How to Transform Suffering

Great dharma talk online with David Nichtern last night the six paramitas, which are teachings of Mahayana Buddhism.  David offers these every Tuesday at 7 pm, ET.  He was my first and is my foremost buddhist teacher.

Paramita means perfection or perfect relationship.   I also read that the Chinese character for this word means "crossing over to the other shore," which according to Thich Nhat Hanh means the shore of peace, non-fear, and liberation.

There are six:
1) Generosity (dana)
2) Discipline, precepts, mindfulness training (shila)
3) Patience, inclusiveness, capacity to receive, bear, transform pain inflicted on you (kshanti)
4) Exertion, energy, perseverance (virya)
5) Meditation (dhyana)
6) Discernment, wisdom, insight, understanding (prajna)

I was reading up on these concepts in Thich Nhat Hanh's The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching (p. 195-196) regarding generosity, what can we give?, he asks.  He answers - our stability (or solidity), our freedom (freedom from craving, anger, jealousy, despair, fair, and wrong perceptions), our freshness, peace (and lucidity), space.

The person we love needs space in order to be happy.  In a flower arrangement, each flower needs space around it in oder to radiate its true beauty.  A person is like a flower.  Without space within and around her, she cannot be happy....And the more we offer, the more we have.  When the person we love is happy, happiness comes back to use right away.  We give to her, but we are giving to ourselves at the same time. 

Giving is a wonderful practice.  The Buddha said what when you are angry at someone, if you have tried everything and still feel angry, practice dana paramita.  When we are angry our tendency is to punish the other person.  But when we do, there is only an escalation of the suffering.  The Buddha proposed that instead, you send her a gift.  When you feel angry, you won't want to go out and buy a gift, so take the opportunity now to prepare the gift when you are not angry.   Then, when all else fails, go and mail that gift to her, and amazingly, you'll feel better right away...You get what you offer.  Instead of trying to punish the other person, offer him exactly what he needs.  The practice of giving can bring you to the shore of well-being very quickly. 

When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over.  He does not need punishment; he needs help.  That is the message he is sending.  If you are able to see that, offer him what he needs - relief.  Happiness and safety are not an individual matter.  His happiness and safety are crucial for your happiness and safety.  Wholeheartedly wish him happiness and safety, and you will be happy and safe also.   

What else can we offer?  Understanding.  Understanding is the flower of practice...when you offer others your understanding they will stop suffering right away.   

The first petal of the flower of the paramitas is dana paramita, the practice of giving.  What you give is what you receive, more quickly than the signals sent by satellite.  Whether you give your presence, your stability, your freshness, your solidity, your freedom, or your understanding, your gift can work a miracle.  Dana paramita is the practice of love.
When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over.  He does not need punishment; he needs help.  That is the message he is sending  if you are able to see that, offer him what he needs - relief.  Happiness and safety are not an individual matter.  His happiness and safety are crucial for your happiness and safety.  Wholeheartedly wish him happiness and safety, and you will be happy and safe also.  

I also really loved what Thich Nhat Hanh says about patience.  He notes,

Kshanti is often translated as patience or forbearance, but I believe "inclusiveness" better conveys the Buddha's teaching.  When we practice inclusiveness, we don't have to suffer or forebear, even when we have to embrace suffering and injustice.  The other person says or does something that makes us angry.  he inflicts on us some kind of injustice.  But if our heart is large enough, we don't suffer. 

The Buddha offered this wonderful image.  If you take a handful of salt and pour it into a small bowl of water, the water in the bowl will be too salty to drink.  But if you pour the same amount of salt into a large river, people will still be able to drink the river's water.  (Remember, this teaching was offered 2,600 years ago, when it was still possible to drink from rivers!)  Because of its immensity, the river has the capacity to receive and transform.  The river doesn't suffer at all because of a handful of salt.  If your heart is small, one unjust word or act will make you suffer.  But if your heart is large, if you have understanding and compassion, that word or deed will not have the power to make you suffer.  You will be able to receive, embrace, and transform it in an instant.  What counts is your capacity.  To transform your suffering, your heart has to be as big as the ocean. 

I just love that.

Kim Kardashian "Lost the Plot"

When I showed this to my yoga teacher this morning her response was - "My gosh, they've lost the plot!"  


Seriously!  


It's astonishing and such a shame because to associate yoga - which has so much real and necessary benefits - to such malarky is criminal.  


Nearly as shocking as the naked teacher is her thong attire.   


I just was astonished.  I suppose it's the downside to the popularity of yoga.  It's bound to happen, but still it might be a sign of the yoga apocalypse or at least some tipping point.   

