sit down, my mind, be still

Shtira Sukam Asanam 2.46
When the body and the mind are steady without strain and at ease without being dull, we find a comfortable seat.

While the sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras makes reference to yoga as a pose, asana literally translated means "seat" and he didn't give any detailed instructions on how to exercise the body into different shapes. In fact, what we know today as yoga in the West is only a very small part of an ancient philosophy that includes exercise mainly as a form of preparing the body to sit longer in meditation to gain control over the ever busy monkey mind, to link up to the higher power some call God, Allah or the Universal Life Force.

Patanjali continues, that any given pose is composed of our attention to tension, relaxation and the infinite. The asanas we practice in Vinyasa Yoga today are designed to increase strength and flexibility, steadiness and ease, for both, the body and the mind. Through our practice on the mat, we stimulate all physiological systems, including the circulatory, muscular, immune and digestive system. And we also develop mindfulness and focus needed for not only meditation but also a happy life.

All movement can be a place for meditation. A pose may change, the world may change, but grace and ease are always available.

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

(Mary Oliver)