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Seeing God
Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure and heart, for they shall see, God.”- Matthew 5:8. “Everywhere looking, God seeing” -Pattabi Jois You know that feeling you have when you start something new? When something is just pure possibility? You are excited and full of energy, anticipation and joy. That is the feeling of a pure heart. That is the feeling of a heart that has not been beaten down by expectations, comparison and disappointment. That is the heart that yoga is looking to uncover;the spiritual heart. Up to a certain age, children naturally exist in this realm. My grand baby is so excited about the world that he cannot…
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Adventures in Mysore India, Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Conference Notes, Teaching Ashtanga, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
The Lesson, Not the Event
“By this time I had learned that it was more fruitful to pay attention to the lessons rather than to events themselves.”- Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, At The Eleventh Hour We all come into this practice carrying the results of our life and DNA in our bodies. In Mysore, Sharath would joke, “Don’t get mad at me because you are stiff. Get mad at your parents!” Last week, a student said, “I have been doing hip openers for a couple years now and my hips are still not open.” I said, “Sometimes, it is not possible to undo 40 years in a few years of practice, if at all”. Working…
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An Opportunity For Non Attachment
Life is a good and consistent teacher. She is constantly giving us opportunities to be stronger, to go deeper, and evolve. She is always teaching non attachment. Case in point. This morning, I woke up to find out that I am no longer admin of a Face Book page that I started and had no admin but me. Yep. I cannot post on the Ashtanga Yoga Project as the Ashtanga Yoga project. I immediately started searching Google and YouTube looking for hacks, solutions and people I could e-mail. Boy was that disconcerting. This happens all the time. No one knew how to fix it or posted getting it resolved. Like…
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To Be of Service
“Do what you can to uplift and enlighten people, but never forget your path.”-Babaji, At the Eleventh Hour by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Ph.D. “Practice becomes firmly grounded when well attended to for a long time, without break and with all earnestness.” Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 1:14 When many practitioners become teachers, studio owners, and activists, they slowly, over time, stop practicing or practice very little. This is the worst thing we can do. As leaders in the community, we need the practice more than ever. When dealing with customers and students, we absorb their energy. We are effected by their stories. The stories and experiences of our students and community,…
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Yoga Sutras for Modern Day Life: When Can I Stop My Yoga Practice?
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 1:16: When connection to the pure self is so complete that attachment does not even arise in the mind, this is supreme non attachment. Defining The Sutra: In the last installment of Yoga Sutras For Modern Day Life, we started a conversation on non attachment. To recap, non attachment does not mean that we don’t own things, it means that things don’t own us. In supreme non attachment, the yogi is so rooted in the true self that non attachment is spontaneous. For example: I have to constantly remind myself to be involved but not attached because when I experience something pleasurable, I want to cling…
