Bristol YogaSpace
  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Classes
    • Yoga Timetable & Booking
    • Fees
    • Pregnancy & Postnatal Yoga
    • Beginners
    • Gift Vouchers
  • Yoga Retreats
  • Online Yoga
    • Free Yoga Resources
    • Online Video Library
    • Class Recordings Subscription
    • Beginners Yoga Video Course
  • Memberships
  • 1:1 Sessions
  • About
    • Contact
    • Email Inspiration
    • Meet Our Teachers
    • Hire the Studio
    • YogaSpace Blog
    • Yoga Style

Yoga blog

A yoga analogy ... the view through the telescope

2/3/2023

0 Comments

 
Yoga telescope
One day, you stumble upon a telescope.
It looks grubby and old, but it is brass and the lenses are in good condition so it will likely clean up nicely. You make it a personal project and get started cleaning it up. You polish it until it is gleaming, you notice there are a few dents but nothing much to worry about. The lenses are grubby and you take some lens cleaner to them and make them sparkle too.

The telescope is your new pride and joy. You love it. It gleams and you enjoy keeping it golden and shiny. You keep the lenses clean and you enjoy it when others ask about your telescope. When they ask how you manage to make it so shiny and keep it in such great shape, you love to tell them about the techniques you use to polish it without finger marks and how you buff it and dust it daily. They admire it too and consider doing something similar.


But what is missing here? This beautiful instrument is now in fact more beautiful than before, but it is still a telescope. For all the polishing and shining, the cleaning and the taking pride in keeping it gleaming. It is still an instrument. And an instrument ultimately has a greater purpose.

It affords a different view from our day-to-day view that is so easy to overlook. The view that has been there all along once the lenses were clean enough to see. 

We love our things, we love to work to improve them and gain satisfaction from the progress and developments we make. However ultimately the shiny brasswork is a non-essential bonus. 

We sometimes approach our yoga practice in the same way. We hone our body, we become accomplished in our postures and do things we never thought we would be able to do. There is wonderful value in this and it makes use feel great and can be a lifeline in an unstable world. We refine our breath and become closer to our embodied selves and find a calm we never knew before. We make our minds attentive and focused and able to stay with objects of attention for longer than before. But then what...

The view that we can find by using the instrument for what it was intended, whether we have done all of our polishing and shining, has been there all along waiting to be seen. 

The ancient Yoga Sutra of Patanjali capture this idea beautifully up front, right at the beginning. 

Yoga is the containment of the minds movements
(Yoga Sutra. Chapter 1. Verse 2)

So that... our perception and awareness can rest in its own essential nature

(Yoga Sutra. Chapter 1. Verse 3)

The mind containment isn't the ultimate point, it helps us recognise it.
It makes it easier to see and notice, and a certain amount of focus and experience here helps. It brings its own benefits which can be delightful - but don't stop there.

Once we have this, what remains for us to notice?
What has been here all along that we have been overlooking by focusing on the 'every-day'?
What we are seeking in our yoga practice, can't be found anywhere but right here. It is already available and present. We don't need to polish the brass to find it. 

Don't forget to find that amongst your practices. 

Yoga telescope
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    More blog articles >

    Picture
    Yoga student
    Yoga teacher
    YogaSpace founder 2009
    More about Clara >
    ​

    Categories

    All
    Advanced Yoga
    AI And Yoga
    Anxiety
    Asana
    Ashtanga Yoga
    Association For Yoga Studies
    Backache
    Beginners
    Bikram
    Bikram Yoga
    Breathing
    Bristol
    Chant
    Children
    Competition
    Concentration
    Conference
    Dementia
    Discipline
    Energy
    Event
    Fatigue
    Fitness
    Football
    France
    Gratitude
    Hatha Yoga
    Health
    High Blood Pressure
    History
    Home Practice
    Hot Yoga
    Injury
    Inspiration
    Iyengar
    Mantra
    Meditation
    Olympics
    Online Yoga
    Over 55s
    Paul Harvey
    Pilates
    Posture
    Pranayama
    Pregnancy
    Relaxation
    Research
    Retreat
    Running
    Schools
    Sleep
    Slow Down
    Sound
    Sport
    Stress
    Top Tips
    Try This
    Viniyoga
    Vinyasa Flow Yoga
    Women
    Yoga
    Yoga Retreat
    Yoga Space
    Yogaspace
    Yoga Therapy

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    November 2023
    June 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    January 2023
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    November 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    October 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    May 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    March 2010

    RSS Feed

Bristol YogaSpace Ltd
Princes Place, Bishopston
Just off Gloucester Road
Bristol BS7 8NP
​Email: 
[email protected]
​

​Call Clara:
07530 053 543
About Us >
Blog & Latest News
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Registered Company No: 09708327
​
Best Yoga Studio in Bristol 2024 YogaSpace
Best Yoga Studio in Bristol 2024
Best for Yoga Therapy Bristol 2018
Award winner Yoga Therapy
© copyright 2024. All rights reserved.
  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Classes
    • Yoga Timetable & Booking
    • Fees
    • Pregnancy & Postnatal Yoga
    • Beginners
    • Gift Vouchers
  • Yoga Retreats
  • Online Yoga
    • Free Yoga Resources
    • Online Video Library
    • Class Recordings Subscription
    • Beginners Yoga Video Course
  • Memberships
  • 1:1 Sessions
  • About
    • Contact
    • Email Inspiration
    • Meet Our Teachers
    • Hire the Studio
    • YogaSpace Blog
    • Yoga Style