When I was young, I remember my mother opening a can of evaporated milk to make a chocolate pudding. On the can I saw the slogan -- "Milk from Contented Cows."

"What's a contented cow?" I asked.

"It's a cow that's happy," she replied.

Fifteen years later when I started doing yoga and learning about nutrition and where my food came from, I realized those cows probably were not contented after all. At the same time, I realized I had to be contented, however, if I wanted to succeed in yoga.

So what does it mean to be a contented yogi and why is it so vital to practicing yoga?

The classical practice of yoga begins with an understanding of the Yamas and the Niyamas - ancient guidelines for social behavior and personal conduct that prepares the yoga student to live as well as practice their yoga.

One of the five Niyamas is Santosha translated as "contentment" or, more poetically, "ease of heart."

Why is contentment considered such an important quality to cultivate to succeed in the practice of yoga?

First understand what contentment is. It is not happiness but a condition for happiness. It is not complacency or just saying "oh, whatever" - instead it is serenity and an acceptance of whatever is.

Contentment is actually a choice, a practiced decision-making process to step into the reality of the cosmos, to accept the present moment as being perfect in its opportunity to teach us the exact lesson we need to learn.

Discontentment is what "should have been," a belief that we do not already have what we need to be completely healed, whole and divine. It is the lie fostered upon us by ourselves when we believe we are lacking, inadequate and needful of something outside ourselves to find our lasting happiness within.

The basic precept of yoga is that we are already perfect, fully realized and in constant union with an Oneness that can never be lost. Forgotten, yes. Lost, no.

Essentially the journey of yoga is this rediscovery, this remembering of our Oneness, that we are already in Union, and that we have arrived at our destination even before we take the first step on this path.

When we are discontented, disturbed, and disconnected, we are no longer in our native union, our Yoga. We separate through our unhappiness and with our desire for our lives and the people and things in our lives to be different.

"If only I could touch my toes, find my lover, lose 10 pounds, get a new job, then I would be happy, then I would be contented." Do not believe this self-deception.

Even in a yoga class, we understand the role contentment plays in our growth. At the end of teaching a class, I see most people smiling as they reach for the cup of Yogi Tea. But one evening a woman was obviously distraught, near tears.

"I couldn't hold my legs up," she confessed to me. "Everybody else was doing great - but my legs were shaking. I don't think I can do this yoga stuff good enough."

"You will never be good enough," I told her. "At least in your own mind. When you accept where you are in the present moment with yourself, then you will be doing this yoga stuff good enough. When you are contented with yourself, you will be happy with your yoga."

All too often in a yoga class we feel we have to accomplish a particular posture, perfect a meditation, or just do as good or better as "someone else." When we experience these feelings of self-judgment, self-criticism, and self-indulgence, we lose the joy that Yoga promises us.

Contentment is the door to a new world. A world not wasted on agitation, second-guessing, self-doubt, or imagined personal crisis. It is a world of a larger reality where we embrace ourselves as well as others and we become attentive and appreciative of the gift each moment gives us. It is a world where our heart is at ease.

As the Yoga Sutras remind us, nearly two thousand years ago:

"From an attitude of contentment (santosha), limitless happiness, mental comfort, joy and satisfaction occur." (Chapter 2, Sutra 42).

May we be contented.
May our cows be contented.
May we practice yoga not to become perfect but to remember we are already perfect.

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