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Thaw Your Muscles and Melt Into Bliss (Web Version of E-Mailing)

ByElizabeth

Dear Friends,

It was indeed a relief that no more snow accumulated over the weekend and the storm passed to the north.  The sidewalks are starting to clear.  If you look carefully, you can see leaf buds starting to emerge on the trees.  Under the piles of snow, I am sure spring bulbs are starting to push up through the earth.

During this time of shoveling, slippery walking, cold, and confinement, having a mixed practice of warming yoga and restoratives has been an incredible support.

Come join me this weekend for “Serenity Saturday” at Capitol Hill Yoga to thaw your muscles and melt into the blissful lake of the heart.  To register, please visit www.capitolhillyoga.com.

Need class before the weekend?  Join us at William Penn House, Tuesday nights at 6:30pm, with a class that will suit for all levels.

Peace and light,

Elizabeth

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    This, and also…

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    When I was on the bus to go to Meeting for Worship, police officers boarded the bus and came up to young couple with an infant who had been sitting quietly and minding their own business. The police said they just wanted to talk and they also insisted they get off the bus because the police weren’t going to be holding up the bus. Even though the police wouldn’t answer why they were stopping them, the family got off the bus.

    I managed to have the presence of mind to record the interaction, being obvious and also quietly in my seat. I held the phone horizontally, recorded the police, not those under scrutiny, etc.

    When the bus was moving towards the next stop, I saw National Guard walking briskly in the direction of where the police had been.

    The challenge is how to be aware and alert, to be responsive, to help in the fight, and also remain lovingly present, to hold all present and impacted in the light.

    I saw other clutches of National Guards throughout the residential parts of the city. I choose not to find my peace of mind by becoming inured to their ubiquitous presence.

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    Agni (the fire element)

    ByElizabeth

    Agni or fire is the third of the mahabhutas. Fire does not just give us warmth and light.  It also transforms.  Just think of what happens to the humble ingredients of flour, water, yeast, and salt when they are baked. When working with agni in our asana practice, using the Anusara principles of alignment, I have drawn on the intersection of pelvic loop and kidney loop (which together create the action of uddiyana bandha, using these principles as I understand them to activate and strengthen my core.

    One of the niyamas of Patanjali’s eight-fold path is tapas, which means heat or austerity.  We are exhorted to bring fire or fervor to our practice to experience bliss, to know true consciousness.

    Fire without balance, without a sense of detachment or surrender, though, will burn us up.  We must be careful how we work with agni as the element.

    Note:  Agni is also the name of the god of fire.  Not only do we need to be careful how we draw on the fire element — this town’s culture places perhaps too much value on “fire in the belly,” but we should be wary of how we invoke the gods:  India’s nuclear missile program is named “Agni.” Of that invocation of the gods and of fire, I am afraid.

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    Steadiness of Silence

    ByElizabeth

    During one of our sessions, one of my fellow students asked whether she was really seeking a life of renunciation because she sometimes really craved sitting quietly for meditation. For her, having first experienced meditation as an adult who has a rich and comfortable life, even the shortest time sitting with eyes closed looking only within felt like it might be a denial of the outer world.

    The practices Paul Muller-Ortega is teaching, and as he makes absolutely clear, are very much for the householder and are not the rarified path of a renunciate. Sitting in silence is a blissful and steady; it is going towards the inner world and not going away from the outer world.

    We do not have to renounce our lives to sit regularly in silence. We can frankly delight in the sweetness of inner light and stillness and honor our desire to do so (a true renunciate would have to renounce even that desire). Meditation as part of the daily life of a householder, is a bedrock of support so that we can be ever more fully engaged in our lives, no matter how noisy they can get sometimes.

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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    Found Exhortation

    ByElizabeth

    A number of years ago I had a conversation with a cherished friend and co-worker who is no longer in this body. I was explaining to her the yoga practice of samtosha (contentment), which is one of the five niyamas that make up the second limb of the eight-limbed path of yoga set forth in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. My friend said it felt like a great revelation to think of contentment as a practice. She had thought of it as a state you were either lucky enough to have — or not.

    Many states or characteristics or attitudes that we tend to think of as only being innate characteristics or good fortune can be cultivated.

    Wearing an exhortation on a t-shirt might not necessarily be my style, but I do agree kindness is worthy of cultivation when it does not happen spontaneously.

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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