Love Laughter Inspiration Simplicity
R. Sharath Jois
"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."
- Adyashanti
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About
"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."
- Louise Erdrich
Hamsa
No Expectations
A spirit that lives in this world
and does not wear the shirt of love,
such an existence is a deep disgrace.
Be foolishly in love,
because love is all there is.
There is no way into presence
except through a love exchange.
If someone asks, But what is love?
answer, Dissolving the will.
True freedom comes to those
who have escaped the questions
of freewill and fate.
Love is an emperor.
The two worlds play across him.
He barely notices their tumbling game.
Love and lover live in eternity.
Other desires are substitutes
for that way of being.
How long do you lay embracing a corpse?
Love rather the soul, which cannot be held.
Anything born in spring dies in the fall,
but love is not seasonal.
With wine pressed from grapes,
expect a hangover.
But this love path has no expectations.
You are uneasy riding the body?
Dismount. Travel lighter.
Wings will be given.
Be clear like a mirror
reflecting nothing.
Be clean of pictures and the worry
that comes with images.
Gaze into what is not ashamed
or afraid of any truth.
Contain all human faces in your own
without any judgement of them.
Be pure emptiness.
What is inside that? you ask.
Silence is all I can say.
Lovers have some secrets
that they keep.
(Rumi)
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14 Insightful Comments:
As soon as I have less than a billion asana I'm really going to work on this. Thanks for posting!
Right on! :)
It's a project I've been meaning to get to. I'm very strong. But currently John is still torturing me by making me do 2nd before 3rd every day & earning my 3rd pose by pose. It's just too much. By the time I get to the end of practice all I'm focused on is getting to savasana...
Any advice on how to work on pressing to handstand? Thank you in advance! Anna
@ Boodiba - Yes, you are very strong! I've seen some of your videos. :)
Ha! I'm on the same circuit practicing all of 2nd and most of 3rd. Though, I do one day of just third, and Friday are always for Primary, Sundays are always for just 2nd. Weeeelll, I guess that means I only do it 3x's a week. Haha
I've heard really good things about John. You're lucky to have such a fabulous teacher.
@ Anna - I'll have to write a post on how to build and approach handstand at some point. In my past I've done a lot of work at the wall since most of my development has been practicing on my own.
Simply kicking up and holding for a period of time is beneficial. And working at holding it longer and longer is good.
With pressing I started by learning to do a straddle press first. This is much easier than from a pike position. One good trick, to get a bit of a boost is to stand on blocks under each foot (practice straddle first) this helps making the lean into the hands and getting the pelvis over the shoulders easier. Here you can work on balance and control for sometime before removing the blocks and trying without using anything. The most challenging part of pressing is lifting those first 6 inches off the floor, then the rest becomes easier to manage.
Also going to the wall and doing the negative action helps to build strength. Kick up and press down with control, doing straddles and pikes.
I know I must have missed something! But, that's all of got right now. I will definitely have to write a blog post and do some videos of handstand progressions at some point.
Best of luck! :)
Ahh... I'm not settled in yet. I was doing full 3rd four days a week and four poses of 4th Tues-Thurs with Christopher. John was also more gung-ho on the cranking me in back bending in the summer. Chris had parked me there while he went to do his re-certification thing in Mysore.
Hopefully in a month or so I'll feel acclimated. I should watch more of your clips for inspiration!!!
Thank you! Good advice on working on the straddle. And also working on the negative action (I did that in headstand, working the negative action, which gave me a good "aha"-notion so that I could apply that feeling when going up into headstand with straight legs). So again thank you for the advice but I do think you should write a whole post about it! :-)
I also practice alone and I have to modify my practice a lot due to symphysis pubis dysfunction both during and now after being pregnant. So my focus is building strength...Anna
@ Anna - Glad to offer a bit of advice. Best of luck with building strength and healing. Good for you sticking with it. :)
Just been reading about the eruption in Eyjafjallajoekull, sure your fine in Reyki though. I was going to suggest you try to make the trip down to Vestmannaeyjar, you can walk up the volcano there, bury and egg on the way up and it's cooked on the way back down (if you can find it) probably not such a good idea now.
I've been working on the press to handstands for so long, can press up OK now, the tiptoes really helps but the pike I still can't manage. I should go back to the blocks and straddle now I'm closer, it was useful when I tried it before, thanks for the reminder.
I'd always assumed you'd always practiced at a shala, were you really a home yogi ??? not sure how I feel about that, I'd kind of put my lack of finesse and elegance down to practicing at home, no excuses now.
@ Grimmly - YES! The second volcano eruption has been a hot topic the last couple days. Very interesting in that it's bursting out of a glacier! Lots of water melting! I like the cooking the egg idea, lol! Reyki's cool so far.
Yep. The majority of my yoga experience has been self-practice, though I have had the chance to work with amazing teachers for short stints, and 3 extended trips to India. Always helps!
But yeah, the majority of my experience has been on my own. Often it's tough, but I feel it builds a different type of mental and physical strength. Although, sometimes a feel like a yoga orphan and crave for a teacher everyday, it just hasn't worked out that way for me. So I gotta do what I can do with what I got!
I think the work you do is wonderful! Such discipline! Great job.
Thanks Laruga, but god, I need to raise my game. I thought your practice was so precise because you had a teacher ironing out the kinks everyday. Of course the India trips and workshops help but I'm really quite in awe of your discipline, got me thinking about my approach to my own practice, perhaps I need to focus on the details more
.
re the Volcano, two of my colleagues are due to fly out to Dubai tomorrow morning (my Music shop does Instrument repairs there a few times a year) but the airports have all been closed over here because of the ash.
To be honest Grimmly I'm a bit of a yoga nerd. I really do love practicing the basics as much as the "fancy" stuff. Giving each movement a beginning, middle and end, even the simplest of movements really brings me into presence. Important for a girl who has such an active mind such as myself!
Yah! This volcano eruption is really reeking havoc with travel in and around Europe. I can't believe I'm in Iceland during this radical event!
I like that, 'a beginning a middle and an end'.
Thank you for this post (and comments!) I have been practicing ashtanga without a teacher for a year now in China, so access to your blog is sometimes dicey...I have a 3 sec handstand going on right now but I'm going to try your straddle advice. beautiful poses and writing here, thank you.
RG
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