one more yoga day today and then it's back to the mad dash working to get the street newz to the printer on thursday.
so here's the scoop on the chakras:
the base chakra, muladhara, is associated with earth and the sound is lum with variations as vowels are added: la, li, lo etc.
the sacral chakra, svadisthana, is connected to water, and the sound we were taught for the purposes of yoga is 'wa.'
manipura is the solar plexus chakra, the fire one, and the sound is 'ra.' be careful with 'ra,' though, because fire goes everywhere and can easily be uncontrollable.
the heart chakra is anahata, and the sound is 'ya' which is the air sound. 'ya' will lift your asanas, make them light. but don't get too light, go back to 'la' to get grounded again.
and we didn't really work much with the throat (vishudda:ether) or the brow (ajna) and crown (sahasrara) chakras which are associated with something beyond, although, of course, we chant 'om' prior to each yoga session.
i remember from my reiki days that the colours of the chakras coincide with the colours of the rainbow, starting at the base chakra: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. and they're equally as magical.
a very cool thing we learned yesterday is about the power of the intelligence. if you take urdhva mukha janu sirsasana and bring your intelligence to the bent leg hip area, then take paschimottanasana and imagine your leg is bent like in the first pose ..... well, try it and see what happens. the baking bread thing from the day before is also useful - putting air into the belly area just below the diaphragm.
birjoo's really focussed on teaching us how to use our own bodies to learn sequencing. it's always about the base, it seems. and finding where the breath is quiet - then you know you're doing it correctly. he's got us looking at the area(s) that might be closed or tight in one pose, then thinking about other poses where that area is open. the idea is to do the pose where the area is open and then, while the consciousness is alerted to the feeling of openness, moving to an asana where the same area is closed and, if required, envisioning the previous pose. it's incredible, the power of mind over matter!
what else did we learn .... something about buying a television and taking your family with you to make that decision, and then buying a car ... i think i lost the learning of that because i couldn't get beyond the car reference. i cycle and mostly hate cars ... a car almost killed me and then there's all the toxic crap and the oil and gas industry and the wars ...
and i also learned that not enough time in savasana makes me feel angry.
but there was an analogy i could relate to about going to a market with lots of stalls. we often practice whimsically, birjoo said, adjusting our postures continually without any real purpose. this is like going to a market and going in and out of the stalls unsure what you want. he encouraged us to take supta padangusthasana imagining that we were only allowed to go into one stall and we had to stay there for an hour. we'll be more careful about which market stall we'll go into, right? and so it is with asanas. using supta padangusthasana we were encouraged to make adjustments and we could stay with the adjustments if we were happy with them. but if we made an adjustment that wasn't correct, that didn't result in quiet mind and slowed breathing, then we had to come out of the pose and try the other leg. i've had really good foundational training so this wasn't much of a challenge for me, though i did learn that if i move my foot inwards my hip lifted. i hadn't noticed that before.
so it's really about going inside and, if you've had training that gives you a good solid foundation so you know how the poses are correctly aligned, then trying to feel why that's so. birjoo encourages us to try and do things wrong, and see what happens. i think we all have a greater appreciation for the insistence on alignment that mr iyengar's method follows, and especially a greater understanding of why we have all those adjustment instructions. and that's still important for beginners, birjoo said, they need to know intellectually what each asana requires. they're building their database. but once that database is established, it's not enough to just do the asanas mechanically, using only the mind, because then yoga becomes stale and we might find we're stuck in bad patterns. we've got to awaken the consciousness, through pranayama, and then apply the intelligence to our poses, use the chakra sounds and other techniques birjoo has shared with us, to understand at a cellular level what the asana is.
