Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Therapy Training- Day One

I got to Park City around 2:15 yesterday, checked into my condo and made my way down to the training. John was working yesterday afternoon with people who have back pain. And the guiding principle for this is establish curves and then stretch. And in order to establish curves guess what? THE THIGHS MUST GO BACK. Inner Spiral helps establish curves and outer spiral helps give the length. Over and over again. There are certainly other nuances but I always love to see him just apply the basics to chronic pain and to get immediate results with people who have absolutely no yoga experience. It is so inspiring.

I had dinner last night with Sundari at Whole Foods. We had a most excellent yoga-geek discussion and "gossip" session and then I came home, put my groceries away, called Kelly and went to bed. I slept great- as I was pretty tired from our late night out Sunday, my early morning on Monday, a day of travel and an afternoon of getting my psoas worked on (which I definitely needed.)

I woke up pretty refreshed--grateful for the time difference which grants me an extra hour in the morning and put my kicharee on to cook while I did my morning practices. Now, having drank my tea and checked in here, I need to jump in the shower and then get to the venue. Big day ahead.

3 comments:

Leanne said...

I am eating my kichari as I type- I am practicing self love by staying away from sugar for two weeks and really, my digestion is already thanking me.

Just wanted to say I am looking forward to the daily download of info- thank you for taking the time to share.

On another note I have been teaching the 6 attributes of the absolute these last six weeks and I saved vimarsha for last...mostly because I didn't have a good enough grip on it myself. I poured over everything I had and wrote a bunch of notes and a sequence and went to bed. I was still a little unsure this morning when I started but I really didn't want to back away from teaching it because I really felt it was the cumulation of six weeks of themes- I owed it to my students.
The weirdest thing happened- I started to talk and it all just flowed out- it was like I KNEW it- that something in me from long ago was allowed to speak. It was a very bizarre feeling. Last night I had told Lauren my stuggles with this theme and she said at the end of class that she wanted to clap after my centering. The strangest thing is I can't really remember what I said or how I phrased it but I really remember how I felt it.
My students totally responded- one student suddenly called out "Vi- MARSHA, Vi-MARSHA, Vi-MArsha" like Jan from the Brady bunch- it was hysterical! I looked at my class and truly saw all the fullness of their potential and all their radiance and I felt so truly blessed. I am so happy I did not back away from theme because of my own insecurities. My students were my own mirror- they showed me my divine reflection- my fullest potential. They manifested one heck of a class. :>)

Christina Sell said...

Sounds awesome.

(It sounds so awesome that I hate to say that Vimarsha is not actually one of the 6 attributes as John Friends lists them. They are Goodness (Sat), Consciousness (Chit), Bliss(Ananda),Fullness (Purnatva), Freedom (Svatantriya), Pulsation (Spanda).

Technically, vimarsha is a function of Consciousness. And more technically, wlthough not as technical as it gets, Vimarsha is part of the spanda of consciousness - the way that consciousness functions. (Prakasha- light of awareness and vimarsha-the reflection of the light)

But all of that is not the point. The point is that you found your voice and your inner wisdom and the Seat carried you. That is incredible. I loved hearing about this description. Thanks for sharing it here. Rock on.

Leanne said...

oh crap!!!

The way John has them laid out in the immersion booklet "Essential Attributes of the Absolute" is the way I taught them. (Page 10 of the immersion booklet) so Sat-chit-Ananda was one class...hahaha that's so funny that my most satisfying class was a screwup! Irony....Oh well! I did teach vimarsha correctly... if in the wrong category.

I found a great quote in my research:
"The power which resides in the heart of awareness is freedom itself. The purpose of its creative activity is the group (kula), the entire range of experienced self, experienced object and process of experiencing.
The Supreme Goddess is the absolute freedom of our own awareness which assumes these various forms." Ahbinavagupta

So I was thinking after teaching all this ... is the action between Prakasha and Vimarsha spanda? Is the power of reflection part of the greater pulsation???

still laughing...:>)