Sometimes, we need to be reminded of the most obvious things. This week, I've been ruminating on how my practice, or my sadhana if you like, is helping me to develop the skills to become a better person in real life, real time.
But to back up just a minute, it is worth pause to consider, why is it that we call this thing that we do when we come to our sticky mat? What is it that we are practicing for? I can think of at least two ways of answering this question: literally and metaphorically.
At the literal level, asana, or practice of Hatha Yoga Poses, as the story goes, was invented to prepare the body and its energy channels to be able to sit comfortably to begin a concentration, or dharana practice. This is why, at least in the west, asana has become the "gateway limb" of yoga for practitioners. It is simply the most accessible way to get started down a yogic path. Once the body is free from pain and excess energy has been discharged, we are more likely to have success with concentration.
On a metaphorical level, our asana, as well as our meditation practice, prepare us for life. In other things we show up and practice for, such as a sport, there is usually a main event to prepare for, aka, "The Big Game!"
Fellow yogis, the big game we are preparing for in our daily sadhana is life itself.
Just this week I observed how meditation is an elegant preparation for living life. When we sit down for concentration and fix our mind on an object, be it our breath, a mantra, or specific intention, inevitable non related, less helpful thoughts pop up. As practitioners we are taught to acknowledge the thought and then release it like a passing cloud. This in and of itself is great preparation for life. Developing the skill to control your mind and select for beneficial thoughts over harmful is perhaps the most important skill any person can develop.
Sometimes when you sit for meditation, you stumble and your mind goes chasing after the unwelcome thought and you lose your way, lose your practice for a moment. When this happens, we are taught to find our footing and gently, without judgment bring the mind back to our center. This I find to be especially applicable to daily life. After all, we are human and destined to err. The way to move past our mistakes, without creating addition ripples of judgment, blame, guilt, etc., is to observe that we are off track and gently guide ourselves back to our purpose, back to our center, back to our breath.
Getting back to asana, it seems a worthy exercise to list some of the skills we can cultivate with a daily practice, to keep in crystal clear focus, why it is we have a daily practice. Here are just a few I've come up with, feel free to add more in the comments section!
1.) Concentration / Focus - In asana, as in meditation, we keep our mind pointed on the present moment, with helpful anchors like our breath, alignment and or bandhas. When our mind wanders to what we are eating for dinner, we gently guide it back to our mat, back to the practice. In today's world of Triple Macchiatos and Ritalin for school children, focus is something we are desperately grasping for.
2.) Core Strength - With our bandhas we develop very real inner strength, a strength Sadie Nardini has coined, "Core Strength Vinyasa". When we are strong from the inside out and move from this place of strength our confidence is increased, as evidenced by our confident correctly aliggned posture. Coming from a place of confidence and strength we are less likely to act from fear and insecurity and more likely to act with love, reaping far better results.
3.) Flexibility - As we age, we become more rigid both mentally and physically. In our late 20s our ligaments and connective tissues begin the process of hardening and calcifying and so does our mind. Taking the time on a daily basis to stretch and create space in the body, slows this process down. Stepping out of our comfort zone to try new things, "You want me to put my foot where? Which nostril are we breathing out of?", I would argue also slows down this hardening / aging process.
4.) Vinyasa - I have heard vinyasa translated as "moving with the breath" and "moving in a special way". While I am no Sanskrit expert, there is a definite lesson to be learned either way. Taking the time to move through our lives with intention, making sure our actions are aligned with our highest truths can only be a positive. Haphazard movement is likely to yield haphazard results. Taking time to check in with our breath, as means of evaluating our mental state and then redirect it when necessary is a great thing to do throughout the day. "Is my breathing shallow? Am I stressed right now? Am I holding tension in my chest? What can I do at my desk to relax a bit?".
