Elephants, carrots and self

Photo by Luigi Scarcella Perino

There is a story of a boy that has a wooden block. He stares at it and sees an elephant in the wooden block, so he takes a scalpel and hammer and he start carving the wood out...carving off all that is not the elephant. What this boy is doing with his wooden block is directly related to what we are doing with our bodies during asana practice. Our body is the wooden block and our 'Purusha', or inner light/Self, is the elephant the boy sees in the block of wood. Our tools to carve out the our inner 'elephant';) are our breath( pranayama) and our physical practice(asana).

As we practice we create what is called 'tapas' which means heat. Imagine there is a fire within and the asana serves to ignite the inner fire and the breath to feed it. In this way we shed off, burn off what is not part of our essence. We loose all that is blocking off the inner light!

You might have noticed that when you step out of a yoga class you feel radiant and uplifted...that is because you have carved out the waste that was covering your inner light ...you discovered your 'little elephant'.. You are pure inner light, or at least you have uncovered it slightly, momentarily. We rest in savasana before we step out the door to let those shifts settle in.

Think of a carrot! You peel the outer skin off which tends to be a little bitter and unpleasant...tough and rough texture. Once you peel it you have the inner sweetness the carrot holds inside!and thats yummy!

So what can you shed off? What is not you? 

Let your light shine through!!!!

And share it with those you love..it feels sooo good!

Stay tuned for carrot/cashew dressing recipe to come...