Welcome to the Living Practice – May 2003
Editor’s
Letter with Megan McCarver
Excerpt
from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
Not All
"Yoga" is Alike by Sam Dworkis
The Healing
Power of Hatha Yoga by David Ramsden
Prayer of
St. Francis of
Yogi Tips-
2, Karma From The Evolved To The Householders by Nandhi
May all the World Have Comfort and Peace by Venkat and Christine Machiraju
Music
Review by Megan McCarver
A Note From YogaEverywhere
Yoga
Classified and Events
Namaste Lovely Living Practice Viewers,
Thank you for joining me once again for another wonderful
gathering of teachings, inspirations and ideas with yoga in mind. We are so
blessed to have talented writers and active viewers sharing their teachings
with the Living Practice to create a thriving virtual community of shared yoga minds
and hearts. Special thanks to Gary, my
dear one, who patiently loads and distributes the eNewsletter each month.
Rose and I observed a most remarkable event the other day while
walking Wanda, our big red dog. We watched the final stages of a new born
caterpillar becoming unstuck from her cozy cocoon. Her butterfly body still
looked a great deal like a fuzzy caterpillar. Her slightly crimped wings were oily
black and were highlighted with bright yellow. We watched her slowly crawl up
the fence for a few minutes in awe and then a spring breeze gently blew her off
the fence on to the ground. Instinctively, she crawled back on to the fence. A
few minutes later, a gentle breeze again eased her off the fence as she drifted
back on to the ground. I then realized that the breeze was teaching her how to
embrace her wings to fly. It was whispering in her ears, “You’re not a
caterpillar any more. Fly my sweet butterfly, fly”. Nature can be our greatest teacher when we
pause, listen and observe. Now it is
time to embrace our new strengths and talents as the caterpillar … and fly.
On a personal note, I want to invite you all to reserve your
Saturday mornings to a new class that I am privileged to teach at Laguna Yoga in Laguna Beach. Many
consider it to be one of the most beautiful beach side communities in
Aum,
Megan
Excerpt from
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
And a woman
who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children.
And he
said:
Your
children are not your children.
They are
the son’s and daughter’s 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 set 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 your
bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even He
loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves
also the bow that is stable.
Not All
"Yoga" is Alike by Sam
I smile when people say: "I tried yoga, but didn't like it." This is
like saying "I dated once, but he/she wasn't my type, so I stopped dating.
I'm less amused when people say, "I stopped because I wasn't flexible
enough." But worse yet is: "Yoga hurt, so I quit."
Historically,
very flexible people created classical yoga in
Although the early yoga exponents could do amazing things with their bodies,
most classical yoga is simply inappropriate for our Western bodies and lifestyles.
About a hundred years ago, yoga came to the West. Many different styles
developed. Some stayed traditional, and some adapted to tenets of modern exercise
physiology.
Here are
some of today's yoga approaches with numerous styles in between:
Yoga Styles: Some yoga is totally physical while others are totally spiritual:
Some approaches are so aerobically challenging that only the fittest survive while
others are so slow and meditative that many quit due to boredom.
Teaching
styles: Some are "follow-the-leader," wherein teachers demonstrate by
practicing with the class while students follow the best they can. Other teachers
demonstrate first, and then guide students into the exercises. Others yet don't
even demonstrate; they just "talk" the students through it.
Instructor
expertise: Some teach only what they were taught irrespective if they can do
the exercises themselves. Others teach basically only what they can do. In
these classes, students who thrive are able to adapt themselves to what the
instructor does. Those who can't adapt quit.
Training:
Most yoga instructors have taken some sort of yoga-teacher training. Some
trainings last a weekend while others last months. Regardless, most instructors
take periodic training seminars. A major problem is that yoga is usually taught
by good-meaning people who have studied basically one style of yoga and that's
what they teach. Their students who can adapt to that style thrive; those who can't,
quit.
For
instance, what if a yoga style is designed for athletically supple people and
the new student is middle aged, or out-of shape, stiff-as-a-board, previously injured,
or recovering from chronic
illness? Most approaches are inappropriate for these people; they are either
too demanding or too easy.
Because
yoga varies wildly, new students should always choose their instructors
carefully. If you don't feel comfortable taking yoga with your first teacher,
try another school and other teachers. After awhile, you'll develop a better
understanding of what style and what teacher is best for you.
