mirror effect

"Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the most self-reflective of them all?" If the evil queen of Snow White would have been a practicing yogi. 

In yoga, we are in the business of looking internally so we can better assess the happenings inside our bodies and minds and hearts in order to prepare ourselves to better serve the outside community. The goal of this requires that one must be willing and ready to explore one's inner truth. Without seeking and acknowledging the way we work on the inside as a cohesive being, we cannot even act in the proper manner to truly serve others through our own calling. 

Tonight, the spiritual instructor read a beautiful passage to us at the beginning and in the middle of our class about the process in which a pearl is made by getting taken deep down to the sea as a rain drop by an oyster and then formed into a pearl over time. This is a real process in which natural pearls are believed to be a real life miracle as only a sparse number are found by man. The parable insists that you must be like this tale (based on science) in order to understand yourself.

You must concentrate internally. A concept often foreign. 

In the book I'm reading Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy, the analogy of ourselves as folded up pieces of origami threads through like the concept we almost felt but never knew. It describes the parts of ourselves we don't feel connect as the folds that society has caused on us, and the negative perspective of yourself are the creases that have been pressed down over and over again; that the only solution to find freedom is to unfold yourself through mercy where she proceeds to explain via anecdotes, quotes, and analytical assessments how to go about doing so. 

Mercy. When is the last time you intentionally demonstrated mercy? Not just for some stranger (which by the way is the easiest type of mercy to do because there is not preconcieved notion by direct interaction), but for someone close to you. Maybe even intimate relationship, familial. Now that is mercy on a different level. 

What about mercy on yourself? 

At the end of each class, as we hold out hands thumbs to heart center, the instructor will thank us for sharing the light of ourselves with the lights of others, and more than thank, "is honored". When can you remember saying that to a friend who you grab a coffee with or a beer or someone who you call randomly because you miss or a person you interact with daily because of context that you are honored to have them share their light with you? 

We all have it. A light within us. But instead of working tirelessly to maintain that light and enhance that light, we hoard. Block it from those we hate. Shade it for others. And only if you are "good enough" will we let you see just a sliver of it. 

See the evil queen wasn't a yogi because yogis would never use a mirror to seek their light, they use the inspiration of the light they share and their reflection upon that interaction, that relationship.