Below follows the information from Patricia’s discussion in Tuesday night class, 10 February 2009. Patricia invites you to comment on your experiences, should you wish.
1.3 Tada drastah svarupe avasthanam; then the seer abides in her/his own true splendour
Chant OM at the beginning of each practice. Read sutras 1.27 and 1.28
Choose one of the following families of asanas to focus on over this 3 week period ( February 10th – March 3rd)
Families of Asanas
- Standing asanas
- Forward bending (standing and seated)
- Twists (standing and seated)
- Backbends
- Inversions; headstand, shoulder stand, plow
- Supine ( baddha konasana, supta virasana, supta swaztikasana, supported setu bandha sarvangasana)
- Seated asanasa ( baddha konasana, virasana, dandasana, upavista konasana).
Incorporate some of the asanas from the family that you chose each day, or in each practice session.
Twice a week, do all the asanas from the family you have chosen. For example: do all the standing forward bends and seated forward bends that you have learned.
Include inversions in each practice.
- Always do sirsasana before salamba sarvangasana.
- Always do passive, cooling asanas after sarvangasana and halasana.
- End each practice with savasana ( at least 10 minutes)
Do a restorative practice once a week. If you are going through a stressful time, do a restorative practice more than once a week.
Begin a pranayama practice. Start by doing 10 minutes
Cultivate Understanding
- Observe one external thing that is sabotaging your evolutionand or practice
- Observe one internal thing that is sabotaging your evolution or practice.
- One external thing that is contributing to your evolution.
- One internal thing.
- Write your observations down.
- Observe one external thing that inspires you.
- Observe one internal thing that inspires you
- Write your observations down.
Yama and Niyama
- Commit to one for the 3 week period
- Is there a quality that you would like to cultivate
Other suggestions:
- Have an overall Intention ( sankalpa) for this 3 week period.
- Read a sutra or a sloka form the Bhagavad Gita before your practice, or before you sleep
- If you miss a practice or practices, begin again with a positive mind.
- It’s never too late to brake the chain.
Regular practices brings joy, contentment and self knowledge.
OM PEACE PEACE PEACE
How is your practice going? Please comment…
Thank you for your inspiration and for a wonderful class on Feb. 17.
I will share your teaching blog information with the people I practice with in Boxford, Ma. This is a terrific idea!
Greg Mortinson (Three Cups of Tea) spoke in Chelmsford, and is truly a Karma Yogi.
Namaste,
Susan Richards
Hi All,
I wonder what others have come up with for external obstacles to their practice?
I ask this because I am struggling to name an external obstacle that doesn’t lead back to some internal action or inaction.
Peace,
-T
External obstacles could be time, money, relationship commitments. I see what you mean though- for example, one’s ‘priorities’ could be both internal (in thought) & external (in action).
I find contentment tricky. I practice for a few days, feel good, then think I deserve to take a day off. Then one day become two, three, etc. I also succumb to backsliding.
The poses I’ve chosen are mostly restorative: upavistha konasana (3 min), setu bandha (3 min), & savasana (5 min). The yama on my mind is Dhriti. 2 things I find inspiring are kindness & humility.
Thank-you for this…
I’m just back ( to rural Nova Scotia ) from a month and a half in Pune, and observing the absence of a thriving and supportive yoga community here as an external factor which could sabatoge my evolution.
This very blog is the light in my life this stormy wintry morning, an external thing that is contributing to my evolution and practise!
Ever since the first time i went to Pune in /04 and suffered this same isolation upon my return, depression has been an internal thing that threatens my evolution. Since that threat is more intense when i first come back, the focus of my practise, after recovering from the trip, is backbending.
Having been at the Institute in January, i was greatly inspired at the unique way that the teaching comes through Patricia… to observe the way that Guruji works with her, and the way she worked not only with Jarvis, but in a spirit of openness with all other students was, i daresay, extraordinary.
“In Buddhist philosophy, depression represents the inevitable consequence of seeking stimulation. The centuries old teachings suggest that we seek balance in our emotional health and lives, rather than continuously striving for the highs, and then complaining about the lows that follow.”
I read this on Dr. Weil’s website awhile back, and this helps me to accept that some depression can be normal.
