Andrew Jones Bio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPprNUROlY&feature=colike

So perhaps and explanation is necessary here.  It has been pointed out to me that I try too hard.  It has also been pointed out that I don't try hard enough. In trying not to try but do (see Yoda, may his ears ever be gristly) the above is an attempt to get my name out into the world, honor my teachers and pass on some information about what I have learned over the years in the body-mind industry.  The latter part of this, though I have by no means attained any semblance of mastery, is so that at least some bits will be assimilated by someone, somewhere and be able to assemble a compostie body of work that is not pure bullshit and just another take on the cardio-asana scene prevalent in Southern California. In other words, develop a system that is applicable to the shape of the hominid body and mind of this, the 21st century.

The narcissistic impulse is so powerful that many of my hominid cousins are so wrapped up in the Face in the Mirror that they never notice the poisoned apple.  Then there, all encased in a crystal coffin they retain the look of eternal youth.  But alas!  The face moveth not, nor the body also!  What monstrosity is this?  What Caliban has escaped the pages of The Tempest to stalk the beauty of the late summers grass? What foul spell from The Magus transgresseth our flickering lives?

Alas, I digress.  So in tooting my own kazoo I hope the full symphony of my teachers might be, at least in quarto, heard.  The Gateway (that has no Gate, though a thousand paths lead to it)  clearly delineated so some younger and braver soul might plunge in and see the place where the bodhi tree grows.  If you need clearer instructions then I recommend zazen as a good place to start.  Much good comes from just sitting, including a chance to do nothing. That may seem like a tall order, but if one is still loping across the tarmack of suburbia like a Neanderthal on steriods (my apologies to all and any Neanderthals still alive and those benefiting from there DNA Trust Funds.  Any insinuation that they are on steriods is only literary license) one may very well find oneself in the tent of naughty boys and girls (again, literary license!) about to be turned into a donkey.  If one is already a braying donkey, as I have been often accused of being, then take it to the next step and be sure not to board the boat that is christened The SS Nirvana Guaranteed.  Ahem.  One also might take the clue (and there is always a clue) of the Captain with the flashing gold tooth grimly addressed as Mr. Dark.

I wander again.  I hope you enjoy the bio.  It was fun to shoot and my producer Tommy is awesome as was his second named Billy. There was a lot more I wanted to say about my teachers and I hope I don't offend any one of them if ever they do see this bio. All were important to my development then and the continued develpment now (much, much work to be done and not done). 

A question may occur to you as you watch this brief bio.  "What did he do with the money he was given for singing lessons?"

When you see with your ears

when you hear with your eyes

you will cherish no doubts.

How naturally the rain drips from the eaves.

Roshi Daito founder of Daitoku-ji monastery in Japan a really long time ago.

And no, I don't know who that is coming out of the tree behind me!

Your Inscrutable Abs

Yes, the "abs", that part of yourself that is hard to ignore and is used, rightly or wrongly as a measure of how "fit" you are. I currently work and live in the Narcissistic Capital of the World.  Here you will find an abundance of good information on what makes one really "fit" and some really bad misinformation. on the same. Simply put and without becoming an esoteric woo-woo "source/center" freak, your abs are your physical center.  This is very crucial to understand.  No matter how spiritual you think you may be, currently it is this structure that you get to deal with, your vehilce of liberation and your abs are a very critical area for you to understand as you walk this dusty road called Life. For most of us this elusive but ever present center is somewhere around our belly button. It is the center of gravity of our bodies.  This center does differ in specific location from body to body.  Suffice it to say, the belly button is a good indicator of your physical center but also that you are indeed a member of this restless species known as homo sapiens sapiens.

Comprised of four layers (I am being brief for you in the medical/anatomy profession), in my experience as a Pilates Instructor of almost 18 years (actually December 2nd will be 18 full years), your abs and awareness of them is very important to your life on all levels of your existence. I cannot be any more clear or emphatic on that single point. They are crucial to your well being on several points (and I will try and remember all of them as I go).

