Life’s Small Pause and 

a Critical Question

Nikolas Michos | Certified Ashtanga Yoga Teacher

Meditation practice during a group workshop in Landau, Germany

Workshop with students while explaining a movement in Landau, Germany

There is a point in one’s life when a small pause takes place and a question mark appears. A sense of separateness on one level and a complete connectedness on a different level simultaneously fill the same moment. For some, the question mark takes the form of a doubt, or worry or pain. Others have a totally different experience and are filled with bliss and joy. In every case, the pause is actually a cessation of the mind, a first encounter with what is arising behind a “thinking machine”. 

This was also the case with me. The moment I was first introduced to the practice of mindful breathing through a self-healing process, a whole new reality opened up that searched for a way through a number of contemplative practices. A way of looking at how we experience life beyond our sense-bound thinking mind is indeed available, and there are many ways to approach and explore it. It is now clear to me that my existence as a human being does actually have meaning in this world. But I had to look around and explore the possibilities that were available. This is how I got involved in yoga and contemplative practices. 

Yoga and Breathing Exercise 
A Whole New System of Existence

My first encounter with yoga involved breathing exercises, controlled physical movement through a rather slow and deep breathing sequence, guided visualizations, guided meditation, and of course relaxation methods. It was a unique opportunity to start exposing myself to a whole new system of existing, of being physically and mentally in this world. When you start practicing, what happens is that you actually decide to invest more time on yourself, on observing yourself, and watching whatever appears in front of your half-open/half-closed eyes. While enjoying the yoga method I was being taught at the time, I was still open to trying new things, and it was three years later that I was introduced to Ashtanga Yoga, the method I have been practicing for almost 13 years now and the one I have decided to use for my own teachings. 

Having acquired both a graduate and post-graduate degree in Humanities in the field of Linguistics, as a student, I was making my living by working as a teacher of foreign languages. My schedule was full in the evenings, and that provided me with a couple of free mornings. This was how I started introducing yoga into my life, as an activity planned to take place twice a week for a couple of hours or so. As time passed, I felt confident to practice at home on days I could find the time, and that slowly led some of my closest friends to join me in my living room once or twice a week. They say, once a teacher, always a teacher. 

Ashtanga Yoga and Nourishment from Breathing

When Ashtanga came into my life in the autumn of 2006, through the teachings of Kristina Karitinou, I began practicing three times a week at the studio and a couple more at home since the idea of self-practice is greatly stressed in this system. The method involves repeating a specified sequence of postures/asana every time one finds oneself on the yoga mat. There is an exercise routine that actually manifests in the most splendid way, practicing every day, all day. This way, I managed to fit it in whether busy or not, as a chance to be with myself, focusing on my body, and its main source of nourishment, the breath. 

As the years passed, the physical practice started to give me a clear taste of a more mind-oriented practice, which is the ultimate goal of any posture, the actual suspension of thinking and the ease and comfort of being one with your breath. In the summer of 2012, for the first time I was exposed to the practice of Zen chanting by a world-renowned monk and teacher, Hyon Gak Sunim, and I was offered an experience beyond words through the practice of chanting the Great Dharani, accompanied by the rhythmic sound of a Korean wooden handbell called moktak. This was when I was instructed to surf the waves of my breath and just let my eyes follow the lines while the ears guide the way. It was exactly the same time that my father passed away after having been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and I was expanding my mind by reading The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. A new perspective and a closer encounter with Buddhist thought was being offered at a time when I needed it most. 

The next four years paved the way for the next big turn in my life. As my love for practice was growing, the need to fully devote myself to it and immerse myself into a never-ending quest was also emerging, and eventually I had to make the choice to leave my old life behind. I made my first long trip to India, and on the way back I joined for the first time in my life a Zen center in the heart of Europe. I stayed there on a somewhat probationary period for about three months, following a daily schedule of waking up at 4:30 am and practicing twice a day in the most traditional and honest way. A short return to my own country offered me the chance to take care of all pending matters and decide that I wanted to go back and stay at the Zen center. 

