Pincha Mayurasana? Maybe?

Hi Friends,
Here is a little clip to teach you how to boost up your forearm balance. Pincha Mayurasana. Pincha translates to feather and Mayurasana to peacock. This asana (posture) is "the feather of the peacock" or "feathered peacock". If you've ever seen the posture Mayurasana... you'll see the resemblance to a peacock. In Pincha Mayurasana, you'll then see that the peacock is showing his plumage!!
The "water bottle" quality may apply to all weight bearing asanas... downward dog, upward dog, arm balancings, mukta hasta sirsasanas, baddha hasta sirsasanas, etc...

By the way... this is in my new place... can you tell that I am right near the tracks??
haha. It hasn't even bothered me yet until I heard the train on this video!!


Love.
Lydia.

Metta

I would like to share with you a creative meditation practice that is a staple in Buddhist practice. It is called Metta Meditation. In Sanskrit the word is Maitri.
Metta means love or kindness. Maybe even compassion or friendliness. I like the translation of "an active interest in others." (It is often difficult to translate Pali into English because of the differences in the language and culture, so sometimes it is nice to have many translations so that you can get more of a feeling for the word.)
Metta Meditation is a practice where you make up phrases that wish well towards yourself and others. It develops good feeling towards others. It helps you understand that we are all similar. It helps you deal with sticky relationships. It helps you dig yourself out of the sludge and muck of self centered existence... which could be disguised as depressive tendency.
I had done a little metta in the past, but when I started practicing it more regularly with my meditation teacher Lisa, I didn't feel much at all. It was quite disconcerting for me. I wasn't sure if it was an inability to concentrate or an inability to wish well for others. I got really interested in it because of the knot it gave me mentally. I felt like something wasn't flowing. I started practicing it exclusively for some time. I am still a raw beginner at this practice, but I was amazed at how quickly I started to feel changes. Shortly after I started practicing it consistently I attended my brother's wedding. The amount of pure love for my family that I had when I was there was so strong. I was amazed that I went a few days without thinking of myself. I actually remember the first thought I had about myself that weekend, because it was so obvious.
I attributed the way I felt to my metta practice.
I am not sure how many of you feel disconnected to people at times, or have had dry spells of feeling towards the important people in your life. This is a practice that may help you. It really seemed silly to me at first. Even annoying. But over time it may flower into something that is very energizing.
You start with saying these phrases towards yourself. Then you can pick a friend whom you really like to repeat them for. Then you can choose a person that you have neutral feelings for and repeat the phrases. You can finish repeating the phrases with someone you don't like (which is a very interesting practice!).
You can also start with yourself and proceed spatially. So the second grouping could be the people in the room, third the people in your town, fourth the people in your territory, country, whole world, and lastly, the universe.
The phrases are done internally, not out loud. The whole practice may take as little as 10 minutes to upwards of 1 hour.
These are some phrases that my teacher Lisa uses. One of them is Micheal Stone's.

May I be free from harm.
May I be healthy and strong.
May my mind be peaceful and happy.
May I be free from any form of lack.
May I live with ease and joy in this life.
May I awaken.

After this you can substitute "I" for the next subject.
Example: May Sarah be free from harm. etc.

Persistence and patience are key in this practice.
All the best to you.
Lydia

Long Summer Days and The Yoga of Food

This time of year is incredible in the northern hemisphere.
Life and energy are everywhere,
inspired by the green forests and the unwaivered strength of the sun's rays - it is rare that i find myself in front of this screen.

Having said that, I feel like i have lots to share;
ideas brewing
bodily sensations unfolding
steeped in this journey from the tips of my toes to the depths of my heart

but, where oh where to begin??

The little yellow room that is The Yoga Studio here in Squamish is continuing to amaze me. We had over 20 people come to join us for an Intro to Meditation and Buddhism course on Monday night and i was drenched in a deep smile for the community that is taking shape as time passes.

The more that time passes, the more i am grounded in the idea that we are not trying to build a business of yoga here in Squamish. I really believe in the idea of building community and allowing the people and energies that share in the community to be a guiding force behind the directions the community chooses to go. And, on many levels this is foundationally different then the modern western model of building a business. I think??

