Look to this day:
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence.
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendour of achievement
Are but experiences of time.
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today well-lived, makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day;
Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn!
Kalidasa
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
You gotta water sunshine
Here are the gentlemen watering my sunshine soul, I am in a bit of a folksy phase folks . . .
Jose Gonzlaez
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4_4abCWw-w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B-h1EEsKDA&feature=related
and esp - proof that Kylie's earlier work has had a lasting contribution to music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmLGMWgHIgw&feature=related
Amos Lee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmQFwIKsU1U
Colin Hay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4tcRlHY-3Q
and the man who started it all on my Pandora station
Sean Hayes
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11119161
Also, not new, not folksy but incredibly beautiful and haunting, Sigur Ros
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-FPXrZi0v0&feature=related
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
little and often
. . . the way to change a hard to change habit, by making a new habit. Start out easily and let it grow, pressureless.
I used to love guitar music of the early-mid 90s, lyrics too, the whole made me think. Now I listen to so much electronic music and I really miss words from another conception in correspondence with mine.
Here's a definition I read recently and liked (I should say that I am failessly impressed whenever I stumble accross a word to sum up an entire concept):
Connexion
Treating the facts of history systematically, in their connection with each other as cause and effect, and with reference to their practical lessons rather than to their circumstantial details.
Something I think we could benefit from keeping somewhere quite prevalent in the frontal lobes in reference to our personal histories as well as collective histories.
The place I read this was a collection of notes for a course I'm taking and it didn't give a citation. Damn, I'd like to read more.
oao
j
I used to love guitar music of the early-mid 90s, lyrics too, the whole made me think. Now I listen to so much electronic music and I really miss words from another conception in correspondence with mine.
Here's a definition I read recently and liked (I should say that I am failessly impressed whenever I stumble accross a word to sum up an entire concept):
Connexion
Treating the facts of history systematically, in their connection with each other as cause and effect, and with reference to their practical lessons rather than to their circumstantial details.
Something I think we could benefit from keeping somewhere quite prevalent in the frontal lobes in reference to our personal histories as well as collective histories.
The place I read this was a collection of notes for a course I'm taking and it didn't give a citation. Damn, I'd like to read more.
oao
j
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
follow your bliss
i made a resolution to write but at the moment I am a sinkhole for ideas but not so much a generator for them it seems. Am filling my internal spaces with the ruminations, wisdoms and resonances without words of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung.
My desire a moment is to find that fertile emanation from something else in this world to fall upon this lovingly prepared and long quiet earth within me.
: ) Love to and of this world,
jenn
My desire a moment is to find that fertile emanation from something else in this world to fall upon this lovingly prepared and long quiet earth within me.
: ) Love to and of this world,
jenn
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Friday, May 02, 2008
A life made of these
A phrase that came into my mind on the beach, place of much marvel and herewith finally takes form.
Words
"When the going gets tough, the average get conservative"
Henry Rollins.
Went to see the heavily tattooed highness of hyperactivity in Wellington. Three non-stop hours of manic storytelling, sound effects, laughter and sincerity; stupendous. : )
Phrases from the legal cases i've been editing:
"legislative nihilism", "instinctive synthesis", "constellation of circumstances", "impenetrable forest of detail concealing the timber of the matter", and "mechanic verisimilitude "
Moving
Hula hooping
Private tutelage from the high priestess of pink velour: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=E-zi5MLGq_U&feature=related
I did this one (very spazzily) first try on the weekend and surprised myself, still waiting to surprise myself with a second successful attempt. ; )
Laughter
"Why Moms can't do yoga"
Food
Kohlrabi, my food fad du jour, is one of those things where you just have to look past appearances: despite its "Sputnik-like shape". . . "it's not an alien honestly" and literal meaning (it sexily translates as "cabbage-turnip") and allow your sense of intrigue to make you take a bite. It is crunchy-good and mild sweet and tasty, try him today . . . . : )
Words
"When the going gets tough, the average get conservative"
Henry Rollins.
