The Nature of Being

by Nina

New Bay Bridge by Melina Meza

As you can probably tell from my post yesterday on non-holding, I'm in a philosophical mood. To be honest, as much as I value the physical benefits I get from my asana practice, I think I value even more the benefits I've gained from studying yoga philosophy. This is why when Baxter and I describe what I might call the pillars of yoga for healthy aging, we always include "cultivating equanimity" along with strength, flexibility, balance, agility, and stress management. And as I was looking for something to write about this morning, I found a quote from B.K.S. Iyengar that perfectly summed up my reason for holding yoga philosophy in such high esteem:

Yoga recognizes that the way our bodies and minds work has changed very little over the millennia. The way we function inside our skin is not susceptible to differ either in time or from place to place. In the functioning of our minds, in our way of relating to each other, there are inherent stresses, like geological fault lines that, left unaddressed, will always cause things to go wrong, whether individually or collectively. The whole thrust of the yogic philosophical and scientific inquiry has therefore been to examine the nature of being, with a view to learning to respond to the stresses of life with so many tremors and troubles. —B.K.S. Iyengar, from Light on Life

Practicing Yoga Off the Mat

by Nina 

Rock Close Up by Brad Gibson

This sutra prescribes a kind of mindfulness or mental cultivation off the mat, so to speak, that is, in day-to-day affairs outside of the context of citta-vritti-nirodha-type meditation. Cultivating the higher qualities of sattva is a continuous and constant requirement of the yogic path and spills over into all aspects of life’s affairs and social interactions. It speaks to the fact that yoga need not be perceived as a world-renouncing tradition but is perfectly compatible with engaged and benevolent social action in the world. —Edwin Bryant

In my home practice, I’ve worked on some pretty challenging yoga poses in my day (dropping from headstand into a backbend, for example), but the most challenging yoga practice I’ve ever attempted is something I’ve taken up lately, off the mat. In fact, it’s the practice recommended by the yoga sutra that Edwin Bryant was referring to in the above quote:

Yoga Sutra 1.33. By cultivating an attitude of friendship toward those who are happy, compassion toward those in distress, joy toward those who are virtuous, and equanimity toward those who are nonvirtuous, lucidity arises in the mind. —trans. by Edwin Bryant

In classical yoga, the intent of this practice is for cultivating the peace of mind (“lucidity arises in the mind”) that is a necessary prerequisite for achieving the union with the divine that is yoga. However, I’m adopting this practice (or trying to, anyway) for other reasons as well. One of my main reasons is to help me maintain good relationships as I age. (I want the richness of life that comes with that, not just the health benefits....)

In talking with some of my older friends, I’ve been noticing that many of them seem to be getting fed up with each other. They talk about this one being angry all the time or that one being lonely due to his or her own bad behavior in the past. And I can’t help but feel a little more compassion might go a long way to preserving these long-time friendships. It’s something Brad and I have been discussing, and we have agreed to try to cultivate more compassion for those in distress (as well as all that other stuff in the sutra 1.33) for the benefit of all our relationships in the long run.

I have to confess practice is very difficult for me, however. I tend to very judgmental, probably because that’s how I was raised. My parents were very snobbish—although that’s a word they wouldn’t use themselves—about people who didn’t share their values and tastes. I wonder now if that was a result of them both being the children of immigrants, and the hard times they had as children fitting in to the American mainstream. It’s not the stereotypical story—they were artistic types who taught me to disdain people who had a lot of money but no taste—but it’s still a story of people who used their judgments of others as a shield for their feelings of insecurity. I also tend to be very envious of other people’s successes (rather than happy for them). I don’t know if this was also a family pattern—I do know my father suffered from feelings of failure because he never lived up the expectations that he and others had for him when he was a young art prodigy—but it’s something I’ve observed about myself time and time again. And all these samskaras  (thought patterns) run very deep.

So how am I beginning my practice of this challenging form of yoga? For now, I’m starting with mindfulness in my thoughts and feelings about others. And when I catch myself moving toward (or leaping to) judgment, I remind myself that there is another attitude I can take: compassion. As Stephen Cope says in Yoga and the Quest for the True Self:

I have said that samskaras are like ruts in a road, and that as the ruts deepen through repetition, it becomes inevitable that the car will slide into them unawares. Any intentional effort to restrain the car from slipping into the rut is called tapas.

Tapas requires a particular kind of attention—precisely the kind required when driving on a rutted road. We need to be awake. We need to be concentrated in order to avoid the edges of the ruts. And sometimes we need to pull the car wheels—with considerable effort—out of the ridges in the road.

