The art of letting go, impermanence and being in the now taught by Andy Goldsworthy. This is a clip from the documentary Rivers and Tides. He makes these intoxicating fragile creations which have such a short life time, but extremely beautiful. His art is similar in concept to the sand mandalas created by Tibetan Buddhist monks. The mandalas are painstakingly created over days. They are destroyed when they are finished to mark the impermanence of all that exists.

I like this quotation of Andy Goldsworthy.

I find some of my new works disturbing, just as I find nature as a whole disturbing. The landscape is often perceived as pastoral, pretty, beautiful – something to be enjoyed as a backdrop to your weekend before going back to the nitty-gritty of urban life. But anybody who works the land knows it’s not like that. Nature can be harsh – difficult and brutal, as well as beautiful. You couldn’t walk five minutes from here without coming across something that is dead or decaying.

Time to change how I spell some words. I need to write colour instead of color. I have to say queue and not line. Say brinjal instead of eggplant. I have to switch to left hand side driving from right. I don’t have to say, water no ice, anymore. There will be no need to calculate 15% gratuity in a restaurant. These are things I know I should expect, when I move to India from San Francisco. Of course, these were the adopted new habits that I had changed many years back when I moved from India. Now, it is time to change them back.

Then there will be many things I cannot anticipate. The places go through so much change that I may not even be able to recognize them. We change so much too. I remember having a discussion with a teacher that teaches Pre natal yoga classes. We were talking about if the women after pregnancy will ever go back to the physical state that they were in before having the child. She said that people who come in for a yoga class will leave the class a changed person. We are constantly changing minute to minute. We will not be the same person, but a changed person, one hour from now. Our thought processes go through changes, our body is changing constantly.

Not all changes are pleasant. Some are good, some are not so good and you wish they didn’t happen at all. How can yoga help understand change that we go through? Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra can be of some help here.

Yoga Sutra talks about Avidya which means incorrect comprehension. Avidya can be understood as the accumulated result of our many unconscious actions without clarity. It is the root cause of the obstacles that prevent us from recognizing things as they really are. The purpose of yoga is to reduce the Avidya. When we learn to observe ourselves (yoga can be very useful here), we can explain why things are turning out certain ways and accept responsibility for the results. When we understand the cause and the effect, it gets easier to accept change.

This post will be incomplete without mentioning Shiva the destroyer, when a topic of change is discussed. The cosmic dance of Shiva has such a beautiful meaning. Shiva’s upper right hand has a drum that symbolizes creation. At the same time his upper left hand has agni or fire which stands for destruction. It does not have to mean destruction; it can also mean change that enables new things to happen, transformation. The dance can also be seen as a balancer of cosmos. Balance is a good thing.

As Thoreau said ‘all change is a miracle to contemplate’. Nataraja’s balance of the cosmic dance and the clarity which Yoga Sutra prescribes come in handy to deal with change.

Figure of a woman at Albany Waterfront Park apparently sinking into Virabhadrasana. Even scrap art needs yoga to stay limber.

Have you ever thought that you need to be a vegan or a vegetarian to practice yoga? A few schools of yoga in the west actively advise students to be vegans. The meaning of nonviolence that a yogi is expected to follow is interpreted as not eating meat or animal products (milk, eggs, cheese etc).

I am not very sure of that interpretation and think that eating meat does not go against the yogic principles. Of course, factory farmed meat and animal products will fall into the violent category and would break the yoga ethics.

I hear a lot of veganism being related to yogis in the west. I read up about eating more soy and consuming tofu to compensate for the animal protein. There does not seem to be a happy solution here. Conflicting reports on eating too much soy can be found in many places on the internet. Too much of anything may not be good. Balance is the key and a yogi should know that.

On a related note, I do tend to go with Michael Pollan’s advice from the interesting book In defense of food. He says, do not eat anything that your grandmother would not eat or recognize.

What is your opinion on this important issue? Do you think that not eating meat is a fair interpretation or a confused one of nonviolence? Can you be a yogi and eat meat? Should yoga schools not dispense any eating advice at all?

