Darren Main

As a child, my father was a god to me__t times I loved him, at times I feared him, but I always wanted to be like him. As an adolescent, I resented my father for the sin of being human__or not being the god of my childhood. Then, as a young man, I felt sorry for my father because, in my arrogance, I believed he knew nothing and I knew everything. It was not until I held my own son for the first time that I truly understood my father. Now I can appreciate the man he is and the man he helped me to become.

Many believe bliss and gratification to be synonyms, when in fact they are antonyms. Bliss is the nature of your most true Self and it is with you anytime you become still enough to listen. Gratification is what you seek to fill the imagined emptiness, and is generated by a false sense of self.

People slip spontaneously into moments of concentration all the time__hile reading a book, exercising, playing chess, or creating art. A yogi seeks to experience that same level of concentration intentionally in a practice known as dharana__he act of purposefully narrowing the mind__ focus on the breath, the sensations of the body, a mantra, or a prayer bead. This consistent and purposeful focusing of the mind while on the yoga mat or meditation cushion gives the yogi the same level of focus in life, allowing for wild creativity and unfathomable productivity.

Non-attachment doesn__ mean you forgo possessions, pleasure, or comfort. It simply means you are at peace when those things fail to show up in your life. It means that while you can enjoy moments of ease, you are equally at peace when pain, hardship, and struggle define a given moment.

Mindfulness is the bedrock of all spiritual practice. With mindfulness, the simple becomes profound, and the common becomes extraordinary. Without mindfulness, even gold and silver will quickly lose their luster.

In most forms of exercise one__ breath follows the movement__he faster and harder you work, the faster and harder you will breathe. In yoga, the exact opposite is true. Rather than changing the breath to match one__ movement, the movement is changed to follow the breath. In doing so, a yogi gains immediate and unconditional access to the deepest levels of consciousness, because just as breath and movement are connected, so too is the breath bound tightly to the mind.

Gratitude is both a vaccine and an antidote for grief. Grief may be an inevitable fact of life, but gratitude has the power to transform the experience of grief from agonizing suffering to profound joy.

True power__ot to be confused with worldly power__s found at that beautifuland sacred spot where will and surrender merge into an unstoppable force.

The hardest part of any yoga practice is rolling out your mat.

The truth about yourself is so near, so close, that it is very difficult to perceive. Just as it is difficult to style your hair, apply makeup, or shave without a mirror, we require a mirror of sorts to spiritually groom ourselves. For most, that mirror is relationships with others. People who wear masks of untrustworthiness, dishonesty, selfishness, and greed see those qualities reflected back from everyone they meet__ven the most noble souls who cross their paths. But people who have put their masks aside are able to experience compassion, love, and wholeness in others, even in their adversaries__ven in those who are still mired in a tangled web of fear, insecurity, and abrasiveness.

Silence__rue silence is universal. It is the profound stillness at the center of everything, at the center of every relationship__t the center of yourself. While it is always there, it can only be experienced beyond the veil of judgment, expectation, and attachment. From time to time, a person can spontaneously enter into a perfect moment of silence when dancing, watching a sunset, holding an infant, or making love; but for most,true silence remains elusive at best. Yet through various forms of meditation and prayer this veil can be lifted, allowing that inner silence to wash through you, leaving in its wake a cleansed mind and a compassionate heart.

All great myths and stories follow a similar pattern. The hero gets distracted and questions his power. He struggles and flounders until he is able to face his perceived weakness. Ironically, it is the struggle that makes himstronger and enables him to meet his destiny. Without the struggle, without missing the mark, without getting lost in the mire of the journey, growth would not be possible. We tend to think of life__ struggles as the cause of oursuffering, when in fact, struggle reveals our true power and unlocks our latent potential.

Sculpting the future and healing the past can only happen through mindful action in the present moment.

So many people confuse attachment with love. Attachment to someone implies control; loving someone assumes unconditional acceptance. Attachment leads to grief and loneliness when the person is no longernear__r even sometimes when he or she is in the very same room. Love is the realization that there is no distance between you and the other__hether they are across the room, around the world, or beyond the veil of death.

The narrow edge between comfort and discomfort is to a yogi what a grain of sand is to an oyster.

Just as a hug is the only way to express yourself when words are inadequate,mudras, or gestures, convey profound spiritual experiences that cannot adequately be expressed verbally. The most powerful,universal and healing mudra is a smile. When we overflow with joy, we cannot help but smile spontaneously. And when we are mired in doubt, fear, anxiety, and depression, a smile creates a map in the mind that leads us home to that joy that is hidden in even the darkest moments of our life. It is one thing to know that joy is possible in any moment__n any situation. It is anotherskill entirely to know when to find that joy when your world is crumbling around you. The map is with you always__ust smile!

The mind is the only level at which any lasting change can occur__t is the soil in which we plant our hopes and fears, habits, and patterns. What we plant in the mind will grow and bear fruit. Just as it would be pointless to complain about a carrot seed failing to produce a tomato, it is equally pointless to look at the garden of your life and complain about what you see growing there. We have to be willing to plant different seeds.

What is it to succeed in yoga? Success in yoga means finding the smile buried deep beneath the pain and discomfort of any moment. Success in yoga is knowing that others were able to find a smile beneath their pain and discomfort because you were near. Success in yoga is speaking to yourself and others with compassion and kindness, even when you want to wield your words as weapons. Success in yoga is to listen more than you speak. Success in yoga is when mindfulness celebrates the joyful moments andbecomes a refuge for the painful ones. Success in yoga is to be grateful even for your pain, suffering, and challenges. Success in yoga is willingly taking the time to put the needs of another ahead of your own. Success in yoga is feeling fear rattle your bones and then doing it anyway. Success in yoga is not only finding your purpose in life, but also finding the courage and passion to live that purpose. Success in yoga is remembering that it was never about the number of times you fell but rather the number of times you got back up.