I'm often surprised at how easily conversation comes with complete strangers. I was standing in line at Central Market in Dallas when I heard the cashier call out for me to come forward. Apparently I was in a reverie, momentarily unaware of my surroundings. Just daydreaming, I told her, to which she responded nothing wrong with that. Then for some reason I said that maybe people would be better off spending more time daydreaming, exploring where they go. She agreed, and asked if I had ever been in an isolation tank. No. I've really been wanting to do that she told me. Some friends say it's very scary but I want to try it. I began thinking about that. An isolation or flotation tank is certainly a place where one is completely alone with oneself, with total quiet, with darkness, floating in water. One of the many themes Patricia brought up during the workshop was the exploration of our own areas of darkness, our inner caves. These caves can be psychological, physical, or spiritual. But, it is important to go there, whether in asana, meditation, or pranayama. It is in our caves that we discover the unknown about ourselves as these caves can be places where things are hiding, things we need to bring into the light of knowing, of understanding. It's all about exploration and discovery of aspects of self. The inner light of divinity, the spark of enlightenment, the repressed feelings we have never been able to acknowledge, our infinite wisdom as well as acceptance of our limitations or restrictions. It is so fascinating. She is an extraordinary teacher and I think that maybe to many students she is to them what Iyengar was to her, certainly for those of us who have never worked with Iyengar. She shared so much with the group about her feelings surrounding his death, various conversations she had had with him over the decades, his suffering that probably propelled him to such unbelievable heights, his own transformations, his incomparable dedication to his path which had so much to do with his students. When Patricia mentioned that she was having difficulty coming to terms with the fact that she would never actually see him or be with him again, and that she would suddenly awaken from a nap in a startled state of disbelief that he was truly gone, it reminded me of nearly identical feelings I had when my mother died. I grieved for a year. The next morning while driving to class, I found myself feeling very sad and wondering what was going on to trigger such feelings and tears. I realized that my partner has in many ways been the most important teacher I've ever had in my life. He has taught me so much, from patience and mindfulness to responsibility, to get out there and live life as fully as possible, to travel, to explore new cultures, meet new people, to be myself fully, practice all things with discipline and moderation, overcome debilitating fears, and much more. All that, and he has saved my life, more than once. So I realized that of all the people in the world, he has had the most positive influence on me in countless ways. He has loved me unconditionally, been supportive of my sojourns and explorations into new arenas and journeys, and he has always been there, to listen without judgment but give truthful feedback. When I think of the possibility that perhaps, just maybe, one day he will no longer be around I simply find that thought incomprehensible. It is something I cannot fathom. So, Patricia's talk of Guruji's passing triggered a deep longing in me to be with Dale, to hold on to him, to be grateful for him, and to hope he will be with me for a long, long time to come.
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Every hour a child in India dies from rabies, and nearly all of these deaths are linked to dog bites. Stray dogs, many of them carrying rabies, are one of India's multitude of problems. Recently a young, iridescent green hummingbird crashed into the living room window making a loud enough thump to cause me to get up and investigate. He had fallen onto the glass top table where I feed the stray tom cat. I wrapped the hummer in a cotton cloth, placed him in a shoebox, and left him to recover in the darkness of a top closet shelf. Hours later I took him outside and watched him fly away when he heard the sound of a nearby hummer at the feeding station hanging in front of the kitchen window. There was no blood and no broken bones, which is not always the case. It was a blessing to watch him fly away. Blessing is derived from the word blood, and can mean something that is infused with sacredness. I watched a documentary yesterday on Emmett Till after listening to Dominique Christina reciting her award winning poetry. In 1955 Emmett was viciously beaten to death for whistling at a white woman in Money, Mississippi. He was found in the Tallahatchie River with a cotton gin fan tied to his neck with barbed wire. It was one of the sparks that ignited the Civil Rights movement.
My original intent when creating a blog was to continue journaling using a blog as opposed to writing on paper. Knowing that what I write is available for anyone to read, it makes me more attentive to my writing but also tends to make me slightly censor myself. Self censorship is not something I want to practice. So, I must say that I have been struggling too much with thinking what people may think, and this is a practice that bears no fruit and is largely fictitious projecting. So I am going to get back into a more stream of consciousness writing.
Our emotions are often easily interpreted by others who look at our naked faces. I was fascinated to learn that our facial expressions actually can have an effect on our emotions. In other words, if you are not angry, but you purposely make an angry face, eventually your body/mind will respond with a heartbeat that escalates by 10 or 15 beats a minute, adrenalin will get released into your system, and so on. Therefore, when we practice yoga, having a calm face can have a significant effect on our mental state. If we struggle using our facial muscles, we will begin struggling in many other ways, and there can be the residual effect. The reverse is also true.
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I think I will always remember the day of 9/11, the day of JFK's assassination, and now I think I will always remember the day BKS Iyengar died. From my perspective he was a genius with a strong drive to help himself and to help others using the ancient art and science of yoga which he brought forward into the modern world as much if not more than anyone ever has. He created a yoga center in Pune in honor of his wife, a foundation for children in his home town, wrote many great books including the extraordinary Light on Yoga and Light on Life, to name only two. He will continue to inspire for many generations to come. On that particular day as I was leaving the house I came upon small fawn trapped between the metal railings of a neighbor's fence. Until fawns reach a certain age, they cannot follow their mothers when they jump across fences but must find ways to get around the fence or get through it. This fawn tried to go through the fence, got nearly all the way through, then got stuck in her hip area. I can only imagine how many hours she must have struggled to free herself. Shortly thereafter I saw a film on Facebook in which a good Samaritan released a fawn stuck in between the railing of a metal fence identical to the one I saw that day. But alas, there was no good Samaritan to rescue this young animal. Only the evening before I walked this exact route and she was not there, so it had happened sometime after I had walked by, about 12 hours earlier. She was dead and the vultures were fast at work doing what they are meant to do. Still, I felt a great sense of sadness for the young deer whose life was cut so short by happenstance. A few days ago I witnessed a grackle aggressively stabbing a small bird to death on the sidewalk. It was brutal, and my intervention was too late. The youngster died about 5 minutes after my attempted rescue. Death is with us all the time in a variety of forms, but when we feel the loss of someone we have been close too, or been influenced by, or someone we greatly admire, it is natural to feel sad, natural to find it hard to come to terms with their permanent absence, natural to awaken in a startled state of realization that they are indeed forever gone.
