What yoga can teach us about death
Death is the great taboo, a subject we try to avoid or simplify as much as possible. But if you are a long term practitioner, you will know that beneath our postures is the foundation of yoga, a philosophy that leads us to a deeper truth: that everything is impermanent.
A seed does not remain a seed, nor does a tree. Life changes and death changes, but for us, human beings, it is less clear. We fear the unknown. Yoga, though, opens our eyes to the obvious: that in order to live fully, we must understand death.
The gentle acceptance of what is
I like to think of yoga as a practice in spirituality disguised as a workout. We practice our ability to pay attention on and off the mat. We learn how to live more fully in the present. We become aware of the difference between our perception of what is happening and what is actually happening. We notice patterns in our thoughts and in our bodies that need to change.
In this way, yoga is not only about shaping the body but about seeing ourselves more clearly. To me, this is the primary gift of yoga — the inner journey to understand how we are in the world, how we experience our lives, and how we might bring greater awareness to everything we do. As we grow in this practice, we become more sensitive to the small deaths that happen all the time. We become more aware of the more significant deaths and transitions in our lives and how to welcome them.
Death and yoga are linked in ways we often don’t notice
In almost every yoga class I teach, I use words like flow, transition, breath, growth, ease, and open. These are basic words that describe a lot about what we do in a class, but they also describe the practice of life. Every movement we make is a transition; every moment, a new opportunity for growth.
In The Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu scripture, Lord Krishna describes the impermanence of the human body by comparing it to the discarding of old garments and the taking on of new ones. I don’t know if you believe that death is literal or symbolic, but the truth is the same either way: nothing lasts. This is not a negative statement, nor is it meant to make us feel insecure. Instead, it is an invitation to live fully in the present.
Impermanence is visible in class
It’s clear in a yoga class that no matter how long we practice, we are never guaranteed to be able to do any one posture in the future. We might come back from a week’s break and realise that the pose we used to master is not possible at the moment. We might try our best, but it’s just not our practice today. Or we might master it and then move on.
We might have a season of our life where every pose is an “open” in our body, and the next season, all of our previous strength disappears. Our bodies are constantly changing, and if we are aware, we notice. It might even bring us a certain sense of peace to realise that everything we think we know about our physical practice can disappear overnight.
To be open to impermanence does not mean to be disconnected or disinterested in life. On the contrary, it is to be even more present, aware, and appreciative of every moment and everything we experience. If we know that this moment, this pose, this taste of food will not last, we taste it even more deeply.
Practicing dying in savasana
We practice dying every day in our final yoga pose: savasana or corpse pose. We lie down on the floor, our eyes closed, and all of our senses are free to rest in complete stillness. While it seems like nothing more than a rest at the end of our class, it is so much more. Savasana is a microcosm of the yoga journey.
We lie on the floor and practice letting go of our need to control our bodies. We surrender to the breath and allow it to become natural and effortless. The body softens and relaxes, and the mind begins to rest. In this way, each time we enter savasana, we practise a small death: a release of our striving, our doing, our effort.
The power of acceptance
In The Bhagavad Gita, Krishna speaks of the impermanence of life. He reminds us that we are not our bodies, that our true nature is eternal and unchanging. We are the soul, and the body is just a temporary vessel for it.
Our work in yoga is not to avoid death or cling to life but to accept both with equanimity. In every yoga class, we are reminded of this truth, and in savasana, we let go and rest in that knowing. The practice of yoga is the practice of living and dying.
If you would like to explore these philosophies in more depth, contact Emily at Mount Martha Yoga. She offers yoga in Mornington and corporate yoga Mount Martha, and if you can’t come to the studio, Emily is also available as mobile yoga instructors Mornington Peninsula.
