"You should not be practicing to have a 'good' practice, but instead to keep steadiness within yourself. Practice happily regardless of whether it is 'good' or not. Sometimes some postures will not be possible, but when you accept the good and the bad and everything becomes equal for you, that is yoga."
- R. Sharath Jois
Burnt To Ash
"All Inquiry is meant for one purpose; to take you experientially into the unknown as efficiently as possible. Once you get there, simply be still because inquiry has delivered you to its destination. The rest is up to Grace. Do not hold onto any knowledge that comes your way. Even the greatest revelations much not be clung to, or you will end up with a head full of memories and a heart empty of substance. The truth is ever new, existing only in the now. The highest truth is beyond knowledge and experience. It is beyond time and space, and beyond beingness, consciousness, and oneness. Just remember that all direct path techniques are meant simply to undermine, to cut away, the one who is performing them. No matter what spiritual path you've walked or what teachings you've followed, they must lead you back to no path and no teaching. A true teaching is like a blazing fire that consumes the itself. The teaching must not only consume you, but consume itself as well. All must be burned to ash, and then the ash must be burned. The, and only then, is the Ultimate realized. True Enlightenment destroys enlightenment. As long as you can refer back to yourself and say, 'I'm enlightened', you not. Enlightenment is authentic only when there is no one left to be enlightened. Even to say 'I am nobody', is one too many. There's a point when you intuitively realize that to be Free you have to give up your attachment to Freedom. You have to quit asking yourself: Is it still there? Am I okay? You have to decide to never look over your shoulder again to see if you're free or if others know you're free. You just have to let yourself burn there - no matter what. This isn't something I can help you with. I can tell you what you need to do, but you have to do it. In the beginning, teachers can help a lot. But the deeper you go, all they can do is point, and clarify, and tell you what you need to do. Only you can take this step. Nobody can push you in to this place."
"Whatever satisfaction come from getting what the false-self wants, is always brief." (Father Thomas Keating) The days and weeks s...
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"Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could."
That's an interesting entry!! I'm going to try that. I see you pick your head up to bring it back in too. I used to lift WAY up & Rolf stopped me, last winter. He wanted me to put my head on the floor before I started reeling everything in at all. That makes it so much harder! I've adopted a compromise lately.
@ Boodiba - I feel lifting up is more challenging, strength wise. I guess it doesn't matter how you enter as long as the feet don't touch the floor, lol. I dunno, I've never been busted on this posture, but then again, I'm primarily a home practitioner. :)
@ ArkieYogini - Thank you, it's been fun "producing" very amateur videos! :)
Yes it depends on the teacher! Rolf tweaked me a LOT in the arm balances. Was very particular. No one else has ever had a problem w/ the Astavakrasana exits.
The thing with planting the head is, it makes it a lot harder to unthread the legs.
Yah. Good stuff. Nice to experiment with various approaches. I've tried and practiced just about everything, and like the flowing approach of lifting. Guess it never hurts to diversify. :)
Hi Peaceloveyoga - thank you for sharing! How did you learn the initial hop to headstand? Is it more about timing or is there a lot of resistance provided with the arms and shoulders? I'm struggling with it for the headstands in 2nd...mostly fear of the head-bump I think but it could be strength I'm lacking too. Again thanks, these are beautiful videos :-)
Learning to jump into headstand was one of those things I just tried, and managed with a bit of trepidation. Yes. You want to put as much weight in the arms as possible so you land on the head lightly. A good mat is key. Don't try the first time on a really thin mat.
There's no jumping into headstand in 2nd Series so not to worry. Continue practicing the 7 headstands and with time the upper body strengthen.
7 Insightful Comments:
That's an interesting entry!! I'm going to try that. I see you pick your head up to bring it back in too. I used to lift WAY up & Rolf stopped me, last winter. He wanted me to put my head on the floor before I started reeling everything in at all. That makes it so much harder! I've adopted a compromise lately.
Thank you for sharing all these videos. You make the transitions look so graceful.
@ Boodiba - I feel lifting up is more challenging, strength wise. I guess it doesn't matter how you enter as long as the feet don't touch the floor, lol. I dunno, I've never been busted on this posture, but then again, I'm primarily a home practitioner. :)
@ ArkieYogini - Thank you, it's been fun "producing" very amateur videos! :)
Yes it depends on the teacher! Rolf tweaked me a LOT in the arm balances. Was very particular. No one else has ever had a problem w/ the Astavakrasana exits.
The thing with planting the head is, it makes it a lot harder to unthread the legs.
Yah. Good stuff. Nice to experiment with various approaches. I've tried and practiced just about everything, and like the flowing approach of lifting. Guess it never hurts to diversify. :)
Hi Peaceloveyoga - thank you for sharing! How did you learn the initial hop to headstand? Is it more about timing or is there a lot of resistance provided with the arms and shoulders? I'm struggling with it for the headstands in 2nd...mostly fear of the head-bump I think but it could be strength I'm lacking too. Again thanks, these are beautiful videos :-)
Learning to jump into headstand was one of those things I just tried, and managed with a bit of trepidation. Yes. You want to put as much weight in the arms as possible so you land on the head lightly. A good mat is key. Don't try the first time on a really thin mat.
There's no jumping into headstand in 2nd Series so not to worry. Continue practicing the 7 headstands and with time the upper body strengthen.
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