Political Yoga

Hmmm, another sign of the yoga into the mainstream - check out this paragraph from the The Week in Review - sorry Sunday Review today.   In Frank Bruni's Craven Political Crudités, he writes:

Buckle up, folks. This presidential race is shaping up to be an especially mean and mendacious ride, and not just because the two Republicans currently in the lead, Romney and Newt Gingrich, have demonstrated a formidable talent for improvisation, starting with thorough revisions of their own positions on health care, climate change and such. They’re a limber duo, primed to teach classes on political yoga. Gingrich’s wife probably gave him a Tiffany-bejeweled mat.

Okay - I had absolutely NO idea there was even such a thing as at Tiffany-bejeweled mat.  Note: There isn't such a thing.  The link leads to a story about their revolving credit account there.  


Phew!  I meant if there really were such a thing....!

Mixing Yoga With Other Activities

This essay, Yoga Addict's New Mantra: "Mix It Up" from the New York Times is cute.  I also like it because it doesn't make out yoga to be the end all and be all of everything.  

Plus she describes astanga yoga this way -

It is widely believed to have been created for adolescent boys and tends to attract former drug addicts and Type A personalities;

which made me laugh out loud.  


I will never forget the time I brought a girlfriend in Chicago to an astanga yoga class.  The workshop was being held over a weekend and the first class was held Friday night.   We met at a wine bar and as she slogged down not one but two classes of wine, I suggested gently she might now want to do that.  


And at about the 20th jump through she sat in danasana and looked at me with a look that asked - "what did you get me into"   We still laugh about that.  I don't think mixing it up is a recommendation for mixing astanga yoga with a cocktail!    


This author, Deborah Schoeneman, after a decade of astanga yoga and a better practice than most, then added a private trainer.  This is her story of what she discovered.  

What??? Is Lululemon Thinking???

 Holy cow.

Lululemon - just in time for the holiday season - has alienated it's base.  

In case you've been living under a rock - Lululemon makes and sells very expensive yoga clothes.   They are actually brilliant - well design (with button holes for iPod ears, pockets folds for an id), great colors and are able to be worn on the street without being obscene.   Up until now I was amazed at how well they knew their market.   They also had a funky web site where you could set up and tend to your goals (called a goaltender).

So then they put on their canvas, recyclable bags - "Who is John Galt"   In case you don't know - he is the a character in Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged."  The character embodies selfishness.   Not exactly how yogi's and yogini's like to think of themselves.

(And no, Sen. Rand Paul, the son of GOP candidate Rep. Ron Paul, was not named after the author, though he is reputed to be and Sen. Paul is a big fan of hers.)

As NPR reports -

That question is on shopping bags that Lululemon recently started to give out and it's got some of the company's core customers up in arms, vowing never to shop there again.

Yes, that would be me.  I even called the company up and asked them to close my goaltender account.   Guy Raz of All Things Considered asks:

RAZ: You mean, they don't get into yoga after reading "Atlas Shrugged"?HOUPT: I have yet to find a yogi who has done so. 

The NPR interview is just a view minutes long and worth a listen.  The company would not comment on the record about why they decided to do this.  If it was to get business, it seems to be backfiring.  

Ayurvedic Skin Care in the Cold Season

Or Vata season.  Dr. Pratima Raichur is the author of Absolute Beauty, to me the bible of Ayurvedic health.  I discovered her nearly 10 years ago and gave her book to all my friends who came and celebrated my birthday with me in 2003.   And I had the honor of meeting her finally this past June when I was in NYC.   Her clinic in Soho is amazing and I enjoyed some health promoting treatments there.

Here is a short piece on how to care for your skin during the Vata season, which is now, called "Why fall is skin-freak out season?"  And Dr. Raichur says in part because....

The Ayurvedic calendar says October through February is a time when our bodies—and skin—are plagued by imbalances and change, says Dr. Raichur, who has made skin health her specialty.

Here is her clinic Pratima Spa.  And here is her online store Pratima Skin Care (I love so many of the therapeutic oils but this one Healing Neem Oil with Rose, Lavender and Sandalwood is my favorite).

If you're lucky enough to live in NYC you can see her at Pratima Spa, 110 Green St, Suite 101, Soho

Elisabeth Lesser on Spirituality, Grief and Loss

I am a fan of Oprah's.  And I am even a bigger fan of Elizabeth Lesser because her book Broken Open really helped me deal with the emotional turmoil in dealing with a painful and chronic untreatable illness.

They sat down and talked about the nature of spirituality, how to make pain useful, how to deal with grief and loss -  on Sunday morning, November 13th for Oprah's Super Soul Sunday on Oprah's OWN channel.   I took some notes:

Lesser - When you say a spiritual path what you're talking about it - it's already there inside us, this instinct that we are more than our mind and our body.  The path is just getting the obstacles out of the way so we can wake up and fully know our full aliveness, and know that's who we are.  

Oprah -  Most times people think that spirituality is, well, people have their own definitions of it but a lot of people think it's a lot of woo-woo talk.  When it is really quite the opposite.  It's the most grounding awakening path you can ever pursue in your life. 