On a primary level they hold your guts in place.  If the abs are firm then the organs can remain in their optimal position for full functioning.  That includes digestion and taking a shit.  No bullshit! If you don't have the requisite ab strength to move the Big Mac or Raw Food Special through it just sits there and rots.  Not a pretty picture, but there it is.  As for the holding in part, if you have a congenital weakness as I have, hernias will occur, but all my years prior to that eruption (my own damn fault) were significant in my recovery.  Those I have trained over the years who have had babies have all reported an ease in pregnancy and for those on more than the first birthing experience have said that the subsequent births, due to consistent practice made the birth easier if not quicker.  Yes, that is word of mouth and not a full on scientific test so if your results were different, well then, your results were different.  Ask then, what else was going on?

That goes across the board.  My Mentor, Julian Littleford was fond of saying, "We are going to make your body lean and catlike.  Just remember, there are many different types of cat in the world." That last gets missed quite often.  People waddle in all of the time broken, overweight, anorexic, recovering from injury or illness, tall, short, in between and suffering from an overdose of health magazines and late night fix it work outs demanding the One Session Fix (known as the OSF Disorder Syndrome or OSFDS).  Upon not receiving the insta-change that is required for a successful physical fitness regimen, they stalk out glaring daggers at the trainer muttering foul imprecations against them and their lineage with an attitude most MacBeth.

Pilates will not fix you or your perceived abdominal issue!  Ha, let alone will it fix you at all! Pilates is designed to strengthen your core, lengthen the body structure and be but a portion of your overall regimen for well being (even that term is becoming tired as of late).  If you come in with any other expectation you will be disappointed.  I suspect, as a side note, that much of the tomfoolery that is abounding around Pilates is due in part to the quickening pace provided by electronic contraptions that give us the illusion that all can be achieved with a push of a button.  Coupled with the native angst of our species, bolstered by the Judeo-Christian End of the Worldism and the New Age "You can have it all Nowism", the misinformation about developing the body-mind has gotten quite out of hand.  So lets keep it simple:  Pilates can teach you to engage your abs to stabilize the body-mind in movement anywhere, anytime.

Was that simple enough?  Concise perhaps?  Maybe a trifle inconceivable? Is that culturally important area still opaque?  Fear not!  My own explorations and expectations have demonstrated that firm abs can be had if a few minor items are remembered.  Most of us don't like rules or do well with direction, after all, we presume that since we have been in this body for several years and as Americans we should know what is happening, yet Dunlaps Disease (wherein the belly dun lap over the belt) continues to be pervasive no matter how many situp we do, or how much we sweat in Spin Cycle classes or Cardio-asana sessions. In my classes there are just five guidelines (currently) that I recommend (I am speaking of Mat classes in particular, although it follows through into Reformer/Cadillac routines).

1)  Engage your abs before the movement, during the movement and do not disengage until the set is done.

2)  If it hurts, don't do it!  I don't care how good look'n the teacher is, ignore the smile, the hair, the you-know-whats and the naughty bits that are begging for your attention.  I am not sure how cleavage (above and below) or accentuation of rounded parts or bulges makes for a good Pilates instructor (or a Yoga teacher for that matter).  If you don't want me to look, don't show it.

3)  The system that I learned is an ab-based system not breath-based.  I don't know who started that nonsense, but jeeez, if Pilates is about the abs why shift the focus?  No need to huff and puff and blow the house down, sound like a leaky steam valve or flap your arms up and down like a Gooney bird trying to take flight. Breath normally and save the Pranayam for the Yoga classes.  Ab development aids Pranayam quite nicely.

4)  I demonstrate the position, complete with anatomical description laced with humor so you can see the basic template.  Every body is different but the template is universal.  If you are attempting to watch me work out whilst you work out chances are you are now out of position and the abs cease to work as the pain sets in.  So don't.  Just watch, then I move around the room to adjust and guide. Everybody engaging together sets a nice tone to the practice.

5)  Enjoy yourself in class.  There is no way you can get it in one session (remember OSFDS?).  So lighten up, be kind to yourself and have some fun.  It's only your abs after all.

