by Dona Tumacder-Esteban
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| photo credit: Daisy Darilag and Women's Health Philippines |
The world operates on the principle of duality. Light exists because there is darkness, cold as opposed to hot. And yet, within those two values, there is relativity. Cold for me is February in the Philippines while that may feel like summer for someone from San Francisco. Everything is relative, depending where you are. If we go over our daily life, we may notice that we are constantly pushed and pulled into these relative states of Yin and Yang.
And then there is the desire for union, for wholeness. For some, this desire leads us to the mat. For others, the desire for union is an inevitable outcome of continuous practice.
When you really think about it, it may seem futile to find this union in a world that operates on the principle of duality. And yet sages have spoken about it, written about it, encouraged practices that lead to union, practices that have survived millennia. Many of us have invested time and resources to find ways to experience this union, even just a second of it.
But what really is Union? Is it the balance between polarities? The coming together of the parts to make a whole? The midpoint between two vacillations?
As my mentor Victor Chng discussed yin and yang and the oscillations during the teachers retreat in 2013, what came to me is that union is embracing both aspects, not to find its midpoint, not to focus on that central point where everything is neutral, but embracing its entirety including the idea that we are constantly oscillating between the two aspects. When we are in a state of yang, we are in a state of externalization - a separation of some sort as Victor puts it - while when we are in a yin state, we are in a state of internalization and unification.
We are always in states of separation and unification. Respecting the nature of these oscillations and the natural timing and rhythm of these allow us to be in a state of integration and union with our nature, a state where we need not struggle against the flow. As Victor puts it, "understanding diversity is not to see it as divided but bringing it together in unity." (not verbatim, but almost). We have to embrace both, just like the Earth – an embodiment of the Yin aspect – embraces the diversity of life and experience. The Earth will take both our seeds and our shit. It does not have cravings or aversions, not bound by preference. Even shit is transformed to something useful when given to the Earth.
In my experience, when I do as Earth does and drop cravings and aversions, a certain steadiness abounds - not a stagnant steadiness but a dynamic, flowing steadiness. The Tao, as I understood it that day, is about being in a state of equanimity wherever we are - yin or yang.
This brings me now to Yoga Sutra 2, and I will dare voice out my thoughts knowing that I could very well be wrong or incomplete in my thought (after all, I am a work in progress!). The cessation of the fluctuations in our mind may not be easily attainable, but we can very well come to a state where we no longer identify with these fluctuations and vacillations. Instead, we come into a state of witnessing the fluctuations and embracing these movements without judgment -- a state of equanimity, a state of unity, a state of Yoga.
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Explore these oscillations and find your way into equanimity and unity on Feb 7 and 8, 2015 in the Yin Yoga Weekend with Lek Kittikunadul and Dona Esteban.
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Dona has been practicing Yoga since 2000 and is the leading Yin Yoga teacher in the Philippines. Her somatic journey began in 1999 through movement as meditation. Her exploration continued to deepen with Yoga as therapy and Yin Yoga. Dona is also a yoga therapy consultant at St. Luke's Medical Center BGC. Dona gives workshops in Yoga, Women's Health, Workplace Spirituality and Wellbeing, and Energy Management all over Asia.
www.donaesteban.com
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