Went to see the heavily tattooed highness of hyperactivity in Wellington. Three non-stop hours of manic storytelling, sound effects, laughter and sincerity; stupendous. : )
Phrases from the legal cases i've been editing:
"legislative nihilism", "instinctive synthesis", "constellation of circumstances", "impenetrable forest of detail concealing the timber of the matter", and "mechanic verisimilitude "
Moving
Hula hooping
Private tutelage from the high priestess of pink velour: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=E-zi5MLGq_U&feature=related
I did this one (very spazzily) first try on the weekend and surprised myself, still waiting to surprise myself with a second successful attempt. ; )
Laughter
"Why Moms can't do yoga"
Food
Kohlrabi, my food fad du jour, is one of those things where you just have to look past appearances: despite its "Sputnik-like shape". . . "it's not an alien honestly" and literal meaning (it sexily translates as "cabbage-turnip") and allow your sense of intrigue to make you take a bite. It is crunchy-good and mild sweet and tasty, try him today . . . . : )
Saturday, September 15, 2007
The Gaping Void . . . Words of wisdom
So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years:
1. Ignore everybody.2. The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to change the world.
3. Put the hours in.
4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.
5. You are responsible for your own experience.
6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
7. Keep your day job.
8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.
9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.
10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.
11. Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.
12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.
13. Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside.
14. Dying young is overrated.
15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.
16. The world is changing.
17. Merit can be bought. Passion can't.
18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.
19. Sing in your own voice.
20. The choice of media is irrelevant.
21. Selling out is harder than it looks.
22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.
23. Worrying about "Commercial vs. Artistic" is a complete waste of time.
24. Don�t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.
25. You have to find your own schtick.
26. Write from the heart.
27. The best way to get approval is not to need it.
28. Power is never given. Power is taken.
29. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.
30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.
31. Remain frugal.
Cities
"Asked him how he was liking New York.
"It's great," he said. "Everybody's insane with loneliness, but that's OK. After a while you realize that's part of the edge."
I was hit with a paradox. I wanted to be in New York, I wanted to be "part of the edge", but I didn't want to be "insane with loneliness". Was one necessary in order to have the other? Was it a price worth paying? To this day, I still have no answer.
The simple truth about big cities is that people don't go there to give. They go there to take, or at least, to get. If you feel like giving, good for you, somewhere an angel is smiling yada yada yada, just don't expect other people to follow your example. And if you're feeling lonely, at least now you now know why. "Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Invictus . . . edited
Out of the night that covers me . . .
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul . . .
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul
William Ernest Henley
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
things i like
inspired by a thai magazine that had a spread worthy of a form 2 girls convention on wot is hot : )
1. Words
2. Yoshitomo Nara
3. Anticipation.
4. Old friends. New friends. Friends!
5. Peace. Inner. Outer. Aesthetic. Aural.
6. Regent's Park
7. IW
8. Flat white.
For serving coffee, and not tar.
9. Yoga
(just to be predictable).
10. London. Sometimes.
1. Words
2. Yoshitomo Nara
3. Anticipation.
4. Old friends. New friends. Friends!
5. Peace. Inner. Outer. Aesthetic. Aural.
6. Regent's Park
7. IW
8. Flat white.
For serving coffee, and not tar.
9. Yoga
(just to be predictable).
10. London. Sometimes.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Wondering
What is your favourite word & why?
Who did you meet who showed you something completely new or gave you a new orientation on the world? How?
What do you do unthinkingly that you could truly pay attention to while you do it & enjoy?
Think of something that has been in your life for years. Where did it come from? Remember & enjoy : )
What does it take to disturb your sense of ease? (JHL)
Listify. Now you know, look at it, is it a little bit crazily small or seemingly insignificant? Choose then, if you still wanna go there and keep choosing each time it comes up.
What gives you new perspective on the world? How can you cultivate it?
Who did you meet who showed you something completely new or gave you a new orientation on the world? How?
What do you do unthinkingly that you could truly pay attention to while you do it & enjoy?
Think of something that has been in your life for years. Where did it come from? Remember & enjoy : )
What does it take to disturb your sense of ease? (JHL)
Listify. Now you know, look at it, is it a little bit crazily small or seemingly insignificant? Choose then, if you still wanna go there and keep choosing each time it comes up.
What gives you new perspective on the world? How can you cultivate it?
Sunday, August 05, 2007
newness
new things are exciting.
Some times new things are really just old things viewed from a new angle.
But sometimes, as much as we want to see something from a new angle, its really really hard.
