Episode Transcript
[00:00:13] Hello, friends, and welcome to the very first episode of deepen your practice with me, your host, Lauren Leduc. And I am a yoga teacher and the founder of true love Yoga in Kansas City, MISsouri. And we're going to talk about all kinds of things on this podcast. But I thought I'd get like straight to some meat today, which is. What is yoga anyway? Yes, yoga is something that everybody knows about now. It's something that millions of people practice, from little kids doing cosmic kids yoga on YouTube to my grandma in her retirement community. So cats out of the bag, everybody has an idea of what yoga is. People have maybe experienced a practice that we CaLL yoga, but do we actually know what yoga is?
[00:01:06] Let's try to kind of untie this knot today and get to the heart of what this practice even is, what it's all about. So I'll start by saying that yoga one is a subjective exPerience. So whatever yoga is to you, whatever you have experienced, yes, it is right. It is tRue. That is yoga for sure. But we know yoga these days within a very modern context, often within a physical exercise type of context. Maybe we think of it as just breathing and stretching and we feel a little bit more peaceful afterward. We don't quite know why. And yes, that's great, but we also need to honor that. Yoga is a practice that has roots at least 5000 years old, maybe even older. If we go back to Egypt.
[00:02:00] The definition of yoga that I'm pulling today is from about 2000 to 2500 years ago. Yes, that's a long time ago, but you'll see that it is perpetually relevant. This definition comes from the yoga sutras, which was written by a mysterious figure called patanjali. And what this beautiful text does is outline not only what yoga is, but how to, quote unquote, achieve it. So I'll go into how it's defined within this text. But keep in mind, one, again, it's subjective. Your experience matters. And two, that it is not the only yogic text or orally passed down tradition that exists. However, it's one that many modern yoga teachers and practitioners are quite familiar with because of its clarity, because it's very succinct in saying what yoga is. There's not really like a lot of symbolism involved. It's very clear, almost written like a legal document. There are texts that are more poetic and that exist within stories and those we can talk about, and they're so beautiful to study as well. But again, we're starting with this somewhat simple definition and what that means. So get ready for it. From the yoga sudras, written by Patanjali quite a long time ago. They define yoga as yoga chitta vridi nirodha.
[00:03:39] Does that mean anything to you? Do you know Sanskrit? Sanskrit is an ancient scholarly language. People don't really speak it to each other day to day. So what we do with the Sanskrit is translate it the very best we can, knowing that many of the words have very nuanced and sometimes complex meanings. And we try to break it down as simply as we can so that it is relevant to our lives and so that it makes sense. So yoga, chitta vritti nirodha, that can translate to something like yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. Sometimes yoga is the mastery of the mind's fluctuations, or yoga is a non identification with the mind's fluctuations. So I'll get into what that might mean. First. I'm going to break down the words within it. So, first we have yoga, which stems from the root word of yug, y u g, which means to yolk. So when we say yolk, think about two oxen pulling a cart, which totally reminds me of oregon trail. If any of you are around my age and played that game growing up, my oxen were usually not in the Yokes. They were falling in a river or something like that, which might be reflective of the many states of my mind as well. But think about putting two oxen in a yoke, and suddenly they are working together as a team to pull the wagon. And so we can think of this yoking as a union and we're yoking our mind. You can maybe even think of it as integration between the body, the mind and the spirit. They're all working together as one. So that's yug yoga.
[00:05:33] Now, the next word is chitta. Chitta means mind or consciousness. So think about the mind. The brain. I mean, the mind as we know it now is actually beyond the brain. It's connected to our whole nervous system, maybe our whole fascial system. But think of consciousness and what that entails, its thoughts and emotions and memories, this whole mental landscape. There might be like a song that's repeating in your mind over and over all the stuff that lives within the mind.
