The Little "self" In Me

According to Donna Farhi, in the book Bringing Yoga to Life / Chapter 3 - A Larger Life:

In Yoga there is a tacit understanding that while we may have a body, a personality, and a name, this little self that we have come to believe is the entirety of our being is only a small part of something larger.

I was excited to touch this topic of the book (I'm excited to write about this too! As you can see, I've been mentioning this term "self" a lot in my previous entries -- without really expounding. It's because I needed to finish this chapter first to confirm all my thoughts!).

Little self - This was covered by Binky during the first session of her mini-retreat, and that time it gave me mixed feelings of confusion and awe -- I guess it's because I kinda understand the concept of having a little "self" inside me -- through the yoga poses and activities we did that day -- yet I couldn't explain in explicit analogies what it is. The closest analogy I made was this - the little self is the "improved" me, who I can find only with faith and inspiration, or perhaps when I push/convice myself with the line, "You can do better than that!". Later on I learned that this is both right and wrong.

(yes, now I can make perfect analogies!)

"Something Larger" in the above quote, refers to the "expanded" version of us caused by forces we live with everyday, forces that are constantly altering us, since the day we were born. Examples: It could be your urge to easily judge someone, because that's how it is in the corporate world. It could be the the way you bully someone, as how you were bullied as a child. It could be your fear to give a speech, because of a traumatic humiliation in the past. It could be the impulsive shopper in you, because you grew up filthy rich, getting every material possession you wanted. etc.

Meanwhile, The little self is your TRUE NATURE. It is the good and innocent you, the ORIGINAL YOU before you were exposed to anything.

This is why my initial analogy is both right and wrong: "the little self is the improved person in you" -- This is wrong if you think that it should take a lot of pursuing -- from yourself or anyone else -- to have this "better" version of you. This is right if you think that this can be reached by simply stripping off the elements - objects/people/places/experiences -- that made you worse over the past years.

This is when Yoga comes in. We can use it to "peel" ourselves - by "centering" to find our true nature, by meditating to remember who we used to be, by being aware of how we move, our breath and our senses to know the "self" better.

...Oh I hope I understand it perfectly this time. haha!