Learning To See The Beauty In All Things

What do we see when we look around?

What do we see when we look at ourselves?

How do we receive & interpret our feelings, our experiences, all the different parts that make up our lives?

I think for the most part we are all absorbing things as they are and as they come based on how we have always connected to whatever they are. There are certain things that just simply are more attractive and aesthetically pleasing. There are things that we experience that actually are in our favor, that feel and look stunning- stuff that feels more inherently good and pleasing. These are the parts of life that maybe we believe to be beautiful.

What about the other things? Are the things that are less favorable, pleasing, or less attractive (to us) actually less beautiful or is there a way to re-associate what beauty means to us so that it is deeper and more enriching?

According to the yoga practice, of course there is. Of course.

The yoga practice teaches us that it is as much in our Nature to discriminate as it is to grow and stretch our perceptions to reach beyond our discriminations- ultimately unifying all things and bringing them into the light. So yes, even the things that we don’t personally like for whatever (valid) reason.

When we are practicing asana, we are always working on cultivating this flexible perception while we learn and re-learn who and how we are as we fold forward and face our dogs up or down. We have favorite poses, favorite variations and ideals for postures we have high intentions to one day be able to create with our bodies. At the same time there are poses that aren’t very exciting, some we really don’t like, poses we maybe don’t think look great, some we don’t feel good in, and some that even cause us discomfort. Shapes that we don’t find easy we may not envision as very attractive and the ones we feel our best in we envision in the opposite way. The truth is that there is genuine beauty in all of them and our practice is beautiful no matter what we’re doing or how we’re doing it- even if what we’re doing is taking a really quick rest in child’s pose while everyone else is working for a drop-back in Ustrasana (Camel Pose). Every stage, aspect, variation and modification is a beautiful and integral part of the practice.

This concept of Divine Beauty is what is referred to in Sanskrit as Sri (or Shri). This idea overarches our limited perceptions and small ideas of what constitutes as beautiful based on what we were taught, what we think, and the associations we’ve made with our emotions. It embraces everything in between and surrounding those ideas. Divine Beauty distinguishes itself from the definition of beauty we can look up in our dictionary- which doesn’t go beyond ourselves. And of course the yoga practice offers the universal and inclusive definition that nurtures the heart and the soul. The idea that everything is Divine and therefore beautiful. Which means that every single thing- big and small, dark or light, pleasant or unpleasant- is a beautiful manifestation of the Divine, simply because it is and because no matter the circumstance is continuing the expansion of life.

I still have to really let that sink in and since I began learning about this idea I’ve had to really give it time to permeate and percolate. In spiritual practices, readings, and teachings there can be an overwhelming amount of messaging of these types of concepts which can dilute the meanings of things or even turn them into less-impactful slogan-type ideas. Of course we all want to believe that everything is beautiful. But how? We tend to absorb and honor what we experience so highly in our minds that beauty becomes an intellectual feat. We feel so deeply that sometimes we don’t realize how our emotions tangle our perception. All of this is a natural forgetting that we are capable of being more wide-eyed, open-hearted, uncrossed at the arms and ready to embrace everything.

On the mat I start with breath.

Are we breathing or is even our breath discriminating against our experience? Our breath, our prana energy, is an energy we can draw our awareness to as a way of checking in with ourselves and seeing how our system is doing given the circumstances. Is our breath even? Is it full? Can we hear it at all or is it maybe heavy and erratic? How are we doing in there?? The breath is just one key into seeing how our energy is manifesting in all situations, but especially helpful to check in with when we are less open to whatever is happening in our practice (which is often harder to notice if we don’t tune in). In class I’ll say often, “If you’re breathing you’re practicing.” And while that is fundamentally true, no matter the theme, physical focus or version of the pose we’re in- we can practice knowing our breath further as a gateway to knowing how we are connecting to our practice. Generally speaking, our breath is shorter or being held unintentionally when we are in any way recoiling. The recoil is like a mechanism of the mind-body that we don’t always do on purpose, but is happening because in some way and for some reason, we’re rejecting where we are. It happens.

