Was Janice Joplin right after all? Personally, I don’t think that freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose and nor does tantric yoga philosophy.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
These were particularly sweet-scented.
Sometimes, the healthiest way to address one’s environment is:
1. Accept what one cannot change;
2. Cultivate a sense of humor;
3. Know that going inside to witness the pure beauty of inner awareness is always available.
At yoga class tonight, a couple of students advised of challenges with neck and shoulders; another was very tired. After we had centered and done some gentle warm-ups, I led the class into this simple restorative backbend. In the pose, a rolled up blanket (or even a towel or two) is placed across the back, right at the bottom of the shoulder blades, so that the roll firms the shoulder blades onto the back and allows the heart to open, the collarbones to broaden, and the shoulders to drape to the floor. The yogin keeps the legs somewhat active in supta tadasana–supine mountain–pose to make more easeful opening the back and chest.
It was a good day for a quiet, nurturing practice designed to move us into our hearts. When we are faced with tragedy and outrage, but are not personally harmed, it is even more important that we choose to get deeper into our hearts. It is a time when it is good to choose to practice (whatever the practice) to foster clarity of vision, improve individual health and strength, and ground ourselves in a space where we can expand the possibility of responding with compassion, generosity, and common sense instead of unthinkingly reacting out of fear and rage.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
I’d seen a photo on-line, and discussion before and after a friend took to the street and the park to write exhortations, prayers, pleas.
I might not have seen it live had it not been directly on my way home later in the day. Though I had not gone looking for it, I recognized it when I saw it–the exhortation triggered by a planned display of bigotry, rage, ignorance and hate.
The exhortation to embrace diversity is a fundamental precept of the tantric yoga philosophy (my friend was making the exhortation based on different practices, but it hardly matters from what source one gets a true teaching). I always benefit from contemplating ever more deeply that the only way to experience unity/union is to ever more fully embrace diversity (while still, of course, practicingviveka–discrimination).
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
How do we as teachers, yoga or otherwise, let our students find their own way, but still convey in a way that is heard that some things are best not experienced?
I told her she would not enjoy jumping up on the utility sink, but did Maitri listen?
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Well, technically, it was Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster. But I agree.
Thanks for the technical.