Sunday, June 1, 2008

Sunday Morning

Yesterday at the Immersion was a really fun day. In our asana practice we focused on adjusting the inner body and then the outer body which opened up another domain of awareness and attention for everyone. We kept joking that why, here at the very end, now that we know how to do the UPA's, are we adding yet another thing to manage? ("Yes, Christina," they asked, "why are you making us beginners again?") Well the thing is that the practice makes us beginners all the time. We are always beginners to some domain of practice. But we are no longer beginners to practice itself and so we should be more and more comfortable and able to deal with who and how we are in the face of new challenges. (Oh yes, this is me, in the face of new information that I am not good at yet. I am frustrated, angry, impatient and yet, curious, willing to try and inspired. Or whatever/however you are in such a situation.)

I was so impressed because everyone just took to the work so well and the quality of attention and care brought to the endeavor was really stellar. We have really come a long way as a group.

Craig's talk was interesting, I thought. I enjoyed his foray into mantra and his comments on the yoga journey. He talked a fair amount about the Three Vedic Bodies. The Physical Body, the Astral Body and the Causal Body. He spent a fair amount of time dispelling many popular new age notions about the chakras and their application relative to yoga therapy. Basically the rap is that you cannot really work on the chakras through external means. They exist in the causal body and usually it is not so much a chakra that needs any work. They are simply something through which energy manifests and so really more work is to be done on the physical body and the astral body. He was pretty adamant that he disagrees with that notion that if your stomach hurts it is an upset in the manipurna chakra and so on. More likely he said, it is something in your diet or emotions causing the disturbance. The chakras themselves are not so changeable.

Anyway- he is a great person and fun to listen to and be around. He is giving a 6-week course at YogaYoga on Thursday nights and if you haven't signed up, you really should. It will be awesome and their are only a few spots left.

Okay- today we have the last day of this particular segment of training, which is really exciting. Then a fabulous meal to enjoy together at the Clay Pit. It is going to be great.

3 comments:

Pamela said...

It was a great day all the way around. I had never practiced "that way" before and found the subtle work to truly be some of the most exhausting asana practice I've ever had -- certainly from a mental perspective.

I am often reminded of GOLF when we get into all the refinements: you are trying to do this active thing, yet you have to keep in mind ALL of these directions which are for the most part NOT linear (head down, hips square, eye on the ball, top of the backswing parallel to the round, swing in the same arc, body aligned with the flight path, proper grip, and so forth). It is virtually impossible to do them all "at the same time." You end up losing one as you focus on another. And then it's oh yeah, "I have to do that too." Much like asana work, sometimes you have to completely focus on one thing and work that until it's muscle memory or automatic and THEN take on another piece of it.

Yesterday, when you shared the Patricia Walden anecdote -- the beautiful experienced backbends yet with one foot ever-so-slightly forward, the lifelong work which is required, I was again reminded of golf. Like Tiger Woods missing a seemingly certain putt that he has made countless times before, it is a lifelong practice requiring great attention to detail.

Yoga is in everything; It IS everything!
Pamela

Pamela said...

And please post the words for the inner and outer body!

P

Lisa said...

I was kind of relieved to hear other people talking about how tiring/challenging that work was on Saturday. I love that yoga keeps giving us more to discover...I love that it is something that you can go deeper and deeper with for a lifetime, and really it is fun to be forever a beginner. Like Chelsea said at dinner, it's just the tip of the iceberg. I don't want to get too mushy, but I want to express my gratitude once again to you (Christina!) for the way you have deepened my understanding of yoga over the last year and a half studying with you. I'm excited to see where it goes from here. Also, I really do feel so fortunate to have had the pleasure of studying with this group during the immersion...it truly is an amazing bunch of people. Peace to y'all. :-)