March 14, 2010

Yoga sutra 2.43: kayendriyasiddhirasuddhiksayattaapasah

Kaya; the body. Indriya: the eleven sense organs, including thought. Siddih: power, perfection. Asuddhi: impurity. Ksayat: by the destruction, elimination. Tapasah: discipline, asceticism, austerity.

By eliminating impurity, a disciplined life brings perfection and mastery to the body and the eleven sense organs. (trans. Bernard Bouanchaud, The Essence of Yoga)

Tapas, the third yogic niyama, or code for living well, is another means for personal evolution. We don’t embark upon these practices for the sake of austerity or novelty or egoic gratification. T.K.V. Desikachar (The Heart of Yoga) stresses that Tapas must not cause suffering, “everything about tapas must help you move forward.”

Tapas is the inner fire or discipline which keeps the yogin practicing. Lethargy would be its opposite. One of the definitions of the word YOGA is “discipline,” so it’s easy to see how  Tapas is related to daily practice.

What is it that draws me to my mat day after day, year after year? It’s the fire that burns in my heart center, awakening a sense of embodiment that yearns for asana to express itself.

Yoga Scholar, Bernard Bouanchaud, asks us to consider the relationship between contentment, santosha which implies acceptance and Tapas, the fire that burns impurities. I’d ask, how then does Shauca, or purity itself affect or deepen the Tapasic experience?

A tidbit of trivia I learned from Wikipedia: One who undertakes tapas is a Tapasvin.

A primary purpose of yoga is to become aware of, to channel, and to utilize energy. Yoga can be considered a form of Tapas. Certainly it is integral to the yogin’s life. In Yoga Mind Body & Spirit, the popular teacher and New Zealand yogini, Donna Farhi says that, “Far from being a kind of medicinal punishment, tapas allows us to direct our energy toward a fulfilled life of meaning and one that is exciting and pleasurable.”

The other elements of the ashtanga yoga are inter-related practices. Pranayama and Asana help to stoke the fire. Pratyahara assists the Tapasvin in focusing the energy. Brahmacharya, the moderation of one’s vital energy, is a natural extension of Tapas. Its practice helps keep the heart fire bright and pure.

Farhi quotes Buddhist teacher, Pema Chodron,  “What we discipline is any form of potential escape from reality.”

It’s Tapas that helps me put some ooomph into a daily pranayama, so the practice does not become dull and listless. Tapas propels me and holds me on my dietary regiment. I pray for Tapas to light the flame of my teaching, service, and for inspiration for this blog!

Category: Sutra, Yamas & Niyamas | 1 Comment »
Tags: Bernard Bouanchaud, Donna Farhi, heart fire, Meditation, Nischala Joy Devi, niyama, tapas, yoga, yoga practice, Yoga Sutra

March 8, 2010

This is an incredibly simple recipe from my childhood that I’ve adapted. It provides a fabulous and nearly fail-proof opportunity to introduce children to the culinary arts. In other words, invite them to make a mess in the kitchen.

NoBakes are best reserved for special occasions since the sugar content is beyond speaking about. It’ll cure any sweet tooth or chocolate craving.

Very adaptable to variations, such as using peanut butter or pecans instead of the walnuts, dried craisins or cherries for the raisins, adding a dash of amaretto or kirsch or, (I never tried this, though it sounds scrumptious, orange liquor) for grown-up tastes.

INGREDIENTS

3 c. oats

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 1/2c. walnuts

1 c. shredded coconut

1 s. raisins

1 c. cocoa

2 c. sugar

1 stick soy margarine

½ c. rice milk

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix oats, vanilla, & nuts together in a large bowl

2. Combine sugar, cocoa, milk, & margarine in a saucepan and bring to rolling boil

3. Pour the hot mixture over the oat mixture & stir until mixed

4. Drop by teaspoon on waxed paper or fill tiny paper cups for a more finished look if you’d like to serve them to company.

Refrigerate for about an hour. ..or Freeze. (You won’t want to wait for these!)

I found more than a half dozen videos of No Bakes on YouTube. This one is a non-vegan version and a first video from elysium 29. Great job girls!

Category: Recipes | 2 Comments »
Tags: children cooking, cocoa, coconut, cookies, raisins, recipe, vegan, vegetarian, walnuts

March 1, 2010

A Yogini’s Recipes for Happiness

Mike created this deliciously satisfying dish when I wanted “comfort food.”

It’s very nutritious with the beans, walnuts, and vegetables, tastes great with the sweetness of the raisins and squash, and it’s comforting without a lot of oil.

Try it next time you’re in a funk over dinner. It serves 4 and tastes wonderful the next day or two if there’s only one or two of you.

