Beyond Belief: Yoga & Vedanta are for Understanding
It really struck me one year at Swami Dayananda Saraswati’s place when he said “Vedanta is not a matter of blind faith or unverifiable belief, but a matter of understanding.” It hit me then why his teachings sat so well with me. The primary message is listen, inquire, question, discuss and if you disagree speak [...]
Top 5 Tips to Jumpstart your Home Practice
We all want to, but it just doesn’t seem to get off the ground, or out of the bed. An essential pillar in yoga is congruence in heart and mind, thought and action. There is what Swami Dayananda Saraswati calls the ‘knower-doer split.’ I know I want a home yoga practice, I know it is [...]
All is Given Pt. 2: Cultivating attitude of graceful acceptance – karma yoga is bhakti
Here I offer the principles and verses from the Bhagavad Gita that inform the principles in All is Given Pt1 and delve into the essence of Karma Yoga, which includes Bhakti, or devotion. There is no separate Bhakti yoga in essence. Again, I draw largely from Swami Dayananda Saraswati’s teachings. In essence Karma Yoga has [...]
Article on Meditation from Shambala. What do you want to do with your mind?
I found a good article on meditation by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche at Shambala Times. It goes well with the “All is Given” blog post I wrote recently. “Meditation is not a recess or a timeout. It’s a deepening and strengthening of the mind, which affects our whole life.” It’s a brief but rich and eloquent [...]
All is Given Pt. 1: musings, Sutras & Gita, and free meditation mp3.
[NOTE: it's a long one, you may want to print from blog for better reading. You have to read all the way through to download the meditation in mp3 format ] Is my body mine? Does it belong to me, in terms of rights of ownership? Am I defined by my physicality (gender, species, health, [...]
Practice: Just because… appetite
” ‘For the past eighty years I have started each day in the same manner,’ wrote Pablo Casals in his memoir, Joys and Sorrows. ‘I go to the piano, and I play two preludes and fugues of Bach. It fills me with awareness of the wonder of life, with a feeling of the incredible marvel [...]
Keep squeezing the belt! Resources for Pelvic Floor practice, or Mula Bandha (books, tips)
As you know, unused muscle loses tone and strength. The mind is powerful, however thinking about doing pelvic floor exercises, and nodding ‘I know, I know’ will not a strong pelvic core make. Consistent, daily practice, “with no gaps” as Friday the Tibetan girl says in “How Yoga Works” will make for a rewarding practice. [...]
Practice: yoga now more than ever
Someone asked me recently if I missed my yoga practice. Actually I am more consistent and present and dedicated than I have been in a while. The practice is more meditation and intention and breath awareness, breath work and not so much asana (postures). And those practices plug me into the heart of yoga very [...]
