In 1979, the incomparable violinist, Isaac Stern, travelled to China to give concerts and master classes. The Academy Award-winning film – From Mao to Mozart – is based on Stern’s experience of performing and teaching in China.
For Stern the biggest disappointment of the his visit to China was that the musicians, while technically adept, played mechanically and without feeling. […]
A strange thing happened this morning, a disturbing thing for me.
Yesterday we had a house guest who was travelling north to Queensland and wanted accommodation overnight. After her arrival, we shared a meal, chatted, and then I set her up in a comfy bed. I suggested breakfast and a beach walk the next morning before she had to continue her drive.
After my early morning yoga practice, I headed off to make breakfast for us and discovered a good-by letter from our guest on the kitchen bench top. […]
“How do we know where our limits are? By going over them.”
The Inner World
There’s a moment at the end of a yoga class when the students have placed themselves in savasana and have settled down to relax. Stillness gradually begins to fill the space. It doesn’t always happen. But when it does, it’s like a tumbler clicking in a lock, and the door to an inner world may begin to open.
Finding Balance With the Outer World
Of course, there is plenty of evidence for the opposite happening in savasana: noise. I used to teach lunchtime classes in the soundproof radio studio at SBS in Sydney. […]
If Patanjali were alive during this age of the internet, would he have succumbed to blogging?
And, if so, would he have ended up being as pithy in his writing?
Would readers want to spend days/weeks/months unraveling each of his sutra?
Or, would readers, sensing it would be hard work, just want to move on to a YouTube video or MP3 file?
These questions are uppermost in my mind because today I am introducing a new format into “Yoga Suits Her”: a look at The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali.
Perhaps I can be like blogger Julie Powell of “Julie and […]
I was inspired by a talk given by Michael de Manicor of the Yoga Institute at the Yoga Australia conference yesterday. Michael is very enthusiastic about Ph.D. research he is doing in the field of psychology and this came across in his speaking. He presented his topic- “Mental Health & Flourishing” – and compared what we modern yogis think yoga to be vs. the classical teachings of Patanjali. […]
As good yogis we are meant to practice the precepts set forth by Patanjali in the Yama and Niyama. One of the “thou shalts” that I needed to work with today is called Aparigraha – the practice of non-greed.
I’ll just say that I fall from yoga grace not infrequently. When I do, I try to remember two things.
1. The reason it’s called yoga practice is because I’m still working on it.
2. […]
The first time I came across the term “negative fantasy” was in the workshops produced by the Human Awareness Institute. Over the last two days I have gone in and out of my own negative fantasies which had the effect of making me feel about as low as I have in a long time. Until I had a chance to talk about what was going on in my head, I was accepting the fantasies as being true pictures of reality – albeit highly emotionally charged ones. […]
The old master, Patanjali says that non reaction is the mastery of our tenancy to react, and the special effort involved in doing this is really just allowing, letting things be.
For inspiration, I have a copy of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra by Chip Hartranft in the stack of books by the side of my bed. We all need a slug of encouragement from the written word from time to time. That’s why svadhyaya -self-study – is one of the indispensable niyama.
There have been philosophers from every part of the globe and from all ages. The Greeks had Socrates and Aristotle…Germans had Nietzsche…Americans Emerson and Thoreau. […]
I’m not a meditator, I’m slightly embarrassed to admit. Or, am I?
The ancient sage Patanjali – a pivotal proponent of the art of meditation – collected all sorts of wisdom of the times, compressed it into 196 pithy sayings, and gave them to us as a system of meditation.
I’ve read Patanjali’s Sutra from cover to cover, in the 7 or 8 books of interpretations I own. This is nothing against those many dedicated yogis who have learned Sanskrit to commit to memory and be able to chant all 196 Sutra. […]
Any teacher worth their salt – it doesn’t matter if the subject matter is yoga or biology – will be learning from their students as well as teaching them. That’s how teaching becomes an art, and it’s what makes teaching a great profession.
One of the things I had to learn about some students is that they either cannot, or have a great deal of trouble, distinguishing between discomfort and pain.
I believe most pain, especially when it is acute and extremely intense is to be avoided. […]