Category: Yoga

I heard an interview this week with Jeff Bridges. He recited these remembrances, which Buddhists are encouraged to recall daily:

• I am of the nature to grow old; I cannot avoid aging.
• I am of the nature to become ill or injured; I cannot avoid illness or injury
• I am of the nature to die; I cannot avoid death.
• All that is mine, dear and delightful, will change and vanish.
• I am the owner of my actions;
  I am born of my actions;
  I am related to my actions;
  I am supported by my actions;
  Any thoughts, words or deeds I do, good or evil, those I will inherit.

from AN V.57  Upajjhatthana Sutta: Subjects for Contemplation

via www.insighmeditation.org

If you’ve been trying to keep straight the beta->alpha->theta progression that happens in meditation, here’s a nice infographic by Timmy Kucynda, reblogged from Yogadork on the brainwave frequencies.

This spring, I posted here about an experience sighting a topless woman in Union Square. I presumed she was engaged in a performance art piece.

I got an update this week, meeting said woman in an unlikely place: Sivananda Ashram in the Catskills, where she was part of my stepson’s graduating yoga teacher training group. She described her project during the closing activities.

Moira Johnston’s topless strolls are in fact woman’s activism, sparked in an situation involving a yoga class that included topless men. Moira wanted the freedom to do the same and learned that in New York State, women are free to go topless. She has been raising awareness (and no doubt eyebrows) ever since. Here’s a link to an advocacy organization with a video she did on the Daily Beast. Moira’s blog is www.toplessmoira.com.

I was pleased that my reaction back in March was pretty much on the target with what she is trying to say.

A yoga student asked me to please clarify why desire is bad — wasn’t desiring to be better at what you do or wanting hunger to end a good thing? The distinction is two-fold. First, desire pulls you out of the moment; being out of the moment makes it impossible to achieve a state of samadhi, or the union of all aspects of yourself to experience things as they are. Second, when you tune in to that state, and do what you intuit or decide is a good action — like working to be a good musician or to end world hunger — the intuition and the action are in the moment and are done without concern for the outcome. Desire is an add on, the want of what is not, and perhaps, for all you know, what should not be what you do or get. To be without desire is to work without attachment to the results. (p.s., this is not easy ;-)

28. I do not desire a large screen, nor do I desire an LCD projector.
29. I do not desire new clothes or boots.
30. I do not desire a vintage auto.
31. I do not desire a large turnout.
32. I do not desire recognition of my [talent/wisdom/accomplishments].
33. I do not desire agreement with my point of view.
34. I do not desire to win in the competition of the market.
35. I do not desire that more people read my book.

This is part of a 40-day practice to notice and sidestep desires.

21. I do not desire [name removed to protect the innocent and guilty].
22. I do not desire as much knowledge as John Schaefer has.
23. I do not desire to be right.
24. I do not desire to be able to accomplish [insert challenging yoga pose].
25. I do not desire an easy answer to this problem.
26. I do not desire a day off.
27. I do not desire that this part is over.

This is part of a 40-day practice to notice and sidestep desires.

I do not desire more money.

This is part of a 40-day series during which I identify and sidestep desires.

I do not desire the iPhone 5.

this is part of a 40-day series of becoming conscious of and sidestepping desire…

“The Karma Yogi, having abandoned the fruit of action, obtains eternal peace or release which comes of wisdom, while, he who, being prompted by desire, is attached to them, becomes bound.” Gita: Chapter V-12.

see more — much more — from Sivananda on how all the yoga paths support each other, starting, and ending, with karma yoga.

I do not desire great films instead of more films about psychopaths.