Coming Home to Ourselves

For many years, Don Stapleton was a resident and senior teacher at the Kripalu Centre in Lenox, Massachusetts. He, along with other devoted practitioners and followers of Swami Kripalu's, are responsible for continuing this timeless lineage of compassionate, non-judgemental self acceptance. I'd like to share one of his many insights, which he eloquently shared with thousands of his students. He is no longer on this Earth, but his wisdom lives on. I hope his words serve to help you be your beautiful and authentic self.

Yoga is often presented in the West as a way to 'get better'. With promises of physical prowess, heavenly states of consciousness, and the attainment of powers of concentration and self-mastery, yoga is frequently undertaken with ardent hopes for a better body, stronger control of mind and emotions, and the dream of a life beyond mundane human experiences. However, embracing the technology of yoga - and the authority of the yoga teacher - can easily become another way of separating ourselves from our natural wisdom by encouraging us to look outside ourselves for the peace and harmony we seek. To return to our natural state of being at ease in our bodies, entails a personal journey that does not require traveling beyond ourselves to find the means for expanding into our fullest evolutionary potential. To come home to ourselves calls for returning to the original creativity that permits us the freedom and benevolence of spirit to begin with ourselves as we already are.

~Don Stapleton Ph.D~

Many blessings,

Jai Bhagwan