All is coming... All is going...

Sri K Pattabhi Jois commonly said, “Practice, Practice, Practice... All is Coming.”

When I first started this Ashtanga Yoga Method, I had in my mind that this meant first series, second series, third series, fourth series, perhaps some even more advanced series (like fifth or sixth), and most importantly my eventual enlightenment, and release from all worldly entanglements.

Twenty years later... travel, marriage, births, deaths, motherhood, sisterhood, divorce, injury, successes, failures, health issues, and somehow living through all of it... I find myself still practicing this Ashtanga Yoga.

Somewhere along the way, I realized that “All is coming” meant ALL of it: the good, the bad, the ugly, the miserable, the beautiful, the exquisite, the pain unbearable, the joy insurmountable, the laughter and tears, new friendships and the loss of others, children, lovers, enemies, sickness, hours of being stuck in traffic, the feeling of lightness and oppressive heaviness, unbelievably good fortune as well as terrible hardships... ALL of it.

The Yoga is about keeping the mind steady amidst all of these ups and downs, to maintain equanimity despite the turbulent comings and goings of people, places, events and things. That it really didn’t matter what posture I could or couldn’t do, that the practice itself was teaching me to not mind the discomfort, and to see through the delusion of accomplishment, to understand that all things come and all things go. And when I say “all” now... I understand that it means ALL...

Nothing is permanent, All must eventually be released.

This is the Yoga, and This is the Practice.