Marya Mann : Blog : Quan Yin: Joyful Yoga Vision

Quan Yin: Joyful Yoga Vision

Be happy. Be healthy. Be hopeful.

“One legend says that after struggling to understand the needs of so many whose cries she heard, Quan Yin’s head split into eleven pieces. I can relate, having felt that way just this morning!”

Aloha, Friends!

Even if life is handing you difficulties, your ability to love and feel compassion is growing. No one is left out in the arena of problems, suffering, and loss. (Don’t you wish?)

But when I find myself suffering, I am often moved by the vision of Quan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy who is often depicted with eleven heads and one thousand arms. Her name means One Who Sees and Hears the Cry from the Human World.

One legend says that after struggling to understand the needs of so many whose cries she heard, Quan Yin’s head split into eleven pieces. I can relate, having felt that way just this morning!

Like peace of mind and your next breath of fresh air, suffering is something we all share. While acknowledging the truth of our state, we can’t give power to the pain and expect to grow. We must learn to give power to the light.

Fortunately for Quan Yin, the Awakened One, the Buddha, turned those fragments of what we might call a “splitting headache” today, into eleven full-sized heads, the eleven stages of enlightenment.

Then, with her new knowledge, Quan Yin tried reaching out to help all who needed it. With the effort, her arms split into a thousand pieces, which the Buddha graciously turned into a thousand arms.

As a bodhisattva, Quan Yin is able to reach nirvana – perfect happiness in a transcendental realm — but delays it out of compassion for you and me. To save suffering beings, bodhisattvas choose to stay in the world until all people have reached enlightenment.

Her superpower is her commitment to never give up. Yoga gives us an opportunity to make a similar commitment. Through our practice, we feel good in our bodies and awake in our souls. We embody the bliss of being empty of the false ego and full of love. We bring joy to ourselves and thus, more joy penetrates into the world through our work, play, relationships, art. celebrations, and all the ways we enhance our healing presence and spiritual evolution.

Yoga also gives us immediate feedback in separating what is real and eternal from what is illusory and temporary. By stepping on the mat and taking a conscious, loving breath, we instantly connect to the present moment, to the source of life, and the timeless wisdom. We remember our deepest connections to those who have come before and those who will come later. We know that we know to survive any difficulty that befalls us. And we are learning more every day how to move mindfully through the full range of human experience.

More than anything, Yoga helps us to stay conscious, as Quan Yin was after she got all her eleven heads put on straight.

The unconscious view is unacceptable. Like the Goddess, we cannot ignore the cries of the world, but neither can we dwell on the negativities. Focusing on the dark side for longer than is needed to learn its current lesson contributes to more suffering continuing to focus on the difficulty, what appears in the world around us.

While we need to deal with real-world problems when they come up, what is around us in the physical world is old news. The physical world we’re dealing with today is the outcome of what we thought and envisioned yesterday or last year or in a last lifetime.

The point of power is now. Yoga is now. What we think and envision today creates the energy that shapes the outcome that greets us tomorrow. And the natural energy of our essence creates the thoughts that form the habits that hold a vision of the world as we intend it, rather than the one that is stressing us out.

When we breathe into the wonder of our divine nature, it quickens the healing light in the heart, lining up photons in the direction we choose.

Difficulties may happen, but once we become aware that the architecture of the inner world comes first, and the physical manifestation follows our inner blueprint, we can focus on the point of most power – the invisible spiritual realms, and from there, we can become the change we want to see in the world.

So, there is a joyful solution to stress, and it’s right under our noses, in the breath, and inside us, in the heart. All we have to do is give power to the light rather than the pain.

You can choose, so choose to be happy, be healthy, and be hopeful. Life may not immediately become smoother and more fruitful, but the energy is moving in the direction we choose.

By setting our intention on finding truth and joy even in adversity, our patience, wisdom, and insight grow. Our difficulties can become like lanterns on the path of leading us through the darkness toward a more authentic and free life.

Like Quan Yin, our quest and explosive understandings may lead to feeling fragmented for a while, but with care and compassion, and with help from others, they can become powerful stepping stones on our unique path of enlightenment.

Start where you are today. Be present with yourself.

If you want to turn your obstacles into stepping stones, please reach out to me to schedule a free consultation call at 808-345-0050.

If you are new to Yoga and the Evolutionary Flow, you will love our Monday classes, and if you are a seasoned practitioner, I invite you to take your sacred movement to a new level.

Yoga for your Body and Soul wakes up new levels of alignment, bliss, and subtle field awareness while attuning your consciousness to a broader spectrum of resources, insight, and experience.

Namaste,
Marya Mann, Ph. D.

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May we all be peaceful, free, happy, and healthy!

Namaste, Marya Mann, Ph.D.