This is your journey.  One that you can custom design. Cross the Bridge and see. 

It is your body, do with it as you will.

Pilates can help, that's all it can do.  The rest is up to you.

Friends on a shelf

In response to a request to give a list of books that have influenced me in my yoga practice (and life) I now sit down to carefully inscribe a few of those that have, indeed, helped along the way.  In pondering these tomes I decided that I would not just do "yoga" books, but also pieces of literature that still echo through my being and influence how I am as a past mid-life hominid here on Starship Earth.  There are many and the warning must be given that they may not impress you favorably at all.  Quite possibly they may bore you to tears or they may drive you stark raving mad.  We shall see.

Overall the one book that has influenced from my mothers womb is the the Holy Bible, King James Version. Although not a Christian this book and its literature was what first informed my imagination and fears from my earliest days. The perspective of its various authors give it a powerful and demanding worldview chock full of characters, cause and effect, heroes (and the odd heroine), villains of the worst order, catch phrases, categorical imperatives and a mythology about how things are the way they are second to none.  However, after teaching me to research, that blade turned back on them and I no longer hold to that worldview. Anything by Jonathan Kirsch, Moses, David; Bart Ehrman Misquoting Jesus and Forged; Sam Harris The End of Faith and numerous Youtube sites; Richard Dawkins The God Delusion; and even the late Christopher Hitchens, God is not Great (I hear he is currently suing God for inscrutability) will give you a clear idea on some of the pressing questions concerning the validity of such a Western world view.  I can add a hearty "et al" to the above.  All of them thoroughly researched and immaculately written to guide the reader to a deeper understanding of this bizarre and inexplicable universe we live in.

Going forward to the point where that structure began to crumble under the weight of logic and rationality, it was in Del Mar where I was earning my spurs as a Pilates instructor, that I was given a book written by Ken Wilber titled "A Brief History of Everything".  Profound!  Shocking to my then Christian sensibilities!  How could he, without lightening spewing forth from Zion (or Sinai, Horeb, Gibor or some other sanctified "high place") to consume him and all his descendants forever and ever, say such things!   Whew, got through that one ok.  Singed a bit?  Yup, my eyebrows seem a bit smokey myself.  What I do remember is that Wilber hammered away at all of my presuppositions without pause.  No quarter asked, none given.  Faith or reason?  Current data or mythological grandstanding? At the time I did not know or understand how deeply rooted in the consciousness of our rascally species is the need to know "why" and "how".  Even with all of the data readily available, I still chose blind faith and improbable stories over logic and rationality.  Mind maps don't change easily and if there is a "God Gene" it is indeed a powerful force in our evolution.

I had always had my doubts.  I don't always listen to my intuition and sometimes my intuition is no more than my own projections on the screen of the universe.  I recognize this, but not always in time to prevent heartbreak and the salting of a few fields here and there.  So perhaps something a bit more benign.  Say, perchance, a wonderful tale starting with The Hobbit and followed by The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien or Frank Herberts Dune series, at least the six written by him. Seem a bit odd?  But just read the vast scope of characters!  Very similar to many other tales of the past yet without a brooding deity to damn one and all willy nilly for the most minor infraction (like breaking any one of the Ten Commandments was punishable by death.  And this is what we want posted in our schools?). Staying the course, redemption, forgiveness, heroes of huge stature with fell mien, and  heroines of unassailable integrity and beauty.  Ah, my heart doth pitter patter when I reminisce of the hours I spent curled up on a couch on a cold winters day or lounged under an apple tree in the summer. Time and again running out the door without a pocket kerchief to face Trolls, Orcs, Harkonnens and my own fears (please pause whilst I wipe the tear from my eye).

But on to Yoga.  The literature on this subject is vast and confusing.  That's because "yoga" is not a singular "it" at all.  India has two major linguistic groups and many sub groups and many ethnicities all from a common source that started with the Harrapan-Saravasti civilization a long time ago.  More commonly known as the Indus Valley civilization, it went out with a groan around 1,900 BC (or thereabouts) due to a variety of factors, namely earth quake, foreign invasion and overuse of the land.  So we get Sanskrit, Yogananda and yogasana and yummy curries as a result (ok, I am simplifying!).   But good books to help sort things out?  Start with The Heart of Yoga by DKS Desikchar.  This is a handy tome that will give you what most Westerners (read Americans) are comfortable with.  Non-threatening and easy to read, it is a good companion for your journey.

