Society generally requires one to strive for and conform to certain conventions and expectations to be recognized and rewarded by it. To connect with the magical, fortunately, does not require any particular possessions.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Yesterday I looked at the continuing news about the crash. Among all the other stories, it seemed fairly unlikely that there would be metro service between Capitol Hill and Takoma Park by the weekend. This created a complication for me. Living without a car and commuting a number of times a week to Takoma Park to teach and take class, I had to figure out how to get there. It will be easy enough (I think) to get to Willow Street on Saturday to teach by taxi cab and to find a bus combination to get home.
In addition to teaching, though, I had been looking forward to studying with Amy Ippoliti on Friday night and Sunday morning. I could take a taxi and a bus combination to study with Amy this weekend or just forego my tuition. All that would be easy enough. But I had invited a friend to come and visit to take the whole weekend with Amy — which includes another 12 hours of teacher training on Saturday and Sunday, where I will be off doing my own thing. Since my friend and I will have very different schedules for this yoga weekend, and neither of us are much of a driver, renting a car was not really a viable option. I thought about just staying in a hotel in Silver Spring.
Then I got to my personal yoga. One of the hardest things for me to do is to ask for help (of almost any kind). I am good at offering to help and am good at both helping when asked and saying I cannot help (the latter took some practice). What I know from being a “helper” is that I get great joy from giving and offering assistance. My never asking, then, means not giving those in my life the joy of providing assistance. I overcame my deeply ingrained reluctance and asked for help. Not big help. Just is there someone already attending the training who can give a ride from the workshop into the District each night or provide an extra bed for my friend. Fellow yogis were indeed happy to help; there are now a surfeit of options.
The minor inconvenience to me from this tragedy reminded me again to send healing energy to those who are suffering and to see things in perspective. I was given a sweet reminder of the warmth and generosity of my yoga friends and colleagues. I was able to practice with success addressing one of my continuing challenges. I have been blessed, then, in the aftermath. Contemplating these gifts with gratitude gives me more energy to send out for those in need.
For those of you who are local, I think there is still space in the workshop with Amy: come join us for all level hip openers on Friday night and intermediate/advanced backbends and standing poses on Sunday morning. See link to Willow Street above for more information.
The other day was very windy–steady winds of 20-25 miles per hour and gusts of up to 30-40 miles per hour. I needed to go to work, so I had no choice about which direction to walk. That direction was, unfortunately, straight into the wind. It made the already cold day feel much colder, and I felt like I needed brute strength just to move forward. Knowing that I did not have the option of turning the other way to feel warmer and have the wind push me along, I instead consciously softened and leaned into the wind so that I was fighting it less and able to ride it a little.
I was moved by facing the wind to think about the various yoga practices and how they help us understand and be with the force that connects and moves around and between things, without and within us–prana.
When we meditate, the intention is to be in either absolute fullness (purna) or absolute emptiness (sunyata). (I don’t think it matters which one). In the absolute stillness of meditation, prana does not flow, and we experience being in a state where we are not tugged at or blown by the forces of change and relationship between object and beings. Being able to tap into that state is essential, I think, to be able to weather the times when the energies around us are too much of a whirl for whatever reason.
When we practice pranayama (breathing practices), we learn about the many ways prana flows. Although pranayama is often translated as breath control, I think it is more about learning to control our physical and mental relationship to the breath than it is about controlling the breath–the breath serving as the best proxy for us to experience the flow of the life force, prana itself. Learning how to be more intimate with the subtle energies helps make us more humble, more aware, and more skillful in relationship to the world around us.
When we practice asana (postures), we practice dancing with and riding the prana so that we do not have to do everything by rigid physical and mental effort. With steady, educated and discerning practice of asana, we can move with more power and grace and less effort and risk of injury, just as a skilled sailor knows how to align her or his sails both to be able to move when there is just a bit of wind and also to ride out a gale, harnessing the wind instead of being torn up by it.
To those of you facing the blizzard, may you find time to be still and warm and at peace and use skill in alignment to stay safe when clearing out from the snow and moving from place to place.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
National Museum of the American Indian (just across the Mall from my workplace)
