Abhyasa and mental health – Ron van der Post
Abhyasa and Vairagya are for me the clearest words on the yoga path. It briefly explains what it’s all about. Abhyasa has to do with your inner motivation and urge to find our way back to who we essentially are. Nothing comes by itself or in a package that you can order from an online store. You will have to do it yourself. No one else can do this for you. Vairagya is the term used when we need to detach ourselves from all attachments at all levels in our lives. As individuals, we have become so attached to habits, patterns, thoughts, people, animals and things that we find it difficult to distance ourselves from them. Without realizing it, we fall into old habits that do not really help us on this path. All our desires and expectations are like a swamp from which we cannot and do not want to get out. Abhyasa requires an inner drive and vairagya requires us to let go of everything. Sometimes it sounds contradictory, but it isn’t. Suppose you leave Amsterdam to Brussels by bike, along the way you encounter all kinds of temptations and distractions. What the road will be like is unknown, but you are driven to get there. The question is whether you are prepared to overcome all these temptations and want to achieve your goal as quickly as possible.
Ron van der Post [1955] is founder of Yoga teacher training course Ron van der Post, one of the oldest and leading yoga teacher training courses in the Netherlands. He has practised yoga since 1980 under the guidance of BKS Iyengar and was trained and initiated by Brahmrishi Visvatma Bawra Maharash Ji and swami Yogananda in 1993 in India. He is one of the few students from the West trained in this tradition in India. At his Guru’s insistence, he started passing on this impressive knowledge in the form of a training course that started in 1996. Ron is known in Europe for his mastery of authentic yogic life in a Western society and his ability to impart this knowledge in a ‘crystal clear’, down-to-earth manner. Originally a trained nurse, social worker, psychotherapist, massage therapist, shiatsu therapist and nutritional therapist, Ron’s reputation and relentless dedication have led him to give yoga clinics and seminars across Europe, India, Suriname and the Middle East. Ron teaches yoga in the same way and spirit of the yogis who have been teaching it for centuries in the Himalayas. It is Ashtanga Yoga in its truest form, with Karma Yoga as its central pillar. Gaining control over the mental and energetic processes taking place in the body is the main goal of this yoga. The asanas are simply a means of getting a grip on the mental side of yoga, rather than an end in themselves. Special emphasis is placed on the eight-fold yoga path, as described by Patanjali, and the application and use of the yamas and niyamas. Facilitating and encouraging the development of each individual student is central to its teaching method.
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