The Eight Verses and Avalokiteshvara

Avalokiteshvara is the Buddha of Compassion. After viewing the suffering of beings, vows to save all beings again by transforming herself. "Avalokiteshvara" means the Bodhisattva who listens the voices of the world.

The Eight Verses is from the Mahayana Lojong (mind training) Tradition of Buddhism. These instructions help us awaken the mind compassion, wisdom and love. These teaching help to train the mind to embrace reality in a completely wholesome, wise and compassionate way. They help us purify negativity and awaken the heart by giving us a way to transform hardship into an opportunity for spiritual growth. In this way, rather than perceiving difficult people or adverse circumstances in our lives as an obstacle, tragedy, or punishment, we now meet these experiences with deep compassion, wisdom and skill, using them as the actual path to enlightenment.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama refers to this work as one of the main sources of his own inspiration and includes it in his daily meditations. I have an excellent book on tape by Pema Chondron called Don't Bite the Hook: Finding Freedom Anger, Resentment, and Other Destructive Emotions. Chondron says "Life has a way of provoking us with traffic jams and computer malfunctions, with emotionally distant partners and crying children—and before we know it, we're upset. We feel terrible, and then we end up saying and doing things that only make matters worse. But it doesn't have to be that way."

I hope these selective verses bring you some peace like they have brought me.

Verse 4:
Whenever I meet a person of bad nature
Who is overwhelmed by negative energy and intense suffering,

I will hold such a rare one dear,
As if I had found a precious treasure.

 It is not very difficult to have positive feelings towards people who are kind and good-natured, but our love is really put to the test when we meet people with much negative energy. Because they give us the chance to see how strong our patience and compassion are - and thus bring us down to earth as far as our spiritual development is concerned - we should regard them as rare and precious.
The nectar (the light of the Buddha of compassion, Avalokiteshvara) purifies the self-cherishing thought that prevents me from regarding harmful beings as precious and dear, and brings the realization of bodhicitta, which holds even harmful beings dear.

Verse 5:
When others, out of jealousy,
Mistreat me with abuse, slander and scorn,
I will practice accepting defeat
And offering the victory to them.

 When someone criticizes us, to our face of behind our back, we should not angrily try to defend ourselves or hurl abuse in return. Instead we should remember that any bad experience is the natural outcome of our own past actions- we can probably think of many instances when we criticized others.
We can try to talk with the person who is complaining - not with anger but compassion - to get them to calm down and think more positively, but if they refuse to be reasonable we should just let go and accept the situation. Anyway, it is good to listen with an open mind to criticism - it is often correct and it can always teach us something about ourselves.

 The nectar purifies the self-cherishing thought that prevents me from accepting defeat and giving the victory to others, and brings the realizations that enable me to do this.

Verse 6:
When someone I have benefited
and in whom I have placed great trust
Hurts me very badly,
I will practice seeing that person as my supreme teacher.

 Every good or bad experience that occurs in our life is the result of our past actions, so there is really no such thing as undeserved harm. This idea may be difficult to accept, especially when the harm comes from someone whom we have helped and from whom we expect at least gratitude. But it is a question of becoming familiar with the law of cause and effect - we must necessarily have created the cause to be harmed. Also, if we have good understanding of the importance of developing patience, we will be able to see that someone who harms us is giving us a valuable teaching on the spiritual path.

 The nectar purifies the self-cherishing thought that prevents me from regarding harmful beings as my spiritual teachers, and brings the attainment of the bodhisattva's perfection of patience, which enables me to do this.

Optimal Alignment

Our physical experience is directly linked to our emotional and mental state. When the body is in pain we experience sadness, anger, frustration and hopelessness. When the body comes out of pain we experience happiness. relief, joy and gratitude. This shows the important role yoga can play with the physical mental/emotional relationship. Its awesome to know that if our phyiscal bodies are well aligned it can take the body out of pain and bring with it a shift in attitude and mood.