In this vein, I am equally amazed by the small classes I teach.

Where there are a few intrigued souls who come in with an open mind and dense curiosity.
In these moments I really truly realize the inability to plan for what to teach,
Rather, I have to look people in the eyes and allow the learnings i am experiencing, in my own mind and body, connect with where people are at in a given moment in time.
And the result is that I feel like i am really getting to know the people who come and go from the yellow room, real connections are made - and this is the foundation of any lasting community.

A month ago I posted a link to a CBC talk on the industry of yoga. Another interesting link is just below. It is an interview with Richard Freeman on The Future of Yoga, worth a listen if you have the time.

Richard Freeman Interview

I've also been exploring and playing lots in the garden lately.
What an amazing way to connect with the food you eat...grow it yourself!!

The more i learn, the more intrigued I get. Scott and I have eaten big salads from our garden on many occasions recently and we are also spending time helping at a local organic farm in the Squamish Valley - Good Times Farming. I feel compelled to share about the dedication and passion that Stephan and Nick (the brothers that opened the farm) put into each and every day on the farm.
When we go out there and share in this energy it is incredible to feel the dirt wiggle its' way between my toes,
it is meditative to plant rows of seeds that are growing so close to my home
and I am scratching the surface of understanding the complicated nature of food production...

Where does your food come from?? Are there local farms you could support or just visit to learn from?? Do you know what chemicals the food you buy at the grocery store comes into contact?? How much gasoline is used to bring your food to your table??
Supporting local food production in Canada is hard when we have grown up with mangoes, banana's and avocados all year round...Yoga is grounded in practices of morals and ethics and i think food is one of the many things we can take the time to stop and think about and maybe let go of habits, attachments, aversions...or maybe not??

Are you not willing to have some parts of you be sponged out, erased, canceled, nothing? If not, you will never really change.
D.H. Lawrence

The Summer Solstice is this Sunday - if you are in Squamish, come join us for the 108 Sun Salutations to Celebrate the longest day of the year!! All proceeds go to charity!

shanti.
Sarah

Guruji

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois passed away yesterday, May 18th at 2:30pm Indian Standard Time. He is the man responsible for the making the Ashtanga Vinyasa System available to all of us. His passing has sent a huge universal wave of compassion out from all of those who practice yoga today. Somehow it brings us all together.
I remember meeting Guruji in 2007. I was in Mysore, India while he was finishing his last year teaching. He was 91 and still dropping big men into backbends every morning! His presence immediately blossomed smiles. He was playful, and his fire blue eyes danced. His head wobbled with comic fatherly disapproval all the time, which was nothing short of hilarious. A father with hundreds of children! The Mysore room often had 250 people entering and leaving it in January. At any one time there were 70-80 people practicing at once! Besides his vibrant demeanor, robust energy, fantastically erect spine and giggling eyes... I noticed his feet. His feet were like elephants feet. Very wide, soft and like the earth. After practice the students might touch Guruji's feet before leaving the practice room. This is an Eastern tradition of honouring "Lotus Feet". The lotus is a metaphor for spiritual development, creation, purity and rebirth. In the act of falling at the lotus feet, touching them or even gazing on them the ego is said to be subdued in favor of awareness.
Coming close to his feet I was amazed. They were quite beautiful!

To learn more about his life visit - http://www.kpjayi.org/biography.html

For some more information and a few lovely videos visit -

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2009/05/sri-k-pattabhi-jois-founder-of-ashtanga-yoga-passes-away-at-age-93/

Let us take a moment of gratitude for all the things this man has done for the yoga practice as we know it today. He has taught this method for 67 years! And another moment for his family. It is hard to lose a beloved.
xo
Lydia