Much of current Yoga is dualistic.  Not surprising.  We live in a dualistic world.  Dualism was a very handy way to deal with life as it is whilst we were evolving on what our planet had to offer at the time. Non-dualism is a later development and as newer things go, it takes time to shake out the bugs in the system (as in all of the shaking going on as this is written).  So any of the many translations of The Yoga Sutras by Pantajali and numerous commentators are available.  Iyengar and a chap named Satchidananda are two of the more reliable translations that are easy to read and yet hold thought provoking ideas on what is happening in you as you begin the practice of Yoga.

For a review of non-dualism Kashmir style, Odiers Yoga Spandakarika is really good.  Jaideva Singh offers some good technical advise in his translations and Osho (formerly incarnated as Rajneesh until the IRS de-carnated him) has a good go at the Vijnana Bhairava (loosely translated as the Radiance Sutras) in his book titled The Book of Secrets. There are two other books out of Northern India as well.  The Shiva Sutras and the Pratyabhina-hrdayam (Splendor of Recognition) but non-dualism is another blog entirely.  Sometimes these texts are a bit difficult, but given time you can begin to wrap your mind around their basic idea that there is nothing to lose, nothing to gain.  Everything we need is right in front of us including the tools to remove the dross that clouds our vision until we can see that there is no vision and no dross to cloud it.  That baffles me to this day, but occasionally the splendor does leak through.

I'll end with a book that I have mentioned before.  It is Sit Down and Shut Up, by Brad Warner.  That book shocked my sensibilities about my Zen practice and is still fun to peer into on occasion.  Like what I just read:  It's easy to become paralyzed in your practice when you focus on the so-called results.  But there really are no "results" in the real world.  There is only what is, right here and right now.  So refreshingly honest I can't stand it.  Or this powerful warning:  There is nothing that cannot be corrupted and bent into the service of a powerful ego.  Yet reality will always remain just as it is, no matter how hard you try to escape it.  So by the book already or just...yup, you got it, sit down and shut up!

That's about if for tonight folks.  Keep reading, keep studying, appreciate your life as Maezumi Roshi was fond of saying.  There are so many good books available and I have just scratched the surface with a few of my favorites.

  May our mind-flower bloom like the lotus blooms in muddy water.

Great Expectations

This is one of those blogs wherein I am attempting to "practice" the art of blogging or writing or inscribing.  There are so many issues arising these days in the Encinitas area surrounding yoga this will probably wind up with my take on some old text that I have absolutely no business in commenting on, and in the process insult someones enlightenment.  Ahem.

So, since I have already played a bit with Pantanjalis's Yoga Sutras I will plunge in and attempt to bravely plow through the second verse that seems to hold out a beautiful carrot before the cart of my ego.  This one verse seems to hold the essence of what a well rounded practice offers.  And that is stilling the whirling of the mind, yogaha cittivritti nirodah (sorry, I don't have the software to put all the squiggles in the right place).  We then begin with great expectations that this yoga stuff will calm us down, give us the "better life" (whatever that is), the better job, unlimited checking, bottomless bank account, the "no-hassle" relationship and etc.  Like, man, give me the stuff.  Space cadet glow, endless bilss and etc. I want that flatline Buddha face.  To be the Buddhadude/ette (as the case may be) or The Bhudd, if you're into that whole brevity thing.  Just don't ask me to change a thing.

Here's the catch.  The first chapter is called Samadhi Pada and is designed for those already well established in practice.  Iyengar puts it succinctly "directed toward those that are already highly evolved to enable them to maintain their advanced state of cultured, matured intelligence and wisdom."  Ahem.  Chapter I is for them that is there bruddah cuz, not them that ain't even in the ball park yet.  That's Chapter 3 (which is where I am and therefore won't comment, TMI!).


