Have you ever considered how much time you spend looking inward at yourself versus looking outward at all the stuff around you? Think about it for a moment. We have TVs, movies, books, magazines, computers, smart phones, the internet. We have developed countless tools to improve our senses and further their reach. We have microscopes and telescopes to improve our vision so we can look deeper. We have devices that allow us to hear better and speakers of all sorts, including surround sound, to enhance sound and cocoon us in an ever-present hum of noise. We have computers to help us think and we are bombarded constantly by messages from the media, on the sides of vehicles, on billboards telling us what we should do and how we should think and how we should act.
But when was the last time you looked inward - not to criticize or judge yourself or engage in a review of your past, but to ask yourself : Who am I?
Yoga teaches us how to look deeply inward so that we can learn about ourselves. You may think you know yourself, but do you really? Have you looked deep inside to discover the You that is dependent on no one and nothing outside of you? Because if you do look deep within and begin to discover your true Self, suffering will disappear and you will experience a laslting bliss.
Sometimes looking deep within brings us many more questions and reveals many more curiosities before we reach some clarity. Often we have to penetrate many layers of thought patterns, habits, and beliefs and looking inward might feel more like trying to peel the layers of an onion. If we don’t allow ourselves to peel away our protective layer, we can’t expand to our full potential.
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