Earthbound, Skyward: The Paradox of Standing Tall

Humankind stands with its feet planted squarely on the earth, as in Tadasana (Mountain Pose), and its head in the sky.

- BKS Iyengar

Have you ever noticed how Mountain Pose can feel both utterly simple and impossibly complex? You're just standing there - yet something profound is happening.

In that moment of seeming stillness, you embody one of yoga's most transformative truths: the paradox at the heart of all practice.

Your feet stand firmly planted on the earth, grounding you in the finite—your body's sensations, your mind's fluctuations, your personal identity with its quirks and limitations. At the same time, your spine extends upward, aspiring toward what is mystical, boundless, and infinite.

This dynamic tension is woven into the very fabric of human existence. We are embodied spirits—both earth and sky, grounded and transcendent, fleeting and eternal.

Rather than resolving this paradox, yoga invites us to dance with it. Like finding balance in Tadasana, practice teaches us how move gracefully between these polarities rather than choose between them. We root more deeply into our embodiment even as we expand our vision of who we are. The inner sky reveals itself within our very flesh and bones.

We use the mundane to touch the sacred, working with mind and body to glimpse what lies beyond both. What emerges is our uniquely human capacity to hold opposing truths simultaneously.

In a world that often asks us to take sides, yoga whispers: "What if you could choose both?"

How does your practice help you remember the sublime while grounding you in the present? How does that expansive perspective shape how you meet the challenges of daily life?

This is the quintessential journey of the yogi—found in something as simple, and profound, as standing tall.