Yoga and The Pursuit of Happiness

by Nina

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” — Declaration of Independence, United States of America

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always found it was a bit surprising that one of the three “unalienable rights” the U.S. Declaration of Independence recognizes is “the pursuit of happiness.” In contrast, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen defines the natural rights of man as: liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression. And it’s quite interesting to contemplate what our founders meant when they used the word “happiness” in this context. From what I can tell, hundreds of years later, there is still quite a bit of debate about it.

On the other hand, the Yoga Sutras make it pretty clear what “happiness” means to a yoga practitioner.

2.42 Perfect happiness is attained through contentment. —translation by Barbara Stoler Miller

And if you’re wondering what “contentment” means, in his translation of the Yoga Sutras, TKV Desikachar provides an explanation that I really love: “Contentment or the ability to be comfortable with what we have and what we do not have.”

I’m thinking about happiness this morning because I woke up with a troubled mind. There’s a problem I can’t solve right now, and maybe will never be able to solve. But I decided that I didn’t want to dwell in that troubled state, and consciously decided to let go of my negative thoughts for the time being. I wasn't particularly trying to be happy, just not weighted down by frustration and anger—in other words, more “content.” Then as I started to work at my computer, I stumbled on to some online instructions for how to fold fitted bottom sheets. Hey, I always wanted to know how to do that! So I ran downstairs and grabbed one of my mashed-up bottom sheets and refolded it. The results weren’t as perfect as shown in the instructions (which were for sheets that just had elasticized corners—mine are elasticized all around), but the technique was a great improvement over the one I’d previously been using (well, calling that a technique is a bit of a stretch). And as I stood there admiring the rather attractive rectangle I had created, I was shot through with a tiny burst of happiness.

It struck me then that by quieting my negative thoughts and achieving a more contented state, I had given happiness the space to arise. And I was reminded of Edwin Bryant’s translation of sutra 2.42 and his commentary on it:

2.42 From contentment, the highest happiness is attained.

“This sattvic happiness does not depend on external objects, which are vulnerable and fleeting, but is inherent in the mind when it is tranquil and content.”

So maybe yoga is the pursuit of happiness. For if happiness is “inherent in the mind when it is tranquil and content” then the practice of yoga, whose aim is equanimity or contentment, will lead you toward happiness. The Yoga Sutras make it clear which steps to take on that journey:

1.12 Practice and detachment are the means to still the movements of consciousness.

1.33 Through cultivation of friendliness, compassion, joy, and indifference to pleasure and pain, virtue and vice respectively, the consciousness becomes favorably disposed, serene and benevolent.

1.34 Or, by maintaining the pensive state felt at the time of soft and steady exhalation and during passive retention after exhalation.

1.35 Or, by contemplating an object that helps to maintain steadiness of mind and consciousness.  

—translation by BKS Iyengar

The Pains Which Are To Come....

by Nina

II.16. heyaim dukham anagatam

The pains which are yet to come can be and are to be avoided.
—Yoga Sutras, translation by B.K.S. Iyengar

Last night a friend was telling me what she loved about our blog was that it was positive and optimistic. We write about good things, she said, and have positive solutions. Well, we do believe that yoga has many answers for helping us age gracefully, and we regularly recommend various poses and practices for preventing and/or reducing many of the “pains” that accompany aging. But, I have to say, we are also realists, both about the “aging” and “yoga” parts of our mission. In the last five years, Brad and I have seen all four of parents die. All were in their eighties or nineties, and they died of diseases typical of the elderly (cancer, Alzheimer’s, stroke). Without going into details, I’ll say none of these deaths were particularly pretty, and certainly no amount of yoga poses or practices could have helped prevent the decline and pain that came at the end. In fact, with two of the deaths, from cancer and from kidney failure, we’re grateful for modern medicine’s painkillers.

As I’m sure many of you must know, experiencing the death of your own parents is sure to make you contemplate your own. We wonder for ourselves, if it is possible, how can we avoid the pains which are to come? For me, this is where yoga philosophy comes in. (Studying the scriptures is svadhyaya, one of niyamas that comprise the second branch of yoga, so this is as much a part of yoga as anything else we do and is obviously available to anyone, regardless of age or physical condition.)

