David Swenson is fond of saying that yoga is a fertile soil, and whatever you sow in it, will grow
vigorously. If you sow pride, competitiveness, and selfishness, they will all grow to make the ego
an even more formidable opponent. If you sow love, compassion, and humility, they too will flourish.
Thus at every step along your journey, you may want to pause and examine your yoga garden.
What are you growing? Sometimes we start with the best of intentions but somehow take a wrong
turn, and find that we have gone astray. We realize that our garden is full of weeds, the soil is
parched, or that it is infested with pests. The good thing is that you’re never more than a thought
or two away from the Path.
It is perhaps easier in Ashtanga than in other yoga methods to fall prey to the lure of the ego. The
challenging postures and the rigor of the practice may be distract us away from contemplation. The
strictness of the discipline may promote elitism or narrow mindedness rather than compassion. But
this is just the nature of things. Rather than fear these obstacles, be mindful of them. When your
buttons get pressed it's a good reminder they are there.
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"Know me, eternal seed
Of everything that grows:
The intelligence of those who understand,
The vigor of the active.
In the strong, I am strength
Unhindered by lust
And the objects of craving:
I am all that a man may desire
Without transgressing
The law of his nature."
Bhagavad-Gita, VII
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