Yoga is wonderful. I have taught many different yoga courses and retreats and things like this, and I have seen people come pillar to post. People who have problems – emotional problems, psychological problems, whatever it may be – physical problems as well. People who have gone from therapist to therapist, psychologist to whatever it is. And they are always looking for someone else to help them. This is the beautiful thing about a yoga practice. Not just an agama practice but very much an agama practice as well. A yoga practice, it puts the honus on the individual for a level of self-responsibility. And that instantly gives a level of self-empowerment. The honus is not on the teacher or the person passing the information through. You can teach the same information to a hundred people but it is what the actual individual does with that information – and that is the most empowering thing – it is the fact that they actually realize they have done something for themselves. It gains that level of self-love, self-respect, self-empowerment, self-responsibility, everything. And then ideally which is again that paradox of spirituality, self-transcendence….. eventually.
~Rory Trollen
A Hipcamp type of service would have been useful last week when we were searching for a camping destination in the NYC metropolitan area. It took us a couple days but after 15 phone calls, Danielle and I found a great campsite in Croton Point Park, New York.
Danielle and Paz Camping in Croton Harmon, NY
As you see above, we found a beautiful spot with friendly people but it took entirely too long to locate viable camping options online. Hipcamp aims to solve that problem in a fun, easily accessible way. I came across an interesting interview in which Hipcamp Founder Alyssa Ravasio explained her rationale on learning computer programming and explained how she relates yoga and coding:
I decided to do Dev Bootcamp because I didn’t want to be the founder who couldn’t code. I’d seen how hard it can be when the leader of the company doesn’t understand the technology, so I decided to bite the bullet and learn.
What I didn’t expect was how much I would love coding. For me, coding is a practice, like yoga or surfing. It is a skill I can eternally improve, an art form so infinitely complex that it cannot be mastered. I find deep peace in these practices because there is no pressure of an endpoint, just a lifetime of working towards mastery. The path is the goal.
Ah, yes. Deep peace in practice. Whether it be yoga, building Lucid Practice, or everyday interactions with family, friends and acquaintances, I empathize with Alyssa on working towards a lifetime of mastery with no endpoint in site.
Founder of Hipcamp Alyssa Ravasio camping:
As Alyssa so eloquently points out, the path is the goal. Whatever you are working on, realize that the path is the goal and your practice is the manner in which you conduct yourself while on that path. So whatever your practice is…. yoga, traveling the world, building a blog, working a desk job, or just working at being a better sister or friend…. choose to move fluidly with patience and grace. And stay lucid 😉
What does your daily practice consist of?
Note: Dev Bootcamp is a 9 week intensive coding program where beginners can learn the basics of programing and coding. We are in no way affiliated with Dev Bootcamp or Hipcamp other than the fact that we think they’re both awesome 🙂
We’ve written a lot about Rory Trollen and how our yoga retreat in Koh Phangan, Thailand sparked a life+changing chain of events. Here’s a powerful excerpt on how Rory found the practice.
Click to read a piece of text from this video on how yoga is everything.
Krisha Das rocking out!
Many students have a hard time finding their own “yoga music” to enjoy at home. So, Do You Yoga compiled a list of amazing spiritual and yoga based music for you to practice to. I’m not sure why Krishna Das (one of our favorites!) is not on the list but this is great nonetheless!
1) Snatam Kaur (www.snatamkaur.com)
She is an American singer-songwriter who performs Kirtan and Indian Devotional Music. All of her albums are beautiful and peaceful. Definitely check out “The Essential Snatam Kaur”.
2) Mirabai Ceiba (www.mirabaiceiba.com)
The amazing duo of Markus and Angelika. Their music sounds mystical, Latin-infused, and devotional. To find out more about them check out their beautiful story on their website. Download their album “A Hundred Blessings,” to start off your collection.
3) MC Yogi (www.mcyogi.com)
Truly ahead of his time and a musical genius, MC Yogi delivers beats and lyrics that make everyone excited about their practice on and off the mat. His website has some free musical goodies.
Click to to check out more great yoga music.