Sam Dworkis, MA, LMT, is author of two books, ExTension (Simon & Schuster),
Recovery Yoga (Random House), and www.extensionyoga.com,
a free internet educational resource for yoga students, yoga teachers, and
other health-care professionals.
The Healing
Power of Hatha Yoga by David Ramsden
Hatha Yoga
is the physical branch of Raja Yoga. Its purpose is to balance the body and
mind through the practice of asanas, so that we can become still and attentive
with out tension. What intrigues me about hatha
yoga is the healing power that students receive when they practice this
ancient science. I have been a witness to many students regaining their health
and vitality when they began a practice of these yoga asanas (postures),
regardless of their body type or age.
According
the National Institute of Health, when people actively seek to reduce the
stress in their lives by quieting the mind, the body often works to heal
itself. Recently a student came to my class during medical leave from her
job. Her vision was blurred and she was
experiencing headaches from a recent stroke. After a few weeks of yoga classes,
her doctor commented on her rapid recovery.
Her eyesight had almost returned to normal, and she had been taken off
of her high blood pressure medication. Another student began taking yoga
classes sometime after having spinal fusion surgery. Her doctor told her she
would not be able to regain certain lateral movements again. She told me that
despite his predictions, she was beginning to regain some of that motion back.
In 1998,
Dr. Ornish published a study in the American Journal of Cardiology stating that
80% of the 194 patients in the study were able to avoid bypass surgery by
adhering to lifestyle changes. The changes included a vegetarian diet extremely
low in fat, and having patients participating in yoga classes. Patients showed a significant overall
regression of coronary atherosclerosis.
Medicare has recently agreed to pay for 1,800 patients taking Ornish's
program for reversing heart disease. Current research points to evidence that
yoga enhances flexibility, improves moods and reduces stress. According to the
American Psychological Association yoga can aid in pain management. People with chronic pain caused by
fibromyalgia, repetitive stress injuries, arthritis, and chronic fatigue
syndrome can benefit from yoga classes.
Hatha yoga is gentle.
Asanas are natural movements that
place a minimum of strain on the body's systems, with a maximum of benefit to
them. Students stretch in to a pose only a little bit, and then become aware of
the tensions that prevent them from stretching further. Through awareness of
these tensions, they can learn to release the stress that is behind them. The
postures are a process of gradually re-discovering the body's potentials. In hatha yoga, relaxation must be
considered at least as important as the stretch itself, because only through
mental and emotional calmness can we become receptive to the safe awakening of
these potentials.
Stress is the number
one menace to our body. It throws our
nervous system into a "sympathetic" response, which affects every
organ in the body. Heart rate increases, the digestive organs lose a
significant amount of blood flow and this dump of hormones into our system's
blood affects even our eyesight. Perhaps
in the short term this increase of nervous activity will help protect us in
dangerous situations, but the long-term application of stress is disease and
sickness. Tense muscles are outward
signs of more disasters to come. Yoga
gets to the core of the problem of relaxing, opening, and releasing blocked
energy.
Our
greatest problem is the inherent restlessness of the mind. The mind by its very nature is outgoing and
unsteady. Often, negative emotions and
distractions prevent us from performing even simple tasks. If we intend
to restore our health, we need to develop a calm, serene, and one-pointed
mind. To attain this inner calmness,
students of yoga need to develop the voluntary mental process of letting go of
their involvement with the outward form of the practice. Instead of affirming that they are a limited
body, they can instead begin to attune to the divine consciousness that flows
behind the movement of muscles and bones. This consciousness of energy, peace,
joy, and love can then be felt if we maintain our comfort and steadiness in the pose.
The yoga postures are an important aid to inner peace. When the student enters a pose with an inner
sense of harmony and peace, the very act of assuming that position can help to
develop a calm attitude. The mental thought that one has during the practice
will also help release the tension, and stimulate the flow of energy in the
body. Many of the postures of hatha yoga
are related to specific and wholesome attitudes of the mind. All of the
postures help in a general way to produce inner peace, contentment, and
spiritual harmony. In Ananda YogaÔ we mentally
say affirmations to help maintain these positive attitudes. Yoga postures then
become a kind of meditation in action.
Hatha yoga is not a
system of calisthenics. One of the aspects of the yoga postures is that the
most beneficial asanas are not always the most difficult. Some of them, indeed,
are among the easiest. Increasing our
flexibility so we can perform the most difficult of the asanas is clearly not
the yogi's goal. The
root of the word yoga is "yoji" meaning "unity, or yoke",
indicating that the purpose of yoga is to reunite ourselves with our higher
nature. Only when we begin to feel this
unity of body, mind and soul, will we begin
to understand and benefit from the healing power of yoga.
