But unless you are thoroughly familiar with it,
You will be like an infant on a battlefield:
The enemy ‘thinking’ will run all over you.”
- Longchenpa
You may have recognized your nature,
But unless you are thoroughly familiar with it, You will be like an infant on a battlefield: The enemy ‘thinking’ will run all over you.” - Longchenpa "My grandpa Max, the junkman would say in Yiddish' The wheel is always turning.' What he meant was how to behave toward people. The person on the bottom of the wheel, you'd better be nice to because at some point you're going to be on the bottom. - Mandy Patinkin
There is an eastern Tibetan saying: 'Words are the wellspring of all strife.' The voice is the instigator of quarrels. The tongue, being as nasty as it is,does not want to stay silent, and so begin all kinds of quarrels. - Tulku Urgyen
To cultivate a more serene mind and greater inner calm, try this meditation practice for a mere five minutes. 1. Sit quietly (floor or chair) and place a hand on your stomach area. 2. Breath normally. 3. Pay close attention to the abdomen rising as you inhale. 4. Pay close attention to the abdomen falling. 5. Continue paying close attention as you silently say "rising" on the inhale and "falling" on the exhale. 6. Finally, drop using "rising" and "falling" but simply focus on the upward and downward body sensation. Do this for five minutes. More if you have the time and inclination. Although I have plowed more than harvested, I am satisfied. - Hsing Yun
With apologies to all my massage therapist friends, here's what Mr. Iyengar says about massage:
"You should not mis massage with yoga. If you do some good yoga, then take a massage, just see what will happen to you the next day. You will be half dead! Massage is relaxing but it is forced relaxation, coming from an external manipulation. Yoga is extension - extensions giving freedom for the body to relax by itself. This is natural relaxation." Source: The Tree of Yoga A study recently published in the journal Experimental Psychology reveals that it's the yoga, not the "hot" part that is of benefit. Specifically focusing on Bikram hot yoga practice, researcher Stacy Hunter, an assistant professor in the department of health and human performance at Texas State University says: "It’s definitely showing benefits to the 26-posture sequence (practiced in a Birkam session). It just doesn’t seem like the heat is necessary in terms of improving heart health.” In the study, 52 healthy but previously sedentary adults were assigned to a group: 19 people went to three hot Bikram yoga classes per week, while 14 took the exact same classes in a 73-degree room. A control group of 19 people didn’t do any yoga at all. After 12 weeks, the researchers assessed everyone’s vascular health by looking at changes in endothelial function, or the ability of blood vessels to dilate in response to increased blood flow. Both yoga groups saw changes that indicated a lower risk of heart disease, while the control group did not. The heat of "hot" yoga did not appear to be responsible for any of the yoga benefit. In fact, previous research has indicated that the high heat and humidity may be detrimental as it raises the body's internal temperature to unsafe levels. According to the Pew Research Center, Hindu-Americans have the highest retention of any religion in the United States, with a full 80 percent of those raise Hindu still identifying with Hinduism as adults. In comparison, the rate among mainline Protestants is only 45 percent.
This is not surprising due to the nature of Hinduism, whose philosophical and cultural traditions encompass several religious viewpoints including monism, pantheism, panentheism, henotheism, monotheism, polytheism, and atheism. Most Hindus are either immigrants or the children of immigrants from India, Nepal, Guyana, and Suriname, although there are some from non-desi (South Asian) backgrounds. One who truly knows how to listen, listens to the sound of silence. One who genuinely knows how to look, looks at the inner world. - Ming Tu
In his book, The Tree of Yoga, B. K. S. Iyengar's last chapter is about yoga teachers. Here are some of his thoughts about yoga and yoga teachers: 1. Yoga teachers should quit bragging about having been in India Here is what yoga master, Iyengar states so clearly: "I remember very well when India was under the power of England and France. Indians who had visited Europe used to put a notice in their houses proclaiming 'France returned' or 'England returned' as if theyh were extraordinay and privileged persons. The same thing is happening now in yoga. Students from the West come to India and 'India returned' yogis are teaching yoga all over the place....God alone know how much experience they have or what is the quality of their work." 2. Yoga teachers should not teach if they don't have a personal practice. Iyengar is tired of hearing from yoga instructors who say they don't have a personal practice but "nevertheless know what they are doing. I tell them they should stop teaching if they do not practice for themselves." He also warns cautions teachers not to go "beyond the frontiers of your knowledge." 3. Done properly, yoga teaching is very challenging. "It is relatively easy to be a teacher of an academic subject, but to be a teacher in an art is very difficult, and to be a yoga teacher is the hardest of all," he says. Why? Because a good yoga teacher has to be self-critical in order to improve his or her practice; because a good yoga teacher has to understand how the body works; because a good yoga teacher has to understand his or her student's bodies and how to best respond and protect them. 4, Yoga teacher must always be learning. "They will learn from their pupils and must have the humility to tell them that they are still earning their art," he says and adds that a good yoga teacher is a very positive person who instill confidence in the student. 5. Yoga is a spiritual practice. "To live spiritually is to live in the present moment," Iyengar notes. Yoga becomes a deeply spiritual practice "as long as no other thoughts come to you" and you remain in the moment and fully in the pose. (PS - feel free to repost or link to your social media) |
Victor M. Parachin ...is aVedic educator, yoga instructor, Buddhist meditation teacher and author of a dozen books. Buy his books at amazon or your local bookstore. Archives
May 2024
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