Drive your senses to Samadhi

During a class with Kaustubha das the example of the horse and chariot as a metaphor of the body and soul was given.
“Five sense organs are the horses and mind is the rein. All the objects of senses, various enjoyments are the different path through which the horses work. If you have good control over the horses by the rein, that means you have got good control over the senses, then you can drive fast in the shortest possible path and can reach your destination quickly, without any accident. If your horses are beyond control then there will be accident, injury, delay and suffering.” Kriya Joga

Further more, the mind is the charioteer and the chariot- our body; in it sits our soul. To make sure our soul is in the right direction, we have to align all the different parts of this experience. Kaustubha das said that you start with the senses because: ‘The senses are the easiest to control.’ THE EASIEST??? THE EASIEST??? Just give me pets and good food, just make my senses happy and I am yours! THE EASIEST???

But there is an answer, or at least a place to start from. When our body, senses or mind are idle, they look for other things to do… or are the saying goes: “Idle Hands Are The Devil's Tools.” This is why we have yoga, if you keep your body and senses active in a focused way through the practice of asana, and the mind through meditation, you will learn how to control and focus them.

Pratyahara, the fifth of the Eight limbs of Ashtanga Yoga is a challenging one, again, the restriction, or withdrawal of the senses is such a difficult concept to grasp. When we learned about Pratyahara in my teachers training, one of my fellow students turned to me, and said very incessantly (and slightly frightened) but why? Why not enjoy our senses? My simple answer is that you need to make decisions based on a true understanding of the nature of the situation you face, when you are influenced so strongly by addictive senses of pleasure (or pain) it is hard to make that decision. Pleasure and pain (as well as other senses) should be taken part of consideration, but not hijack the decision making process.

I will end with a wonderful description of Pratyahara by SwamiJ: “The senses are said to follow the mind in the same way the hive of bees follows the queen bee. Wherever she goes, they will follow. Similarly, if the mind truly goes inward, the senses will come racing behind.”

Who is Not So Shai?

So I know nothing of fashion, glamour, or trend. That is what you have friends for. Shai, who is anything but shy, writes about the latest trends in everything that is sexy and New York. Don’t be shy, have a look.

I am releasing my brother

On Yom Kippur, two years ago, I was dealing with a difficult situation. The relationships I had with two of my most beloved men were very tense. Man One was very mad at me for something that, swear to God, I had no choice in doing. It was natural and out of my control. Man Two I was mad at, for decisions he made long before he even met me or knew of my existence. So as I stood there, asking God for forgiveness over and over again, I asked myself, how can I ask Man One to forgive me, when I don’t think I did him wrong; how can I forgive Man Two, while he didn’t do me any wrong. Is forgiving always only for an objective act of sin? Or is it in the eyes of the beholder?

The Mother is in town this week, and with it being 100 degrees outside the best activity we could think of was watching movies. This is what she wanted to watch this weekend:
Sex And The City
Mongol
A very eclectic choice of movies I must say.

Spoiler warning ahead; but nothing that isn’t obvious.

In SATC both Carrie and Miranda have to deal with forgiving their men, one for leaving her at the altar, the other for cheating on them with another woman. Not only do they both come to realize that they had as much to do with their man’s poor choices as they did, they also repeat the same mistakes.




In one subtle but genius scene in the movie, Miranda and Carrie are having dinner together on Valentine’s Day. Miranda comes clean about telling Big something she should have not. Carrie attacks her and Miranda uses the same defiance Steve used on her, WORD TO WORD. It is just a matter of time until we all commit the same sins?



In Mongol, Jamukha saves the life of Genghis Khan after he falls in a crack in the ice as a young boy. They made a vow to be brothers in blood. Though at early stages of the movie Jamukha assists Genghis Khan in his fights, he will not let him be the strong man he wants to be, the Khan, and eventually joins Genghis Khan’s enemy in a war on him. When Jamukha is captured by Genghis Khan, he releases him to freedom.
The surprised Jamukha says to Genghis Khan: “You are releasing your enemy” and as he rides away Genghis Khan whispers: “I am releasing my brother.” Forgiving Jamukha for his betrayal, understanding that he might have done the same thing.




