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Expanding to Receive the Beauty, Opening to Grace, and the Isha Upanishad

ByElizabeth

In Anusara yoga, one of the ways the first principle of “opening to grace” can be experienced and practiced  is as a radical expansion of the capacity to receive and appreciate the very wonder of being.  During my visit to India with Professor Douglas Brooks, I found myself repeatedly thinking of the concept of radical expansion and also the preamble to the Isha Upanishad (long a favorite of mine; Shantala on their first CD, Love Window, have done an exquisite rendition), which can be roughly translated as saying that adding fullness to fullness is itself fullness (fullness can also be translated here as perfection).

What I believe this is saying that being itself is infinitely full; thus, we cannot make it more infinite by adding to it.  Human consciousness of the infinitude of being, though, is limited by the filters of space and time.   One of the key reasons to practice yoga (including meditation) is to expand both our capacity to appreciate the fullness and to receive its full wonder by uniting our own consciousness with the infinitude.  When we can appreciate ever more the wonder of our being, we will naturally be more joyous, and I believe, led to be more compassionate and generous with ourselves and others.

Day after day on the India pilgrimage, just when I thought my heart and mind were already full to bursting, there were yet more experiences of the beauty and extraordinariness of life and creativity and nature.  I found myself chanting the Isha Upanishad—purnamadah, purnamidam, puranata purnamudatacyate.  Fullness and fullness is fullness.  “Let me expand still more to appreciate to its utmost yet more beauty,” I thought to myself again and again.  Though I already thought I’d developed a fairly full understanding of the concept through study and practice, I thought, “this is what John Friend means when he is talking about radical expansion.” I look forward to studying and practicing to experience and share ever more beauty.

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    Laying Down the William Penn House Practice (Last Practice May 15)

    ByElizabeth

    Perhaps because it has been hosted at a place that fosters the Quaker way of doing business, but when I first tried to describe why I thought it was time to leave off having a regularly scheduled practice at William Penn House, the first phrase that came to mind, was that the practice was being “laid down.”

    Very generally, much Quaker business is done by a committee consisting of members who are nominated by the meeting and willing and able to address whatever the issue that is the purpose of the committee. A committee may be formed to address a particular issue that a meeting is encountering or for general ongoing work for the life of the meeting. After a committee’s purpose is done–which may or may not be clear, depending on the nature of the issue–the meeting may choose to lay down the committee. Laying down a committee is not passing judgment. Sometimes, the committee has served its purpose well, but is no longer needed as much as the resources of the committee (it’s members) are needed elsewhere–either for the meeting or for their own personal lives.

    The William Penn House group practice started over 10 years ago. Its initial purpose was to keep going a class from a studio that closed for several months. Having the practice at William Penn House was also a good way to create neighborhood, Quaker, and yoga connections, provide support for the work of William Penn House, and provide an unconventional community donation practice space.

    In the years since the class was established, the whole tenor and climate of the world has changed. The neighborhood, too has changed. Among the changes, there are now several yoga studios on the Hill and there are lots of choices for a practice every night of the week without leaving the neighborhood. In the broad group that has participated in the practices, there have been graduations, marriages, births of children and grandchildren, illnesses, injuries, world travel, joys and sorrows, death, career changes, and it is time for those still in the habit of Tuesday night practice to reconfigure what and when we practice for our own good and for the great web, including together.

    I will always be grateful to all the practitioners/friends who joined with me in collective exploration of the practices and to William Penn House for being a welcoming and nonjudgmental host for a really long time.

    As a member of the Board of Directors and a neighbor, I will still be part of the life and practice at William Penn House. I am still offering small group and private classes in my lovely home studio. Send me a message, if you’d like to practice. I’m looking forward to scheduling practice on a more flexible basis.

  • More Thoughts on Consent

    ByElizabeth

    I’m pretty sure that I am not alone in wishing that I would be assisted or touched–in yoga class or elsewhere–exactly when and how suits me without my having to say a word. But permeable/bridgeable boundaries require clear and steady awareness and communication.

    I’m in the middle of a weekend workshop at Sun and Moon Yoga out in Fairfax (a whole different place from where I live and spend my time in the DMV, but that’s another story) with Dianne Bondy (check her out on social media or get her book) on making yoga more inclusive and accessible to all.

    One of the many things discussed was consent. Since I wrote about my reaction to having to say yes or no to physical assists by hand raising, I’ve also been at a studio with cards that one takes and puts on one’s mat to say “no; please don’t touch me.” What if the card ends up under a prop? What if you don’t want other students to see that you don’t want (or want) assists? What if you change your mind?

    The solution Dianne has seems the best I’ve seen. Every body gets a card (she uses playing cards from the dollar store). Face up means I am open to the possibility of an assist. Face down means leave me completely alone. Students can change which side is up throughout the practice.

    If the card is face up, it’s just agreeing to further the conversation. Seeing that level of consent, Dianne said (as I was taught in my Anusara teacher trainings), if she thought there was something beneficial to offer, she then would ask while approaching if it was ok to offer an assist. If the answer was “yes,” then she would give a verbal assist. Only if the verbal assist was insufficient, would she ask if she could offer a physical assist and would say where she would touch the student to give the assist BEFORE doing so. The student would then have another opportunity to say “no” or provide limits on the permission.

    Of course, in a big public class, this all gets done quite quickly, but I think this really is the only thing that works. I’m also sure, from my personal teaching experience, that there might be an occasional moment, like catching a student about to fall and maybe take down another student, that an urgent intervention must be done regardless of prior permission for assists generally–but those should be rare indeed.

2 Comments

  2. If I didn’t know better I would have thought these photos were from some professional photographer from National Geographic. Truly beautiful. Thank you for sharing!

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