Yes, this is a great question Caroline. And I think it can be both. As long as we are crossing the body of water, our boat is the perfect vessel, but when we reach dry land with mountains ahead, it may be time to leave our boat (at least for this part of our journey) and walk on without it. Our time working with/travelling on that vessel has reconfigured our vessel for this next stage. As my teacher said, the point of all techniques is to take us to yoga. Ultimately we have to leave all technniques behind and reside in that state. Meantime, our challenge is to work with the support of technique as skilfully and discerningly as we can!

I love your comment too Kate! Life as one leave-taking after another certainly resonates with me. And I like the Hamlet reference. It's also one of my favourite plays and I would very much like to give a course on the Hamlet Purāṇa, drawing out the yogic teachings from this great English text!