it's rather a huge investment, this yoga stuff, but ultimately i feel i'm investing in my own health. if only our rather stale health care system would incorporate such teachings, so we can all be healthier beings infused with the universal energies, feeling empowered and participants in our own lives! ironically, i sit in the yoga room looking across at view towers, one of the biggest, probably the biggest, relatively low income buildings in victoria. i wonder about those people over there, how their lives might change if they had the opportunity of yoga. i think about how this distinction between mind and intelligence can influence people trying to relieve themselves of their addictions, if only they knew the power inside. if only they knew the joy that yoga can bring! i think of mr. iyengar's humble beginnings, of all the years he lived in poverty, even raising his children, and of the school his book sales have built.
i'm thankful to the yoga centre for their bursaries and scholarships that enable me to participate and learn and grow and stay sane.
in day two of birjoo's day yoga intensive we learned about pranayama and the influence of the chakras on our asanas.
pranayama is about engaging with the life force - the prana. some refer to this as the ch'i. if you've experienced reiki, or other energy work, you'll understand. it's the universal life force that infuses everything with its energy. it's different from the breath, though it's accessible through the breath.
birjoo explained that the difference between asanas and pranayama is like the difference between doing carpentry and cooking. with carpentry you're constantly interacting with the piece of wood, chipping at it or sawing it or nailing it until you get the desired result. with cooking you do all the preparation, chopping the vegetables and soaking the rice and making sure the stove is at the right heat, but the actual cooking is beyond your control. lifting the lid off the pot or turning the heat up or down will not help the cooking process. so it is with pranayama - all you can do is create the appropriate environment and then let the universal energy do its thing.
in order to connect with our innermost selves, birjoo had us lay in two different poses - one with our back flat on the floor and our feet raised (on whatever height will ensure the back is flat) with knees spread open (supta baddha konasana), and one with our sacrum resting on blocks or bolsters with shoulders and feet on the floor (setubanda sarvangasana). we were asked to observe our breathing in both postures, to determine whether the will was invoked in the exhale or the inhale on both. normally, our will is required for the inhale, but the exhale just happens on its own. we discovered this to be the case in supta baddha, but in setubanda it was reversed - it was the exhale that required the will, and the inhale happened quite naturally.
we also observed where, in the body, the breath occurred. in supta baddha the breath happened in the periphery of the body, and in setubanda it was in the core.
then we did a seated pranayama, sitting either in padmasana (lotus) or with a simple cross legged position.
aside: one of the things people love about mr. iyengar's way of teaching is that it incorporates props - blocks, belts, bolsters, blankets, ropes, walls, all sorts of benches and aids to help people achieve the asanas. birjoo explained that it's our consciousness that keeps us balanced, or that props us up, but we can also use a prop to accomplish that. this is especially wonderful for beginners, so they can get the feel of an asana without straining or hurting themselves. as we proceed we remove the props, which is a very satisfactory feeling. but there's no pressure to do all the poses without props immediately. mr. iyengar was a sick child himself, born into extreme poverty from a mother who carried influenza. he had a very stern teacher and forced his body to do things to the point of pain, in order to please his teacher. later in life, after travelling to europe and africa (where he wasn't allowed to leave his hotel because of apartheid, i learned while watching a film about his life during the break), he realized people are not all accustomed to yoga, and are all shapes and sizes and abilities, and he introduced props into his teachings. i understand this is one of the main differences between the iyengar style of teaching, and others (and it's just one reason we love him so much!).
back to pranayama .... after we brought our intelligence to our breath, and observed it, we were instructed to remember what it felt like to breathe from the core. often we breathe from the periphery. but if we focus, we can move the breath from the core outwards. in the pause, between the inhale and the exhale, the consciousness moves to the periphery and basically pushes the breath back towards the core. then it moves into the core, and 'pushes' the breath to the periphery. birjoo demonstrated this with blocks, repeatedly, until we understood it. then we practiced it for 20 minutes or so. and after that we lay in savasana and let the prana do its magic, healing and awakening and infusing our bodies with its universal energy.
all you need is la
after a short break we began a 2.5 hour asana practice. birjoo again spent a lot of time explaining some ancient wisdom. i think we only did about 5 different asanas, but we did them repeatedly using the instructions he gave us. today we were instructed in the magic of the chakras.
