Found Exhortation
(yourself and your loved ones)
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The Exquisiteness of Order (Winter Theme)
By order, I mean how things are arranged in space or time. Even chaos theory presumes order in that sense. On and off the mat, there is a certain order to things that is optimal. We do not plant seeds and then till the soil. Or think of the difference between peeling and chopping vegetables and then cooking them or cooking them and then peeling and chopping them. One or the other is not necessarily wrong if you do not have a specific dish in mind, but which you choose will dictate the results. Once you have gotten started in the sequence, though, the path shifts and is partly set. To reach an exquisite rather than a disgusting result, the next steps are ordered by the initial choice.
If only one musician is playing a single note, then there is no possibility of discordance. Add more musicians and more notes and who plays what notes when can mean cacophony, a catchy tune, or an extraordinary and ecstatic work of art. None of us are alone and none of us are playing just a single note, so in the great fabric of our being, it is best to understand how to make music.
Sequencing on the mat is more subtle than what poses should be done in what order in a particular practice to emphasize backbends v. forward bends and twists to be able to do the strongest poses with the least possibility of injury, as important as that is. The order in which we apply the Anusara principles not only aligns the physical body, but brings symmetry to the physical and energetic bodies, helping us to feel more in harmony in everything we do on and off the mat. I am, in this, a decent musician and not Bach, but the more I pay attention to the optimal sequence of things (keeping in mind that over most things we have no control as to when, whether, and how they happen) and the more I learn and appreciate the exquisiteness of order, the more I feel, understand, and experience the subtleties and joys of harmony.
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New Year’s Greetings (Web Version of E-Newsletter)
Dear Friends,
Despite being in the warm and comfortable bed for which I am grateful every day, I woke up sore-hearted this morning. I’d been dreaming first of dodging bullets in a shootout and then striving to escape rising flood waters. I did not suffer any physical harm to my person in these dreams, but felt scared and lost and unable to save those around me at greater risk. With the morning wake-up call, I got out of bed and followed my cat Uma down the stairs for our morning ritual. I changed her box and fed her. While she ate, I did some gentle asana to unknot the sleep from my body. I took my seat for pranayama and meditation, and Uma, as is her practice, immediately curled herself up against me. After meditating, I prepared a healthful and tasty breakfast and then got to work. After a few hours of working, the charged emotions of my dreams faded into the background.
I’ve had dreams like this before, and it is not surprising I would be having them now. Gunfire and flood waters and other violence (man-made and “natural”) are our daily news. For the most part, even those events that hit closest to home such as Hurricane Sandy have not caused irremediable harm to those I know, even those who were impacted. I find myself asking what I, as an ordinary person without special insight or extraordinary ambition, should or could be doing in the face of apparently ever-increasing societal rancor, divisiveness and violence and destructively extreme weather and increasing environmental degradation.
Can the yoga practices help in this? I think so. At its most insidious, much of the core elements of the yoga philosophy served to justify keeping in their place without protest those without power by virtue of gender or social class. I believe that in our Western context, though, these same practices can be used to help us to better handle and accept what comes our way without requiring us to be idle and complacent in the face of injustices or harms that we can change. I might not be a visionary, but I can be a good citizen. I might not be able to radically transform, but I can be responsible for taking care of my health and home in ways that minimize my impact on the environment and others and give me the most strength to take care of those with whom I am in relationship. I can practice going deep into challenge with the yoga with the intention of being able to live with greater grace and beauty whatever comes.
I invite you to join me in this endeavor (and to share any concrete ideas–especially those of you who have visions for making things better; I’ll listen and contemplate).
The yoga offerings continue on the same schedule: William Penn House (pay the suggested donation or whatever you can), Tuesday nights from 6:30-7:45pm; house class for charity on Wednesday nights (email me if you want to join); Friday nights gentle/therapeutics at Willow Street Takoma Park from 5:45-7:15. For immediate news of a change in class schedule or special offerings when I am substitute teaching or offering a workshop, please like my Facebook page. If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to my blog to enjoy photos and musings about the yoga life and join in the dialogue.
May the new year bring you, along with the inevitable challenges, joy and peace at heart.
Peace and light,Elizabeth
Morning Walk
I knew that it was going to be a busy and possibly stressful day. After sitting for meditation, I got myself out for a decent walk.
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Hare Om Ganesha
A friend wrote an email to me this morning that in a recent office move, the plaster ganesha he’s had on his wall broke. Not to worry, though, he had been given another one to sit on his computer. Ganesha, though sometimes hailed as the remover of obstacles, does not so much remove them as help us navigate through life so that the inevitable challenges and hurdles will feel less like insurmountable obstacles and more like opportunities to move in new directions.
It seemed almost everywhere I turned in India, I bumped into another image of Ganesha. He’s a powerful one. I did not attempt to photograph them all, and these are not all the photographs. One of them is not ganesha–sometimes an elephant is just an elephant, even in a sculpture devoted to the gods.
If you are enjoying one of these images in particular, click on it so that you get to it at the largest size and then right-click to make it your wallpaper or background. Enjoy!
Morning Walk (to Work)
My walk this morning was no less beautiful because I was on my way to work, rather than off for a day of leisure.
Enjoy what delight comes when you have it.
