Are we innately inclined to certain temperaments? Am I “Just the way I am” or is there choice in change, discernment in action and impulse? Both Yoga and Science explore these questions and arrive at similar conclusions. The persistent nature and nurture interplay continues to evolve in our understanding. A recent article in Psychotherapy Networker discusses personality, temperament and a 20 year study begun in 1988 by Jerome Kagan into the biological drives for key personality traits like extroversion, introversion and other forms of sociability.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you
something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Emerson

“It is better to strive in ones own dharma (duty, work, calling) than to succeed in the dharma of another”
~ Bhagavad Gita III:35

Yoga is a field delving into attentiveness, discernment or viveka in relation to our mind’s tendencies and behaviors, our body’s cravings and impulses. In particular the Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita go into some depth around our intrinsic nature, and our moving through our environments adapting and responding to nurture.

The Yogic Model
Prakruti:
The Yogic and Ayurvedic model refer to one’s individual nature as prakruti, one’s own constitution and proclivities. The dance in yoga is to bring balance to that nature through work with a teacher or practitioner to help us understand that nature, its qualities and thus practices to bring balance to that nature.

Samskara:
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali also teach about samskara or tendencies, imprints left by experience. Samskara are also then personality traits, things we tend to do again and again. Again, bringing balance is the richness of practice, learning through discernment which samskara are to be reinforced, and which to be curtailed, held in our control. Not being controlled or controlling, or repressing, but having tendencies and temperament well in hand. Heart and Mind are not separate in the yogic model, each in constant interplay.

Karma:
There is a rich model and vocabulary in Yoga providing tools for change and self-care and balance through attentiveness of heart/mind. One more term for the purposes this article is karma, an oft misunderstood term in western circles, and a concept I seek to understand with ongoing study and inquiry. One’s Karma is all wrapped up in one’s prakruti. Karma is a collection of laws of action and reaction, action and results of action. The key point being we only have authority over our actions, we do not have a say in the results of our actions (Bhagavad Gita II.47), and some results are coming from actions long ago, even past lifetimes, inherited in our makeup to unfold in our life based on our discernment and choices.

Taking prakruti, samskara and karma together we see a rich complex interplay of predisposition, or ‘one’s make-up’ alongside strong practices for discernment, attention and value based living. We also see the malleability of the human animal, the adaptability, the resilience and ability to change and choose.

Yoga is Whole Person Coaching
Yoga is a practice of change over time. As students of yoga, as teachers coaching students through the mirror of themselves, understanding the interplay between what is nature, what is choice and discernment and the practices that bringing balance mentally, physiologically, emotionally and physically is key. As a practitioner, I seek to collaborate with nutritionists, expressive arts therapists, life coaches and others to offer long term Whole Person Wellness programs bring various aspects of our makeup into the mix to find our calling, or as the Gita says “To do our OWN work, not seeking to do the work of others.” Or finding a home for our temperament, walking in balance.

Personality and Temperament
In Marian Sandmaier’s article in the Psychotherapy Networker, “Do our personalities Pilot the Way We Live Our Lives?” she explores the rising role temperament is having in psychotherapy and the interplay for the project of human change.

The field of temperament is dramatically enlarging in scope. The new science of behavioral molecular genetics, which seeks to identify genes associated with particular human traits has lately exploded with reports suggesting that our very cells may be imbued with tendencies toward extroversion or shyness or novelty seeking or distractibility.

She asks what I ask in relation to yoga: “What does it mean for the human project of change?”

Studies in the 70′s unhooked the biological proclivities from any notions or pathology or inferiority, as yoga also does not imply judgement or better than when discussion constitution or one’s nature. The key is knowing enough about one’s own temperament to find the best niche to be, what Emerson celebrated as does the Gita as ones “true calling.”

So come 1988 and Jerome Kagan seeking to map brain markers, variations in amygdala excitability in response to various stimuli for different temperaments seeking to come closer to solvign the predisposition puzzle. He followed 100 healthy 4 month olds in to adolescence monitoring how some strayed or did not from their temperaments seen as infants. By age 7 roughly half were responding the same way, thus roughly half had in some way morphed their temperament. By teen years many who were excitable remained so, prone to anxiety, while some had adapted socialization skills; nonetheless when interviewed the underlying temperament remained.

Part of temperament is physiological response. Some had “more reactive sympathetic nervous system, higher levels of muscle tension and greater cortical arousal.” Thus managing one’s physiology is part of understanding one’s own temperament. Hmm… what does that make you think of? Yoga Asana, meditation, pranayama all are tools requiring consistent training and practice to manage and keep at equilibrium.

