In spite of Spring just starting, I find that many things are ending. It seems like nearly everyone I have a real conversation with is going through something that has startled their status quo...I've experienced or heard stories of losing loved ones, ending significant relationships, job loss, falling sick or injured. In the same way, new shifts are taking place that are also upsetting equilibrium.
In yoga, we are always talking about opposing forces, recognizing how they create a pulse of juxtaposition, honoring that the imbalance is necessary for the creation of symmetry, respecting the process...there is so much going on at once, on varying levels, and it is easy to get caught up in duality - this or that, etc. Aum offers us a lesson that there is more than just beginning and end, there is also middle and transition. There is process.
The Sanskrit word aum is a three part syllable which is said to encompass every sound in the universe. Each syllable symbolizes a stage in the process of being - beginning, middle, end (there is even a 4th part, the silence afterwards!) Take any moment in your life, take any pose in your practice, and it will fit into aum.
While so many aspects of our lives are coming to clear and seemingly final halts, let's take a moment to look quietly and sense the silence afterwards, to sense what is settling and splitting apart, and to also notice that gray area of transition which is always followed by a new beginning.
