Lotus Sutra

[naturesflow]

To place supreme value on the human being is the teaching of the Lotus Sutra. It is the humanism of the Buddhist Law.

I have been reading some articles today and came upon this little message along my way related to the Lotus Sutra which captured me a little deeper to notice myself relating to this and being aware of others in me as part of this.

When I am doing my yoga and new people come into the group, often they are asked what intentions they hold for their practice. I observe, quite often a lot of males who are new to yoga, will say they wish to be able to do the Lotus asana. They are more interested at this point in just being able to achieve the physical ability to get into the pose more freely and more readily at will.

It is a valid intention for them and one that I personally see fits the whole movement within self gaining the fullness of itself in this way and focus. I also notice that those people who come into a group with a physical intent without any desire to go deeper into themselves will sometimes fall away and not come back when they realize that the asana they want to achieve doesn't come their way so readily as they believed it might. That it will and often does activate more movements in them they didn't intend to happen or want to face. It becomes quite a challenge for them to remain and understand themselves as the pose, as the lotus sutra itself.

I suppose in their intent the purpose of yoga itself as a whole practice building a greater expansive awareness as a whole person is lost in this way. The focus deemed as the be all point of what is a whole can complete practice as yourself.

Of course reading through some aspects of the louts Sutra, I was seeing the relationship both in myself and the awareness of any practice how it cannot be claimed until the self is aware it becomes the practice as a whole, not just in part. So each point of our realizations or in this case today, the achievement of moving into, holding and feeling at ease with a pose, becomes a part of a greater expansive connection that can move with all that, once aware to do so. The points within itself have no need to make claim, desire to fix and become, but simply move more in harmony with the whole and allow yourself to build a deeper grounded process, that includes both the message of the lotus sutra, the lotus pose and the self realizing itself as all that more in harmony of itself.

The Lotus Sutra--expounding the very essence of the Law--is the king of sutras. A king does not negate the existence of others; his role is to bring out the full potential of all.