THE ADVANCED BEGINNER

The advancement or mastery in yoga strangely makes us think of the skill of making omelets.

A good chef will confirm this. The classic omelette is a deceptively simple dish. It involves attention to detail, care, practice, and doing more with less. A common credo is if you have refined the art of making a classical omelette, you possess the strong foundation from where more complex dishes can emerge.

Yoga mastery works the same way. It lies in refining the simplest practices. In fact, in the monastic traditions, teachers wait to teach the advanced techniques of meditation until they see signs of stillness in the body and serenity of the breath developing in the student.

What starts off as the simple practice of being aware of the touch of the breath as a subtle sensation within the nose throughout your practice, over time, becomes the refined object of attention. That leads to the acceptance and gradual fading away of all arising thoughts. Then, we experience its far-reaching effects on our cognitive functions and spiritual growth.

So, immerse yourself in refining the simple practices. It is the real advancement.