The Profundity of Beauty

In the last entry I wrote, explained how Nanairo sounds like 7 colors, invoking the rainbow or the full spectrum. The Kanjis or the ideogram for Nanairo ( 那々色) means something like “beauty, ease, abundance” and “times 2 or repeat” and “color”. So let’s unpack each one of the meanings of 那, starting with beauty, and see what they all have in common.

Those of you who know a bit of Kabbalah, the Jewish mystic tradition, might remember that there is an emanation called Tiferet within the tree of life. Tiferet means directly splendor or glory, and is often translated as beauty or balance. Tiferet is smack in the middle of the tree of life, where it finds balance between the masculine and feminine aspects, left and right column in kabbalah or ida and pingala in yoga. It is also the center within the vertical orientation between the lower and the higher emanations or higher and lower chakras. In the yogic tradition, that would pertain to the location of the heart chakra or anahata.

You might associate the heart center with love and compassion, but maybe not so much with beauty… If we find something, someone beautiful, we get this sensation of WOW!, like we are leaping out of our body to merge with the other. Take a beautiful painting for example. You are mesmerised and lose yourself for a moment, forgetting that you end here and the painting starts over there. The heart has the quality of reaching out and beauty is a prime condition, for the outreach to occur.

Sometimes we associate beauty with superficiality or vainness and it can be. However beauty is also there, where we forget about the world, about our tiny existence and merge with something bigger, like when we see powerful nature or are touched genuinely but an act of kindness or when I look into the eyes of my daughter. Beauty can be the opposite of superficiality; it can lead to the most profound states of being.

Whenever you make your surroundings more aesthetically pleasing, sing a song, dance out of joy, laugh so hard your belly aches… it’s beautiful and that allows love to flow. Living in beauty is living in awe and it allows us to transcend who we are through life itself. Just make sure you share that <3

Seven Colors

Inclusivity and diversity is all the rage these days and it ought to be. About time.

The name Nanairo Yoga is derived from the sound seven colors in Japanese, which points to the rainbow or the idea of a full spectrum. I'd like to take this and the next few entries to dig a little deeper into the name and the meaning of it.

The rainbow has long been a symbol of inclusivity in the shamanic and animistic traditions. It holds all the colors without rejection, preference or bias. It also is a symbol of union, between mother, the water or rain, and the father, the sun. This perfect union at a perfect angle and perfect conditions, create this beautiful child, this spectrum of colors, that encompasses the entirety of existence.

When we talk about inclusivity and diversity these days, we are mostly talking about the external world like race, gender, sexual orientation, class etc., which is a really important topic and today, I'd like to shine light on inclusivity and diversity in the internal world.

There is a preference within us for good feelings and an avoidance of bad feelings. Now the shades of feelings that people cling to or push away might be slightly different, but we all have these biases towards feelings, such as joy is good and anger is bad or, contentment is good and sadness is bad. This leads back to what the yogis call the five kleshas or the five afflictions and root causes of pain, which I will further deliberate in another entry.

But is it really? Emotions all have their value and a job to do within our lives. Anger helps us to become aware of our boundaries or sadness helps us to grieve, shift and let go. This addiction to feeling GOOD is cutting off important aspects of ourselves and ultimately stunting our growth instead. It's like preferring some or your children (or colors), cause they are "easier to deal with" or "less complicated" and neglecting the others that might be more confrontational, emotionally deep or really shy. Our feelings are all gems - feeling them fully and allowing them to shift moment by moment enriches our lives.

Embracing the rainbow, the full expression of your soul, IS life. It might be tricky at times, but what counts is that process of becoming aware of our biases or tendencies to push one away and cling to the other. We're not going for perfection. We're going for messy and trying over and over again aka LIFE.

Opinions are like...

“Opinions are like a*holes, everyone has one”… and there are many variations to this saying. And I love them all! What does this saying have to do with yoga, you ask? Everything!

Going back to yoga 101, Mr. Patanjali: “Yoga is the cessation of fluctuations of the mind.” All opinions are, are fluctuations of the mind. Opinions seems to come out of your mouth, that person’s mouth, their mouths, but in the end, they are just phenomena in my mind, that rise, sustain and fall. Transient and illusory - in yoga lingo that’s “maya”.

The internet is filled with opinions and I’m not blind to the fact that this blog entry/video is also just that. A passing a*hole. And at the same time it’s an a*hole that is asking you: “What should you be listening to, if all opinions are like that? Transient and therefore void? What sound are the opinions covering up?'“

I used to, and still sometimes feel, overwhelmed by people’s opinions and the way they influence my decision-making. Trying to do right, trying to please, trying not to disturb, trying to find the right balance between everything that I hear, except listening to my own voice or better my own silent knowing.

It’s not about walking around with closed ears or not being open to constructive criticism. It’s letting arise what is arising and also letting it pass again, instead of holding on. This does not only apply to so-called “negative'“ opinions, but we need to practice the same with “positive” opinions as well. A genuine “thank you for the compliment” and then moving on. As long you can think about it, it’s not You. And we want to move closer to the You or Self.

Yoga and all other authentic mystic traditions help us uncover that pristine pearl of wisdom, that we are clutching so tightly that we can’t even see it, or know it’s there.

Let’s practice and shake all those opinions off our back!

Quick ways to shake off opinions aka a*holes

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01 : Lion’s Breath

02 : Singing that opinion to a nursery rhyme

03 : Literally shaking :) imagining the energy wash off into the ground

04 : Say a prayer to the person whose opinion you are still carrying.