Oak Tree in Late Summer Light by Brad Gibson

Although I tend to turn to the Bhagavad Gita for wisdom about cultivating equanimity, I also find the Yoga Sutras an invaluable resource. To my mind, the Yoga Sutras is a brilliant work of psychology. Patanjali deconstructs how the mind works, identifying the roadblocks to cultivating equanimity, and then goes on to recommend solutions. I find this sutra particularly relevant for those of us concerned about aging:

11.3. The five afflictions (klesas) which disturb the equilibrium of consciousness are: ignorance or lack of wisdom, ego, pride of the ego or the sense of ‘I,’ attachment to pleasure, aversion to pain, fear of death and clinging to life. —Yoga Sutras, translation by Edwin Bryant

Aversion to pain, fear of death, and clinging to life, all of which seem to come along with aging, do indeed disturb our sense of equanimity. But the very fact that these feelings are identified as “afflictions” suggests to me that while there is always difficulty, including pain and death, we don’t necessarily have to experience it as suffering. It’s the aversion to pain that causes suffering, not the pain. And it’s the fear of death and clinging to life that causes suffering, not death—or dying—itself.

I actually find this explanation alone to be very helpful. For rather than just feeling that suffering is inevitable, knowing there is a difference between a difficult situation and my reaction to it helps me from getting so caught up in it (well, it’s a work in progress). So that’s a little “wisdom” to counteract the “ignorance” that is another one of the klesas. You can find a lot more wisdom in the Yoga Sutras, and I recommend reading this if you haven’t already. But what does Patanjali recommend for overcoming the klesas? After introducing the klesas and describing each one in detail, Patanjali simply says the following:

II.11. The states of mind produced by these klesas are eliminated by meditation. —Yoga Sutras, translation by Edwin Bryant

My friends will all tell you that I take very good care of myself. I practice yoga asana regularly, in way that supports my particular body and needs, I include stress management practices for my emotional well-being as well as my physical health, and I eat a healthy diet. But I believe that, in the end, cultivating equanimity through wisdom and practice will be the most important aspect of my healthy aging.

Yoga Philosophy of the Day, Part 2

by Nina

Almost immediately after I published my post on Monday Yoga Philosophy of the Day, which was about cultivating equanimity in the face of difficulty and “enemies,” I was sorry I hadn’t mentioned the United States election (post posting remorse?). Because for many of us Americans, this election has been extremely divisive, with the feeling on both sides that those in the opposing camp were our “enemies.” I even know people who stopped speaking to those who disagreed with them over candidates and issues. And I confess that I, too, got swept up in some very negative feelings.

Now, this morning, after very intense night, the results are in and the battles are over, for now at least. However, I find that there is still a great deal of intense feeling remaining, on both sides. Gloating, anger, bitterness. Even Big Bird wasn't being as nice as usual. So maybe it’s not too late to add to what I wrote on Monday after all!

If we practice yoga the way The Bhagavad Gita defines it, we’ll need to step back from these negative feelings. As I quoted on Monday:

He looks impartially on all:

those who love him or hate him,

his kinsmen, his enemies, his friends

the good, and also the wicked.

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work for the political causes we believe in. As The Bhagavad Gita says:

He who performs his duty

with no concern for results

is the true man of yoga—not

he who refrains from action.

And, after all, it was Mohandas K. Gandhi, one of the great political activists of all time, who called The Bhagavad Gita his “mother” and believed in its message of “skill in action.”

The wise man lets go of all

results, whether good or bad,

and is focused on the action alone.

Yoga is skill in actions.

Now the challenge for all of us is to put this into practice. (See my original post Yoga Philosophy of the Day for information about what The Bhagavad Gita recommends as the way to achieve this.)

I was also thinking about how cultivating equanimity in the way The Bhagavad Gita recommends pertains to healthy aging. Of course, maintaining equanimity in the face of difficulty of all kinds helps make our lives better (and our bodies healthier). But also, as older people, most of us want to make a better world for those who come after us, whether that means for our own family members or for the next generation as a whole. And this will only be possible if we can all work together, friends and enemies alike.

Yoga Philosophy of the Day

by Nina

Reflections of Autumn Leaves by Brad Gibson

When a man has mastered himself,

he is perfectly at ease in cold,

in heat, in pleasure or pain,

in honor or in disgrace.

The mature man, fulfilled in wisdom,

resolute, looks with equal

detachment at a lump of dirt,

a rock, or a piece of pure gold.

He looks impartially on all:

those who love him or hate him,

his kinsmen, his enemies, his friends,

the good, and also the wicked. — trans. by Stephen Mitchell

I woke up this morning thinking about this passage from The Bhagavad Gita. Later this week, I’ll be going on a trip to Europe, including a short trip to Cologne, Germany (Brad was invited to give a talk at the prestigious Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing). To be honest, as a Jew with family members who were murdered in the Holocaust, I never wanted to visit Germany. And I’m nervous now about going. Of course, I’m not worried about being unsafe there. I’m mainly concerned about my emotional reactions to things like the sound of language, with which I have negative associations, and the sight of older people who might once have been Nazis. But while I could have decided to stay in Belgium while Brad went to Germany, I’ve decided to take it on. And I’m thinking about this passage from The Bhagavad Gita for inspiration.