“An individual develops a persona over time,”
says Kagan. “But time doesn’t change the anima.”
Sandmaier’s article goes on to state in her article that

“… we do, in fact inherit distinctive neurobiological profiles that contribute to particular, relatively enduring emotional and behavioral predispositions.”

Sandmaier interviewed Kagan recently and found how the long term research has settled into his worldview. Says Kagan today:

“Temperament is never the whole story, [Kagan] says now. “But if you don’t take it into account, you won’t understand what it is to be human.”

Thus the biochemical roots of temperament are more and more seen and accepted as part of the story of being human. This is not as deterministic as it may sound, and in fact many genetic researchers havae aken pains to explain that no gene causes a behavior or emotional state. Temperament, Kagan believes is a bit like birdsong, in a quote I find quite beautiful and true as a passionate lover of birds, their nature and their wondrous diversity.

Kagan says “Knowing that a bird is a finch rather than a meadowlark allows one to predict with great confidence the songs it will not sing,” he wrote in his 2004 book, the Long Shadow of Temperament “but permits a far less certain prediction of the particular song it will sing.”

Finally, Marian Sandmaier, a shy, awkward person in teens and twenties asked Kagan what he would have told the despairing 21 year old college student to offer a bit of hope he replied “I would have told you the world needs all kinds of people, I would have encouraged you to find a life niche in which your temperament would be a good thing.” He paused for a moment thinking it over, “Then I would have urged you to find a good therapist.” We all need a guide in this unpredictable road where even our own steps are not predictable or understandable, and often others see our path more clearly than we can ourselves.

Sandmaier says:

“As individuals thrash about in their own temperamental thickets, therapists can serve as wilderness guides, following rough cleared paths and pointing out elements of nature that are usually hidden from view.”

She adds a more personal note : “To understand that there things about me that can’t be undone or transformed by any amount of psychic digging or repair work — that a part of me is simply pre-psychological — has come as a profound relief.”

The Yoga Guide through our private wilderness
The Yoga Teacher, when yoga is taught in the whole person practice, beyond just asana, is such a wilderness guide. Texts alone cannot be such a guide as we filter them through our nature. To see Samskaras, Prakruti and Karma parts of the landscape to learn to navigate, not as limitations, or immutable forces is key to delving into the practices of yoga. We do need guides

From Emerson’s imperative to “find one’s true calling” to the Bhagavad Gita’s verse on “Do your own work, not seeking to do that of others” we find ongoing validation to find a niche for our temperament, and not be in situations that raise to much friction, allowing each to manage the prakruti towards balance and equanimity, let this be a relief.

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“Somewhere beyond right and wrong there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”
~ Rumi

There are no others.
~ Ramana Maharshi

For some years now I have been pondering ‘identity’ as I study and seek to practice Yoga and Vedanta. Identity meaning sense of self – in community, in society, in relation to spirit and divinity, in relation to our apparent tribal nature.

Yoga and Vedanta teach the nature of Wholeness, brahma vidya, knowledge of Brahman, and the practice of karma yoga. Brahman, or the limitless sustainer, and karma yoga (see blog post on Karma Yoga), or action as offering and graceful acceptance of results or our actions are unfolded through dialog, question and answer, and practice. Brahman is that which sustains all and is self-sustaining, that which is our source from whence we come and to which we return; that understanding which helps reveal the nature of Wholeness, of shared source. Seeing and practicing this essential teaching of Yoga and Vedanta can help us cultivate a view beyond I, me, mine, beyond ‘us’ and ‘them’, beyond tribal. Yoga is for all tribes. Whether you practice Bikram, Iyengar, Anusara, Cowabunga, Yada Yada yoga, My Special Sauce Yoga… can we not see the shared source, the unifying teachings? Recent studies in neuroscience, psychology and behavior point to empathy and compassion being strong biological drivers; the ability to feel what another is feeling, to see ourselves in the reactions of others is a biological experience says Jeremy Rifkin in his new book “Empathetic Civilizations” (video animation and lecture with J. Rifkin and book links below).

I have been a deep student of world mythologies all my life, as a child, in high school, in college and since. I have taught greek mythology and literature to high school, studied Welsh and Celtic mythologies, as well as native and middle eastern texts. So when I came to deep study of Vedanta (knowledge of the Vedas in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita) in 1996 with Swami Dayananda Saraswati, I was steeped in language of archetypes, cosmologies, and mythos, both classical and indigenous. I was a big fan of Jung, Joseph Campbell, William Blake, Jacob Needleman, Parabola Magazine, Emerson, Thoreau, Robert Graves, Norman O. Brown (my teacher at UCSC), Evangeline Walton, Robert Bly, Ovid, Starhawk, Mary Renault, native ceremony and politics and more. Meaning to say I was steeped in our human tribal stories.

