Helena del Pino trained in the tradition of Krishnamacharya and teaches yoga in Peterborough under the name of Healing Yoga, dedicated to health, healing and personal development through yoga. Helena offers some thoughts as we enter a new year.
What are we seeking? is a question that TKV Desikachar puts to us in his book of the same name [1].
So, as another new year comes into being, What are we seeking? is a question to sit and ponder. It is a very different question to What is your New Year’s Resolution? The answer to this latter question tends to be time limited (i.e. for the coming year) and self-orientated.
What are we seeking? on the other hand refers to we – you and me, us, humanity at large.
Seeking implies journeying, discovering along the way, direction, flexibility and perhaps not finding! It is less about trying to control and more about being open to experience.
Our desires dictate what we seek and so as our desires become purified through practice, with the unhelpful desires gradually being weeded out over a long period of time, the nature of what we are seeking changes. Overall, the Bhagavad Gītā is a story about how desire must shift away from selfish purposes into a desire to serve others – this is fulfilling our dharma. This shift puts us in touch with the authentic self that Patanjali points to in Chapter 1, verse 3 of the Yoga Sutra.
So, as members of TSYP we have a collective identity. What are we seeking as an organisation? We do talk about being an authentic reflection of TKV Desikachar’s teachings but what does that really mean?
An attitude of seeking requires us to continue to question our direction, be open to the unexpected and to recognising that our vision is always far less than it could be.
Perhaps we could turn the question around and ask ourselves, individually and collectively, these supplementary questions as we move forward:
- How do I / we support the work of TSYP?
- What is required of me / us?
- How can I / we ensure that we treasure the authentic identity entrusted to us?
- How do I / we need to shift in attitude or direction to help us move forward with these teachings?
- Do I recognise that the fullness of my own identity emerges through living engagement with these teachings and the organisations that seek their authentic embodiment?
[1] What are we seeking? by TKV Desikachar and Martyn Neal, KYM 2004