So how does The Bhagavad Gita recommend attaining this level of equanimity? Simply by practicing “yoga” in the earliest sense of the word and that is by meditating:

Sitting down, having chosen

a spot that is neither too high

nor too low, that is clean and covered

with a grass mat, a deerskin, and a cloth.

he should concentrate, with his whole

mind, on a single object;

if he practices in this way,

his mind will soon become pure. —trans. Stephen Mitchell

Naturally maintaining equanimity in every difficult situation is very challenging. And although I know a lot of people who meditate on a regular basis, I still haven’t met anyone who is “perfectly at ease” or has attained the state of equanimity that The Bhagavad Gita says is yoga. But I still find great comfort in thought that this is a goal I can strive for. And even just increasing the amount of equanimity in my life seems a very worthwhile task.

Taking on a Yoga Challenge

by Nina

A highlight of my week last week (at least from a yoga asana perspective) was getting up into handstand by myself again in my class. Although I was able to do handstand for a number of years, I lost the ability to do it due after some shoulder injuries (two frozen shoulders to be specific—who knew you could get that nasty condition more than once!). So I’ve had to go through the process three times of learning/re-learning to do this pose. The way I did it was by practicing the pose home. But how can you practice a pose that you can’t do? Well, I just made up my mind to try getting up into handstand several times a week. Just casually. Just one try. And if that didn’t work, no big deal. After I after finally got up once, still keep practicing. If I failed after that first success, again, no big deal. Just keep practicing. Just keep practicing. Just keep practicing. That’s basically the way I not only learned to do handstand, but also a number of other challenging poses. This process always reminds me of the main message of the Bhagavad Gita.

You have right to your actions,

but never to your actions’ fruits

Ac for the action’s sake.

And do not be attached to inaction.

Self-possessed, resolute, act

without any thoughts of results,

open to success or failure.

Taking an approach like this is one of the many ways your asana practice can teach you about yoga philosophy in action. And this approach to a difficult asana is one you can use for any challenging task that you take on.

But I decided to bring up this topic because this week Baxter and I will be featuring Warrior 3 pose, which is a very challenging balance pose (in fact, this is another one of the challenging poses that I practiced at home on a regular basis so I could become better at it). Do you think you can’t do Warrior 3? And do you want to learn?

1. Start with the wall version (see Warrior 3 (Wall Version)) with hands flat on the wall. We had a comment from one our readers saying her students found the wall version too challenging. But if it’s too hard to lift one of your legs up parallel to floor, you can try lifting it up a tiny bit or even just coming onto the toes of one of your feet so more weight is on one leg. That’s still the pose!
2. Keep practicing the wall version until it’s relatively easy and you can maintain comfortably at least 30 seconds. (If you are not lifting your leg all the way or up or even off the floor, keep practicing until you finally do.)
3. Now try practicing with your hands on the wall to fingertips. Work with this version until you can maintain comfortably for at least 30 seconds.
4. Now try the pose away from the wall for just a brief moment, keeping your torso and leg at angle (not coming full parallel). Yay, you did it! Work with this version until you can maintain comfortably for at least 30 seconds.
5. Experiment with the full pose as we will show it later this week. Start with the easiest version first (arms back), the middle version next (arms out to the sides) and work up to the hardest version last (the full pose). Work through each version the same way, starting with a brief hold and than working up to a longer hold.
6. Once you learn the pose, keep practicing it on a regular basis!

Although this post has been about Warrior 3, I hope this inspires you to start practicing any pose you find challenging. Practicing a challenging pose at home is a great way to start a home practice or to keep your home practice from getting stale. And even though the instructions today were specifically for Warrior 3, it should be pretty easy for you to extrapolate from them to come up with your own path for practicing whatever pose you decide to take on.

Georg Feuerstein, 1947-2012

by Nina

Doorways by Nina Zolotow

Just the other day in my post Why You Should Study Yoga Philosophy I wrote about how much I valued the work of yoga scholar Dr. Georg Feuerstein. Then yesterday I learned that he died on August 25. Even though I never met him, I consider him to be one of my most important teachers, so I wanted to take a moment to honor him.

It was always the work of Dr. Feuerstein that I turned to (and will continue to turn to) when I wanted answers to questions I had about yoga history and when I wanted a very literal translation—one in which I could see the relationship between the original Sanskrit and the English—of a yoga scripture. I felt I could always rely on him for a relatively unbaised perspective. But the most important single lesson I learned from him is this one:

“Yoga is like an ancient river with countless rapids, eddies, loops, tributaries, and backwaters, extending over a vast, colourful terrain of many different habitats. So, when we speak of Yoga, we speak of a multitude of paths and orientations with contrasting theoretical frameworks and occasionally incompatible goals.” —Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D.

