Skill in Action
“Yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam”, says Kṛṣna - Yoga is skill in action. This famous line from the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is often cited in reference to our skill at performing āsana, but how skillful you are at putting your foot behind your head, or kicking up into handstand isn’t quite what Kṛṣna had in mind — in fact, he had quite the opposite in mind when he uttered these words to Arjuna.
In the preceding śloka Kṛṣna tells Arjuna that yoga is perfect evenness of mind. Yoga is a mind that is steady, stable, free from attachments, desires, and aversions. Yoga is equanimity.
How does one gain this equanimity? Through skillful action. The nature of everything is that everything is always changing. This implies that we are always in action, course correcting and shifting with the ever changing nature of all things. How skillfully we adjust to these changes varies based on our past experience and the practices of yoga are designed to awaken our awareness to our action.
Yesterday the weather was gorgeous and I wanted to go for a walk with my family. I envisioned us happily walking together, chatting about life, being playful and having fun with each other. In reality what happened was my teenaged daughters pouted about having to leave their rooms and get off their phones. They didn’t talk to me, walked a good 12 feet ahead of me, scowling the entire time. Things didn’t go my way, I barked at my husband, and all of us had a more or less miserable time. This was not yoga. That was not my most skillful moment. I let my attachment and desire get the best of me. I mindlessly gave into those “second darts”, as the Buddha called them, and I let them steal my equanimity.
Iyengar yoga teacher, Roger Cole once said “equilibrium brings equanimity”. Without our constant awareness these “second darts” of anger, hatred, greed, desire, etc. throw us off balance and we lose our equilibrium. When we give in to our “second darts” we are reactive rather than responsive. We flip a bird to the guy that cut us off in traffic rather than calmly letting him over and wishing him well on his way. We snap at our partners or kids rather than taking note that their actions weren’t intended to hurt us. Life is a balancing act - maintain equilibrium, maintain equanimity.
In āsana, skill isn’t being able to execute a difficult arm balance, contort yourself into a pretzel, or stand on your head. Skill in action to to let go of the striving for these outcomes. Skill in action is to put in the work while letting go of our desire to balance on our hands. Skill in action is to find equilibrium and equanimity, or as Patañjali put it, “sthira-sukham-āsanam”, āsana is a balance between effort and ease.
My students hear me say often that our yoga mats are a microcosm of the rest of our lives. The next time you practice watch out for the “second darts”. Are you striving to get deeper in your backbend? Are you sure you’ll be happy when you nail that headstand? Do you wonder what the heck is wrong with you when you can’t touch your toes? The way you react in the stressful situations on your yoga mat is the way you’ll react to the stressful situation in life. Can you start to bring more skill into your actions?