The message in Vedanta, the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, is ‘you are the whole, and this is to be understood, not believed.’ Meaning we are manifestations of, made of, our source – whatever language in which one describes our source. The Maker and the material are the same. Wholeness is Wholeness, there is no American Wholeness and European Wholeness. We don’t speak of ‘American gravity’ or ‘Spanish thermodynamics.’ Infinity is infinity. Language can help us as we seek to understand what we cannot experience, but language does not change the nature of the force being studied. Vedanta shows us an understanding beyond me and you, beyond us and them, beyond tribal. Just as with gravity, thermodynamics and other truths, the truths in Vedanta are not culturally specific or time dependent. We explore which verses bring this understanding to the surface in our Gita study groups .

A common misunderstanding is that such a conclusion must mean that at the same time Vedanta, or statements emphasizing shared values, diminish diversity or individualism. Rather there is a recognition of a partial truth, a dependent truth in our tribalism, or in our individualism. The part is dependent or more accurately defined by the Whole, or Source. A pot is both a form or shape and clay. If I say “Here take the pot, I will keep the clay” what do you have? The truth of the pot is dependent on the deeper truth of the clay. The pot is mithya in sanskrit, or a ‘dependent reality.’ The clay is akin to sarvam or ‘truth’ in this metaphor. Meaning I can see me and you, and I can see ‘Us’ without creating a ‘Them.’ Most times when we create ‘us’ we create ‘them.’ A community creates outsiders, those who don’t belong. The story of religious and then national wars through the ages, true? There was no ‘white’ race until there was a desire to distinguish from a ‘red’ or ‘black’ race; before that there was a multitude of nationalities, English, Saxon, German, Celt, French and so on…There was no ‘black’ race until the meeting of a ‘white’ race, and so on. Identity can be made up of multiple inclusive tribes and identity shifts or is redefined when encountering one perceived as ‘other’.

If, when we see others, we see ourselves, what happens? If ‘I’, the pot, see clay rather than another pot when I see others, what happens?

10 Minute Animation of Jeremy Rikfin’s lecture

In fact, as Jeremy Rifkin goes into quite some depth in his new book “Empathetic Civilizations”, we are biologically wired to see our feelings in feelings of others, to empathize with their response. When we do not respond empathetically, meaning from competition or aggression, it is because sense of self is threatened in some form and thus sees ‘other.’ Books like “How Yoga Works” (HYW) (see blog entry on HYW) show how empathy is intrinsic and central to yogic teachings, and that personal practice means by definition consciously cultivating compassion, accomodation, acceptance and selflessness in relation to likes and dislikes. Rifkin claim it is recent research that shows humans are biologically wired for empathy, and does an amazing sweeping view of psycho-analytic, behavioral and socio-biological research over the last 75 years or more to refute claims of innate aggression, competition and sexualization of everything.

I see Jeremy Rifkin’s book, the recent neurological and behavioral research, and the rising popularity of communities of yoga as signs that he has his pulse on current trends in human development. Rifkin’s conclusions raise the importance of making conscious and willful the movements towards shared values, caring for each other, sustainable interdependence (urban gardens, local economies), and collaboration in business rather than competition and domination.

Tribalism has served humanity for millenia. I believe in our times of global crisis and global communication that is no longer the case; and in fact, our tribal nature leads to as much conflict and separatism as it does inclusion and community. This is not to say we need or will lose our local, cultural and spiritual affinities and identities – rather that if you belong to another we don’t have to start a war, or I don’t have to take what you have. Think ‘Beyond Tribal,’ what do you see?

Somewhere beyond ‘us’ and ‘them’ there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

Empathy ~ Interdependence ~ Collaboration. It’s time.

Jeremy Rifkin on KQED’s Forum

Jeremy Rifkin speaking at Google. Good context on social technologies. 50 minutes or so.

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Several scientist are removing their blogs from Seed Media’s Science Blog in response to a sponsored ‘nutrition’ blog by Pepsico wrote Columbia Journalism Review today. As publishing morphs with the times, as traditional credible print sources fall or adapt, as authorship and intellectual property shift with open sharing and free publishing, as we are glutted by lowest common denominator content on the web, losing knowledge in a cascade of facts, losing experts in an avalanche of laypeople – this instance with Pepsico is a significant event in online wellness publishing.