On the other hand, if you are Michael Phelps, you would not be confused and would know exactly what to eat.

Virabhadrasana known as Warrior, is a powerful pose. The Hindu mythology talks about how Shiva created Virabhadra from his dreadlocks. Virabhadra, which means a hero and a friend, was commanded to kill Daksha (Parvati’s father) to avenge an insult towards Shiva and Parvati.

Virabhadra arrives at Daksha’s place in style. With a sword in each hand. He emerges from the earth, pushing through with swords up in the air. Now that he has arrived, he seeks out Daksha. With precision and control, he moves swiftly to cut off Daksha’s head. These actions are what are dedicated as Yoga poses Virabhadrasana I, II and III.

The warrior actions can be found in the ancient Indian martial art Kalaripayat. A lot of the poses have the front knee bent and the back leg much like the warrior poses of Yoga.

The picture is from Nicolas Chorier’s book “A Kite’s Eye View: India: Between Earth and Sky”.

Nourishment, Sustenance and Inspiration provided by Elise Lorimer, Janet Stone and Jamie Lindsay.

To begin the class, come to a downdog. Explore your dog today.

Inhale, come in to three legged dog. Stay here.

Inhale and flip your dog. Nice.

Inhale to come back to three legged dog. Release to downdog.

Take your dog for a walk to forward fold.

Grounding into the earth, grow taaallll to reach the sky.

Tuck your tail under.

Once again, come back to downdog.

Inhale to three legged dog and roll leg open, to downdog at fire hydrant.

Pause. Release.

Back to downdog.

This time, walk your dog back.

Woof woof.

Om…

Main Entry: Yogese

Pronunciation: \Yo-geese

Etymology: New-fangled English and Sanskrit

Date: 20th Century, recent happenings, current

Usage: the language of the modern day yogis, yoga speak. It is a nonstandard form of speech used only by yogis. It is usually delivered with a smattering of Sanskrit or not, but always delivered in the most calm and serene way usually with a smile (inner) unless in Bikram situation, where a boot camp language is in vogue and considered cool.

You know you are using Yogese, when the word editors underline almost all the words that you type, but they are perfectly understood by yogis.

Some examples of Yogese are -

Grounding into the earth, grow taaallll to reach the sky, tuck your tail under, tadasana

Swan dive to uttanasana, your spine flows over your thighs

Inhaling hands on shins, straight spine, spin your heart out, opening the heart chakra, ardha uttanasana

Inhaling from Uttanasana followed by Exhaling to Malasana leads to this. Especially when teachers use this sequence with 360 degrees rotation on the floor, it gets crappier.

When I hear Sun and Moon in the same sentence, I cannot help but think Hatha yoga (pronounced hatttta yoga). The total/partial solar eclipse that happens today on August 1^st this year, makes me wonder how this might affect somebody’s practice. Especially if one practices mindfully keeping track of the time of the day and changing the practice according to Nature’s rhythm. Maybe, no Surya namaskars today as the rays of the sun will be blocked momentarily in some parts of the world.

Surya namaskars which mean Sun salutations are supposed to be performed at dawn coinciding with the rise of the sun. The classic form of Surya namaskar which is a vedic ritual says one has to face the sun, in praise of the Sun. One prays and welcomes the Sun in, who is the sustainer of life to enhance good health. I found this related post on Darren’s blog.

With the yoga practice completely shifting inside studios, this kind of traditional practice cannot be kept up by all. Surya namaskars are used even in the 8 pm classes inside a room to build up a sweat before proceeding with the rest of the asanas. Even though the traditional meaning of Surya namaskar is lost here, there is a lot to be gained in terms of health.

Coming back to the dance of the Sun and Moon today, hatha yoga is the union of Sun “ha” and Moon “tha”. It also means the pairing of the opposites, the divide of day/night, the male/female, Shiva/Shakti, force of life/force of consciousness, exhale/inhale, strength/flexibility leading to balance and equanimity in any given situation.