One of the things about living in the centre of Soho (which usually either makes people exclaim how amazing or horrific it must be (the answer is yes, either way, bytheway) is that I find it really hard to slow down because life is at an incredible pace all around me and to step out my door is to go headfirst into the swollen river, audiably I am never removed from it and visually it surrounds us also with our half windows apartment. So to try and sort out a muddled head here can seem a little like trying to compose a haiku on the beauty of the river as it sucks you down into an eddying whirlpool darkening and stealing your vision. Not only is broad sight taken but the energy used in fighting the whirlpool means your chance to fashion something from the driftwood around you takes the creativity from you to see what is around you to support and help you.
When I leave the city and come back I can see the dangling branch over the water and I can muster the energy and the will to grab at it and take hold. Where things usually seem to falter is the keeping hold and drawing myself to shore to sit back, watch the beauty of the river and dangle my feet therein.
but I'm having a go. newness.
One of the very great pleasures of being a human is talking with other ones. But, its best of all when you listen. So often we get into the kinds of conversations with people that amount to tacit agreement that we will play the same rhythm with the conversation that we always do. A little conversation by numbers.
I realised recently that several of my friends (in fact probably all) have things in their lives that I know to be seminal to their lives and sense of identity about which I knew nothing at all rather than the fact of their existence in the person's life. For me this was religion and culture but it applies so broadly, for example if someone is really into music, more so than the what is the why? How does that thing make them feel, where/what is the resonance?
I hope you get a chance to know someone you know, better. To really listen is a gift of richness and newness.
Some times new things are really just old things viewed from a new angle.
But sometimes, as much as we want to see something from a new angle, its really really hard.
One of the things about living in the centre of Soho (which usually either makes people exclaim how amazing or horrific it must be (the answer is yes, either way, bytheway) is that I find it really hard to slow down because life is at an incredible pace all around me and to step out my door is to go headfirst into the swollen river, audiably I am never removed from it and visually it surrounds us also with our half windows apartment. So to try and sort out a muddled head here can seem a little like trying to compose a haiku on the beauty of the river as it sucks you down into an eddying whirlpool darkening and stealing your vision. Not only is broad sight taken but the energy used in fighting the whirlpool means your chance to fashion something from the driftwood around you takes the creativity from you to see what is around you to support and help you.
When I leave the city and come back I can see the dangling branch over the water and I can muster the energy and the will to grab at it and take hold. Where things usually seem to falter is the keeping hold and drawing myself to shore to sit back, watch the beauty of the river and dangle my feet therein.
but I'm having a go. newness.
One of the very great pleasures of being a human is talking with other ones. But, its best of all when you listen. So often we get into the kinds of conversations with people that amount to tacit agreement that we will play the same rhythm with the conversation that we always do. A little conversation by numbers.
I realised recently that several of my friends (in fact probably all) have things in their lives that I know to be seminal to their lives and sense of identity about which I knew nothing at all rather than the fact of their existence in the person's life. For me this was religion and culture but it applies so broadly, for example if someone is really into music, more so than the what is the why? How does that thing make them feel, where/what is the resonance?
I hope you get a chance to know someone you know, better. To really listen is a gift of richness and newness.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Real Surreal
Sometimes.
Is an interesting concept. The realisation and focus on the fact that reality is created only by our perception. The second that something fades from the acme of our attention it effectively fails to exist, until, from somewhere it rises to the surface again. Where has it come from and where does it go to?
sometimes (: ) ) my life in England seems like that. Who I am here. And who I am in the minds of other people, who really exist only in my mind, and in the more tangible sense, at the moment, exist mainly in my mind (physically resident at the nadir of possible contact).
Sometimes, concentration is a good thing. And at other times getting too close, too attentive to something makes it like ginger cordial concentrate - overpowering at best and in need of plentiful dilution in order to taste and appreciate the concealed delicousness.
There is more, email if you're interested . . .
xx
jb
Is an interesting concept. The realisation and focus on the fact that reality is created only by our perception. The second that something fades from the acme of our attention it effectively fails to exist, until, from somewhere it rises to the surface again. Where has it come from and where does it go to?
sometimes (: ) ) my life in England seems like that. Who I am here. And who I am in the minds of other people, who really exist only in my mind, and in the more tangible sense, at the moment, exist mainly in my mind (physically resident at the nadir of possible contact).
Sometimes, concentration is a good thing. And at other times getting too close, too attentive to something makes it like ginger cordial concentrate - overpowering at best and in need of plentiful dilution in order to taste and appreciate the concealed delicousness.
