Identifying with the Rock

Let us go for a journey--if possible into a forest, or wild place. Let your mind be free. Allow time for this journey.

Try to select a landscape where there are rocks, trees, and possibly running water. If you can't go to a forest, go to a big park, or bring a piece of solid rock home. The important thing for any yoga is to be in the right frame of mind, and that you allow time. Always remember, time is your friend.

The re-enchantment of the world comes from active identification with those primordial rhythms of life whose beat you will find in yourself--if you look deep enough. Everything that is was once a rock. The earth is the same element that was once a rock but it now carries and nurtures life. There is no life without water, and trees are magnificant and powerful creations. You can allow yourself to identify with all these elements. When you understand how it feels to feel empathy with these elements you will rediscover some important elements in yourself.

-Henryk Skolimowski, from EcoYoga: Practice and Meditations for Walking in Beauty on the Earth, p. 32