the chakras are essentially centres of energy located along the centre cortex of the body. acupuncturists and other alternative healers know about chakras. some profess an ability to see colours associated with them, and they carry sound. birjoo began to introduce us to their sounds, and we were encouraged to say the sound he suggested, silently, as we practiced each asana.
so we began, with adho mukha savasana (downward facing dog) saying, to ourselves, the sound 'la.' 'la' is associated with the base chakra, the muladhara. 'la' offers stability. we were encouraged to think of nothing else except 'la' while practicing the asana. 'la' is good for a number of poses that require stability. we were also instructed to experiment with 'wa' and 'ya', associated with water and air respectively, but to be careful with 'ra' - the fire energy. off the top of my head i don't remember which chakras those other sounds are related to, though 'om' is the sound of the chakra at the top of the head (sahasrara), but i can tell you that the effect of saying those sounds, silently, while practicing, is remarkable. it's some kinda crazy magic.
in full arm balance we were instructed to direct our breath to the space underneath our diaphragm and fill it with air. the analogy used was bread -- it's as if you are baking bread and suddenly the yeast begins to react and creates space there. amazingly, the legs automatically go up the wall! we've all been taught to use our muscles and our will to do things like get our legs up the wall, but birjoo showed us how to do it simply using our breath.
there's just no end to this yoga path of learning ....
it's "21st century meets ancient yoga philosophy" with birjoo mehta. according to the trusty interweb, "Sri Birjoo Mehta is a long-standing disciple of Sri B.K.S. Iyengar as well as the managing trustee of the Light on Yoga Research Trust. He has been a student of Iyengar since 1975 and since 1984 has accompanied him on many tours in India and abroad. Birjoo had been teaching Iyengar Yoga in Mumbai (Bombay) for 18 years." Apparently he is also trained and works as an engineer.
i've never had the concept of consciousness, the distinction between mind, intelligence, and ego explained using analogies drawn from the worlds of computer technology and business, but it makes perfect sense. i think i'm actually beginning to understand the sutras that refer to the 'seer' and the 'seeing.' if i'm remembering correctly, here's how birjoo explained it: the body is like the hardware of a computer, the actual physical metal and glass and silicon and wire components. the intelligence is like the software - the word processor, the spreadsheet, the email program, the publishing applications you use to create whatever work you're doing. the mind is like the operating system, the interpretor that goes back and forth between the software and the hardware so that the software's instructions are actually understood by the machine. all these three components are complete on their own, but none of them can really accomplish anything without the other two.
in india businesses employ "runners" (i can't remember the specific term birjoo used, but he did refer to them as male) who greet visitors to a company. visitors give the 'runner' a business card and ask to see the boss. the runner takes the business card to the boss and then return to the visitor with whatever message. if there's a person the boss really doesn't want to see, it doesn't take the runner long to figure out that it's not necessary to go to the boss with that person's business card, he can just say the boss isn't in. this is how the mind works. when something's new, some new emotion or sensation or encounter, the mind registers it and then goes to the intelligence to determine how to proceed. with children everything's new, there is no database of information to draw upon so they're constantly consulting the intelligence. they're very conscious and aware of everything. as we evolve and grow, our ego fills up like the database, full of memories and their associated prejudices. so after a while, after the database starts to compile data, the mind doesn't need to go to the intelligence every time it encounters something - some person or sensation. the mind can say "i recognize this, i know how to handle this" and sends its instructions to the body to speak or move or whatever.