There is more, email if you're interested . . .
xx
jb
the other sensual pleasures
the chalice of the coffee cup
the kiss of air on skin
the nugget of walnut in raisin bread
the two ends that join a moment of connection
that feeling, behind the thought of a friend
immediate anticipation
movement through negative space
a swagger
blood rising to the skin, the result of invisible processes
perception of the fishing net of reality
watching the chicken dance of overcoat assumption
words. little mothers
slow. full. intense. perception.
the kiss of air on skin
the nugget of walnut in raisin bread
the two ends that join a moment of connection
that feeling, behind the thought of a friend
immediate anticipation
movement through negative space
a swagger
blood rising to the skin, the result of invisible processes
perception of the fishing net of reality
watching the chicken dance of overcoat assumption
words. little mothers
slow. full. intense. perception.
Explication on application
xxjb
xxjb
Monday, March 19, 2007
Freedom from the known
It's a book by Krishnamurti that I'm re-reading at the moment. I finished it and then turned back to the front and started again. Yes, it's that good but also I had the awareness of just how much of it was going over my head, so hopefully a second reading will allow a little more to permeate my little grey cells . . . : )
In the book K talks about how we are constrained in our lives through authority. This authority comes in many forms - some obvious: societal, parental etc; others less so, such as the internal authority we have as an established framework within us that is a structure built from our previous experiences. These "truisms" are borne of our past and passed experiences yet we hold onto them and when we do we view life and ourselves with "the authority of yesterday" and in doing so never truly see or interact with what is before us in the actual moment.
To be completely present in a moment, letting go of preconceptions, knowledge, frameworks, traditions, structures etc is to free from this authority of the past, this freedom leaves you open to full experience of what is before you. This is newness, freshness, and is invigorating. Rejecting authority (which is different than rebellion or revolt), means that you are free, no longer looking to others, no longer fearful (because there is no right or wrong, no fear of mistake), and living fearlessly is a tremendous unburdening of all the dead weight you have been carrying with you as baggage to this point.
Basically I haven't captured the ideas nearly as well as he has but it is something that I do think about, the limitations we perceive in our lives which are self created realities; if we are unwilling to admit entry to other possibilities then the absoluteness of our realities are assured. It is far easier to perceive in others than in ourselves, I think we often see people we care about who have a strong belief about themselves or the circumstances of their life which just do not appear so to us yet the totality of their convincement actually manifests what they believe. In subtle ways through their reactions, actions, words they create subtle beginnings or seeds that grow into fully formed realities of their own invention.
We do the same things in our own lives but, we are living so much within our own framework that we fail to see or perceive it. Living each moment in full awareness of ourselves, letting go of knowledge, allows learning to take place in the moment, and allows other options to slip through the web of possibilities.
In the book K talks about how we are constrained in our lives through authority. This authority comes in many forms - some obvious: societal, parental etc; others less so, such as the internal authority we have as an established framework within us that is a structure built from our previous experiences. These "truisms" are borne of our past and passed experiences yet we hold onto them and when we do we view life and ourselves with "the authority of yesterday" and in doing so never truly see or interact with what is before us in the actual moment.
To be completely present in a moment, letting go of preconceptions, knowledge, frameworks, traditions, structures etc is to free from this authority of the past, this freedom leaves you open to full experience of what is before you. This is newness, freshness, and is invigorating. Rejecting authority (which is different than rebellion or revolt), means that you are free, no longer looking to others, no longer fearful (because there is no right or wrong, no fear of mistake), and living fearlessly is a tremendous unburdening of all the dead weight you have been carrying with you as baggage to this point.
Basically I haven't captured the ideas nearly as well as he has but it is something that I do think about, the limitations we perceive in our lives which are self created realities; if we are unwilling to admit entry to other possibilities then the absoluteness of our realities are assured. It is far easier to perceive in others than in ourselves, I think we often see people we care about who have a strong belief about themselves or the circumstances of their life which just do not appear so to us yet the totality of their convincement actually manifests what they believe. In subtle ways through their reactions, actions, words they create subtle beginnings or seeds that grow into fully formed realities of their own invention.
We do the same things in our own lives but, we are living so much within our own framework that we fail to see or perceive it. Living each moment in full awareness of ourselves, letting go of knowledge, allows learning to take place in the moment, and allows other options to slip through the web of possibilities.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
In the old days they didn't have TV . . .
