A Yoga Practice to Wake Up To
In order for our practice to work, it has to be stronger then our negative ideations. If not, Self Hate will say, “is that all you got?” Addiction will say, “come at me, bro.” Suffering will say, “I can do you one better.” I truly love the idea of a soothing languorous practice. But I know me. If my mind and my body is not given a challenge, it will be an hour of negative thinking with incense, pretty lights and singing bowls. This does not mean doing strong sweaty asanas either. It just needs to be something that effectively stops the mind, and perhaps, turns it in another direction. …
Social Media and the Freedom to NOT Hear Your Speech
I often see people angry on social media because someone deleted a comment off their page. Usually, the person, whose comment got deleted, moves the comment to another page and says, “I put this comment on so and so’s page, they deleted it”, Followed by one of these statements “but I think people have a right to see this.” “and so many people agreed with me.” “it must be because they were offended/knew I was right/didn’t want the truth to get out.” Here is the thing. That page belongs to them and they have every right, for whatever reason, to delete your comment. Yes, it is public but so is…
Discipline and Punishment
“Without practicing discipline, one cannot gather his scattered energy, and all his goals will remain dreams that never materialize. Discipline is not a punishment but a part of growth, without which mental and physical health cannot be maintained”-Swami Rama Getting on the yoga mat everyday can sometimes feel like punishment. It is…depending on how you use it. If practice is used as a penance for eating pizza and cake, as a way to beat the mind and body into submission, or a way to shame ourselves into changing what we think is bad about ourselves, it totally is punishment. Google defines discipline as “train (someone) to obey rules or a…
Bad Apple in Every Bunch
I know this sounds obvious but it isn’t. This week, I came across two articles where really intelligent people, I am talking about a PhD and a well known teacher in a non dual tradition, took a few bad examples from dualism traditions, and used them to sum up the whole tradition. We all know that a few bad apples don’t necessarily mean we need to throw away all our apples. Even though a few people had car accidents today, we all continue to drive. Even though a few planes have fallen out the sky lately, we still fly. Even though we have had a few horrible relationships, we still…
Why Practice 6 Days A Week or Every Day?
To become grounded in practice. “Practice becomes firmly grounded when well attended to for a long time, without break and in all earnestness.”-Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 1:14 What is practice? “Effort towards steadiness of mind.”- Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 1:13 You practice 6 days a week, or whatever your tradition requires, to become firmly grounded in a steady mind. I recently read an article that stated, not practicing every day is an act of compassion. I think the opposite. Yoga was created to alleviate suffering in ourselves and in the world. Therefore, doing our chosen yoga practice is the ultimate act of compassion. Doing your practice not only serves…
Happy Guru Purnima
Today is a day for giving thinks to the gurus of your life. What is a Guru? Interesting enough, there are a lot of different etymologies. As a noun the word means the imparter of knowledge (jñāna; also Pali: ñāna). As an adjective, it means ‘heavy,’ or ‘weighty,’ in the sense of “heavy with knowledge,”[Note 1] heavy with spiritual wisdom,[16] “heavy with spiritual weight,”[17] “heavy with the good qualities of scriptures and realization,”[18] or “heavy with a wealth of knowledge.”[19] The word has its roots in the Sanskrit gri (to invoke, or to praise), and may have a connection to the word gur, meaning ‘to raise, lift up, or to make an effort’.[20] Sanskrit guru is cognate with Latin gravis ‘heavy; grave, weighty, serious’[21] and Greek…
Seeing God
Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure and heart, for they shall see, God.”- Matthew 5:8. “Everywhere looking, God seeing” -Pattabi Jois You know that feeling you have when you start something new? When something is just pure possibility? You are excited and full of energy, anticipation and joy. That is the feeling of a pure heart. That is the feeling of a heart that has not been beaten down by expectations, comparison and disappointment. That is the heart that yoga is looking to uncover;the spiritual heart. Up to a certain age, children naturally exist in this realm. My grand baby is so excited about the world that he cannot…
- Adventures in Mysore India, Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Conference Notes, Teaching Ashtanga, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
The Lesson, Not the Event
“By this time I had learned that it was more fruitful to pay attention to the lessons rather than to events themselves.”- Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, At The Eleventh Hour We all come into this practice carrying the results of our life and DNA in our bodies. In Mysore, Sharath would joke, “Don’t get mad at me because you are stiff. Get mad at your parents!” Last week, a student said, “I have been doing hip openers for a couple years now and my hips are still not open.” I said, “Sometimes, it is not possible to undo 40 years in a few years of practice, if at all”. Working…
- Adventures in Mysore India, Social Media, Teaching Ashtanga, Uncategorized, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
Teaching Ashtanga and the Benefit of Doubt
I will never forget when I went to a Kino MacGregor workshop and a woman, who comes to Ashtanga, seriously like once a year, told Kino that I was her teacher. I was standing in line for a picture. Kino was turned towards me and the woman had her back to me. I looked Kino dead in the eyes, and shook my head back and forth, “NO”. Yes, it is super sweet that she felt so connected to me those two or three times I taught her that she considered me to be her teacher but I was not going to take responsibility for anything she was doing in…
Trigger….Unhappy
The video above talks about how Facebook makes money by triggering your negative emotions. By placing posts on your page, that you are likely to engage with for a long time, they can make more money from ad placement. Because of the uncontrolled mind, the best way to do that is through negative posts. They are not the only ones of course. All news channels do it. Bloggers do it. Our egos do it. Yes. Keeping you in a triggered state solidifies the ego. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, yoga is defined as, “the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.” Facebook does not want you to do…
Making the Philosophy and Poses of Ashtanga Accessible for All
