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The ancient sage Patanjali comments on the topic of sexual energy in Sutra II:38, and his writing has been variously interpreted to recommend abstinence (Brahmacharya) – but also, moderation or continence.
I think it’s hardly imaginable that modern day humans could be expected to, or want to, practice complete abstinence from sexual activity.
My experience of sexual energy is that it is just another kind of energy. It’s possible to get carried away with it or be aware of and contain it. […]
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. […]
Do you have pet peeves? Really! Who doesn’t? I should know something about dealing with these sorts of annoyances, but, sadly, I don’t always live out of my wisdom, you know, my higher self. What I know is that if something gets under my skin it’s usually a thing that I’m ‘guilty’ of doing myself. Here’s how it goes: I get irritated when my husband (poor Daniel) says he’s going to do a thing and then he doesn’t. More often than not, he’ll get there in his own sweet time, but not in my time frame. […]
My stepson married his fiancé two weeks ago and now they are celebrating a rather unusual honeymoon at the ‘art festival’ called Burning Man in the U.S. The couple put together their own vows, which I think all the wedding guests found inspiring to hear. Daniel and I repeat our wedding vows to each other on our anniversary; it’s our way of seeing how we are travelling in our relationship and also to recommit to our promises if we have wavered. I hadn’t thought about the word ‘vow’ for some time until I came across Patanjali’s Sutra II-31. […]
Sometimes I feel like a bit of a freak in the yoga world and maybe in the world generally. Here are a few reasons why I might be classified as eccentric:I’m not a vegetarian. I love continental cakes. A glass of really good red wine is a special weekend treat. And, I drink 2 cups of coffee a day.I’m on the high side of my sixties and I’ve chosen to live like an ageing hippie with two other couples of my vintage.I love watching great television with brilliant writing. […]
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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. […]
It’s diet time again in our household. If you knew me well, you’d know I don’t need to diet to lose weight, as my husband Daniel and my housemate Rick are attempting to do. However, we have just come through a week-long period of my step-son’s nuptial activities, followed by a week of showing my visiting sister-in-law Sydney-town and Mitchell Island. Food is intrinsic to festivities and socialising. And, often not wholesome food, unfortunately. So, today I got to have my food: fruit for breakfast, steamed vegetables for lunch, and fish, rice and salad for dinner. […]
I heard a sad story today about a middle-aged man named David Rakoff who died recently from cancer. Over the years, I enjoyed his comedy contributions to a podcast I listen to regularly called This American Life. What saddened me more than the fact of Rakoff’s death at a relatively young age was that he seemed to have been a tortured soul for much of his life. […]
Do you get annoyed with yourself when you screw up? I sure do.
On the one hand, it’s normal; it comes with the territory of being human and therefore must be forgivable. […]
I had breakfast with one of the delightful yoga students whom I’ve met since relocating to the country.
I was afraid that when I left my yoga teaching business of 30 years in Sydney that I wouldn’t develop inspiring relationships in my new locale. By inspiring, I mean that students inspire me as much as the reverse.
This particular lass has been in love with yoga for a long time and is now considering doing teacher training. […]
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. […]
It’s been over four months since I started this Sutra a Day project….
Perhaps you’ve noticed that it’s not easy at all times for me to map my everyday existence onto to the three thousand year old aphorisms of Patanjali (or vice versa). But then it wasn’t easy for blogger Julia Powell of Julie and Julia fame to cook all of Ms. Child’s recipes while writing about how the task was wreaking havoc on her personal life; not easy is the very definition of a challenge. […]
I should have had a little birthday party for “Yoga Suits Her” last week, as I completed my 700th blog post. Woo-hoo! I can hardly believe it myself that I have been this regular for so long. There was even an earlier incarnation in my blogging career called “The Ville” where I cut my teeth.
I want to share what I’ve learned through my writing and especially in this latest endeavour of Yoga Sutra study.
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On Friday Daniel and I are going to the Central Coast to help produce a workshop sponsored by the Human Awareness Institute. We love these workshops called Love, Intimacy and Sexuality because they serve to bring out the best in the participants – in terms of both their humanity and divinity.
It’s often the case that people don’t recognise their own divinity. […]
I’ve been featured in an article in the August/September Australian Yoga Journal that’s entitled “Yoga at Any Age”. The gist of the article is that yoga has a myriad of gifts to offer and the value of them increases with age.
My particular input into the article emphasises that the hip arthritis I dealt with over the years propelled me into more reflective yoga practices. […]
Did you enjoy a gloriously sunny winter day today? I did. It called to me to get into the garden and weed and plant.
I’m a metropolitan girl from places like Chicago, New York and Sydney. Gardening is not my first language. What does that matter, though, when Nature calls?
There’s rocket, lettuce and dill in the dirt now. I’ve checked the weather report and it will be cold over the next few days but not frosty. […]
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I had an opportunity to teach a group of boys a number of years ago who attended Sydney Grammar School. The boys’ music department teacher was a student of mine, and he felt that these boys who were music students would benefit from some sessions.
I prepared my lessons for a group of 14 boys, but only 11 of them came along for yoga. […]
How does a person who is completely body-oriented take on the intellectual study that is Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra? Is it in any way possible for me to comprehend such abstract concepts as karma, kaivalya, kundalini, or kushalata?Today, in my search for meaning in Sri Patanjali’s I-50 aphorism, I am left scratching my head, wondering what to write.
Yes and no is the answer, or, as T.K.V. […]
