This text was written for the Booklet of the Yoga Congress of the EUY in Zinal 2025
Do you remember Eden?
By François Lorin
That time when everything was peaceful, joyful, alive and in harmony.
I am talking about your real home.
And then everything was turned upside down: you had to toil, give birth, fight, be sad or harden yourself reading the news of the day…
You had been chased from your home where the only fire that burned was that of love!
Patanjali proposes a movement of returning home: abhyâsa, which is based on an effort to find, and find again, a space of inalienable stability in oneself. Because your home is the depths of yourself.
The path can take time but each step counts and is accompanied by a feeling of lightness and agreement.
The posture: âsana, is the sister of meditation: dhyâna; the mudrâ-s are the doors of attention: dhâranâ; prânâyâma opens onto the sacred dimension of existence: samâdhi.
The respectful practice that encompasses our totality: body: deha, heart: hridaya, spirit âtman, in its assiduous but always attentive and renewed repetition opens the doors of our home, at least half-opens them and we taste, if only momentarily, the flavor of the prodigal son’s return home.
And this reinforces the thirst: trishna to settle there for good.
This thirst is not different in nature from the desire to possess, to control, to seduce, to dominate, in short is only a capitalized form of desire: râga.
Because claiming to deserve everything I desire, that life is at my service above all, that I have the power to fight and therefore to obtain what I want shows a deficiency in the understanding of the laws of the universe, of the Dharma.
From then on, Patanjali indicates the Royal Path of detachment: vairâgya.
This path is based on awareness concerning the origin of our desires and the limitations generated by the struggle to satisfy them.
The fundamental origin that pushes us on the path of desire: kâma is the loss of our original home and the suffering that results from it and that accompanies us everywhere.
Then, there are the hazards of our childhood: lack of love, support, understanding, recognition, acceptance.
So we have the choice: continue to exhaust ourselves on the road of conflicts, struggles, frustrations, ephemeral satisfactions or gain height and, relying on the wings of yoga, fly into the sky of our peace and joy.
During these days in the pure atmosphere of Zinal, we will go to meet our shadows and our lights, relying accurately on the proposed practices, exploring them with prudence and respect, aware of our expectations and vigilant not to embark on false leads.