 

INGREDIENTS

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed

1 Tbs. canola oil

2 -3 cloves garlic

1 onion chopped

2 stalks celery

1 green or red bell pepper

½ tsp. tumeric

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. cumin

¼ – ½ tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. ginger powder

1 can cannellini or garbanzo beans (15.5 oz.) drained

½ c. raisins

½ c. water

1 cup couscous

½ walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Saute squash, garlic, onion, celery, and pepper for about 10 minutes, stirring often.
2. Add spices and sauté while stirring for two more minutes.
3. Add beans, raisins, and water. Continue to cook on low heat until squash is soft.
4. Meanwhile prepare couscous according to directions, adding the walnuts.

Serve the Squash mixture over couscous. Garnish with sliced oranges if desired.

Category: Recipes | 2 Comments »
Tags: butternut squash, cannellini beans, couscous, main dish, vegan, vegetarian

February 23, 2010

gibbous moon slants

poems composed in darkness

feverish heart beats

Category: Meditation, Poetry, haiku | No Comments »
Tags: gibbous, haiku, moon, poems

February 22, 2010

I write so much about longing and the un-contented parts of my life that it’s hard sometimes to acknowledge those areas of my existence that are perfectly or imperfectly just fine.  I often feel a sense of contentment after writing, especially in free writing in a journal—as if I’ve purged the “vritti” out of my system.  There is however, a sense of contentment that comes with acknowledgment of longing as a perennial aspect of the human condition. And a deeper contentment is possible through recognition of the longing as an expression of the Divine.

II.42 samtosad anuttamah sukha-labhah

Samtosat:through or by contentment   Anuttamah:the strongest  Sukha: of happiness   Labhah: obtaining, gain

Contentment brings supreme happiness. (B.Bouanchaud)

The result of contentment is total happiness. (Desikachar)

From contentment and benevolence of consciousness comes supreme happiness (BKS Iyengar)

When at peace and content with oneself and others (Santosha), supreme joy is celebrated. (Nischala Joy Devi)

This sutra can be linked with Sutra 1.13 : tatra sthitau yatno’bhyasah

Persevering practice is the effort to attain and maintain the state of mental peace.

In an earlier post, I wrote about practicing through emotions. Linking these two sutras, Patanjali says that the way to mental peace is through persevering practice and by practicing contentment, or mental peace, we’ll achieve happiness.

Santosha, or the practice of content-ment, is the ability to feel satisfied within the container of one’s immediate experience. (Donna Farhi)

Family gatherings often are times when I see sides of myself that I don’t like (a Living Mirror). They can be occasions of great dis-contentment for me. They are also the times of my greatest happiness. Trying to navigate them and remain centered is a worthwhile goal for anyone. Amy Weintraub in Yoga for Depression ties Santosha  with a quotation from Swami Kripalvanandji “My beloved child, break your heart no longer. Each time you judge yourself, you break your own heart.” She says that “both self-love and self-acceptance grow with practice.”

Is contentment the aim of yoga practice?

Is all suffering alleviated through contentment or do we look at the sufferings in our own lives in a contented fashion?

Does happiness imply a different vision of suffering?  Or can the two emotions exist simultaneously?

Is total happiness only possible through a practice of contentment?

If all life is suffering as the Buddha tells us, why should we bother trying to attain happiness?

Does contentment imply a turning away from the difficulties of life, an acceptance of poverty, cruelty, and violence in the world?

Won’t we be missing out on much of our human emotional range if we practice contentment?  Won’t we become zombies? Can one’s passions be ignited while one is content?

Are there any other effects or side effects of contentment?

Is it possible for contentment to exist on a greater scale, say in a community or in a nation?  Would this be the same as peace?

What is the relationship between contentment and peace?

Is there a relationship between contentment and the practice of svadhyaya (self-study)?

What is the relationship of asana practice and contentment?

The sutra tells us there is a direct relationship between contentment and personal happiness.  With contentment, one’s emotions are brought under an even keel, and the fluctuations of the mind are stilled.  Isn’t this the purpose of yoga?  I search for sukha in each pose, to feel joy while my body works on the edge of pain.  This has incredible implications for those suffering from emotional lability.  Can I learn to accept where I am at at any given moment? This is contentment and the sages say that by working on this, I will attain the supreme gift of happiness.

Patanjali tells us something profound, yet really simple: be content and you will be happy.  Want what you have and don’t want what you don’t have.