Hi!I think sadness, depression, spiritual doubt will always be there, and it is through yoga, the practice and philosophy, that we can understand, grow, evolve. I think this is what has brought so many like me to yoga and continues to each day.But I think I understand what Thatcher is saying. External and internal obstacles are so interwoven for me also. In fact some of the questions I answered together for this very reason. It seems to me that it depends on what triggers the obstacle: is it rooted in external or internal factors? There is a difference I believe.Recently I’ve been very taken up by family obligations and needs. There are days I’ve organized to practice, really focus, then something has come up. If somebody is in need can you say, no, I need to practice right now? I don’t think so.I often think of an interview I read where Geeta Iyengar tells about the time Prashant, her brother, was very ill. She says obligations, fatigue, certain days allowed her only to find the time to practice one asana, like janu sirsasana. I think it was frustrating, but I am sure that when she practiced that single pose she did so with such immense clarity and focus; that all she learned from this short but intense practice, later carried over, developing even further her understanding and control of all the other asanas.In a dvd class I have, Patricia says: “It is not the quantity of time you practice but the quality of your practice that is really important”. She also says that getting to classes is necessary and extremely helpfu, but it is alone on the mat that one can explore and truly grow.So for me the key is transforming obstacles, those inside us, those we can’t control, into opportunities. Namaste Elizabeth
I want to agree very much with what Elizabeth wrote. Although I understand what Thatcher meant that external and internal obstacles are interwoven–that is certainly true–what I am afraid is that if the external is made into an internal, then one ends up feeling guilty whenever one does not have enough time practice. It would then be a shame if then yoga becomes another thing about which we feel internally guilty about and it becomes added to all the things we should do more, but don’t
Obviously, we all have our tricks to master the external, e.g. practice first thing in the morning, or practice in stolen minutes, or finding times between events, etc. But if there are times when these can’t work, it may be something that is external and we should not feel responsible or guilty.
Namaste.
Francis
Hi…..Hello francis
I just got back from San Francisco your namesake city…..very pretty, but Cambridge is unique. I really meant to talk about finding a balance….Rising early when all is still quiet works for me. I do not feel ‘guilty’ when it really is impossible to practice yet I do feel out of sorts. I think when yoga becomes a part of your life it feels like not drinking water all day….But maybe I should have written that in the dvd Patricia also says: “20 or 30 minutes a day will do more for you than 2 or 3 hours every once in a while.”
Namaste Elizabeth
Elizabeth,
Thanks for the greetings from San Francisco. My favorite city. As a graduate student in Germany I had a job offer from a university there, but unfortunately none for my partner so I had to start out in South Bend–a even colder place than New England and with much more snow.
I am delighted that you do not feel guilty. I actually try as a basic minimum to use Patricia’s Flexibility DVD which I come in on at c. 5 and try to go to c.21. It is on my computer so if I get interrupted whenever I get back to my computer I try to finish it the chapters I did not reach. I don’t do 22 because it is beyond my ability. Maybe some day. But that is how I try to something every day.
Namaste.
Francis.
I noticed the list has gone quiet since February 27-a memorable date for me-independently. But I thought I would ask a question. How does one deal with the poses that one does not like in one’s practice? I don’t mean poses that one cannot do, e.g. I have not yet learned headstand, but rather poses that one tends to avoid (except when “forced”) in class. For example, I dislike most poses with the adjective parivirtta, but love downward dog. I find that when I put the poses that I don’t like at the end of a practice. The temptation is then to skip them and end the practice without them (one can always find excuses in a busy a life). I find when I think about putting them in the beginning, it tends to tempt me to delay doing yoga. Because I like downard facing dog, I find Patricia words that this pose encourages one to go further to be true–at least in my case. How do others deal with this problem or am I alone in being tempted to avoid the poses I don’t like. I often suspect it means that these are the poses I “should” do or would benefit the most from doing
Francis
I have been thinking a lot about practice and trying to commit to every day. I recently had a breakthrough in my resistance. I realized that no matter what is going on in my life, I will not miss more than 2 days in a row. The reason is, my own body will not let me. My legs and back and shoulders bypass my mind and place me on the mat. This was a terrific insight because then I started thinking of other things I did (more than once a day) for my body without my mind fighting me..like brushing my teeth, eating good food, getting enough rest. It helped me to change my paradigm of yoga practice from something I do in a frivolous way for myself, to something I do to keep myself cleansed, healthy and nourished.
