Pause
Similar Posts
Pradakshina?
The term pradakshina roughly means turning towards what is right, to move in alignment with nature. When I was in yoga teacher training, we were taught that to make sure that the practice was in accordance with nature, with the principle of pradakshina, we should instruct our students to roll to the right when coming out of savasana (final relaxation; the corpse pose).
Those who take class with me may have noticed that a couple of months ago, I started just saying to roll to your side, whichever side feels better for you.
Why should turning to the left be sinister (latin for left), or gauche (french for left), or subversive and contrary to dharma (left-handed tantric practices).
Left-handed myself, I can assure you that not one of the salesmen in the expensive shop in India where I bought art and jewelry last year cared that I signed a credit card slip with my left hand (though in India it is customary to eat with the right hand and wipe oneself with the left to make sure that one never uses the same hand for both activities).
Who wants to move the right if right means not correct, but conservative, fundamentalist, self-righteous, and rigidly traditional in societies where tradition is paternalistic, narrow-minded, racist, classist, religiously dogmatic, and sexist?
I think turning to the side without the bum shoulder or the clogged sinus or turning to the side where there is more room or a beloved friend practicing beside you is turning in accordance with the principle of pradakshina–even if it means turning to your left.
Practice pradakshina by all means, seek to align with and embrace the flow and forces or nature within and without and honor those social customs that support and expand love and community, but don’t just roll to the right (or teach that) because someone told you going to the right will bring you closer to the divine. It ain’t necessarily so.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Photos
This is the Age We’re Living In
What are you going to do about it?
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
Found Objects Around Town
I saw these tools on the sidewalk in the afternoon. They were still there in the evening when I was walking home from teaching at William Penn House.
I wondered how or why someone might abandon, forget, or lose such well-made tools.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
330 Million Gods (var.)
And not just the ancient world, depending on where you are.- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Body | Gardening | Meditation | Photos
Gratitude
Sometimes at the top of the list of that for which I am grateful are the problems that I have. I fully appreciate my good fortune in only having problems I can handle in one way or another. Not every one is so blessed.
I was thinking this about “problems” and how to address them in the most graceful way as I read the Supreme Court’s decision. Heavy going reading, but absolutely fascinating from so many perspectives. Awe-inspiring in fact to think of the collective behavior and engagement of so many millions (yes millions by active involvement to greater or lesser degree or by apathy and inaction in this democracy of ours) of people that contributed to this writing. One aspect of it is how much of people tend to think, both individually and collectively, as life endlessly posing problems to be solved (I include myself in this) and not as offering opportunities to engage, shift, nurture, and grow. How we approach the Supreme Court’s decision collectively and individually will most certainly contribute to its impact.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.