We drove up north for a day of chanting and exploring the town. We listened and chanted along with three groups, two new to us and his band. Bill and his band keep exploring rich new harmonies and instrumental solos to enrich their repertoire and they were jamming yesterday! Each member is an accomplished musician in his own right and they listen and play off one another skillfully. The juicy sound of the cello, plucked, bowed, and lightly stroked to produce whistling sounds by Nathan (in the plaid shirt below) complement the sweet melodies of Eddy’s chants and his delicate guitar style.

The new group that tickled my fancy included a flutist who also teaches Qi Gong. Her Bodhi sounds intriguing as I have injured my lower back while stacking chairs on two different occasions at the prison and found Qi Gong to be tremendously healing. I also play the flute as a form of pranayama and associate the instrument with Krishna, but it was the first time I had heard the flute.

Her pure sounds weaving over the reverberations of the harmonium were a pleasure. The band offered beautifully inviting chants that encouraged the festival participants to enter in and get lost in the melodies along with the performers. One of the women would sing the call and another would sing the response to help guide the audience. For beginners or those new to their chants, this is very helpful!

Next year we hope to see even more faces. We weren’t able to stay and watch, commented on great popularity in Germany. He and his lovely Mexican/German wife have lots of CDs with English, Spanish, and Sanskrit Mantra tracks. The practice hasn’t quite caught on in the North, but perhaps the time is coming? Terry and I also chatted with a friend who was scheduled to perform on Sunday. She is a relatively new voice, but is rapidly gaining recognition on the sacred music circuit.

How does our Yoga practice make us feel better when we are blue? At both the Center and the Prison I was forced to ask this question this week. In my last post I wrote about while in this I will focus on bereavement in the prison. Both situations address universal spiritual/emotional issues, so I hope you will reflect on how they might apply to your life and share the practices that have helped you with this on-line community. I would be deeply grateful to read your comments and suggestions.

On Tuesday I knew something was up when I saw tears in the eyes of one of my students as we were assembling to be clicked through the locked doorway between their unit and the community room where we have our class. Another student seemed to understand her grief and was tearing up as well. I have to admit, pride reared its ugly head, and I was impressed that one of my students was willing to come to yoga at all when there was a problem, rather than hiding out in her room. I have heard so many excuses for not coming to class! I should not congratulate myself in this instance, however, as this poised inmate has been using every program and opportunity the prison offers to grow and develop her own inner strength as well as to mentor those who reach out to her.

I’ll call her K. With difficulty, K confided that her most beloved brother was killed in a car accident the previous evening. What was I to do?

I babbled the appropriate platitudes as I considered how I needed to adapt my plan of grooving Sun Salutations and some of their variations. Perfect! What could be better for churning strong emotions through the body and digesting them? When my mind is agitated I’ve found that a vigorous practice demands all my attention and gives me an emotional break. Tapas, the fire or discipline of practice, does seem to burn away emotional confusion.

I couldn’t resist centering with a Loving Kindness meditation in which we began by holding her brother or someone we cared deeply for in our minds. I asked K if Sun Salutations appealed to her and with her approval we began to churn through gentle Swan Dives and Squats followed by more vigorous Sun Salutations. Some of my less athletic students had to take breaks during the vinyasa flows, but I sensed that they were content to watch K and to silently encourage her to keep moving through her sadness. I hope they felt that the class would accommodate them when or if the need arises.

After Sivasana, K stayed after class with another sympathetic friend to speak calmly about her brother and her extended family. Although unmarried and childless, K is a devoted sister and aunt. Her family lives out of state and the prison gauges the inmates with its long distance phone rates, $32.00 for 13 minutes, further isolating the women from family support. Her brother used to drive three hours to spend one hour with his sister and then to drive home almost every other week, sacrificing precious time with his spouse and two daughters. None the less, K spoke gratefully of the community she has forged at York, a circle of women within which she feels safe and nurtured.

I am honored to bare witness to the emotional needs and strengths of the women. Sometimes they feel invisible and I believe that by writing about the healthy manner in which some of them are nurturing themselves, building trust and community, I can enable their lights to shine outside the prison walls.