I taught last Saturday and talked about optimal blueprint. Optimal blueprint is the best alignment for your unique body. When the bones and muscles are held in this place of alignment so much healing takes place. I was explaining to the students how it feels for me to be in a pose and use the universal principles of alignment to adjust and how I experience a *ahhhh haaa* as if I can feel ,my blood, breath, lymphatic fluid, prana..all flowing through me and that's my sign that I am in good alignment.

It is hard to explain what it feel like when you move from just being in a yoga posture to being in optimal alignment. Its like trying to explain the experience of eating really good chocolate. Everyone has their own experience and their own words of explaining.

After attending this workshop my husband (who is not big into yoga but comes to support me says), "when we were doing natarajasana I felt my leg bone click into place. Like it has been out of place for years and something clicked and it was like *wooooshhhhhh* I could feel all this energy flowing through me it felt so good. This is why I love Anusara yoga." Oh how I love when he talks yoga to me. Another great alignment qoute from my husband happened this weekend after he came home from a 120 mile bike ride. He said "I'm glad I have learned good alignment from you, it makes biking more fun!"

During a private I was teaching the other day my student, who has really connected with the principles of alignment made several comments about her experience of optimal alignment. I wish I recorded our session so I could quote her because her words wore so elegant and perfect. "I just cant believe how good the pose feels when it do the alignment. Nothing hurts. I don't want to come out of the pose I just want to stay in it and enjoy".

I really enjoyed Jessica Jennings description of optimal alignment:

"Muscles and bones have an optimal direction they want to go. We know this instinctively – for instance, the shoulders ideally move back, instead of rounding forward.

What many of us aren’t aware of is that these common misalignments cause joint instability, pain, bone spurs, cartilage and disc problems, and many musculoskeletal difficulties that we all experience.

We develop habits – often to avoid using our core strength – that over time, cause certain muscles to be hyper-tense, and certain muscles to weaken. When we do yoga WITHOUT understanding optimal alignment, we can simply be strengthening our misalignments.

When we do yoga WITH an understanding of optimal alignment, we can be doing something similar to physical therapy for our aches and injuries: helping muscles and bones move back in the direction they want to be. In the process, we lengthen the muscles that are too tight, and strengthen the muscles that are overstretched and weak."

Meditate on the pathway between the heart center and head

This meditation it to bring you into the midline of yourself, focusing on the pathway between the heart and the center of the head.
Start by chanting AUM making out each syllable: AHhhh- resonates in center of heart, Uuuuuu- resonates in your throat, MMmm- resonates in the third eye center above the soft palate of the mouth. Repeat the sound A.U.M until you can feel this pathway well I will normally chant 10-15 times.

Then tune your awareness to your breath. With your inhale breathe down into the heart behind the breastbone and with your exhale breathe up the throat into the third eye center, just above the soft palate, between the ears. On the inhale breathe down into the heart  and on the exhale flow up into the ajna chakra of the third eye.  Keep your awareness and your breath in this subtle channel that runs between your heart and the third eye. With the inhalation as the breath comes down into the heart have the thought “I AM” a decollation of being! Feel that resonance dropping into the heart  and with the exhalation let the " I AM" resonate in the third eye center. In this act of pratyahara (focus) follow the breath with the thought I Am into the heart and up into the third eye space.

 

Notice any place in your body that feels tight and let part of your awareness go there (keeping the rest of your awarness of this inner pathway). Let your breath release any tightness that you find arising. Notice any thoughts, any feelings that are coming up. Just note them with the recognition “thought”. Let your attention continue to flow inside the inner body keeping the breath moving on that string of from the center of heart to middle of head and notice that as you do this there is a restful inner feeling that you can maintain as you follow the string of the breath.

One of my Favorite sutra's comes from a classic Kashmir Shaivism book translated as The Heart of The Doctrine of Self Recognition: “by unfolding the center the bliss of the highest consciousness is attained”.

 

Chit! Ananda! Chit means intelligence and knowledge and Ananda means joyfulness and bliss. This sutra tells us that by focusing on the inner channel (shushumna nadi) we can tap into these feelings. The meditation I described above is focused on one segment the center channel. I like focusing on this part of the channel that links my heart to my head brain. I find my attention can easily hold this midline and I can access this blissful awareness pretty easily.

