29/01/2023
Join my JIVAMUKTIYOGA dynamic flow
MON/WED/FRI 09.30
What determines the result of any action in life is the Intention that lies behind it. Intention can be defined as something that you want or plan to do, in other words an aim that has a goal. To do something intentionally means to do something on purpose, to act in a conscious way. At the beginning of a Jivamukti yoga practice the teacher asks the students to set an intention for the class. To act with purpose and consciously connect breathing and one’s actions individually and collectively to the goal of Yoga ¬– Self-realization.
As Sharon Gannon says “You cannot do yoga, Yoga is who you are, your natural state, all you can do are practices that reveal your resistance to existing in that natural state“. The motivation for our practice must be clear from the start. What do we think this practice is really for? Are we aiming for union with the divine Self and cultivating a desire for Yoga? Is the practice developing our potential to see the divine in everyone and in everything we come into contact with? Our intention can help us cultivate compassion, kindness, and love.
In the Jivamukti yoga tradition we set the intention by chanting the following pledge: lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu – May all beings everywhere be happy and free and may the thoughts words and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and that freedom for all. Our thoughts are actions in rehearsal. When we think of others and dedicate our actions towards them it takes us out of our small egoic self and develops other-centeredness. This is a step towards yoga when others disappear and we see the oneness of being. This is enlightenment. Through repetition of this mantra the intention behind it becomes stronger in our lives.