Marya Mann : Blog : Love At The Beginning, Middle, And End

Love at the Beginning, Middle, and End

Ultimately, Yoga is a prayer about relationship, about returning to a vivid, nourishing relationship with the cosmos. One way to do that is through daily ritual. For thousands of years, our ancestors have risen with the dawn, to perform the rituals of lighting the lamp and pouring water, practicing the rituals of first breath and last.

Imagine what a different world we would be living in if people were waking and rising together in song, singing themselves – body, mind and spirit – into the day with loving goodwill toward all living things. What would the world be if each of us were rising to honor each new day? Byrd Baylor writes:

“A new day needs to be honored.
People have always known that.
Didn’t they chant at dawn in the sun temples of Peru?
And leap and sway to Aztec flutes in Mexico?
And drum sunrise songs in the Congo?
And ring a thousand small gold bells in China?”

Just as physical exercise makes our bodies robust, daily spiritual practices like yoga and meditation awaken our latent inner powers, and we soon find our own voice. Our prayers may have no words; our prayer may be a feeling a love in the heart that dedicates a piece of work or blesses the beings that give us food, water, and shelter. It is not the words, but the state of mind, the love, evoked by our rituals, which is potent.

Love at the beginning of practice, love during practice, and love as the goal of practice brings Yoga into its fullest expression. Love is the foundation of connection and health, and the most important treatment for disease. Love is our natural state of being, not something we must do. Love in our time has often been veiled by misguided education and unskillful parenting, but we can choose to love and feel the fullest flowering of our potential.

To learn more about the love that we already are, and to experience its boundless joy, we can learn new ways to meditate. We’re always meditating, even if we’re not aware of it. The focus and quality of our attention give our meditation its power or lack of it. Whatever we choose to focus on – a meal, politics, helping children, regrets, organizing, craving – becomes the object of meditation.

Place your attention on your heart center, then move your attention outside your body to others. Move your attention around in a scurry of worry and whirlpool of pity. Bring attention back inside yourself and relax in the peace of your heart. Notice how we can choose where to send attention – the worry-place, or to the soft heart space. Or we can rest in “open attention,” with a more global awareness of everything inside and around us.

Meditation comes from the same root word as “measure and “medicine.” It means the ordering of consciousness toward some desired end. Through yoga and other morning rituals, we become more careful and one-pointed. Bringing consciousness into the heart expands its naturally compassionate energy, so we can relax into our loving nature, our natural, awakened presence.

People who don’t realize they’re meditating when their attention moves to different objects can become stuck in neuronal and cognitive pathways that funnel energy toward unwholesome ends. By consciously bringing the attention into the body, we fill the torso, arms, legs, and head with awareness, breath, energy, and vitality. We enliven the body, center in the heart, and focus all our energies toward appreciation for the amazing gift of life.

Through the rituals of yoga, meditation, chanting, lighting a candle or blessings, powerful energies flow into the world. As we mark the day with prayerful attention, we heighten our awareness of the beauty in all our relationships and take our place in the cosmos. We see the beauty, meaning, and value in each precious moment of our lives.

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