Signs Around Town (Excerpt)
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Nasturtium dilemma (seeds v. seedlings)
It has been too cold for the nasturtium seeds I sowed a few weeks ago to germinate. By the time they germinate and grow, it will be too hot for the plants to thrive. (As a landscaper neighbor and friend of mine said of this dilemma this morning: “welcome to spring in Washington”). Nasturtiums love cool weather and really only do well in my garden until June.
The solution: I bought a few seedlings. I planted the seedlings where I sowed the seeds. By the time the seedlings have long since flowered and are starting to get leggy, the seeds will have germinated, and I’ll get nasturtiums for an extra few weeks at the end when it starts to get hot.
This combination of sowing seeds and planting seedlings also works well for me with annual herbs such as basil, dill, and parsley. The seedlings give me a few weeks head start; the seeds give me plentiful, inexpensive new plants when the plants that started in my garden as seedlings are starting to bolt.
I do only seeds for greens — kale, chard, mache, arugula, spinach, cilantro and beets. I can sow them in March and by now they are starting to feed me. I do only seedlings for tomatoes and peppers (I don’t have the facilities to get strong seedlings and starting with seedlings extends my growing season up 6-8 weeks).
It would be wonderful to garden entirely from seeds (swapped or harvested from last year), but the reality is that I am not a full-time gardener, but want to have a garden full-time.
- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation
Politics and “Inner Work”
The other day, an acquaintance whom I met through yoga asked in an email whether I was still into politics or whether I was now more focused on my “inner work.” He lives in suburbia and voted for both Bushes and, at least in the early years, thought this country belonged in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He practices asana and meditation, and eats a vegetarian diet, but he does it entirely for his own health and looks and not out of any evident intention of aligning with the flows and forces of nature or concern for all beings and the environment. For him, politics and yoga and meditation practices have nothing to do with each other.
I think it is wonderful that anyone takes care of their health and diet in a way that maximizes a health and a sense of well-being and minimizes the need to resort to medication and other Western medical care, which is a boon not only for the individual, but for the environment and for society in terms of cost.
For me, though, there is no separation between inner and outer work if one is living in the world and not in the cloister or the monastery. It is true that if one is out of inner alignment or unhealthy, it is not possible to be best aligned with nature, and thus, there is a need to do work for our self personally. But the true point of the practices is to help provide inner quiet, steadiness, and wisdom in our daily lives, which for a householder includes being an educated and active citizen.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
“Hugging to the Midline” (and discipline/discipleship)
Last night in group practice a student asked what she could do to keep her standing leg upper thigh/outer groin from cramping in ardha chandra chapasana (sugar cane pose). I responded that she probably was not using her inner thighs enough; she need to hug more to the midline. Another student pointed out that it is very challenging to hug to the midline in an asymmetrical pose.
Anyone who studies Anusara yoga has heard the teacher say “hug to the midline.” The physical instructions most often given to help the student do so, are “shins in” (coupled with “thighs back and apart”) or “isometrically draw your heels/feet together” (or hands in an arm balance or elbows/forearms in pincha mayurasana or sirsasana). “Hugging to the midline” is one of the three aspects of “muscular energy,” the second of the five “Universal Principles of Alignment” in Anusara yoga.
To help find the midline in an asymmetrical pose, I invited the students to do a partner exercise in ardha chandrasana (balancing half moon pose). One student went into the pose. The other student stood behind the one in the pose and place a hand or forearm underneath the lifted ankle of the student in the pose. The student in the pose then pressed down energetically into her friend’s support. The student was then able to find how to do “shins in” with the lifted leg. What all the students discovered was that by working with far more enthusiasm and power to the midline, it was much easier to open the heart into a deep back bend in the pose. As it was a backbending practice, we also explored the principle in various one-legged backbends, including eka pada ustrasana (one-legged camel pose) and eka pada urdva danurasana (one -legged wheel pose). The students who might not otherwise have been able to find these poses, discovered that if they hugged with heartfelt enthusiasm to the midline, they found an ability to do a pose that they might otherwise have thought beyond their reach.
This alignment principle was a perfect way to illustrate the theme of the practice, which was discipline as discipleship to the light (see yesterday’s blog post). All of the alignment principles in Anusara yoga are designed to get us deeper into our hearts; it is an added benefit that they make us stronger, more flexible, more secure in our bodies, healthier, and more energetic. Hugging to the midline will definitely help us engage our core muscles, thus giving us more strength and tone. As an energetic matter, hugging to the midline draws us into the central channel, the sushumna nadi — the place of grace where the kundalini energy rises.
When we are practicing sincerely, we are not just seeking to achieve a pose or get stronger or even to have kundalini experiences. We do not discipline ourselves for some external goal. Rather, out of the deepest longing to connect, we engage the principles to align our energetic and physical bodies so that we can be more in the flow and find more capacity to soften and expand our hearts and carry that into our lives, lifestyles, and relationships. The physical practice can show us how this works, and then, when we are aware, pulses us back to our true desire. More than the physical act of hugging to the midline makes it easier to do a heart-opener (backbend) and the energetic act of drawing to the midline may stimulate the flow of the kundalini energy, the discipline of drawing in to find the light will help us soften and expand the heart center so that we can reside more deeply there, and thus experience and share more joy, love, and compassion.
The Birds Were Chattering Madly Excited
This bush was full of tufted titmice and sparrows. They were all simultaneously chirping with excitement.
I imagined some of them agitated and anxiously saying of the unseasonable warmth hat it was not normal and something needed to be done.
The rest of them were loud drunks on the spring warmth. “Life is short. Enjoy what has come.”
Perhaps there was one truly wise bird who was saying that both of those are true and that recognizing both truths was a door to harmony.
