Snow and the Second Sutra

It's amazing here in the city...so much snow. The system was enormous; on the radar it was a massive, brilliant blue blob hovering above the Middle Atlantic. And it came down all day yesterday...down on a city that hardly gets any snow at all. The cars are snowed in, and our downstairs is much warmer than it usually is because the snow is snuggling all around us. It is beautiful.

And yet, bless their hearts, I still saw six students in my yoga classes yesterday. I suppose that is what makes the city infinitely cool — those who live within spitting distance can simply bundle up and trudge through the sidewalk snow to come to the warmth and welcome of class. And it was just that...and, as usual, I trudged home with a full heart and yet another realization that the tremendous reciprocity of teaching yoga offers.

It was a realization about grace and perception. We have a million different ways to respond to a situation, and we have a choice of how we respond. It is the second of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Yogas Citta Vritti Nirodhah (please forgive the lack of accompanying Sanskrit symbols), "The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is Yoga" (2007, 3). Sri Swami Satchitananda explains, "The entire world outside is based on your thoughts and mental attitude. The entire world is your own projection" (5). This would be my greatest lesson. I pledge to learn it well.

My daughter is seven months old today. Seven months...

Works Cited

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. 12th edition. Trans. Sri Swami Satchatananda. Yogaville, VA: Integral Yoga Publications, 2007.