so it is with yoga. when we perform an asana repetitively, in the same way over and over day after day, without introducing anything new, our mind says "i recognize this, i know how to do this" and sends instructions (which may not necessarily be correct) to the body. this is why it's so easy to get into bad habits with asanas. we're so focussed on completing the asana that we don't consciously think about every little movement that gets us to that completion. so birjoo taught us how to look differently, in a very new way (for many if not all of us) at our asanas. he actually brought to life mr. iyengar's teachings which, for me who hasn't had the experience of being in his presence, have always been in written form and therefore somewhat inaccessible to my full understanding. birjoo is showing us how to awaken the consciousness, how to observe the mind and see what messages it takes, and what messages it brings, so we can reintroduce intelligence into the asanas. the intelligence is in our bodies and we know when we've found it because our minds quieten. for example, in tadasana (mountain pose), if you focus on expanding your foot from the metatarsal forward and back, the breathing actually slows and deepens, and the mind quietens. it's quite remarkable in its simplicity. rather than letting the mind just tell the body how to do these simple poses, birjoo is encouraging us to first observe our mind as we do each pose, then look very carefully at the foundation of the poses, to awaken our consciousness and bring intelligence and find that quiet. inside each cell, he says, there's an on and off switch (again, like the ones and zeros of the computer) and when we engage with yoga in this way we're activating those cells and that is how we not only avoid injury, but heal ourselves.
maybe we can even find eternal life! look at mr. iyengar, at 90 years old .... he's certainly inspiring!
i suppose it's not surprising that the human being functions like a computer ..... i mean, that the computer functions like a being. everything in creation, as i was reminded last weekend, is constructed from the same materials that were present at the 'beginning' of our universe 13.6 billion years ago (though i still wonder when scientists will discover whatever existed before that particular sperm/egg like collision). and it's the same 13.6 billion year old minds doing the creation. while some beings reflect their inner selves through military equipment and now robotic drones, that kill and murder and destroy, many others prefer to honour the ancient processes that re-awaken intelligence, to marvel at the complexity of life, to do the work of healing and sustaining life.
Friday ... it seems a lifetime ago. I've got another workshop next weekend, and a ton of work to do these next four days, but I feel compelled to record, document, unravel my feelings about the amazing incredible journey that was the weekend.
I wasn't really sure what to expect, going into it. The workshop description read: "Reconnecting to Life/The Work That Reconnects workshops welcome everyone who cares about our planet and all its beings. Exploring and moving through our defenses and distractions, we will touch our true feelings about our troubled world. A safe and transformative process enables us to find refuge and renewal in our own hearts, in nature and in community." I'd been advertising it for years in the electronic events newsletter for activists I created and recently retired from, and Maggie had been offering me workshop space in return, and I figured I'd better cash in on that offer while the help I'd offered was still fresh. I'd been trying to find space in my life for this twice annual workshop for years, I never seemed to have time, but its description intrigued me and besides, one of the facilitators is partnered with the guy who wrote the song about Percy Schmeiser, so I figured it'd be a safe place for me and my 'radical' ideas.
It turns out Maggie and Jackie, and all the people I shared the weekend with, created an opportunity for a weekend I'll never forget.
Being an activist, a 'radical' environmentalist, peace and anti-poverty activist, is not always easy. It's always the right thing, to work peacefully and non-violently for the greater good of all, but it's tough to be labelled as 'radical' for doing that work and yet to continue doing the work and then to watch, day after day and week after week and year after year, the same old bullshit. Sure, there's some kind of 'green shift' going on, but whether it's enough to fend off the looming climate change apocalypse or whether it's another 'cool fad' that'll soon fade into the collective memory of a dead planet is anybody's guess. Species continue to go extinct. The hole in the ozone grows. Carbon levels rise. Forests are plundered. The oceans fill with plastic and oil. Drones and humans kill and rape and lie about it. And there are so many who deny, or ignore, or disregard, the real impact of what's happening, going about their lives as if it'll all be right again someday after the same old hierarchy, that created the mess and recently collapsed, is reconstructed to continue its dirty work. But this weekend I was surrounded with people who see it and acknowledge it and in their individual ways are working for change, and they care enough to find the time to get together for a workshop.
