Yoga Sutra 1.3: The Seer Abides in His own nature

Patanjali's third sutra says that we are not the mind and body. Instead, we are Seers, watching our mind/body functions while remaining unattached.

To clarify further, Sri Swami Satchidananda says our mind jumps from thought to thought, as in, "I am dirty" or "I am beautiful." He describes these busy thoughts as ripples on a lake. They distort our internal views. Using the reflection analogy, Satchidananda says that when we see our physical bodies in the mirror, we are not truly seeing ourselves. Instead, we are seeing glass which produces copies of ourselves.

"The Seer can never misunderstand nor forget Itself," Satchidananda writes. "But we are talking on the level of the reflection. The reflection is distorted, so the Seer appears to be distorted. The true you is always the same, but you appear to be distorted or mixed up with the mind."

On another note, I learned a small detail about myself that has changed my practice. With all of my dance and Pilates training, I thought that shoulders always go down toward the hips to maintain stability. I thought stability to be superior to flexibility, so much so that I wouldn't let any different ideas into my practice. When a teacher assisted me this summer, pushing my ribs up toward my shoulders and my shoulders toward my ears, I did what she asked but dismissed her advice. My shoulders felt uncomfortable in uttita hastasana, only because I had never practiced that way.

Then we moved into handstands and back bends; it dawned on me that shoulders need to be stable and flexible. When I was upside down, the teacher came around again and said, "Move your shoulders to the floor and your feet toward the ceiling." I did, and I had my first comfortable handstand. The back bend that followed was so much more spacious.

The teacher's name is Jenny Arthur. Thank you, Jenny!