Questions Around Town
What does it mean to practice yoga asana? Who gets to do it? What does it mean to be good at it?
@ Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, 9/19
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- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Photos
Thoughts on Attribution and Lineage
What do we mean, exactly, when we say a thing is “by” someone? Yes, we are attributing the thing’s creation to that someone. But how is something just by us when it is based on all the input and teachings to which we have been exposed or immersed? How do we give credit when it is due? How do we honor and acknowledge what has influenced us? When is attribution called for?
The yoga sages speak of the parampara, the lineage of teachings. For some the lineage is just that: a linear chain passed on from one generation of teachings to the next, and the attribution is clear. Those in such lineages or who would lead one of their own making often teach that one should pick one path (one style of yoga/meditation) and stick with that form or teacher to succeed (with the mythic goal of enlightenment).
From my unattained perspective, I question who is to say how “enlightenment,” assuming it is indeed something that can be achieved, would or could or should be attained by anyone else? Practice tips for enhancing the experience of human embodiment (is that not the real path?) are nice, though.
I do not know the Elizabeth who drew on the sidewalk. She is quite possibly about the age I would have been when I first read (not saw the movie) Mary Poppins and dreamed of entering another world through a chalk drawing on the sidewalk.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
A Good Moment
If I only have a moment of respite in a busy day, I try to make it a good moment.
- Art and Culture | Community and Family | Food for the Body | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Gardening
Potage D’Ete Au Mid-Atlantic (and jivan mukti)
Could not resist the french name. More fun than summer local vegetable stew. An alternative name could be: how to make three okra and six beans into dinner for two. Or maybe four. When I was out in the garden this morning, I simply picked what needed to be picked. Featured here: three okra, six beans, one jalapeno, two ancho chiles (one partly dried on the plant), two large tomatoes (both of which are only partly viable), two ripe and one green (fell off while I was picking the ripe ones) roma tomatoes, one very small garlic clove, baby leeks, garlic chives, tarragon, parsley, dill, and herb fennel. Serve over quinoa, couscous, rice, or pasta, and it is easily a meal for two. Add some red beans or other dried beans, and it could be dinner for four.One of the things I like about eating from the garden is the necessity of being creative. Cooking from a cook book, who wants an ingredient list this long? I could also be disappointed that no one of my plants is giving me enough to create a dish out of mostly one or two ingredients. If I were getting these ingredients from the store, I would get more okra or beans or peppers. There is a great joy in finding a sense of abundance and sparked creativity and celebrating pleasure, art, fulfillment, delight, offerings with what we have been given, whether it is the food from our garden, our bodies, our talents, our families, or the time and place into which we were born. In finding the highest sense of abundance and creativity within our limitations, we are truly experiencing the yoga concept of jivan mukti, living liberation.
