Kquvien DeWeese Weekend Workshop Day 2: Heading into the New Year Feet First.

In Light on Life, BKS Iyengar talks about the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali which begin with Samadhi Pada (an experience of transcendence) and ends with Kaivalya Pada (Liberation).  However, in between the 85 sutras that make up the two Padas (chapters) Patañjali "drops right back down to the basics showing how to put one's first foot on the path of the inward journey [...]." 

Day 2 of our Weekend Workshop, Kquvien woke up our awareness of our feet with the Virasana series. We explored the connections from our toes to our ankles and shins. She challenged our awareness through Baddha Konasana, Siddhasana, Ardha Baddha Padmasana, and Padmasana.

Kquvien quoted from a Shambala book by Sakyong Mipham, that talked about how we 'meditate' all the time --like on what other people say or what we are going to eat; ergo, we can learn to meditate on our feet. 

When she showed us the art of rotating the feet from the shins and ankles, she emphasized the fact, "It's all connected." She went back to the basic precepts of Yoga the Yamas and the Niyamas. She explained the importance of understanding the first of the five obstacles: Avidya, ignorance (uninformed) and that by applying the Yamas, Niyamas, Abhyāsa (practice) and Vairāgya (detachment), we can turn Avidyā into Vidya. 

Kquvien admitted that even for herself some of what our yoga mentors teach us could take over ten years to fully understand. I won't assume I completely understand any of them yet. However, my take away was that no matter how deep we go on our yoga path, as Mr. Iyengar further explained in his book, "the practitioner still has to get dressed in the morning, eat breakfast, and answer his correspondence." 

We can't lose sight of the basics. Kquvien read an excerpt from another commentary on Sutra 1.1 Atha yoganushasanam, that urged us to understand that enlightenment doesn't come in a bolt of thunder but in everyday events. Now begins our yoga in this very moment --in putting on our socks and shoes. 

For 2018, perhaps we can also aspire to Mr. Iyengar's vision for our feet, "I would suggest the image that one foot is on the earth, whereas the other stands in divinity, but a divinity that is not divorced from practical reality. It is simple that the divine foot lives in Oneness."  

Thank you, Kquvien. Namaste.


To learn more about Kquvien DeWeese visit her website at kquvien Yoga .