It seems helpful to me, to keep in perspective just what it is that we are working towards in our daily practice, keeping your eyes on the prize so to speak. After all, yoga does not have to be about lofty goals or esoteric themes. The lessons I learn from my daily practice are real and pragmatic. How has your practice helped you to better prepare for daily life?
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Feelin' Good
Sutra 2:35 AHIMSA PRATISTHAYAM TAT SAMNIDHAU VAIRA TYAGAH
In the presence of one firmly established in non-violence, all hostilities cease (Satchidananda 130)
If I'm being honest,I have to admit that I have been being pretty hostile to myself recently, on my mat and in my head. Still struggling with notions like progress in my practice I think I'm creating a somewhat masochistic dynamic, and as if I needed proof, I've yet again torn my left hamstring. Coming from this decidedly unfriendly head space, I know I have not been doing my part to spread love and light to others in the world.
Times like these I'm reminded of what one of my teachers, David Williams would say, "Get on your mat and see how good you can feel." One might not expect this from father of Ashtanga Yoga here in the US, but David is firmly rooted in ahimsa and I'm grateful to have his teachings to draw from right now.
One definition for the word HIMSA is "to hurt". To most fully immerse myself in a practice of AHIMSA, perhaps it's best to delve into the extreme and focus on" to make feel good". After all on an elemental level, that's why so many of us make our way to the mat every day; yoga feels good, or at least at its best, it should.
To bring my practice of feeling good to my mat, I've been playing around with finding my edge in a given asana and then backing out just to the point that it begins to feel good. To an outside observer, my asana might appear less beautiful or even lazy, but I'm learning. And it feels good, so who cares?!?
All week, I've been thinking about the things that feel good and things that do not feel good. Here is what I've come up with so far:
Feels Bad: listening to negative thought reels that play in our head, attachment to results and ego-driven asana.
Feels Good: a safe place like a sticky mat to check head junk, breathing deeply and being fully present moment by moment as sensations arise.
Now I'm not suggesting a hedonistic approach to yoga. Hedonism is about pursuing pleasures from outside sources, slaking desires as they arise with outside things like food, drugs, sex etc.. These good feelings are fleeting and superficial. What I'm exploring is a more mindful way to move through asana as a means to more fully quiet the mind and access the the deep good feelings that are inside patiently waiting for us, always.
What I learn more and more from my practice and readings, is that yoga simply does not work, if not performed for the benefit of others. In other words, working with a strap for hours on end to achieve the full expression of a pose, will never result in peace. Maintaining a regular asana practice as a means of mental and physical hygiene for the sake of loving others, is ultimately fulfilling.
As I see it now, it is my civic duty to get onto my mat each day and see how good I can feel . That way I can spread that good feeling around to all I encounter. So I can be a better wife, better friend, better teacher, better coworker. My goal is to leave my mat smiling each day.
It just seems like a better face to greet the world.
In the presence of one firmly established in non-violence, all hostilities cease (Satchidananda 130)
If I'm being honest,I have to admit that I have been being pretty hostile to myself recently, on my mat and in my head. Still struggling with notions like progress in my practice I think I'm creating a somewhat masochistic dynamic, and as if I needed proof, I've yet again torn my left hamstring. Coming from this decidedly unfriendly head space, I know I have not been doing my part to spread love and light to others in the world.
Times like these I'm reminded of what one of my teachers, David Williams would say, "Get on your mat and see how good you can feel." One might not expect this from father of Ashtanga Yoga here in the US, but David is firmly rooted in ahimsa and I'm grateful to have his teachings to draw from right now.
One definition for the word HIMSA is "to hurt". To most fully immerse myself in a practice of AHIMSA, perhaps it's best to delve into the extreme and focus on" to make feel good". After all on an elemental level, that's why so many of us make our way to the mat every day; yoga feels good, or at least at its best, it should.
To bring my practice of feeling good to my mat, I've been playing around with finding my edge in a given asana and then backing out just to the point that it begins to feel good. To an outside observer, my asana might appear less beautiful or even lazy, but I'm learning. And it feels good, so who cares?!?