David Ramsden RYT is a level two certified Ananda Yoga teacher. He
teaches Extra Gentle, Beginners and Intermediate yoga at the Ananda
Self-Realization Mandir in
Prayer of St.
Francis of
Lord, make
me an instrument of your Peace,
Where there
is hatred let me Love,
Where there
is injury, pardon,
Where there
is doubt, faith,
Where there
is despair, hope,
Where there
is darkness, light,
And where
there is sadness, joy.
Oh divine
master,
Grant that
I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
To be
understood as to understand,
To be loved
as to love.
For it is
in giving that we receive
It is in
pardoning that we are pardoned
And it is
in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Yogi Tips- 2,
Karma From The Evolved To The Householders by Nandhi
The Sage then narrated, "The fifth sheath of true being is pure joy with
the union of divine sparkling as overflowing peace within us. Here, however, is
a greater understanding when the body, mind and soul cry to be united with this
immense divine. The soul is already 'That', but the mind and body must repay
karma to become That. This yogic reality then puts life on a 'fast-forward'
mode. The yogin sits in calm divine within the eye of a hurricane like energy
field while all else is redeemed through higher energy flowing from within.
Yoga is the centering force; the yogin is within and beyond this 'reality',
burning out karma of past, present and future."
1. Yoga
done for the joy of uniting with the divine manifests a rejuvenated body and a
single pointed mind working in partnership with the divine. Become our own
personal Guru by widening our intellect and drinking higher wisdom absorbed in
your daily yoga with these divine insights. Each day of your journey opens
newer doors above and the pathway to becoming the infinite.
2. Each asana, 'the seat', nurtures divine attributes. Plunge into capturing
the divine nectar of understanding within each asana. Yoga asana represents
evolution of the human body from each living entity and each living entity has
that 'strength'. For example, an ant for its strength in proportion to its
size, a camel for its ability to sustain.
3. Continue recognizing the process of surrender during each pose, creating a
single pointed mind pegged to the divine throughout your yoga session. This
with infinite energy is the outcome of 'divine breathing'.
4. The
breath is held as a song, with each cycle of breath more deep, naturally merging
with the divine. Elongated deep breath with the urge to merge in the divine
provides the 'intoxicating' feeling. Drunk in this divine, set yourself free of
the mind surrendering to divine.
5. Begin to
recognize the body as a divine creation of elements in the male and female
principle. Begin with the element of earth, then water, then fire, then air and
finally space. Ascend upward through each, uniting the male and female to
become one.
6. The 'chakra' or energy center within us is our ‘seat’ within to climb up.
Rest, rejuvenate and be absorbed within each energy center before leaping
upward to the next. After all, what is the rush? What takes us above is the
feminine divine grace characterized as gentleness and nurturing energy.
Siddhars invoke the grace of the Goddess to move above to the next orbit at
every stage much as a child cries and the mother responds to the child's need.
7. Climb up each chakra with divine presence first, secondly performing the
'bandha'. Bandha means to lock, block, and/or withhold … the sages mention that
the process is like creating a dam to withhold water. The teaching implies locking
the energy at each chakra as our consciousness surges upwards withholding
wastage of energy due to its natural downward flow.
You can do bandhas by gently contracting the
muscles as you start with the base below your spine, then your genital area and
above your navel area, form this as the most important 'lock' as you climb
upward. As you climb upward to your solar plexus region, keep adding up the
'locks' while being conscious of the breath now held within. Hold the breath as
a huge pot from your belly upwards and perform the 'bandha'. It is in the
'bandhas' and breath-retaining techniques that the evolved yogis are able to
take their body beyond the influence of outside temperatures as the body builds
tapasic heat. Tibetan tantric yoga names it 'tumo'. It is the presence of
Mother Kundalini.
8. Yoga is a good workout to burn negative karma with divine
guidance and protection with the internal fire invoked. This internal fire
constantly fed by surrender of ego burns the seeds of past, present and future
karma that prevents us from being divine beings. Our inherent good nature is
the angel just waiting to be released as our true personality and real
identity, wishing to fulfill its duty of earthly manifestation. The law of
positive karma begins with good thoughts arising from a mindset free from the
prison of ego.