[00:06:06] Then we get to Vritti. So, Vritti are the fluctuations of the mind. And the sutras do go on to define what the difference modifications are, or these fluctuations, but we can think of them as our thoughts, our feelings, and any kind of mental activity. So you can think of Chitta as the backdrop of consciousness. And Vritti as what is moving through it. You might think of Chitta as a snow globe and the Vritti as the snow kind of blowing or floating around the snow globe, maybe obscuring what's inside.
[00:06:45] And then the last word of this verse is Nirodha. And this can mean cessation or even control.
[00:06:52] And it's this ability to calm, quiet, and maybe even still the mind completely. So yoga or union is kind of letting the snow, if you will, of the Vritti fall to the bottom of the jittart of the snow globe, and everything comes to a peak, peaceful halt. So stilling these fluctuations of the mind, how this is relevant, I think, in modern days is, yes, it's always been the human condition to have so much going through the mind all the time. But add on all of the information that we are being bombarded with at all times, be it through media or social media, be it through our jobs, through our modern lifestyles. How much input do you take in a day?
[00:07:48] How much content are you feeding yourself every day? This all becomes part of this Chita versi. And so we start to deal with overwhelm, overload, confusion. The sutras goes on to really list all of the different effects of these modifications of the mind as well. It's quite interesting, but again, all really relatable for our modern lifestyle. Yoga is really important for stilling and calming the mind.
[00:08:17] And I'll add this last definition, which I mentioned earlier, of non identification with the mind. So it's this realization, we are not our mind. We are not our thoughts, we are not the fluctuations. We're something else. And the next verse goes on to talk about what that something else is. So I'll go through that really quickly, not with the Sanskrit and defining the different words within it, but just the general meaning. Meaning. But the verse says, then the seer abides in its true nature. Then the seer abides in its true nature. So you can imagine the snow settles to the bottom of the snow globe, and what is left?
[00:09:00] It is pure consciousness. It's the most true version of the self. Some might even call it pure bliss. And basically it's always there. It always has been there, but it gets clouded by our own fluctuations of consciousness. So what we feel when this happens is a great sense of peace and connection.
[00:09:27] Like I said earlier, your subjective experience in yoga is really important because this is something you might have felt before, or you might have felt even just little hints of it or glimpses at it. Maybe you've only practiced a couple of times. And it feels really frustrating because this process can take a lot of time. But do know that this is an often agreed upon definition of yoga and something that can be felt through dedicated and patient practice. Now, how do we get there? That's a whole other thing, right? It's easy to say, like, oh, I'm going to still my mind right now, but if you've ever just sat down and tried to think about nothing, it's. It's nearly impossible. So. And I'm not going to outline it today, but in a. In future episodes, we'll talk about this. But Tanjali is really cool because he not only tells us what yoga is and what happens once we achieve it, but actually how to get there. And he outlims what's called the eight limbed path, or ashtanga. And I'm really excited to go into more of that with you because you'll find that, yes, asana is one of these eight limbs, which is posture, essentially. It's a lot of what we practice in modern yoga, but it's only one of eight. And there are so many ethical practices. There are ways to harness the mind, there are ways to control your senses, your energy, to go inward, to be able to concentrate, to find this union with self. So I'm really excited to talk about that in future episodes. Let me know if this made sense to you. I find, you know, I'm such a yoga nerd, and I love getting into these deep talk topics, which I was like, let's just dive right into this day one, because I want to demystify, in a way, what we're doing.
[00:11:26] And at the same time, like I said, it can be quite complex, but being able to experience it and convey it in a very simple way, I think is extremely important. So we do our best to find that through words, through communication, but it's something that truly can be felt and experienced over time.
[00:11:51] I'll add one thing, that yoga is not considered a religion. It's a philosophy and a science. So these concepts have been experienced and developed over, like I said, thousands of years. And it is fully meant for anyone, I think, to experience for themselves. And wouldn't it be great if we could all experience our own true nature, to feel a sense of peace and to let go of what doesn't matter, so that we can harness ourselves to our highest selves. If you love this episode, let me know. I'll be adding more episodes weekly. Lots of love to you. Have a great, great day. Aum Shanti om peace.
