Graffiti Around Town
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- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation
Bhuvanseshari Dancing with an Icosahedron
I am finding it soothing, these days, to draw symmetries. And then, because I am who I am, I cannot quite follow convention.
Anahata Chakra (Part II)
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.
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Body | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Photos
A Commitment
When I enter into a contact improv jam, I make a commitment. I commit to paying attention with all of my being, to myself, to my partner or partners of the moment, to all the others in the room, and to a spatial, energetic, and creative attention to the dance itself and for the dancers as community and co-creators of the dance (and sometimes for the observers, too).
I think this is not unlike the commitment of the tantric yoga practitioner who ideally engages all of life with a simultaneous attention to the inner and the outer, to the dance between the self and all that to which ones self comes into relationship and to the dance of relationship.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
- Meditation | Photos | Poetry
Rising Moon
We are no more nor
Less caught than is the moon
Caught by tree branches.
A Guest at William Penn House
When I arrived at the William Penn House to teach yoga tonight, there were a couple of suitcases in the room. I asked one of the interns to help me move them. A guest came to help as one of the suitcases was his. I invited him to join us for yoga class. He expressed interest though declined this visit because he had a plane to catch. He stayed to chat while I was making the room ready.
The conversation started with snow and New York State and then Quaker peace activities–the latter hardly surprising for someone staying at William Penn House. The guest was older than me and had been an activist for a long time. I thought he would certainly know my Dad who has been doing peace-related volunteer work in New York for 50 years give or take a few. Yes, he knew my Dad and so I will send regards.
The guest said on parting that he thought all workshops for activists should start with some type of movement practice such as yoga. I agreed. Not only does it help bring the group together, but it invites all the participants to be stronger, healthier, and more flexible to better carry out their purpose.
My students began to arrive–the first, who came in the middle of the conversation, expressing the opinion that the guest would have been a great addition to the class. The guest went on his way, saying he would be thinking about yoga as he waited in the airport for his flight. And I brought the sense of deepened community and purpose from this chance encounter into my teaching.
Photo of marker outside the Friends Committee on National Legislation
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
