Great White Shark Pose?
Sometimes I contemplate the many names of yoga poses that are for animals and how and when that influences my asana practice.
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- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
My New Next Door Neighbor (And Thoughts on Moksha)
My adorable new neighbor appears in the photo to be outside looking in with me taking a picture from inside looking out. From the perspective of who was in the house and who was standing on the sidewalk, it was of course the was the opposite.
The paradoxical illusion in the photo led me to think about moksha — the yoga concept of liberation.
What I get from the various teachings for my own living practice is that to experience freedom in this embodiment we need to be able simultaneously to be on the inside looking out–from our individual embodiment appreciating a sense of universal connection–and also be on the outside looking in–bringing back to particularized embodied action what spaciousness we learn from practice and study.
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Miscellaneous (blog matters, etc)
Fall Greetings (Web Version of E-Newsletter)
I hope this newsletter finds you all as well as possible. It’s been a time when I’m feeling oh so fully aware of the vagaries of fate, the wildness of being, the play between the wholly unpredictable and the ordinary and expected, and the joys and benefits of aligning with a sense of order to feel healthy, adaptive, and present to what comes our way. I’m feeling that I am at a crossroads (this is partly physical), but I don’t have particular plans.
This summer, I listened to my own teachings, and in the midst of tending to the responsibilities of work and home and community and relationship, I made sure to take the time to to study and practice, including time away with opportunities to see the stars, to watch the sunrise, to walk in the woods, to swim in a lake, and, on the way to and from, to enjoy New York City.
As always, I’ve been reading widely, much of the reading focused on how we communicate and relate, what we dream, and what tools or ideas we might consider for making more efficacious our web of living relationship. In the fall, I’m looking forward to attending a number of weekend yoga workshops to inform my own practice and also going deeper into studying nonviolent communication.
For now, in the midst of this outrageous dance of life and relationship, with all that we cannot control and the unfolding turmoil of climate and society, I think that what is most important to me is to work with dedication and with my best attitude, to do community service and engage fully as a citizen, to laugh and share food with friends, to make art, and to connect the broader ecosystem, even if it is mostly through my little garden and the trees and the sky of the city. I meditate and practice asana so that I can live such a life as fully, honestly, joyously, and with as much integrity as I can.
The Tuesday night yoga practice at William Penn House continues as an opportunity to nurture our embodies selves and to share conversation about how the practices can help us live more efficaciously. I love it when new people or those who can only come occasionally join us regulars. It is generally all level and suggested donation, with all proceeds going directly to support the work camp program at William Penn House. This summer, William Penn House work campers constructed dozens of vegetable gardens for neighbors throughout the city, sharing the joys of urban edible gardening with and making possible healthier eating for those who otherwise might not have had access. Do come join us on a Tuesday night if you can. More experienced yogis can inquire directly about the Wednesday night house practice.
If you want to get more regular communications, do consider subscribing to the blog to get an email version of what I post–most days that will come as a photo or a few words, every once and a while, something longer–mostly somehow about or informed by my own interpretation of yoga practice and philosophy. Feel free also to join me on Facebook.
Peace and light,
Elizabeth
ps The murti of Nataraja was a present just given to me by a friend. He’d brought it back from India a couple of years ago and thought it belonged more in my home than in his at present. I hadn’t seen one that I’d want to bring home, but he’s dancing away on my bookcase.
Received Exhortation (Tantra?)
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.