Lesser - I'm not a very woo-woo person.  

Oprah -  Yeah, it's not out there, its always right here (gestures towards herself)

Lesser - I came to the title - Broken Open - through an image - the image of a rose tightly wound around itself, the bud, like we all feel so much every day tightly wound, anxious, shut down.  And in order for that bud to open and blossom into the flower we love so much, it has to break its shell, it has to break open.  And it's an irony of this human life, strangely enough it is our most difficult,  broken times - loss of a job, loss of a marriage, illness, loss of a child - those are the times when we are brought to our knees and we open.  Our hearts can open during those times.  And if we fight those times and fight the bud opening, we sort of a half of a life.  But when we open into our brokenness, that's when we blossom....And fighting life, as I'm sure we can all relate to that feeling of life is happening to us, we are in this stream of life and instead of relaxing into it, we are swimming as hard as we can against the current.  That's sort of the opposite of the spiritual instinct.  The spiritual instinct is to relax into the mystery of life as it's happening.  

Oprah - And the spiritual instinct allows you to move through life no matter what is going on in your life, when you are on the spiritual path - it means no matter what happens to you and difficulties will come and challenges will come because that's all part of the human experience.  But the spiritual connection allows you to know that no matter what - you are going to be all right

Lesser - Everything that is happening in our life is a spiritual moment

Oprah - I like what you said on page 105 - "Nothing has awakened my heart as much as the pain of a broken family; nothing has given me as much strength as the time I spent alone in the ruined aftermath of a marriage."   How is that a spiritual path?  I think when you have the most devastating things happen to you, that those are your holiest moments.  That's when you get to see who you really are.

Lesser - Yes, because we spend so much of our life trying to be what we think we are supposed to be...what society wants us to be, what our parents thinks we should be, our husband, our wife, our image....just our image of what a spiritual or a good person should look like....so through that experience of divorce and becoming a single mother, I lost everything - my financial security, my self-image, my home, my support.  I was really a single mom and everything changed for me.  And in the depths of that loss, I found out who I really was.  I began to trust who I was.  I began to find a genuine me who could withstand anything.  

Oprah - how do you do that

Lesser - Well, you can either break down, stay broken down and shut down or you can break open.  It's a decision you make.  A commitment.  I am going through a very hard time, I'm not going to waste this precious experience, this opportunity to become the best me.  

Oprah - I also ask the experience, the crisis, the experience in the moment, what are you here to teach me?  What did your divorce teach you?

Lesser - The first thing that it taught me is that i couldn't blame anyone for what had gone wrong in the marriage.  I had spent a lot of time blaming my ex-husband.  But I had to take responsibility myself.  I had to say - what does this have to teach me about me, not about him, not about how unfair life is.  It wasn't about that.  It was what did I do to make this happen.  And if I could really sit in the pain of that.  The pain is really looking at yourself and what you did to create the mess you're in and if you can look at it head on fearlessly and say teach me.  Teach me about myself so I can grow.  

Oprah - Most people search for closure after the loss of a loved one, but Elizabeth says its one of her least favorite words.  Why?

Lesser - Because if you don't take the time to grieve and to let yourself feel what happens, you just put a scar over it and it doesn't go away.  In fact, it festers.  And it becomes something else.  Perhaps it turns into bitterness or anger or blame and you never get over it.  So letting yourself descend into grief...and letting it do what it will with you for as long as it takes, it a much more intelligent response to loss than cleaning up real fast, going back to work, you get your three days of grief days and then you go back to work. That's not a very wise way to handle it.  

Glenn (another guest discussing the grief of losing his young adult son) - And you never get over it.  It's always there.  You always live with it.  

Lesser -  You wear it as a badge of how well you loved.  Grief is an expression that you loved well.  

Marianne Williamson Defines Spirituality

Also part of the November 13th Super Soul Sunday, Marianne Williamson defined spirituality, which I like very much:

the practice of spirituality is when you get very still and very humble.  There are forces inside you, forces of fear and limitation and chaos and they live inside us saying you can't do that.  Spirituality is where you lay claim to a ground of being within yourself, where you say I want to be that, I really do. I want to be that person that I am capable of being.  We think we are not happy because of what we are not getting but really we are not happy because of what we are not giving.  The most important thing is that we learn how to forgive each other, that we learn how to love each other, how to live in the spirit of blessing and not blame.  What matters is when you are standing in front of a person, is your heart open or is your heart closed?  Are you thinking a judgmental thought or are you trying to see the best in them?  Are you showing the mercy towards other people that you would wish that they would show toward you?  The spiritual path doesn't mean always an easier path.  But it means a choice, a choice that we are making to try our best to be as loving as we can be.

