Practice

I would summarize my practice the following way :
Iyengar Yoga is adjusting and tuning the antenna.
Zazen is receiving the signal clearly despite interference.

The antenna is the body. The signal the sensations. The interference is stressful mental activity.

Yoga is union/connection as opposed to alienation/disconnection.

May you be peaceful.

Ayurvedic Vegetarian Food Pyramid

Vata : emphasis on sweet, salty, sour and pungent tastes
Kapha : emphasis on bitter, astringent, sour and pungent tastes
Pitta : emphasis on sweet, bitter and astringent tastes

Vata : more dairy, nuts
Kapha : more beans
Pitta : more raw food

Humble

Let go of the ways you thought life would unfold:
the holding of plans or dreams or expectations – Let it all go.
Save your strength to swim with the tide.
The choice to fight what is here before you now will
only result in struggle, fear, and desperate attempts
to flee from the very energy you long for. Let go.

Let it all go and flow with the grace that washes
through your days whether you received it gently
or with all your quills raised to defend against invaders.
Take this on faith; the mind may never find the
explanations that it seeks, but you will move forward
nonetheless. Let go, and the wave’s crest will carry
you to unknown shores, beyond your wildest dreams
or destinations. Let it all go and find the place of
rest and peace, and certain transformation.

Let it Go
-Donna Faulds

Renunciation

Renunciation is not getting rid of the things of this world, but accepting that they pass away.

-Aitken Roshi

Truth

I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.

I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape ill health.

I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.

All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

Island

Through effort, attention,
Restraint and self-control,
The wise person can become an island
No flood will overwhelm.

-Dhammapada 25

Still, like a tree

Whenever I intend to move (my limbs)
Or if I wish to speak,
I will first examine my mind.
Thus, ‘the stable one’ acts in the proper way.

Whenever my mind becomes attached
Or whenever I want to be angry,
I will not engage in (any) action nor will I say anything,
But will remain (still), like a tree.

Whenever I am wild or mocking,
Filled with pride or self-infatuation;
When I have the intention to expose the faults of others,
Cause dissension or have the thought to deceive others;

Whenever I am inclined to praise myself
Or when I disparage others,
Insult others or cause a quarrel:
At such times I will remain (still), like a tree.

Whenever I desire (material) gain, respect or fame;
Whenever I intend to seek an entourage of servants,
And when in my mind I desire (personal) service:
At such times I will remain (still), like a tree.

Whenever I desire to give up (working for) the benefit of others
And desire to pursue my personal welfare,
And when a thought of wishing to speak arises,
At such times I will remain (still), like a tree.

Whenever (I am) impatient, lazy and fearful,
Likewise when (I am) boastful or when (I talk) nonsense;
When thoughts of attachment to my own group arise,
At such times I will remain (still), like a tree.

Having in this way examined (whether or not) thought of afflictions
Or of pursuing what is meaningless (have arisen),
The hero will at such times hold steady this (mind of his)
By (applying) the (respective) antidote.

(Being) very certain and highly devoted,
Firm, respectful and polite;
Possessing a sense of shame, (being) apprehensive and peaceful,
I should strive to delight others.

Shantideva - Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra Chapter 5

From this place of stillness, forgive the negative thoughts, practice acceptance and practice compassion : beings everywhere suffer from these thoughts and situations, may we all be free from such suffering, may the suffering I experience - and witness, still as a tree - help liberate all beings.

Speech in the Dhammapada

Even though a speech be a thousand (of words), but made up of senseless words, one word of sense is better, which if a man hears, he becomes quiet.

Do not speak harshly to anybody; those who are spoken to will answer thee in the same way. Angry speech is painful, blows for blows will touch thee.

They blame him who sits silent, they blame him who speaks much, they also blame him who says little; there is no one on earth who is not blamed.

A man is not learned because he talks much; he who is patient, free from hatred and fear, he is called learned.

Silently shall I endure abuse as the elephant in battle endures the arrow sent from the bow: for the world is ill-natured.

In the body restraint is good, good is restraint in speech, in thought restraint is good, good is restraint in all things. A Bhikshu, restrained in all things, is freed from all pain.

He who controls his hand, he who controls his feet, he who controls his speech, he who is well controlled, he who delights inwardly, who is collected, who is solitary and content, him they call Bhikshu.

Him I call indeed a Brahmana who utters true speech, instructive and free from harshness, so that he offend no one.

-The Dhammapada

Monkey Mind

How hard it is to control the mind!

Well has it been compared to the maddened monkey. There was a monkey, restless by his own nature, as all monkeys are. As if that were not enough some one made him drink freely of wine, so that he became still more restless. Then a scorpion stung him. When a man is stung by a scorpion, he jumps about for a whole day; so the poor monkey found his condition worse than ever. To complete his misery a demon entered into him. What language can describe the uncontrollable restlessness of that monkey?

The human mind is like that monkey, incessantly active by its own nature; then it becomes drunk with the wine of desire, thus increasing its turbulence. After desire takes possession comes the sting of the scorpion of jealousy at the success of others, and last of all the demon of pride enters the mind, making it think itself of all importance. How hard to control such a mind!

