Headstanding!

Here's my photo contribution, a playful headstand variation. Would love to see others!

"8 Natural Handstands"

Would love to see pics of all of you in handstand or headstand when the urge over-takes you...

2nd Series this Saturday!

Pashasana
Krounchasana
Shalabhasana A, B
Bhekasana
Dhanurasana
Parsva Dhanurasana
Ushtrasana
Laghuvajrasana
Kapotasana
Supta Vajrasana (Partner Pose*)
Bakasana (2nd- Jump in)
Bharadvajasana
Arda Matsyendrasana
Eka Pada Sirsasana A, B, C
Dwi Pada Sirsasana A, B
Yoganidrasana
Tittibhasana A, B, C, D
Pincha Mayurasana
Karandavasana
Vrishchikasana
Mayurasana
Nakrasana
Vatayanasana
Parighasana
Gomukhasana A, B
Supta Urdhva Pada Vajrasana
Mukta Hasta Sirsasana A, B, C
Baddha Hasta Sirsasana A, B, C, D

lovelovelove.

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