Thursday Quote

"When you came into this world people laughed while you cried. Live so that when you leave the world laugh you will, but people all around will cry."


-Tulsidas

Monday Music

Wunderbar!

Friday Focus: Mysore Etiquette

Mysore Etiquette by Cara Jepsen / Kali Om, for tomorrow's Mysore 101 workshop at Yoga Now

Mysore Etiquette


You may arrive and leave at any time during the class

Enter and leave quietly. Try to place your mat without too much drama

For best results, come at least three times a week

Let the teacher know about any injury or condition you have

Once you get on your mat, stay. Take care of bathroom duties before class

Stop when/where the teacher asks you to stop

Do not drink water, as this destroys the internal purifying heat. Traditionally, no water is taken 20 minutes before or after practice, either

It’s OK to ask questions or wait for an adjustment. Just try to keep the volume low

Try to use ujjayi breath, dristi (gaze), vinyasa and bandhas as you practice

Do Primary Series the first time you practice in a new place / with a new teacher, or after travel

Traditionally, practice is not done on the new and full moon and ladies do not practice for three days during their cycle

If pressed for time, tell the teacher. In general, the sun salutations, standing poses and closing poses are most important. Do not skip the poses you don’t like.

Learn everything you can about the pose you’re working on, such as its name and meaning. Look up others doing the pose, and try to learn from them. You may do your “nemesis” pose three times in class, or hold it for a long time.

Every pose has a correct vinyasa – a specific way to enter and exit. When in doubt, ask

Those who sweat a lot should bring two towels – one for you and one for the teacher

Practice saucha (cleanliness) on your person and your clothes, mat, towel, etc.

Try not to come to class reeking of garlic, onions or meat. Yogis historically do not consume these items. A sattvic (mild) vegetarian diet is traditional, and yields the best results

Remember the words of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois: “Ashtanga is 99 percent practice, one percent theory” and “Do you practice and all is coming.” And keep in mind that the three greatest obstacles to practice are sleep, laziness and disease.




Text (c) 2012 by Kali Om. Photo (c) 2002 by Cara Jepsen

Thursday Quote

"We spent seemingly endless hours in the offices of doctors and dentists. Once after a two-hour wait in a doctor's office Swami [Madhavananda, ninth president of the Ramakrishna Mission] said to me, 'If we, who come in this train of a divine incarnation and his partners, have it like this, just think of what must be the lot of ordinary people.'

"This gave me considerable food for thought."



-Swami Yogeshananda

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!

Monday Music

Craig Pruess and Ananda - Lalitha Ashtotram (Sacred Chants Of Devi)

Thursday Quote

"In life, whenever one tries to attain something, one encounters obstacles. Personal karma, habits and health problems get in the way. Just like when Moses went to the desert and heard voices that spoke of temptations, the mind devises tricks. If one makes a decision to fast and just read the scriptures for 30 days, the mind will play tricks during that time. The tendency of the mind and senses is to want only pleasure. The mind is so powerful, it will discern a little headache so that one can start to make excuses for not practicing. One might say, 'I'll start in the New Year' over and over. Then the New Year passes, and one is still over-indulging and generally carrying on as before. One feels that one cannot stop and change behavior, and delays the decision until their birthday. In a short time, it's the new millennium. So it goes as you continue to do the things you do not really choose to. One acts automatically due to past habits. Then one day, you are 80 years old and it is too late.

"It's best to make a contractual promise. Write and sign the document, then give the promise to someone in whom you believe to help insure that you stick to your word and follow through with right action."



-Dharma Yoga Life of a Yogi Teacher Training Manual

Monday Music

Thursday Quote

"Vedanta is not a creed, it is, rather, the foundation of all creeds and religions - those not only of India but the world; for it explains in rational terms the eternal laws governing all spiritual life and gives aid to all men and women in the spiritual unfoldment, whatever their individual religious affiliations and beliefs may be. It is, in truth, a Universal Philosophy and REligion, belong to no one race of people, but to mankind as a whole."

-Swami Ashokananda

Mid-Week Video

MONDAY MUSIC

THURSDAY QUOTE

"Like writing on the surface of water, is the anger of a realized soul."

-Hindu saying

Monday Music

Vedanta on TCM

TCM had a Tyrone Power festival yesterday. Among the films they showed was The Razor's Edge.

I'd seen the film a few times, although not in awhile, and each time it makes more sense. *This* time it was clear that Tyrone Power's Indian guru is urging him on the path of Vedanta, or Jnana Yoga, and that Power achieves God-realization before being sent back into the world.

The scene with the guru is loosely based on Somerset Maugham's encounter with the great jnani Ramana Maharshi. Read Maugham's account here.

Click here to learn more about the four main paths of yoga.

Back home, Power's old friends have had their primary attachments ripped away form them, and they're miserable (no backup light!). They find Powers to be content, yet aloof.

Watch the whole film here.

Saturday Snaps

Dharma Yoga Life of a Yogi 800-hour Teacher Training, August 2012

Dharma Mittra Yoga Life of a Yogi 500-hour Teacher Training, May 2008

Dharma Mittra Yoga Life of a Yogi 200-hour Teacher Training, February 2007

Fuzzy Friday

While folks were flocking in droves to the disco and the Sex Pistols were making their first tour of America and Egypt was making peace with Israel at Camp David and Pope John Paul II was being installed and Steve Dahl was debuting in Chicago and Son of Sam was being sentenced in New York....

....they were practicing yoga in Central Park....

What were *you* doing in '78?

Thursday Quote

“The Yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path [of jnana/knowledge or vichara/self-inquiry] the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass!...

..."You have to ask yourself the question, Who am I? This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem, and you will solve all other problems thereby."

-Sri Ramana Maharshi

MID-WEEK VIDEO

Sri Dharma saluting the guru. This video was made last year - shortly after Sri Dharma's own guru, Swami Kailashananda (Yogi Gupta), passed into mahasamadhi.

The subtext is that for most, spiritual progress cannot be made without the help and guidance of a guru - the remover of darkness.

Learn more about the importance of guru here.

Airport Yoga

Nothing passes the time like Dharma Yoga Level IV with pranayama and svadhyaya.



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Location:LaGuardia

Monday Music