-Swami Vivekananda

Connect!

Project positive feelings on others - feelings of warm care and goodwill - and not only will others benefit, but we will benefit as well. This is because we are not truly separated or autonomous from each other. Projecting love to others is the same as cultivating love for oneself. Project boundless love, and you become boundless love.

When we bring a loving presence and a spirit of non-violence to all that is, we discover that there is a place in us where fear cannot penetrate. This is the result of letting go of a smaller sense of separated self and realizing our unity with all there is, has been and will be.

Experiencing this essential connection is to be a Buddha, to be awake.
Whenever we forget about this unity and hold on to the illusion of a separated self, we are planting the seeds of suffering for all beings.

Warrior

The common person perceives every situation as a blessing or a curse;
blessing leading to attachment, curse leading to aversion.

The spiritual warrior perceives every situation as a challenge-
a challenge to be present and to open the heart.

Meditation

An old Chinese Zen Master once said, "Some of you are taking me literally when I say, 'Don't think,' and you are making your minds like a rock. This is a cause of insentiency and an obstruction to the Way. When I say not to think, I mean that if you have a thought, think nothing of it."

Be Epicureans!

If a man can find a life purpose, if he can be driven by faith or by vision, may he follow his calling as long as his faith or vision respects all life and individual freedom. However, may he never succumb to dogmaticism or ideology.

For the other man, figuring out what provides pleasure without bringing harm to himself, others or nature, can still create a sense fulfillment or at least contentment.

--

The majority of men lead lives of quiet desparation filled with illusions of pleasure - pleasures which bring about harm to their bodies and later to their minds, which create suffering for themselves and in others. To all those : do not surrender, be Epicureans!

Find pleasure.
Find pleasure in the natural rather than in the always artificial.
Find pleasure in moderation rather than in constant excess.
Find pleasure in the present rather than in thinking only about past or future.
Find pleasure in seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, rather than only in possessing.
Find pleasure in sharing rather than only in hoarding.

If you accept your bodies first, you will accept yourselves.
If you accept yourselves, you will accept others.
If you accept others, you will be concerned about mankind.
If you are concerned about mankind, you will respect nature.

Music for Sun Salutations

Hypnotic drum beats, powerful didgeridoo, infectious percussion overlays.
Sets the pace for shakti-infused sun salutations.

Découvrez James Asher!

To Be and to Become

Learn what you are and be such - Pindar (BC522-BC443).

The Greek poet gave this redundant advice.

How can you learn to be what you are? Is it about finding our dharma - our calling? Aren't you you simply by being alive? Why become something we already are? Is it a koan-like aphorism, setting the wheels of inquiry in motion without giving practical information?

However mystical or poetic it seems, I will interpret Pindar's line as if it veridically was a concrete set of instructions to bring about progress in our self-development.

River VS Sphere

In Philosophy, it can be useful to divide ontology - What is to be? - in two main traditions:
The River and the Sphere.

