From Jeff and Kathy part two

In our last episode, we left our two travellers sitting outside the yoga studio door, watching other students in their early morning practices. As the call rings from inside, "one more, seven o'clock," another student grabs their mat and steps over the painted wooden threshold into the shala. Everyone in the foyer scrunches just a little bit closer to the door. "One more," and now it's your turn to go inside. "Over here," or "back there," the teacher points and you look around the room, crowded with bodies and yoga mats at every possible step, looking for the elusive empty spot where you are supposed to unroll your mat. Sometimes it's an empty place and sometimes a student is still there, just about to finish up, doing the final posture. You try to walk through the maze, not stepping upon or being kicked by or bumping into or tripping over anyone else. Unrolling your yoga mat, folding- not rolling your cotton mat, and go into the quiet locker room to shed your street clothes and steady your nerves. Then you walk back through the mats and bodies to your mat and stand feet together to begin your own practice, once again.

For those of you who do not do yoga, or don't know much about ashtanga yoga in particular, here is a brief guide: everyone begins with the first series, and learns all the postures in the correct order. There are about 30 postures in the first series and 17 postures at the finish. You begin with standing poses then seated poses, and you have to memorize the entire sequence by yourself, because in Mysore, the teacher does not "lead" the class, only to assist you with adjustments or advice. Every breath that you take has a movement associated with it. At first it is a real challenge to breath smoothly and do the postures without force, but eventually you become strong enough and relaxed throughout the whole series. This may take a couple years or more of regular, (read: daily) practice!

The yoga room is very hot and soon you are all sweaty, even drippy. This may take some getting used to! When your rubber mat becomes too slippery to get a grip, you unfold your cotton mat. There is the sound of deep breathing all through the room, but nothing else. Remember, every breath has a movement associated with it, and there is movement everywhere. You try not to be distracted by all these bodies jumping, floating, stretching, bending, upside down and downside up. Normally, your practice is by yourself, just your mat and you, and it feels very different to be in such a crowded, busy space with so many others all practicing together. But, you soon realize that you need to focus on what you are doing, or you will get noticed by Sharath, who will call you out if you slip up. "You do navasana?", it's more of a statement than a question. Or, "not correct, why you leave your leg!" (Don't even try to figure out that one!) Even with 65 students all practicing all at once in every possible combination of postures, he manages to see you when you mess up. Right now, there are usually three or four other teachers in the room, giving asjustments and helping you throught the difficult parts,. Saraswati, the daughter of Gurui, is there as well, she is amazingly strong! Your practice takes about ninety minutes, more or less depending on your energy and how you are feeling. When you do this each morning, you begin to realize that you are definitely not the same person today as you were yesterday. Somedays you feel very strong and light, and on other days you feel very "solid" and heavy. Nothing stays the same but the observance of it.

After the backbends and the counter posture of a deep forward bend, you pick up your mat and leave the crowded shala floor for the relative quiet and cool darkness of the locker room. In here you do the finishing postures and take a short rest in corpse pose, (gotta love that name.) It is a nice change from the strong pace of the main studio and your body can downshift and relax a bit. Then you change into something not damp with sweat, roll up your mat and find your way back out through the shala to the front door. "One more, eight thirty!", and you have to half smile at the thought of someone just entering the room to start the whole thing again. Not a smirk, but a soft knowing smile of shared effort, of facing the common challenges of a strong practice and the reward of knowing that you won't have to be back until tomorrow morning! Hopefully, you can catch the teacher's eye before you leave and receive that beautiful smile and you suddenly feel very grateful for this place and this practice.

Well, we hope this hasn't been too long winded or boring for you, and thanks for making it this far. We have learned many many lessons in this practice of yoga, but one that seems to stick out is that this practice only asks that you show up and do your very best, with respect for how you are feeling that day. Notice how you push and when you hold back, where you are afraid and when you feel brave. Notice your mind and its' commentary, and then let it go in the next moment. This instant is all there really is.

Jeff and Kathy

If you'd like to see some more pictures from the trip, use this link to Jeff's facebook photo album:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1912901&l=849e7e62e7&id=1049372278

Incredible yoga girl

From Jeff and Kathy

Greetings from Mysore~

On Friday we celebrated the incredible fact that we actually survived our first full week (6 days in a row) of EARLY morning yoga practice at the shala. We celebrated with a bottle of (yogic) wine at our favorite restaurant, The Green Hotel. We are now half way through our second week, but this week will be much easier because we have been blessed with a beautiful full moon on Wednesday - right in the middle of the week. Full and new moon days, as well as Saturdays, are days of rest in the Ashtanga yoga tradition. Woohoo!! We will take advantage of this thoughtful tradition.