Your BEAUTIFUL! + annoucing eating disorder yoga group series coming soon

You are more BEAUTIFUL then you believe.

Since I was young I struggled with body image issues which manifested as an eating disorder when I was in my teens. After working with therapists, reading self help books, practicing mediation and affirmations I now feel good in my skin. Although I still don't think I see how beautiful I really am. I have learned that I cant trust my own brain when it comes it my beauty or my weight. Instead I trust my husband or doctor.

When I saw this video I was blown away.

I want to spread this message. I want every girl and women to see this video and to realize that we don't see our self as the beautiful light of Grace that we are. I want to be involved with a conversation across our nation and around the world about how we can make changes so we can see our self through the eyes of a friend or a lover instead of an enemy. Our standards for beauty are absurd! lets change this!

I am super excited to announce that I am going to be teaming up with a brilliant therapist MD in the coming months and we are going to be offering a yoga/processing group that will meet for 2 hours once a week for 6-8 weeks for people with eating disorders. More details coming soon! If you or someone you know would benefit from this please contact me for more details.

Aim= Perfectly Imperfect

Ive been thinking about vrikcrokti (dont know the correct sandsktrit spelling). This term means slightly brocken. We are all vrkcrockti, somwhat brocken, imperfect. I did a lot of striving to be fully perfect for a long time and then punishing myself for my like of perfect perfection. Now I work on embracing the fact that that I am not perfect nor will I ever be perfect. Instead I strave to be imperfectly perfect. I understand that I have trouble areas but I can embrace my whole self and enjoy the playfulness of life during the fun times and through the challenges. A good friend of mine used to remind me the best I can be is human. When I feel myself getting mad at Kim I remind myself of this. I also remind myself that my friends, lover, employers, family, eveyone can only be human, that we all make mistakes, we all have things we are working through. My life goal is no longer being as perfect as I can be so the world, others and myself can give me the stamp of perfect approval. Instead I am aiming for a life playfully lived full of compassion, kindness and laughter for myself and others.

In praise of imperfection let your spirit soar, sprial and skip

life is a grand and sacred adventure dine in! Leap forth!

Take risks, go ahead, fall flat on you tush, alot

it is time.

No more doubt and self denial

no more wasted time worrying,

sitting on the side lines wishing you were playing

a secret revieled

we all tumble sometimes

getting muddy can be fun

learning to summersalt and stand up

blossom like the wildfloer you are

take this moment

this opputninity now

transform you life into one that is dynamic, sparkeling, guttsy, fully alive!

by the way perfection is over rated, and if you havent noticed NOT AT ALL POSSIBLE

there is beauty in asemetray

we are all alittle goofy, uneven, vrikcrokti (slightly brocken)

take your regeal seat in the galaxtic family

have fun, have fun, have fun

get over your own self sabatage

the world is waiting for you

 

 

 

 

have fun, have fun, have fun

get over your own self sabatage

the world is waiting for you

I was inspired by a poem that Amy Ippoliti shared on yogaglo.com



Shoulder Aligning + backbending + heart expanding workshop

Taught a shoulder alignment + backbending workshop today at Avenues Yoga. It was a blast. So grateful for all the yogis who braved the storm to practice. My students teach me so much.  

Theme: remembering that every moment, day, breath is an invitation to align fully to that which nourishes us. Ex: food: each meal is an opportunity to decide how you are going to nourish yourself and as a result of your action you will feel happier, more content or you will feel yucky. Same goes with the way we hold our self. Every moment is an opportunity to align your posture or asana pose to one that is healing and therapeutic or to collapse into bad posture and perpetuate the cycle. Now I am not saying I am perfect and am always in good posture or make the best food choices. But I am getting better and faster at noticing when I am out of balance and learning how to bring myself back into the flow of nourishment. When I am nourished I feel better physically, mentally, emotionally. The question is often posed, why practice yoga asana? My answer: To be happy. And on a really gross, dense level, when I practice good alignment on my mat my body hurts less, injuries heal and when my body is not in pain I am happier…

“I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being. “Hafiz.

