Meditation in Motion

Not just a physical practice, yoga asanas can be a doorway to self-awareness.

By Judith Lasater

Along with steadiness, Patanjali stresses that for a position to be an asana, we must abide in it with sukha, a word usually translated as ease or comfort. For most of us, that may seem like an impossible demand. When we move into asanas, we're often aware of difficulty—tightness, weakness, mental resistance, or all three. It's rare that we have a sense of ease. So what could Patanjali have meant by insisting that asanas must be marked by ease?

I've come to think that "ease" in this context refers not to the difficulty I experience in doing the pose, but rather to my interpretation of that difficulty. In other words, the pose can continue to challenge me. Perhaps that will never change. But I can become "easeful" in my interpretation of that difficulty. I can choose to remain present and allow the difficulty to be there without fighting it, reacting to it, or trying to change it.

Just as seeking ease in your asana practice doesn't mean avoiding difficult poses, the wider practice of yoga is not about arranging your life so that it is free of challenges. Rather, it is about using the discipline you find in asana practice to remain easy in the midst of difficulty. When you learn to maintain this ease, everything you say and do can become an asana—a position that allows your body, mind, and soul to sing in harmony with the universe.

Judith Lasater, Ph.D., P.T., author of Relax and Renew (Rodmell, 1995) and Living Your Yoga (Rodmell, 2000) has taught yoga internationally since 1971.

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