Alpha Males Doing Yoga

This seems to be a theme, though my last post on this subject was based on an essay written in 2010.   This one this time appeared just the other day in the British newspaper The Telegraph.  And this news so excites me because I feel this is a demographic that would very much benefit from yoga.   The piece opens first with how a yoga practice kept one master of the universe from investing in the subprime market.  Then,

Yoga, once the preserve of scrawny men in drawstring trousers meditating on top of a mountain, has, since the Nineties, turned itself into a spirit-lite way for women with Gucci mats and Sweaty Betty vest tops to keep fit and tone their bums, tums and thighs. In the past three or four years, however, an increasing number of people from the top echelons of business, finance and politics, looking to get an edge over their rivals or manage their stress levels, have been following Gross’s lead and adding a yoga instructor to their retinue of chefs, nannies and personal trainers.Suddenly, it’s not only acceptable for alpha males to do yoga; it’s considered by many to be a badge of honour.

Then the piece lists several yogis in business, including Steve Jobs.   But this is my favorite quote:

“Very ambitious, high-achieving people realise that there’s something in yoga that is useful to them,” says instructor Tara Fraser, who, with her partner, Nigel Jones, runs the Yoga Junction studio in north London. “It’s not weird, not hippy. If you’re a man, the fact that you do yoga shows that you’re in touch with your intuitive side and you’re flexible as well as strong.“If you said, ‘No, no, no. I don’t want to do any of that stuff, I just want to work out at the gym and build muscle’, I think, nowadays, people would think, ‘Hmm. What are you trying to prove?’“Yoga shows that you’re a well-rounded individual. You know how to choose the wine, you know which restaurants to go to. Adding yoga to your portfolio of skills impresses people.”

Read the whole thing here - Power yoga: how money has changed a spiritual pursuit (the title is misleading - it's more about how yoga is changing the money industry, plus yoga is far more than a spiritual pursuit!)  Worth the click.

I sure hope it's true that more alpha males are seeing the benefits and value of yoga, and not just in London.  They would be happier, and the world a better place.  I know one or two, myself!

Calling All Dudes to Yoga

I love this piece 5 Reasons Why Dudes Should Do Yoga over at one of my favorite web sites -  Mindbodygreen.com

I won't spoil the piece and give you all 5 reasons here (4 and 5 aren't relatable to me, but then I'm not a dude).

But here is the opening :

I'm not your typical yoga person. In fact, I don't even come close to fitting the profile of a yoga person. First of all, I'm a dude. I'm tall (6'7" to be exact). Yes, is the answer to your next question: I played basketball. I played for four years in college at Columbia, in New York City. I also was president of my fraternity.

Please click over to read the rest.  Really.  Especially if you're a tall-ex-wall-street-trading-fraternity-boy-jock

Yoga Mats in Foreign Policy Magazine

Seriously.

No - seriously.

 It's a metaphor somewhat but also true.

 And a very good question.

"Haiti Doesn't Need Your Yoga Mat"

Busted! Lifestyle Choices of a Yogi

Okay - this is so funny - and admittedly, probably only to yogis.

From one of my favorite yoga sites, Elephant Journal:

The 10 Things You'll Do Once You Start Yoga

I'm guilty of all of them.  All.  Of.  Them.

Does the Popularity of Yoga Cause Something to Be Lost?

Oh, I just love Gary Kraftsow.   He founded and runs the American Viniyoga Institute.  I have all of his books and did a full day of study with him years ago.  He really knows his stuff and is one of the top two yoga therapists in the country.  (Bo Forbes is the other).   If I could, I would be pursuing this course of study furiously.

The founder of Yoga Modern, David Sunshine, interviewed Gary Kraftsow on how yoga has expanded through the United States, what it's popularity means, and what is happening - and he specifically talks about the deeper, inward teachings of yoga.

It's a short video, but in my view he captures well what is really going on.  And I am most excited by the attention of the medical community on yoga's benefits, because yoga has so very much helped me medically.

here is the video:

Beautiful Water Scenic Video

a beautiful water video to calm your nerves, with Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata as the soundtrack.



The Water from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

Ballet and Yoga - from 1952 film

This video is really fascinating.  The voice over most of all.

YOGA DANCING - British Pathe

I love the nexus of ballet and yoga, since that relationship changed the course of my life.

Yoga and Apple

In case you missed this Apple ad when it aired a few years ago......

How Yoga Affected Literary Figures of 20th Century

Vivekananda lived only to the age of 39, but his influence continues today. This essay also shows a convergence of yoga and literary figures of the 20th century including JD Salinger, Henry Miller, Gertrude Stein and Somerset Maugham. So I follow in the footsteps of other writer/yogis..... How Yoga Won the West in today's Sunday New York Times.

Yoga, Sex and Orgasms (for Men Especially)

A provocative headline on a popular news blog, Tina Brown's The Daily Beast.

Are Yogasms Real?

Touch is an integral and important aspect in teaching yoga but the intent behind the touch is what is most important and needs special caution.  The purpose of touching a student is threefold:
1) for bringing awareness to a part of the body or
2) to support the body in a pose or
3) to adjust an alignment.  