9. When in the final stage of relaxation as in savasana, the corpse pose,
imagine that you left your body (dead) and then feel your blissful spirit. Hold
this truthful experience. In actual world, this would allow you to see
everything with detachment, free of ego.
10. Yoga sets free the spirit that then evokes all the divine forces to work
along with the awakened knowing. Heart's work is always inspiring, courageous
and is spiritual, the essence of the yogic journey.
11. Throughout the wakeful moments, be sustained by the primal sound of loud
silence from a vast empty mind. Be conscious of your navel chakra and your
constant awareness of residing above the navel. This ensures a joyful mind which
manifests a rejuvenative body. The sages call this a 'love-body'!
12. Attaining the knowledge to represent the form of space, celebrate the
immense freedom to be. This grace of Joy is the only baggage a yogi carries! Be
in Spirit.
" Be steadfast in your abstentation form thoughts of falsehood, of fear
that things won't work out. Be steadfast! And you will set in motion the
dormant forces which will collaborate with you because you were in Spirit
rather than form". - Patanjali
The
author Nandhi, is an initiate in the path of the Siddhars. He lived in
May All The World Have Comfort and Peace by Venkat and Christine Machiraju
In many
countries around the world people are suffering due to lack of shelter,
clothing and food. Not to mention the
many millions of people who live under the threat of war on a daily basis and
have done so from the time they were born.
Many people have been trapped in war torn countries for generations with
no hope that their children or grandchildren will be lifted out of these
conditions.
We who live
in comfort and peace must do all that we can to try and help bring peace to
these people who suffer due to war and poverty everywhere in the world. We are
so removed from these situations that it seems impossible and almost silly to
think that we could make a difference but there is one simple thing that we can
do. Chant.
Chanting
may seem like an impossible way to help people thousand of miles and several
oceans away from us but it truly can help. The vibration of mantra is what
helps to heal many situations along with the concentrated focus on helping a
situation. Combined these two media,
sound and thought can truly have an impact.
Thought as
we know is not limited by physical space, all we need to do is visualize that
our good intentions are having an impact on another person’s life and a miracle
can happen. We have all heard stories
about people being healed by prayer and certainly we have all become familiar
with distance healing due to the increased popularity of healing modalities
like Reiki.
It is my
sincere hope that people around the world from all countries will begin to pray
for the peace and health of our planet and all her inhabitants so that future
generations can live and peace and grow spiritually.
People who
study yoga may be familiar with the Sanskrit language. It is a language of vibration, which means
that the sounds of the language are considered to have the capacity to manifest
form. Of course chanting from the heart
with true focus will bring results. There are many mantras or prayers that
pertain to peace in the Sanskrit language.
The following is one that we can all chant to help spread peace around
the world.
Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavntu
Pronunciation and Meaning:
Loka – world
– low kaw
Samastha – all
– some – us - ta (note: the letter a is
pronounced like the letter u in up in the Sanskrit language)
Sukhino – comfort
– su (as in soup) khi (like key with asperation on the k) - no
Bhavantu – Make or create –
Bha (like butter but with asperation on the b) – vun – to
Venkat and Christine Machiraju teach yoga and use Vedic sciences of Ayurveda and Jyotish – Vedic astrology to help people enhance their lives. Venkat and Christine also create herbal formulas to help people move toward natural and holistic living. Many of their clients and students have mentioned that Ayurveda and guided relaxations have helped them to relax. They have combined the tips that have given people over the years relief. Ayurvedic Tips for a Restful Sleep is a booklet of simple tips on how to attain a restful sleep.
Music Review
Appropriate music during your yoga practice should not
demand your attention nor should it distract you from your breath. Music to
enhance your practice should stabilize your attention and support your breath.
Here is this month’s pick for your yoga practice music collection.
I highly recommend The Yogi’s Companion for students who are
familiar with yoga. It is a fabulous CD (a bit over an hour) to lead your home
practice with options whether to practice a level one, level two or more
(depending if you want arm balances and inversions). Lauren’s deliverance of
instruction is clear and direct, her voice loves and her sequencing is most complementary
/complimentary to a “healthy” body’s needs.
During the entire CD, Deva Premal’s soothing rhythms softens
each precious moment and transitions between. Also enclosed is a two-sided flow
chart of each pose introduced on the CD. The Yogi’s Companion is a highly
recommend teaching tool for personal practice.
Name of CD: The Yogi’s Companion
By: Instruction with Lauren Peterson and music with Deva
Premal