So stilling the mindstuff is apparently not what many of us, myself included, expected it to be.  Just sit there, as comfortably as possible, and lo, like a cloud coming up from the desert, choirs of angels, Jesus and Lucifer walking hand in hand down Broadway and all is well in my nice, neat, whitey tighty little world. Or that quasi-orgasmic endorphin release (perchance a flashback) after an incredibly demanding cardio-asana workout with loud music and some yoga-queen spanking all and sundry like a dominatrix on crack. These activities mimic but falls short of actual representation of stillness of body and mind.  The Zen masters say that if you think you got it, you probably don't.  In the Tao te ching it clearly states "The Tao that can be told is not the Tao, the name that can be named is not the universal name." Seems fairly clear to me.  Even in my present state of ruffled waters.

Here are a few practices for your trip up Cold Mountain that have assisted me in my pilgrimage. I set my foundation.  If I am just sitting zazen, I light the candle, check the water bowl, light a stick of incense, bow before the butsudan, sit down, strike the bell three times and then just sit.  The stillness begins in that little, familiar ritual. 

For Yogasana practice it can be as simple as unrolling my mat.  Without tripping to far into the Theory of Special Relativity that action can be enough to recognize the importance of non-action now. Planting my feet I enter Tadasana, Mountain Posture and in that space, I begin my practice.

For an American much of this is hard to swallow.  We are a people that has become the living example of the 'Hungry Ghosts."  Little gnome like creatures with big heads, large gaping mouths full of nasty sharp teeth. The bellies are bloated as bellies do in a famine because the necks are too skinny to allow the passage of all the food being crammed into the cavernous maw.  The legs are stubby and the arms are long with sharp talons to rip and tear.  And they are frantic because they are always famished to the point of the high seas in the Perfect Storm. Sound familiar?

As you curl up your nose in disdain, just look!  The clear reflection that once showed you the billions of stars above your head has just shattered into millions of disconnected thoughts!  Either that or you have gone back in for another plate of spaghetti.

Stilling that mad maelstrom of  thought is nearer to you than your next breath, in that place in between breaths.  It cannot be bought or sold on Craig's List, found on Facebook or Twitter.

 Look!  From the nose of the Great Buddha, a swallow flies out!

Granthis and other hindrances

One of the most profound hindrances that I have found in my own practice is a false self perception that I feel to be true at the time.  It sneaks up on me like an Apache warrior in the night, so stealthy that even the fallen oak leaves remain silent at its passing.  Sometimes I find myself so wrapped up in this granthi that I find that I am ensnared and screaming like a rabbit, unable to escape. 

 But that is what they do.  These knots hinder us from realization of who we are, cause a lot of distress and then the kicking and screaming begin as we try and free ourselves.  If we are lucky, if our eyebrows are full of bushy wisdom, we won't blame others or circumstances.  If we remain foolish we tie the knot tighter blaming God, the Devil, the Universe, families, significant others and the stock market. Heh, we might even blame the neighbors spiritually inclined dog on a bad hair day.

Georg Feuerstein, in his most erudite way put the definition of "granthi" thus: " ...the knots from which those who know the traditional teachings (smriti) are released."  These knots are usually associated with desire and doubt.  I will start out with the desire part since the belief system (smriti) I most closely align myself with is Zen Buddhism. You may have heard of the "Fab Four" of the East, i.e. the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha. These noble truths teach us that the cause of this knot making course (suffering or duhkha) we so eagerly engage in is a bugger named desire. 

Desire for what?  Is it wrong to want something?  Nay, Grasshopper, methinks thou protests or' much!  The suffering that inflicts us on a daily basis is that perception that what we have is not enough.  But what is enough?  Herein enters practice. Practice teaches us to enter "disunion with the union with suffering." (Want to hear it in Sanskrit?  Ha, here it is anyway:  duhka samyoga viyoga). It is that want that is an ongoing ache in the belly.  It is the must have that overwhelms all other considerations.  This desire creates a knot called duhkha.
Let the Great Untying begin!

