Yoga

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October 31, 2011

 

Since this week’s class fell on Halloween, I was moved to acknowledge Samhain, the ancient Celtic holiday from which our modern celebration springs.

Here are Samhain blessings I read at class:

May wonder ever illumine your souls as the candle does a room on a long, winter night, may joy blow through your heart with the intensity of the north wind in a blizzard, may peace cover your lives like a blanket of fresh fallen snow.

May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far…

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, may you be held in the hands of Grace.

Harry Potter notwithstanding, Samhain’s special connection to the Dark Goddess has been distorted in our Halloween iconography of witches on broomsticks. It is however, a night to honor the Dark Mother, so I opened class with a medley of Kali chants. Here’s the dharma talk that followed that soaring flight of luminosity…

 

 

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October 16, 2012

The impulse to chant the Gayatri mantra 2 weeks ago was just that — a strong sense that this was the correct practice for that evening. It was all about infusing ourselves with light as we move into the new fall season. As Gayatri is to Light, Navarna is to Truth. So it seemed only right to add Navarna to the mix. And now, as Navarna is to Truth, Laksmi/Dhumavati-Bija is to infinite possibility. So layering these three mantras over these three weeks strikes me as a triadic blessing invoked during this sacred (which really means powerful) time of year.

This week’s Chant: The Sublime Laksmi Murti & Dhumavati Bija mantras.

Here’s this week’s dharma talk, inspired by the Tarika-Dhumavati bija mantras. It also touches on the Mangalam and quotes these lines from the Katha Upanishad…

Beyond the senses are the objects,
Beyond the objects is the mind,
Beyond the mind, the intellect,
Beyond the intellect, the ātman,
Beyond the ātman, the non-manifest,
Beyond the non-manifest, the spirit,
Beyond the spirit, there is nothing.
This is the end, pure awareness.

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The Mangalam Chant

For those who’ve been asking for a recording of the Mangalam, here it is, along with words to the chant and translation/commentary. So many people ask about developing a daily inner work practice. This is a beautiful chant to include. What better way to start (or end) your day than naming and blessing each and every aspect of creation!

Bhumi-Mangalam,  Udaka-Mangalam,  Agni-Mangalam, Vayu-Mangalam,  Gagana-Mangalam,  Surya-Mangalam,
Chandra-Mangalam,  Jagat-Mangalam,  Jiva-Mangalam, Deha-Mangalam,  Mano-Mangalam, Atma-Mangalam,
Sarva-Mangalam-Bhavatu-Bhavatu-Bhavtu…

May there be peace in earth, water, fire, and air, the sun, moon, and planet, in all living beings, in body, mind and heart. May that peace be everywhere and in everyone.

Mangala is an adjective meaning auspicious, lucky, fortunate, etc. With the suffix “m,” it becomes a noun: auspiciousness, luck, etc. It is also related to the goddess Durga suggesting, “one whose touch brings ecstasy.”

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September 26, 2011

We will return to Patanjali, I promise. For the time being though, we’re luxuriating in mantra practice inspired by the fall season. This cycle of practice/teachings constellates around a family of mantras beloved to long-time Monday Nighters: Gayatri, Navarna, and Tarika Bija. I’ll likely add a handful of others to the mix, but want to underline the potency and power of these three as catalysts for illuminating and strengthening the inner being (Gayatri and Navarna) and infusing that interior essence with majesty, generosity, and grace (Tarika Bija).

Here’s a sound clip from the Navarna class on 9/26. I tried using a microphone I thought would give a better recording. Unfortunately, the opposite happened. You’ll have to listen carefully to hear DanJ’s tabla. And while I was able to salvage the dharana I gave at the end of class, the volumeof my commentary is too low. So, that bit of dharma talk  remains only in the memories of those who were there. If you want to chant or listen to the Navarna mantra however, this clip will be just fine…

In closing, here are the excerpts from the Ramprasad poem I read at the end of class. This is from Lex Hixon’s book, Mother of the Universe, his ecstatic collection of Ramprasad’s poetry. This one’s on page 180:

Kali is naked reality.
She is the feminine principle, unifying wisdom.
This simpleminded lover of truth
calls her my mother, my mother,
because she is the inexhaustible affection
who never neglects her children….