Practice and all is Coming

Isn't so funny how our minds see things in the context that it wants us to?
Yesterday I was going for a steam at the Brennan Park Rec Centre. My friend Cait was going to come with me but decided against it because she thought $5 was a bit much for a 10 min. steam (and she had some packing to do as well). True that. I concurred. However, I was still seduced by the thought of the heat penetrating the fascia in my legs and upper back, so I ventured out. When I arrived there was a $1 special on. It turned out to be the best steam of my life. I was smiling ear to ear. The entire time I was contemplating... is it so good because I got a deal?
That evening I had to go pick up my boyfriend Sonnie at the Vancouver airport. The traffic was heinous, as it usually is in Vancouver. I was slightly bitter at being cut off by an over-stimulated young driver. I found myself thinking Vancouver was SO not the place for me, and longing for the lush forest and homey feeling of Squamish. I got to the airport and I was not smiling. Seeing Sonnie allowed me to have a great reversal. He drove me back home. In the passenger seat I was amazed at the beauty of Vancouver. The playful city lights at twilight. The hundreds of people all wearing something that expressed a little of who they are. The vast landscape of peaks in the distance and the shiny peaceful expanse of ocean. I was smiling. Hmmmm. Same city. Different experience.
It got me thinking. Wow, the mind and it's conditions. The mind and it's context. Why can't I see things with that shining sacred light on them all the time? I think I know why - and I can intellectualize it. My intelligence (buddhi) knows. But my mind is still immature at times. Playing the great game and flitting and flirting with instant gratification, self love and self loathing. It still covers the brilliance of my heart with a little opaque sheath at certain times.
The practice of yoga has been an amazing thing for my heart. Even through the murkiest of times when my mind is poisoned by my conditioning, I have been able to step onto my piece of rubber, latex and microfiber, and move and breathe with this feeling of reverence for the life experience. At least I have tricked it into (or maybe it has tricked me) into seeing that my mat is not just a toxic piece of waste. There was a time in my life when I looked at my body and saw it as a repulsive object. I wanted to change it. I wanted out of it. That started to change when I started to practice yoga. For 2 hours of the day my body was a vessel for hovering. My body was an instrument that was used to precisely harmonize with gravity. It was silent and vast. Spacious and enlightened. The feeling would pass quickly. But the little residue of it started to penetrate my life.
Presently I feel like I am working more with my mind. The meditation cushion or block is taking on a sort of phosphorescence. I am hoping that the small minutes when I see my mind as a vibrant part of me, and also as no different than the natural power of wind and waves, will start to expand and deepen.
What about love? When we fall in love we see the other as brilliant as a diamond. The other renders us speechless at the best of moments. We become quiet with appreciation. In the moment of looking into their eyes we feel everything and have no opinion. As the years go by we begin to project on to them. Make expectations. Why should this happen? It never did in the honeymoon stage!
What about our parents? Do we really have to see them as parents? As some strange alien prototype in which to dump blame on?
On the same note, I had an aversion to The Yoga Journal for a little while. The flashiness of the advertising. The way I thought it made some people feel like they weren't pretty enough or fit enough to do yoga. Sonnie got me a membership a while ago and I stopped reading anything but the anatomy section for some time. Today I was waiting for Sonnie in a coffee shop and I had the latest issue. I ended up reading the whole thing cover to cover and being completely impressed. I also was completely amazed at my aversion patterns. There was a beautiful article on meditation called Presence of Mind that articulated many different mindfulness techniques. I still had some discriminative awareness about some of the advertising, but on a whole, I was very pleased by the magazine and felt much appreciation for it's publication.
We have the opportunity to see everything as sacred. We just have to engage in some sort of practice that allows us to see the perfection of everything. Some practice that curtails the mind's aversion and attachment patterns. Slowly we can sculpt the mind into peaceful happiness. Then it can drop into the cavern of our heart, and the union will open up the gates to freedom.
Pattabhi Jois said, "Practice and all is coming." He is not doing so well right now, so let's put our hearts out to him. He has contributed so much to the integration of yoga as we know it here in the West.
Keep practicing something!
xo
Lydia

Tension in the Body - Pain vs. Suffering

'To be in a Body is to be in tension' Lydia

Last week I went to a few of Lydia's yoga classes and her words above have sparked reflection, research, contemplation and now...this blog. Lydia, thanks for being such a wonderful inspiration, teacher and friend!!

So, let's contemplate this idea...

As long as we are living and breathing in our bodies we will experience tension, discomfort and pain. At the same time, as long as we are alive we will experience freedom, space and joy through our bodies.