I came into this world (or was deposited here, willy nilly and I'm sure for some minor infraction by the Mother Ship) tightly wrapped on all levels.  I mean, talk about a bottleneck of my koshas (five sheaths or "envelopes that occlude the pure light of the transcendental Self."  Feurestein again) I was and probably still am a Gurus nightmare.  A regular mishmash of trying too hard to lose my self in order to gain myself all by the effort of my own personal hydra-headed ego known affectionately as the aham-kara (I-maker). The one that separates me from you and the rest of the stink'n planet.  You have what I want and I am sure you want what I have and only one of us can live in this one-horse town. Many granthis, many knots.

 

So I started taking yoga classes.  After years in the Pilates industry I encountered my first knot.  I thought I should be able to handle this yoga stuff no problem.  In short order I found that I was not going to take over the yoga world overnight (and subsequent experience has confirmed that fact). Now, I understand that skill in one modality does not necessarily transfer smoothly to another.  Skill on the Reformer and Cadillac didn't do so well upon my first encounter with Siddhasana (posture of the completed sage), Trikonasana (three-angled posture) and what the hell was lying flat on my back as though dead going to accomplish (Shavasana or corpse pose)? That was just three of the two dozen postures or so that my first yoga teacher tried to coax me through.  Lots of little granhti's showed up.  Kind of like Gremlins and what happens to them after midnight. My belief breeding. Big knot.

Secondly, the belief system.  My perception of a correct world view was a Judeo-Christian based granthi that viewed all other belief systems as wrong and hell-bound. The world, the flesh and the Devil all engaged in a massive delusion game to keep sinners bound for Hell, their natural destination anyway. Not that I was well settled into the Judeo-Christian worldview (weltanschauung.  Ha, there's a word other than Sanskrit for ya), but what one is raised in and then participates actively in (in spite of evidence to the contrary) is real hard to shake out and,... er,... untie. Coming to grips with what I was taught in the light of teachings from the East (they too have their difficulties) and continued research of my Western roots was a granthi of unparalleled magnitude that is still being loosened to this day.

Staying on track with the idea of perception as hindrance, knowing that one is probably delusional with a whole list of granthis to choose from is a good place to begin.  To say "open" to the beauty or possibilities of your practice is a bit on the disingenuous side of practice because the practice will "crack you open" (Rumi) as soon as you engage with the asana of your choice.  The trick is that entering the practice space to "get" something sets you mountains and rivers away from whatever you intended to "get" in the first place.  In the end there is nothing to get, nothing to receive, nothing to attain or lose. 

Get it?  

The hahn is struck

the bell rings

I pause to take off my shoes

preparation for zazen

the Raven on the roof 

of the Buddha Hall

glances my way and flies

low under ancient oaks

wings flashing darkness and light

his shadow caressing

the canyon floor. 

Foundation

Foundation. 

Like a mountain. Solid. Stable. A place from which to move.  It brings to mind strength and perhaps the wisdom of ages wreathed around the brooding brows so high in the sky.  A place from which to build and grow.  It gives one the impression of a safe haven to leave and perhaps return to. A high place from which to gain a clear perspective of what lies all around and allows a hint of what might yet be.

Foundation is a heavy word and rightly so. It is the base from which we move, the initial condition of all of our thoughts, actions, dreams and hopes. If the base is not firm or somehow gives us a false perception of reality, the whole structure then is in danger of leaning, ready to collapse (as in Tower of Pisa), resulting in an interesting tourist attraction, an oddity over-which to scratch ones head or just a jumble of rubble to add to the evening skyline. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 5th ed. 4th usage states foundation is: "The solid ground or base (natural or artificial) on which a building rests." 

That is just one of seven descriptions in that particular tome of definitions and one that seems (to me) to fit what I intend to write about, especially as regards the practice of Yoga (but not exclusive of any other form of body-mind engagement) and concerning in particular the branch of physical yogasana.

For me, the primary foundation is the initial condition of who you are as you enter your practice as you understand it. Either when you first encounter the practice of yogasana or in your own daily practice.  As you walk into the studio or into your home practice area you might ask yourself like Spock's mom asked him in Star Trek IV,  "How do you feel?".

