Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
Para, Apara, Para Para?
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Three or four weeks ago, I came out of my morning meditation thinking about the teachings of Krishnamurti. (I read a lot of Krishnamurti when I was in high school, so his teachings have influenced me with varying degrees of subtlety). Two or three days later, I was “spammed” with Krishnamurti’s Daily Thought. Someone, apparently somewhere in Europe, somehow got access to an email list to which I subscribe. As I had just been thinking about Krishnamurti, though, instead of hitting “unsubscribe,” I read the thought for the day. I’ve been reading it since, and I am exploring how much my readings in high school have been part of my foundational thinking.
When I was volunteering at the Lantern yesterday, one of the other volunteers called and reminded me that there were books put aside for me. It is not my habit to put books aside, and I had no recollection of so doing, so I was curious to discover the books were there. One of the two books was a slightly water damaged paperback of Krishnamurti On Right Livelihood. The universal energies are obviously suggesting I examine this early influence. I am contemplating what the following question means for me in today’s current context of multiple wars, a deep recession, and burgeoning environmental degradation:
Is it not necessary for each one to know for himself what is the right means of livelihood? If we are avaricious, envious, seeking power, then our means of livelihood will correspond to our inward demands and so produce a world of competition, ruthlessness, oppression, ultimately ending in war. Krishnamurti, Ojai, July 1944
At Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ
My studies today (it is a very rare day that I do not read some of a yoga text or commentary) included a mention of the body’s nine openings. The yoga treatises ubiquitously mention the “nine openings” of the body through which prana enters or leaves (is dissipated). Certain practices are designed to open the tenth, which is an energetic opening that corresponds to the fontenelle at the crown of a baby’s head.
A few month’s ago, my astute friend Jane, who has given birth and nursed, pointed out that a woman has 12, not nine openings.
What is a woman to do in response to this apparent disconnect or male exclusivity? Reject out of hand the teachings as only being misogynistic and of limited utility because they originated for male physiology and not female? Interpret the teachings and correlative practices as being based on the anatomical and energetic openings common to both sexes? Deeply explore the practices relating to this teaching and discover whether there are subtle ways to modify and reinterpret and apply the teachings and practices to address the lack of reference to and recognition of the three crucial additional openings that are fundamental to a woman’s being?
Guess which of these I am most likely to advocate and practice.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
