Yoga's Pace

Here is a zen joke that had me tickled pink:

"Don’t just do something, sit there!"

It is part of my yoga practice and journey to contemplate zen stories and sayings because they are so funny and meaningful at the same time.

And most importantly – they are short, sweet and a quick read. How ironic that I should be saying that. Contemplations are not meant to be quick. Yet, in this day and age of fast forward, I am left with few options other than quick and funny zen stories to help lighten my mind.

Of course, there is no quick or easy route to enlightenment. But the moment can be enlightened with stories that give you the raw truth in a simple, often puzzling fashion - so that you can be puzzled until the sudden aha! insight experience hammers all your thoughts out leaving you in stupendous realization of the Truth - from complete ignorance to deep understanding, you move the entire gamut in a flash. At the very least, for that moment. And that is good enough, I say. Life is made up of moments after all.

There is one zen story in particular that I love and it goes something like this:

A samurai went to Master Hakuin and requested him to reveal heaven and hell. The master immediately started berating him.

“What kind of samurai are you?”
“You are worthless.”
“Why should I waste my time with you?”

The master continued hurtling insults at him for a few minutes.

The samurai became angry and drew his sword out.

“Now open the gates of hell!!” said the Master.

The samurai suddenly withdrew his sword and bowed before the master.

“Now open the gates of heaven” said the master.

-Taken from Zen Comics

I am sharing a prayer from one of my favorite spiritual classics The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

This book is an inspirational read. I guess the word "inspirational" does gross injustice to this amazing book. It is a truly enlightening book and I felt it touched my conciousness very significanlty. I read this book years ago, but it remains one of my favorites. If books can (and yogis say they do) accelerate your spiritual growth, then this book is it. Sogyal Rinpoche is a gifted teacher (which enlightened master isnt?!)and his teachings have such a strong vibration, they cut through the dirt and hit straight home with deep insight. It is a treatise on the art of living, but more importantly, it is an elucidation of the art of dying. Pick up your copy today. You will never regret reading this fascinating book.


A Buddhist Prayer Before Practicing

By the power and truth of this practice:
May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness
May all beings be free from sorrow and the causes of sorrow
May all never be separated from the sacred happiness which is sorrow less
And may all live in equanimity with out too much attachment and too much aversion
And live believing in the equality of all that lives.

-The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Labels: Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Bringing awareness to the mat is a practice in itself. What do you want out of your practice today? This question is worthy of introspection. So much of what you get out of your practice depends on what you bring to it. Why are you stepping on the mat? Is it just for exercise or is it for something more? In either case, it is important to state your intention, or at the very least, become aware of it. This simple act has the power to transform your practice. Sometimes we don’t even realize how mundane and predictable the time we spend on the mat has become. Even yoga can becomes a mechanical activity. A simple affirmation at the start or a coming into awareness can make the difference. Now let us say you state your affirmations and step on your mat. How do you carry the practice through on the same note? As always, you can rely on your breath for this. Your breath helps you stay focused and aware. It grounds you and gives you poise on the mat.

Start with a simple stretch –Tadasana, also called the palm tree pose. It is deceptively simple and appears to have nothing much to offer. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Stand with your feet hip width apart, interlock your fingers, take your hands above your head, palms facing upwards, inhale, rise up on your toes and stretch your arms towards the ceiling. As you inhale and stretch, you visualize your hands reaching skywards, trying to touch the sky. As you stand on your toes, trying to balance and stretch you are simultaneously keeping your vision on a spot at eye level, on the wall opposite you. You are now aware of multiple things - the stretch from your toes to your fingertips, the spot that your eyes are focused on, the visualization and balancing. You are also holding your breath. So many things are going on all at once, but it is effortless for you. Now as you exhale, let go of the pose and relax.

Now stand with your eyes closed, hands by your sides, shoulders totally relaxed and breathe through the soles of your feet. When you breathe through a particular body part, you try visualizing sparks of light going in and out of that part as you inhale and exhale. So in this case, as you inhale, you visualize sparks of light entering your body through the soles of your feet and as you exhale, you visualize them going back into the ground. Do this for five whole breaths before you move on to the next asana. Repeat Tadasana as many times as you like. At the end of every asana session, it is important to do shavasana.

Tadasana is a beautiful practice. Just practice it, in all its dimensions for five whole minutes. The asana stretches your body from top to toe. You get a lot out of that stretch. Do it slowly and with complete awareness. Inhale and stretch. Your breath is getting into the spaces created by that stretch. It is making its way into your joints. It is irrigating your muscles. Now exhale! The few seconds you spend balancing in that asana has a good effect on your nervous system. Balancing asana always impact the nervous system, toning the nerves and relaxing them, so that you feel relaxed as well. Combining visualizations with asana also have far reaching effects. Visualizations are very empowering because they have a calming effect on the mind, and if practiced with awareness, can take you to alpha brain activity.

Tadasana tones the leg muscles and improves balance. The stretch improves blood circulation to the parts stretched, especially the abdomen.

Asana also has the power to touch you spiritually. If this potential is to be tapped, then awareness becomes all-important. Your breath becomes your most trusted ally. When you break down your practice and analyze the benefits, you will be simply amazed at how much you just packed into one asana. But remember, awareness is the key to unlocking the doors to a fulfilling yoga practice, whatever the initial intention.

Whenever I feel low in energy, especially mentally or emotionally, I try to get busy cleaning the house, cooking or doing something else that will make home a better place for the family. My teachers used to say that physical activity, such as cleaning for example (or the practice of hatha yoga, which cleanses the body) can be of great value to the mind when energy reserves are low. A yoga guru, according to them, would make you do just that (give you a broom?!) if you went to him/her asking for help when mentally down and out.