Dr. Feuerstein’s wife, Brenda L. Feuerstein, announced his death on Facebook this way:

It is with great sadness that I announce that my husband and spiritual partner, Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D., left his body on August 25, 2012 at 9:10 PM.

At this time, I would like to request prayers from the worldwide community for Georg's transition through the afterlife states and for a swift rebirth.

In lieu of flowers and gifts, Georg had requested a scholarship fund be set up to enable incarcerated people the opportunity to participate in our distance learning courses. More information about the fund will be available this week.

Why You Should Study Yoga Philosophy

by Nina

Baxter’s post yesterday (see Does Home Practice Make You Healthier?) was packed full of interesting tidbits, wasn’t it? But one of the most striking comments for me was this one about yoga philosophy:

Notably, frequency of philosophy study was the yoga practice variable that most often predicted health. In addition, more frequent philosophy study also contributed to a lower BMI and higher odds of being a vegetarian. And this sometimes equated to only reading philosophy once a week.

Now I’ve been saying for some time, both to students and on this blog, that I felt yoga philosophy was one of yoga’s valuable tools for cultivating equanimity (see Acceptance, Active Engagement and the Bhagavad Gita and other posts on yoga philosophy). So it was wonderful to hear that this recent study offered some evidence to back me up! And I thought today I’d say a little bit about why I think yoga philosophy is so beneficial, and also mention a few ways for you to get started with yoga philosophy, if you have not already done so.

In general I think that yoga philosophy helps us cultivate equanimity because it provides an alternative way of thinking about our lives. Every day in our society we’re bombarded with advertising that tells us that in order to be happy, we must buy more and achieve more. That’s just due to the nature of capitalism, as, of course, various companies and individuals wanting to make money need to persuade us to be unhappy with our current situation and urge us to improve ourselves by buying their products and/or services. And striving for material success also seems to be built into our culture Unfortunately, for most of us, this pressure leaves us feeling continually unhappy and stressed out, caught in an endless cycle desire and dissatisfaction. What yoga philosophy does is remind us that there is another way thinking about our lives, and provides us with a different goal we can aim for: equanimity. The following quote from the Bhagavad Gita describes the yogi who has achieved equanimity. 

He who hates no light, nor busy activity, nor even darkness, when they are near, neither longs for them when they are far.

Who unperturbed by changing conditions sits apart and watches and says “the powers of nature go round”, and remains firm and shakes not.

Who dwells in his inner self, and is the same in pleasure and pain; to whom gold or stones or earth are one, and what is pleasing or displeasing leave him in peace; who is beyond both praise and blame, and whose mind is steady and quiet.

Who is the same in honor or disgrace, and has the same love for enemies or friends.

Although it is obviously a lifelong quest to achieve the state of equanimity described above, I’ve found that it is very beneficial when I notice dissatisfaction taking over, to step back and at least remind myself there is a different point of view. Then I can begin to let go. And obviously the people interviewed in the study Baxter discussed found similar benefits.

Arctic Sun by Michele Macartney-Filgate

So, if I have convinced you to start exploring yoga philosophy, where should you start? The two most frequently read yoga scriptures these days are the Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita, and these books are a great place to begin. As they are very different from each other (and, indeed, their messages are very different as well), I thought I’d briefly describe them to you.

The Yoga Sutras is likely the most commonly cited scripture these days (though this probably was not true in the past). Composed in 150-200 C.E. by Patanjali, who may or may not have been a single person, the Yoga Sutras is a short, concise work of aphorisms. It is very intellectual and abstract as opposed to Bhagavad Gita, and while some people find it too dry and abstract. I myself find it a brilliant work on psychology and the nature of the mind. The Yoga Sutras is often considered by some to be the climax of a long development of yogic technology, and Patanjali’s school has come to be considered the authoritative system of the yoga tradition referred to as “classical yoga.”