And, despite what you may think, the practice of yoga is not going to make the reality of tension/pain in your body go away - even when you can put both legs behind your head and move into the most advanced backbending asanas - you will always feel tension/pain in your body.

'To be in a Body is to be in tension.'

So, then, why practice yoga??

In the Buddhist philosophy there is a teaching on the psychology of pain called 'The Two Darts.' In this teaching, the Buddha articulates the difference between the ideas of pain and suffering.

The first way that you know there is sensation in the body, is that you can actually feel that there are sensations arising in the body. You feel your toes wiggle, you feel lonliness when a relationship ends, you feel tension when you stretch your shoulders. These physical sensations you feel describe being hit by the first dart.

It is good to recognize that these feelings exist all of the time if we are living in the present. Both the good feelings and the difficult ones - it is a part of being alive.

Interestingly, it is common for people to believe that the yoga practice will take them out of feeling pain in their body (this could refer to the physical or emotional body). When in reality, the yoga practice, expands our awareness and deepens our physical capacity to feel in our bodies. At the same time as our ability to feel expands, we become more and more aware of acute tension and pain and joy that exists within our life.

Yoga expands our spectrum of feeling.

The second dart is what the mind does with the feeling sensations of the first dart. This is where the buddha makes a distinction between the experience of pain and the experience of suffering. The second dart is of your own creation.
As such, we can begin to see that suffering is not built in to pain, suffering is one way to react to the sensation of pain inside of the body. Furthermore, within a culture that has so many aversion patterns to living in the present, many people live day to day without any real sense of what is going on within their living, feeling, breathing bodies yet they are suffering. They are living through the second dart which is the minds construction of reality....and if we are disconnected from feeling then we are living out of reality, out of our truth of being alive.

At this point, we can really begin to see the way that these ancient practices (Meditation, asana, pranayama) are designed to effect our mind-body connection. Yoga is beginning to happen when we can see shifts in the way our minds react to the sensation of feeling within the body. Most often here in the west, this begins with the exploration of the physical body - but it transcends to observing the way our minds react to emotional feeling. In this process of observation we can begin to observe the minds tendencies towards pain aversion - rather then being present with the pain without suffering.

If we accept that the feeling of pain is an inevitable part of being alive - then we can begin to transcend patterns of pain aversion towards a greater understanding of our own individual patterns of suffering as a result of pain. And maybe, somewhere down that road is the gateway to freedom, samadhi, enlightenment - whatever you want to call it??

This is an ongoing dialogue - thoughts are appreciated always!! And, thanks for reading.

be in your body - feel whatever is true, for you!!

Sarah

p.p.s. I have posted a link from a CBC program on the commercialization of yoga. Interesting dialogue and good food for thought, especially as we begin to grow together in this Squamish yoga community. The program is 90 minutes but the yoga sections starts about 30 minutes in...
CBC Radio - Yoga Podcast
p.s. Our garden has begun to grow - we have little kale leaves!!

The Heart Sutra and a little song.

It's been a while since i've written....again.

But such is the way of springtime. I've been gardening and climbing and pondering the amazing ways the earth changes, practically overnight, as season's change. I have been lost in the forest, lost in my dreams, lost in conversations and enjoying a bit of a hiatus from this cyber-world - at least as far as blogging goes.

I have two things I want to share with you today...both a product of my amazing sister, Tessa. She is truly one of the most inspiring and creative minds i know. She also studies yoga, and has recently been exploring a Buddhist text, 'The Heart Sutra.' She made a little video that everyone should see that emphasizes the teachings of the sutra and will also make you smile.

Click this link to see her creation...

The Heart Sutra Movie

Tess has also been writing and singing songs for a long time...she recently recorded her first song in a few years and I attached it below...enjoy!

Tessa's Song - At Last a Song

The real depth of our learning, in any practice, shows itself in the actions we take in our day-to-day lives.
We must time and time again revisit the question, how is this practice deepening and enriching my life??
Otherwise, what's the point??
Or, perhaps there doesn't have to be a point??

Tess will be out here at the end of may and will teach a class or two, and perhaps sing us a song at The Yoga Studio!!

Happy Spring Everyone.
Sarah

p.s. below is a picture of Scott and during a hike we took last week...