Yoga is a complete system. I’m sure it’s not the only complete system, but in it’s ability to integrate other systems it really is a complete system. What more do I need? Every aspect of myself can be made healthier thru yoga: physical emotional, mental, respiratory, pranic body, spiritual…..

Yoga is also very inexpensive. I’m certainly not talking about the $15/class variety of yoga at your local studio. I’m talking about the living and breathing yoga we do in our own bedrooms and living rooms and everyday life. Become a witness. Take a few minutes every day to practice being a witness so that you make it a habit to do always. A few classes to get yourself started is good, some good book can be helpful. The classics like Patanjali’s sutra or the Bhagavad Gita are good. They will both be likely to change your idea of what yoga really is. I was certainly confused at first, but now it all makes perfect sense; these books describe what yoga really is and how to get there. You’ll notice that neither of them suggest going to your local yoga studio three times a week. What they do say is to meditate, meditate, meditate.

Yes, meditation is yoga. What the Buddha teaches is is yoga! What Christ teaches is yoga! What pain and suffering and sympathy teach you is yoga! Tantra, chanting, prostration, pranayama, prayer, and awareness will all bring you to yoga.

Yoga has become another outlet for fitness junkies. Most yoga classes are rajas at best. It’s unsettling to see so many tamasic teachers, but they’re there promising short cuts and leading the masses. The peace and relaxation and utter tranquility of yoga just isn’t there in the cities anymore.

But yoga, my yoga is still sublime. This is why yoga! I’ve made it my own. I love following my own rhythm, sometimes disciplining myself while at other times letting it all slid. I do what I want, I get what I need. Sometimes focusing on pasture, other times focusing on breath. And it costs me nothing. I need nothing. Just the will to do yoga; the will to learn about myself; witness the good with the bad.