There are many different translations, some with detailed commentaries, others with little or no explanation. I suggest you peruse several different versions to find the best one for you to start with. Being something of a nerd on the topic, I find myself using several different translations on a regular basis, including:

Light on the Yoga Sutras by BKS Iyengar, with Iyengar’s commentary
Barbara Stoler Miller’s translation
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Edwin F. Bryant
Desikachar’s very loose translation in The Heart of Yoga
Georg Fuerstein’s very literal translation in The Yoga Tradition

The Bhagavad Gita is one section of a much longer work, the dramatic epic poem the Mahabharata, written in approximately 500 to 400 BCE. The Gita tells the story of Arjuna, the most distinguished warrior in the Pandava army, as he stops and surveys his adversaries in the Kavara army. The Kavaras are power-hungry corrupt rulers who had usurped the throne. The peace-leaving Pandavas, on the other hand, have the welfare to the people at heart. So this is considered a moral war. Arjuna sees among the opposing forces many with whom the Pandavas have no quarrel, including highly esteemed teachers and elders. He tells Krishna, his charioteer and great friend, he is determined not to fight. His scruples center on the imagined personal consequences of his fighting: his guilt for the decimation of his people. Krishna speaks with him about yoga—the Gita is their dialogue—until he is once more resolved to fight. Some people Krishna’s advice to Arjuna to go into battle disturbing, but Mohandas K. Ghandi, who called the Gita his “mother,” considered the war to be a metaphor for the battle within our souls.

As with the Yoga Sutras, there are many different translations of the Bhagavad Gita, and I recommend that you search for a translation that speaks to you. Translation can make such a difference; I’ve seen the same definition of yoga translated in these different ways:

yoga is equanimity
yoga is balance
yoga is evenness of mind

I really enjoy both the simple, very accessible translation by Stephen Mitchell as well as the more vivid and dramatic one by Juan Mascaro. And I always turn to Georg Feuerstein when I want a translation that while awkward is as close as possible to the original Sanskrit.

Although these two scriptures are just the tip of the yoga philosophy iceberg, I promise you that these two very different books are rich with insights, and you can read them over and over. And I assure you that if you find just one helpful message or concept, it will be worth your time and effort. If reading these works by yourself is too daunting, consider finding a friend or two to read and discuss the books with (I did that for many years with one of my dearest long-time yoga friends).

Summer Solstice

by Nina

“Life is an ever-rolling wheel

And every day is the right one.” —Mumon Gensen

For us in the northern hemisphere, today is the summer solstice. I don’t know about you, but I always have mixed feelings on this day. On one hand, the solstice heralds the beginning of summer, and summer in Northern California, with its cool foggy mornings and bright, warm afternoons, its sprawling vegetable gardens and blooming roses, jasmine and herbs, is my favorite season. 

White Wisteria by Michele Macartney-Filgate

But on the other hand, because the solstice is the longest day of the year, I also feel a twinge of regret that soon the days will become shorter and the year will begin to wane.

Shadows from a lingering sun

blur into dusk—
falling cherry petals
—Soko

And as I’m well into the second half of my life, I can’t help but take some time to consider my own mortality as well as that of people close to me. The losses I’ve already experienced. The losses that are certain to come. Then I turn back to my practice and the Bhagavad Gita.

This is true yoga: the unbinding

of the bonds of sorrow. Practice

this yoga with determination

and with a courageous heart.

—Bhagavad Gita, trans. by Stephen Mitchell

A Pathway in the Mind

by Nina

Yesterday Timothy posted the following quote from Thoreau on his Facebook page (you can find him there at Dr. Timothy McCall Yoga), and it got me thinking: 

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives. —Henry David Thoreau

This reminded me so much of the post I wrote about samskaras (see Meditation and Brain Strength). And I wasn’t at all surprised to see a quote from Thoreau that echoed yoga philosophy. After all, Thoreau read The Bhagavad Gita and other yoga scriptures, and even wrote that he considered himself “a yogi."

Free in this world as the birds in the air, disengaged from every kind of chains, those who practice the yoga gather in Brahma the certain fruit of their works. … Depend upon it that, rude and careless as I am, I would fain practice the yoga faithfully. … The yogi, absorbed in Contemplation, contributes in his degree to creation; he breathes a divine perfume, he hears wonderful things. Divine forms traverse him without tearing him, and, united to the nature which is proper to him, he goes, he acts as animating Original matter. … To some extent, and at rare intervals, even I am a yogi.

That being said, I had, a first, a mixed reaction to this quote. I tend to get a bit put off when I hear phrases like “we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” As a creative writer, I think it’s important not to censor your thoughts and to allow yourself to think about anything and everything. And I tend to rebel at being told to be more positive. But then, just a few hours later, I realized that in some ways I had already been putting Thoreau’s advice into practice for a number of years.

Between Two Rocks by Nina Zolotow

As a person who used to react to stressful situations with anxiety, I have found it very helpful to repeatedly remind myself of this quote (and this translation) from the Bhagavad Gita: 

You have a right to your actions,

but never to your actions’ fruits.

Act for the action’s sake.

And do not be attached to inaction.

Self-possessed, resolute, act

without any thought of results,

open to success or failure.

