Friday, July 2, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Live Music Meditation – Yoga of the Jam
This Practice has been inspired by my own yoga and meditation practice as well as many live music experiences over the years. For those of you who have your own yoga practice and love to experience live music there is a great opportunity to extend your practice to your concert experience as well as take something back to yoga. As my own practice grows over time there is no other band that allows me to go deeper than Phish. I recently attended the Phish weekend festivities at SPAC on 6/19 and 6/20 for two amazing shows where i both lost my self to the jam and found my self within it.
What is it about Phish that draws so many fans and also is a great opportunity for deepening your meditation practice ? 1) Tension and Release – the ability to build the energy of a song, slowly release that energy just to come right back and go even higher. It is a full body experience, the band, the intensity, the sound, the crowd, smiling faces, dancing! It is a constant flow of your own energy as it rises and falls with each song throughout the entire show. 2) Extended Jam – The ability for the entire band to improvise together taking any song as a base, turning it into something unexpected and then somehow bringing you back. Jams lasting anywhere from 1 min to 20 min , a complete journey with many ups and downs. (Many other band also utilize these qualities and they are in no way limited to Phish alone)
If your at a Phish show or enjoying any live music experience, here is a practice of live music meditation:
You have two options for posture and i would encourage that you alternate between them spontaneously.
- Mountain Pose – Stand with your feet hip distance apart. Feel your feet root into the ground. Thighs reach back as tailbone scoops engaging Mula Bundha. Reaching out of your hips as your spine grows tall. Side body long, inner body bright. Shoulders reach back and apart then relax.
- Mindful Dancing – This is a dynamic pose that will be unique for every person. How ever you feel moved and what ever the music is asking of your body, Dance ! Begin to flow with the music. Follow its energy and rhythm, when the music is slow and soft move slow and soft, when the music is fast and raging move fast and raging. Allow there to be no judgment or comments on your movement, allow your self to dance as if no one were watching and you could care less even if they were. Be aware of every movement your body makes, staying present with your body not lost in your mind.
Normally while experiencing live music you would send your energy outward; screaming , clapping , throwing your hands in the air, singing, dancing (in a subtly different way than used in this practice), taking in the energy from the music and releasing it into the crowd. You also may come in and out of moments with mindfulness; one moment enjoying the full experience of the music, one moment internally judging if you are having a good time or not, one moment recalling an event from the past or daydreaming about the future. These moments happen very fast jumping from one thing to the next melding together creating your entire perceived experience.
In this practice you will take this energy and send it inward stabilizing it with mindfulness.
Begin in Mountain Pose. Bring your awareness to your physical body feeling a sense of relaxation comfort and ease. Let you body and breath settle in its natural state. Now bring your awareness to the sound of the music, let your eyes close and be completely engulfed in the sound. Open your eyes adapt to your surroundings , there may be hundreds of other people around you, stay calm and focused. Allow the external sound to merge with your physical body becoming aware of the music and the sensations that the music produces in your body. Naturally feel the music build on your inhale and fall on your exhale. Allow your breath to ride on the rhythm of the song. This experience will be the object of your meditation, the combination of the external sound and the internal physical sensations. Apply mindfulness to this object, as your mind begins to wander and comment or judge your experience notice that this is happening and bring your attention back. Allowing your thoughts to be in the background without grasping or aversion deepen your concentration on sound and sensation. As the energy begins to rise and fall notice what this does to your body with out actively “doing” anything. In the music let there just be the music. Where you normally would send your energy outward with a yell or motion notice this urge and contain the energy inward as you subtly begin to build inside. While the band is jamming follow the jam note by note staying mindful of every sound and every sensation that sound produces in your body. As the tension builds around you feel the stillness within as your energy also rises. When you reach a point where you spontaneously need to move break out of stillness into mindful dance.
As you finally begin to release some of your energy make sure that you stay mindful of your actions. Notice how easy it is to allow your body to dance but allow your mind to be bouncing from thought to thought. Once you are comfortable dancing and have your “home moves” which require no effort from your body to remember how to do, it is easy to be lost in thought. Notice when you are no longer mindful of your movement and bring your attention back to your physical body. Be aware of the position of your hands and feet in space. Break out of your pre-programmed “home moves” and allow your body to have a unique movement with every note that is played. Pick a instrument that is improvising in the jam, Guitar, Bass, Piano, Drums, etc …. Focus your attention on that one instrument and allow your body to follow its every movement. Begin to improvise the dance its self as if you were just another instrument adding to the jam. Let the intensity of your movements flow with the intensity of the song. When you feel your energy reaching a low mindfully transition back to mountain pose recharging for the next jam. When the song is over as every one is clapping and screaming stand strong in mountain pose and soak in the experience and energy of the crowd.