Heraclites (The River) and Parmenides (The Sphere) were two "pre-Socratic" philosophers holding two different conceptions of reality represented by two different allegories.

~~~~~~ The River ~~~~~~

Heraclites's River implies an ever changing reality. The water you see in the riverbed at one instant is not the same as the water you are seeing a split second later. The river is in constant motion. Reality is flowing, never exactly twice the same - it is impermanent as a Buddhist might say. The river is slower one day, warmer, darker, fuller others. In the same way, all reality is motion. Transcendence does not exist. It is physical energy, natural science which govern a world of infinite complexity, filled with matter and energy.
The River represents materialism

ooooooo The Sphere ooooooo

Parmenides's Sphere on the other hand implies transcendence. What we experience in our lives is the imperfect manifestation of eternal, perfect designs. There is a world of perfection where pure Ideas exist: Love, Circle, Tree... The tree we see is a physical occurence of a pre-created, perfect model. In the same way, it is the transcendental notion of Love which is ultimately is real whereas love we experience is a happening of something pre-existent.
The Sphere represents Idealism.

The River, the Sphere, and becoming who you are

If we look at things from the Sphere perspective, you cannot become who you are, because who you are already an imperfect manifestation of your own perfect design.

From the River perspective however, you are your body and you are caught in the natural chain of events. You have physical needs, pleasures, aversions, sufferings. You also have an infinity of elements interacting with you from your environment. You cannot change that predicament. You must learn to accept it; and to accept it you must first be conscious of it. Therefore, Pindar's aphorism makes a lot of sense under Heraclites's light.

As the River, you are always changing, yet obeying some physical laws. Learn what you are by methodically examining your physical reality, your transient desires, fears and pleasures. Acknowledge them and do not reject them. You do not have control over their occurring, since you obey laws of nature and the interaction with the natural world, through the channel of your body.

A practical sample of ways of "learning what you are" looks like this.

• Examine your position in the natural world. For example like all living objects you have drives to sustain yourself. You do so with the means of eating, drinking, breathing, sleeping. You probably also have the need to replicate yourself and your species. You also are sensitive to reward with pleasure, and punishment with pain.


• Bring your awareness empirically events as they occur. Look at your ways of handling situations, your physiology, your behavioral patterns, your cultural background.
  
• Practice mindfulness. Observe the natural world to see how it is changing, how it is working. By being mindful of all that arises you learn about your environment, your responses and ultimately about human nature and your own nature.

After all this objective examination, you will have greater notion of what you cannot control and what you intrinsically are. The second is step is to become who you are.

From the knowledge of what you are, all it takes is acceptance.

To become what you are you must ultimately learn to accept what you have witnessed about yourself and live in this physical body and this physical mind without resistance.

Soul Mate

To create room for others in your life, start by creating room for yourself.

I have never given enough respect to mushy articles and relationship help columns from psychologists in women's magazines. The rare times I did read them was for lack of other reading material available - thanks mom for leaving those magazines in the bathroom - and usually with a sarcastic frame of mind. The same old banalities seemed to emerge: "men have a harder time expressing feelings, give him some time", "try finding activities you both enjoy", etc.

I felt these instant gratification columns or reader's mail expert answers only tried to patch up a failure-bound relationship rather than reveal the true nature of the situation. People entered relationships for reasons that were never going to provide emotional satisfaction in the long run.

Granted, nobody has a right to judge others' motives - after all we're all in the same boat: self-confidence issues, the appeal of social status, beauty, the promise of stability, the cure for loneliness, the biological clock - but giving false hope is unethical.

I cannot stand the hypocrisy of the "experts" when they try catering to fragile people's idealized conception of love by promising that an unrealistic level of happiness is within reach after a couple adjustments.

However, when I serendipitously stumbled upon a mature, intelligent, yet simple article about relationships in a women's magazine (Yoga Journal - well, it's for men too, but not really), I felt that the theme provided potential for deep inquiries around the themes of existentialism and personal maturation.

The article gently explains how the illusion of finding a soul mate is never going to be a prolific approach. The focus should be within first, facing our problems rather than running away from them. If we escape our unhappiness by rushing into the arms of a partner, the unaddressed issues will eventually surface.

"If we can figure out how to solve our own problems and to love ourselves, we’re not so needy. And that’s when we can enjoy a great relationship for what it is, rather than because our partner appears to fill some need we think we have.

[...]

Our culture and traditions school us to believe the opposite: that someday our prince (or princess) will come, that a relationship has the potential to solve problems like loneliness, that the right partner will make us feel whole. Popular romantic movies propagate the myth of another person completing us.

[...]

On the face of it, the idea of being “completed” by another seems deeply romantic. But it’s a fantasy that can weigh down a relationship with impossible expectations. The truth is that while your partner can offer many things, he or she can’t “complete” you. The only person who can give you a sense of security and an unshakable love of you is you. And though you may “know” this with your mind, sometimes feelings of unworthiness, insecurity, and incompleteness are so deeply buried that you aren’t even aware of them or of how they influence your behavior.

[...]

In relationships, these grooves keep you choosing partners for the same, often misguided, reasons. Maybe you look for somebody just like you (a mirror); maybe you choose partners who have some quality you wish you had (someone who is outgoing if you’re shy, or someone with a big, happy family if yours suffered through a messy divorce); or maybe you unconsciously try to recreate or correct the dynamics of your parents’ relationship.

[...]

“The definition of one of these patterns is that you’re not aware of it when you’re in it,” says psychotherapist Mark Epstein, author of Open to Desire: The Truth About What the Buddha Taught. “Usually you don’t recognize it until it’s ruined some part of your life.”

[...]

Forbes says: “If we come into a relationship from a place of lacking contentment, we end up looking for someone to fill us up to make those feelings go away.” It’s important to try to address our missing pieces on our own.

[...]

If we examine our romantic desires and suspect that they take the form of unhealthy longing for completion, we need to create our ideal life so we aren’t looking for someone else to do it for us. Nourishing the unsatisfied parts of ourselves, as Jenni did, is the key to becoming whole."

Link

The article explains how yoga can help in the process of looking within. The idea is not that yoga is a nostrum which will improve your relationships. It is just another tool for doing the soul searching work - remember it is a Yoga magazine.

Men's Four Yoga Challenges

Almost every part of the body will greatly benefit from a complete yoga workout. However, there are poses which are particularly crucial for men because of their anatomical focus on areas that seem to affect us more than our female counterparts.

1. The hamstrings
2. The abdomen
   
3. The hips
   
4. The lower back

The first two zones are muscular. The hamstrings are usually too tight and the core too weak to bear the weight of the rest of the body.
The second two are joint complexes. Hips are locked and the lower back is inflamed and stiff.

These parts of the body are too often overlooked by bodybuilders and many other athletes who could avoid pain and increase performance by targeting these areas from time to time.

Upavishta Konasana is recommended for the hips and lower back.
Paripurna Navasana for abdominal strength.
Uttanasana done properly will help stretch hamstrings and the lower back

Namaste.