This equanimity is yoga.
—trans. by Stephen Mitchell

So while I haven’t been censoring my thoughts per se, when I notice myself starting to get stressed out about something, I have been developing the habit of turning my thoughts toward a more helpful way of viewing my life. I thought of this cultivating this habit more as using a new muscle that gets stronger and stronger with each repetition, not as creating a deep mental path or a samskara, but my little epiphany yesterday was: of course! It’s all the same thing.

This is why I think that yoga philosophy, which is indeed is intended to “quiet the mind,” can be as helpful for reducing stress as all the inverted poses and conscious relaxation practices that I also recommend. What do you think? Is there a piece of yoga philosophy that you find yourself turning toward over and over?

Take Back Yoga!

by Nina

This morning I listened to a short piece on NPR this morning about the “Take Back Yoga” campaigned launched by the Hindu American Foundation (see here). According to this report, some American Hindus are saying yoga is about far more than exercise and breathing techniques, and they want recognition that it comes from a deeper philosophy, one, in their view, with Hindu roots. Sheetal Shah, senior director of the foundation, said, "What we’re trying to say is that the holistic practice of yoga goes beyond just a couple of asanas [postures] on a mat. It is a lifestyle, and it’s a philosophy. How do you lead your life in terms of truthfulness? And nonviolence? And purity? The lifestyle aspect of yoga has been lost."

If you’ve read this blog before, you already realize that none of us are in the “yoga is just a couple of asanas on a mat” camp. I’m even willing to bet that the four of us would agree the philosophy and lifestyle aspects of yoga will be more helpful than the asanas for allowing us to age gracefully. So I definitely agree with the Hindu American Foundation that many Americans have serious misconceptions about yoga. However, while we may agree that yoga is not just asanas, agreeing on exactly what it is, is more difficult than you might think.

In recent years I’ve done a lot of reading about yoga history and philosophy. And I’ve been particularly influenced by Georg Feuerstein’s masterful (and somewhat dry, I admit) The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice. One major insight this book brought me was what a minor part hatha yoga played during the history of yoga. Although yoga may be thousands of years old, for most of that time it had nothing at all to do physical postures. But another major insight for me was how little agreement there was during those thousands of years about what yoga was and how to practice it.

Shadows of Leaves by Brad Gibson

Even though yoga originally evolved as part of Hinduism, it was also adopted by the Sikhs, the Jains, and the Buddhists. And the different religions naturally had their own takes on yoga. But even among the Hindus, there were an enormous variety of interpretations, with a large schism developing between those who worshiped Vishnu and those who believed in Shiva. Then there was the dualism vs. non-dualism conflict, not to mention sex is good/bad, the body is good/bad, and you can achieve liberation in this lifetime/no you can’t. They didn’t even agree on how many “branches” of yoga there are! While classical yoga (the yoga of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras) has the well-known eight branches of yoga, other traditions have ten or twelve or even more.

So where does that leave us? There just is no simple answer. While some of you may find a teacher whose particular take on yoga you can adopt, others, like me, are left to piece something together for themselves. If you’re interested, you can start by reading some of the classic yoga texts, such as The Bhagavad Gita and The Yoga Sutras. Maybe you’ll even be willing to take on Georg Feuerstein’s book. Just be skeptical of anyone who claims there is only one right way to think about yoga.

What to Expect from Your Yoga Practice

by Baxter

Several times a year, a particular query is posed to me by one of my students and it goes something like this: I have been practicing yoga for many years, advancing in my ability to do intermediate and sometimes advanced poses. I have been very healthy up to this point. I thought that if I did this and ate a healthy diet that I would stay healthy into my older years. Yet I just found out I have X, and I am confused and somewhat disappointed. I did not think this sort of thing would happen to me. Can I expect my yoga practice to resolve this issue?

Oh, does my heart go out to you! I totally understand where this perception comes from. It seems that in an insidious and unspoken way, we have come to expect that yoga is a kind of protective force field from the normal aging process. After all, our newspapers and magazines are constantly touting the health benefits of a regular yoga practice. And indeed, hatha yoga done regularly can help and slow down some of the usual changes that can happen in the course of a normal lifetime. But I, too, have had this encounter with the reality of my own mortality while in the midst of my yoga, and at first I was very disillusioned. 

Yet just a brief look into the history of important “enlightened” teachers of yoga in the 19th and 20th centuries reveals that despite reaching the pinnacle of yoga’s promised effects, some of these men died at surprising young ages. Yoga, despite the encouraging words from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika about longevity and destroying death, does not change the fact that we all age, get sick and die, as the Buddha observed on his first visit outside his cloistered youth in the palace.