Sharon Salzberg said: “The intention of forgiveness meditation is not to force anything, or to pretend to anything, or to forget about ourselves in utter deference to the needs of others. In fact, it is out of the greatest compassion for ourselves that we create the conditions for an unobstructed love, which can dissolve separation and relieve us of the twin burdens of lacerating guilt and perpetually unresolved outrage.” (Mrs. Salzberg will be teaching a workshop at The Shala on “tools for awakening courage, faith and compassion” on June 22nd)

"If we haven’t forgiven, we keep creating an identity around our pain, and that is what is reborn. That is what suffers” (Ajahn Pasanno, Preparing for Death)
Keeping a grudge, will create more “heat” around a painful area. If you keep on thinking everyday, “Ahhh! how much I hate him for leaving me!” you will remind yourself over and over again how offended you were when you were abandoned.

Forgive, for any reason you choose, because you were part of the problem, because you are brothers in blood, because you love, or for no reason at all, forgive, and good things will come.



I am also reposting אשם

Blame Synergia Words and Lyrics: Ron Hofmann and Roy Geffen

Only now I discover I am the one to blame,
I think of it and just can not take a breath.
I want to touch you; and you are so far off,
I need to know you are not in pain.

It seems you did it all as you planed,
You wanted more from me, I am so ashamed.
It’s not that I didn’t try; I wanted us to be one
I am on a fly and you just halt me, and then you tell me, I was wrong again.

Only now I discover I am the one to blame,
I think of it and just can not take a breath.
I want to touch you; and you are so far off,
I need to know you are not in pain.

I hoped that maybe you would see the good in me
But you just don’t want what I have to bring.
I thought I was the one that did, but I was the one with a hope,
That you will always be here, stay here, and now you are leaving.

Who is the Yogamaiden?

When I started my Yoga Teachers Training over a year ago I didn't know what would come out of it. A year later I am counting my blessing. But no doubt one of the most magnificent miracles that I was blessed with was meeting Marisol. And now, she is sharing her wisdom at Yogamaiden
Read this:
My Teacher would often ask me, ” What’s the rush? “. Then I thought, what does that mean? I didn’t understand what he was really saying. It took me months to figure out the lesson in the question. Impatience is himsa. My impatience with my asana practice was an act of cruelty toward my Self. I now understand. The mat is a mirror. A reflection of our progression on the path. If we are truly to progress we must sincerely want to look into the mirror. We must make a choice and select the act of ahimsa. We must then choose to be kind and gentle with ourselves. This act on the mat will overflow to our life off the mat, which is where yoga is really practiced.

ॐ

The focus of the moth is jump backs and jump throughs, the fear of any ashtangi over 90 lbs. You have to lift your body so high almost into a hand stand, then hug the legs in and jump through to seat with straight legs, on your way back, you lift off your seat so high that you can swing like a pangolin, and fly back in the air. There are many merits to this practice, but I think that the real advantage of mastering these jumps is to keep the practice in motion, smooth, as one unit.

We tend to chop our life into segments; for example into separate time periods, like when I say: “I used to get drunk all the time, but I was young and foolish” as if it was not those experiences (and others) which made me who I am today. Or sometimes we chop up our present, “Asaf of work,” the 9 to 9 hard working finance guy, and “Asaf out of work,” the free spirit yogi at all other times. Sometimes we even segment parts of our personality, and forgive me for not sharing here. It seems like it just makes our lives easier to manage when they are segmented, as if one does not have to affect the other.

ॐ, AUM, is the sound of the infinite, the sounds from where the world was created and where we will go, my teacher says: “focus on ॐ!!!” when we start asking questions that are beyond our level of understanding. Just go back to ॐ. Listen to the sound of ॐ, is starts all the way in the back of the throat, almost in the belly, and travels through the mouth to the lips where it seems to end. Many students and teachers neglect the last part of the ॐ, ending it abruptly. When you do that, you are focusing at the past and the present, but not the future. When you chant ॐ, elongate the vibration at the end, these vibrations will carry us into the future.

We have a nice practice when we sing Kirtan at The Shala to sing a rolling ॐ, you just start your next ॐ before the group finished the one before, and it goes on. This is something to do even when you are singing by yourself. Try to make your ॐ be a rolling ॐ to go on into the universe.



If we learn how to have a smooth, unfragmented practice on the mat, if we learn how to carry our ॐ so it has no beginning and no end, we will learn how to live our lives as a unit.

For some practical advice on jump backs and jump throughs you might like this tutorial from Mysore Musings

And this is a good short article on AUM