My teachers also taught us the value of karma yoga, which again, according to the yogis is a great soul purifier. Karma yoga is selfless action. In other words, it is work done without attachment to the fruits of labor. Consequently, we were encouraged to offer our services in the yoga ashram where we studied yoga, in the spirit of selfless service.

There are days when I can’t seem to get on my yoga mat for so many reasons, some real, some imagined. That is one of the moments when I decide to immerse myself in the practice of Karma Yoga. It gives me great personal satisfaction to see a well-organized book-shelf or a neatly arranged cupboard, but it’s the process of working that I try to keep my awareness on rather than anything else. Even small deeds done without focus on the outcome can train us to attain detachment from the outcome of many goings on in life.

Here is something to think about the next time you want to do yoga, but not necessarily on the mat:

“It is in our power to do the KARMA, but we do not have any control over its success, like in the game of backgammon, we only have control over the dices but not the bet” - Rahim

click here to see image source

This is something I have pondered time and again – how to help my daughter feel better about bed time. I guess many parents face this dilemma – wanting to be strict about bed time but trying to find ways to make it less of a punishment and more of a time for rest and rejuvenation.

I find that appealing to my daughter’s intelligence is far more productive than ruling her with an iron hand. Bed time has forever posed a struggle for us. It’s always too early for her and never early enough for us. As a result, I used to put an end to the ordeal by simply saying she had to get in bed and there was no two ways about it…….until I read something from one of Dr. Deepak Chopra’s book, where he discusses a simple bed time meditation for adults. He asks you to mentally go over all the events of the day in as much detail as possible in the order of occurrence. Well, I tried it and it’s fabulous. It really makes for sound sleep. It is very meditative.

I decided to try this with my daughter. We went over all the events of the day one particular night and it was like a story for her, only it was woven around real events that happened through the day. She loved the exercise so much she would promptly ask for it every night after that. Soon we improvised on that. Every bed-time, however, is not about going over the day’s events. Sometimes we practice a little EFT and start off by saying “even though I don’t want to sleep now, I love myself” or "even though I really don’t like getting into bed, I am loved”. This is also pretty magical. Once in a while we evoke positive energy and beautiful memories by saying short mantras aloud. We try and visualize the people we love who are not close to us, or enact (only verbally) a story with imaginary characters who had the same kind of day as she did with only difference being we send our characters through beautiful scenary or sunsets or rainbow, so we do some lovely visualizations as well, and then saying good night isn’t such a bad thing after all, for her.

So now we have moved from a feeling of relative discomfort with the idea of bed-time to one of acceptance and understanding. We still have our moments. We still go through un-acceptance so to speak, and we still struggle with one another. But ultimately, we embrace the moment and welcome rest and sweet dreams.

There is a beautiful poem by Khalil Gibran that never fails to inspire me - it makes me redefine my relationship with my kids. It always helps me regain my stability when I feel like I am going crazy “trying to raise them”.
It wakes me up.

On Children
Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Labels: bed-time meditation, deep sleep, Dr. Deepak Chopra, Khalin Gibran, meditation, On Children, rejuvanetaion, rest, visualizations

Recently I read a beautiful piece on a blog about passing on kindness when you encounter it, especially unexpectedly.

Strangers and unlikely passers by have helped me numerous times, and I guess, I have tried to pass it on by helping perfect strangers too, or friends even, from time to time.

Only a few days ago, a group of people I have never met, helped me. It is called the healing circle and is essentially a group that has come together to foster healing and wellness through a technique called EFT.

This group has members scattered all over the world and some I have met, but the rest I know only by the common thread of our intentions for a healthy and happy world through healing.

A few Sundays ago, they came together to tap as a group (a common practice with this healing circle) and they tapped for me, because I had requested for it. This little posting of gratitude, insignificant though it may be, is my way of, well, “passing on the kindness” by simply acknowledging their help.

Thank you. I have experienced the power of group tapping yet again because of you. When I tuck myself into bed each night, I acknowledge all the beauty and ugliness I encountered through the day and whisper an affirmation of gratitude for it all. Every day, since the group tapping that particular Sunday, as I go about my activities, I remember with gratitude that my experience of harmony draws energy from the group’s intentions for me.

And so, tonight I will silently tap for all of you, in gratitude for the healing and clarity I experienced after you sent healing energy my way.......

Breath is life. According to the yogis, the more we understand the breath, the more we will be in tune with ourselves. i found some more wonderful quotations on breath and am sharing it here....in the hope that it will inspire me and all who read it to connect with the breath and so go within where the light is......

First of all the twinkling stars vibrated,
but remained motionless in space,
then all the celestial globes were united into one series of movements.
… Firmament and planets both disappeared,
but the mighty breath which gives life to all things and in which all is bound up remained.

– Vincent Van Gogh


As long as there is breath in the body, there is life.
When breath departs, so too does life.
Therefore, regulate the breath.

- Hatha Yoga Pradipika – Ch.2:S.3

Breath

Breathing in, I know I’m breathing in.
Breathing out, I know
As the in-breath grows deep,
The out-breath grows slow.
Breathing in makes me calm.
Breathing out makes me ease.
With the in-breath, I smile.
With the out-breath, I release.
Breathing in, there is only the present moment.
Breathing out, it is a wonderful moment.

-Thich Nhat Hanh


Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed.

Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings.

- Rumi

artwork from www.listenforjoy.com

Yoga teaches us spirituality, not by running away from life, but by running into life with total awareness, total conviction, total faith, total belief in the completeness and the fullness that "I am".

-Swami Niranjananda Saraswati