"Introduction

Yoga begins with listening. When we listen, we are giving space to what is. We are allowing other people to be what they are, and we are sanctioning our own bodies and our own minds to fully manifest. Yoga also begins in the present moment. Many classic texts, such as the Yoga Sūtra by Patañjali, start with the word atha, meaning "now," which refers to this very notion. In the context of the Yoga Sūtra, the use of the word atha means that we have come to a point in our lives where we are ready to wake up from our conditioned existence and our habitual ways of behaving, thinking, and interacting with the world. It insinuates that we are fi nally ready to get real and to discover the essence of all existence that lies deep down in the core of our own heart and at the center of our being. It is from this experience of the root of life in the present moment that a yoga practice can actually be generated. Patañjali's use of the word now implies that we have most likely tried many, many other things in order to wake up and to find happiness. We have probably pursued all different types of pleasures, and perhaps we have explored various philosophical teachings and disciplines and maybe even religious practices in order to give life meaning. But still, something is not quite right. When all of our attempts to find meaning are seen to have been inadequate for the job, then we come into our present situation and this is where the practice of yoga truly begins—right here, right now.

Yoga is freedom. It is freedom from the fear of not knowing who we are, from presenting a face to the world that is not truly representative of who we feel ourselves to be, and from pretending to believe in things that we do not really know to be true. Th is is the liberation we find in yoga as we return to the present moment: to our natural mind and to a state of complete happiness. It is unlikely we are drawn to yoga in a conscious search for this freedom, but rather that we find yoga attractive because we imagine that it will make us happy, and there are many ideas about what happiness is that may invite us in. We may begin our practice to benefit the body; to become healthy, strong, flexible, sexy, or vibrant. We may see yoga on a more superficial level as simply an answer to our boredom or as a good way to meet people. Then one day in a yoga class we may experience the mind spontaneously dropping into a state of calm and clarity, a feeling that draws us back again in search of that natural sense of balance. The particulars of why we come to yoga may take on any number of forms, and all of them are honorable starting points for the practice because each doorway that reveals itself is a path into the deep matrix of what yoga truly is, and each entrance reveals that ultimately we have come in search of the mystical experience—a timeless sense of complete freedom and happiness.