I recently heard a talk by the Dalai Lama and he addressed a person’s question about desire.  The practitioner was confused by the seemingly paradoxical Buddhist teaching that desire, craving and attachment will cause suffering, but that it takes desire to be disciplined in one’s practice.  The answer the Dalai Lama gave was simple, that certain desires are positive and some are negative.

I would like to expand on this.  Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudez says that what we desire most, that we will become. (This is an aspect of Karma)

To transform our habits, our desire has to be razor sharp and white hot to sear through the veil of ignorance and fear that keeps us making decisions that hinder our joy and destroy our habitat.

Desire can be placed into two categories:  Desire driven by compulsion (craving / attachment) and desire driven by choice (will).

We can only be truly free when our desires are by choice rather than by habit.  When we apply mindfulness to the expression of our will, our desire is transformed into a powerful tool for liberation and the creation of a world that celebrates joy rather than destruction, love rather than fear.

Peace and love,

Joshua Graner

Joshua@all1mind.org

I am always amazed at how much can be achieved through yoga in so little time. I have found that even 15 minutes of pranayama and hatha yoga in the morning can center my awareness and enliven my body and greatly reduce stress and fear for the upcoming day.

My teacher used to say that if you take one step towards God, then God will take 99 towards you.
Yoga is the step that we take, the satisfaction that we feel is God stepping towards us.

In November Linda will be offering a workshop where you will learn 3 15 minute routines that will give you the ability to practice yoga daily even with a buzy schedule.

Sujantra

Virabhadrasana III (Warrior III) is the third asana (pose) that is named after the mythical warrior, Virabhadra. This pose is the most challenging Warrior asana, taking into account strength, flexibility and predominately balance. The body now is balancing on one leg and you are reaching the arms and leg in opposite directions parallel to the floor.
With all balancing asanas you must find your drishti (focus point) about two to three feet in front of you. This keeps your mind clear and aware throughout the balance. As well, with all standing postures you must work from the ground up, create stability in your ankles, knees, legs, and hips. By taking your time and setting up for poses, especially challenging balancing poses which help the body stay clam and focused.
To begin, I prefer to start in a high lunge with the ams extended overhead. From the high lunge posture, sink a little bit deeper in the hips or as i like to say, “take a dip in the hips”, on the exhalation kick off your back foot and balance on your front leg. Continuing to gaze at your drishti, begin to hinge at the hips, reaching your arms forward and reaching your heal back behind you. Continue to breath, as the body begins to create a capital “T”. Spread the toes of the balancing foot to firmly ground it to the earth. Keep the abdominal’s engaged to protect the lower back. Continue to reach and lengthen the spine. Keep length in the back of the neck, relax the shoulders and breath full deep expansive inhalations and exhalation. Feel the strength in the arms and back extended leg and breath into this wonderful strengthening asana.
To exit the posture, slowly bring the left foot back to the ground, as you are now in the high lunge again. Step the right foot back onto plank pose and go through a chaturanga and prepare for the other side of the body. Always continue to breath and listen to your body. Feel the great strength of Warrior III.
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As all summers tend to, this past summer flew by quickly. Kids are already back to school and the days are growing noticeably shorter. While many lament the end of summer, I think there’s a beauty that comes with autumn that is not limited to watching the leaves change color.

We spend our summers working hard to take advantage of the long sunny days. Happily breaking routine, we take trips, send children to camps, and visit the beach. Exciting and sometimes exhausting, our summers are different from the rest of the year and we love them for the new, fresh energy they offer.

As summer represents change, I feel autumn represents a return to stability and a sense of grounding. The idea of having a daily routine seems to carry a negative connotation in our culture, but a routine can be a powerful tool to keep our minds and bodies healthy. With summer over, we return to a more regular work, yoga, and dietary schedule and our bodies often respond happily to such normalcy. If you’re looking to make changes in your life, autumn is a great time to create new habits and develop a new routine. Celebrate the equinox today and celebrate the beautiful comfort that autumn brings.  –Michelle Laxton

Please enjoy this poem By Rumi,

Different degrees of Domination and Servitude

are what you know as love

But Love is different

It arrives complete like the Full Moon at the Window

Seek only That of which you have no clue

Step out of the circle of Time and into the Circle of Love.

