Joy, Non-Attachment, and Katonah Yoga

The concept of non-attachment is paramount in yoga philosophy, but our practice still has specific goals that act as north stars to guide us in the right direction. While we strive toward these goals, we are non-attached to our success or failure, and equally non-attached from the desires of our sense organs, which can distract us from those goals.

In Sānkhya and yogic philosophy, the short-term goal is concentration of the mind. The mid-term goal is cultivating meditative absorption known as Sāmadhi. The long-term goal is attaining spiritual liberation known as Moksha. It can take many lifetimes to attain Moksha, which is why it’s necessary to be non-attached. As the Bhagavadgita says, any small progress on this path is very powerful.

During a recent Katonah Yoga training, I asked Josie Schweitzer if Katonah Yoga has a goal of its own, compared to classical Raja or Hatha Yoga. She answered — Joy. The thing about joy is it’s an emotion; it’s fleeting. Joy assumes sorrow just as light assumes dark. This goal isn’t about always being in a state of joy. It’s about making ourselves available to receive joy when it’s offered; being present to catch the grace when it falls.

Many of us spend more time in sorrow than joy. It’s a hard world we live in, after all. As we utilize our practices to become available to catch life’s joy, it brings us back into the center of the two polarities, the center of our circumference, and the center of our circumstances.

If we’re not able to receive the joy when it’s here for us, then we watch our reality unfold as bystanders. The goal of Katonah Yoga is to take action, take control, and guide ourselves back into the center of our reality. From this center, the true self is able to abide in its own nature, and we can be assured that we’re on the path toward freedom.

Love and blessings,

Ben