Kripalu Yoga: Integration to Oneness

Any practice that focuses exclusively on the body goes only as far as the form but misses the spirit of yoga.

The real purpose of yoga is integration. In Kripalu Yoga, the body is the vehicle for which all blockages of a physical, mental or emotional nature surface and are re-integrated.

Encountering physical tensions is the first step in awakening the underling layers of fear, denial, shame and anger. In the practice of Kripalu Yoga, you encounter these tensions and fears consciously the moment you enter the body.

Because you encounter deep tensions, the cause of ongoing stress, you are entering the possibility of releasing and integrating these tensions by experiencing them as direct sensation, without imposing the mind's judgement's and evaluations on your experience.

Kripalu Yoga directs you to transcend the layers of tensions and limitations through the medium of postures, diving beneath ordinary consciousness into your primal energy body that acts beyond your acquired, personal limitations. Only when you go to this depth are the yoga postures therapeutic and integrative in nature.

Consciouness is the Distinction

Your body is not an opponent to fight and overcome. Only when there is total acceptance of your body's strengths and weaknesses is there a possibility for the love of practice and deepening of awareness to occur. Being in real contact with your body without judgement or struggle is the first step to being in contact with who you are. It is the foundation for self discovery. In the process of exploring diffeent postures, your body reveals the truth, but your mind denies or fights it. What makes the difference in Kripalu Yoga is consciously working through these chronic tensions. That provides the real breakthrough that dissolves unconscious defenses and suppressed emotions that keep us from being in direct contact with our divine source.

So dance with your body. Explore it's strengths and weaknesses. Let your body reveal itself to you through your willingness to be totally present.

Building Energy through Being Total

In such total action, the actor dissapears. The achiever disappears and only the action remains. When your actions are total, your energy is total. There is no loss of energy because whenever you are whole, muscular blocks, mental blocks and energy blocks begin to dissolve. The energy then travels more freely between thinking, feeling and acting, and your action becomes more regenerative rather than exhaustive. When you are total, you can relax and let life take over. You merge into your own spiritual self.

What You Want at the End Must Be Present at the Beginning

Whatever it is you hope to achieve in your spiritual practice must be present from the very beginning. In the early stage, it is in the form of potential or possibility. Toward the end it comes in actualized, realized form.

For example, if you want your practice to eventually bring you into a loving relationship with yourself, you have to begin with a seed of love and create the appropriate conditions to nurture that intention. If you are harsh and abusive, complaining about your body's condition, the practice will never bring you alignment with yor physical potential. Instead you'll be struggling with your "imperfect" body.

When beginning your practice, hold an intention to remain conscious and awake to your experience, not reacting to the mental activity and complaints that come along the way. That intention provides a training ground from the very first posture you perform. It helps you remain aware and sensitized to the potential within your physical body, mind and heart.

Kripalu Yoga: The Art of Living

As you learn the philosophy of Kripalu Yoga, you will find it is not just applicable to performing yoga on a mat. It's really the art of living that we're talking about in a formal practice. For what good is it to be relaxed and adept on your yoga mat and then lose control of yourself in a traffic jam or find no peace of mind working with your boss and collegues? When you allow the practice of yoga to affect your consciousness, you carry the practice of relaxation into the midst of stressful experiences. Your whole life is now an opening for conscious integration and fulfillment of your highest potential.