That's a very tricky question, but to mindlessly engage in a series of postures that are by their very design meant to trigger all manner of responses in you, knowing how you feel might save one from presuming too much (or to little) from a given practice.  Everything you are currently, every experience you have had or imagine you have had is lurking somewhere in the tugley wood of your brain.  Everything.  Simply stepping onto your mat does not guarantee anything other than stepping onto the mat.  Guess who is stepping onto the mat?  You are!  In all of your tattered glory, all that is you shows up at the same time!  You can argue with me about the tattered glory part, but most of us are still wandering around in the grasses of delusion looking for our lost shaker of salt.

So you step onto your mat, feathers preened, wardrobe in order and mind wide open for samadhi. Check in with how you feel.   Angry, sad, depressed, happy and all the other of the multifarious emotions that are the simple and wonderful construct of you.  Be aware that you are human and this (yoga) is a practice of transformation of you.  In short, to relieve the pain of ignorance.  Asana are the branch that is designed to transform the physical aspect of the ignorance you are currently clutching. Some play with the common Encinitas euphemism that ignorance means we don't understand that we are "spiritual beings having a human experience."  Really?  Could you be a little more vague?  So keep it simple, we are a very highly evolved hominid called homo sapiens sapiens.  The smart ape. Our species survived a horrific ice age and several of our simian cousins didn't. That takes some level of intelligence with a dash of moxy. We accomplished this without anybody's input from Encinitas either.Yet there you are, on your mat in all of your hominid glory waiting for class to begin.

"Now we begin the practice of yoga", states Pantajali in his awesome Yoga Sutras.  Ahhh, the meat of it at last!  Personally I think he meant his whole system (2.28-2.45), not just asana, which is a popular Western misconception.  I mean really, am I going to be practicing Parshva Kukkutasana (a posture that looks like something portrayed in the movie "The Thing") on my steering wheel to calm the whirling of the mind in rush hour traffic? Hmmmm? It may very well make my mind like a still pool, but the fool on their Iphone may well become a babbling texter in one flash of recognition. Critical here is the intention.  Begin!    Take that step up the Mountain that is none other than exactly who you have always been.  Don't worry about change, transformation or enlightenment, the postures will do the work for you as you engage in your practice.

Enough said.  You are human, get over it.  Step into your practice aware of how you feel and that in the context of your body-mind.  It is your own personal vehicle of liberation. Know thyself and know what you feel comfortable with and what you don't (that's very important).  Beware of people selling Snake Oil.  The label is attractive but don't step behind the wagon to see what the carnival hawkers are brewing it up with.  Better to just walk away.  Remember that Yoga is designed as a life practice to meet you right where you are. Vigorous physical asana are fine for the young and adventurous. Meditative practice is preferable as we get on in years and no longer need to prove ourselves. Find what works for you from right where you are, that ever changing panorama of this vast universe we are so intimately a part of.

So go ahead, where you are, step into your life, take a deep breath from the foundation of you and now we begin the practice of Yoga.

In the meantime, can you hear the wind whisper through the golden birch leaves?

More on asana

    After all that has been said recently about Yoga and the practice of Yoga in the West, I thought I would pitch my two-bits in from the perspective of a practitioner that is not from the exalted ranks of the Special Elect,i.e. those that can put their foot behind their head or their head in unmentionable places.   I have considered, "What else can I, mere mortal that I am, add to the vast cannon of literature and endless, vacuous DVDs that are currently available on the market? Need more be said?" So here is what I came up with for all of us to consider about this Hydra-headed monster that has landed in our backyard.



Grand Canyon taken 2006, inscribed ?



Mt. Whitney, closest referent
to Cold Mountain or
Mt. Sumeru in China



 There are only so many body postures one can engage with in one's current condition.  Some postures are available to human beings and some are only available to those with alien genes (see left, above).  After over 20 years of teaching variations on body movement (Pilates, Yoga, Qi Gong) I am currently attempting to collate what I have learned and what I may yet have to learn.  This may turn into quite the journey up Cold Mountain where the pine sings, though there has been no wind, where the moss is wet on the stones, though there has been no rain (it sounds pretty cool if you read it like Master Kahn talking to a younger Kwai Chang Cain) and the sound of chopping wood echoes between the peaks.
    