This poet urges every human heart:
“If you wish to be liberated from oppression,
abandon whatever limits you cling to
and meditate on the limitless one
who wears limitation as a garland of heads
severed by her sword of nondual wisdom.”

For readers who’ve found this blog online and may not be familiar with the Navarna mantra or Goddess Kali, let me simply suggest you can think of Kali an an archetype of Truth–and think of the Navarna mantra as the lifeblood of that truth. So chanting this mantra nourishes, strengthens, and vitalizes your connection to, you guessed it, your innate sense of truth.

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September 19, 2011, Part II

For those who want a Gayatri track to chant along with, here’s class recitation from 9/19. This is ***not*** the 108 reps we did later that evening. This is the Walk-In Open Chant from 7:30-8 pm. Sound quality is not great which is why I didn’t include it in the earlier post. It just occurred to me however that not-so-great audio not withstanding, some people might like the “good company” — and there’s definitely  shakti in the track!

Monday Night Class Chanting the Gayatri Mantra

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August 7, 2011

Many thanks for your patience with my infrequent blogging and non-linear posting of dharma talks. I continue recording each week and hope to be caught up by the end of this year. For now though, when I actually have time to edit a talk, it makes more sense to post the most recent. So, here is Monday August 1’s talk on Patanajali II 40 & 41.  Here are the sutras:

[Mukunda Stiles’ version]

II, 40
From purity arises a desire to protect one’s body and a cessation of adverse contact with others.
II, 41
From the purification of one’s essence cheerfulness arises, and with it, one-pointed concentration,
mastery of the senses, and the capacity for sustaining the vision of the True Self.

[Chip Hartranft’s version]
II, 40
With body purification, one’s body ceases to be compelling, likewise contact with others.
II, 41
Purification also brings about clarity, happiness, concentration, mastery of the senses, and capacity for self-awareness.

Here’s the actual talk:

I’m also including this Kabir poem which manages to make the same point in a handful of lines!

The Hearse
Kabir, version by Robert Bly

The spiritual athlete often changes the color of his clothes,
and his mind remains gray and loveless.

He sits inside a shrine room all day,
so that the Guest has to go outdoors and praise the rocks.

Or he drills holes in his ears, his beard grows enormous and matted,
people mistake him for a goat…
He goes out into wilderness areas, strangles his impulses,
and makes himself neither male nor female…

He shaves his skull, puts his robe in an orange vat,
reads the Bhagavad-Gita and becomes a terrific talker.

Kabir says: Actually you are going in a hearse to the country of death,
bound hand and foot!

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June 21, 2011

I recently found this draft of a post for class on May 9th.  Although adding it now takes us out of chronological order, I think it’s worth including. We had just entered into Book II of the Yoga-Sutra and were beginning to look at Patanjali’s concept of the kleshas, the “primal causes of suffering.” That week’s sutra focused on the first klesha, avidya. If you want a reminder of the five kleshas, scroll down to May 15th.

II, 4
Ignorance (i.e. avidya) is the fertile soil, and as a consequence, all other obstacles persist.
They may exist in any state—dormant, feeble, intermittent, or fully operative.

Click here to listen to my May 9 Dharma Talk.  I’m talking about the kleshas as a way to understand addictive behavior patterns.  That was the night I told the story about the Canadian geese on the towpath and driving to class with my dirty windshield.

Here’s a lovely Zen story that illustrates how life looks when we’re stuck behind the second klesha, asmita (attachment to story) planted in the fertile soil of avidya (ignorance).

A potential student went to see a Zen master and asked: “If I work really hard, how long will it take to become enlightened.”  The Zen master looked at the man and said “Ten years.”

