Today’s walkabout circumnavigated the Capitol, went down to the baseball stadium and then along the Anacostia River Walk past the Navy Yard, and then angled back to the Yes Organic Market for a few things.
I could have focused on the mud and the litter in the park, and it is important to see all to try and make things better. It would be a shame, though, to have a day pass not noticing the beauty.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
I bumped into former neighbors on the street and one asked whether I was currently leading a regular, public yoga practice. I invited them to invite themselves over to my house to practice. This invitation goes to you, too.
It’s a good time to have practices to nourish us.
Please order from independent booksellers or direct from the author. One-click shopping feeds the problem.
Agni or fire is the third of the mahabhutas. Fire does not just give us warmth and light. It also transforms. Just think of what happens to the humble ingredients of flour, water, yeast, and salt when they are baked. When working with agni in our asana practice, using the Anusara principles of alignment, I have drawn on the intersection of pelvic loop and kidney loop (which together create the action of uddiyana bandha, using these principles as I understand them to activate and strengthen my core.
One of the niyamas of Patanjali’s eight-fold path is tapas, which means heat or austerity. We are exhorted to bring fire or fervor to our practice to experience bliss, to know true consciousness.
Fire without balance, without a sense of detachment or surrender, though, will burn us up. We must be careful how we work with agni as the element.
Note: Agni is also the name of the god of fire. Not only do we need to be careful how we draw on the fire element — this town’s culture places perhaps too much value on “fire in the belly,” but we should be wary of how we invoke the gods: India’s nuclear missile program is named “Agni.” Of that invocation of the gods and of fire, I am afraid.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