Instead of a physical practice as I allowed my bruises to subside and my arm to re-knit, the study of guided my musings. Lorin Roche’s new translation of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra seems to sum up many of my own meditation experiences – and probably yours too. I am intrigued by the play of experience and study. One of my students at the veterans center asked why I hadn’t taught about this concept sooner as it made him more interested in our meditations. But how can one comprehend witness consciousness if one hasn’t noticed one’s Self watching one’s self? In my own practice the experience was recognizable before I was given a label for it, but then the concept enriched my observation. So often in yoga I am not teaching, I am reminding people of what they already know and am offering confirmation for a practice that already feels natural.

We all have moments when we are absorbed completely: appreciating the scent of a lilac, in awe of the stars, or mesmerized by sea gulls and the splash of waves. Who is noticing our absorption? Our Self? When I want to overwhelm my senses with beauty I stroll through Gardens where I took the picture above. The ancient radiance sutras, framed as a conversation of the god and goddess within us, begin by turning our attention to this very breath we are breathing right now and then add teachings referring to the energy moving up our spines and throughout all our senses, expanding and awakening us to luminous reality. The tantra meditation practices are direct and practical. Just as Patanjali wrote that our postures should be steady and held with ease, so I sense in these tantric lessons that our meditation should be focused yet relaxed and pleasurable. It is not the duration of meditation that is critical, in fact Roche recommends no more than twenty minutes twice daily as a formal practice, but the recognition of the possibility of awakening in any moment.

The classic novel seems to be written as a stream of consciousness (although it is brilliantly crafted). From the opening pages I feel swept away by the flood of sights, sounds, emotions, and memories that inhabit her mind during the course of a single day. It is as though I am the non-judgmental witness, observing her meditation, which of course she never labels as such. I can identify with the whole jumble – from flowers to first loves to mental associations with airplanes. I don’t know what Woolf knew about meditation, but she didn’t need to have formally studied the practice to have experienced many facets of the mind. These two classic works, one from the Indian oral tradition and one from twentieth century England, invite me to play with descriptions of experiential practices and a flow of experience as I read a bit of one and then some of the other. Both enriched my own interactions with my surroundings and my thoughts throughout the week.

What are you reading now? Can you relate some aspect of it to your yoga practice? Please click on the heading of this post (if you are on the Home Page) to open to a page where you can comment and suggest future readings to me. When you read multiple books at the same time to you notice interesting ways in which they overlap?

How do you get back into the swing of normal life after a vacation? I coaxed myself out of bed to attend a yoga class and then ran around fetching mail and groceries. I knew my class this week would celebrate my brave feathered friends who are chirping outside to announce the arrival of Spring, but when I sat at the computer I was fidgety and distracted. I eventually gave up and started to cook instead.

Cooking involves all my senses and finally brought me home. Pulling out my cookie sheet and stirring sweet local honey and EVO into an assortment of nuts and grains was the most fun I’d had all day. The smell of fresh granola dispelled the gloom of a rainy afternoon. That felt good; so how about soup? I prepared a big pot of lentils with onions, letting it simmer as we ate comfort food of bratwurst, sauerkraut, and yams. Tonight I stirred in the left over sweet potatoes, a whole sliced lemon, tons of chopped parsley, and a dollop of grainy mustard. Terry added a splash of Dry Sack and the lentils were delicious with a side of Kale and pine nuts.

My cooking experience reminded me that we all have activities that make us feel at home in our bodies and our environments. I couldn’t wrap my mind around planning for others until I fully returned to my house and felt comfortable again in my own skin. This morning I asked the women at York what they do to belong in their space. Exercise in general helps them feel their bodies and connect to their experience. Yoga helps them shape their breathing patterns and also imparts a sense of control in the moment. Delving into a good book is an escape that many of the women appreciate.

Yoga is a way of life and I believe that cookingasana or novelasana can be as fulfilling as traditional yoga postures in refreshing our emotional energy so we can overcome our resistance to the activities we know we should do. Please share some of the non-traditional activities that you need to accomplish before attacking your to-do list.

Children are natural yogis. Their posture is perfect until about the age of three and they can relax at the drop of a hat. Have you ever watched a lolling head in a car seat or a snugglie?