So when I practice starting with the breath it’s simply a way of turning on my practice-rejection-detector. If I’m discriminating my experience in my pose, checking in with my breath allows me to detect if that’s happening. With a deep breath in and a deep breath out, I can soften that space that doesn’t see what else might exist there that could guide me in my experience- the Divine shapeshifting and co-creating. It feels better when our shoulders drop with our exhale. The relaxing of the upper trap muscles offers a little room to enjoy being in a shape that we know has benefit, but might not want to do for whatever reason, and that we also have this really unique opportunity to create in our own little way on our mats. It is more beautiful than we think and just continues to become more beautiful with each breath we take, softening our minds and opening our hearts .

The practice kicks in when it is the hardest, in the extremes of both challenge and lull. We don’t have to work very hard to see the things that clearly stick out to us as beautiful in some way. The challenge is being in a place of trial and hardship and remembering that there is a beauty that exists even if we cannot see it. I think about poses that I feel the most struggle in or the parts of the practice that really test my will and heart space. Those are the experiences that we can connect to on the mat as an example of things that don’t really give us the sense that something beautiful is happening. It doesn’t feel like it, and well, we all know that if it doesn’t feel like it then it probably doesn’t look like it. In the practice we refer to this as a limited perception. But not one that can’t be brought to a place in which we are able to find what is promising within each and every experience like those that we have on our mats that feel and maybe even look a way that we don’t see beyond ourselves yet.

Our practice assists us in cultivating a sharper eye to the promise in it all. How could it be that only the nice, shiny and pretty things are fueling our practice? That only the prettiest or ideal versions of poses are what make a yoga practice great? How could it be possible that only the things that we connect to as being conceptually beautiful is what is beautiful and good about this life? The fact according to our yoga philosophy is simply that it really just can’t be that way. Not if everything exists and everything is connected. We can still have our opinions and every experience will be distinct from the next. But if it is all happening getting added to the thread of life, it is beautiful in its rawest and purest form.

Every part of this- meaning every part of you too-, every stage, every variation is a Divine creation. It is art. And the art is in and of itself beautiful, made up of all of its parts. The shadows, the color, the lines, and the different strokes.

We practice seeing our practice, our lives, as art. We learn to discriminate less and embrace more- beginning with our breath and our poses and then slowly, as always, beyond our mat space. We practice seeing how the dimmer and less favorable experiences are catalyzing the flourishing, blossoming and growth. We recognize that the struggle is inevitable in our practice to get further in it and without the struggle there is no great unlocking, there are no big revelations. Our greatest, most beautiful discoveries and momentous breakthroughs often occur through and after some of the less pleasant of experiences. The krama (sequence) is honored with love as we open ourselves up to the idea that every part of it is a beautiful incarnation of this material and spiritual existence.

When this practice leaves the mat it can begin to fill in the gaps that disconnect us from things that we don’t even realize we are discriminating against. Beauty begins to unravel from the vocabulary word that is only defined by and so dependent on what something looks like and feels like to us. It still is and can be all of those things, but it is and can be so much more. Beauty is all things and all things are beautiful in their own rite. This has been the most enlightening part. Seeing the opportunity in the things that don’t offer the most satisfaction. Being able to make peace with things that aren’t a part of the world I envision and putting less energy into the ideals of things. Growing out of discriminating to the point of completely segregating one type of beauty from another. There is a freedom that comes with seeing beyond what we think and inviting more in. There is a quiet but deep bliss in recognizing the fullness and the Grace in ourselves and in all things. It’s a willful and conscious practice of tuning into our hearts and using that space to slowly melt away the beliefs that pull us away from who we truly are and our interconnectedness with all things.

I have been reading this beautiful poem at the end of my yoga practices this week. It sinks into the very heart of this theme and when I read it, it reminds me of how this strange, wild and yet normal human experience is connected to our bigger, stranger and wild cosmic nature:

__________

it’s a thing of grace, all you are/

in spite of what’s happened/

a thing of beauty,

the way you happen,

regardless/

/// chris ferreiras;