All week, I've been thinking about the things that feel good and things that do not feel good. Here is what I've come up with so far:
Feels Bad: listening to negative thought reels that play in our head, attachment to results and ego-driven asana.
Feels Good: a safe place like a sticky mat to check head junk, breathing deeply and being fully present moment by moment as sensations arise.
Now I'm not suggesting a hedonistic approach to yoga. Hedonism is about pursuing pleasures from outside sources, slaking desires as they arise with outside things like food, drugs, sex etc.. These good feelings are fleeting and superficial. What I'm exploring is a more mindful way to move through asana as a means to more fully quiet the mind and access the the deep good feelings that are inside patiently waiting for us, always.
What I learn more and more from my practice and readings, is that yoga simply does not work, if not performed for the benefit of others. In other words, working with a strap for hours on end to achieve the full expression of a pose, will never result in peace. Maintaining a regular asana practice as a means of mental and physical hygiene for the sake of loving others, is ultimately fulfilling.
As I see it now, it is my civic duty to get onto my mat each day and see how good I can feel . That way I can spread that good feeling around to all I encounter. So I can be a better wife, better friend, better teacher, better coworker. My goal is to leave my mat smiling each day.
It just seems like a better face to greet the world.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Grandmother as Guru
1:19 There will be some who are born in a state of Yoga. They need not practice or discipline themselves (Heart of Yoga 155).
The first time I read Desikachar's translations of Patanjali's sutra 1:19 above, a very clear picture of my grandmother Patsy formed in my mind's eye.
Patricia Burns is a mother of eight and grandmother to thirteen. As a public school teacher for more than thirty years she taught so many first graders how to read in one small town in northern New Jersey that it is impossible to go anywhere in the county with her without some sheepish middle-aged person exclaiming, "Hey Mrs. Burns!" She always remembers their names. A self proclaimed "peace activist" (note distinction from the more pedestrian pacifist), Patsy is a lover of NPR and clipper of New York Times articles for all whom she knows. She is also the most advanced yogi I know.
Although impressive, Patsy's achievements in her career and as a mother are not what make her exceptional. It is her attitude that is special. Simply stated, she approaches life with keen curiosity and her greatest joy lies in the happiness of others. But most of all, she somehow always manages to see the good in others and love them for it. Oh, and she occasionally gives sage advice like, "Lighten up!"
Patsy is the kind of woman, who if brought face to face with the single person on earth she most disapproves of, (Georg W. Bush), she would no doubt lecture him crossly on his mistakes. But I would bet that she would also ask him if he's been eating enough and then caution him strongly against driving in any form of precipitation.
Fierce champion of the poor, Patsy has mobilized her small army of grandchildren to create a, "Compassion Fund" each holiday so that even the youngest of us learn the importance of giving and compassion.
Patsy has been following my meditation and yoga practice with intense curiosity and she is my favorite person to call when I've experienced a breakthrough in my practice. She somehow intuitively understands my impassioned ramblings, even when they are peppered with Sanskrit words. She understands and she approves. Once she told me it was her greatest prayer that I would find something like yoga in my life.
As Patsy follows along with me on my yoga journey she often inquires about specific techniques. A few months ago she was especially intrigued with the Loving-kindness meditation that I have been working with. She expressed interest in trying it and asked me to type out the the mental script for her, which I gladly did, "May I be safe, happy and free, May my loved ones be safe, happy and free...May all beings be safe happy and free."
It only dawned on me just this week how absurd this scenario truly is. Here I am explaining to her how much I've grown by devoting all of 20 minutes a day to loving all beings on earth, while her entire life is a practice of loving-kindness meditation. I know of no other person who loves more or gives more to her family and beyond. She does not need a sticky mat to practice loving-kindness. She is loving-kindness.
Call it grace or call it yoga, in our family we sometimes call her a saint... but mostly we just call her Patsy.
