet can reach where the sun cannot”. It’s the words that I will always remember long beyond the action. The words will always reach into me and eloquently bring to life a stillness. That very stillness that I return to, during and after each yoga practice.

Some people say they can live on air alone and for me I truly believe that words are my nourishment. While most kids were deep into fairy tales, I instead was weaving a tapestry of new and uncharted adjectives, skimming the dictionary like a scavenger in search of MORE. There is always something more to reach…

surrender

I don’t often talk about my yoga practice, not even with my students or to colleagues really. It’s very personal and honestly it’s hard to put into words what goes on…  It’s not the jumping around and the contortionist moves that keeps me keen. Today in the silence of my practice, the words that surfaced painted another landscape of understanding. One pose at a time, I sculpt a place in me that beautifully holds my essence. I am suspended from attachment to either bliss or torment. As I move my body attuned to the rhythm of my breath, I seek out that pause that naturally occurs between the paths of inhale and exhale. It’s here that I experience my most treasured gift of all. Emptiness! That emptiness is like an exquisite freedom. Perhaps like an iceberg dislodged from the land… just floating, buoyant and an island in itself.

‘Oh beloved, take away what I want,
take away what I do,
take away what I need,
take away everything
that takes me from you’ Rumi

ahhh yoga! the two core principles of yoga as outlined in the Yoga Sutras: Abhyasa and Vairagya!
Abhyasa – devoted practice
Vairagya- detachment from anything that takes us away from Remembering the self.

They are two wings of the same bird!

“they are companions in play as they flap in unison enabling the bird to fly”
The secret power of yoga by Nischala Joy Devi