See article by Curtis Brainard: Uproar at ScienceBlogs.com

For wellness practitioners, for health writers, for wellness bloggers, for consumers wanting to find a path to whole person wellness, developments like these are important to watch and know where to land, where to write, and how to build networks of credibility distinct from the tide of amateurs, laypeople and advertising. Yes advertising supports content in most cases. There is a symbiosis here in a way and done well like will support like. However Pepsi’s products clearly do not support nutrition, and are of a different source than Science Blog authors.

Sites like Science Blog have worked hard to develop web cred as a legitimate varied source of expertise. Topics like food and nutrition especially need neutral voices as consumers are bombarded by advertising and trends so finding helpful sources is challenging. We are at a time when printed publishing is waning and digital content looms and grows, with all its chaotic lowest common denominator haystack hiding the needles of experienced wisdom.

From Howard Rheinghold’s Smart Mobs of 2003 to Andrew Keen’s Cult of the Amateur of 2007, to the recent The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to Our Brains , 2010, by Nicholas Carr we have seen a progression towards broadening of web content, blurring the line between traditional journalism and layperson opinion and now corporate messaging. A publishing environment where as Nicholas Carr states we are smothered in information and facts, with little wisdom to be found. See a NYT Book Review of The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to Our Brains . Other recent research and books talk about the impact short snippets rather than deep books is having on our learning neurology.

When corporate messaging, advertising, enters what is perceived as a publishing environment all credibility, distinction, or discernment are gone. In a leaked letter to Science Blog contributors, Adam Bly editor from Seed Media sets to explain the decision. The letter warrants being read in its entirety as it seeks to present rationale for including as he puts it “both scientists from academia and industry.”

See Letter from Seed Editor Adam Bly:(excerpt)
As you know, we recently expanded the SB platform to include blogs from the world’s foremost research organizations like CERN and Howard Hughes Medical Institute and hope that this new area of our site will grow meaningfully over the coming years. We’ve started to partner with top science festivals like the USA Science & Engineering Festival and the World Science Festival to host their official blogs. We have also hosted blogs on SB from research-based companies like Shell, Dow, Schering-Plough, GE, Invitrogen, L’Oreal (in Germany), and now PepsiCo. I want to address the logic and strategy behind this.

While he is eloquent, ultimately what is significant will be presentation and follow up on ideas like a different brand than Science Blog, so the reader can distinguish ‘sponsorship’ (advertising) from science.

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GUEST Wellness Provider: Mahendra aka Briksha
Ayurveda, Yoga Instructor and Coach
www.Rays-mandala.org
An invitation to learn proper breathing:
Sunday, July 11th, Friday, 16th and Saturday, 24th, 6.00pm-.9.00pm
Indian Live Food Prep class-1 of Series I – Cafe Gratitude
Saturday, July 10 2010, 3:00pm – 6:00pm

I am happy to have a piece from a colleague guest author on Tulsi, an herb used for its various healing and nourishing properties. Briksha beautifully captures a reverential and practical appeal of the herb. Also I am offering Organic India teas and herbs, a company that been active in in local and national ayurveda communities and has been building bridges in agriculture and sustainability with Tulsi for many years by importing organic Tulsi teas in bags, and in bulk for ayurvedic practitioners.

This blog’s Sustainability Watch seeks to keep an eye out on companies with useful or wholesome products produced sustainably. Sustainable Self Sustainable Word. See Video on farming Tulsi ~ Karl

Tulsi by Mahendra aka Briksha
Tulsi, also knowns as Holy basil or Indian basil, is one of nature’s wonderful healing herbs.

For me, Tulsi is associated with the Nurturing Energy of my mother and grandmother. It starts with a memory of my grandmother. As children she would give my siblings and I some leaves of Tulsi to chew for protection from bad spirits before we left the house. To encourage us to drink milk, she would say ‘when you drink a few leaves of Tulsi with milk you will be more happy and strong and your memory will be strong.’ We always had a few Tulsi plants growing in pots both indoors and outdoors.

Every typical Hindu family house has at least one Tulsi plant growing this way, especially in front of their door. It has special religious meaning for Hindus. The name Tulsi means ‘incomparable one,’ and Hindus worship the plants morning and evening as a symbol of divinity. They use Tulsi leaves for tea and also they give them to dying people to chew and to someone with food poisoning, fever etc. Hindus believe that the God Vishnu (sustainer and nurturer of the World) resides in the Tulsi plant.

