A Sutra a Day: III-22 – Final Passage
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Have you ever done a 5Rhythms Dance session? I did several of them when I attended the Burning Man festival a couple of years ago.
What is it? […]
A Sutra a Day: III-18 – More Unpacking Patanjali
It’s so very interesting to me – the way what I read or see or hear is open to wide interpretation when compared to others’ understanding, even when we’ve been exposed to the same phenomena. I guess part of what yoga offers us is a system that exposes the filters we have over what we consider our reliable organs of perception.
This is to be expected when we consider the social conditioning and heredity that varies so much among the 7 billion people on the planet. […]
A Sutra a Day: III-9 – Alert, Aware and Kind
One of my first yoga teachers wanted his school to be called ‘Awareness Yoga’. Training peoples’ awareness to notice what they were up to, he reckoned, was what yoga was all about. He was a good teacher, but appeared to be moody and, to my mind, he wasn’t aware of how his angry moods impacted people. Publicly he was inspiring and wise, but privately he could be quite petty. I’m shocked myself at how often I go on automatic and say things that are thoughtless or my behaviour is self-serving. […]
A Sutra a Day: III-8 – Parry and Thrust
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It’s been a free-for-all in the Australian Parliament recently. Prime Minister Julia Gillard was reported in the newspapers today as excoriating the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott.
Goodness, excoriate! I think of the medical use of that word: damage or remove part of the surface of . […]
A Sutra a Day: III-6 – A Stage of Yoga – Serving
One of the reasons why I wanted to create a small community to live in was because of the opportunities living together might generate for sharing and caring.
We three couples who have created our communal home on Mitchells Island affectionately call ourselves The Shedders** because one of the couples lived in the old shed on the property as our house was being built.
Old friends for many years, we decided about 9 years ago that we would share our lives as we went into senior years and old age – for the enjoyment of each other’s company and for […]
A Sutra a Day: II-54 – Senses and Sensitivity
In the past I was taught by my yoga teachers that the word pratyahara meant ‘withdrawal of the senses’. You might have gotten this message, too, each time your teacher leads you through the yoga relaxation and says something like, ‘Now still the mind and draw your five senses inwards so they don’t distract you.’ That’s a big ask. […]
A Sutra a Day: II-53 – Give the Mind Something to Do
I heard of a good reason why it’s hard for us to concentrate on breathing or to meditate. It’s because we don’t really have much experience with staying focussed on just one thing at a time.
For example, I went for a beach walk today and, at the same time, was listening through my head phones to an audiobook. As I drove to the beach, I was thinking about my shopping list. […]
A Sutra a Day: II-40 – Cleanliness Energises
Just a couple of weeks into this season, there’s still time to do your spring cleaning, that is, if you’re so inclined.
I was raised by a very squeaky-clean type of mother. My sister and I did a lot of the grunt work – basically taking our house apart – scouring, scrubbing, and sluicing it down, until there was a sheen and a shine on everything.
If you really knew me, you could see how this sort of upbringing has made spring cleaning anathema to me. I’ve rebelled against it for years until now. […]
A Sutra a Day: II-37 – Non-Acquisitiveness
Today was the day for the Yoga Aid fundraising event celebrated world-wide to raise money for various worthy causes. I just love these community happenings where everyone is drawn together with the best of intentions and that spirit is palpable. For my part, as one of a team of eight teachers presenting at Yoga Aid in Forster this morning, I was somewhat nervous. […]
A Sutra a Day: II-29 – 8 Limbs Lead to Freedom
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I’ve been interested in the big picture of yoga for many years. I’m talking about the way the system of yoga thoroughly considers all aspects of a person – you could say, human and even divine.
Tree of yoga is how the structure is described in that it is comprised of eight limbs, listed below.
As a budding yogini, in my twenties, I was only interested in the third limb – asana – the practice of postures. […]
A Sutra a Day: II-24 – Holiday from Yoga?
I’m taking a little vacation from blogging this week, after today’s post. My husband and I are travelling to Sydney to be available to my step-son before his wedding which is on Saturday. It’s an exciting time. I remember the day Daniel and I wed as one of the happiest days of my life.
Is it possible to take a vacation from yoga. Nah! Not really. Even though, this morning I skipped my early morning practice session, and it’s likely there will be a few more such hiccoughs through the week because of general busy-ness. […]
A Sutra a Day: II-22 – The More Things Change
Sometimes I feel like a elderly person, a kind of maternal figure who’s produced many yoga progeny over the years. In one sense it’s kind of cool. I look out and see all these people who got interested in yoga through contact with me, and even stayed with it; some of them were even moved enough by the great discipline of yoga to teach in their own right and have their own yoga children.
In another sense, I do feel old when I’m around the younger generation. […]