The King of Asanas

Master BKS Iyengar has said that one must practice asanas regularly. And, in case you don't have enough time for a full practice then at least do inversions. The most important inversion is Sirsasana(headstand). Sirsasana is called the "King of all asanas" for a reason. It is the most powerful physical tool that we possess for overcoming the forces in the physical world that decay and age our body and mind. These forces show up as loss of mental power and clarity, loss of posture, shortness of breath, poor circulation and sluggish digestion. When all of these bodily system are working harmoniously then we remain youthful and bright for the extent of our lives. Performing headstand.. or if you can't yet do headstand then a supported inversion...aids the bodily systems(circulation,endocrine, respiratory,digestive,skeletal). The strain of gravity on our body and its systems is reversed by completely turning yourself upside down. Our relationship to gravity and worldly forces is changed completely and our body is nourished instead of depleted.

The effects of sirsasana on the circulatory system is that more blood can flow back to the heart and flow from the heart. When you are upside down venous blood returns easily to the heart reducing fatigue in the legs. Also the heart is able to pump more blood to the head bathing the brain with fresh oxygenated blood. Fatigue and brain tissue degeneration are minimized. Your thinking power, clarity, memory, concentration, and sensory faculities are nourished and brightened. The ability to hold a single pointed focus for an extended period of time (a key to our success) is now possible.

Sirsasana helps the lymphatic system in the same way, by returning lymph to the heart via the veins. A regular practice of headstand prevents the buildup of fluid in the legs and feet.

Sirsana rejuvenates the nervous system increasing mental alertness and clarity in the brain. It calms, soothes, relieves stress and depression in the brain wave activity.

Sirsasana makes the respiratory system healthier. The lungs are actually strengthened because they learn to breathe as the orgams of the body are resting on top of them.

Headstand properly aligns the spine facilitating good breathing and reducing muscular stress.

Headstand tones and cleans the digestive organs by increasing gastric fire and producing heat in the body. By reversing the pull of gravity on the intestines constipation is eliminated and fresh blood invigorates the liver, kidneys, stomach, and reproductive organs.

In the skeletal system, headstand strengthens and aligns the spine and neck improving your posture when you are upright. The muscles of the abdomen, legs, shoulders and arms are toned while you are in headstand.

You can easily understand how all of these physical and mental benefits of sirsasana can eliminate the effects of aging. By regular practice and by increasing your duration in headstand all of these antidotes become more potent.

Yoga as Observed in the Natural World

In the very beginning of the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali says, "Ata Yoga Nusananum" or "Now is the yoga as I have observed it in the natural world.

Yoga is happening all around us all of the time and it has always been that way. If we can see this level of existence, we must have mental imprints that allow our minds to see it. Our mental imprints come from our karma. Karma is the cause to the effect that we see. We think the world is happening outside of us but really we are creating our own world by the actions that we take.

I love to use the metaphor of the NFL to illustrate the effects of karma. The Steelers are my favorite team but it's not because I lived in Pittsburgh for a long period of time. It's because their mental imprints match my mental imprints. I'm attracted to something that I call "Steeler Diplomacy". The Steelers treat other people and teams well. They are nice and humble but also intelligent and skilled. Their collective mental imprints have flowered into wins over their last three opponents: the Patriots, the Cowboys, and the Ravens. Some of these teams contain players with more skill than the Steelers but, karmically, the Steelers' generous actions are seen in the physical world as amazing wins in the most unusual of situations.

During the Patriots game the ball slipped out of the Patriot's hands but not out of the Steelers' hands. The rain was the same for both teams, but the difference was their diligence and humbleness in the face of the Patriots' rudeness and nastiness from over the past 11 meetings. Divine Mother allowed the Steelers to have the weather conditions as a gift but the Divine Mother allowed the weather conditions to act as a learning experience for the Patriots.

In the games with the Cowboys and the Ravens, yoga of the natural world came in again to aid the Steelers, giving them wins with no time left on the clock for the opposing teams to counter their efforts. The natural element of time aided the Steelers and the element of time hindered the Cowboys and the Ravens. This is all due to karma, causation from our past actions.

All generosity , hard work, and love between members of the Steelers have reached a certain level of karmic maturity and have flowered into wins at times when statistics say that they can't win. "Facts" like having never beaten the Patriots in 11 meetings or having never beaten the Ravens at Baltimore since 2002, don't matter. The past does not matter because we create our futures by our actions in the present. At some future time, the imprints of our actions will flower and produce great fruits.

This is understanding the way of karma: to give first what you would like to receive at some future time. Not taking first but giving first. Now.

This is yoga as observed in the natural world.

8 Limbs of Patangali's Ashtanga Yoga

'8 Limbs of Patangali's Ashtanga Yoga'

The yoga sutra is the mother book of all yoga. it was written about 2 thousand years ago by Master Patangali. Master Patangali. Master Patangali was a great yogi of both yoga of the body and yoga of the mind.

The yoga sutra says that yoga is harmony/unity and it can be seen by observing the natural world. TO ACHIEVE THIS HARMONY, YOU MUST GET YOUR MIND TO STOP IT'S FLUCTUATIONS. When the mind stops, you can rest in your own true nature. Otherwise, you identify with your mental fluctuations--this is a great mistake and brings on sources of your suffering. Karma is incurred by this outer identification and will not let your mind come to rest. You are then on a cycle called samsara--the cycle of having to learn your lessons through actions in the physical world over and over again which leads to more mental fluctuatuions.

The process of the eight limbed path of ashtanga yoga is a recipe for stopping your mind from identifying with it's fluctuations and allow freedom from mental suffering. The eight limbs are:

1. yama---guidelines for your actions toward others

2. niyama---vows to yourself

3. asana---the physical postures of yoga that relieve the body from strain and allow for the sense of a non-fixed nature of reality(when you can assume shape after shape, you realize your unlimited nature). This should be done with regularity over a period of time.

