Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice

Discussion of physical aspects of yoga (on and off the mat)

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    “Meeting for Discernment for Peace,” Bhavana, and Heart-Oriented Posturing Language

    ByElizabeth

    On the Friends Meeting of Washington list serve this week, there has been a fair amount of email exchanged about an upcoming “meeting for discernment for peace.”  Very roughly described, a meeting for discernment begins with a period of silent worship in which those present settle into the silence and surrender thought to allow the light of spirit to illuminate a specific subject of contemplation.  The subject of the meeting serves to enlighten both the individuals participating and to further both the business and spiritual state of the meeting as a whole.

    As I read the emails and invited myself to contemplate the questions offered for the meeting (I will not be able to attend because I had previously committed to volunteer work), it led me to think not only about the topic under discernment, but about how similar it seems to me to the yoga practice of bhavana and how bhavana supports the Anusara teaching method of “heart-oriented posturing language.”

    When we practice bhavana ,we invite the fullness of consciousness to illuminate ever deeper levels of understanding of particular teachings from the yoga texts or similar ideas.  It is similar to meditation in that we don’t try to think our way through the concept, but rest with it.  Bhavana  differs from meditation exactly because it is focused on the deepening of a particular concept rather than simply going into the space of meditation as an end in itself.

    Although a meeting for discernment is practiced as a form of collective worship rather than an individual practice, it is much like bhavana, and I brought the Quaker method of resting in the light to reveal deeper insight regarding a concept when I first starting teaching Anusara yoga with its emphasis on having a class theme and using heart-oriented language to invite myself and students to experience a heart quality through asana practice.

    The queries for contemplation at the meeting for discernment for peace, include the following:

    What does it mean to “live in the virtue of that life and power which takes away the occasion of all war?”
    How am I deepening my understanding of peace?
    How am I living into this understanding?
    How do I support others in following peace?
     
    What can be most powerful about our practice on the mat is bringing what we learn in relationship to our body, mind, and emotions in attempting and achieving poses, off the mat.   As I will be doing myself this week in my own practice in support of my friends who will be attending the meeting for discernment, I invite you, as you are practicing at home after reading this, to observe with love, spaciousness, and humor how you react to certain classes of poses, efforts you make, moves you are able to do or not do with ease.  Where are you in conflict with yourself?  What are you doing to deepen your understanding of how to be at peace with your strengths and shortcomings?  How are you taking the observations on the mat into your daily life?  How do you and how can you better use what you learn to support others, to eliminate the causes of war, and to foster peace?
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    What Difference Does Lobbying Make (and Svatantriya)

    ByElizabeth

    The tantric yoga philosophy ascribes the characteristic of svatantriya or ultimate freedom to the energy that infuses all of us.  We all want to be free, but when we get stuck in our embodiment, forgetting that we ourselves are manifestations of spirit, then we lose sight of our true freedom.  To find our own freedom of spirit, we need to be disciplined, to practice, to study, to live in a way that brings us into better alignment with ourselves and world with which we are inextricably interconnected.

    In this country, one of our principle ideals and buzz words in dialogue about how we should live is freedom.  What can so often be forgotten in this dialogue, though, is that freedom is a contract.  To be in a society where all have the opportunity to experience freedom, we need to agree, with discrimination (viveka) to certain limitations (for example, we agree to stop for red lights so that we can be free to drive and walk without a constant risk of being hit in crowded city).

    Granted, I am grossly oversimplifying here, but part of the great losses of freedom we are currently experiencing is the abdication by individuals of the responsibility to shape the agreement to maximize our collective freedoms.  Like the agreement with ourselves to practice steadily to experience inner freedom, we need to stay engaged, even when it seems impossible or deeply frustrating, in order not to lose sight of the ideal entirely.  Here’s some information from FCNL on why it is important to lobby despite how fruitless an act it may appear to be.

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    Day Trip to the Beach (and My Teaching Theme for the Week)

    ByElizabeth

    “Nothing is more important than that you see and love the beauty that is right in front of you, or else you will have no defense against the ugliness that will hem you in and come at you in so many ways.”  Neal Stephenson, Anathem

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    Living Mindfully in a Heat Wave, Ahimsa, and “Opening to Grace”

    ByElizabeth

    Ahimsa, which is the first of the yamas in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, and thus is the first practice or principle of the eight-limbed path, is usually translated as non-violence or non-harming.  Over my years of practice and study, I have read and heard many versions–some general, some personal beliefs–as to what it means to practice nonviolence as part of a path of yoga.  As I watch the way people around me are behaving and reacting to the heat and drought, I thought about how, for me, the practice ahimsa is as much about seeking to be in alignment with the movements and shifts around us that we cannot change as about refraining from specific acts of violence (though that is obviously a basic element).

    In terms of aligning with the world arounds us and the cycles of our own body-mind, when we are sensitive to what will best serve our own self while having the least impact on the environment, we are practicing ahimsa, in other words, “opening to grace.”  How does practicing ahimsa by behaving mindfully incorporate many aspects of the Anusara first principle of opening to grace? Opening to grace, as a practice principle, invites us to be open, sensitive, spacious, and radically affirm what is so that we can expand, shift, and serve ourselves and others in the best way possible under the circumstance. To be open in this way, try not to rage at the heat–or whatever is your weather. Soften, listen, and mindfully discover how you can live at your fullest, kindest, and most generous with what you cannot change.