If the touch feeds the teacher's ego instead of the student's practice, then the intention is wrong.  And, no matter how subtle, this intention is conveyed and felt.  And it's pernicious because it can undermined so much that is so valuable and helpful about yoga.

So I'm uneasy about this focus, and especially the feeding of the ego teachers in particular.

Yoga brings awareness to the breath and the body.   And help people inhabit and feel their body.   That is inherently beneficial to sex.

And yes, it has once happened to me.

But what I found most interesting about this piece, and worthwhile if not redeeming, is the coverage of men and yoga and orgasms.

Alan Finger, founder of ISHTA (Integrated Science of Hatha, Tantra and Ayurveda) Yoga argues:

that men actually benefit sexually from yoga more than women. “The man starts at a disadvantage because his orgasm is outwards, which makes it briefer and shorter than a woman’s."...one can experience an intensely meditative (and arguably spiritual) full-body orgasm. “It fills your being rather than just being something that happened in your genital boundary,” explains Finger.

I came to yoga because of a man.  After we broke up, I missed his emotional strength.  I discerned he gleaned that strength from his daily yoga practice.  I had already been a dancer, so I took a few classes with him and I was interested,  but not won over.   Until I missed those certain qualities about him.   so I walked into a local class here in DC.   And thusly, another love affair began.

Comments?  What do you think of this sort of coverage?  Are you comfortable with touch in teaching yoga?

What are the Yoga Sutras?

Sutra literally means, “thread,” and each sutra contains a thread of a thought.    A sutra is an aphoristic statement or a work containing such statements.  

The Yoga Sutras is the source text of classical yoga.  These 195 aphorisms serve as a concise guide for the philosophy and practice of yoga.   Patanjali compiled them over two thousand years ago.  Although often considered the author of the yoga sutras, historians generally believe that he assembled and recorded the oral tradition of yoga.  

The Yoga Sutras are divided into four chapters:

1st chapter                       on ecstasy samadhi-pada 
Addresses the theory of Yoga is called the chapter on ecstasy
51 aphorisms.

3rd chapter                      on the powers vibhuti-pada
Sets forth the internal rigor and ability a yogi acquires
55 aphorisms.  

2nd chapter                     on the path sadhana-pada 
Introduces the practices of Yoga for the novice
55 aphorisms. 

4th chapter                      on liberation kaivalya-pada 
Delineates the freedom and peace gained from Yoga 
34 aphorisms. 2 

2 Georg Feuerstein, The Yoga Tradition (Prescott: Hohm Press, 1998), p. 216.   

What is Suffering? What is Pain?

‎Suffering differs from pain. Suffeering is caused by the emotional reaction we lay on top of our pain. By becoming aware of our emotions and thoughts about pain, their hold on us can be released...This awareness is the tada, or 'state of yoga' about which Patanjali speaks. From this perspective, spiritual seeking is not what we do outwardly, but what we acknowledge inwardly.

 - Judith Lasater, Living Your Yoga

Judith was the first yoga teacher who helped me understand this distinction.  When she first posited the concept to me, my first reactive (and arrogant) thought was that she didn't know pain.  I was incredulous that the two - suffering and pain - could be bifurcated.  

Indeed, it can be; it can be very hard, indeed.  Sometimes impossible.  

But yoga provides the space, the breathing space, to separate pain - acute physical pain, overwhelming emotional pain - from the experience of suffering.  

In that way yoga has saved my life.  

(Judith was also the first teacher who accurately reflected back my experience of yoga and fibromyalgia.  She correctly observed that sometimes moving is better, sometimes not.  The practice needs to stay nimble and responsive to the body on the mat that day - and it can take 5-10 minutes to feel that out.)   

"The Day is To Be Experienced, Not Understood"

I love this:

‎One day in the middle of their morning prayers, the (Hindu) sage suddenly rose and ushered his students away from the monastery. He rushed about them and shooed them back into life like little ducks, proclaiming, 'The day is to be experienced, not understood!' 

- Mark Nepo

It's the anti-navel gazing mantra.  An important counterpoint.  

Why Truth is Essential

Honesty and truth is one of the yamas in yoga. And the yamas, which are the first limb of yoga, provide guidance for how we treat others, generally. Here Debbie Ford discusses why honesty with our selves is so essential.

On a page where I describe the 8 limbs of yoga, I define satya this way:

Truth Satya
Satya requires honest communication in thoughts, words and deeds. This practice encompasses a trust of our inner values and heart as well as integrity in our actions to our values and heart.

And here is Debbie Ford on honesty with ourselves:

"When we make peace with all that we are, both light and dark, we get to this very honest place where we don't have to be perfect, but we can love our imperfections." --Debbie Ford

Here is Debbie Ford from the Omega Institute web page.

Debbie Ford "Honesty and Integrity" from Omega Institute on Vimeo.

