Yoga: The Lexicon of Subconscious.
It was a sultry summer afternoon.
The boy stood hesitantly on the submerged slimy half wall of the village pond.
Little fishes fondled his feet. The son looked at his father who was balanced
in the water, with skepticism on his ability to swim but with confidence in those
open arms. “You can do it”, the dad insisted. The child closed his eyes and jumped
into the cold water; moved his hands and legs freely, feeling the support of
his dad; floated in the water, moved slowly and started swimming. The man was my dad and that’s how I learned to
swim. No water acclimatization; no kicking lessons; no rowing practices; no
floating devices. (This is not to encourage anybody to take this path; just to
say how Faith, Confidence and Hetero Suggestion worked for me then)
On a remote island, on a stormy
night, a young girl sat in front of a small congregation listening to their pastor
on his sermon on faith. The gathering was stranded on the island when the storm
broke loose. After several hours, the pastor and the rest of his group was able
to find a boat to the mainland. They were astonished to see that young girl
there and wondered how she reached there - so fast in the storm and in the
rain. The girl said: “didn’t you say that we can walk on the water, if we have faith”
“If I just touch his cloak, I
will be healed” and with this belief the woman inched forward in the crowd and
touched His robe and she was freed from her suffering.
The denominator in last two stories
is the same: a stage for autosuggestion, hetero suggestion, faith or belief;
proclamation; and manifestation. We may call it mystery, phenomenon or miracle;
modern thinkers call it the power of subconscious mind – the non-argumentative,
non-squabbling self that do not dispute what was passed to it. It indelibly
mark those suggestions, thoughts, feelings and emotion and present them in all its
glory and marvel at the right time. The key to etch these feelings, emotions
and thoughts into the subconscious is to bypass the conscious mind – the watch
dog – that is continually modulated by temptations and instant gratifications.
Yoga, meditation and
mindfulness is a gift given to us to access the subconscious mind. I have taken
“Impregnation of subconscious” as
the theme of my classes for the next few months. When you set the stage for the
beginning of the yoga practice with breathing, when you move mindfully to execute
one of those millions of poses listening to the Body, Energy, Action,
Direction, Elaboration and Dynamic stability, you’re moving with your
subconscious mind. Sub themes of strength, balance, detox and mindfulness are
handy tools to train the subconscious. When you hear “center yourself”, “find your sacred place” or
“leave your strengths, weaknesses, imperfections, money, job, relationships,
health, beauty for the next sixty minutes” remember the stage the yogini is setting for
you and be ready to act: sync with your subconscious mind.
Hope to you some time in one
of my classes.
Love,
Jay
P. S. “A man is what he thinks
about all day long”, R. W. Emerson
