Stories

Thanks for all the feedback!  This is a very new venture for me and according to many, may create world peace by me (anonymously known as Dood the Unblink) finding an outlet for my overwhelming abundance of energy that goes to turbulence with little or no warning. 

     Am I opinionated? Yes.

     Wandering a bit?  Yes.  What in nature really has straight lines anyway?

     Do I go round and round in little circles barking at shadows.  Of course!  What dry scholarly text book holds ones interest for very long anyway?  Seen your life lately?

With all of that said I may as well plunge in and talk about what I do for a living.

I tell stories. 

  
    I tell stories as I teach to lend life and purpose to what you are doing in class and hopefully out of class. How will that help you?  I don't know.  But I do know that stories are what we do as this odd and ever anxious species homo sapiens sapiens (I don't know why the second sapiens, I got it the first time) continues to ramble across the plains of Terra Firma heading toward ever new vistas of whatever the new vistas happen to be concealing at the time.
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    I heard stories from the time I was in my mothers womb (which means there were things going on before I stepped out of the escape pod) and so did you.  I heard the stories of the Wandering Children of Israel.  Stories of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.  Stories from Pogo Possum and The Hobbit.  Stories that preachers made up to make us feel guilty so we would continue to go to church.  Stories of my family.  All kinds of stories.  Some of them true, some not so true, but most highly entertaining.

     As a venue for stories I currently teach a Western form of Yoga based on the ambitious teachings of one, John Friend founder of Anusara Yoga.  Although currently in the Naughty Chair, he developed a system that is clean and powerful, well suited for the communication of stories.  I integrate some of his concepts with others that I learned through Pilates and Qi Gong. All of the above passed on a great deal of information to me both as a student and a teacher including stories from India, China and Japan.  One important facet is the fact that Yoga does have old origins and it, as a practice for well being, is still valid here in our Western 21st century. 

     Primarily the Western focus is on the asana practice, that is, the postures.  The postures are only one aspect however.  If you dig further than the cover of any current yoga rag or yoga workshop where they attempt to manipulate you into doing something you don't what to practice at home alone, you may discover a whole new world awaiting you.  That is essentially what I try to pass on to people in my classes.  There is more to the asana than meets the eye.  There are stories upon stories upon stories.  All of them true and none of them true (that's Esoterica 101).  All of them personal to you.

     The stories give us a reference point from which to move and live and breathe.  They tell us how it might have been done by another one of our simian cousins and how we might too, do the same.

Let's start with the physical aspect first since this is what is most readily available to our senses.  The word asana originally had connotations relating to sitting.  A handy reference for this is Pantajali's Yoga Sutras.  Pick a translation, any translation, open it (very important!) and see what it says.   Asana are one of the eight branches of this man's compilation of wisdom set down a long time ago.  I hesitate to say when simply because no one really knows and various scholars of repute have cast down their reed as to when it was (as well as their gauntlets, reputations and spittle).  Few of them agree when. There seems to be this weird mythology that indicates that the older something is the greater it's authenticity.  I don't know that to be true or not, but whether it's 200BC or 200AD really doesn't seem to impinge on the material for your practice.

     Pantajali recommended four basic postures.  Yep, just four and they were all for the purposes of stabilizing the body-mind for developing your consciousness so you could wake up with ease. More simply put, seated meditation.   Yup, that annoying practice from the East that indicates there is great benefit to sitting perfectly still.  In the West, we find that will simply not do!  Sit still?  What about my figure?  What about my schedule?  Are we not already awake?  I need to move, I need, I need, I need, I want, I want, I want.  And so on it goes.  Monkey chasing weasel, ad infinitum, ad naseum. 

But wait!  Don't we have cuniform pictures of men in yoga postures? 

     They were sitting.  Moreover, the Saravasti-Harrapan script has yet to be deciphered so we don't know what the dude with horns on his head was really doing or why he was sitting there in the first place.  There are only so many things one can do with ones legs whilst sitting on a dais. Was that a classical Hatha Yoga posture?  Probably he was telling a story.  That, my friends, is what I try to communicate.  

     A story woven into an asana can allow one to penetrate the Forest of Brambles (sorry, switching to some Zen metaphors) that keeps us hindered from what we think this life is for or simply what the practice of the day is.  One major part of this dark forest (whether discovered mid-way or mid-life) is the long held and cherished belief that we know what our life is for and the purpose thereof.

    Yoga wants to mess with that.  Have you ever looked closely at the deities associated with Indian yoga?  Not much of a tender embrace by any of them.  There are plenty of sharp, nasty, wicked implements of destruction in their many armed forms. Not very nicey, nicey.  Even Lakshmi wants your total attention, remember, she is a goddess and goddess's are known for their jealousy (kind of like that beast slouching across the Mideast, zealous for his name and not much else). But the stories are there to guide you through the brambles (with sharp, nasty points that tear at our new yoga uniforms) and lead you to....what?  Another forest of brambles?  That has a contingency placed on it.  Depending on when you find the practice and what you do with it will determine just how smoothly you move through this vast this untamed wilderness that you really are.  The stories tell us this is what happens sometimes, just more brambles.  We grow up a certain gender, race, belief system, culture and education within the aforementioned and then we want the practice to change everything but that.  We expect a partial practice to free us from everything we believe we don't want.  We want to have our cake and eat it without paying for it.  Climbing the rough trail of Cold Mountain the stories have little to do with your cake or really what you think anyway.  The stories and practice of liberation are just that, stories and practice of liberation!  Yes?  The asana are just the physical aspect of that liberation.  They, the faithful and sometimes troubling asana, will tell you physically right where you are and will tell you very clearly what you may not want to hear.  But once more from the Zen masters, having crossed to the other shore you might just lift your eyes and see, there in the distance, the other shore.

     

     Maybe asana are not where your yoga practice is to be.  Too many of my friends report injuries sustained whilst engaging in a practice designed for warrior training or asana practices that have degenerated into just another Western cardio-vascular work out.  Many sutras and good teachers will ask for "some information first, just the basic facts, can you show us where it hurts?" (thanks, Pinkananda).  With seven other branches to choose from you may need just one (1ea.) sitting posture to allow the others to blossom in you.  Focusing on one alone is an imbalance.  Focusing on none is a travesty and a hidden patch of tar. But wherever you are or imagine you are in your practice, just practice.  Pick one aspect and do that.  Do that with awareness of the thread of the others being woven into the very tapestry of your life.

Now that's a story.