I agree that honesty with ourselves is often the hardest - not only because of ego, but because we just simply don't see ourselves and may not have the awareness necessary. Perhaps that blindness results from the ego, but I think of ego as operating on a more conscious level.

I may need to refine my definition of satya, so to encompass this inner quest.

Give Love Away

A cool video that my friend Riki posted on her Facebook page.  Fun music too.   Reminds me a bit of those old coco-cola ads from the 70s....

Enjoy!

Freedom & Independence!

Awesome and inspiring video to celebrate freedom and independence today:

How to Travel this Summer

A great post from my new favorite web site - www.mindbodygreen.com.   On how to create a sacred space while traveling, which has to be one of the most stressful endeavors with miles between gates, overcrowded flights, weather's unpredictability, etc. etc. etc.  

"Surrender" is my mantra while I travel. 

And this essay outlines some ways to feel at home once you reach your destination:  6 Ways to Create a Sacred Space While Traveling.  

What are your suggestions? 

How to be Mindful

5 specific exercises to promote mindfullness in your every day life.  Very helpful summary and over view for those new to mindfulness and a great review for those already familiar.   

Thich Nhat Hanh on the Practice of Mindfulness

Pema Chrodron on Unconditional Friendship with Oneself

Maitri means unconditional friendship with oneself, how to be at relaxed with yourself, or feeling at home in your mind and your body. She discusses how our relationship to pain affects this.

Strong Emotions and How Meditation Can Help

David Nichtern was my first meditation teacher and he is really special and awesome. Check out his latest post at the Huffington Post.

Yoga Activism

A dear old friend told me of this organization which looks to have been doing interesting stuff.

It's called Yoga Activist. Check it out here. They highlight a session this Saturday with Sharon Salzburg in DC, which is sure to be good.

Get Rid of Your Yoga Mat?

So suggested a Style Section piece in today's New York Times.

“The ecstasy of yoga can’t be contained by a mat,” said Dana Flynn, a director of Laughing Lotus, a yoga studio in New York and San Francisco.

 Others talk about how the mat is just another symbol of what a commodity yoga has become.

I don't know.  I'm for the mat.  My mat.  And a set aside space.  It's not just symbolic. 

What do you think?  Mat or no mat?

Cool Yoga Candlesticks

Uncommon Goods is a great place for gifts. While looking for a birthday present for my aunt, I came across unusual and cute yoga candlesticks at Uncommon Goods. See them here.

The "Citation Salutation"

Did you see this? In Cambridge, Massachusetts city officials printed up notices for parking violations that feature yoga poses. Seriously. I'm not sure how effective such images are to calm and mitigate raises in blood pressure, but I do find it amusing and an interesting idea.

You can read the Boston Herald's coverage about the new practice here.

Check Out These Backbends!

oh my! My yoga teacher sent me this video this morning from a segment released in 1944 that featured the Ross sisters - Maggie, Elmira and Aggie. From what I could determine from Imdb - this was also a part of That's Entertainment III.

Any way - it's like Cirque de Soleil 50 years early. The singer starts and then the movement begins about a minute in...

Might I add that one of the yoga teachers who forwarded this clip on to her students prefaced the viewing with: "Thought you might like to see what we may be doing next week. Bring an apple!!"

Jeeze! Enjoy!

Yoga's Anti-Lifestyle Trend

Front page of the New York Times Style section today in "Yoga's New Wave" offers a healthy counterpoint to some of the silliness that, to my mind, detracts from yoga. The most interesting aspect to me is that the yogi features was a former disciple of Bikram - who seems to enjoy being at the pinnacle of yoga silliness and monstrous, egomaniacal behavior.

Money quote:

A second revelation occurred in class when he was struggling to keep his body in a difficult position. “I was sweating, my muscles shaking, in triangle pose, and Bikram was talking about how fast he was as a boy in Calcutta. How he could catch this dog.” The situation was almost more than Mr. Gumucio could bear. “In my mind,” he recalled, “I was thinking ‘What is wrong with you. Stop this stupid story!’ ”

Laughing! "Stop this stupid story!"

Read the piece in full here.

A Short Film about Moments

This short film (4 minutes) by Will Hoffman is beautiful.  What Andrew Sullivan would call a "Mental Health break"

I found it on KarmaTube, which described the short film this way:

Will Hoffman's short film stitches together random, mundane moments from the lives of different people. But watching this film, you feel like they are moments from your own life! The move from one moment to the next is non-linear, non-sequential, joyous, terrible and unexpected, all at the same time -- and yet it evokes a feeling of deep connection and beauty.

I just loved the way it captures mundane instances and weaves them back in a way that evokes a whole and wondrous existence. 

Enjoy!

The Organic Center

This web site - The Organic Center - looks interesting.  

Is James Fallows mocking yoga?

There will always be a San Francisco - by James Fallows.