Experiment with the flow from mountain to dance and back. Notice what it is like to fully experience the music with out losing focus, no judgment no comments. Bare sound and sensation facilitated by the band and the crowd. This is not so different from a yoga practice. Allowing your body to move and flow staying mindful of your actions and the quality of your thoughts. As with the dance practice, it is very easy to learn a yoga pose so well your body requires very little effort to maintain it. This is where your mind can begin to wander even though you are fully in the pose. When this happens become mindful, bring your attention back to the physical sensations of your body. Be aware of the position of your hands and feet in space. Send you energy inward, go deeper, one pointed awareness.
To learn more please join me at Liberate Music and Yoga Festival Aug 20 & 21 Live Music Meditation at Liberate
Feel the groove flow inwards and outwards and truly be free,
Danny
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Maine...aka Vacation Land!
Life in Coastal Maine
It has taken me a really long time to get to this posting, and I apologize for that!! Busy times, after many long years of hard work I am finally about to graduate with my bachelor's degree in education from The University of New England.
I have had an amazing year since finishing my 200 hr teacher training at Yoga Vt and I apologize for not being able to attend any further meetings, I plan to see you all this summer! I have brought my love of yoga practice into the public school, I volunteered all year long in many public schools to teach yoga to all ages and levels. It have learned sooo much from teaching in this setting. I even taught an entire social studies unit to my daughters first grade classroom incorporating a study on India. We travelled to India via Google Earth, looked at a variety of yoga books, prepared and ate Indian food, an Indian mother brought in clothing, toys, etc. I have also experimented with parent/child classes as fundraisers, as well as toddler yoga classes! I found the toddler yoga classes beyond my capacity, although we had lots of fun, kept the expectations minimal and made some new friends.
I am undecided still if I will teach beach yoga classes this summer or just keep my schedule relaxed and focus on my own practice. I teach a class once a week at a local studio, I usually teach a modified Primary Series, or Ashtanga inspired Vinyasa Flow. For a peek at the studio, check out the website! A few pics of an early sunrise practice at the beach:
I have been fortunate to come into my practice strongly after the craziness of being a 30 year old undergraduate with 2 children and a part time job. I try to practice whenever possible at one of the many awesome studios in our area. We have lots of great workshops coming up, you should check one out!! I just spent 4 days practicing with Nicki Doanne and Eddi Modestini, come join us for the next workshop at Yoga East!!
I could go on and on, I will visit as soon as possible, if you want to come play in the sand or run on the beach, let me know!! If any of you remember the girls are on their way to being 7 and 2 this summer!!!! A handful............................
Namaste, Celina McMichael
Reflections on the "Self"
I have recently found out that currently Celiac is present for my body. Relieved to understand some of the strange things that have been happening the last few months i am excited to give my body what it needs to keep me healthy. When it comes down to it, all this really means is that i can no longer eat Gluten. A little tough, as is any dietary restriction, although completely manageable and easier to do as more and more things are now labeled "Gluten Free." As the first few days passed i found myself reading labels, asking questions at restaurants and sorting out for my self what is now allowed and not allowed in my diet. A great opportunity to say goodbye and release attachments to certain foods that have been a large part of my diet. You never know the power that food has over you until you can no longer eat it.
Reflecting on my "Self" i began to realize that from this moment on my "Self" would no longer be the same. One moment I was someone who could eat Gluten and the next moment i was not. Adding on yet another attribute to the story that makes the self. Along with all of the other things i already had going for me, Male, 25 years old, Engineer, Enjoys live music, etc ... Another label has been added to the list "Gluten Free." So what here has really changed ? How do these small events and conditions change who we are ? In this case there has been a shift in my biology and a new thought and belief about that shift. Does this somehow change who I am ? Or does it just change the current causes and conditions that manifest my impermanent sense of Self.
What is the "Self" anyway and does it even exist ? Many spiritual traditions have made claims that the "Self" is in fact illusory and that realizing "No Self" can bring us closer to understand who we really are. When the self is investigated through the practice of meditation a common insight is that the self is empty of inherent existence. It is not something solid and unchanging that you can expect to be the same forever. One of the causes of suffering in our lives is the clinging to this delusional concept, that the self is permanent and real unto itself. When you concentrate your awareness on the various components that may be your self; thoughts, images, feelings and sensations you recognize that none of these things can be who you are because it is the "who you are that is aware of them in the first place." As your awareness deepens to include subtler and subtler aspects of your experience your sense of self begins to dissolve as you become aware of more things that are not you. Noticing even a thought not as "my thought" but just "a thought", something that is present in the field of awareness. Eventually as you become aware of everything you realize that you are nothing. All that is left is that which is aware, the substrate consciousness, the who you are that is continuous throughout this lifetime.
