Look at your mind dispassionately; this is enough to calm it. Only when it is quiet can you go beyond it. Do not keep the mind busy all the time, stop it and just be. If you give it a rest, it will settle down and recover its purity and strength. - Nisargadatta Maharaj
By sheer force of personality combined with a long life, B. K. S. Iyengar created the concept that alignment is everything in a yoga posture. Neither I nor my body has ever agreed with this view. Furthermore, the very few times I've suffered a yoga pain or injury has been via an Iyengar trained instructor.
The fact is that alignment based yoga is a very new addition to yoga generated largely by Iyengar and his troops. I have a self full of 'older' yoga books, all published before 1965 and not one of them references alignment in any way. Clearly, the first wave of yoga to come West did not focus on alignment but on the simplicity of the asanas combined with a meditative presence. Yoga teacher and blogger, J. Brown has recently written about alignment regarding it with suspicion saying that safety in yoga has little or nothing to do with alignment. Here's an imaginary conversation he had with an alignment based yoga teacher: Teacher: “I believe in proper alignment.” Brown: “OK, well, what do you mean by ‘proper alignment’?” Teacher: “You know….neutral pelvis…shoulders sliding down the back……” Brown: “Yes, I am familiar with those cues. But this idea of alignment, where does it come from?” Teacher: "I think it’s scientific.” Brown: “Respectfully, I question that. I think these are arbitrary ideas that are not based in science so much as the dictates of charismatic men.” The bottom line for a solid, satisfying yoga practice: Let your body guide you to the best positioning, move slowly and do it with a gentle meditative mind. Read more of J Brown here: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/blog/2018/6/proper-alignment-in-yoga There’s birth, there’s death, and in between there’s maintenance. - Tom Robbins
Lifting our voices can be a transcendent experience unifying the sangha in a way that is somehow both energetic and comforting. We assume that our spiritual essence (Buddha Nature) is being fed by this activity but is there also a physical basis for these feelings?
In Sweden, they studied the heart rates of choir members as they sang together. The findings, published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, confirmed that this experience had calming effects on the heart — especially when singing in unison. Using pulse monitors attached to the singers' ears, researchers measured changes in the members' heart rates as they sang. They noticed their heart rates slowed down. When you exhale, the heart does slow down but what was really interesting was that it took almost no time for hearts to begin merging toward a shared rhythm. - Dharma Center of Oklahoma Newsletter Pratyahara (or withdrawal) is twofold: it involves withdrawal from
wrong food, wrong impressions, wrong associations, while, simultaneously opening up to right food, right impressions, right associations. - David Frawley Grieving doesn’t follow a linear pattern. It often cycles around and just when one is beginning to feel better, something triggers and re-awakens the grief. Often it is a reminder of the loss which triggers a renewed grief – an anniversary, a song heard over a car radio, a birthday, etc. When grief returns there can be anxiety, sadness, anger, depression, guilt, loneliness, sleep disorder. Here are 3 ways to manage re-awakened grief:
Thich Nhat Hanh, known affectionately to his followers as “Thay” (teacher), recently traveled back to his homeland in Vietnam from Thailand, where he has been convalescing since late December 2016.* The celebrated Zen master, who has been recovering from a severe stroke since 2014, said in a letter to his disciples that he had decided to spend the remainder of his life at Tu Hieu Pagoda in Hue, where he was ordained at the age of 16.
“The Buddhist knowledge and wisdom I learned from Tu Hieu is now spreading all over the world, and I believe it’s time for me to get back to my roots,” Thay, who is reported to be in stable health, said in his letter. “Students of Tu Hieu are now living and practicing Buddhism in many different places around the world and as a way to remind them of their roots, I want to die here in Tu Hieu.” Thich Nhat Hanh arrived in Vietnam on 26 October, a year after his previous trip to his homeland.** His itinerary includes spending several days in Da Nang, with a visit to his birthplace in nearby Thua Thien in Hue. This is Thay’s fifth journey to Vietnam since he left the country in 1966. Many in the West describe Thich Nhat Hanh as their first and foremost Buddhist teacher, largely through his writings and retreats. Most of us do not realize how much we depend upon other people’s approval for our security. When we are established within ourselves, criticism, even condemnation, will not shake our security, will not make us hostile. - Eknath Easwaran
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Victor M. Parachin ...is aVedic educator, yoga instructor, Buddhist meditation teacher and author of a dozen books. Buy his books at amazon or your local bookstore. Archives
July 2024
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