Fallows got a bit of flack for posting this photo. It's funny. And nice to see yoga creeping into even the most prestigious of political blogs.

Fallows posted this, rather lengthy, follow up the next day where he asserts he was not making fun of yoga. Even yogis can take themselves too seriously I guess, even in San Francisco. Or perhaps always in San Francisco.

Hot Oil Massage in the Winter

These cold months are a perfect time to develop a routine for the ayurvedic practice of Abhyanga - a full body oil massage. A regular practice of giving yourself a full body oil massage is an essential part of yogic health.

Ayurvedic medicine complements and completes yoga and is the traditional healing system of India. As old as yoga (5000 years old!), ayurveda uses the same Sanskrit language as yoga and struggles as well with the translation of certain concepts and attitudes which originated in a very different language, rich and with deep roots. Ayurveda, like yoga, encompasses more than the physical. In Sanskrit, Ayur means "life" and Veda means "science or knowledge." So ayurveda means science or knowledge of life. Therefore, in ayurveda, good health address all of life - not just the physical organs.

Snehana is the Sanskrit term for massaging herbal oils into the skin. The root of this word highlights a vital aspect of this practice. Sneha means love, and the literal translation of snehana is to love your own body. So as you do this, you really need to feel affection for your own skin and what's underneath.

Abhyanga is any massage treatment that uses oil, and here I describe how to administer a self oil massage.

Abhyanga is also a Sanskrit word and with ang meaning "movement" and the prefix abhi meaning "into" or "toward", Abhyanga literally translates as moving into the body. Moving what into the body? Energy, love, prana.

I used to heat up the oil on the stove. But my own yoga teacher showed me an easier way, with some tools easily available from from Bed Bath & Beyond. First I looked for a hot plate for a mug. Turns out an electric candle warmer does the trick. I'd never heard of a candle warmer before, but it's just the right size. You can check them out here. I got the Valmour brand. Electric power heats the plate and on top I place a Faberware "melting pot. You can check that out here. It's just the right size and has a pouring spout.

Then all you need is the oil and the time. Check out the link with instructions above.

Zen Dens - Yoga Retreats from Conde Nast

concierge.com assembled a roster of wellness retreats you can check out here. Compiled in 2006, it's still interesting.

This place, Parrot Cay's Shambhala Retreat, is where I've been twice for yoga retreats. Once with Cyndi Lee of Om Yoga and once with Donna Farhi, both in 2002.

If you just want to check out the resort, click here.

I can't recommend it highly enough.

Here is Zen Den's review and recommendation on Parrot Cay.

This is the spot for well-heeled yogis whose idea of Zen minimalism doesn't extend to thread counts and evening meals...Turks + Caicos has snow-white sand and turquoise coves, and the rooms are unfussy but gorgeous, all teak and white cotton....Dive or snorkel in the most pristine waters and healthiest reefs of the Caribbean region.

The reefs may be the healthiest. I can't say for sure but I do know they are clear and pure and beautiful. I came away healthier than I'd been in a very long time.

Yoga Hyde - New Online Yoga Gear

I've not tried any of their clothes, but they look lovely. Check out Yoga Hyde - especially the outerwear.

Meditation Can Help Heart Disease, Medical Study Finds

A medical study suggests that meditation provides physiological benefits - at least with people with coronary artery disease. The New York Times time reported the news in a brief blurb, Regimens: Meditation, for the Mind and the Heart.

Money quote:

The participants found transcendental meditation easy to learn and practice, Dr. Schneider said. He suggested that the stress reduction produced by the meditation could cause changes in the brain that cut stress hormones like cortisol and dampen the inflammatory processes associated with atherosclerosis.

Lemons:Cool and Useful Information

Beliefnet.com offers a slide show entitled 15 Hidden Health Secrets of Lemons. Some are pretty cool and news to me - like treating acne or canker sores or corns and calluses, eczema, bad breath, bug bites!

Something about it's akaline properties counteracts acid. That acid/akaline balance seems to be coming up a lot lately.

Arnica Use Backed By Science

Arnica use is now backed by science, according to a New York Times post, The Alternative Medicine Cabinet: Arnica for Pain Relief.

It is believed that the plant contains derivatives of thymol, which seems to have anti-inflammatory effects. Either way, scientists have found good evidence that it works. One randomized study published in 2007 looked at 204 people with osteoarthritis in their hands and found that an arnica gel preparation worked just as well as daily ibuprofen, and with minimal side effects.

This entry is apparently the first of many that Times columnist Anahad O'Connor (I love America!) will do weekly to explore "the claims and the science behind alternative remedies that you may want to consider for your family medicine cabinet"

You can check out other entries for The Alternative Medicine Cabinet here.

A New Line of Yoga Attire

I've not tried any of this line, but it's associated with Seane Corn, whom I respect.  The yoga clothes and supplies look pretty neat.

Check out here.