Several weeks ago I went to see Ammachi (Mata Amritanandamayi) and receive her darshan. From the shop that supports her work, I got a book titled ‘Tulsi-The Mother Medicine of Nature.’ This book totally reminds me my grandmother. As I started to read, knowing so much modern research about Tulsi from the East as well as the West, I felt awake in the presence of a nurturing mother. Once again, Tulsi and Amma became one source of nourishment.

New research
In brief, the new research on Tulsi according to this book is that it has a very potent anti- stress and adaptogenic action. Tulsi is a powerful and very effective adaptogen, meaning it increases the body’s ability to adapt to environmental and internal stress by strengthening the immune, nervous and glandular system. It enhances an organism’s resistance to stress, diseases and environment and normalizes metabolic functions while increasing metabolic efficiency. Dr. Narendra Singh and Dr, Yamuna Hoette’s research show that Tulsi’s adaptogenic action is more potent even than Ginseng. Tulsi has a wide range of medicinal properties as well largely due to these adaptogenic properties.

Mother Nature’s Gift:
In summary, the major benefits of Tulsi are:

Tulsi is effective to heal the common cold, fever, sore throat, cough, and respiratory disorders. Research shows that Tulsi heals the swine flue.

Tulsi calms the mind, and it is free radical scavenger. It reduces fatigue, improves heart rate, and is useful in the treatment of mouth and teeth disorders. Tulsi also protects against radiation, free radical damage, pollution, and bacterial, viral and fungal infections. Tulsi is an antipollutant and therefore it increases our survival in low oxygen environments. It is wise to grow Tulsi plants indoors for this reason too. Tulsi also improves oxygen utilization. Tulsi also offers general health improving nutritional qualities. It has vitamin C, vitamin A, calcium, selenium, many trace minerals. It also improves digestion and assimilation of food.

If you’re curious or a lover of herbs, for a resource see ‘Herbs and Spice and Everything Nice’ blog, she has a Herb of the week. This week is Lavender, which like Basil is a mint and shares many wonderful attributes See more on Lavender at this week’s Herb of the Week.

Dr. Narendra Singh and Dr. Yamuna Hoettte in their book recommend as follows:
For general health promotion and prevention of diseases 1 capsule (300mg) of dried Tulsi leaves twice daily for at least 6 months and for treatment of specific health problem 2-6 capsule (600-1800mg) for a period of 2 months to one year.

These benefits can be obtained by drinking of Tulsi tea (1-5 cups per day)- taken separately or in combination with capsules.

Krishna Tulsi Tea – 1 Lb From: Organic India USA

Tulsi Chai Masala Tea – 1 Lb

Pomegranate Green Tulsi Tea

Video on Organic India’s Tulsi farms, practices and other herbs:

Tulsi is no doubt one of Mother Nature’s best gifts to human kind.

–

Briksha aka Mahendra:
combines Integral Insights, Hindu Yogic practices, and Buddhist wisdom in his teaching. Currently He is learning Ayurveda under the guidance of Michael Reid Kreuzer, D. Ayur, Ph.D. ( Medicine Buddha Healing Center). Briksha’s main focus is on Yoga of Conscious Breathing and Eating (Spiritual Nutrition). By using various tools and techniques of Integral Yoga and coaching, he creates a powerful environment to explore the journey of this mysterious Human Body, finding everything there, as it is said in an Asian proverb: ‘What you can’t find in your Body, you will not find anywhere.’ Briksha’s main mission in sharing his skills, experience, and training , is to aid in reconnecting with our Bodies and the Body of Universe so that in turn our Bodies and the Body of Universe will bless us with peace, and wisdom. Briksha invites us to pray and practice together to awake in our true nature, bringing more love, light, and wisdom to the World. To contact go to his website www.Rays-mandala.org

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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 up and explore or decide it is not for you. Never a matter of ‘take my word for it’ or ‘I believe this is the way it is.’ Devotion or Bhakti too comes from understanding, or Jnana, there is no separation.

[The image is of Shankara, a teacher who developed the lineage and method and approach to Vedanta that has inspired many and been carried through the ages in ashrams and people like Swami Dayananda Saraswati. I will include more of Shankara's teachings over time.]

So much of how we create ‘other,’ or a sense of ‘other’ is through our preferences, likes, dislikes and beliefs. We see separation, separateness when we perceive a belief that is different than our own, often without really verifying nor seeking to understand the difference. Underlying most differences are shared values, perhaps articulated differently. The human mind has a tendency to cling to a story, often in spite of evidence or logical arguments to the contrary.

