Stop Stopping

Lots of family are in town this week. I enjoyed going to see the movie "Bad News Bears" with them yesterday. I'll caution you, it's irreverent...but not irrelevant.

When the Bears had their very first bad day on the diamond they decided to quit. I don't think of Billy Bob Thornton as an oracle of wisdom, but here's what he told the team:

Once you start quitting, it's hard to stop.

It sounded like advice from a person who's been there.

I like what Patanjali has to say when he tells us how to achieve the state of yoga. He says in order to stop the fluctuations of the mind and be in the state of yoga, you've got to practice (abhyasa) and detach (vairagya):

I.13. Practice is concentrated effort to keep the mind steady.
I.14. It becomes firmly grounded when carried out for a long time without interruptions and with earnest attention.

If you want what yoga has to offer, you can't bail out when the first obstacle raises its ugly head. You can't quit. Practice yoga with sincere dedication. And keep doing it. Don't quit.

Yoga is a way of life to be mastered. Unfortunately, most of us aren't masters. We're dabblers. Hobbyists.

Mastering anything begins with a commitment to not quit when the going gets rough, or when the going gets boring. Had it not been for the fact that I was teaching yoga, I doubt I would have made it past some of the long plateaus during which I saw little progress.

Don't give up.

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., It's short and sweet. But it's the best I've ever read about the long, slow path of mastery. I recommend it highly. It's called Mastery, by George Leonard. I recommend it to all my students who have difficulty maintaining a consistent practice over time.



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