Another Lesson in Effort & Surrender

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." - Henry David Thoreau

Hmmm.  I came across this quote and I think I have a problem with it.  I wonder if Thoreau's idea of busy is a little different than mine.  If one is too busy to be looking for success, would he also be too busy to notice that he achieved success?

Last week I decided to continue certain rituals in order to keep myself grounded and to further rehab for my knee.  I managed to maintain certain stretches, but couldn't keep up with the mat exercises because I just plain didn't have time in the morning.  I feel like time shifts so easily beneath my feet.  Sometimes I am able to stand up on it as it moves beneath me and other times I am totally sunk.  I just keep trying to do the best I can, which sometimes means getting 15 minutes more of sleep which doesn't account for the hour or two I'm behind.  Sleep is very important to me the older I get.  Likewise, change seems to take longer.  Could it be that I'm just trying to slow down in order to recognize the changes?

Whatever is going on, I think the issue I have with time, also has to do with when to make effort and when to let go.  There's a reason for savasana at the end of an intense yoga class...

Donna Farhi's Effort and Surrender

Those who know I enjoy yoga most likely know I enjoy reading Donna Farhi books and would love to study with her.  From time to time I open Bringing Yoga to Life and randomly read an excerpt.  I find it telling that Friday morning, the first Friday of my first week in graduate school, I should open the book directly to the chapter Effort and Surrender.

In the Yoga-Sutra Patanjali distinguishes between different kinds of effort.  We are told that self-realization is imminent if our actions are performed with ardor, enthusiasm, and sincerity and that the more intense this passionate effort, the closer the goal (1.21-1.23).  Yet immediately following this exposition on effort, we're advised that effort and the spontaneous realization of oneness are a contradiction in terms.  We can choose another option, and that is to surrender to God.  How do we reconcile these two seemingly contradictory paths?

I'm not sure I can answer that question for myself yet, but after this first week of school (and essentially the first week back to technique classes), I think most of us wanted to surrender in some way; to rest and just to listen.  Friday morning my alarm went off to the music of The Gotan Project - wonderful Tango music that helped me drip out of bed and onto a yoga mat in the next room.  I laid on my back and went through breathing exercises, moved through some simple restorative poses and eventually draped myself over a bolster in a relaxed child's pose.  What I found so wonderful was the lack of effort that allowed me to be still and listen to my breath and my heart.  My heart beat so that it moved my body slightly over the bolster till it didn't seem like "my" heart beating, but just a lifeforce making its presence known.  I found this incredibly comforting and peaceful.  My day moved along with greater ease as well.