4.pranayama----controlling the breath and placing your mind on the breath as a vehicle to your ultimate connection with divinity. Because everyone that is living has breath(it's the one commonality), each one of us IS divinty itself.

5.pratyahara----removing your concentration from things outside of yourself and most especially things of a mudane or unhealthy nature, and placing them deliberatly on things beautiful, harmonious,divine in nature pratyahara is also a state of keeping your attention away from the ups and downs of outside circumstances and on yuor own mental pictures and personal truth.

6. dharana----concentration; concentration so the mind can rest on some idea that is beautiful/harmonious--like the ocean or gratitude--and can remain there with out distraction.

7. dyana---meditation or concentration that allows you to merge effortlessly with the object or idea that you are concentrating on.

8. samadhi---realizing ultimate reality, extreme peace, or losing track of the outside environment and merging with divinity itself.

The Importance of Beginning with Asana

How can we effectively use the eight limbs of Patanjali's yoga in order to see changes we want in our lives? The changes I'm referring to are being happier, more content with our physical life experience and more fulfilled and connected in our relationships with others.

A good starting point is the practice of asana. Asana is the sanskrit word for seat and means to assume the physical postures of yoga with your body on a regular basis. Although asana is the third limb, it can be the beginning of everything, the beginning of steadiness, ease and lightness in the body and mind. Hatha yoga is based on the principal that changes in consciousness can be brought about by setting in motion currents of subtler forces and thereby contacting deeper levels of consciousness. The poses themselves trigger the endocrine glands to release certain chemicals which bring about a feeling of remarkable well-being which helps one discover discover the joy of kindness to others. The asanas should be done with regularity to release discomforts of the body and mind. When these discomforts ease up, then we are able to focus more purely on the first limb, yama, and the second limb, niyama.

The first limb, yamas, are:

ahimsa - non harm to others in thought, word, deed.

satya - truthfulness to others

asteya - non-stealing

brahmacarya - not abusing others sexually

aparigrahah - greedlessness.

The yamas all deal with our actions toward others and realizing that our actions toward others create karma. This means treating others well will bring well-being to us in the physical world and in our emotional world. This is the key to happiness!!!

The second limb, niyamas, are:

saucha - cleanliness in body and mind

santosa - contentment

tapah - hard work over a period of time

swadhayaya - the study of our self

ishvara pranidhana - devotion to a power greater than us.

The niyamas are like vows we take toward our enlightenment. Keep your mind as well as your physical body clean, be content in your circumstances, take your practice seriously everyday, study your reactions to things, and offer up all of your efforts to service of God in the form of other beings.

These are the first three limbs of Patanjali's eight limb practice of yoga. They are a good beginning point because they are all physical and we can see measurable results in our daily lives. We can witness the fruits of our good actions and see where we need to make improvements. If you need to make improvements in a certain area of yuor life experience, it's best to find someone who is accomplishing what you would like to experience in a graceful way and use them as an example. Refer to them mentally throughout the day and send them blessings. Focus on their artful handling of difficult events with ease and mental clarity, bring them to mind before reacting to different challenges in yuor physical experience, then become like your hero, acting with grace, clarity, and compassion. Become who you aspire to become by having greater reactions to yuor personal challenges. This is an effective use of yoga in our lives.

Loving Ben Roethlisberger, even if...

The media in our culture is so fickle. It teaches our minds to fall out of the state of yoga, which is the cessation of these fickle fluctuations.

Ben Roethlisberger, of the Pittsburgh Steelers, is really getting abused. This week, the media is saying that he can't deliver for the fans. We all know that to be untrue since nothing is ever one person's fault but a collective effort by all members of organization.

I sat down the other day to offer my efforts of Tonglen to ease the suffering of my Beloved Ben Roethlisberger. Then I asked, "Ben, can I count on you to e there for us?" After awhile, I got the response: "Lynn, can I count on you to be there for me?"

I am being called on to provide love that is unchanging for Ben. This is Boundless Love. This is the practice of love as taught by the Buddha. We learn to love this way when we learn to look at another person as our self. Everything that manifests itself in the world is a wonder. Practicing seeing things through the eyes of love can help us see ourselves as wonders of life. When we look at the person we love, we can look at him with this understanding.

When we love someone, we feel strong. We feel happy because we have found a companion who can understand us. That is pure and beautiful. We need to practice th is feeling with mindfulness. If we don't take careo f our love, it can easily turn into fickle fluctuations.

We know what to do and what not to do to bring happiness and peace to the other person. This is true love. My practice as a lover of Ben is to never allow any negative words affect my devotion to bringing happiness and peace as energy to him.

The Buddha spoke about four elements that constitute true love:

1. Maitri-- the capacity to be kind and offer happiness.

2. Karuna--the capacity to relieve suffering.

3. Mudita--the capacity to bring joy every day.

4. Upeksha--the capacity of nondiscrimination

Then in true love, there is no discrimination. The pain of the other is our pain; the happiness of the other is our own happiness. If we do not understand our partner, if we do not share in his suffering, this is not love at all. It's just consuming the other person to satisfy our own individual needs.

My relationship with following the career of Ben Roethlisberger is for gaining more insight on boundless love and compassion. First, I learn to love one person with understanding and insight, then expand that love to embrace others. This is boundless love.

Love is no different from meditation. When we meditate, we look deeply inside to our joy and peace, and to embrace our suffering and transform it into wisdom and liberation. The same is true when we practice the art of boundless love. We love Ben Roethlisberger despite what the pundits say.