And neither do we. But, we also don't have a piano to sit around singing songs, we do however have a camera to sit around pulling faces . . .
tonguey
startled
ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
cheesee
no excuses
hey, noone said they were tuneful in the old days . . .
tonguey
startled
ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
cheesee
no excuses
hey, noone said they were tuneful in the old days . . .
Tantra and Life
I'm writing an essay (hear the creaking of those brain cogs that have been long rusted into an unfortunate modern scrap metal sculpture). The subject of which is the title of this blog. It is a fascinating topic, sort of the yoga equivalent of that English Lit major topic: Shakespeare is as relevant today as he was in Elizabethan England. Discuss.
It is extremely tantric that I realise as writing this essay that the essence of Tantra (the interrelationship of all things and the highest form of reality being any and everything that is before us right now, in a positive sense) marries together my above paragraph and yoga. For me, asana is the antidote to the cliche "use it or lose it". What is called the "natural aging process" is in fact the mistreatment of fine machinery. With the exception of those living with inherited ailments of the body most of us start life in a shiny new machine which we then overwork without oiling, fuel with the wrong energy and then leave out in the rain to rust and then complain bitterly about the shoddy machine we've been given to drive.
Yoga, as I understand it is beautiful. It is not about touching your toes. Which is the first thing that most people guiltily confess to me when they discover I am a yoga teacher. It is not about bigger better faster more or give up slump down laze round complain, the Western approach to life. It is about noticing the beautiful thing that our body is. The body and mind are our whole means for experiencing and perceiving this world.
They are not who we are. They change, whatever we define as "ourselves" is unchanging at its essence. If we think back to ourselves as children, obviously we have changed physically and mentally, yet it is undeniable that whoever it is that is having this experience, is the same as the person we remember from then, there is some essential "us-ness" or "me-ness"that remains unchanged.
Yoga Asana is recognition and maintence of your Tonka truck, to see the driver through their lifetime. It is not about comparing yourself to someone else in your class, there is no Olympic medal for toe touching that I am aware of. I am also unaware of any compelling argument to convince me of the superiority of one who can touch their toes to one who can't. If you can articulate it to me or better yet yourself I would be very interested in hearing that hypothesis.
As in yoga, as in life. So ask yourself, What stops me from doing things which conceptually there is no reason why I couldn't do? Is it your mind? The mind is a faithful servant to us, but is the blind servant who doesn't see dangers heading straight for the master because of their devotion to their regular duties.
As we engage in the habits and rituals that are familiar and comfortable we turn away from the challenging, the unexpected, the different and we live on a kind of autopilot which makes the mind dull. Yoga is about awakening the mind from this soporific stupor that drains our energy and our inspiration. When we truly engage with and interact with what is before us, instead of what we decided would be before us before we even looked or engaged with it, there is a kind of beauty and newness to things that is always there but that we usually fail to see. Nothing has changed in the scenario, barring our awareness.
When you do asana (yoga poses) this is precisely the skill that you are exercising. Before you "do" yoga it looks a lot like assuming an outlandish pose, along the lines of "strike a pose" for the camera. In fact, the external appearance of the pose is a partial and indeed rather superficial appearance of what is happening when we practice asana, much like the way that the photo of a person is not the essence of the person it portrays.
Yoga poses blend many different things to teach us about ourselves. They are not about creating the most intense sensation that we can possibly bare. They are not so much about where you can and can't touch the body physically as mentally. Can you let your mind be present with you in the pose instead of wandering off somewhere else on a Sunday stroll to what you will have for dinner tonight, how much you need to cut your toenails, that great gadget/dress/magazine you want to buy, where to go on your holiday . . . ?
Can you work with your body rather than battling against it? Can you help it to gently extend what it can do, rather than berating or lamenting it for what it can't. Can you strengthen it, without punishing it through over exertion? Can you listen to what it is telling you at any given moment, hear what it is asking for?
Can you be honest about where you are at rather than where you would like to be at, or where the person next to you is at? Can you take the responsibility for how you treat your body rather than blaming your injuries or exhaustions on the person who your mind helpfully edited so you didn't have to listen to all those bits you felt didn't apply to super heroic/poor little you?