Category: Sutra, Yamas & Niyamas | No Comments »
Tags: Amy Weintraub, B.K.S.Iyengar, Bernard Bouanchaud, contentment, Desikachar, Donna Farhi, Nischala Joy Devi, niyamas, Patanjali, samtosha, yoga sutras

February 21, 2010

Facing myself IS the HARDEST lesson. I REALLY REALLY don’t wanna go there. BUT it’s the only way to wake up. And we (you, me, etc etc) REALLY REALLY do wanna wake up, which leaves us no choice. WE gotta do it. We gotta go there ~ into that scary horrible ugly part of ourselves. The part of me that my sweet EGO protects so coyly. After all, I IDENTIFY myself as NOT that. I am soooo different from OTHER people who do that. Yeah, right.

Just returned from hanging out with all 8 of my sibs, their “spice” as well as a handful of nieces and nephews. Our Mom died just before Valentine’s Day and we rented a big beach house. All of us. TOGETHER. In one house. Imagine. The noise of everyone talking was a lesson in patience itself. Now I really love these folks, BUT an hour or a couple of hours is ENOUGH. After several days covert strains in the relationships begin to manifest and growl….grrrrr. I begin to wish I had more patience, more humility, more generosity of spirit, more confidence, and above all, more kindness.

The hardest part of being with these folks I grew up with is that they really do know me. As much as I want to think that I’m somehow different and alienated from them, as much as I try to marginalize myself, in my core, I know that the parts of them that I don’t like or appreciate, their character flaws, their spiritual weaknesses, are, to some degree, also mine. Furthermore, their complaints or, in the case of my family, their jokes about my flaws are probably right on. There is no sense even to try to counter their accusations.

That’s the problem with being a close family. We know one another perhaps more than we’d like to admit. When I look at one of them, it’s as if I am looking in a mirror. They reflect back to me who I am. Even if I don’t want to see that particular part of myself. Of course, it works the other way as well. Sometimes I can see such beauty and purity of spirit in one of my sibs that I immediately jump to claim as being a part of THAT family.

To continue to grow however,I need to push through the soft spots of ease and learn to soften the harder areas of dis-ease and un-comfort.

Category: Life | 3 Comments »
Tags: alienation, family, mirror, siblings, spiritual growth

February 19, 2010

Death reminds me that there is really only one way to live. From the heart of love.

Returned last night from burying Mom in North Carolina. A devoted Catholic, Priscilla Lasecki Kieber embodied the heart of bhakti yoga.

Whether she was sitting on the beach, enjoying the beauty of the rolling oceanic waves, preparing cake for a crowd of company, or volunteering in a community group, I’ve always admired the way she lived beyond the fray of “talk.” From a steady and patient center, she infused her relationships with the steady gift of herself.

Her home was was filled with Madonna icons and crucifixes ~ symbols of the objects of her love. She seemed happiest when she was in church, whether at daily Mass or evening novenas. A blessed string of rosary beads were never far away from her praying hands. If she missed a Sunday service, she was heart-broken. How soon would she return to the abode of her Beloved?

Her devotion to the Divine gave her a steady stream of wisdom and strength throughout her 87 years.

Friends sent me poems of comfort this morning. Here is a short stanza from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran:

Only when you drink from the river of

Silence shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountain

Top, then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your

Limbs, then you shall truly dance.

In death, as in her long life, Mom is surely dancing with her Beloved. It is through taking small steps and opening our hearts, one kind word at a time, and refraining from one little meanness after another, that we can join her in this Blissful Tango.

Mom would have loved this video of Henri Nouwen’s sermon on THE BELOVED:

READ MORE: a lovely blog post on a bhakti workshop by one of my fav German yoginis, Lilylotuswillow: http://lilylotus.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/david-newman-workshop/#comment-312

Category: Life, Poetry, Spirituality, VIDEO THURSDAYS | 9 Comments »
Tags: bhakti, compassion, death, Henri Nouwen, Kahlil Gibran, love, Poetry, Priscilla Lasecki Kieber, the Beloved

February 3, 2010

“Is It Time To Stop Running?” is excerpted from some journal entries where I speak to myself. Sort of a metta-journal, if that makes any sense. Originally this piece was on the welcome page of Barefoot & Upside Down.

I am creating a post so that I might explain the voice that is used.

This, and some other pieces I hope to post in the near future, are not meant as didactic pieces. As with the practice journal, they are not prescription, rather they are a description of my process.

They are self-talk that I do to lift myself up or give me a kick in the butt, or pats of encouragement to keep going.

It’s self talking to self.

Inspired by Henri J.M. Nouwen’s The Inner Voice of Love, which is a truly incredible work.  You should stop reading this and FLY to the library to pick up a copy to savor in your own meditation.

********************************

Stop running and running and running. Sit still. The universe is speaking. Are you listening?

Can you quiet the ceaseless chatter? The endless drone of nonsensical words in a stream so thick, it gives you the heebiejeebies when you finally take a break from doing doing doing and sit and watch what’s going on in your little patch of gray matter.