Currently, we are scheduled to start our Mysore practice (also called self-practice) at 7:00am. Mysore practices are Monday through Thursday and led classes are on Fridays and Sundays. The time at the shala is set 15 minutes ahead and we are also supposed to arrive 15 minutes before our scheduled time. This means that we have to get up at 5:15am Monday - Thursdays. On Sunday the led class starts at 4:30am so on Sundays we have to get up at 3:00am to get to class on time. At first we thought 5:15 was early, however, after Sunday, it now seems almost easy. It is fun, in a strange kind of way, to start yoga practice in the dark, end in the dark and then sit on the stoop at the tea shop having chai and coffee while the sun comes up. Knowing that we have already accomplished the most challenging part of day before the sun shines is pretty nice.

The walk to the shala takes us about 15 minutes. We enjoy the dark, quiet streets of Gokalum. It is a welcomed contrast from the noisiness and busyness of the day and evening hours. There are only a few other early morning risers: newspaper carriers, tea shop owners, and the coconut stand owner stirring. There is a Ganesh temple along the way that is doing puja (spiritual practice). There are people inside and around the temple watching the Priest perform the puja ceremony. We can only catch a glimpse as we walk by, but there is incense, lots of flowers, candles, and music of some sort. Jeff noticed that it sounded something like the march of the soldiers at the wicked witch's castle in the Wizard of Oz.

The shala is already full when we arrive and the stairs are covered with shoes. When we open the door we step from the cool morning air into the warm, humid air of the shala. January and February are the busiest months. We estimate that there are probably at least 400 yoga practitioners from all over the world here. At any one time there are about 65 students practicing in the yoga room. Mats have only about 3 - 6 inches between them. You have to quickly get over any squeamishness about being close to other people who are very sweaty. The yoga room is hot and humid and the windows and walls are streaked and dripping with moisture. If Jeff is wearing his glasses they will steam up as soon as he walks inside. If sweating is good for you and detoxifies the system then we must be on our way to immaculate health!  

We sit in the foyer with 5 - 10 other students on a cool marble floor. For about fifteen minutes we wait here for a space to open up in the practice room. There is an open door leading inside and we can watch other students and their practices. Some of them are amazing, very strong and flexible doing advanced postures while others are beginners, just learning the practice. However, all of them inspire us with their focus and dedication to yoga, something that has brought them halfway across the world to this small room in India. Back in the foyer, we wait patiently for the words “one more," which indicates that a spot has opened up and we can come into the practice room and place our mat in the vacated spot.

"Now the teaching of yoga begins."  Yoga Sutra 1:1

To be continued...

Kathy's Beautiful Belly

Nauli

 Uddiyana Bandha

And a few other shots from the beautiful studio on Church St.

Namaste

Bhoj Kriya: How To Eat and Bless Your Food

By Yogi Bhagan...


I have to teach you how to eat. You do not know how to eat; so I have to start alphabetically [from the beginning], all right? Now please, sit calmly and fold your hands. Bring your hands into Prayer Pose and close your eyes and feel that you are going to be blessed. You are going to be blessed. Calm down and empty yourself to receive the gift of God. If there is no emptiness, nothing will come in.  You are receiving the best gift of God; it is for your nourishment, for your acceleration, for your healing, for your purity. It is something for today, at this moment, marvelously wonderful, ‘blessful,’ and blissful. Please concentrate. Now please bow down for a moment in prayer—just a little, not much. Okay, please open your eyes and touch your hands to your shoulders as a sign of strength. Touch your knees as a sign of strength, touch your heart as a sign of compassion, and touch your forehead and then please put the food before you as it is served and put your hand on it to bless it. Concentrate and bless your own food calmly and quietly. Create a relationship with your food and your spirit, your soul.

Be calm and quiet; a saint blesses her own Self. There is a God in you—feel it. Feel the food piece-by-piece; touch it and request that when you become part of it and it becomes part of you, that there is a union. You are experiencing a union; you are having an intercourse. This food will become part of you and you will become part of it.

Now this food is identity. Now it is between you and your identity. Once it goes in, it can give you gas, it can give you indigestion, it can mess you up, it can create poison in the man. You may not digest it all; it may mess up your colon, your descending colon. It may come through so heavy that you wish you would never have eaten it; therefore, create friendship, create love, create grace, create respectfulness. You and your food become one. Cut out the rudeness: “I am going to eat it, I am going to swallow it, I am going to have it.” You have time, you have space, you have grace, you have blessing, and you are blessing your own today, so it can serve you tomorrow.

