The potential of suffering

Recently, I've been invited to teach modules of yoga teacher trainings. I taught trainees at the Yoga Center of Medford vinyasa krama, the art of sequencing yoga asana. My mentor, Beth Filla, challenged me to teach the kleshas to the trainees at my home studio, Yogawood.

If this is all Greek (er, Sanskrit) to you, the kleshas are loosely translated as the root causes of suffering. Ironically, as I fretted over my class plan, I suffered. When Beth and I met about upcoming retreats, I asked for guidance on teaching this subject. Beth offered some great suggestions and I exhaled.

And then I started getting jazzed. The more I reviewed and dived into the kleshas, I began to see these misperceptions, attachments, and aversions as incredible opportunities. Through suffering, we know freedom. Freedom has no meaning to us if we haven't known it's absence.

Whoa. My mind started to charge around these ideas of obstacles being portals to release. The deity Ganesh is said to be the remover of obstacles. However, Ganesh doesn't just grant us our wishes, genie-like, or do us favors. It's said that when we appeal to Ganesh he places an obstacle in front of us. If I pray to Ganesh, adorn his altar, and chant his name to achieve ease, chances are he'll present me with the circumstances that I deem stressful. If I navigate this terrain wisely, applying yogic principles like the yamas of non-harming and truth-telling, I'll arrive at the other side with ease. Ganesh offers opportunity.

The kleshas have the same potential. Practically delerious with yogic theory, I decided to take a mental break before facilitating teacher training all day last weekend. I picked up something that I thought would be completely unrelated to the subject at hand, Glitter in the Blood by Mindy Nettifee. This book is a fantastic guide towards better writing. I turned to my bookmarked page and read, "being too attached to the narratives of your life, the stories of 'what happened to you,' can also make you crazy."

Shut the front door.

I then decided the kleshas were following me. Obviously, the previous sentence displays both avidya, misperception of reality, and asmita, ego identification. And then I realized that I was presented with another opportunity.

Yogawood Teacher Trainees, who have obviously moved to the other side of the kleshas