Yin-Yang-Yoga

Tag: Yoga

  • Harmonic Function in Sound Healing

    Ever since I heard of the ideas presented by Leonard Bernstein in his Harvard lecture series "The Unanswered Question", I have been fascinated with the potentially proto-linguistic dimensions of music.

    As I have spent the past several years working in the domain of sound-baths and other auditory endeavors, as well as furthering my decades of yoga and qigong practice, these ideas of harmonic function have grown all the more compelling and enticing.  

    Could there be a relationship between the grounded, stable quality of the root-chakra and the 1st scale degree of any given musical key? 

    Could it be that the 4th scale degree of any musical key will stimulate the heart-chakra?

    If you have any examples of high-quality studies exploring the mechanisms of sound and its correlation with subtle-anatomy or physiology, please leave a comment!

  • The Practice: A Poem

    WUJI: NO-Polarity
    To Know Taiji, one must practice Wuji…
    Be Still and Quiet…
    Observe EVERYTHING happening around you…
    Now shift ALL of that focus to just yourSelf…

    Notice any undue Effort or Tension…give it to Gravity instead…
    Notice your BReath…Notice your Breath…Notice the Motion…
    Notice the RHYTHM…
    Notice the Pace…
    Relax and just let it happen
    This Is;
    The Practice

  • Living The Path

    On the spiritual Path, every single moment is part of your Practice.

    Whatever you are doing right now, is what you are Practicing.

    What are you Practicing right now?

    In our Wednesday AM TaiChi class, we discussed the importance of practicing outside of class, even if it is something very small or seemingly inconsequential.

    The important thing is that we are developing the capacity to focus and invest some Time and Energy in the present moment.

    The ability to be mindful in this manner gradually expands, and as it does, the scope of our Practice also expands.

    When practicing a TaiChi movement or posture, what other qualities are you Practicing?

    Judgment?

    Jealousy?

    Frustration?

    Relaxation?

    Contentment?

    Taken in its broadest sense, every single moment of Life is your Practice.

    How you choose to respond to, and engage with, the world and your experiences is your true Practice.

    What are you Practicing?

  • Is Yoga a Religion?

    Yoga is NOT a religion.

    Religion is a Yoga!

    Yoga means to join, to connect, or unify.

    The term “Yoga” can be used to describe this connection, as well as to describe the methods for achieving it.

    In a secular sense, this might mean connection between the Mind and Body through physical postures and disciplined breath. The connected state of “Yoga” is achieved through the practice of (Hatha) Yoga.

    In a religious sense, Yoga is a connection to God or something of a Divine Nature.

    The studying or recitation of Scripture can cultivate such a connection.

    Prayer is a method for achieving the connection.

    All religious practice, strictly speaking, is either Yoga or merely empty ritual.

    The major Religions of the World are all systems of Yoga.

    All of them can be used to achieve a state of Yoga.

    The word Yoga describes both the method and the result.

    Anyone who authentically practices a Religion is already a Yogi.

    Anyone who seeks connection or wholeness, even an Atheist, is already a Yogi.

    Practice YOUR Yoga.

  • Always Fresh

    “The Present” is perpetually renewed and you must become adept at flowing with It.

    The instant you try to pin it down you lose It, so the only option is to keep a very casual focus, not thinking or analyzing anything, just allowing yourself to observe and notice Things…

    If you are truly doing this, there will not be sufficient Time to Like or Dislike anything. It takes too long to discern and contemplate.

    Nothing should make sense or no-sense.

    Making Sense takes too much Time.

    Staying in this radical state of “Is”-ness can be difficult, which is why there are Practices, and why most of us need to Practice daily!

  • Three Seconds is More Than Enough


    This morning we were reminded that the quintessential skill of genuine TaiChi Practice takes less than three seconds.

    Cultivating Awareness of your Body and Mind happens the instant you allow it.

    Checking in with your posture and making physical adjustments can happen in less than three seconds.

    Noticing that your Mind is wandering, and bringing it back to the task at hand, can happen in less than three seconds.

    The only impediment to Practice is your commitment to the belief that you cannot.

  • No Failure, Only Feedback

    Toppling out of a challenging Yoga posture is important, because our reaction is the true substance of the Practice.

    The posture is just a petri dish to observe yourself in.

    When you fall out, how do you respond?

    Some of us get angry. Some of us feel defeated. There is frustration. Sometimes there is a feeling of despair or disgust. Ever get envious or competitive after flailing out of a posture?

    Notice your reaction and then get back in the posture, but do so more attentively.

    Be aware of what you can do differently each time; focus on a single, clear objective with every attempt.

