52 Weeks of Yoga by Gwen McCarthy

Author:Gwen McCarthy [McCarthy, Gwen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: -
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2018-07-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26:

The Second Step - Right Intention

At the start of every new year, many of us make New Year’s resolutions. Although I’ve always thought of it as an American tradition, this practice actually dates back as far as Babylonian times, when people made promises to return the things they had borrowed and to repay their debts. Resolutions were also a tradition for the ancient Romans, as well as knights in medieval times. Regardless of who makes the resolution, the purpose is to bring about a positive change in your life.

You can probably guess some of the most common resolutions for Americans: losing weight, improving their finances, exercising, getting a new job, cutting back on smoking, improving relationships and becoming more assertive.

If you’ve ever belonged to a gym, you’ll know that in January it is hard to find a place to park because the New Year’s resolution people are there in full force. If you wait until February, though, most of the new gym devotees are long gone. With that in mind, you will probably not be surprised to know that about half of all resolutions have been abandoned by the end of January and only eight percent of New Year’s resolutions are still being kept by the end of the year.

As yoga students, we practice something similar to a New Year’s resolution when we set an intention. What makes an intention different from a resolution is that when we set an intention, we do it with the strongest commitment to have it become a permanent part of our lives. Right intentions also make up another one of the Buddha’s steps on the path to enlightenment.

When setting new intentions, think about the things that you want for yourself. When you watch the news and see the violence that harms innocent children and adults, you realize how important it is to set an intention for creating peace. Many of us also set intentions for improved health, which comes up frequently in the yoga classes I have taught for cancer patients. No one understands the importance of good health more than those who do not have it.

Almost all of us want the same things in life, such as being able to make our own choices about how we will live our lives in order to find true happiness. If we follow Buddha’s example, though, we will not only work toward achieving these intentions for ourselves, but for everyone else too.

We all know people who have chosen to spend their lives in a service profession. These people include teachers, nurses, firefighters, police officers and social workers. They go to work every day with the commitment of serving the needs of other people. They would probably make more money in different lines of work, but their dharma or calling is to help others by protecting their safety, taking care of them when they’re sick and teaching them what they need to improve their lives.

Although it’s not an actual profession, a Bodhisattva is the ultimate service profession.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.