Happy hump day everyone!
I’ve really been enjoying the frosty morning walks with Coco and Eddie since I’ve come back to the UK. The sun comes up later here than in India so I often get to see the sunrise and experience the transformation in the space around me as the darkness dissolves into light. I am a morning person, perhaps for this very reason. It’s a gift to be reminded daily that even when things feel really dark, the darkness will inevitably dissolve and the light always breaks through.
I took this photograph on the banks of the Ganga at about 6am one foggy morning in Varanasi as I sat down to meditate. This devotee had risen early to bath in the holy water before hundreds of others arose to take their ritual baths too. The water looked to me like the maya, the illusion, of the material world. Thick, dense and opaque. No clarity. No way through.
I laughed at myself as I saw this metaphor and reflected upon it. It’s so easy to misunderstand maya as something negative, something to overcome. The darkness can feel ‘bad’. Like something to shine a light on. But, in the yoga system the goddess herself, or the feminine principle, manifests as form, as Shakti, in order to experience herself. Therefore the maya is both what keeps us from knowing our true selves as the immanent oneness that dwells within all beings and also the divine herself manifest in form. (Wow! even when I write these things I’m blown away by the beauty of Indian philosophy).
So, even as we thrash around in what sometimes feels like a thick soupy dark existence, we can be comforted by the fact that the divine is right here with us. She is both the radiant beauty, and the most challenging ugliness. She is both the darkness of the night, and the brightness of the rising sun.
I will be exploring these ideas over the coming six week block of Dharma Yoga classes which start this Saturday. We only have space for 12 students in this block and I am opening block bookings today for those who would like to take all six classes. Drop in classes will open tomorrow for those of you who would like to take some of the classes but can’t make them all. The classes will be taking place at our old space off Parson’s Street in the centre of Banbury. For more information and to book please go to the booking site here.
If you can’t make it to these classes, I have a number of other opportunities to practice together coming up including monthly Dharma Yoga masterclasses on Sunday mornings and some collaborations with my soul sister Sam Bowers who always brings the magic with her beautiful sound healing and medicine songs! More information on these below.
Sending lots of love and Om. I hope to see you soon.
Warm wishes
Ayesha
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