Now, you have to touch it, look at it and feel it exactly. You have to mentally talk to your food. Ask it, “What are you going to do to me?” Talk to your food. It's very difficult for you because you are Western: you want to drive a car, talk on the telephone and eat at the same time—and if the car had a commode, you would want to go to the bathroom at the same time. But this is not life. Animals don't live that way. You are human: touch it, feel it, discuss with it and tell it, “I selected you, I cooked you, I brought you here to become part of me.” Create a very graceful relationship, a relationship of understanding, affection and love.

I have seen a man, 120 years old, absolutely healthy. His total meditation in life was the preparation of his Bhoj Kriya. Fantastic man! I saw him doing it. What I read in the scripture was nothing compared to what he did, which was so graceful. Actually, I thought to myself, if he gives his plate to me and I eat it all, he can do it again; it was so good. Now, do you feel ready?

Now please, with your hands, choose what you are going to eat. Each thing must be touched by all five fingers, at least a portion with all five fingers and send all your energy into it with your fingers. And whatever little portion you put in your mouth, like a kiss, then chew it. Your saliva must become part of it—25% of the food. Chew it totally, freely, openly. You don’t have to keep your lips closed. Some of you have a habit of eating—smack, smack, smack—do that; that's not bad. But each muscle must have 25% saliva mixed with it. You have the capacity and that is the most nurturing, health-giving, young-making stuff; it's right in your mouth! Chew it; don't swallow it; I have not said so. All I said is to chew it, mix it, grind it, whatever you do, but keep going, you can't swallow it yet. It has to be in your mouth—and now, with your tongue, feel if there is anything hard or still in one piece. It should be total jelly, feel with your tongue and use your tongue to get a little more juice into it.
Now bring it to the tip of your tongue and find out if it is sweet enough. If it's not, keep chewing it. Now, very slowly, take it in. You have to take it through the throat many times and with your tongue, clean your mouth, around your teeth, inside, up, down, you know? Clean your mouth once and for all. Isn't it a shame that I am teaching middle‐aged people how to eat? But no, it's a kriya, which guarantees health forever, youth forever, strength forever. Now, just see that your mouth is all clean—that there is nothing in it. There should not be one trace of that thing you put in your mouth—check around. All right, then go to the food again. Look at it, look at this, look at it, talk to this guy and then take a small portion and very affectionately put it in your mouth. Just remember, all five fingers must touch it and in the same way, chew it. Looks ridiculous, I know, but in the end, we will discuss whether we were ridiculous before or we are ridiculous now.

Any person who doesn't have time to nurture himself is sick to start with. Now, calmly and quietly, in this procedure, please eat. Each time you have to repeat it; you have to totally create a hypnotic relationship with this food today. It's going to be part of you, you are going to be part of it, and there are certain things I will tell you in the end, if you do it right; there is no hurry. Each time your mouth should be totally clean and absolutely clear of its existence before you put a second one in and you chew it. You have to see and taste of everything. Food in the mouth cannot go to the throat and on into the stomach until it is sweet to your tongue.

I tested this one day with green chili. Really, my tongue is numb today because it was so bitter; somehow it happens you know. I numbed my tongue but I still made it sweet before I swallowed it. And it's my request to you that you do this, just as an experiment, very perfectly. We are not going to hurry, there is nothing we have to go to, weather is clear and cool and we are already in the heaven of the Earth. It's called Española; so enjoy your time, concentrate on the food, meditate on it.
What I am trying to make you experience is the food, which we usually just gulp in 15 minutes. But if you just proceed and eat in this way, methodically, it will become your best friend, your best strength and your best Self. Your entire nervous system moves when you move your mouth and your tongue together. I want you to feel it, I want you to understand it. I know, we should just gulp it and go to the movie, you know? You swallow things, but you don't eat. When you swallow things, they swallow your strength, your life, then there is nothing left of you.

I didn't do any hard exercises; they were just simple exercises, which I used to put my officers through in training and I could not believe it. How much pain everybody experienced—and they were not even three minutes each. When you put food in your mouth and muscle it, it should have touched all five fingers: thumb, Jupiter, Saturn, Sun and Mercury. You can understand your mental strength within another three minutes; you should start freaking out, even just eating. Slow eating is one of the biggest meditations on this Earth; that's why Guru gave us langarii. Langar mean anchor. Ships have a langar; the word langar came from anchor.