This is  not the Nile River or some small creek

This is the Shoreless Sea

Here, swimming ends always in Drowning.

There are so many variations of our understanding of love.  The Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hahn says that space is the greatest love one can give.”  In yoga our practice is to create space in our body through stretching, breathing and deep relaxation.  If our practice causes us to feel contracted or tight it is time to re-evaluate our attitude toward our practice.  “Does my practice engender space to be filled with loving energy?”

As our practice is a representation of our lives, it is nice to ask ourselves “am I creating situations in my life to provide spacioiusness in my mind, relationships, activities, work and play?”  When we create the space, the energy will naturally come and we feel as if our movements and activities are effortless.  The key to this is mindful movements, mindful thoughts and mindful breaths.

Whenever I begin to feel as if I am getting ahead of myself the words of my good friend and yoga teacher Manel Rodriguez come to mind “Space it out man, space it out.”

peace and love,

Joshua

Joshua@all1mind.org

I was reading a book by Rudolph Steiner the other day: he founded the Waldorf Schools. The book is about accessing the higher realms of reality and he wrote that one of the most important things in the journey is to have confidence in one’s goal. If we have confidence in our goal then we will trust that the goal itself will provide us what we need as we journey forward. One of the teaching from ancient Indian philosophy is: when the student is ready the teacher appears. The universe will provide us with all we need to move forward but we must be clear on where we are going and allign our goals with our deepest nature.
–Sujantra

When I first started practicing yoga, the majority of my thoughts during class were focused on making sure my expression of the postures was as close to textbook (i.e. Yoga Journal) as possible. It was hard enough trying to decipher which pose blah-blah-blah-asana was, but then attempting to align everything from my toes to the crown of my head was enough to send my thoughts spinning. I’m not sure if it was several months or several years later, but eventually the postures became familiar, the yogic breath became a habit, and my practice became much more fluid. I cared less about how the poses looked and more about how they felt, and with that my expression of the postures changed.

When I practice now, I try to let my thoughts rest exclusively on my breath in order that the poses may become an expression of what my mind, heart, and physical body need. Some days I find stillness in the postures helps to ground me while other days I want to play, trying new variations and flowing dynamically. By staying present with each moment of your practice, you will discover which expression makes the most sense for you at that exact point in time. In this way, your yoga will more fully meet the changing needs of your mind-body-heart, keeping your physical body safe, your mind steady, and your heart happy. –Michelle Laxton

Sometimes when my yoga practice feels stale and I need a resurgence of that je ne sais qua to reinvigorate my flow, I watch a video clip of Seane Corn demonstrating yoga as body prayer. Seane Corn is known around the world as a talented teacher and practitioner of Vinyasa Yoga as well as Karma Yoga. While I’ve never attended one of her workshops or taken her classes, her energy as a yogini reaches me all the same through the net.  

In this short You Tube clip, Seane demonstrates just one round of Surya Namaskar/Sun Salutation B. The asanas and sequencing are familiar, but the beauty and intensity of her flow is always powerful enough to re-awaken my passion for yoga. It’s easy to move from posture to posture while letting the mind run wild. For me, the real work is presence: staying connected to each asana and ensuring that my movements are a reflection of my intention. This is a practice that will never get stale, but will continue to challenge, teach, and inspire me. –Michelle Laxton

Seane Corne Demonstrating Yoga as Body Prayer

We often hear the idea expressed that we are “one” with the universe and it is put forth as a spiritual reality. Thinking about it a bit brought me to the idea that we are also one with the universe in a physical sense in that we cannot exist without our physical connection to our environment.
When I think of being connected to something I think of it in terms of my existence is part and parcel of that to which I am connected. We are part of a whole. Without air I cannot exist. Without water, and moisture, and food I cannot exist. Therefore they are part of me.
Our link with the physical reality is a reflection of our spiritual connection to the universe.

Sujantra

During meditation we are able to experience a deep peace: it may be in our body, mind, emotions or heart.

Regardless of where we experience the sensation it is this very peace that is the seed of the universe. Just as a river flows through many different lands and terrains so to does that seed of peace flow and animate many parts of our being.

By feeling and focusing on that peace you can trace it back to the Source. That conscious experience is illumination.