Yesterday I was a casual observer at a sledding, 4th birthday celebration. After admiring the ruddy cheeks and colorful snowsuits I began to focus on how the children were playing at the end of the long and winding driveway they had just slid down. Several children clambered up a snowy hillside and began to roll down. As they slowed, each roll was executed with the minimum of effort and included a blissful pause as the little bodies completely let go into the snow. The youngest guest tumbled and then luxuriated with his body completely limp before flopping over again. He was unselfconscious, at ease in his body. For a moment, time stood still.

This week I will include the starfish posture to practice lifting and rolling combined with complete relaxation.

Last week I took the train to New York to see the Kandinsky show at the Guggenheim before it closed. Solomon Guggenheim was an early collector of Kandinsky’s paintings and the Frank Lloyd Wright museum with its upward spiraling exhibition ramp is a perfect setting to show off the abstract evolution of Wassily Kandinsky’s works. His career spanned both World Wars and evolved across much of the European continent. He contributed to artistic communities in Munich, Berlin, and Paris and was sought after by collectors in America. I was charmed from the first glimpse of his Russian fantasies, crowded colorful canvases that introduced some of his favorite symbols: horses, Moscow domes, and couples. In a short post I can’t detail his evolution as one of the most important abstract innovators in contemporary art, but I want to mention his interest in developing a painting style with musical characteristics as well as his theories about geometric forms.

Music has never been materialistic or dependent on realistic forms. Music has always spoken to our emotions and spirits. Kandinsky, who was influenced by the spiritualists of his time, including Rudolph Steiner’s Theosophists, began to give his works musical titles, Impressions, Improvisations, and Compositions, as he moved away from realistic forms. Schonberg, Kandinsky’s contemporary, was liberating music from tonal keys to focus exclusively on emotion while Wagner was composing leitmotivs to characterize the emotional characteristics of the protagonists of his operas. The audio tour of the Guggenheim exhibit included excerpts from musical compositions as one viewed the paintings. Needless to say, I’ve since downloaded some Schonberg slow movements to create a yoga play list.

I mentioned Kandinsky’s spiritual associations with circles in an earlier post. He developed theories about dots, lines, and angles as well. He begins his Point and Line to Plane (1926) with a discussion about the point.The infinitesimally small dot represents the space between words in writing, silence that forms a bridge between one thought and the next. In his paintings he enlarges his dots with veils of color creating a meditative effect. Yoga practice is all about finding the still, silent point within. When we follow our breaths, simply observing the natural ebb and flow, we begin to notice the still point between in breaths and out breaths. If we can rest our minds unhurriedly in the pause we experience a meditative moment between our thoughts and may tap into our calm, non-judgmental, compassionate mind. We can experience freedom, the ability to make choices in any moment, when we collect our wits in this pause. The more easily we can find this still point, the more easily we can derail impulsive, knee jerk reactions to momentary stimuli in our environment. This is particularly important for individuals who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Curiously, Kandinsky’s book includes sinuous, organic lines in addition to straight, geometric lines and angles. Viewing Kandinsky’s drawings and paintings, there is always a warmth and whimsy, in spite of his careful compositions. His colors are luminous and his brush strokes are expressive.

Inspired by Kandinsky, my theme this week in the Still Point, to the music of Schonberg. In his honor I will throw in other geometric shapes and whimsy as well. Can you find the still point in a triangle?

Starburst fruit chews are eaten in this mouth-hold in an exacting and optimized order honed over decades. First comes orange, my absolute least favorite. I mean let’s be honest, is this anyone’s favorite? Let’s get it out of the way, and move on.

Then comes yellow, that is as you would expect light and lemon-y.

Next can be a toss up based on general whim, but usually it is red, that waxy cherry flavor that is soothingly artificial and takes you back to days of youth gone by.

Last, and the best by all accounts, the one you are waiting four chews for is the pink one. Mmmm…strawberry joy.

Like life, the pink one only tastes so good by contrast. By the variety and quality and relative enjoyment of what proceeded it. A whole package of pink ones would be no good at all. It would be satisfactory, then boring, then out-right sickening. Too much of a good thing.

No. Give me the oranges and the yellows first please. Let me alternate reds and pinks and then eat another orange so I can enjoy that last pink one. Let me choose how I intermingle the ups and downs of my tastebuds and I will do what I do as a matter of course to buffer my existence against scarcity. How I save up the best and hoard it to the last bite.