All the sea‐going ships have an anchor. When they put out their anchor, they are stabilized, then the storm cannot take them away. That's why the word langar means anchor of the ship. The other word we have is teg deg: deg is the sword of righteousness and teg is the food of righteousness. The deg is what you prepare spiritually, respectfully as an offering; teg you all know. Between the sword of righteousness and the food of righteousness, we live. Now, don't look left and right; look at your food. You have two things going for you: your food and your energy. You are going to baptize each muscle, each part of your food, each little bit of it.

A quote ...

this reminded me of yesterday's talk on positive thought intention

We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.
– Swami Vivekananda

Yoga//Roots

Sometimes yoga in the city begins to feel a little less sacred and a little too commercial.  Here's an article from NPR by Sandip Roy that touches on the West's yoga industry and how it can be a very "un-Indian" experience.  Maybe it's the being surrounded by breathtaking nature and grounded people that keeps yoga a humbling, simple practice in Vermont.  Whatever it is, I'm grateful for my yoga roots.  Om shanti.
--Claire

NPR | Yoga: A Positively Un-Indian Experience

From NPR News:

True confession: I am an Indian who doesn’t do yoga. I wouldn’t know a downward dog if it bit me. But because I’m Indian, people don’t even ask if I know yoga. They ask, “What kind of yoga did you grow up with? Iyengar? Ashtanga? Bikram?”

Actually, most Indians I know don’t do yoga, either. My friend Rajasvini Bhansali is an exception. And she’s often the only Indian in class. She recalled one class in particular:

“The instructor pointed to me and said Indians are better oriented towards squats. And I realized he was holding me up as an example of how we primitive people are better squatters and have looser hips,” she laughed.

I always thought I wasn’t thick-skinned enough to survive yoga class. Then I heard the Hindu American Foundation had launched a campaign to Take Back Yoga and reclaim its Hindu roots. I was alarmed. What if they really took it back? And I wasn’t ready. I decided to fix my Yoga Deficit Disorder.

So I show up at my first yoga class in San Francisco. It’s steamy hot. There are over 100 people — and sure enough, my friends and I are the only four Indians.

The instructor is from Tennessee. Blond, shirtless, and a bit of a yoga rock star. There are disco balls on the ceiling and huge posters of Krishna on the wall.

I am just amazed at all the … stuff. Yoga tops, bottoms, blankets, mats. My vision of a yogi was a guy in the forest, sitting on a piece of tree bark — or in the deluxe version, a deerskin. He didn’t have a yoga mat carrier!

I survive the yoga class without embarrassing 5,000 years of Indian culture. It doesn’t feel very Indian. My friend Naveen Chandra calls it bionic disco yoga. But he thinks Yoga’s Hindu roots are still there.

“The vast majority of yoga teachers have studied more Hinduism than I have or my parents have,” says Chandra. “I am learning more about the meanings of the shlokas and the intention of Hinduism than I ever knew as a kid growing up, being taught from my community.”

Even back in India, yoga has not been such a big deal.

Kate Churchill, director of the documentary Enlighten Up, interviewed yoga pioneer Pattabhi Jois at his school in south India.

“And we might as well have been in the Puck building in New York. There were over 100 Westerners, not a single Indian. I was looking around and saying, ‘Well, where are the Indians?’ “

But things are starting to change. The Indian government is filming hundreds of yoga poses so no one tries to patent them. People are practicing yoga at call centers and other workplaces.

“We saw in large cities like Mumbai, power yoga studios cropping up, because Madonna does yoga,” says Churchill. “It has nothing to do with India. Whereas if you go to a power yoga studio in the U.S., they will say it’s a 5,000-year-old tradition.”

NEW SCHEDULE - Starts Jan. 9th (Sunday)

Welcome Chris, Kelley, Kristine, Katrina and Larry!

Something's gotta give....

I certainly still consider myself a new teacher - I have been teaching for about  year and a half, though, plenty of class-hours, and last night was the first night I had a student leave in the middle of class.

I consider myself lucky - hearing stories from Kathy and others about the times they have had students walk out, either because of something personal going on with them, or maybe because their favorite teacher wasn't in that day - but I didn't realize how it would make me feel!

It wasn't what you might think - sure I was hurt that this student was not enjoying my class - but the hardest part was why she left. I think she was crying, and I'm pretty sure from pain.

As a teacher, I feel the responsibility to make sure everyone in my class feels safe and comfortable, in asking students to try asanas, I know I am asking some people to try things that might otherwise put them in an awkward position (ha ha.)

I could not take care of her in the way I wanted to. I do not want yoga to hurt, I want yoga to heal, and I felt ashamed that my yoga was not healing for this woman last night.

