One picture is worth 1000 words – SOMETIMES.

But sometimes one picture can not only

confuse us, but may even ruin our own experience.

Experience is something that happens inside whereas a picture is of the outside and many
times the difference between them is vast.

We have gotten so used to relying on our eyes as a reliable source of reality that we tend to
forget their limitations. The simplest example of our eyes limitations would be magic tricks. The
eyes are focused on one thing while the “magic” is happening unnoticed. It is amusing when it
is magic. But the limitations of our eyes should be remembered after the show too.

When practicing yoga we turn our awareness inwards. We use our eyes to look at the teacher and are
guided to experience our body. The difference between what we feel and what we see can at times be
difficult to bridge.

One example would be Meditation: When meditating (for enough time) we may go through a huge
variety of experiences (Agitation, Love, Tranquility, Anger, etc..), but when looking at a meditator from
the outside he looks so peaceful. To a novice, this can be so frustrating. Looking at the mediators from
outside he will think that he is the only one overcome by a storm of thoughts and this illusion will
amplify the thoughts and frustration.

Another example is back bends. During my first years of yoga, I remember looking at my teachers
perform the back bend poses and all I could see was there backs bend. When I performed the poses all I
could feel was pressure in my lower back regardless of the instructions I heard. I assumed this was due
to the intense pressure that was put on my back during my army service. But as I spoke to more people I
learnt that I wasn’t an exception. As I grew in yoga and learnt to look inside, I found that back-bends was
a very miss leading term to use – as the inner experience is everything but back bending!

The inner experience is of a ‫ מאבק‬between lengthening the front of the body and the stomach area
keeping the pose together.

Last week I gave a yoga class. The lesson was on the subject of back bends. It was going really well. I
could see that the students were using the core and stomach muscles to keep the pose connected. The
chest was expanding while keeping the back safe. I then led them into the upward facing dog and they
all came into the pose nicely, without feeling tension in the back. I then demonstrated the pose before
asking them to repeat it. The demonstration was an advanced version and all that the students could
see was how arched my back was instead of how connected I was. How hard my stomach muscles were
working and how long the front of my body was.

Needless to say, after this demonstration they all went back to their old habits and felt pressure in their
lower back…
Well, for starters the name itself describes the outside world and not the inner experience. If you’d ask a
yoga practitioner to give these poses a name it would more likely be front extensions or chest openers,
but