Principles of emphasis:

·         side bodies long

·         inner body bright

·         arm bones back

·          tips of shoulder blades behind heart

·         Organic extension from heart

Heart Quality: curiosity, perseverance

Sequence:

1.      Tadasana, one arm zombie, manual plug ABB with other hand. (SLB, ABB,TSBBH, OE)

2.      Zombie plug both arm in

3.      Table (SBL, ABB, TSBBH, OE)

4.      Fish

5.      Upside down fish

6.      break down chataranga

7.      adho mukha shvanasana

8.      Mod. parsvakanasana

9.      Pigeon s.i.t.o arms

10.  L.L quad -> anjaniasana s.i.t.o

11.  Trikonasana

12.  Tadasana sbl-abb-tsbbh

13.  Trikonasana sbl-abb-tsbh

14.  Handstand at wall

a.       Table-> “L” SBL, ABB toward middle of room, TSBBH heart toward wall hallow armpits, organic energy extends into floor

b.      Against wall, ABB toward wall, TSBBH heart toward middle of room hollow arm pits, OE

15.  Pincha mayurasana

a.       Table ->“L” SBL, ABB toward middle of room, TSBBH heart toward wall hallow armpits, organic energy extends into floor

b.      Against wall, ABB toward wall, TSBBH heart toward middle of room hollow arm pits, OE

16.  Hero blanket  roll calves massage forearms

17.  Supine infraspinatus stretch internal rotation, other arm in diamond shape

18.  Pec Major/Minor stretch at wall 3x

a.       hand on wall face middle of room high five wall

b.      pinky finger on wall arm abducted and extended face away from hand

c.        pinky finger on wall arm bent in ½ diamond shape, face away from hand

19.  Natarajasana 2x

20.  Janusirsasana

21.  Pasarita janusirsasana (hold edge of matt and pull)

22.  Urdhva danurasana  (SBL, isometrically drag heels of hands away from feet, draw heels of hands laterally, and org extend from heart into floor)

23.  Gallopers twist

24.  Supta femur rooting

25.  Therapeutic : Mat under armpit create space

26.  Supta tadasana neck work

27.  shavasana

Birds

My husband and I went to The Aviary today for some bird watching. Watching these winged creatures present in nature also brought me into the moment, feathers ruffling, beaks peaking, eyelids blinking, bird heads turning, breeze blowing. I saw this in others no matter the age kids, adults, seniors, people would get captivated and pause from the busy-ness of life to watch an owl rotate his head, a peacock cross a bridge, ducks fly from one pound to another...

When I came home I rolled out my mat and practiced some bird poses: crow, side crow, pigeon, firefly (not a bird but a winged animal), and bird of paradise.

Bird of paradise = Svarga Dvidasana. Svarga= heaven, Dvid= twice lived, Asana=posture
I heard Noah Maze explain the mythology of these Sanskrit words. He stated that there are three things that are "twice lived"
1) Birds: they are born in an egg, and then the egg hatches and they are born again.
2) Teeth: we have baby teeth, then they fall out and we have permanent teeth.

and lastly 3) yogis. Even in our asana practice the last pose that we do, corpse pose (shavasana). We die at the end of our practice roll over to be born again. We have the opportunity to be born again every moment, every day, every practice.

Being born again is like being able to awaken to the sweetness of heaven while living in the chaos of life. I can have the shittiest day and be stuck in my head about life is not going the way I want it to, but by the end of class after coming out of shavasana I get a new perspective. Sometimes its not even a conscious shift I just come out of the class more content even though no life situations shifted.

I think this is so cool. We get to re awaken all the time. When I fall into selfishness, unhealthy habits, injury, sickness, fights.. whatever the situation is, I have the opportunity to change the way I am acting in order to get different results. I can make mylife a trajectory! I want my life to evolve for the better! I was in a workshop with Desiree  and she was said she feels 6o is the new 30 years old. I want to feel like that, and I think it will come if I continue to wake up many times to an attitude how can I make today a better day then yesterday.