She had come up to me before the class and told me she had recent injuries, low back pain and had pretty recently had shoulder surgery. She had asked me if this was suited for beginners, and being an Intro to Ashtanga class, I said yes, though I did give her the disclaimer that  it could be a very vigorous practice, and even spent time with her checking out down dog and plank before we began the class.

As soon as we did our second sun salutation, I saw that upward facing dog was killing her. Her low back was extremely tight and I could tell it was painful to even try the small back bend. I tried to give her a modification, but it may have been too late.  I saw that in the next down dog she was sniffling, and I hoped it was just a cold. I showed the class child's pose, then we sat up to practice ujjayi.

She could not sit comfortably, and she was fighting back tears. My heart went out to her, and I tried an alternative pose. It was over, and I had to come back to the other students.

She sat and watched for a moment, and then got her things and left the room.  No one else felt as awkward as I did, and the other students seemed to have a great class, and enjoy it.  I had just felt like I had failed this student, and that she may have been further deterred from practicing yoga.

I realize that there is another side to the experience, I just wanted to share my thoughts and insecurities with you all! I would love to hear about your teaching experiences, especially teaching people with injuries.

I just hope I did not discourage her, and that she finds the perfect yoga to help her work through her injuries.

OM.

Adena

Insights from the holidays and a new year

Each Holiday season we overindulge, with material goods , food, drinking and celebrations. Then once the new year hits we are so burnt out from the over indulgence we set resolutions to cut back, eat better, exercise, make better choices etc ….

Year after year the cycle repeats. Not that there is anything wrong with it or we don’t have great times and then make positive improvements in our life. Although if you take a moment to reflect about this cycle it’s kind of funny. In the constant search for happiness, we hope to find it in the activities of the Holidays, food, gifts, celebrations. When the holiday season is over although we thoroughly enjoyed it as is was happening that sense of happiness does not sustain. Life goes back to normal and with the coming of the new year we set intentions for personal improvements in search of true unconditional happiness.

This cycle is a source of Insight for what may bring unconditional happiness. We often fool our selves in thinking that happiness will come from material goods or experiences but if you reflect on your own experience how well does that really work out ? True happiness comes from within, through the thoughts and intentions you create for your life. Nothing out there will bring it to you, but you already have everything you need to create it with in yourself.

Metta,

Danny

Numerical example of effortless effort.

Here is a little insight i had about finding the right amount of effort in your yoga or meditation practice. To be a little more clear its really all about releasing any conceptual basis for what effort is all together and finding that place in the middle.

Now when it comes to yoga and meditation you often come up against a paradox that does not appear logically possible. Although if you let go of what you think you may know and allow your self to just experience you will understand the meaning of the paradox. A frequent teaching is; “find the place in the middle”, “not too tight, not too loose”, “effortless effort”, “Stay active but remain relaxed”, “go to your edge but no farther.” It comes in many different sayings but what do they mean ?

Lets consider the concept of effort. Since everything is relative and a concept only really makes sense in relationship to something, (Yin and Yang , Positive and Negative) the concept of effort has no meaning unless there is something to compare it to. Thus we have effort and non effort, in order to intellectualize this concept we must separate it into opposites. The amount of effort or non effort you may be experiencing is a subjective amount. No one else but you really knows how much you may be or may not be exercising effort. We draw arbitrary lines for ourselves for what we consider too much effort , not enough effort or just enough effort. The idea is not to create the concept for some arbitrary point of “just enough effort” but it is too let go of any concept of effort what so ever, with out grasping and with out aversion.

Imagine a number line -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5. Lets say this is our effort scale. The positive numbers are effort and the negative numbers are non effort. At any point you may be able to rate your self on this arbitrary scale, telling your self how much effort or non effort you are exerting. When you continue to hold on to this dualistic concept, on one side effort on the other side non effort, you are in a constant battle either grasping on to where you think you should be or avoiding where you think you should not be. How do you find the place in the middle ? What is in the middle ? That’s right “Zero”. What does zero mean here ? It is nothing at all or does it have some kind of quality. In math zero is not simply nothingness it has attributes and its own nature. In meditation or yoga zero pertains to the concept of emptiness, a concept not having an intrinsic value with out a relative nature(Non-dual realization).

So in order to find “Zero”, the place in the middle, effortless effort, you must let go of dualistic concepts such as effort or non effort. Experience your current state fully allowing your self to be as you are without intentionally holding back or pushing. It is this thought, that we need to be at a place other than where we already are, that places us on the relative scale. When you can dissolve the concept of effort all together with out falling into the positive or negative range you will experience the solution to this paradox.

Metta,

Danny