mind body planet

Last time o here I was talking about meditation ad particularly I was focusing on the south Asian forms of buddhist meditation as taught by people like the Dalai Lama. I finished by saying that for me as a former Yoga teacher I tend to look at the physical form of the body and the ways in which it is held to be just as important to the overall effectiveness of the practice as the inner dialogue itself. The degree of subtlety that Buddhists tend to see inwardly with their use of various meditation practices is also reflected in the body as there are countless forms and combinations of bodily postures of asanas which will greatly effect the nature of said inner dialogue and the ability for the practitioner to maintain focus on that line of thought.

For my own practice of meditation I tend to look to Yoga as well as to Zen meditation for it’s use of the pillow. In Zen the meditating person will seat themselves upon what is comply called a mediation pillow. There are plenty of web sites where you can pick up sets of the pillows as well as meditation benches to put things such as tea and literature upon while practicing. These pillows work to correct the effects of gravity upon the spine which will naturally weigh down the practitioner ad cause some discomfort after prolonged practice even in those with strong lower back muscles. Once on a pad like this there are many different seats for the practitioner to use that will all be effective to different degrees in different people. I believe that as all people have a different physical past so will each posture focus energies within the body in different ways. You have to find a combination that works. Some common seats are swastikasana, full lotus, half lotus, quarter lotus, kneeling, or on a chair if you can’t sit in any of these. 

After you have chosen leg positioning the next phase is to align the spine and to bring the upper body in to order and comfort. The buttocks should be thrusted out at the onset and remain there. The stomach should be pulled back inward but not constricted when breathing in to the belly. The spine should be straight ad I always begin by stretching up from my spine through my neck and out of the top of my head. The eyes then should be half closed. If the eyes are left open it allows the mind to wader ad if the eyes are closed then drowsiness will take over pretty quickly. After that there is the choice of the mudra, or hand position. Depending on your background this will be different for everyone. Some believe in pressure points. Others who stick to strict zen will simply settle the hands one on the other in the lap. I choose to do chin mudra mainly as I feel it works best with my body type. 

Go out and try all of this stuff. I think the best thing is to play around and have fun while dancing down the path to whatever truth it is you seek. Otherwise you are going to get pretty unhappy out there.

The other day I was i our local coffee shop and I was browsing the books shelves. I typically only buy the old relics on the older shelves, but this time I thought I would hop on over to the newer book section and see if there was anything worth looking at. I saw of course all of the political books and takes on the lives of the candidates that make me want to vomit from political overexposure. I also found plenty of great looking graphic novels that I would never put down until I had sucked out all of the life from those pages. Then I came upon a book that peaked my interest and made me think of all of you readers out there. The huge text books weighed a ton and cost relatively little and I’d like to talk about it right now.

The book is titled Alternative Medicine: the definitive guide by Anderson and Trivieri. This book is basically the ultimate guide to anyone who wants to know all of the methods in which they could seek help for any particular medical condition.  It is set up i a really great style where it is listed first by the different types of conditions that you could hope to heal or remedy with an alternative or complimentary treatment. Conditions as simple as a skin rash all the way to things like cancer which may people choose to treat i ways other than chemotherapy since it is so hard on the body.  After the listings of the conditions it goes on to list in depth each of the different kinds of treatment methodologies that the books has to offer. It is ot meat to be ay kind of a medical text, but for those who really want to know anything about an alternative healing mode. For me I personally found all of the sections on Yoga, Herbal healing, and Chiropractics to be very close to how I myself would explain these methods within the context of a discussion of healing. The way it is presented is a bit dry at times, but they make sure to include plenty of cool diagrams ad pictures to really paint a picture of all the different styles of learning that may be ended to entice people to read and remain interested in such a large book.

IF you are out there wondering what certain modes are about and if there are other ways out there to aid in healing with some condition that you have, pick this one up because it will really help you find what you are looking for.

Yoga Resources

If you are someone like me then you have certainly noticed the extreme growth in popularity of magazines and websites that are meant to disseminate the practice of many, and still climbing, different styles of yoga. Though now we are just awash in it, I still think that it is funny how much can be taken for granted right now. When I read books by guys like Ram Das and he bears all of this knowledge and wisdom as if we have not heard any of it before, but today it is a completely different picture than what he was dealing with at the time. Just twenty years ago people sort of knew what yoga was but unless they had gone out and tried it, it was probably still a very vague idea. Now anyone who has walked through a magazine aisle in the supermarket has seen at least one yoga pose as they glance across the covers. If you have dug a little bit further you will find that the internet is also awash in many stable as well as many budding yoga websites for both the world-wide practices to the one room studios around the country. A lot of the early popularity of the websites came from the base of people reading the magazines but now, as with television as well, people have begun to convert their primary source of information gathering to the web. Though this hasn’t stopped magazines from functioning, it has prompted the bigger names to turn their website in to a source completely separate from the magazine as well as a supplement to the hard materials.

