Day 168 – Today’s reading is about what we create through our practice. Rolf writes that “the practice of yoga encourages the birth of a different kind of children, the children of our art…the works of art and the selfless service we bring into the world…the love we share with the world that is uniquely ours.” Rolf asserts that every moment, every act, are our children–and none are ordinary.
He starts the reading writing about birth–some of us being parents and some of us may someday be parents and some of us may not be parents. He tries to bring everyone aboard. I think the first time I read this part I didn’t really see the correlation because thinking of my own children I don’t relate them to “works of aert” or “acts of selflessness,” but I understand that Rolf is really talking about potential.
We all have the potential to see all moments as important, special, and unique and to leave the world a better place, if not for our “hypothetical” children, for others’ “hypothetical” children. Birth, per se, in this quote, doesn’t really mean “create” in the art sense to me or even in the yoga sense. It’s almost a choice or an attitude regular asana practice instills in someone, one in which they carry into the world (i.e., birth). Each of us has the potential to carry forth our practice into the world, just as our real children have the potential to carry forth the very best (or worst) into the world.
All and all, I think there is much more to this passage than meets the eye and it requires a little more thought than the first (or even second) time I read this. It raises more questions in me, like who are my children (the ones from the mat), and what is this process of birth from mat to world to future?
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