Here’s a great yoga tune by Krishna Das called Baba Hanuman. We feel Krishna Das is among the most powerful spiritual musicians today.
~Brian
The Marley family has served as an inspiration for a long time now. Bob’s message of love is so strong. Ziggy, is a funny guy. When you see him interviewed, he is always exuding positive energy that is rooted in deep love. We get to hear his take on yoga and music from an interview with Dan Wilf.
As the fire-keeper in the great musical linage of his father Bob Marley, Ziggy’s positive vibrations transcend his live performances and serve as a call to action for human rights and environmental activism across the globe. YOGANONYMOUS’ very own Dan Wilf had a moment to ask Ziggy a couple of questions about his music, and much to our surprise and delight, his yoga practice.
DW: Lots of people have called your music and lyrics inspirational, positive, and uplifting — the same words used to describe the practices of yoga. Are you in fact a yoga practitioner?
Ziggy Marley: Yea mon, I started learning the yoga when I was just a youth in high school. The reason why I started to learn about it was because I was looking into different philosophies and ideas and doing my personal search. I found a few books in high school, and started doing the exercises, it made me feel more flexible and spiritual. You know, more comfortable in my body and things.
DW: Right on, that’s what its all about. Meditation has long been linked to reggae music and Jamaican culture. Do you think that there are lots of parallels between reggae music and meditation?
ZM: Ya mon, you know music is one of the original things that existed in the universe and an integral part of the human spirituality. It is like the original meditation. So yeah, of course there are similarities between the yoga and music and reggae music especially. For me reggae music is like a meditation, a mantra, a spiritual thing that is from the heart and the spirit. This is how I look at the music I make, it’s very spiritual. Yoga is very similar for me in that aspect.
Read more at Yoganonymous — Here.
Image via Google Commons
Ong Namo -I bow to the subtle divine wisdom.
Guru Dev Namo – I bow to the divine teacher within.
I have no idea why today I sit in front of a computer, but I trust that this is where I am supposed to be. In this moment, we are blessed. Wherever you are, this song can inspire you.
Thank you for visiting Lucid Practice! Thanks for inspiring us with amazing work. Create an amazing day!
~Brian
Why don’t we practice Ashtanga on Moon Days (Full Moon and New Moon)? You will find that traditional Ashtanga shalas and studios are closed on Moon Days because Moon Days present us with an opportunity to take a break from our asana practice and reflect on the natural, subtle changes we experience on these days.
The human body is approximately 2/3 water. There are gravitational forces exerted on us by the Earth, Sun and Moon. These forces create shifts in our energy. The shifts in energy are most prevalent and powerful during the full moon and new moon. On these days, it is important to take a break from your asana practice to develop an awareness of these natural shifts in energy.
Our friend Quinn the Ashtangi posing at Sunrise, Photograph by Danielle Lussier of Lucid Practice
Just because you are not practicing Ashtanga on Moon Days (or any type of asana) does not mean that you aren’t practicing “yoga.” In fact, it is very important to be in tuned to the mental aspects of the practice during this time. Meditate on how the full moon or new moon is affecting you, your friends, family, nature (i.e., if you live near the ocean, examine the tidal effects,) and society at large (i.e., on full moon nights, trips to the emergency room and police arrests dramatically increase.)
The lucid practitioner strives to harness their mind’s energy. Once this sense of still — yet keenly aware intuition is developed, you can observe how mother nature (in this case, the moon) has both subtle and obvious effects on all living things.
In my experience, I have felt that the full moon builds a strong and sometimes uncertain energy. On the contrary, the new moon creates a grounded but heavy energy and a sense of a new beginning and a clean slate.
“Yoga practice would be ineffectual without the concepts on which yoga is based. It combines the bodily and the spiritual in an extraordinarily complete way.”
-Renowned Swiss psychologist Carl Jung
Name: Yoga The Art of Transformation
Museum: Sackler Gallery
Location: Sublevel 1
Description: Through masterpieces of Indian sculpture and paintings, this exhibition explores yoga’s goals; its Hindu, as well as Buddhist, Jain, and Sufi manifestations; its means of transforming body and consciousness; and its profound philosophical foundations. It is the first exhibition to present this leitmotif of Indian visual culture and examines the roles of yogis and yoginis played in Indian society over two thousand years.