The first time I read Desikachar's translations of Patanjali's sutra 1:19 above, a very clear picture of my grandmother Patsy formed in my mind's eye.
Patricia Burns is a mother of eight and grandmother to thirteen. As a public school teacher for more than thirty years she taught so many first graders how to read in one small town in northern New Jersey that it is impossible to go anywhere in the county with her without some sheepish middle-aged person exclaiming, "Hey Mrs. Burns!" She always remembers their names. A self proclaimed "peace activist" (note distinction from the more pedestrian pacifist), Patsy is a lover of NPR and clipper of New York Times articles for all whom she knows. She is also the most advanced yogi I know.
Although impressive, Patsy's achievements in her career and as a mother are not what make her exceptional. It is her attitude that is special. Simply stated, she approaches life with keen curiosity and her greatest joy lies in the happiness of others. But most of all, she somehow always manages to see the good in others and love them for it. Oh, and she occasionally gives sage advice like, "Lighten up!"
Patsy is the kind of woman, who if brought face to face with the single person on earth she most disapproves of, (Georg W. Bush), she would no doubt lecture him crossly on his mistakes. But I would bet that she would also ask him if he's been eating enough and then caution him strongly against driving in any form of precipitation.
Fierce champion of the poor, Patsy has mobilized her small army of grandchildren to create a, "Compassion Fund" each holiday so that even the youngest of us learn the importance of giving and compassion.
Patsy has been following my meditation and yoga practice with intense curiosity and she is my favorite person to call when I've experienced a breakthrough in my practice. She somehow intuitively understands my impassioned ramblings, even when they are peppered with Sanskrit words. She understands and she approves. Once she told me it was her greatest prayer that I would find something like yoga in my life.
As Patsy follows along with me on my yoga journey she often inquires about specific techniques. A few months ago she was especially intrigued with the Loving-kindness meditation that I have been working with. She expressed interest in trying it and asked me to type out the the mental script for her, which I gladly did, "May I be safe, happy and free, May my loved ones be safe, happy and free...May all beings be safe happy and free."
It only dawned on me just this week how absurd this scenario truly is. Here I am explaining to her how much I've grown by devoting all of 20 minutes a day to loving all beings on earth, while her entire life is a practice of loving-kindness meditation. I know of no other person who loves more or gives more to her family and beyond. She does not need a sticky mat to practice loving-kindness. She is loving-kindness.
Call it grace or call it yoga, in our family we sometimes call her a saint... but mostly we just call her Patsy.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Samtosha Reboot
2:42 SAMTOSAD ANUTTAMAH SUKHA LABHAH
By contentment, supreme joy is gained
This week I've been struggling with finding SAMTOSHA, or contentment. This doesn't mean that I've been feeling particularly sad, but instead I've felt a strong yearning. A yearning for my practice to be something else, for my body to look like someone else, for my life to be like someone else. Now you'd think with a daily yoga practice I would know what to do when these feelings arise. But alas, my sadhana is still gaining strength and it is hard work rewiring pathways in your brain that have had 30 years to become established.
What I should have done was increase my meditation, maybe 2x / day for longer sittings. What I did do, was avoid my meditation practice and when the tough got going, this yogini went shopping. That's right, I bought a new $50 yoga shirt, from everyone's favorite yoga boutique in town. It was supposed to energize my practice that day. It was the only piece missing from my already cumbersome yoga wardrobe. Problem is, it made me feel worse.
Desikachar says, "The body and mind are suited to certain patterns of perception, and these tend to change gradually through yoga practice It is said in the Yoga Sutra that people alternately experience waves of clarity and cloudiness when first beginning a yoga practice"(The Heart of Yoga).
While I began a daily practice over a year ago, seeing as I plan on remaining a yogini for another 60 or so years, one might say that I am a beginner. I take comfort in Sutra 1:30, "There are nine types of interruptions to developing mental clarity: illness, mental stagnation, doubts, lack of foresight, fatigue, overindulgence, illusions about one's true state of mind, lack of perseverance and regression (The Heart of Yoga).
