This section of the book, chapters 5 & 6 had some great insight and wisdom but lost me at a few points. At this point in the book I’m realizing that as much as this book is about learning how yoga works from the inside out it also seems to be a way for Christina to air her own issues. Her issues with food continually arise and at times catch me off guard. At one point in chapter 5 she talks about how an open heart leads an individual to feel compassion for others and in the very next paragraph she’s talking about making peace with the body by not overeating and counting calories. I realize that she is making a point and then relating it back to a place that’s familiar but for me it is distracting. Just an issue I’m having thus far with the book.
Christina quotes the spiritual leader Arnaud Desjardins saying “that every single being has intrinsic dignity and nobility.” As I dwelled on this comment I could not help but think how opposite that is in western thought. Many western schools of theological thought contend that the individual is depraved by nature but here we have an eastern perspective of the self as inherently good. Our western perspective, as Christina describes, leads us to believe we are flawed beings. This idea that we are flawed then permeates our being and leads us to image consciousness. This basic idea has seemed to shape our society and it needs to be dealt with before we can hope to be whole again. One way to do this is to honor “what is.” Christina describes a process where we become objective to ourselves and provide honest feedback. We need to stop identifying with what society tells us we should be and instead look inside and strive towards our true self and true identity.
No comments:
Post a Comment