Unity In Yoga - Embodyoga™

Embodying Life Fully through Discrimination and Acceptance — From the Inside Out

Embodyoga™ is an exciting and innovative approach to traditional yoga practice that incorporates Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s revolutionary approach to experiencing consciousness in the body with Patty Townsend’s deep understanding of traditional yogic practices & techniques. Embodyoga™ is the study of consciousness; how consciousness expresses through the body, and the body through consciousness. This is the study of Yoga at its essence.

This approach to embodiment is surprisingly new in the field of yoga, as it exists in the west today. Without any need to alter, change or improve we are invited to notice, to see clearly, to accept ourselves and to accept life as it is. This is not as simple as it sounds.

Santosha The yogic practice of Santosha is the practice of contentment; contentment with what is, without inferring non-action. Acceptance is a prerequisite for contentment. This is not a superficial acceptance; this is not a layering on of more resistance in the form of manufactured feelings or moods based on what we think we should feel. This is a deep and thorough process of noticing and accepting life and ourselves, as we are, without judgment in the form of right and wrong, good, better, best or worst. Many forms of discursive thinking masquerade as true judgment and effectively lock us out of the experience of the present moment. Santosha, contentment is the doorway to perceiving life as it is. True contentment means that we are not in resistance to anything that we see. We are willing to see it all. This is the doorway to clear vision and to the experience of life as it is, pure and simple. Embodyoga is dedicated to the clear experience of the moment, as it is.

In order to see clearly we must practice discrimination. Discrimination is the key. It is not so unusual to apply this practice to the thinking mind. It is, however, more unusual to apply this practice to the full inhabitation of our bodies. Unfortunately, it is common in many yoga practices to perceive the body as an obstacle to be overcome in order to experience realization. Even the concept of the possibility of attainment of “perfect health” pits us against our bodies, as they are ultimately destined to disintegrate. Can we accept our bodies as they are? Can we accept our youth at the same moment as we accept our old age and death? Can we fully appreciate each and every aspect of our life without craving, clinging or aversion to any of it? These questions are constantly present in us. Can it be true that we need to overcome our bodies? Does that really make sense? Is it even necessary to “improve”? Or, are our efforts perhaps a misguided form of aspiration?

“All of This is Nothing but That.”
If the empirical statement of the Vedas is true, what is to be overcome or improved? When “our body” is “other” we are in trouble. This is the hotbed of dual thinking right here at home, inside of us. From moment to moment we separate, define, differentiate and fortify our vision of duality. In creating an “I” we have a “not I” and unfortunately “not I” is pretty much everything except what ego has taken to be “me”. This body that weakens and dies cannot be “me”. I will control it. I will eat healthfully and I will exercise and practice yoga and endeavor to think good thoughts and I will postpone my death.” This is the voice of ego-mind and ego is desperate to postpone its own death. Since in these cases the ego is directing us toward “healthy” activities and saying the “right” things, we fool even ourselves into thinking that we are moving toward a higher vision. Often, what we are doing is deluding ourselves, and to the degree that discriminative mind is rising up, we begin to suspect that this is true. There is so much outer reinforcement for our efforts and endeavors that we successfully turn our backs on our own discriminative mind as it whispers that we may be barking up the wrong tree.

Discriminative mind has a soft voice. Honed by love, discriminative mind, or Buddhi, is the fruit of our practice and brings the dawn of wisdom. As it begins to express and be heard in our lives we move deeper and deeper toward Source. The lens of our perception widens and we quite spontaneously begin to realize Unity as the primary reality.
In duality, ego-mind runs the show: “I am me, I am separate, you are you and we are not the same.”
In Unity, the field-of-awareness-itself is the primary perceiver: “I am this, I am that and I am all of it.”

This body, just like everything else, is just what it is. All we have to do is to see it clearly. Improving ourselves will not make this any clearer. Even the idea of “attaining excellence” in posture, pranayama and meditation is at odds with “seeing life at it is”. Seeing life clearly is fundamental to yoga. This is not to say that we should drop our healthy practices, not at all, but the next step must be made. The next step is to simply see life as it is; that is all. The healthy practices remain and become a celebration of life. Clear vision ripens when we begin to notice that the entire field of perception perceives itself. In terms of embodiment this means that every cell is actively engaged in perceiving itself and its environment. This is full embodiment. This is “seeing life through life”.

This is perceiving through a radically widened lens, not just from “mind”. In this practice we perceive through and from all aspects of body-mind simultaneously. Our lens widens into the simultaneous perception of billions of cells — awake, intelligent and aware of themselves. “Seeing life through life”, simply means opening to this wider vision by relaxing our striving-mind into the support of the biggest thing happening. The biggest thing happening is the field of awareness perceiving itself. This is the fact of life and it is the invitation of yoga to see this for yourself. In this noticing, the ego-mind is released from the suffering of the unending cycle of craving and aversion. This is the deepest comfort. This is home. Embodyoga is dedicated to the practices that bring us home.