Daniel Kahneman has been working on applying psychology to behavior and economic decisions, behavioral economics. Through various studies they came to what they call the “Illusion of Validity”.

It’s a problem that afflicts us all, says Kahneman, who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in economics for his work on this subject. From stockbrokers to baseball scouts, people have a huge amount of confidence in their own judgment, even in the face of evidence that their judgment is wrong.

But that mistake is just one of many cognitive errors identified by Kahneman and his frequent collaborator, psychologist Amos Tversky. For more than a decade, the two worked together cataloging the ways the human mind systematically misjudges the world around it.

[In the studies] Kahneman was surprised by the pure visceral power of his own certainty. He eventually coined a phrase for it: “illusion of validity.” ~ Using Psychology to Save Yourself (NPR Story).

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali start with the same premise:
Sutra I.2 “Yogah citta vritti nirodha”

In How Yoga Works there is a beautiful twist on the Yoga Sutra I.2:

Yogah citta vrtti nirodha –
Common translation:
Yoga is the stilling, or quieting, of movements, or fluctuations, of the mind.

How Yoga Works:
Yoga is learning to stop
How the mind
Turns things around.”
~ Yoga Sutra I.2, How Yoga Works, page 109
See blog book review on How Yoga Works

So we do with each other, our own perceptions about ourselves and our perception of the very world and creation of which we are a part. So we do with notions of God and sin and those who believe differently, thereby perpetuating erroneous sense of other through belief – not observation and deduction. So we do with perceptions of Earth, Nature and ideas of whether She is alive or not, and we can and cannot control or manipulate.

Vedanta is taught in a method to clear the fog of belief and unfold understanding through questioning, inquiry, dialog and daily retraining of the mind. Many modern methods, like Marshal Rosenberg’s Non-Violent Communication books or “Compassionate Communication” are based on similar principles and reveal daily practices to catch mechanical illusory thinking and shift towards conscious perception, subject to proof and disproof.

Knowledge, or Jnana, and truth or Satya is that which is no longer subject to correction nor can it be disproved. Since the core problem is perception, is cognitive, solving through action or doing will not work. Correction must come through cognitive solutions, or knowing.

Beyond Belief: A Matter of Knowing
In teaching Swami Dayananda Saraswati asks: “If I ask you if I have a grandfather, you say yes. Is it a matter of belief?” We accept as a material fact that for a human to exist there had to be a grandfather, it is not a matter of belief, of faith. If I show you a watch, is it a matter of belief that there is or was a watchmaker? We accept there has to be a maker.

So it is with the world and universe, whether we attribute the making to the Big Bang or Divinity, we must recognize a source. Vedanta then goes through many well developed explorations in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita revealing how that maker must in essence be Awareness, or Consciousness, called Brahman, to imply its limitless aspect, beyond name and form or time and space. To go further we would have to anchor our conversation in the verses, the teachings, the method, the practices and the etymology and meaning of words like Brahman and Isvara and Purnam, or fullness, or the Whole. And so we come to understanding, beyond belief. We must shed much of what we unknowingly cling to, we must question, not believe.

If we seek to understand, we would never feel threatened by the beliefs of another, nor would we seek to convince someone of an unverifiable belief. The need to convert or kill heathens dissolves, replaced by empathy and interdependence. Other disappears when we understand Wholeness. The NPR story mentioned above takes the Illusion of Validity into policy and programs, daily life.

I do 6 week courses on the Gita to explore these principles and teachings and bring them down to earth inout our daily choices, relationships, actions. Yoga is Whole Person Wellness Coaching, we will explore this further. We can do online discussions in the forum here, or telephone or webinar based teachings. Let me know if you have an interest, or disagree, do feel free to comment.

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[updated July 9th, 2010] As many of you know, I was diagnosed with a curable cancer in mid May and am in chemotherapy treatments to heal. So through late July I will be focusing on healing. As of Friday July 9th I have one more round to do, and am now in the two week period in between treatments. The next round starts Monday 7/19 and then, if all is well, I am done by the 23rd of July. Then I am clear and will be building strength and then getting back into work and teaching.

Twenty days after the last round, I will still be affected by the treatments, and then my body will start to rebuild and be back to being generative, not losing blood cells and vitality through chemo anymore. I can do work in between chemo on the blog, planning workshops, retreats and teacher trainings, and some other wellness offerings and have sights on that time. I am planting seeds for retreats in the Spring, Teacher Trainings in Spring and Fall of 2011, and restarting public classes.

