No-Excuses Meditation

To take the esoteric nonsense out of what you may THINK is meditation, I thought I'd offer a no-frills easy way to meditate. And by "easy" I actually mean "really effing hard but easy to start and so worth it." This has appeared on the internet before, but then, given Rule 34, what hasn't?

1. Find a comfortable seat. There are lots of ways to do this, but mostly your back should be straight and your legs either not squashed or squashed in a way that will remain comfortable.

2. Set a timer. If you don't have one, try e.ggtimer. If you're feeling timid, try 5 minutes. Ambitious? 30 minutes. Look at it long enough to make sure it's running, then close your eyes.

3. Pay attention to the breath. On each inhale, think "inhale," and on each exhale, number it. (Inhale, 1, inhale, 2, inhale, 3... etc). And:

• When you get to 5, start over.
• When you catch yourself thinking, mentally say "thinking," and start over.
• When you forget to count, mentally say "thinking," and start over.
  
• When you catch yourself at a number higher than 5, mentally say "thinking," and start over.

That's all there is to it, really. Try to let go of your concerns as to what the pattern actually looks like. One day it might go "1... 1... 1... 3... 1...," another might go, "5... 5... 7... 9... 5...," and yet another might go "1... 1... 4... godihatemyjobmyfootitchesWHYHASN'THECALLED... 1..." And it's all good.

Lineage and New Media

If you read anything related to yoga, other than this blog, you know that Sri K. Pattabhi Jois passed on this week. Coincidentally, I had been reading Jivamukti Yoga, by Shannon Gannon and David Life (owners/founders of the studio by the same name), specifically their chapter titled "Guru: The Teacher You Can See and Feel." This is a meaty, ballsy book and there is a lot I like and don't like about it, which may make for a post later, but in the meantime, this chapter talked about the role of a guru and they named Jois as one of their three gurus.
Now, I have never studied with a guru. I met Amrit Desai once, and attended a pretty amazing talk of his, but the rest of my training and education has been American and decidedly non-guru-ey. That said, I can trace a lineage back to another guru, and I am not sure if that has benefitted me or my teaching or not. And I have a lot to thank Jois for- he's cited for bringing Ashtanga to the West, and the power Vinyasa flow style I became serious about, studied, and teach is almost a "child" of Ashtanga, meaning that without Jois' work, there's a chance I'd never even become involved in it.
I also wonder if the way yoga is taught and learned isn't changing. I am not going to argue that traveling to India and studying with a guru isn't an amazingly valuable experience, but I think there is enormous opportunity for growth from right where you're sitting. I've seen some really amazing, potentially transformative teaching online:

• Sadie Nardini offers some fabulous vinyasa flows and meditation via YouTube
• Yoga Today: free, hour long classes. Every day.
• Florian Yoga Companion has a 30-day series running right now addressing the connection between emotional wellness and physical health. I like this one.

I'm not arguing that the days of traditional teaching and passing on knowledge are over. But that so many other avenues have become available over the past 40 years or so, and that if we really care about sharing all that yoga can offer, it's time to embrace new media and explore its uses. I have a feeling a lot of people won't agree with me, but I think a truly loving and open-minded guru, the kind I'd want to follow, would want it that way, too.

Troublemakers

Those of you who know me know that I have been pretty rageful the last month or so. Happy, yes, but also a raging mess of fire and venom. Current "spiritual friends," as she calls them, are hipsters, the MTA, and, more often than I would like to admit, my actual friends.
I also really love Pema Chodron, and love this talk. My initial feeling is that Troublemakers are only "spiritual friends" if you approach them from that angle and are able to detach from your annoyance and understand that it is not you, in order to understand what it is really telling you about yourself. The story she tells at the end, however, would imply that these people have value to you even if you are identifying with how much you can't stand them.
As with anything in the realm of yoga, thought, and meditation, there isn't really a conclusion. But the idea I am working with right now is that there is potential value in such things, much like there is potential value in a piece of soil. Make of it what you will.

Lines of Inquiry

You are so young, so much before all beginning, and I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

- Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
(full text available here)

I am trying to come up with a yogi analogy for "I'm a poet and I just don't know it," in reference to Rilke.
And just like that, this blog exists as an exercise in what many would perceive as futility- trying to answer unanswerable questions. Here are some of the things I wonder about, and would like to continue wondering about in text and on the internet:

• How can I, a non-skinny, proudly non-serene, 20-something American woman live and embody yoga without giving up all those things that make me ME?
• What does it mean to do yoga in New York, in the 21st century? What can we find in our lives and popular culture that can inform the practice?
• What does a "perfect" asana practice or class consist of, for me or anyone else, and can it be found in an actual class? How do the changes in our lives reflect in changing needs for yoga, on an individual and cultural level?
  

On Practice

On practice, and the name of this blog:

"The Western idea of practice is to acquire a skill. It is very much related to our work ethic, which enjoins us to endure struggle or boredom now in return for future rewards. The Eastern idea of practice, on the other hand, is to create the person, or rather to actualize or reveal the complete person who is already there. This is not practice for something, but complete practice, which suffices unto itself. In Zen training they speak of sweeping the floor, or eating, as practice. Walking as practice."
-Stephen Nachmanovich, Free Play: The Power of Improvisation in Life and the Arts, p. 67

We talk about doing yoga as a practice, but what about talking about yoga? What about the way we interact with each other, online or otherwise? If eating can be a practice, surely blogging can be, too.
So go, get on a mat, or open up a text box, or even a comment- just do something.

Teaching Schedule

THURSDAYS, 7-8 PM

• 281 North 7th Street, Ste. 7. Brooklyn. 2 blocks from Bedford Avenue L stop, 4 or so from Lorimer Street L/G stop. Come early!
• Hour long vinyasa flow class
• $10 suggested donation