Loving Kindness

I wrote about the 4 Divine States of Mind in a post yesterday. The first one is loving kindness so I thought it would be appropriate to share a loving kindness meditation with you.

 

This loving kindness meditation is a 2,500 year old meditation which uses a repeated phrase which will cultivate feelings of loving kindness to yourself and others. Begin by repeating the phrase over and over for 15 minutes once or twice a day. Don't get defeated if this meditation seems heard, awkward, or brings up frustration. Be patient and kind to your self and continue with gentle persistence.

Sit down comfortably. Take breath into the parts of your body that are in contact with the earth. Allot yourself to get connected as you plug back into your self. From this connection create length up the spine as you lift the pallet of the mouth and bring the top of the ears slightly back, chin parallel to the floor. Allow the shoulders to roll onto the back but don't lose the length in the side body as the hart opens and radiates outward.

Let your body relax all unnecessary tension and holding, consciously allow yourself to be at rest, let the mind be quiet letting go of plans and preoccupations. Enjoy the silence and stillness in the mind and body.

Begin this meditation with yourself because without the ability to cultivate loving kindness for yourself it is nearly impossible to do so for others.

May I be filled with loving kindness.

May I be well.

May I be peaceful and at ease.

May I be happy.

Continue to practice this meditation for days or weeks until the feeling of loving kindness radiates out from you. Just this is a wonderful practice for you to cultivate a loving relationship with your own sweet self. Then you can begin to introduce others into your loving kindness meditation. The practice is the same. You sit and become still. You repeat the same phrase about yourself for a few minutes and the you can choose someone in your life you love very easily. You picture them in the mind and repeat the phrase to them. May _____ be filled with loving kindness....Again practice this for a few days having your meditation include people who it is easy for you to cultivate loving feelings for. Then you can continue to expand the people in your meditation including: friends, neighbors, people you pass on the street, everyone, animals, the whole earth, all beings...You can even practice this meditation with people who you find it very hard to get along with.

This is a great meditation that can be developed to practice anywhere sitting, driving, walking, waiting in line at the grocery store, and in many other situations.

This loving kindness meditation brings love and calmness into your life keeping you connected to your heart.

Thai Massage



After the first 10 hours.....I was in Thai Massage bliss.

This weekend I was fortunate to take a 20 hour massage seminar at Myotherapy College. It was fantastic! This has been my favorite massage modality that I have learned yet. I think one reason I connect to it so much is that it comes from India and it is based off the Ayurvedic system which I have been studying through yoga for the past 8 years.

Thai massage is considered a sacred work and really integrates mind body and spirit. One important aspect is the 4 divine states of mind that is the goal of life, spirituality and this form of body work. These are emotional states to be strived for. Practicing and developing these divine emotions, will cultivate a peaceful and patient daily life practice.

4 Divine States of Mind (from Anguttara Nikaya 3.65):

1. Loving Kindness(Metta):  is a soft, gently affection and care for all others and YOURSELF. 
2. Compassion (Karuna):  caring for everyone. Trying to understand where another person may be coming from.
3. Vicarious Joy (Mudita): the ability to be happy when you see others happy. Their joy becomes your joy without jealousy.
4. Equanimity (Upekkha): seeing everyone is equal. Their is no one who is more important then another. We are people among people.

Benefits of Thai Massage:

Spirit:

• Deepens spiritual insights.
• Helps client feel spiritually at home in their body.
• Balances the Pranic flow between the Spiritual countenance and physical body.
• Gives a feeling of oneness with Divine!

Mind:

• Relaxes obsessive thinking/worry, relieves mental fatigue.
• Can assist client in the release of emotional blocks.
• Usually induces theta brainwaves.
• Connects Mental, Emotional, Spiritual aspects of the psyche.

Body:

• Deep myo facial release.
• Stimulates circulation and lymphatic flow (I can't think of any system of the body that Thai Massage does not benefit).
• Increases range of motion. Releases joint pain and soreness.
• Improves the digestive function.



Connection!

The election is over! and I can breath again. The political escapades remind me that we are ALL connected (although our minds might disagree on some topics). When I think of our interconnectedness I am reminded of the Trembling Giant. Whats that you might ask?...

