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Covered

February 2, 2010 in Yoga, abundance, jnanna, writing | 2 comments

The Om tapestry that covers my television

Last Fall, on one of those amazing warmish days, I had all my windows open, and had a great practice going. When it was time to wind down I settled in for a nice shavasana. As I lay there checking in, realized it was a bit chilly.

My body voted for rest – my mind clinged to comfort. "Move, and get a blanket was the predominant thought." My body won. Just as I surrendered to the chill – to contentment, a strong wind blew the Om tapestry off my TV. It landed perfectly, covering my feet.

I'm grateful, but not surprised anymore when I get just what I need, right when I need it.

While traveling India I found myself in a few precarious situations. Things turned out okay… not always the best outcome, but okay.

This one time, I was on the back of a motorcycle, hurtling through impossible-traffic in Gaya. The term 'holding on for dear life' must be indian in origin, and the only thing scarier was the thought of the return trip. My hands went numb. Taking a few deep breaths of the thick air, my grip loosened.

"Worry is a prayer for what we don't want." -Sharon Gannon

A smile came over me, inside and out. I seemed to realize It'll be okay… or not… but the fierce grip wouldn't help either way. It's a level of trust, that I could handle whatever is coming my way. My illusion of control dissolved.

"You can't always get what you want – you get what you need." -Mick Jagger

An aspiring meditator who I work with individually, was walking in the woods when she came across a railroad crew working with power tools on the track. They were loud and she resented their presence. They were 'ruining' her peaceful walk. Her practice kicked in, trying to find peace, she created thoughts of how the crew was protecting life, making the trains safe etc…

Alas, she walked a bit further than usual and actually got lost. When she got still and tried to get her bearings… off in the distance she heard the workers, and their sounds guided her home to safety.

When what is 'bad' becomes 'good' what really changes?

Don't hold on so tight, and we'll get what we need… We're covered.

I've got a great interview in the works from a Yoga student who is a master at manifesting. She's going to share some of her stories with us. If you've got a story about being covered, please, Click on the comments link, and share it with us.

Om Shanti, I'll see you in class.

John

Downward Facing Dogmatic

October 23, 2009 in Yoga, jnanna | 4 comments

You've forsaken all other activities, and taken the time to get to class. You unroll your mat, setup your space and:

a: Go through the motions, muscle on through, and hope some of the Yoga sticks to you.

b: Focus, Flow, and seek to understand how the teachings relate to you, and how you relate to the teachings.

Taken at surface level, some of these teachings can seem superficial, trite, or yes, even dogmatic. "Open your heart, Draw energy up the back of your leg, Set a clear intention." What does it all mean? Better put, what does it all mean to you?

One of the beauties of Yoga is it's pure potential to be what you need it to be. Need to stretch, strengthen, de-stress? Then yes, Yoga practices can help.

But when practiced that way, it's like applying a band-aid. The benefits are fleeting. Feel bad – get to Yoga – feel good for a while, then feel bad again.

A small intention will get you just that, and that's all your Yoga may ever be.

When we approach our Yoga practice like we do everything else, we become more of who we already are. I think the world has had enough of us all doing that.

We've got to dig deeper, scratch below the surface and get to the roots of our issues. The bad feeling is there to show us a change is needed. dare to look.

Shift your perspective

Yoga asks us to set aside what we think we know, and to vary our perception. We hone the ability to zoom our awareness in on a particular sensation, or zoom out and gain perspective on the whole of our lives. In each moment, would the micro, or the macro view be best?

The question becomes: How can this posture, this very breath, help me to become a better person, neighbor, parent, friend, partner, or spouse?

Spice it up

When we practice this way, our efforts are concentrated, It's like a strong spice, say Saffron, it's sacred, and a little goes a long way towards the color and flavor of how we experience what's in front of us.

Unmake your mind

The teachings are a map, left by the anicents, a map to our freedom. Each pose, each breath, is potentially a step closer. In class we create a model of how we could live, and after class shows how we could feel all the time.

We need to remember why we fell in love with Yoga in the first place, and be sure our Yoga is about, what our Yoga is about.

Om Shanti. I'll see you in class.

John

Vinyasa Yoga Defined

October 8, 2009 in Yoga, jnanna | 1 comment

What is Vinyasa, anyway?

by Daniel Dale

Many experienced yoga practitioners who have studied in other Hatha Yoga traditions, have shared with me that on the whole their experiences taking classes labeled “Vinyasa” have been very frustrating.

These are folks who approached me after taking a class I taught, and told me that they loved how we moved at a pace that allowed them to breathe. Some have literally reported that in all the “Vinyasa” Yoga classes they had taken previously, the pace was so frantic that they hardly had time to take a breath.

It seems there is a widespread conception of Vinyasa Yoga as being fast and aerobic. And that is how it is often presented. One might ask, is it appropriate to refer to aerobics, even aerobics that is done as a sequence of classical Yogasanas, as “Yinyasa Yoga?”

We can infer that there is disagreement over what constitutes Vinyasa Yoga, since such a wide range of approaches are given this common label. America’s most popular Yoga magazine said of Vinyasa Yoga, “This American innovation is more freeform than its progenitor, Ashtanga Yoga.” (Yoga Journal, Feb. 2008. p.75).

I disagree with 3 assumptions that are embedded in this definition, so I ask you to question:

€ Is it “freeform?” How freeform can a genre be without it being impossible to define?

€ Is vinyasa yoga an American, and not an Indian, innovation?

€ Is it, as Yoga Journal has called it, “derivative of Ashtanga Yoga?”

A good deal of the sequencing found in many vinyasa yoga teachers’ repertoires, does draw heavily on the Ashtanga Yoga Primary Series that was taught by the late K. Pattabhi Jois, who was a student of T. Krishnamacharya. And in many Vinyasa Yoga classes, one encounters a tendency toward relatively high speed that seems to have the same inspiration.

(Of course, not all Ashtangis are speed demons on the mat, but as a whole they tend to move faster than most yogis.)

On the other hand, it is said by Srivatsa Ramaswami, author of The Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga, that Vinyasas are to be executed with a maximum breath rate of 6 per minute, possibly as slow as 2 breaths per minute for advanced practitioners.

Ramaswami studied for 33 years under T. Krishnamacharya, and says that as he learned it from the master, vinyasa yoga was “the antithesis of aerobic exercise.” He has also taken a stance on what parameters exist that limit what one might call Vinyasa Yoga.

I have made an attempt to address these elusive matters coherently in the article Vinyasa: about this form of Yoga, I’ve posted to my website, the Om Again Yoga Pages.

Much love to all of you who frequent Yoga With John — an excellent port of call for yogis sailing the seas of the blogosphere— and many thanks to John Calabria for inviting me to share this with you. -Daniel

Yoga teacher / somatic educator Daniel Dale is a student of yoga in the tradition of T. Krishnamacharya. He offers yoga workshops internationally, offers private yoga lessons and teaches weekly Yoga classes in New York City.