I don’t know how long that rebuilding will take, or where I will be, how I will make it work. So l am thinking I may not resume full time teaching until fall. I would like to teach a class or two before convalesce and rebuild after chemo. I may go to Swami Dayananda’s Ashram or some such place to recover, rebuild the body, study Vedanta and Sanskrit more deeply and practice. I am using this blog through book sales and such, planning other projects, and donations (see sidebar) to help raise funds for convalescing and medical expenses until I can earn again whether I stay here or go stay at a center.

The Blog and Forums
Until I teach I will be writing here on the blog, sharing from learnings, offering what I can without the class contact, maybe hosting some meetings or discussions. Do use the forums to dialog with me and with each other. I have gotten such a flood of emails with such amazing stories of yoga in your life, our classes, what each of you got from the teachings… really amazing. I thought in forums you could share some of that with each other.

I set up a special forums to discuss the book How Yoga Works, as it is a book that I find to be perhaps the single most valuable book I would recommend on Yoga. See blog entry on How Yoga Works for more about the book, to buy it and a link to the forum to hear about your favorite passages, quotes, how it touches you and such.

I am seeing the most glorious side of humanity in this process. The empathy, compassion and generosity has been astounding and reveals so much about human nature, our spiritual paths, the very behaviors and physiological responses that make us whole as I pull together Emerson, Jeremy Rifkin’s Empathetic Civilization and the Bhagavad Gita. Thanks for the most amazing lesson of my life. Gives me hope for the world.

So watch this site, when I start teaching the site will change to show schedule, workshops, Bhagavad Gita course registatration and teacher trainings all being planned now.

Much Love and thanks
Karl

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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 good for me, I know I like it when done… the doer says “Mañana. Tomorrow.” Internal conflict is a seed that grows, as is establishing new patterns.

A home practice is a challenging pattern to put in place and support. Here I offer some brief tips to help catalyze and support. Of course the tips start from the place there is an assumption of a desire to practice in the first place. Whatever your stripe or tribe of yoga, Anusara, Iyengar, Flow, Glow, Cowabunga, whether seeking to practice meditation, pranayama or the postures… to feed that passion is a glorious thing.

1. There is only today, not tomorrow.
We come back jazzed from a retreat or class or workshop and think, ‘wow, I gotta do those series more often!… I’ll start next week.’ Or when I clear a new space, or get a new mat, or finish this thing at work. This week is just too full. There is only today; am I practicing, yes or no? Granted once a routine is in place, if erratically then helping make the next morning’s practice is a sure unhindered thing comes next.

2. Remove all obstacles; lose interest in your excuses.
Obstacles internal and external are irrelevant and an abdication of will and choice. Set up a nice space the night before. Post a list of poses, sequences, notes from class on the wall the night before, so there is no ‘hmm what should I practice today?’ Use a timer. Plan monthly cycles: first week standing poses, second week backbends, third week twists, fourth week forward bends with inversions practiced throughout. Outhink your mind before it gets to can’t.

3. Practice what is being taught as it is being taught.
For a long period I start classes a certain way to help support learning through repetition and to offer various practice starting sequences over time. I often get questions at the end of class asking what to practice at home, and usually my first response is what was just learned. So yes, it would be a good idea to start practice waking up the legs in upavista konasana with a block behind to wake up the chest, the heart and upper spine. The pose and set up alone are not enough, one must retain the action taught. Legs must be working to support upper body lifting, and not to persist of lower back is not lifting and the legs can’t hold the weight rather than the spine. We used to make notes after class immediately, while fresh, before changing or right outside, quick sketches and notes for actions and props to spark the memory later. Tomorrow.

4. Weave yoga practice into existing routines.
In dialog with students once about practice one person said “It’s so much easier for me to get up for a walk than it is to practice yoga.” So get up 15 minutes earlier, or trim your walk a bit and do some yoga when you get back in. Start nibbling a space to fit it in. If you have a pattern of something you do for yourself already you’re most of the way there. Start weaving in your practice to what you already do.

5. There is no doing it wrong.
As Master Yoda says “Do or do not. There is no try.”
Either we are doing or not doing. Either we are doing our best to be mindful in iterative refinement of action in the body each breath, each moment – or at that moment mind was elsewhere. And we notice. And come back to now, in the body and breath. The refrain of “I’m afraid of doing it wrong” or “It just isn’t like in class” is just not relevant. See Top Tip number two.

All we can do is our best, and that is always glorious.

