Purnatva-Perfection

I am in the process of cleaning the house like a divine domestic goddess, and packing to go to Columbia, in South Carolina to study with John Friend the founder of Anusara Yoga for a week. It will be a long and intense week of delving into the second part of the Anusara Immersion - the jewel of the Anusara Yoga curriculum. The Curriculum Committee worked hard at standardizing this back in December, so I am excited to experience the fruits of our labor from the hands of a Master Teacher.

Yesterday, I went to take my own yoga class with Suzie Hurley, another Master Teacher, and the owner and director of Willow Street Yoga, and as always, she did not disappoint! And, as often happens, she delivered a message I needed to hear.

Suzie spoke about how we become trapped and defeated by our need to be perfect, when we are already that in essence. We worked with hip openers, and instead of striving for perfection, we were invited to embody the fullness we already manifest on so many levels.

The class was truly joyous in so many ways and we explored the meaning of "purnatva" - often translated as fullness and perfection. This is a common theme in Anusara classes.

While we were in Savasana, Suzie played a rendition of an ancient Sanskrit chant from the Shavasya Upanishad, from the Yajur Veda, which has always been one of my favorites:

" purnamada purnamidan
purnaat purnamudachyate
purnasya purnaamadaya
purnameva vashishyate"

While there are many translations of this mantra, this is one I resonate most deeply with:

"This is perfect, that is perfect
Perfection comes from the perfect.
Take the perfect away from the perfect,
and only the perfect remains."

As I often tell my students, they are already Divine in their essence, and their poses are already perfect as they are - because they are expressed from within. All we do in class is enhance them. Each one of of my students is already an unique manifestation of the Divine, and through our shared practice, we make beauty through the artistic expression of our poses.

Suzie ended class with this beautiful poem by Dana Faulds:

Perfect Emanation

"The perfect emanation is
alive inside each one of us
right now. I'm not denying
my imperfect translation,
my stumbling fits and starts,
or my dark side.

Yet look at what is
manifesting! Witness how
the thread comes off
the spool without tangles,
how the tapestry of life
weaves itself
using me a loom."

Go out and weave your own tapestry of fullness and perfect and shine your beauty and poetry on the mat!