First you would turn the big knob, ‘chunk chunk chunk’ to change the channel. Then you would turn the knob’s outer ring till the fuzzy picture appeared on the screen.
With the focus of a safecracker, you would ease the knob back and forth a few times, tuning out the static, finally settling on the clearest reception you could get.
This could take some time.
Finding your Yoga posture is a lot like tuning these old televisions, each practice, each pose is different. Things drift, change, sometimes we need to use a block, or a strap.
Remember wrapping tinfoil on the rabbit ears?
Your yoga posture is not out there, not in a book, a video, or in a teacher’s lesson. You’ve got to feel your way there through subtle – minute adjustments. The static falls away, and clarity takes its place, flooding your body with awareness.
With practice you will ease into that place sooner, where it just feels right.
Where you’re in tune.
Om Shanti, I’ll see you in class.
-j
p.s. There are still three spots open for our Fall peak-foliage Yoga retreat in Central Mass. Check out the pics of the solar powered eco-village we’ll be staying at on my Yoga Retreats page
In some popular styles of Yoga, students are encouraged to aspire to an ‘optimal alignment.’ While safe alignment is very important, I’ve seen much forcing in postures, the ‘ideal’ of a posture pushed like a cookie-cutter onto an unready body.
These kind of classes foster competitiveness, and echo much of our modern culture, which values appearence over substance.
Look where that focus has brought our society.
I think these lineages of Yoga mean well, but sometimes the language used can project that there’s something wrong with where we are currently at. You are where you are, and it’s a perfect place to start a Yoga practice.
Let your practice validate you on the way to transforming you.
Raise your right hand, make the peace sign, and take the Yogacratic oath…
Say: “I’ll do no harm.”
In our classes together, we adapt the postures to the current state of our bodies. Not an impose, but a Yoga pose, now helpful in the context of our lives. We foster a safe place where there’s nothing to prove, and we support each others unfolding.
In practice, we are not looking for paper mache’ shells of experience, but true postures, fully embodied, with substance and purpose.
Postures from the bones-out. Yes, Yoga is an inside job.
The true ‘optimal alignment’ is where the posture is safe, and of benefit to your whole being. Steady, with even breath, a meditative quality in your mind, and a clear sense of purpose. This place can be elusive. We get there by feel, and this takes practice.
Practiced this way, your favorite Yoga posture can be the one you are currently in. There’s just no place you’d rather be. From these peaceful places we can contemplate higher thoughts, like offering peace and compassion to all beings.
Our grandfather of Yoga, Sri Patanjalii suggested our postures be steady, and sweet, and on that note, I’ll close with some sweet postures:
At some recent point, the word Asana, (postures) became synonomous with Yoga.
Asana is a powerful vehicle for transformation, but without the framework of Yoga, it's exercise, and the benefits are fleeting.
Asana is third on the eight limbed path of Yoga. It comes after the ethical and purifying principles of the Yamas and Niyamas. Ways for a society to live together in harmony.
You see, Yoga is much much more than the postures. It's a path, a way of life handed down from the ancients. It's a carefully mapped out way to end suffering and find liberation in our lives.
John Philp was kind enough to send me a copy of his documentary Yoga, Inc. to review for you all. John's film addresses the sideshow that our national Yoga scene has become, Yoga (asana) competitions, lawsuits, franchises, infideliity and sexual misconduct. Here's a short clip:
Major players have pulled Asana from the context of Yoga to stand alone as a way to make tremendous amounts of Money. Many of these major 'stars' of Yoga mean very well, but some have lost their way. How can you tell? look at their actions, and how they treat others.
Thanks John, for making the film Yoga Inc.
It has become okay in some circles to abandon principle, call anything Yoga and peddle it as a means to make money.
Last year a heavily promoted, major "yoga" charity events headlining sponsor was a Factory Farm. The factory farms are major polluters, users of energy, and they wreak unmeasurable suffering on all involved. The tagline of the event "Come do Yoga to save Mother Earth!" Huh?
Am I the only one who sees the emperor has no clothes? Do we sidestep the teachings, and the idea of Karma when there's money involved?
Money is pure potential, what matters is how you got it, and what you do with it. Are these teachers at fault, or are they giving us what we want?
We don't have to go to these events.
The means do not justify the ends. Each and every dollar you spend is a vote for the world you'd like to live in. Who are your teachers, what do they stand for? How do their students act?
if you are a 'Yoga' teacher, what are you teaching? are your actions and words inline? Are your students getting more than buff?