Has any one else tried?  If so, please provide feedback in the comments section.

Yoga=Mindful Eating=Healthier Weight

Regular yoga practice is associated with mindful eating, and that in turn causes people to be less likely to be overweight, finds a new medical study published in the August issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

What seems particularly interesting is that it's yoga - not just any exercise - that provides this associated benefit.

The researchers found that people who ate mindfully—those were aware of why they ate and stopped eating when full—weighed less than those who ate mindlessly, who ate when not hungry or in response to anxiety or depression. The researchers also found a strong association between yoga practice and mindful eating but found no association between other types of physical activity, such as walking or running, and mindful eating.

The key too is that the practice of yoga has to be regular. To the study, that appears to translate to more than one hour a week, a pretty low threshold, it seems to me.

The study measured:

• disinhibition – eating even when full;
• awareness – being aware of how food looks, tastes and smells;
• external cues – eating in response to environmental cues, such as advertising;
• emotional response – eating in response to sadness or stress; and
• distraction – focusing on other things while eating.

You can read more here.

What Trying to Meditate is Really Like

Robert Wright is one of my favorite writers and thinkers.  He just published his third book, The Evolution of God earlier this summer.  In hearing him promote his book, I'd heard him speak of his attraction to Buddhism and meditation, so I was delighted to come across this rendition of time he spent on a meditation retreat on the New York Times Opinionator Blog: Self, Meditating.

As usual, he's brutally honest about the experience of meditation - the frustration, the imperfection, the confusion. And he's funny.  And smart. 

Here's a taste:

This retreat is coming at a good time for me. In June I published a book that I’ve been feverishly promoting. Publishing and promoting a book can bring out the non-Buddhist in a person. For example, when book reviewers make judgments about your book, you may make judgments about the reviewers — ungenerous judgments, even.
Also, you’re inclined to pursue the fruits of your activity — like book sales — rather than just experience the activity. Checking your Amazon ranking every 7 minutes would qualify as what Buddhists call “attachment.” And attachment is bad. (Oops: I just made a judgment about attachment.)

Yoga and Desire

Sally Kempton is a regular columnist for Yoga Journal and I love her essays on yoga philosophy and living.

This one on desire is particularly acute. She incorporates a mythical story of the Hindu god Brahma and from there provides constructive insights on the nature of desire, how to use as a force for good in our lives and avoid the pitfalls.

Here's a taste:

Well-managed desire can inspire you to action and help shape your life. Unmanaged desire—well, distraction is the least of it. Even Brahma, the ancient, ageless creator of the universe, turned into a hormone-crazed teenager when inflamed with desire. In fact, his story reveals the power of desire and what's needed to turn it into a force for good.

And another:

Yet whether deep or superficial, all these desires have the potential to manifest results. Your life situation at this moment is to an amazing extent the product of the desires you've held—often desires that you forgot long ago. As one of the Upanishads says, "As a [person's] desire is, so is his destiny. For as his desire is, so is his will; as his will is, so is his deed; and as his deed is, so are its consequences, good or bad."

Knowing how to direct the power of desire toward growth can help you create a life of beauty, love, and even enlightenment. On the other hand, if the desires you follow are unhealthy, if you have not brought them fully to consciousness, or if you continually follow the distracting impulses of momentary desires, you're likely to find yourself in situations that don't serve your highest goals.

Click through to read the whole thing, Gotta Have It? It's not long and worthwhile.

If you like yoga and you like word puzzles, you might like these products. The puzzles are based on BKS Iyengar's books and teachings and you'd better know your Sanskrit or be prepared to learn some. From the home page:

Whether you are a teacher studying to improve your Sanskrit spelling and vocabulary, or a student just wondering what in the world these words mean, these books will provide you with a few hours of exploration and discovery and definitely some good activity for your brain cells.

Fresh Ginger Ale!

One of my students knows I love and make my own ginger tea. I modified a recipe I got on my first yoga retreat to Parrot Cay - the retreat that changed my life as well as my palate.

Well, ginger is getting more popular and she sent along this New York Times article highlighting the trend of home made ginger ale - Ginger Ale Without the Can.

I couldn't agree more:

But beyond current fashions, homemade ginger ale has a lively bite that is especially appealing as summer nears.

“It’s a very refreshing, vibrant feeling,” said Geoff Alexander, the managing partner of Wow Bao, part of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, the Chicago restaurant company.

Typically less sweet than store-bought sodas, the handmade ales get an added zing from fresh ginger.

Here's a recipe to make Ginger Ale at home. Also from the New York Times.

Thanks Sara!

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Clear Your Clutter, Find Your Life

I found this to be a really helpful, succinct article on how to de-clutter your home in this time of spring. Clear Your Clutter, Find Your Life is from Body & Soul's April 2009 issue.

I'm not even going to try and excerpt the good bits, because it all seems very constructive and helpful. So click through and let me know what you think.