Can you be compassionate to yourself? Can you acknowledge that you are doing the best that you can right now, with what you have? Not so much physically, although yes, here too, but more in your mental efforts.
There is an awful lot to remember and then do. Having a running commentary in your head lambasting every little thing you do wrong as you attempt to keep a positive attitude and to keep on making effort, seems a little counterintuitive, no? Yet for many people this is a very great challenge. This is again the mind. It has that feeling that parents have when their kids start to assert their individuality and independence (I imagine), and feels a little worried that its role is being taken for granted at best and supplanted at worst. In fact, it is the same as the parent - child relationship. There will always be appropriate times for interaction, advice, a common face turned to the world. And there will equally be times when the child is on their own, experiencing and interpreting the world for themselves.
I could go on with this. But mercifully ( :) ) I shan't. I'll just say that to find a yoga teacher who you understand in some way who can keep you safe physically in the poses (for they are still a large part of the practice) and teach you to love learning about yourself, the world and the correlation and interconnection between the two is an amazing and beautiful thing. I hope you can and will let your mind sidetrack its routing from letting that information come in to its end destination of "No, I can't" to take the alternative route; "Maybe I can. I can".
ps. Superyogi tip: If you can't touch your toes bend your knees ; )
It is extremely tantric that I realise as writing this essay that the essence of Tantra (the interrelationship of all things and the highest form of reality being any and everything that is before us right now, in a positive sense) marries together my above paragraph and yoga. For me, asana is the antidote to the cliche "use it or lose it". What is called the "natural aging process" is in fact the mistreatment of fine machinery. With the exception of those living with inherited ailments of the body most of us start life in a shiny new machine which we then overwork without oiling, fuel with the wrong energy and then leave out in the rain to rust and then complain bitterly about the shoddy machine we've been given to drive.
Yoga, as I understand it is beautiful. It is not about touching your toes. Which is the first thing that most people guiltily confess to me when they discover I am a yoga teacher. It is not about bigger better faster more or give up slump down laze round complain, the Western approach to life. It is about noticing the beautiful thing that our body is. The body and mind are our whole means for experiencing and perceiving this world.
They are not who we are. They change, whatever we define as "ourselves" is unchanging at its essence. If we think back to ourselves as children, obviously we have changed physically and mentally, yet it is undeniable that whoever it is that is having this experience, is the same as the person we remember from then, there is some essential "us-ness" or "me-ness"that remains unchanged.
Yoga Asana is recognition and maintence of your Tonka truck, to see the driver through their lifetime. It is not about comparing yourself to someone else in your class, there is no Olympic medal for toe touching that I am aware of. I am also unaware of any compelling argument to convince me of the superiority of one who can touch their toes to one who can't. If you can articulate it to me or better yet yourself I would be very interested in hearing that hypothesis.
As in yoga, as in life. So ask yourself, What stops me from doing things which conceptually there is no reason why I couldn't do? Is it your mind? The mind is a faithful servant to us, but is the blind servant who doesn't see dangers heading straight for the master because of their devotion to their regular duties.
As we engage in the habits and rituals that are familiar and comfortable we turn away from the challenging, the unexpected, the different and we live on a kind of autopilot which makes the mind dull. Yoga is about awakening the mind from this soporific stupor that drains our energy and our inspiration. When we truly engage with and interact with what is before us, instead of what we decided would be before us before we even looked or engaged with it, there is a kind of beauty and newness to things that is always there but that we usually fail to see. Nothing has changed in the scenario, barring our awareness.
When you do asana (yoga poses) this is precisely the skill that you are exercising. Before you "do" yoga it looks a lot like assuming an outlandish pose, along the lines of "strike a pose" for the camera. In fact, the external appearance of the pose is a partial and indeed rather superficial appearance of what is happening when we practice asana, much like the way that the photo of a person is not the essence of the person it portrays.
Yoga poses blend many different things to teach us about ourselves. They are not about creating the most intense sensation that we can possibly bare. They are not so much about where you can and can't touch the body physically as mentally. Can you let your mind be present with you in the pose instead of wandering off somewhere else on a Sunday stroll to what you will have for dinner tonight, how much you need to cut your toenails, that great gadget/dress/magazine you want to buy, where to go on your holiday . . . ?
Can you work with your body rather than battling against it? Can you help it to gently extend what it can do, rather than berating or lamenting it for what it can't. Can you strengthen it, without punishing it through over exertion? Can you listen to what it is telling you at any given moment, hear what it is asking for?