Teaching Yoga and Minding the Kitchen at Zen Center Regensburg

For the first two years I was offered a unique intensive training and practice experience at Zen Center Regensburg. Under the guidance, work and support of my Zen teacher, I started experiencing a mindful way of living. I stayed at the center and earned my keep by working there. My daily routine now included managing the needs of an active kitchen, which catered not only to the residents but to numerous visitors as well because the center also offered Ashtanga Yoga classes to an ever-growing community of practitioners. In this environment of self-exploration and fermentation, decision making was secondary; my main priority was following the daily schedule, a set routine which included etiquette, service, and practice. The priceless gift of silence in the mornings until the end of breakfast, the constant reminder of the mindful execution of daily chores, and the incessant observation of the human mind – my own as well as the people around me – made up the core of my life those days.

Leave the Door Open for Thoughts to Come and Go
Just Don’t Invite Them in for Tea

Suddenly, life had become something more than just watching and absorbing; it now included digestion and utilization of what I was learning. My daily routines came under a new light of scrutiny, revealing long imprinted patterns (karma), and daily Zen practice was there to shed more understanding on my mental processes. During intensive practice retreats I had the opportunity to dive into a different truth, and there I learned to be with other people in a realm of compassion, understanding, and loving kindness. You learn to watch how your mind creates story lines based on experiences you have lived, how any moment immersed in practice is a chance to recognize the systematic defaults, and work toward re-conditioning, and thus, reprogramming your inner software. It is by watching our mental processes that we recognize the patterns of our behavior and the ultimate effect it has on an interconnected matrix of causes and effects. Through bowing, chanting and sitting meditation, the three most powerful Zen practices, we gain the tools to turn our attention to our breath and watch the passing of thoughts. As it is popularly quoted, you leave the door open for thoughts to come and go, just don’t invite them in for tea. 

And then the journey begins. The incessant reminder of life, your breath, becomes the compass for all your actions. Now the practice of yoga, of movement, has been enriched with the observation of passing thoughts, but the focus stays on your breath. Now the teaching of a methodology, as a means of loving, has taken on the quality of serving others and offering them the tools for their own personal observation and liberation. Just like on the self-practice level of Ashtanga Yoga, so does Zen offer a non-guided experience that allows for your own space to shape your own practice under a set of strict guidelines: guidelines that will allow the mind to unfold in the most unpredictable ways and allow you to witness the miracle of acceptance and letting go.

Watch Life Unfold 
Let Things Happen in Their Own Immaculate Way

Today, four and a half years after moving out of the Zen center – which continues to offer this life-changing experience to a growing number of people – the habit of practicing every day, all day, is now encoded in my seemingly different life. Now I live outside the center, teach in a different city, and feel ever more grateful for the trust I now have to watch life unfold and let things happen in their own immaculate way. The oneness of it all is now guiding me down the path I have set out to follow, and the daily reminder of practice gives me the wisdom to dwell in joy and happiness. Now it seems that an unconditioned “don’t know” mind finds it easier to manifest in my daily life and save me from the trap of expectations and desires at least on a more frequent basis, allowing thus for hope to rear its head and wishes to be realized.   

Nikolas Michos was born in 1975 and is a certified Ashtanga Yoga teacher in the tradition of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois; he is also a Dharma teacher in the tradition of Korean Zen under the lineage of Zen Master Seung Sahn. Since 2005 he has been studying directly with Manju Pattabhi Jois and Sharath Jois in Europe, as well as in India. In 2012 he started practicing Zen meditation under the guidance of Venerable Hyon Gak Sunim in Crete, as well as in Zen Center Regensburg, Germany, where he spent four years leading a monastic life. He is currently offering his teachings to an ever-growing community in Munich, combining the practices of meditation and asana (www.nikolasmichosyoga.com).