letting go

February 26, 2025 in Blog

I haven’t dug into the archives to see just how many times I have written about aparigraha over the years, but this is not the first. Or second. Or fifth. Often translated as “non-greed” or “non-possessiveness,” the Sanskrit word, when broken down, has a prefix that negates what follows: “to take or seize from all sides.” You might think of aparigraha as not taking more than you need, and you would be right. That is a great practice. You might also think of aparigraha as the opposite of “taking from all sides”—or letting go.

As much as we are conditioned to cling at all costs, even a reflective pause reminds us that the nature of life is change.… Read the rest

the practice of letting go

December 3, 2020 in Blog

We finished our group study of the yamas before the holiday with the fifth of the restraints. There’s always a lot to think and talk about when it comes to aparigraha, and the timing was ideal to consider the ways we grasp at everything, everywhere, all the time. Breaking it down:
a– non
pari– on all sides
graha– to take or grab
Aparigraha is the practice of non-hoarding, non-attachment, of taking no more than you need. It is the practice of choosing faith. It is the practice of letting go.

2020 has provided no shortage of opportunities to practice this foundational principle of yoga.… Read the rest

Too much

December 2, 2019 in Blog

’Tis the season of excess. In all the ways. Too much doing, rushing, eating, whirling, spending, running, shopping. Too much of too much. Seems to me it’s the perfect time to get back to basics and revisit the foundations of yoga, which set the stage for a shift of consciousness from chaos toward freedom.

The fifth yama listed in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras is aparigraha. Breaking the word into its parts, you have: a- a prefix that changes the meaning of what it precedes to the opposite; pari- “on all sides”; graha- “to grab. To grab on all sides (or in every direction) would be parigraha, and that, in a word, sums up how we tend to move through the holidays.… Read the rest