Make no mistake, I dream in pink. I covet it. I crave it. But I can’t eat a whole twenty chew package, and frankly wouldn’t want to. This is why happiness is so elusive. It’s meant to be that way. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be so damn sweet those five seconds you have it.

He popped the question on Friday. Friday the 13th. Spooky! He met me downtown after work for dinner and a movie. He told me his friend Jim recommended this Indian restaurant, while I normally prefer to just eat at Chutney, I acquiesced. We walked and walked and I was getting a bit impatient. We turned into a square, one I knew quite well, well enough to know there was no freakin Indian restaurant in it!

Before I could point this obvious fact out, he turned, opened a maroon colored velvet ring box, and blurted out, “Will my critter marry me?” I was stunned and totally surprised. Although I did pick out the ring a month prior, a 1930’s vintage ring, I nearly forgot about it.

Of course, I made him get down on one knee. That’s just the proper thing to do. Ron is seen here in this lifelike reenactment.

He asked again and I said yes! We kissed like lovebirds. And then hugged with excitement while I glanced over his shoulder at a gym up on the second floor. A guy on a leg press machine beamed a gigantic smile and gave us an enthusiastic thumbs up.

So although the square was gray and empty we shared the moment with a perfect stranger. I’m sure he wondered what type of location this was for such an occasion.

On warmer days, the square is sunny with low seating encircling a fountain, nice for a quick lunch during the work-week. On one such Tuesday, Ron first asked me to go steady. And six years later on the same spot, he asked me to be his critter again, this time for life.

In between we’ve had good times and bad, we’ve loved each other, moved in with each other, broken up and reunited. This past year, we’ve traveled the world together (and somehow didn’t kill each other). So safe to say, we know what we are getting into. He’s my best friend and now he will be my husband!

I just started working yesterday after a fourteen month sabbatical. Wow. It was hella weird. Like time warp meets bizarre clips of office space. I definitely feel refreshed, recharged, and raring to go. Mentally, at least. But I wondered how on earth I’ll keep up with the yoga. I don’t exactly have a great track record when a lot (or anything) is going on.

I’m quite pleased to announce that something quite miraculous happened this morning. I got up at 6 (yes, that is ante meridian for those that know me well, it is a pertinent clarification) and did 45 minutes of yoga before catching transit into the city for work. Holy shit! How virtuous have I become?! I know, I know, yogi’s and yogini’s all over the country and all over the world accomplish this every single day, but this is me we are talking about. I never get up early for anything.

I’m feeling quite proud of myself. Thought I’d let you all know.

There was also a relevant and super great article on a blog this week about waking up every morning on top of the world. I love their example of when the alarm clock goes off and, true to nature, my knee jerk reaction is: “Oh shit, it’s 6am!” Great advice, not only on coping for us night owls, but also on bringing positivity and gratitude into your life from the very first moment each day.

I know how to invoke some gratitude. What if my alarm clock had a sneaking resemblance to an iced donut, and I could snooze by snacking on it. Hmmm?

[This is the second reference to baked goods in the last week. It seems I’ve got frosty icing on the brain!]

Purportedly, there are 84 lakhs of asanas out there, or 8,400,000 asanas! Clearly too many to aspire to practice. There are many smaller charts of classic yoga postures, ranging between 12 and 84 poses, that are good when first starting to practice yoga.

Master Chart of Asanas By Sri Yogi Dharma Mittra

But the mother of all yoga posters is the Master Chart of Asanas By Sri Yogi Dharma Mittra. Back in the 70′s, during the birth of Yoga in the West, Dharma Mittra posed for an astounding asanas. He created the poster as a gift for his master, and it has been a classic reference and gift for the aspiring yogi ever since.

In 2003, Dharma Mittra also published a book Asanas: 608 Yoga Poses which outlines 608 of the original 908 asanas, one per page in an exhaustive yoga reference book. I have ordered this book but not yet received it so check back for a full review.

So this poster, that hangs in my makeshift and mobile yoga studio is the basis of this site. The challenge is both daunting and epic: to learn and master all asanas. I give myself no time limit but I do aspire to get on the mat and do a little yoga everyday.