20 Nov Identifying with your true “Self” (Yoga in Heston & Hounslow)
With the rise of Identity politics it is common to hear people talk about how they “identify”. Many people identify with their nationality, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality and gender. Others identify with the car they drive, the university they graduated from, their job title, wealth, their physical appearance, the values and ideas they hold precious etc.
Through Yoga we come to reject all these identities. These identities only carry meaning at the surface levels of our consciousness. Practicing Yoga encourages us to aim much higher and to identify and unite with something eternal, universal and divine. To the great mystics all living beings possess a “divine spark” or a “God seed”. This is the source of all our highest virtues such as courage, love and compassion. It is our purpose in life to grow and cultivate this seed or spark through the practice of compassion based forms of meditation and by building stronger connections with those around us.
This divine presence within us is given different names in different religious traditions. In Christianity it is “The Christ Within” in Hinduism it is the Atman, in Buddhism it is your “Buddha nature”. Despite the different labels all describe the same thing. It is our true Self waiting to be discovered by us through a sincere and committed practice of meditation.
Each of us is like a block of marble. We must chisel away at the marble until we have removed everything that is not our true Self. If we wish to be happy and free we need to carve away our bitterness, resentment, anger, jealousy and fears. We need to liberate ourselves from our false self the Ego and allow the light of who we really are to shine through.
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