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Taggart Siegel, an old yoga buddy, has a new film about the current bee collapse, beekeepers and the wonder of bees. The film is now doing film festivals. His previous film “The Real Dirt on Farmer John” was about food, farms and specifically the US family farm on to community farms, so bees were an natural next step in food and agriculture, sustainability. Organize a showing near you. We did house parties for his previous film, “The Real Dirt on Farmer John” and it was big fun. Web site below.

Interview with Taggart Siegel, Director of ‘Queen of The Sun’ and Co-Editor, Producer Jon Betz

Rudolf Steiner’s book mentioned by Taggart:

Brief “Queen of the Sun” Trailer

Queen of the Sun Website

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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 two aspects:
1. Seeing that each action is an offering, as action itself is given to us, and is not our own.This is called Isvararpana Buddhi, Attitude (buddhi: cognition) of offering to the Source of our gifts – Divinity, Laws of Nature, Beingness, Wholeness. Isvara means ‘that which sustains all and is self-sustaining.’

2. Seeing that results or fruits of our actions are blessings given to us to savor and learn from. This is called Prasada Buddhi

Seeing that I create no action without that which is given to me, my actions are but a giving back, an offering or yajna, I am the medium. When I fail to see this, I take actions to be mine, of the ego or mind-body-senses, and the mind turns things around leading to much misunderstanding and discontent.

Essential Verse: on Desire and The Fruits of Action (II.47)

The key verse that is much misunderstood and thus causes much confusion is verse II.47:

“You have choice over your action, but not over the results at any time.
Do not (take yourself to) be the author of results of action; neither attached to inaction.”

Said another way “Te karmani eva adhikarah, ma phalesu” means “Work alone is your privilege, never its results.” You have choice in your action, but never in the results. Results are determined by laws beyond our control, laws of Nature, which as Emerson explores is manifest in laws of Mind, or One Mind, source consciousness, Isvara, Brahman. The key word here is adhikara or ‘authorship,’ ‘authority over.’

Arjuna too is puzzled and assumes, as we saw in All is Given Pt1, that one must give up desires in order to be happy. This verse, II.47 has been misconstrued to come out like the following:

- You have a right to action, but no right to results of action.
- Do not be attached to the fruits of action.

As Swamiji points out, “Why would one act if not in desire of results?” Action presupposes desire. The key is in seeing results as given, not for us to control. We live in a world governed by laws no created by anyone here. The results of an action are inherent in the action itself.

Prasada Buddhi: Graceful Acceptance
Thus when one’s attitude towards results of action is as one has towards an object received in temple or communion or church, one receives all as a blessing and likes and dislikes are neutralized. This is one of the two key pillars of karma yoga. Of course we have rights to the fruits of our action, of course we are invested in the outcome, else we would not act. Some desires will draw us closer to Wholeness, some away. The discerning mind makes a distinction and a choice. Non-attachment to fruits of action is a non-issue, a red-herring. Swamiji points out action is creative and reaction is mechanical and unconscious. Attitude makes actions conscious.

The fruits of our actions are given to us to be savored, gifts, blessings, the fruits of the seeds we manifest with each thought as is so eloquently described in the book How Yoga Works.

Isvararpana Buddhi:Offering Action to the Source
Appreciation of laws of Nature in play before results, even before you begin action, cultivates an attitude of offering actions back, for they do not come from you in the first place. Sameness of mind regardless of out come and right choice in relation to action is yoga.

“Humans are bound by karma (actions)except those done as yajna (offering). Therefore, O Arjuna, do your duty efficiently as a service or Seva, not seeking to control results of action.” Baghavad-Gita III.9

Essence of Karma Yoga
These principles then define karma yoga. Each action understood as offering or yajna and results understood as blessings given make up the essence of karma yoga which by definition includes bhaktior devotion. There is no separate bhakti yoga.

Download Guided Meditation: All is Given
Right click to download to local drive.
All is Given Meditation (18 minutes, 2 MB)

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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 inspiring article.
See “Be Pragmatic in Practice” at Shambala Times.

He closes with the compelling question:

“For example, if we want to have more compassion, generosity, or flexibility, if we want to be a better listener, or to be less reactive at work, we can train those aspects of our mind. So we have to ask ourselves, What is it I want to do with my mind?”

More on meditation and guided audio coming soon. Did anyone use the guided meditation? I welcome feedback.

Download Karl’s Guided Meditation:
This is from a six week Bhagavad Gita Course I taught recently. This was the opening to the fourth session. Right click to download to local drive.
All is Given Meditation (18 minutes, 2 MB)
Karl

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