It is one of the largest single living organism. Nick named Pando it is made up of aspen trees that are connected by one massive underground root system located in South-Central Utah (ahh a local treasure). The Pando is a clonal colony of a single male Quaking Aspen estimated to be over 80,00 years old, spanning over 106 acres and weighing in at 12 million pounds! Within Pando there are around 47,000 tree stems that are continually dieing off as new ones are renewed, the average tree stem is 130 years. The Pando is the second largest organism the first being a mushroom "field" in Washington, this fungus covers 1,500-acres. 

When I think about these astonishing numbers and that are connected I naturally feel my feet on the floor, I stand up taller take a deep breath and expand from the inside out. These are the same actions in  first principle open to Grace:

• Side Bodies Long
• Foundation (4 corners of feet/hands)
• Inner Body Bright
• Outer Body Soft

This morning I talked about the Pando and we did hip openers and vrksasana, tree pose. We did a group tree pose where students lined up, interlaced hands and did a back bend variation of vrksasana. A variation that is much harder done alone and much easier and more enjoyable to access when working with others. We focused on first principle and it was so beautiful to watch the students brighten, lengthen and smile.

Enthusiasm

I like to nerd out sometimes...err.. pretty often when it comes to yoga class planning. One tool I learned to frequently is a dictionary. I love looking up the definitions of words when coming up with heart themes. I continue to be blown away by how beautiful these words are.

For exampled: the word « Enthusiasm » comes from the Greek language and breaks down to entheo= The God and iasm= Inside or Within. How fantastic is that!! Definitely fuels the fire of themeing to know the definition.

Here are some qoutes I like on topic:

"The Kingdom of God is within you" -Jesus Christ

 

“Who is an authentic seeker, but someone who has understood that there is nothing else to do but practice? Enthusiastic or discouraged, he or she continues, no matter what."-Lee Lozowick

 

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm" -Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

 

 

The Loops... a refresher

One of the refinements we use in Anusara yoga has to do with loops. The loops are a series of specific, interconnected trajectories of energy in our bodies starting with the feel and going all the way up to the skull. I like to think of them as bike gears that intersect and move in opposing directions from one another.

The seven pairs of Loops are:

Ankle
starts at the base of the shinbone just above the ankle. It moves down the back of the heel,forward along the bottom of the foot, then back up through the center of the arch to the front of shin base.

Shin
starts at the base of the shinbone just above the ankle. It moves up the back of the calf muscle to the top of the shins just below the knee, forward through the top of the shin, then down the front of the shin back to the base of the shin.

Thigh
starts at the top of thighbone in the core of the pelvis (pelvic Focal Point). It moves down the back of the leg to the top of the calf muscle, forward through the top of the shin, and then up the front of the leg through the lower abdomen back to the Focal Point.

Pelvic
starts in the core of the abdomen in line with the middle of the lumbar and a place just below the navel. It moves down from the middle of the lumbar to the middle of the buttocks in line the bottom of the sacrum, forward through the floor of the pelvis (pelvic Focal Point) to the top of the pubic bone, then up the lower abdomen to just below the navel. The Pelvic Loop has the same direction of rotation as the Thigh Loop. However, they have opposite effects on the alignment of the body. The Thigh Loop moves the top of the thighs backward, while the Pelvic Loop moves the top of the thighs forward.

Kidney
starts in the core of the abdomen in line with the middle of the lumbar and a place just below the navel. It moves up the back from just below the kidneys to the bottom of the shoulder blades, forward through the top of the diaphragm (heart Focal Point) to the base of the sternum, then down the solar plexus to just below the navel.

Shoulder
starts at the center of the upper palate (skull Focal Point). It moves down the back of the neck and the upper back to the bottom of the shoulder blades, forward through the bottom of the heart and the top of the diaphragm, then up the chest and throat from the base of the sternum to the upper palate.

Skull
starts at the center of 7. the upper palate (skull Focal Point). It moves back and up along the back of the skull, forward over the top of the head, then down the face back to the upper palate. The Loops interconnect with each other and so influence each other as they are independently activated. For instance, as you Outer Spiral the legs the Pelvic Loop is activated, which in turn will help to increase the Kidney Loop.