More than 120 works, from the 3rd century to the early 20th century, illuminate yoga’s central tenets as well as its obscured histories. Temple sculptures, devotional icons, illustrated manuscripts, court paintings, photographs, books, and films are on view. Borrowed from 25 museums and private collections in India, Europe, and the United States, its highlights include an installation that reunites for the first time three monumental stone yogini goddesses from a 10th-century Chola temple; 10 folios from the first illustrated compilation of asanas (yogic postures), which was made for a Mughal emperor in 1602 and has never been exhibited in the United States; and a Thomas Edison film, Hindoo Fakir (1906), the first movie ever produced about India.
We profiled a Tim Miller Lecture video two weeks ago.
Today, I wanted to highlight Tim’s weekly blog post, Tuesdays with Timji. I thought that it was a real post, and to see that Tim Miller, a yoga teacher who knows a lot more than a lot of us about the practice, even struggles to get people to class from time to time is real. I look forward to practicing at his studio one day.
For the past 25 years I have been teaching an Introduction to Ashtanga Yoga class every Monday at 5:30pm. This class began when we opened the North County Yoga Center in 1988 as my attempt to initiate beginners into a practice that is very challenging on many levels simultaneously. Over the years I have attempted to present the practice in a user- friendly format, but if the practice is watered down too much it loses its primal potency. When I took my first ashtanga yoga class in 1978 I knew that I had found the way home—the way back to my own Soul. There was something so deeply resonant and familiar about the practice—it was like rediscovering a long lost friend. That first yoga class changed the course of my life and the same practice continues to keep me sane to this very day. I had the good fortune to meet K. Pattabhi Jois, Guruji, in 1978. Over the next 30 years we developed a close relationship and he taught me many helpful and liberating things. Guruji learned from the great master T. Krishnamacharya, who had been taught by the legendary yogi in the cave in the Himalayas, Sri Rama Mohan Brahmachari. These three gurus collectively form a brain trust of some of the most learned and insightful yogis of the past century. They have been extremely instrumental in regards to creating the current trends of practice. Krishnamacharya said that the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali is the single most important yogic text, and the one that most influenced his methodology of practice. In the Monday night class I always introduce a couple of yoga sutras and try to connect the philosophy of Patanjali with the methodology of ashtanga yoga. A common theme in the class is the breath, because breathing is the core of the practice. I teach simple techniques for making the breath audible (ujjayi) to help us become more mindful of the act of breathing and begin to quiet the mind. Once the students become mindful of their breath, we explore the connection between breath and movement with simple movements that are initiated and guided by the breath. Gradually the level of vinyasa (breath with movement) is built up as a preparation for Suryanamaskara. Now the students are ready to be cooked in the fire of Tapas—the Sacred Fire. Patanjali says: “Kaya indriya siddhi ashudhi kshayat tapasah”–The sacred fire removes impurities and brings mastery to the body and the sense organs.” Tapas brings us back to our senses, and ashtanga yoga kindles the Sacred Fire like nothing else I’ve ever done. Many people say that this practice is inappropriate for beginners. They may be right.
Over the years the Monday night class has waxed and waned in terms of popularity, from as many as 50 students to the all time low of 2 students that I’ve had the past two Mondays. I try not to take this personally, but everyone wants to feel appreciated, so my self-esteem has suffered a bit. Desperate situations require desperate solutions. My wife, Carol, and I have decided that beginning on Monday October 7th, we will offer the Monday Night Class to the community on a donation basis, resurrecting the sacred box that served me so well over many years of operation on the honor system. When I first started practicing, a yoga class cost two dollars. Over the years classes have gotten pricey, which has excluded part of the population. Money no longer needs to be an issue. Perhaps the practice itself is the issue—yes, it’s challenging, but also very rewarding. Maybe it’s me—heaven forbid. I know there are people all over San Diego County that shake in their boots at the mention of my name, and think it takes great courage just to set foot in the Ashtanga Yoga Center. Let me set the record straight on that—I’m a pussycat.