Your sacred space: from the finite to the boundless

 Self is a sea boundless and measureless.

– Kahlil Gibran – 

What is a sacred space to you? And what does it mean to be sacred? To me, its meaning is linked to that of devotion, which comes from the word devout, loyal or true. When I speak of truth, I remember the Self, my own truth – Sat Nam. I become my true self when I am free of my perpetual thinking, when I am free of external influences and of my own history. When I am free of the outside judgement and influence, then I can truly accept that which is bigger than myself and bow to it. I strive to reach this place when I meditate. 

I do this every morning after my yoga practice, on my mat, with my mantras and my candle. I sometimes listen to music and sometimes touch some stones. Sometimes, I chant mantras to the music and sometimes a cappella. Sometimes I burn incense and sometimes just essential oil of sweet orange or rose. In all cases, I bow down, to what is, to what holds me. This becomes ma sacred space and I feel like water that flows beyond my physical self. I literally feel in touch with something greater within my own skin and vibrate. Again, I bow with this feeling and breath into it. This is when the tears appear and I don’t ask myself who I am anymore, for I don’t know. I just am. I become boundless and begin to grow from my sacred space. 

Hence, when I go to my mat at dawn, it becomes sacred to me and I in turn begin ridding myself from the physical realm through mantra and breath and slowly come closer to devotion. I begin to feel my body in order to transcend it and am able to finally sit and be in this sacred place instead of imagining it. It becomes me and I it. This to me is yoga, to be able to begin from the finite, which defines our being in this world and reach to infinite. And this can happen every day, for a few seconds or hours, as time is no more. This is my truth. 

Sat Nam,

Yoga Sha