My favorite of all of the internet websites is the site for the magazine called Yoga Journal. Their website simply Yogajournal.com is a huge resource for the beginner and a great supplement for the teacher or experienced practitioner. Basically built around the premise of yoga teachers giving out their own advice and wisdom on the nature of poses and the ancient art form of yoga, this site gives you everything you need. Constantly updating articles reach in to every area of practice on and off the mat. The special section built simply around ayurveda medicine is a huge wealth of knowledge on the ancient Indian form of healing and general health in the modern world. Though all the while preaching about a form of discipline that is over two thousand years old, this site provides you with a modern idea of what yoga means for all of us. Also, as a yoga teacher and student , I feel that the constantly updated takes on all of the poses is great because it allows anyone coming to the site to find something a little different within what they have been practicing all along.

Something interesting that I am seeing lately also is prenatal yoga and simple yoga for toddlers. Parenting and integrating yoga at a very young age will open their minds to this medium early.

If you are out there surfing the net right now and would like to learn a bit more about yoga, please check this or any of the other yoga websites out. As with any other topic on the net, the bigger the site the more information swirling around and so you may just want to try the big ones and not get scared off. I certainly recommend this site in particular because it has been of huge value for myself and other students I have taught in the past.

Yoga’s Role

In this country today we have received the best and the worst that the other cultures of this world have to offer. We have gotten all of their best and brightest, which may be changing, and we have managed to make them our own unique product in some way, shape, or form. With every one of our own cultural interpretations of other practices, we seem to have a hard time finding the same truths in other cultures when we try them on. There must be something inherent in our own culture that doesn’t allow us to see the truth of a situation. One of the biggest items along these lines that I can think of is the role of the Hindu practice of Yoga within our society. Somehow in our cultural view of this ancient art form of life and breath, we have managed to find a way to make it something in the league of jazzercise. It is now something that is viewed here as an exercise routine that is reserved for soccer moms and older women who need something to do to stay out of the hospital. Concurrently we have turned what has been historically a male practice in India in to something that seems to turn men away. Now I don’t know if it has something to do with the American Patriarchic ideal that men should not be in touch with their inner selves, but I would certainly say that I have felt uncomfortable in many Yoga classes because the women feel that I am invading their sacred space. In my experience the majority of people who populate Yoga classes in this country are women and any man how rolls out a mat is either viewed as a possible homosexual or someone who is less that a man. I would like to just say that this is a purely American product of skewed views and prejudice of a practice of self-knowledge that might just be able to heal the problems ailing this country.

Yoga is a practice of joining the mind and the body with the breath in order to move to higher planes of existence. This is not some religious vision or spiritual quest that only ascetics attempt in their wisdom and knowledge which we in this country cannot comprehend. This is something we can all take part in. Though the structure of Yoga classes in this country are typically based on the goal of exercise and flexibility, the efforts of the individual can make all of the difference. Some of the best teachers in the country and in the world understand the true goal of the practice, but if a student doesn’t want to hear the words then they won’t.

The practice of Yoga is meant to calm and aid in the practice of daily life. We all cannot spend our lives on the mat or in seclusion, but we can all be proactive about our own lives and find our own truths within. All we have to do is be patient and have the courage and strength to sit up straight, breath slowly, and listen to the silent voice within ourselves.

I would like to start of my blogging career by just giving an overview of the kinds of things I will discuss on here as well as a little bit of a background on myself. This will be my first blog ever and I will surely hit some snags along the way and run out of things to say eventually, but right now I have plenty of things to spout about. I hope that in all of my ramblings, that I can educate those who are seeking, discuss with those who are learning, and learn from those who are willing. This is my goal, and this is my blog.

My life has always been sort of steeped in the world of the natural way of living you could say. I have only recently had to begin calling my way of life “natural” because people like labels and we can’t deny ourselves that. Since I was a young child in our home, the primary methods of medicine were yoga, and herbs. I have only begun using supplements on my own periodically when I feel that my body could really use something that plants cannot provide in a quick enough time frame. I grew up in a home where there was little to no exposure to television and much of my free time was spent gardening in the summer and reading in the colder months.

Now that I have reached collage age and I am being forced to live in the way that everyone else here must, I have had to make some adjustments to the way in which I live to cope with a reduced amount of natural surroundings to use at my disposal. This has forced me in to the world of local foods and ,at times when I can’t get things at farmer’s markets, organics foods at the grocery store. I look at the way I am living my life right now as sort of a model with which a person can function on a sustainable and natural way of life, even while caught in the grips of faster paced living conditions. I have been walking the path of eco friendly living forever, but now I am out there in the big world with everyone else, just trying to do my part to help with the mess around us.

At this point in my life I have been a yoga teacher, a professional musician, an amateur music therapist, and a farmer. My mother and father were both practitioners of qigong and Reiki. The background that I bring to the table should provide readers and discussers with something interesting at times, and something that they may disagree with at other times. That is the wonderful part of this path. There are so many routes to take and every one is just as valid if they work for you.

I hope that I have given everyone a good taste of what is to come and what may be discussed on here. If anyone has anything that they would like me to bring up, please don’t hesitate to stop me and just ask how I feel or tell me how you feel on something that interests you. Here’s to a wonderful time from here on out. Salute!