Yoga & Inner Bliss: the state of Being

There is this idea that yoga creates an envelope for personal happiness. I’ve heard it before from students many times, and in my own head as well, as we are not “immune” to wanting more from our practice, whether that is in the form of mental, physical, emotional, etc. but also in what we think that will bring us. The point of practice is the practice and part of that path is finding what allows us to explore that container that brings us closer to bliss. According to yoga philosophies, “happiness is the very state of our Being (Ananda), and in seeking happiness we are trying to find something grander.” ~the Bliss of Being itself.

To find yourself in a state of constant searching, designing your choices around what will make you feel happy versus unhappy, enriched versus depleted and so forth, you are creating circumstance awareness of any possible outcome, and as humans we are pretty hardwired to want to eliminate the options of pain, sadness, grief, etc. So what if you consciously decide to remain unfazed by the outcome and then in doing so you become detached to the perception that was previously considered less desirable? Are you then seeking happiness or is it just a shift in perspective that allows you to go beyond that identification and know that it is temporary, as this is just a state of mind? We keep going, we move, shift, feel, decide and see who and what we are regardless of these “interruptions” and more fully adjust to our realization of “bliss” as we truly are.

And while we can try to understand that happiness is not dependent on an external object and bliss is independent, we can also try to understand that the latter is who we are. It is a state of Being. Yoga is the realization of inner bliss. That is the practice. That is the path, the journey, the realization.