It's all good
V'zot HaBracha/Breisheet 2010/5770-5771
KOSHER SUTRA This is the blessing (Deuteronomy 33:1)
SOUL SOLUTION Joy
BIBLIYOGA POSE Shabbat Pose/Shivasana
BODY BENEFITS Restoration and Healing
 

Life is all about cycles and at various points we reach the conclusion of different journeys. Whether it is the end of a relationship, seminar, academic programme or a year, we reach these brief milestones that allow us with the opportunity to take stock.

Our Kosher Sutra is spoken by Moses who is on the verge of his final breath and proclaims the words “this is the blessing”. Although he is saying it within a specific context, we can learn a huge amount from these words by firstly dropping into the present moment and questioning – where is your blessing right now? What are the blessings in and around your life? There’s a rabbinic tradition to say 100 blessings every single day, and if we take the opportunity to count 100 good things in our life then we are bound to feel a sensation of joy.

The Sanskrit word for happiness or sweetness is sukha, and the Yoga Sutras proclaim that every posture should be happy or sweet – ‘Sthira sukha asanam’ (YS II:46). One way of ensuring that they are sweet is to practice the posture until it is comfortable. A more immediate method is to mentally scan through the body, go through a checklist of all the body parts that are functioning well, and count these blessings until you are well into double figures.

When we can look at our life and see that it is good, we’re onto a good thing. This is the first Kosher Sutra of our new cycle: “God saw that the light was good” (Genesis 1: 4), and there is a continual repetition of the Creator seeing the good throughout creation. We can do the same. It takes practice to keep on seeing the good, to appreciate the blessings, to taste the sweetness. May we all be blessed to continually see the good around us.


Marcus J Freed (c) 2010/5770

 

SHABBAT POSE
Lie on your back, palms facing upwards by your hips, relax your breath and focus on the air flowing in and out of your nostrils. Stay there for up to 10 minutes, eyes closed but completely alert.