Yoga Evolution

I stepped into a "yoga" class
and found my self standing
in a small circular room.

Pointing, the instructor said
“There's a hallway.
Stand straight and walk to the end of it
See what you find there
If it's comfortable
you can lean into the wall that you encounter
Over time, as you learn to push with finesse
you'll find that it's not as rigid or affixed
as it may initially seem.”
After a few breaths
I was summoned back to the room.
“There, another hallway.
Go. Push.”
For a few breaths.
And so on ...

I explored many hallways
and learn when and how to push
and when not to.

But it became evident
that the hallways were really
just fabrications
nothing more than lines
taped on the floor.

I saw that I was actually in the middle of a vast room
encircled within a wavy, wiggly, wandering wall.
As I moved one part of the boarder
it made neighboring sections easier to reorient.
As I explored the “in-betweens”
I began to feel the interconnections
of all movements
of all being

So much is left unexplored
when excursions are confined to the spokes
of designated hallways

I left most of the tape lines down
and still investigate their halls
here and there
I adjusted a few
Added some new
And stick them down for others, too

As well thought out as they may be
the prescribed postures are still
essentially arbitrary

No longer, am I bound
to adhere to others' instructions
No longer, do I feel obligated
to follow the pathways
defined by illusory walls

My body knows
My mind receives
My being fills
My spirit soars

Immersed in Yoga


Disclaimer:

I invite others into this full exploration, as well.
But it requires a very different attitude, than the norm
in order to develop the necessary receptivity
and to insure a safe, healthy practice
Patience, acceptance and compassion
must be prioritized above ambition
Curiosity and playfulness
over aggression

Words Apart

There is asana practice
as exercise.

And

There is asana practice
as a means of enhancing the communion
of body, breath and being.

We all know:

Words are a poor substitute
for what they represent.

In the same way:

Practicing prescribed postures, alone
fails to bestow
the vitality and depth
that is present
while in the full embrace
of Yoga.

The Greatest Talent

The greatest talent one can aspire to, is to sooth, teach, inspire and empower simply through one's very presence.

To be at peace with one's self, the current course of worldly affairs and whatever condition, or state of development, others are in. To hold the largest point of view in mind while feeling compassion for the smallest of things. To maintain the curiosity of a child and the patience of a scholar. To embrace the habits of listening with full attention, reflecting others in their best light (especially when that's not how they feel), and speaking and acting for the benefit of a greater good. To have the capacity to empathize deeply while not becoming infected by unwanted emotional energies. To be eagerly engaged in a constantly fluid state of personal growth and evolution. To joyfully embody the spirit of the infinite through individual expression.

To actually be present, for the world.

On Meditation

We need to put our tools down so that we can (re)learn that they aren't actually parts of us.

On Meditation

Our mental habits all feel extremely important and immediately pressing – crucial to continuing existence, as we know it. And most live as though this is simply the way it is, and has to be.

Not surprisingly, junkies feel very much the same, about their next fix.

On Asana

People usually enter the practice of yogasana with a feeling of superiority over their bodies, and lofty ambitions of “mastering” them. As practice matures, one realizes that the most effective way to “master the body” is to be its devoted servant.

Tooling Through Toon Town

Imagine a cartoon depiction of a psychedelic trip. A point of view journey through a twisted landscape that continually morphs, sprouts new objects and larger than life characters and leaps chaotically from perspective to perspective, as colors dance across the scenery like the skin of a schizophrenic chameleon. Time slows down, speeds up and spins backward. The sound track is disjointed and abrasive, making sure that stability and security fail to root, for even a blink.

This isn't as far fetched an experience as one might think. We perceive our world in the present moment from only one singular perspective. Our past helps to guide what in our experience we focus on and our vision is further skewed by expectations and preconceptions. Others ply us to agree with their perceptions and assessments, and we have a penchant for seeing what we want to see, rather than what is.

Our slanted observations are then subject to relatively random interpretations. Again, steered by outer pressures, inner habits and personal desires. Our sight and our interpretations of what we see are both entirely subjective and, looking from a longer perspective, largely arbitrary.

So the worlds that only exist inside of our heads are built on quicksand, constructed of fluff and subject to drastic and uncoordinated make-overs, without prior notice. But we bend the lens we view through enough to convince ourselves that our inner representation of the whole is actually uniform and consistent. We do so because it's a more comfortable notion to live with.

This, of course, doesn't change the fact that our mindscapes really aren't much more stable than the landscapes in that imaginary cartoon.

Observe your reactions to this notion.

It will be natural for many to see this as a bad or undesirable truth – therefore an ignorable or deniable one. But it's simply the way it is. It's how we're engineered. We evolved within a fluid system and are made to be compatible with, and adaptable to, life's ever changing “rules” and circumstances.

Think of it like the weather. We always need to monitor and forecast it so that we can intelligently plan our activities around what it's doing. It may frustrate us at times, but we can clearly see that its nature is to be erratic, and so we adjust our thinking accordingly. Seeing, accepting and understanding that the mindscape is creation in action empowers us to embody a purer state of being and way of seeing. One that accepts knowing from a wiser source than our reasoning, and is eager to, unabashedly, see all of our foibles.

No longer caught in a tug of war between numerous random thoughts, feelings and images, with the strongest ones getting to have their way with us. Free to explore or ignore notions as seems right from a comfortably removed, relatively dispassionate perspective. Content with our perpetually inaccurate and incomplete understanding.

The problem isn't the trippy toon like way of our inner world, but the fact that we see them as solid, take them as gospel and discount other possibilities.

Th-th-th-that's all, folks!