In other words, this is a regularly scheduled interruption, or bout of regression with my practice of samtosha. Yogis have been dealing with said interruptions for just about 2,000 years. Even better, Patanjali offers advice to combat these bothersome interruptions in the following sutras by way of pranayama, meditation on the senses, meditation on life itself and seeking the council of a guru.
In thinking this through further, I find that maintaining samtosha is something I struggle with often and it's no wonder. In the society we live in, we are constantly bombarded with marketing images that tell us that we need a whole host of new things outside of ourselves to be happy. A new car, a smaller waistline, a new house, new clothes etc. The environment we are bathed in tells us we are not whole as we are and trains us to seek outwards for happiness and satisfaction, not within. We begin this conditioning the moment we are old enough to watch Saturday morning cartoons . I, who work in media, should be hyper aware of this reality.
My teacher tells us, when you find yourself off track, recollect yourself and celebrate that moment, when you forcibly stop the samskara driven thought, behavior, karma. Then get back back to work. I think I'll go have a recollection party, enjoy my breath with some pranayama and then step onto my mat to find some satisfaction with my practice, in my body... just as it is this very moment. Namaste y'all!
By contentment, supreme joy is gained
This week I've been struggling with finding SAMTOSHA, or contentment. This doesn't mean that I've been feeling particularly sad, but instead I've felt a strong yearning. A yearning for my practice to be something else, for my body to look like someone else, for my life to be like someone else. Now you'd think with a daily yoga practice I would know what to do when these feelings arise. But alas, my sadhana is still gaining strength and it is hard work rewiring pathways in your brain that have had 30 years to become established.
What I should have done was increase my meditation, maybe 2x / day for longer sittings. What I did do, was avoid my meditation practice and when the tough got going, this yogini went shopping. That's right, I bought a new $50 yoga shirt, from everyone's favorite yoga boutique in town. It was supposed to energize my practice that day. It was the only piece missing from my already cumbersome yoga wardrobe. Problem is, it made me feel worse.
Desikachar says, "The body and mind are suited to certain patterns of perception, and these tend to change gradually through yoga practice It is said in the Yoga Sutra that people alternately experience waves of clarity and cloudiness when first beginning a yoga practice"(The Heart of Yoga).
While I began a daily practice over a year ago, seeing as I plan on remaining a yogini for another 60 or so years, one might say that I am a beginner. I take comfort in Sutra 1:30, "There are nine types of interruptions to developing mental clarity: illness, mental stagnation, doubts, lack of foresight, fatigue, overindulgence, illusions about one's true state of mind, lack of perseverance and regression (The Heart of Yoga).
In other words, this is a regularly scheduled interruption, or bout of regression with my practice of samtosha. Yogis have been dealing with said interruptions for just about 2,000 years. Even better, Patanjali offers advice to combat these bothersome interruptions in the following sutras by way of pranayama, meditation on the senses, meditation on life itself and seeking the council of a guru.
In thinking this through further, I find that maintaining samtosha is something I struggle with often and it's no wonder. In the society we live in, we are constantly bombarded with marketing images that tell us that we need a whole host of new things outside of ourselves to be happy. A new car, a smaller waistline, a new house, new clothes etc. The environment we are bathed in tells us we are not whole as we are and trains us to seek outwards for happiness and satisfaction, not within. We begin this conditioning the moment we are old enough to watch Saturday morning cartoons . I, who work in media, should be hyper aware of this reality.
My teacher tells us, when you find yourself off track, recollect yourself and celebrate that moment, when you forcibly stop the samskara driven thought, behavior, karma. Then get back back to work. I think I'll go have a recollection party, enjoy my breath with some pranayama and then step onto my mat to find some satisfaction with my practice, in my body... just as it is this very moment. Namaste y'all!
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