And then what happens is you decide to TURN THEM OFF: all those voices cramming your station. You realize the static confuses and throws you off balance. Everything, every thought, every feeling, every “accomplishment” belongs to someone else. You want to know your self, some call it the TRUTH. Like a starving beast, you hunger after your life, no matter what it tastes like.

As your practice grows, so do the small spaces, the little deaths, momentary breaks, the lapses between the thoughts crowding your grey matter. It’s quiet there. Deep within, in the ancient place, probably the amygdala or thereabouts, is a locale where you exist in a pre-civilized state. It’s a state of joy (you can agree or disagree as you wish), a place of primordial bliss.

When sitting in that sweet neighborhood, all sense of time, all direction drops away. This is entering the GREAT UNKNOWN. Funny thing about this place is that you’ve always known it. It’s familiar, no doubt about that. You don’t feel lost when you are there in momentary bliss. Nope, not at all. You feel, for once in your half-century of “living” that you are finally home. Home at last. Home free. And afterward, whenever you are not there, you will remain homesick, unconnected. Not lost anymore though, because now you know the way home.

Category: Meditation, meditation journal | 2 Comments »
Tags: Henri J M Nouwen, Meditation, metta-journal

January 29, 2010

Yoga Sutra 1.13 : tatra sthitau yatno’bhyasah

Bernard Bouanchaud’s translation: Persevering practice is the effort to attain and maintain the state of mental peace.

Patanjali tells us here that practice IS the effort to maintain inner peace. I’ve often wondered how I could maintain anything when I am twirling off into anger, or joy, or sadness, or confusion, or any of the other myriad emotions that flit through my being from one moment to the next. Then I re-read this sutra. There is nothing here about annihilating emotions. The practice is the work of maintaining equilibrium of the Self.

I’ve been working a lot with my emotions lately, wondering how do they fit into an awakened life? When am I processing an emotion and when is an emotion taking over? How do the stories I spin in my mind, in reaction to events in my life (shenpa), stir up emotions and feed them? How much leeway can I or do I afford any given emotion on any given day? For years, I’ve sat with the meditation:

I am not my thoughts.

I am not my emotions.

I am not my body.

Though I sat and repeated these phrases, I knew that on many levels I really DID identify myself as any or all of these aspects of my Self and I had no clue HOW one could do otherwise. Really, I know that my body continually changes, ages, and grows tired, but isn’t that big hulking tired person my Self? It’s hard enough to IMAGINE my self with a different body, much less to de-identify with having a body at all!

Thank you meditation.

Thank you savasana.

Thank you restorative yoga.

When I do these practices, I am often able to disengage from identity, whether intellectual, physical, emotional, spiritual (yes, I get caught identifying myself in those trips too!). I can breathe into the larger Self, the connection of us all. It is a spacious place. It is a place of joy. Compassion. Expansion. Beauty. Rest. Stillness. Energy. Awareness. It is nowhere. And everywhere.I am no one. And every one.

In this TED video (yes,I’m becoming a TED junkie Eve Ensler speaks eloquently about the importance of maintaining an emotional life. And true to form, I was crying halfway through. Thank you Eve, for reminding us of our wholeness in this age of fracture.

Category: Meditation, Spirituality, Sutra | 2 Comments »
Tags: awareness, emotions, Eve Ensler, Meditation, Yoga Sutra

January 24, 2010

If you’ve found this page, then you have discovered that LaughingYogini has reincarnated as Barefoot & UpsideDown.

In an effort to create a name that more accurately reflected the site content, the shift was probably inevitable.

*Really, I have never done laughter yoga, though who knows, you may find me sometime rocking my belly in the loudest, most ungainly gulps of mirth with an official laughter group.

*Another thing, I’M NOT EVEN FUNNY ~ not in writing on this blog anyway. As much as I WANT to be humorous, not many jokes appear here.

I DO wholeheartedly embrace the notion of laughing at myself AND of bringing a light touch into the studio and practice. That I will continue to write about.

I apologize to those of you who may get thrown off as the address shifts. It’ll take me a bit to find all the places I’ve registered as LY and change them over. Also, please check your RSS Feed. In the process of combing through the site, we found that was not working correctly.

So even though I’ve been searching for over a year to find a replacement for LY (ever try to discover an untaken domain name?), there is some sadness in watching her go.

Please join me in welcoming this new/old one into the blogosphere and wishing a HAPPY BIRTH DAY to Barefoot & Upside Down!

Category: Blogging | 2 Comments »
Tags: Barefoot & Upside Down, blogosphere, happy birthday, laughingyogini