It wasn't easy, the workshop. Jackie and Maggie inspired us to examine and if necessary challenge the foundations of our worldviews, of ourselves, of our trust, our perceptions, our judgements. They're more than facilitators, they actively participated in many of the activities. They laughed, they cried, they expressed their anger, their rage, their deep love for the planet and all her creation. And so did we. It was exhausting. But it was also exhilarating, and inspiring, and a great opportunity to find some real solidarity with like-minded individuals and to emerge with the realization that we're in this together and, thankfully, there are some incredible beings who really truly love this planet.
It's tough, now, to begin with the big pile of work that faces me these next four days before I plunge into an intensive four day yoga workshop that will also challenge and exhaust me, leaving me also feeling refreshed and renewed and inspired with awe at the beauty of this world and our abilities to meet and rise above challenges we've never imagined. Right now I want to go somewhere else -- walk in the wilderness, swim in the ocean, plant seeds in organic soil. But I also want to stay right here, and do the work that contributes to, as Maggie and Jackie explained it, "The Great Turning ... the Ecozoic Shift."
So, here goes. Working from a place of gratitude - that I am blessed to do the work I do, that I live in such an amazingly beautiful part of the world, that I realize there is hope, there must be hope, for real and fundamental change so that we can at this last minute shift away from the dominant patriarchal capitalist structure and its focus on competition to the last man standing (the women having been pushed over first), having confronted my deep and profound grief and despair because this system is entrenched in thousands of years of social and political structures and maybe it really is too late to stop its destruction, feeling the pain of all my relations, native ancestors who realized a more profound and respectful connection with the spirits of the land, raging against the on-going rape and plundering war machine that allows and encourages men to put guns up womens' vaginas and then shoot them, acknowledging that the pain I feel for our collective loss is connected to the pain of all who suffer without letting it overcome me, wondering if the little birdies happily bathing on my balcony are the same ones I heard in the forest this weekend, remembering that I and you and everything I can see and touch and hear is created from a life process that began 13 and a half billion years ago, .... I proceed.
As Jewish British Columbians we were disappointed and angered by your treatment of newly-chosen Kensington candidate Mable Elmore regarding comments she made some years ago about the difficulty of dealing with Zionists in her union when trying to organize around peace issues. We want you to know that we are not at all offended by Mable's remarks but rather by your response to them, which we think does a disservice both to Jews and the community as a whole.
Mainstream Zionism is a political ideology that supports the creation of an exclusively Jewish state in the land of Palestine. The creation of the state of Israel and its many actions in violently repressing the indigenous Palestinian people, denying their human rights and repeatedly violating international law is a direct consequence of this Zionist ideology.
It is completely fallacious to equate the term "Zionist" with the term "Jew". There are many in the Jewish community, including ourselves, who are very critical of the policies of the Israeli state and have strong disagreement with the Zionist organizations and individuals in Canada and elsewhere who defend these policies. With the recent brutal assault on the people of Gaza by the Israeli military, and the recent election of an Israeli government which includes openly racist demagogues such as Avigdor Lieberman, more and more people within the Jewish community and within the broader community are becoming critical of Israeli policies and want to see a change in the situation which could actually lead to a just settlement and peace between the two peoples.
The real aim of the Zionist leadership in branding people like Mable who criticize Israeli policies as anti-Semites is to try to extinguish any debate, discussion and analysis of the real issues in the Middle East. It is the new McCarthyism in the current political context. This is the Big Lie—to repeat endlessly that criticism of Israel amounts to anti-Semitism.
Your response to Mable's words in that interview have helped to spread the Big Lie further and to repress any real discussion and debate over the difficult human rights issues in the Middle East. For the party of social democracy in British Columbia to take such action is shameful. We hope that you will reconsider your words and actions in this matter and attempt to set the record straight.
Sincerely,
Sid Shniad Marty Roth Martha Roth Judith Neamtan Eva Sharell Carl Rosenberg Lawrence Boxall Bob Rosen Rick Marcuse Stephen Aberle Joanne Naiman Neil Naiman Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta Ernie Yacub
