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    Magic Carpet?

    ByElizabeth

    Do you ever stop to wonder about the ubiquitous, wildly patterned expanses of carpets at the big chain hotels?

    What might be the reasons for such carpets?
    1. The carpet designers all ingested some kind of substance that gave them visions?
    2. Patterns hide the dirt better than solids?
    3. The interior designer wanted to make sure that the hotel carpet could not possibly be like one you would have at home–thus giving some fantastical notion of the exotic?
    4. The hotel wanted to make sure that if your eyes glazed over during some conference that the swirling of the patterns could draw you into some entrancing meditative state that you would associate with visiting the hotel?

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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    Minding the Gap (and vinyasa krama)

    ByElizabeth

    One meaning of the phrase vinyasa krama is “the yoga of sequencing.”  This is the art of knowing how to practice in an order that will be most optimal for where you are in space, time, and health in any given practice.  Part of a true practice of vinyasa krama, like beautifully played music or an exquisitely presented music, is the silences and the pauses.

    I’m sure you have all seen the “mind the gap” warning, the admonishment to notice the space between the train and the platform, the place where one thing ends and another begins.  In that case, it is presented as a warning of danger, but it also can be seen just as an exhortation to be mindful.

    When we are truly mindful of the space between things — both spatially and temporally — then we are better able to honor what has just come and to be open and conscious for what is to come.

    In our yoga practice, noticing the space between coming in and coming out of the pose helps keep us aligned in the transition and enables us to better reap and experience the benefits of the pose.  The reason we are advised always to practice savasana at the end of any practice is so that we will have a good pause between a practice and going back to our other activities.

    Off the mat, taking time to pause in between thoughts and activities, helps us appreciate little moments of joy during a busy day.  It also helps us sequence our day more optimally and can prevent mistakes and misalignments by giving us time to be more aware of what will work best next.

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    Mantra

    ByElizabeth

    The texts on sadhana — yoga practice  — say in simplified essence that mantra is the fulcrum between the unknowable universal and manifest particulars.  What language we use and how we use it can either lead us towards skillfully navigating life informed by illuminated understanding or blundering through things with obscured vision (or, I add, somewhere in between, but which do you want to be your goal?).  If you listen for your authentic voice, what words do you want to utter, which do you want to embody, which do you want to offer?  The mantra is a tool (in the best sense of the word) to find a source for our own language (thought and spoken) that recognizes the common bond of dwelling together as neighbors (near or far) on this earth, in this universe.

    New York City, June 13-14

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