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The Concept of Maya in Yoga
The way I learned it, “maya” was the veil of illusions that keep us from the Real. “Real” meaning the knowledge that all is divine and therefore we are divine and because all the “stuff” of the physical, material world, like our houses, our relationships and even our dreams fluctuate, we become distracted away from this deeper knowing.
But maya has many more dimensions. In a sense, we need maya to function and fulfill our lives in this world.
Defining it only in negative terms places it all too easily into the “bad” category which does nothing to help us understand how to be in this world and be connected with the divine at the same time. Because the very body we put through the yoga postures or into lotus sitting posture is both Real and Maya.Yoga practitioners need to take responsibility for exploring these key concepts in yoga which they may have acquired through their teachers or guru lineages. Like many other yoga teachers and practitioners, I continue to practice “right inquiry” by asking more questions and reading different commentaries on these key yogic concepts.
[tags]maya,yoga practice,teaching yoga[/tags]