***********************
Science and technology advance to staggering heights as brilliant individuals across the globe delve deeper into their research; at the same time, barbarism and brutality spread across countries and destroy far more lives than the deadly Ebola virus. I watched part of a documentary that filmed individuals in Asia who had been responsible for thousands of brutal deaths. They were proud of the roles they played in purging Communists from their countries, proud of the horrific torture they inflicted, all with the support of their regimes' leaders. I couldn't finish watching the film. Others give freely to the needy, provide medical support for the sick, food for the hungry, companionship to the lonely and isolated.
*************************
Every hour a child in India dies from rabies, and nearly all of these deaths are linked to dog bites. Stray dogs, many of them carrying rabies, are one of India's multitude of problems. Recently a young, iridescent green hummingbird crashed into the living room window making a loud enough thump to cause me to get up and investigate. He had fallen onto the glass top table where I feed the stray tom cat. I wrapped the hummer in a cotton cloth, placed him in a shoebox, and left him to recover in the darkness of a top closet shelf. Hours later I took him outside and watched him fly away when he heard the sound of a nearby hummer at the feeding station hanging in front of the kitchen window. There was no blood and no broken bones, which is not always the case. It was a blessing to watch him fly away. Blessing is derived from the word blood, and can mean something that is infused with sacredness. I watched a documentary yesterday on Emmett Till after listening to Dominique Christina reciting her award winning poetry. In 1955 Emmett was viciously beaten to death for whistling at a white woman in Money, Mississippi. He was found in the Tallahatchie River with a cotton gin fan tied to his neck with barbed wire. It was one of the sparks that ignited the Civil Rights movement.
My original intent when creating a blog was to continue journaling using a blog as opposed to writing on paper. Knowing that what I write is available for anyone to read, it makes me more attentive to my writing but also tends to make me slightly censor myself. Self censorship is not something I want to practice. So, I must say that I have been struggling too much with thinking what people may think, and this is a practice that bears no fruit and is largely fictitious projecting. So I am going to get back into a more stream of consciousness writing.
Our emotions are often easily interpreted by others who look at our naked faces. I was fascinated to learn that our facial expressions actually can have an effect on our emotions. In other words, if you are not angry, but you purposely make an angry face, eventually your body/mind will respond with a heartbeat that escalates by 10 or 15 beats a minute, adrenalin will get released into your system, and so on. Therefore, when we practice yoga, having a calm face can have a significant effect on our mental state. If we struggle using our facial muscles, we will begin struggling in many other ways, and there can be the residual effect. The reverse is also true.
*********************************
I think I will always remember the day of 9/11, the day of JFK's assassination, and now I think I will always remember the day BKS Iyengar died. From my perspective he was a genius with a strong drive to help himself and to help others using the ancient art and science of yoga which he brought forward into the modern world as much if not more than anyone ever has. He created a yoga center in Pune in honor of his wife, a foundation for children in his home town, wrote many great books including the extraordinary Light on Yoga and Light on Life, to name only two. He will continue to inspire for many generations to come. On that particular day as I was leaving the house I came upon small fawn trapped between the metal railings of a neighbor's fence. Until fawns reach a certain age, they cannot follow their mothers when they jump across fences but must find ways to get around the fence or get through it. This fawn tried to go through the fence, got nearly all the way through, then got stuck in her hip area. I can only imagine how many hours she must have struggled to free herself. Shortly thereafter I saw a film on Facebook in which a good Samaritan released a fawn stuck in between the railing of a metal fence identical to the one I saw that day. But alas, there was no good Samaritan to rescue this young animal. Only the evening before I walked this exact route and she was not there, so it had happened sometime after I had walked by, about 12 hours earlier. She was dead and the vultures were fast at work doing what they are meant to do. Still, I felt a great sense of sadness for the young deer whose life was cut so short by happenstance. A few days ago I witnessed a grackle aggressively stabbing a small bird to death on the sidewalk. It was brutal, and my intervention was too late. The youngster died about 5 minutes after my attempted rescue. Death is with us all the time in a variety of forms, but when we feel the loss of someone we have been close too, or been influenced by, or someone we greatly admire, it is natural to feel sad, natural to find it hard to come to terms with their permanent absence, natural to awaken in a startled state of realization that they are indeed forever gone.
***********************
Science and technology advance to staggering heights as brilliant individuals across the globe delve deeper into their research; at the same time, barbarism and brutality spread across countries and destroy far more lives than the deadly Ebola virus. I watched part of a documentary that filmed individuals in Asia who had been responsible for thousands of brutal deaths. They were proud of the roles they played in purging Communists from their countries, proud of the horrific torture they inflicted, all with the support of their regimes' leaders. I couldn't finish watching the film. Others give freely to the needy, provide medical support for the sick, food for the hungry, companionship to the lonely and isolated.