    The ability to perceive subtle information from your Body, and to command the Body with the Mind and Breath, is the greatest benefit of the physical Practice of Yoga.

    Stay focused on listening more intently and being more present with every moment of your experience in-to, and out-of, postures.

    With this mindset there is only feedback about the posture and yourself in a given moment. There is no such thing as failure when you are only exploring.

    The only failure is to stop exploring.

  • That’s a Door. That’s a Wall.

    Out on The Way, there comes a point where you either turn left or right. It’s a fork in the road, as They say. If you turn left, you will encounter a wide-variety of distractions and oddities. There are countless details, funny little snags and plenty to chew on; Zigs and Zags galore.

    If you turn right, there is a much cleaner experience. Things are fairly straightforward. The path is well-maintained and very obvious. No frills or fanfare, just a path to follow.

    This is how it is.

    And it isn’t the case that you cannot switch. If you turned right and wish you hadn’t, you can struggle through the untamed brush and arrive on the other path. Likewise, if you turned left and are overwhelmed by it’s lack of clarity, you can trudge through to the other path (it’s easy to find, since it’s so predictable!).

    Ultimately, both paths work. They lead to the same destination.

    The funny part is, the destination is where you were before you ever came to the fork in the road. The Beginning is the End.

    And yet, once you’ve set out on The Way, you have to pick a path. Turn left, or turn right. It doesn’t matter which path you take, but you will have to walk it (or bounce back and forth between them) because that’s The Way. IT. IS.

    You can use the methods of thinking and analyzing to get there. You can use the methods of chaos and intuition to get there. It won’t make a difference in the end because getting there means arriving HERE.

    We’re out on The Way for a reason. Most of us are living out the fable of the Musk Deer.

    This poor ol’ Musk Deer roams the forest, searching for the source of the marvelous scent he has picked up on. Looking everywhere, he never seems to find it. Forever seeking, never finding, because the scent is coming from him. If he just stood still, he’d be all set.

    We are very much the same. We seek peace. We seek relaxation. We seek health and wellness, among so many other things. None of them are meaningfully outside of ourselves. That isn’t the Nature of Things.

    You cannot experience anything outside of yourself.

    You ARE an experience.

    It’s already happening.

    ALL THE TIME.

    The Mind and Body are doorways. TaiChi and Yoga are doorways. We are invited to walk through if we choose. Some doorways take us to the left, others to the right. All of them are useful, all of them are valid.

    But you have to go through. You have to keep walking.

    The need to understand the path is a wall.

    Attachment to the path is a wall.

    You have to keep walking.

    If you just sit down and refuse to keep walking, you will only delay your arrival.

    It does very little good to be mad that you are out and about. We have to get back.

    So you just keep walking the path.

    And when you finally realize you have re-arrived at the “destination”, you simply stay for as long as you can.

    All these paths and doors will lead you to that place. But you have to do the walking.

    And when you find yourself “There” (which is to say “Here”) you have to do the staying.

    And inevitably, by our own design or not, you will end up lurching off the mark again and have to take another walk.

    And each time this occurs, we run into the forks in the road; so we choose a path and we walk it until we get back again.

    There isn’t much else going on with this “Being Human”.

    Find your doors and go through. Acknowledge your path and keep walking.

    If you’re already There (again, read: HERE), then just stay put.

    Don’t put up a wall where you’ve been given a door.

  • S**T.

    Surely everybody knows the phenomenon: you go to the bathroom and the result doesn’t match the expectation. You might think you’re going to evict days worth of food and get rabbit pellets. You might plop down expecting nothing to happen at all and require the courtesy flush! That’s life, eh?

    Practice sometimes feels the same way.

    Oftentimes when it seems like our efforts won’t be fruitful is when we get the wildest results, or have the most incredible experiences.

    If ever there were a meaningful case for DailyPractice, surely this is it.

    There are no guarantees that we will have epiphanies or transcendent highs, but if we don’t attend to Practice we are assured to not have such moments.

    The Gretzky-classic goes, “You miss one-hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.”

    Even when it seems irrelevant or unimportant, Practice.

    There aren’t substitutes or shortcuts. You just do the work.

    Sometimes it will feel wonderful and amazing.

    Sometimes it will feel procedural or difficult.

    But Practice is not about how it feels in that moment. It’s about tending to the moment, no doubt, but Practice is largely just for Practice’s sake. You do it because you can.

    Because you want to.

    Because you have to.

    Because what you develop through Practice pays off when it’s time for “performance”, so to speak.

    You don’t have to like Practice to get results. But you will have to do it.

    Shit.

  • 🕉

    Om was The Word/

    That still Occurs/
    PeacePeacePeace…