The Perfect Place to Be

There is a popular Indian tale about the baby monkey and the baby cat. When the baby monkey is separated from his mother, he swings from tree to tree frantically searching for her. When the baby monkey finds her, he clings tightly to his mother's neck. The baby cat is different. When she is lost, she sits still and cries out, "Meow!" The mother cat hears her cries and comes to her. The mother cat picks her baby up by the scruff of her neck and away they go together. The baby monkey is on the path of effort and the baby cat is on the path of grace.

Grace comes to us, too, when we are still and rooted in truth. When grace comes, it picks us up.....in its embrace. To fully do yoga the effort has to eventually stop. All of the learning, all of the trying, all of the striving, all of the forcing while practicing has to stop. Then, in the being, grace enters.

In the seated pose, Dandasana(staff pose) all you have to do is be there sitting looking inward. Dandasana is like a seated Tadasana (mountain pose). It is a tiny mountain and can be looked at as the "homeplace" of the seated practice. In Dandasana, we find our placement on our sitting bones with the legs like strong roots extended in front of us or for those with tight hamstrings bent slightly. Our spines reach up with ease out of the quietness of our firm base. The arms are fed by the heart center and through their placement in the shoulder sockets. If they are placed well,both the bicep and tricep can extend fully without hyperextending the elbow joint. The palm of the hand comes to the ground near the pelvis with all fingers extended foward. The head makes the dignified gesture of rotating forward on its axis joint and the eyes look inward. With this gesture, our physical body reflects our inward-looking mind. In Dandasana, we can look to the internal invisible practice of Bandhas or locks.

Moola bandha or "root lock" is applied by drawing the sides of the pelvis energetically together and lifting the very base of the spine upward. Uddiyana bandha or "flying up lock" occurs when, after exhaling, a vacuum effect is created with the diaphragm muscle drawing up in the ribs, making the belly hollow out. Then jalandhara bandha or "cloud- catching" lock is applied by rotating the skull on its axis to bring the chin downward.

In dandasana, when the bandhas are applied skillfully, we feel like we are being embraced much like the baby cat being picked up by grace (the mother cat).
In dandasana, we can sit and be. We are sitting but we have a sense of direction and a sense of purpose. B.K.S Iyengar says that all we need to do to have a yoga pose is to have a base/center of gravity and a sense of direction.

Do you have a sense of direction????

When we have a sense of direction, we feel purposeful, interested and content. We feel full of life when we do dandasana purposefully. Our body becomes the “homeplace” for our mind and soul.

Feel your sense of direction as you sit there reading this now.

I Used To Be Like Phillip Rivers, But Then I Changed.

On the CBS sports show, Bill Cowher was asked,"Coach, who do you think out of the 2004 draft is the best quarterback? Eli Manning, Phillip Rivers, or Ben Roethlisberger?" Bill Cowher said,"That's easy...Ben Roethlisberger."

As a teacher and owner of my own business, I am the quarterback of my team. I run the offense when I teach and as many of you know, I aspire to be just like Ben Roethlisberger......so do many little 10 year old jersey school boys who used to wear Eli Manning's jersey--hahaha. But in my 2008 season, I was like Phillip Rivers. Phillip Rivers is a great quarterback for sure, but he commits a lot of personal mistakes with his actions and words. He plays the game well but he tends to be overzealous and passionate-even taunting fans of the opposing team. It seems he means well but when he opens his mouth he gets himself into trouble. He's able to inspire his teammates and was able to turn a losing season around and make it to the playoffs. Those close to him really know that he means well. He has spontaneity to keep plays alive and responds to things in the moment, often throwing off his back foot which for most quarterbacks is an ungrounded thing to do. He's trained well but he still lost to Ben Roethlisberger in the playoffs.

Ben Roethlisberger is impeccably groomed as a quarterback and as a leader. Last year, in my Phillip Rivers year, I started out with a lot of personal skill, I received certifications in yoga anatomy and prenatal yoga to add to my long list of prior yoga trainings. I had a studio in the works, worked for a thriving studio, and at a busy exclusive gym. But then things began to fall apart. The studio had to close because the neighbors in the vicinity protested the opening of a studio with its own parking lot in their neighbohood, I left the thriving studio because of issues with the owner, and I was in trouble at the exclusive gym that I worked at because I told a very disruptive student to "shut up". No matter what I did to save myself, it wasn't working. I had to scramble but i still got sacked. When things hit bottom, I decided to start again at the beginning. Mybiggest strength, like Pillip Rvers' biggest strength, is the ability to interest and inspire people while having fun playing the game that we play. Lttle by little, my class attendances began to improve as I had a renewed interest in making my subject matter fun but relevent to the students. I would say I ended the season making it to the playoffs thanks to mid-season coaching by the Iyengar Institute.

If I'm to make it to the "yogic Superbowl" i'm going to have to respond to situations like Ben Roethlisberger responds. If he's losing, he gives it his all and learns immediately from his mistakes. If he's winning, he's humble. He's knowledgable as a leader, not a braggard, and kind to his teammates, fans , and the opposing team's fans. He understands that winning comes from his actions toward others. He thinks before before he acts and when he acts it is with "Steeler Diplomacy". He has outstanding karma to be in the situation that he's in. This is a practice. Developing karma like his takes complete participation and mindfulness in farming correct seeds in thought, word, and deed. In the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Swami Svatmarama said, "Constant practice alone is the secret of success." Changing karma, as well as changing anything about ourselves requires us to let go of the way we used to be and the reactions we used to have. Being different and having different outcomes are very possible. Last night in class, I had students practice viparita salabhasana (see picture). This is not something I would normally do because for so long I had a certain style of sequencing asanas that worked well for me. But this pose is a jolt out of my comfort zone, as well as the students' comfort zone. It is a totally invigorating and provocative pose and it has after-effects that just make you want to get up off your ass and play in your own version of the Super Bowl. It makes you want to write an entry about Ben Roethlisberger, Phillip Rivers, Swami Svatmarama, karma, and viparita salabhasana all at the same time. Now, you try it.

Sit Well...........(especially in New Jersey)

When practicing yoga a student should sit on a blanket. Sitting well is the key to developing a practice that is both introspective and physically connected.

When you use a blanket, or blankets, to sit upon, you are able to open your chest and receive breath in your lungs more easily and fully. Receiving the breath is the most important component of yoga. Doing a pose without regard to the breath is not yoga, but just exercise. The breath has the power to open the body from the inside. It also has the power to still the mind which is the definition of yoga.

When we sit on a blanket we are able to set up the beginning of our practice session well to have good beginnings and understand the value of starting something in a regal way. We place ourselves and our open chest elegantly, not haphazardly or with a shut down sense of physicallity. When our chest is easily lifted, our mood is easily lifted and it's easy to then have elevated thoughts. Sitting beautifully = thinking beautifully.

When we sit on a blanket, we have an enhanced relationship to the earth, we have room to reach down to the earth from our pelvis and release our hips more completely. When our sacrum is lifted pressure and constriction around the abdomen is eased and the heat from the region is lessened. Our chests can lift off of the abdomen too creating more ventillation of the hot abdominal region.

Students that can sit easily without a blanket should still use one for all of the aforementioned reasons and also because we want to be able to develop deeper and different relationships to things that we are familiar with. And we all are very familiar with the position of sitting.

The value of sitting well has not been hard to teach to students in the places I have taught. However, it has been difficult to teach in the state of New Jersey where the relationships as well as the air are mostly bad, and the egos big. haha. Please, New Jerseyans, sit up on a blanket at the beginning of class.