Coming back to a more mainstream scientific view of reality does not offer any better evidence for a intrinsic "Self." If you ask any Neuroscientist to show you where the self is in the brain, there is nothing for them to point to. There is not a specific region or function in our brains that accounts for our sense of self. In fact many areas of our brain responsible for various functions work together to create different aspects of what we call our "Self." You can remove anyone of these functions and the sense of self still exists, although it might be impaired by normal standards. It is believed that the self is an emergent property of these differentiated regions of the brain linked together through neural integration. So rather than the self being a real thing it is better described as a ever changing and evolving process of integrating the different parts of your life (and brain) into a coherent whole. Recognizing this allows you to see the "Self" for what it truly is. Yes the self does exist and it is a major component of your moment to moment experience but it is not who you are. It is yet another process available for you to be aware of at any given time. Just as you can be aware of a thought as "a thought" and not "my thought" you can be aware of the self as "a self" not "my self." By letting go of the grasping to the parts of the self that we like and the aversion to the parts of the self that we dislike, we can rest in the simplicity of being aware of the self with out judgment. This allows us to use the self in order to act instead of being used by the self to react.
As I understand and accept the conditions that are now present for me, I am aware of this shift in my sense of self. Although my story may have changed, the awareness inside of me is still the same. No matter the causes and conditions that influence your impermanent process of self, know them for what they truly are. Just another experience present to what you truly are, pure awareness, witnessing the flow of mental events moment by moment.
Metta,
Danny
Reflecting on my "Self" i began to realize that from this moment on my "Self" would no longer be the same. One moment I was someone who could eat Gluten and the next moment i was not. Adding on yet another attribute to the story that makes the self. Along with all of the other things i already had going for me, Male, 25 years old, Engineer, Enjoys live music, etc ... Another label has been added to the list "Gluten Free." So what here has really changed ? How do these small events and conditions change who we are ? In this case there has been a shift in my biology and a new thought and belief about that shift. Does this somehow change who I am ? Or does it just change the current causes and conditions that manifest my impermanent sense of Self.
What is the "Self" anyway and does it even exist ? Many spiritual traditions have made claims that the "Self" is in fact illusory and that realizing "No Self" can bring us closer to understand who we really are. When the self is investigated through the practice of meditation a common insight is that the self is empty of inherent existence. It is not something solid and unchanging that you can expect to be the same forever. One of the causes of suffering in our lives is the clinging to this delusional concept, that the self is permanent and real unto itself. When you concentrate your awareness on the various components that may be your self; thoughts, images, feelings and sensations you recognize that none of these things can be who you are because it is the "who you are that is aware of them in the first place." As your awareness deepens to include subtler and subtler aspects of your experience your sense of self begins to dissolve as you become aware of more things that are not you. Noticing even a thought not as "my thought" but just "a thought", something that is present in the field of awareness. Eventually as you become aware of everything you realize that you are nothing. All that is left is that which is aware, the substrate consciousness, the who you are that is continuous throughout this lifetime.
Coming back to a more mainstream scientific view of reality does not offer any better evidence for a intrinsic "Self." If you ask any Neuroscientist to show you where the self is in the brain, there is nothing for them to point to. There is not a specific region or function in our brains that accounts for our sense of self. In fact many areas of our brain responsible for various functions work together to create different aspects of what we call our "Self." You can remove anyone of these functions and the sense of self still exists, although it might be impaired by normal standards. It is believed that the self is an emergent property of these differentiated regions of the brain linked together through neural integration. So rather than the self being a real thing it is better described as a ever changing and evolving process of integrating the different parts of your life (and brain) into a coherent whole. Recognizing this allows you to see the "Self" for what it truly is. Yes the self does exist and it is a major component of your moment to moment experience but it is not who you are. It is yet another process available for you to be aware of at any given time. Just as you can be aware of a thought as "a thought" and not "my thought" you can be aware of the self as "a self" not "my self." By letting go of the grasping to the parts of the self that we like and the aversion to the parts of the self that we dislike, we can rest in the simplicity of being aware of the self with out judgment. This allows us to use the self in order to act instead of being used by the self to react.
As I understand and accept the conditions that are now present for me, I am aware of this shift in my sense of self. Although my story may have changed, the awareness inside of me is still the same. No matter the causes and conditions that influence your impermanent process of self, know them for what they truly are. Just another experience present to what you truly are, pure awareness, witnessing the flow of mental events moment by moment.
Metta,
Danny
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