Use the Five to come back to The One

Last week Laura's theme, throughout our classes all week, was the 5 principles and the 5 mahābhūtas, the 5 elements. [Confession: because inside I am still a 12-year-old sitting on the stoop with my junior high friends, I hear mahābhūtas and turn it into "maha booties," and giggle a little inside...]

With the usual elegance of Anusara yoga, each of the 5 principles has a direct relationship to each of the mahābhūtas, as follows:

1. Open to Grace --> Space
2. Muscular Energy --> Earth
3. Expanding Spiral --> Water
4. Contracting Spiral --> Fire
5. Organic Energy --> Air

It was so helpful to think of the qualities of water, for example, when working inner spiral, to think of the openness and freedom of movement that water has, as we set about opening our hips. And to visualize the qualities of fire when activating outer spiral and the tailbone, firing up the belly. So elegant!

Whichever five you choose to focus on -- principles or Mahābhūtas -- Laura's real point was that we use The Five to come back to The One.

In Anusara, we go through these principles (open to grace, muscular energy, inner spiral, outer spiral, organic energy), and always end up back where we started, Open to Grace. We expand, then contract, but ultimately always expand again. And though I've heard this probably thousands of times already, last week this hit me with a new power.

Use the Five to come back to The One.

That's it, in a nutshell, really, whether we're talking about our 5 senses or the 5 elements or any other 5s or 3s or 2s under the sun. The real purpose is always opening, expanding, recognizing what is already there, using every tool at our disposal to come back home into our own bodies, into what a delight it is to be here in this form right now. Elegant and so awesome!

Deep love and gratitude to my teacher and to my teacher's teachers! XX