Its easy to realise how beneficial it is to change our perspective, quite often if we have a problem we are told to look at things in a new light, this indication is very present in Yoga itself.
We tend to forget that a lot of our ideas and views are based upon those we have inherited from others and wider society. Think of how we view a wet day to a sunny one. yet a child or a dog are very happy to go out on either day. Weve been told not to enjoy the rain, they haven’t.
The Yoga practice and the state of meditation and absorption that arises from them allows us to notice with a profound clarity how we look at and react to situations, objects and others. so instead of responding out of habit we can see the moment with a new perspective and see the freedom that we have in how we feel, think and react to it.
This applies as much to ourselves as the external, we develop culturally and societally originated ideas about who we are, our self worth and value, an integral aspect of Yoga practice is to see ourselves in a whole new light, not to diminish our sense of being, but to see its profundity, to see the marvel and mystery of the fact of our existence.
Yoga and tantra has long indicated the presence of shiva and Shakti in all things, these two central divine essences of consciousness and form, male and female, that weave together to create all life whether that is ourselves or a vast nebula of stars in space.
Indeed by that investigation we can see that the same intelligence and energy that creates any of those amazing phenomena in the external world is the same intelligence and power that is creating itself as us, as you, me, everyone.
We all tend to look at the night sky with amazement, but not ourselves, imagine what might happen if we all changed our perspective in that way, how we would interact with both ourselves and each other…. change your perspective and maybe the world changes too.
The picture shows shoulder stand, one of the classical asanas, mentioned for centuries. In yoga, all inversions are referred to as Viparita Karani, upside down process. this occurs in several ways, certainly on the physical being inverted has multiple benifits especially for the inner organs, but also for the mind and the subtle processes. For even physical inversion changes our view on life.