Can you be honest about where you are at rather than where you would like to be at, or where the person next to you is at? Can you take the responsibility for how you treat your body rather than blaming your injuries or exhaustions on the person who your mind helpfully edited so you didn't have to listen to all those bits you felt didn't apply to super heroic/poor little you?
Can you be compassionate to yourself? Can you acknowledge that you are doing the best that you can right now, with what you have? Not so much physically, although yes, here too, but more in your mental efforts.
There is an awful lot to remember and then do. Having a running commentary in your head lambasting every little thing you do wrong as you attempt to keep a positive attitude and to keep on making effort, seems a little counterintuitive, no? Yet for many people this is a very great challenge. This is again the mind. It has that feeling that parents have when their kids start to assert their individuality and independence (I imagine), and feels a little worried that its role is being taken for granted at best and supplanted at worst. In fact, it is the same as the parent - child relationship. There will always be appropriate times for interaction, advice, a common face turned to the world. And there will equally be times when the child is on their own, experiencing and interpreting the world for themselves.
I could go on with this. But mercifully ( :) ) I shan't. I'll just say that to find a yoga teacher who you understand in some way who can keep you safe physically in the poses (for they are still a large part of the practice) and teach you to love learning about yourself, the world and the correlation and interconnection between the two is an amazing and beautiful thing. I hope you can and will let your mind sidetrack its routing from letting that information come in to its end destination of "No, I can't" to take the alternative route; "Maybe I can. I can".
ps. Superyogi tip: If you can't touch your toes bend your knees ; )
Monday, November 06, 2006
London personified?
Something I've been thinking about a bit lately. If London were a person, who would it be?
A large question, and I'm sure a large personality. I'm not so good statistically (though I'm sure that would be fascinating), so here goes my completely non-scientific random, one person's observations-based take on that question.
I'm going to go with female, just to choose a gender for my comments. Diverse ethnically, a mix of say 8 different heritages coming from a mix of parentage, step-and-defacto parentage and grandparentage on both sides.
Perhaps somewhat confused, of fluctuating mental health. Inconsistent, diverse, definately. I think that she would be obsessed by health, which is not to say healthy. That she would wear A LOT of makeup, presenting surface respectability by trowelling makeup into cracks and wrinkley bits. This would help explain another attribute - poor personal hygene, or at least a definate "aroma" which feeds back into that layer upon layer aspect that would make Sara-Lee proud.
A mix of trash and high-brow, definately a participator rather than recluse. I think work-wise something in the media, or at least the public sphere. Possessed of impeccable morals and social graces which are evident in situation-dependent appearances, falling wayside like last season's whatever under the nightfall of a publicly anonymous situation.
A very addictive person, both in essence and to know. Hyper stimulated and stimulating, one of those people you enjoy immensely being unable to get your head around. A font ever-spewing of knowledge, both fascinating and the kind that makes you turn the cheek in the less Christian sense.
That's for starters,
anyone else?
A large question, and I'm sure a large personality. I'm not so good statistically (though I'm sure that would be fascinating), so here goes my completely non-scientific random, one person's observations-based take on that question.
I'm going to go with female, just to choose a gender for my comments. Diverse ethnically, a mix of say 8 different heritages coming from a mix of parentage, step-and-defacto parentage and grandparentage on both sides.
Perhaps somewhat confused, of fluctuating mental health. Inconsistent, diverse, definately. I think that she would be obsessed by health, which is not to say healthy. That she would wear A LOT of makeup, presenting surface respectability by trowelling makeup into cracks and wrinkley bits. This would help explain another attribute - poor personal hygene, or at least a definate "aroma" which feeds back into that layer upon layer aspect that would make Sara-Lee proud.
A mix of trash and high-brow, definately a participator rather than recluse. I think work-wise something in the media, or at least the public sphere. Possessed of impeccable morals and social graces which are evident in situation-dependent appearances, falling wayside like last season's whatever under the nightfall of a publicly anonymous situation.
A very addictive person, both in essence and to know. Hyper stimulated and stimulating, one of those people you enjoy immensely being unable to get your head around. A font ever-spewing of knowledge, both fascinating and the kind that makes you turn the cheek in the less Christian sense.
That's for starters,
anyone else?
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