“No, no,” the man said, “I mean to really work at it –“

The Zen master cut him off. “I’m sorry, I misjudged you–twenty years.”

“Wait,” the man blurted out, “I’m very serious, you don’t understand–“

“Thirty years,” said the Zen master.

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April 2, 2011

Okay, here we go. I’m posting the dharma talk and chant from March 28 Class. Voice quality on the dharma talk is fine. Chant recording is heavy on harmonium. I only realized I should record after chanting began so was unable to position the mike to catch optimum voice. Nevertheless, I’m including the MP3 here. Seems better than nothing. Since everyone has been loving the new Patanjali chant, this will give you something to work with on your own.

Here’s the Dharma Talk:

Here’s the Chant: Patanjali-Yoga-Sutra Book One, Sutras 1-3

This beautiful poem came to me this week. It so evokes the process of Yoga, I’m including it here for you.

A Cloth of Fine Gold
-Dorothy Walters

You may think
that first lit flame
was the ultimate blaze,
the holy fire
entered at last.
What do you know of furnaces?
This is a sun that returns
again and again, refining, igniting,
pouring your spirit
through a cloth of delicate gold
until all dross is taken
and you are sweet as
clarified butter
in god’s mouth.

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February 4, 2011

The life/death/life cycle being what it is, I’ve ended up taking a much longer break than anticipated. For me personally, this has  been a season of grief.  I lost not one, but two beloved aunts, two remarkable women who formed me in so many ways. My Aunt Maureen lived in England so we had precious little face time, but what a long and deep connection heart to heart. My Aunt Bunny lived in NYC so we got to spend much more time together. For that I am so grateful. I only wish I could have had many more years with both of them. Sitting with my Aunt Bunny as she moved through the process of dying was devastating, relieving, exhausting, heart-breaking, shattering, grief-filled — and somewhere, floating around the edges, the memory of grace. This life and our connectedness is so precious. The thread so easily severed. I want to thank everyone who’s reached out during this time. Your outpouring of love is such a gift.

I’m slowly returning to the shapes my life moved in before death intervened. Coming back to this blog for the first time in weeks, I see I started a post on 12/20/10. Our last class before the Winter Holiday Break. That was quite an auspicious evening: winter solstice, lunar eclipse, celestial cycles moving us towards 1/1/11.

Here it is now 2/4/11. Weeks later, and yet, the poem I read that night seems more perfect now.

On the Spirit of the Heart as Moon-Disk
Kojiji

Merely to know
The Flawless Moon dwells pure
In the human heart
Is to find the Darkness of the night
Vanished under clearing skies.

Huge thanks again to DanJ for being the Keeper of Monday Night Class — and for holding class so beautifully while I’ve been away. I look forward to returning this coming week. My love to you all.


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December 6, 2010

This week’s verse from the Tao Te Ching, #41, is at once self-explanatory and opaque, a perfect embodying perhaps, of Tao wisdom. Rather than dwelling on the verse, this week’s Dharma Talk focuses on working with chanting as a mindfulness practice. While listening to the the talk, if you interchange the Yogic term “Self” with the Taoist term, “Tao,” you’ll connect the dots between these two traditions.  Here’s the verse, followed by the talk which runs about 23 minutes.

41.

When a superior mam hears of the Tao,
he immediately begins to embody it.
When an average man hears of the Tao,
he half believes, half doubts it.
When a foolish man hears of the Tao,
he laughs our loud.
If he didn’t laugh,
it would be the Tao.

Thus it is said:
The path into the light seems dark,
the path forward seems to go back,
the direct path seems long,
true power seems weak,
true purity seems tarnished,
true steadfastness seems changeable,
true clarity seems obscure,
the greatest art seems unsophisticated,
the greatest love seems indifferent,
the greatest wisdom seems childish.

The Tao is nowhere to be found.
Yet it nourishes and completes all things.