Dear friends
I often share during practices, the idea that what brings us to our mats, to begin the journey of yoga may be different, but what makes us stay and continue this path is the same for us all. This longing of the heart to reach and connect to something that is bigger than ourselves. This is a human condition that we share, a deep spiritual wilderness in which we wander…a deep longing…as if living in exile far from home.
This longing for a place, that is far away, may it be physical or metaphorical is found in one of the best plays of Anton Chekhov: The Three Sisters:
“In Moscow you can sit in an enormous restaurant where you don’t know anybody and where nobody knows you, and you don’t feel all the same that you’re a stranger. And here you know everybody and everybody knows you, and you’re a stranger…and a lonely stranger.”
In the Jewish tradition we are now in the 3 weeks period of mourning. A time when the walls of Jerusalem were breached and up to ninth in the month of Av, which is the day of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the exile from our beloved country.
It is said that when the temple was standing we had a close connection with God and that intimacy we once had is now gone.
Through the lens of yoga, longing has to do with something that we once had. We can only long for something that we once experienced and that was known to us, something that we lost.
According to the Judeo-Christian tradition, the feeling of lack, or this spiritual wilderness could be linked to the fact that we were sent away from the Garden of Eden and this longing for redemption, for us returning to where we once were happy and free has now become our greatest desire and hope.
Yoga paves for us the path back to the Garden of Eden, a path to liberation. But with the understanding that we need not go anywhere to reach it. Rather it is to realize that we are what we seek for. The garden, the temple, Moscow, are right here…just where we are….in the NOW.
Would love to hear your thoughts right here in the blog
Blessings on your way
Thank you for this post, Nurit. I resonate deeply with that feeling of longing. Mine is not so much for a specific place but more for a point in time that felt more manageable, serene, non-dramatic. One of many reasons I’m dedicated to practicing yoga as regularly as possible (and some days, it’s just 15 minutes of quiet stretching) is that the practice, itself, provides an oasis that has those qualities that I long for. The pace, craziness and unmanageability of this world we live in fades away while yoga practice provides sanctuary. It is a gift you provide, Nurit, and it is a gift I give myself in the interest of self-care.
Thank you Martha!