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.
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.
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