As we get older our body through bad alignment starts to go against the loops. Coroners used to identify the age of a dead person by looking at these loops and the more they were out of alignment the older they are. After learning about these loops it is very interesting to people watch. I am a student and one of my professors has the loops way out of balance I want to go to go align he all class.

Reference:
Anusara Teacher Training Manual
Anusara Master Immersion
Awesome loop photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharonfrost/26593683/

Siva Sutra 1.2

I've been contemplating 1.2 sutra from The Siva Sutras:

 

1.2 jnanam bandhah

 

Knowing differentiatedly is bondage and not knowing undifferentiatedly is bondage.

 

Knowing is bondage and not knowing is bondage. "So knowing individual consciousness as one's own nature and not knowing universal consiousness as one's own nature, are both bondage".

 

Lots to digest on this one. Here are some qoutes I like on topic:
 

I am not bound to win,

I am bound to be true.

I am not bound to succeed

but I abound to lie up to the Light I have.

-Abraham Lincoln

 

 

Yoga is not a path of Freedom. Yoga is a path of exquisite Bondage. - Douglas Brooks





Matsyendra Myth

A long long time ago a young boy was born in a fishing village and nobody knows quite sure why this young boy was unwanted in the village, so the village people through him in the sea and this little boy was swallowed by a huge whale and the whale takes him down down down to the bottom of the sea. at the bottom of the sea is a secret cave and in this cave the teachings of yoga are being song every single day. It is the cave of Shiva and Shakti and the teachings go something like this: Shakti will come to Shiva and say "Shiva what is the secret of the universe?" and Shiva looks at his beloved and says "Shakti you are the secret of the universe, you are the point the universe was trying to make" and their conversations turn into love songs. And sometimes Shiva will come to Shakti and ask "What is my nature" and Shakti will look at him and say "your nature is vasudava you are the dwelling place of light itself. deva is light and vastu the dwelling place".



 http://www.yoganarayana.com.br/?attachment_id=707

During this time the little boy is in the belly of the whale and he keeps asking the whale to keep him close to this cave I want to hear these teachings. For 12-16 years the boy stays close to Shiva and Shakti by that sacred cave learning the teaching of yoga. The boy overhears Shiva and receives a transmission of the teaching, and in this way becomes a student of yoga. For the next 12-16 years, Matsyendra lives in the belly of the fish, practicing yoga, and finally emerges as an enlightened master. Then one day the whale raises up to the surface of the water and spit this now 16 year old boy and he is half man and half fish (hence ardha= half matsyendrasna= fish the common yoga pose) and he is now Matsyendra the lord of the fish and he is a great great great teacher of yoga.

Seven years prior to this there was a women doing all these practices trying to get Shiva's attention because she wanted a son. So Shiva came to her and he walked by her in his beggers form and he put a pile of ash into her hands and he said take care of this pile of ash and it will become your son. She was so insulted by this she throw the pile of ash into a big pile of cow dung. Seven years later Matsyendra goes to the women and says "Where is your son, because he is going to be a great teacher of yoga". She looks at him and says "what son, I have no son". He said "yes the pile of ash you were given". She was shocked he knew that and said " I was given no son I was just given a pile of ash which I throw on top of cow dung because that's where it deserved to go". Matsyendra just smiled and said "can you tell me where that pile of cow dung may be?". Matsyendra finds this pile of cow dung and brushes away the accumulated cow dung and there is a young boy, who is a perfect yogi because he has been practicing sadhana there since birth. Matsyendra sprinkles him with ash and names him Goraksha (Go-rakh or “cow ash.”) This little boy name Goraksha becomes Matsyendra's first student and also becomes the founder of modern day hatha yoga. Matsyendra.

I took a class from Tiffany Wood this evening which was part of the Anusara Immersion she is leading out of The Yoga Center. She told this story and she talked about how the things we throw away can be our biggest blessing. Tiffany said at the end of class that it is embracing our biggest challenges that lead to the biggest change rather then throwing away are challenges and/or trying to avoid them. She lead a class with lots of twisting and deep forward. I feel so fortunate to be surrendered by such wonderful studios + knowledgeable teachers and that the teachings of yoga are available to me.

References:

http://www.lorinroche.com/yoga/yoga/matsyendra.html

Sianna Sherman

Tiffany Wood