An Esoteric Yoga session: simplicity and union
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An Esoteric Yoga session: simplicity and union
In an Esoteric Yoga class or session, the focus is upon simplicity. An attentiveness, deep care and awareness is brought to our own bodies in a way that, for most of us, we don’t experience in the busy-ness of our daily lives.
The intent however, is not for the quality of how we are with ourselves in a session to be ‘left’ to the domain of the session space only, but rather, that it relate to and inform us in our everyday activity. Yoga means ‘union’ and any true form of yoga will hold at the core of its essence, delivery and design, a support for the human being to reconnect to themselves, and the opportunity to deepen one’s capacity to live in union – body and being as one – in the way we live our lives.
“We need to develop a body that stays present with itself – this means to live a life that is lived in-sync to where the body is at – at all times.”
Serge Benhayon Esoteric Teachings & Revelations Volume I, ed 1, p 92
In the founding premise of Esoteric Yoga, as taught and founded by Serge Benhayon of Universal Medicine, ‘union’ is in no way relegated to the session space or one’s own personal moments of retreat. Though such space is important in the establishment and nurturing of our connection to the divinity within, it is in our livingness – the quality of our life, 24/7 – that self-awareness and union in daily life becomes tangible, real, and holds the potential to make a difference for all.
The connection, care and level of conscious presence we may experience in a session therefore becomes a marker for us for our every activity in life, if we so choose, offering us the opportunity to consider:
- How we move, attend to and treat our bodies in our everyday living
- Where we stray from connection with our own bodies and lose conscious presence in what we are going about doing
- Where we may push, over-ride and ignore signals our bodies are offering us, e.g. to slow down and not rush, look after ourselves, deal with our exhaustion
- Our relationship with the stillness inherently within and how this may be brought to, and deepen in our every day
Esoteric Yoga is also known as the Yoga of Stillness.
At its core, the modality prepares us for and supports our relationship with the quality of stillness within – a quality that we, as a whole, live quite divorced from today. As such, there are no strenuous postures, asanas or movements. Movements are deliberately simple and supportive of addressing various momentums we may have been living in – such as nervous energy, anxiousness, tension and exhaustion. We are offered a return to a quality of movement and connectedness with our own bodies that can open the way to re-experiencing our inner stillness, and/or deepening our relationship with it.
This is the call for the yoga of today – to re-establish our relationship with the living stillness within.
“Who one is, is found first in the stillness and secondly, in the movement of that stillness.”
Serge Benhayon The Way It Is, ed 1, p 8
To know our own inner, innate stillness and then express from this foundation is an exquisite and very special experience. The simplest of gestures – the touch of one’s own hand upon one’s leg for example – can become a pure expression of the divine, and a most intimate moment with oneself, washing away (perhaps) years of harshness with our own bodies, of lack of care and nurturing experienced from both ourselves and others.
In stillness, the spaciousness experienced from within one’s own body extends beyond ourselves – we know our inextricable connection to the all and recognise how our every movement and expression does indeed impact upon the all.
For many, the experience of an Esoteric Yoga session can be uncomfortable at first, for we are not used to being offered such a space to simply be and re-connect with ourselves and our own bodies in this way. Our bodies and beings can commonly creak and groan, twitch and/or seek to check-out from being truly, consciously present with ourselves – as we adjust to coming back, through the simplest of movements and the space to truly stop, feel and listen to our own body.
Yet consider the whole picture of how we’ve been living – the extent of disconnection, running our bodies and lives on auto-pilot, the lack of care for the way we move, eat and tend to our precious selves… and we are bound to meet some resistances in our initial stages of re-connection.
Consider then also the depth of inner connection and joy that awaits in the re-union with ourselves – body and being as one – and the possibility of living in such union and connection in our everyday lives becomes deeply worth it.
Whilst there is no ‘perfection’ in this, a steady consistency in the livingness of our daily life is most certainly available to all. Renewed vitality, commitment and purpose in our work, our relationships, our home life and community engagement is commonly experienced by participants in Esoteric Yoga classes and sessions – all founded in and by the relationship we are supported to build within ourselves, through this simple and yet profound modality.
Esoteric Yoga is a modality for our times, designed to support our return to union with who we truly are, in the realness and fullness of the lives that we live.
Filed under
Body awareness, Connection, Conscious presence, Livingness, Stillness, Therapies
