Contemplations on readings and yoga philosophy.
This week’s Department of Labor elevator poster. Krishna said as much to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. Except that Krisha told Arjuna what was his life’s work (dharma).
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
When a student asks a question and I do not know the answer, I do not try to answer it then and there. I do go home and take the time to try and find an answer. If I find enough information to be useful, I follow up. Last night, before the William Penn House class, a student asked whether I had received a recent mass e-mailing from John Friend in which he mentioned teaching about biotensegrity. I knew the answer to whether I had received the email–yes, a friend had forwarded it. I did not know, though, how John was using the term biotensegrity. I went and did a little research.
Buckminster Fuller coined the word “tensegrity”as the conjunction of tension and integration. The idea of tensegrity is being actively taught by anatomy teacher Tom Myers, a student of both Buckminster Fuller and Ida Rolf and a teacher of certain of my yoga teachers. It also bears a trademark when called “Carlos Castenada tensegrity.” I never got into the “magical passes” of Castenada’s students turned teachers, but at some point relatively recently found a used copy of “Magical Passes.” As I had delved fairly deeply into Carlos Castenada in my youth, I picked up the book and made it part of my library, though did not read it at the time.
I am not surprised that John is talking about biotensegrity. From my few hours of reading, it seems resonant with the “universal principles of alignment” that were the foundation of his Anusara teachings and also consistent with his movement towards the exploration and teaching of “sacred geometry” near the end of his Anusara days.
Yes, I know I haven’t actually said what is tensegrity or biotensegrity in the yoga/body awareness and movement context. But I do not teach unless I have learned something well enough to integrate it fully into mind and body such that I can articulate it in my own words, and I have not thought enough about the term tensegrity as it relates to yoga practice, though the concept makes initial intuitive sense. If the links inspire interest, I invite you to look more deeply. And I’m going to put “Magical Passes” on my stack of reading, though not necessarily at the top.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
I’ve seen lines drawn in
Sand, but never thought I’d see
Lines drawn in the clouds.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Dear Friends,
Despite being in the warm and comfortable bed for which I am grateful every day, I woke up sore-hearted this morning. I’d been dreaming first of dodging bullets in a shootout and then striving to escape rising flood waters. I did not suffer any physical harm to my person in these dreams, but felt scared and lost and unable to save those around me at greater risk. With the morning wake-up call, I got out of bed and followed my cat Uma down the stairs for our morning ritual. I changed her box and fed her. While she ate, I did some gentle asana to unknot the sleep from my body. I took my seat for pranayama and meditation, and Uma, as is her practice, immediately curled herself up against me. After meditating, I prepared a healthful and tasty breakfast and then got to work. After a few hours of working, the charged emotions of my dreams faded into the background.
I’ve had dreams like this before, and it is not surprising I would be having them now. Gunfire and flood waters and other violence (man-made and “natural”) are our daily news. For the most part, even those events that hit closest to home such as Hurricane Sandy have not caused irremediable harm to those I know, even those who were impacted. I find myself asking what I, as an ordinary person without special insight or extraordinary ambition, should or could be doing in the face of apparently ever-increasing societal rancor, divisiveness and violence and destructively extreme weather and increasing environmental degradation.
Can the yoga practices help in this? I think so. At its most insidious, much of the core elements of the yoga philosophy served to justify keeping in their place without protest those without power by virtue of gender or social class. I believe that in our Western context, though, these same practices can be used to help us to better handle and accept what comes our way without requiring us to be idle and complacent in the face of injustices or harms that we can change. I might not be a visionary, but I can be a good citizen. I might not be able to radically transform, but I can be responsible for taking care of my health and home in ways that minimize my impact on the environment and others and give me the most strength to take care of those with whom I am in relationship. I can practice going deep into challenge with the yoga with the intention of being able to live with greater grace and beauty whatever comes.
I invite you to join me in this endeavor (and to share any concrete ideas–especially those of you who have visions for making things better; I’ll listen and contemplate).
The yoga offerings continue on the same schedule: William Penn House (pay the suggested donation or whatever you can), Tuesday nights from 6:30-7:45pm; house class for charity on Wednesday nights (email me if you want to join); Friday nights gentle/therapeutics at Willow Street Takoma Park from 5:45-7:15. For immediate news of a change in class schedule or special offerings when I am substitute teaching or offering a workshop, please like my Facebook page. If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to my blog to enjoy photos and musings about the yoga life and join in the dialogue.
May the new year bring you, along with the inevitable challenges, joy and peace at heart.
Peace and light,
Elizabeth
Patanjali Yoga Sutra 2.16 (“the pain that has yet to come can be avoided”). This fortune explains well, I think, how to incorporate into one’s life and practice the teaching of this particular sutra.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.