     First off, the physical aspect can be the most exhilarating and the most deceiving part of any yoga practice. Exhilarating because, "like, wow, look what I can do!" (or not "do" as the case may be).  Deceptive because it can lead to a forest of brambles in the Land of Narcissus where many are trapped staring at themselves on Facebook or gazing attentively at the reflection in the studio mirror in their latest yoga apparel. I am afraid that one to many endorphin/adrenal rushes have been mistaken for "enlightenment" or at the very least progress in one's practice.  Not to minimize those "rushes" for they do feel good and can connect one to one's body-mind, but the end goal can be missed in the thrill of the journey.
    
     What is the end goal? Hell, I have no idea other than what the sutras tell us, and that is, Raja Yoga, every day-mind.   What is that? Don't know. As straight up as I can tell you, I don't know what that critter is supposed to look like. Pure and translucent? A blissful look like after a really good bong hit? Everything "light"? An endless sense of riding on the Matterhorn? Ashes in the hand and a Bently in the garage? Or perhaps just ease in one's own skin? Every day-mind. Just what is happening, every day.  That is the royal path in a nut shell. "But I thought yoga was about eternal Bliss! Lots of pithy sayings and hanging out with really cute and flexible people." Maybe not so.

     In the Hatha Yoga Pradapika it clearly states that the Asana are for disciplining  the body-mind duirng the process of a very mysterious phenomena known as Raja Yoga. Various practices are suggested in other collections of sutras,such as the Gherana Samita and the Shiva Samhita, but none of them singularly emphasize the physical postures.  As a matter of fact, none of them highlight the same postures as the most beneficial. So Yoga as asana is really missing the point according to the major texts concerning Hatha Yoga. Can you see the Mountain yet?

    
     Just as an aside, Krishna, (of the 500 Gopis), helping Arjuna through a bad hair day (as found in the Bhagavad Gita), spends a lot of time talking to him about what this yoga spiel is all about.  Seems to me that it is about doing what is right in front of you. Amazing! "Do your Yoga!", the faithful charioteer thunders more than once.  "Do your Yoga!".  Eeek, I get it already! 

     So at least we have a basic idea that yogasana is just a portion of the overall practice.  As mentioned above, the physical is one of our primary tools to engage with who we are (or think we are).  As I have taught and practiced over the years I have found that each asana greets the practitioner exactly where they are. Then, through whatever the individual brings to the mat, the unfolding begins.  Like that Bristlecone Pine.  It didn't show up as a Sugar Pine high on the hills in the Sierra Nevada.  This magnificent tree showed up as a Bristlecone, in the White/Inyo Mountains of California.  It grows way exposed and on a dolomite base. The conditions harsh and unfriendly (unfriendly to humans that is). It is unique unto itself and developed as it is. Unique. Just like you are. Of all the possible DNA combinations that existed at the time of your conception, you showed up. Just you. So do your Yoga. That is what Raja yoga is.  Not just another system, series or flow. Just you, totally present, that some would call that samadhi, i.e. total absorption in the moment. Can you hear the pine sing?



Evidence of alien visitation in the Grand Canyon



     I would suggest not doing what some humans came into the world naturally able to do (see right, it's those aliens again).  Each asana, whether doable or not, is a gateway to where you are now.That gateway has inscribed across the top, Raja Yoga.  Admiration and wonder as you view the Sugar Pine and the Bristlecone Pine engage in what they do best.  They too, are "doing" Yoga, Royal Yoga. Every day. Disciplining the body-mind means engaging in what your body mind does mentally and emotionally as itself.  It may mean not doing any postures at all! This is the moss that is wet though there's been no rain. Do your Yoga, the Raja Yoga that is you.

The rest is the echo of chopping wood between the peaks at sunset.