    When the temperature soars above 95F for days in a row, it is an act of violence to rage against it or to consume outrageous amounts of fossil fuels to cool our businesses and homes enough to wear warm clothes, sleep under blankets, cook and eat hot foods, or do an athletic asana practice or workout (lest we feel that we are not fulfilling some externally motivated personal notion of fitness–having external notions of how we should look, act govern us without accepting the actual situation is its own form of violence against ourselves) that we would not do if we could not artificially cool our environment.

    Perhaps I have no call to speak on this: my central air conditioning is on, though I’ve been keeping it between 78-82F and I have been moving, dressing, and eating in a way that honors the fact that those temperatures are as cool as it is going to be until the heat wave breaks. Some might argue that using any air conditioning or even an electric fan or a refrigerator is doing excessive harm to the environment. That may in fact be true, but asking for more than we can do just makes things seem impossible, and then we are less likely to make any shift at all.

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

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    Great Gary Snyder Quote (and Sadhana)

    ByElizabeth

    My friend Dan just posted on his blog a great Gary Snyder quote on the need to do maintenance (of the self) in order to be most creative.  The idea that we need to maintain our tools and toolbox, as it were, in order to be most creative, is exactly what we are taught about the tantric yoga sadhana  — practice.  With our yoga practice, diet, lifestyle, work, consumption, participation in community, we seek to live progressively more in alignment with the undulating fabric of space, time, and apparent world so that we have maximum well-being best to serve ourselves and others with delight. In our sadhana, we include both study and experience (experience includes meditation, asana, and pranayama).  As both John Friend and Paul Muller-Ortega teach, we engage in the practices and studies to learn with ever expanding insight how to see and experience the highest first and live from that place.  Living and practicing with such an intention is, I think, the maintenance done so we can live out all of our lives as a reverential and creative act.

    Dan–I look forward to reading the sermon.

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    Under My Desk at the Office

    ByElizabeth

    There are three important things going on under my desk:
    (1) my feet are planted firmly on the floor with the inner edges of my feet parallel. This is the foundation of a good, comfortably upright posture where my low back, shoulders, and neck are in alignment and not overworking; my inner organs are in the right place for optimal functioning; and my lungs and diaphragm are situated for full, easy breathing, which helps me be healthier and more alert.
    (2) the only shoes for the day have flexible, supportive soles and leave my toes free to work–whether I am walking or sitting. I do not change into narrow-toed and/or high-heeled shoes to look “professional” or fashionable. I think if we try hard enough, we could make shoes that are good for us be in style. Think about how much we would reduce health care spending and lost work time (for foot, knee, and back surgeries and treatments), if we all wore shoes that fit and did not alter our posture in an unhealthy way. Eventually, foot binding when out of fashion in China, but we still require women (mostly) to harm themselves with their footwear to fit in.
    (3) I have two different-sized rubber balls to do foot exercises. Feels great, helps me stay grounded, and is a nice way to take a break.

    Come to one of my yoga classes to get tips on great exercises for the feet you can do at your desk or just about any where.

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

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    White Heat

    ByElizabeth

    By 8:30 this morning, the sky was already an engorged white, thick with heat and humidity. There is no prospect of a thunderstorm for relief. If any come, they will be to the south and east or north and west of the space inside the Beltway. (I am convinced that the pattern of storms parting and dissipating within the Beltway is due to the hot air generated within the Dome).

    I walked to work earlier than usual this morning and wore a sleeveless dress, sandals, and a sun hat. The co-worker who shared the elevator was wearing a suit, tie, dark socks, and heavy shoes. A few of the men are brave enough to wear short sleeves or go without the tie, but all are wearing long pants, close-toed shoes, and dark socks. In the cafeteria, people are picking out foods heavy with meat, fat, and sugar. The building is air-conditioned to a temperature for the comfort of those who neither dress nor eat for the weather. In the building, I am wearing a wool cardigan over my weather appropriate dress.

    Last year, in response to a call to government workers from the White House for ideas to save money, I suggested that the dress code be changed from “business” attire to seasonally appropriate attire (my sleeveless dress is long and plain and does not expose anything other than my arms; it is perfectly “appropriate” and not beach wear). That way, the temperature in government buildings could be raised a few degrees in summer and lowered in winter, saving millions of dollars in heating and cooling expenses, as well as helping the environment.

    It needs to be a policy to wear clothing right for the weather. If it is not policy, those who want to get ahead will continue to believe that there is no possibility of succeeding without wearing the suit and tie/lined skirt and jacket, pantyhose and heels. (Why is it that people believe that our brains focus better when our clothing is uncomfortable?)

    I did not get a response. The winner was someone who suggested storing their office’s records electronically–something that is gradually happening every where in any event.

    Being seasonally appropriate in our dress and diet can make an enormous difference in our comfort and in our impact on the environment. Same, too, for how we exercise. When it is over 90F, please do not crank up the air conditioning so that you can do a fiery practice. Instead, practice quieter poses. Concentrate on seated poses, cooling pranayama practices, and meditation. Enjoy the invitation to stillness and the fact that by virtue of the heat, you are already warmed up.

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

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    More Spam Poetry (how practice leads us to the expansive light of Consciousness)

    ByElizabeth

    Hello Guru, what entice you to post an article. This article was extremely interesting,  especially since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last Thursday.

    isn’t crucial, at the least possibly not from the outset, in addition to awareness

    Everything is very open

    I think it’s essential for other to do this. I’m sure it will guide them in doing the right thing.

    I heard about that last week. I just want to check if this thing is real. It’s just like with the politics in our world

    not a problem. not as long stride when the untrained man or women will try

    It is lovely worth sufficient for me.

    It goes without saying I will be back again tomorrow,