Francis, your last sentence is absolutely correct. The poses you dislike the most will be your greatest teachers. Just do one pavritta something everyday. Maybe do your favorite poses first and immediately after. I love twists but a couple of years ago my least favorite pose had to be pavritta trikonasana. I made myself do it every practice. I paid attention to how Patricia and others taught it. I used lots of props. Somehow, slowly and organically, you get better at it or your aversion just softens and you start to enjoy it. I really love this pose now and still work with it. Stay with it. You can will eventually create a space in yourself for a different kind of experience!
Dear Judy,
Many thanks for your comments. They are right on target and you do not realize but they were very encouraging for me. You mentioned parivrtta trikonasa and that was precisely the pose that I especially had in mind. Last week, Patricia made a very generous and kind remark about my parivrrta trikonosana. Her kindness and your remarks have given me courage and a renewed resolution. I hope perhaps I can one day start to enjoy it like you do. Right now whenever I come to that pose in Patricia’s Flexibility DVD it is sort like a chasm on the trail that one has to get over but is tempted to stop or skip or go back. Many thanks for your deeply apprecited comments.
Francis
I just received a copy of the May Issue of Yoga Journal. It is the one with a young women in pigeon pose.
There is under the “Home Practice” section –which is a cut out and save section- a wonderful practice sequence by Patricia Walden. A ten pose sequence to build strength and confidence.
I thought I would bring it everyone’s attention.
Francis
Hi All,
Here is the story of my transformative experience I shared in class for those of you who requested it:
For the three-week practice, I chose standing asanas since I’d been working with Patricia in class on these poses. When she asked me if I had a wall I could work against at home, I eagerly replied, “Yes!” but upon returning home, I looked around my apartment and discovered that all my walls either angle into the room (I live on the top floor of a house), or else there was no room for me to stand in Utthita Trikonasana against a wall without a doorknob poking into my back or hip. I had found my “external thing that was sabotaging my evolution and my practice”—no free wall space. Unable to do asana against a wall, I decided to work on the section “cultivating understanding.” I chose tapas as the niyama among my list of observations to cultivate discipline, action, burning zeal, and willpower, while also cultivating balance and ease. I worked on the assignment for a week without the asana practice and wondered if perhaps Chris and I had finally outgrown our space (succumbing to an external obstacle?). But I continued searching for the deeper meaning to my evolution with this obstacle: my obstacle had a name, “the apartment,” just as others on this blog have written other obstacle names such as “money,” “family obligations,” “guilt.” And now I had to work through the external limitation internally. So, one morning I sat and meditated for several hours. In the first part of my meditation, I processed thoughts and feelings and began to clear the “external” obstacle from my emotional body where I had been feeling frustrated, blocked, and stuck. Then, I allowed my meditation to turn further inward to my spiritual body where I felt myself detaching from my dilemma from a more neutral, open place. This allowed an opening to inner creativity and allowed me to see beyond the “impossibility” at the gross level. I realized that despite actual external limitations, the external was a manifestation of something originating from a subtler level within myself, the “obstacle” aspect being something internal that had become an external experience because it was in relationship with that which was beyond myself (the apartment). When I came out of meditation, I immediately grabbed a measuring tape and began to measure furniture, now approaching the obstacle as a challenge that I had the capacity to change. I literally tore our apartment apart! Bookshelves headed to the bedroom, desks repositioned, a computer chair ended up outside on the landing awaiting a trip to Goodwill, and so on, until I finally stared at a beautiful, blank (and straight) wall space. As I stood looking at the wall, I heard Chris coming through the front door and exclaiming, “What the…? What have you been doing in here?!” I showed him the new yoga wall and he was very pleased with our new arrangement…“Whew!” This exercise affirmed for me the potential we have in life to overcome things that seem impossible and solid on grosser levels. By tearing down an imaginary wall that appeared as a “real” obstacle, I was able to find a real wall that moved me beyond the obstacle itself. So for now, Chris and I are both enjoying the new yoga wall.