Dry River Bed by Brad Gibson

This is why I believe we need to look deeper at the underlying goals of yoga that we can find in the Yoga Sutras and other important texts. They all talk of a higher psycho-spiritual aspiration that is the overriding objective of a deep and enduring practice: the union of our individual spirit (however you define that) with a kind of universal consciousness (however you define that!). Along the way, if you practice as guided by the tradition and your teacher, other beneficial side effects often occur: clearer insight into how things really are in your world, mental clarity on other issues, a deeper abiding sense of peace and interconnectedness with others and the world as a whole, and even a better sense of your purpose in life. 

Does that mean the Hatha Yoga practice cannot help with some healing and have other possible beneficial effects on your health, even with the arrival of an unwanted condition? Of course not!   We have featured many of the ways yoga can improve health in just a few short months. And even an experienced practitioner can have more to learn. So it may be time to find that teacher who can help guide you on this next part of your journey. There is nothing like working one on one with a gifted yoga teacher to open up new possibilities for you. 

And, finally, to get a truly amazing insight into this very phenomena, check out Esther Meyer’s essay in the collection of essays entitled Will Yoga and Meditation Really Change My Life? edited by Stephen Cope.

Restricting the Whirls of Consciousness, Part 2

by Baxter

Nina did such a nice job on yesterday's post "Yoga Sutra 1.2: Restricting the Whirls of Consciousness" that I felt compelled to jump in and add my two cents. The tendency Nina identified for the mind to brood about the past or fret about the future is only of several dyads or other causes of our mental whirling, according to yoga's perspective. In fact, there are five main causes of affliction or klesas that Patanjali identifies in the Yoga Sutras, and it is interesting to view any particular whirling difficult thought via his lens.

The first one, and the one that sprouts the others, is known as avidya, sometimes translated as misapprehension or an error in our view of reality. Yogis believe that we start out not quite understanding the world correctly, and out of that misunderstanding, all kinds of troubling thoughts arise, often connected to fear, jealousy, anger, greediness. One of the main problems is that we view ourselves as separate from all other people and beings in our reality, which almost guarantees conflict and struggle on some level. And therefore, because I don't quite view the world accurately, one of the first errors I make is to create this sense of I-am-ness, know as asmita, the second of the klesas. This separates me, with all my opinions and ideas of who I am, and how I am different from you, with all my likes and dislikes.

Upside Down by Nina Zolotow

In fact, out of my ego self arise the next two klesas, raga and dvesha, or attachment (or things I desire or like) and aversion (things I dislike or try to push away). These two kleshas alone account for so much of our mental activity all day long: I want to do this, and a lot more or it!  I don't want to be doing this, I am bored with this, I wish I was doing that. You get the idea.

Finally, the yogis concluded that the preceding four klesas create the condition of clinging desperately onto life, know as abhinivesha, even though we don't even really understand our reality clearly enough to know what we are clinging onto! And this desperate clinging can actually shut us down for living fully, as we become so fearful of aging, losing function, or death itself.

Oy, oy, oy! So what's a poor yogi to do? Well the klesas are said to exist in different states of activity, sometimes dormant, sometimes active, and sometimes influenced or attenuated by our yoga practices. I have noticed lately as I have been experiencing some increased effects of stressful changes in my life, that an active asana practice, guided relaxation via yoga nidra and breath awareness and mantra meditations have each been effective methods for attenuating the whirling patterns of thought that have been under the surface of my perception of stress. In other words, they seem to short circuit my mind's fruitless machinations, providing me with some temporary peace and quiet.  And the more regularly I do my practice, the less frequent these particular upsetting patterns of thought happen. I even begin to notice that many of the thoughts are not even really true. I have also noticed that playing my violin for an hour, especially newer music I am not so familiar with, has a similar effect. If you find yourself under increased stress, instead of doing what a lot of my students seem to default to, which is to not practice as much, you might commit to doing a little yoga every day, and see if things don't start to shift for you too.

Yoga Sutra 1.2: Restricting the Whirls of Consciousness

by Nina

My young cousin asked me last night about the history of the form of yoga that she’s been practicing lately. I told her that it was a very recent form of hatha yoga, but added that all the hatha yoga we’ve been doing in the United States was developed in the 20th century. We then talked about the part of yoga that was, indeed, very ancient, and I tossed out some of the definitions of yoga from the classic scriptures. One of them was this from The Yoga Sutras:

Yoga cittavritti nirodha

Yoga is the restriction of the whirls of consciousness.

I like this particular translation of sutra 1.2 because it translates the compound word “cittavritti” as “whirls of consciousness.” I not only find that very poetic, but also very accurate in terms of how the mind works. The word “vritti” has many definitions, including "waves" and "fluctuations," but whirls reminds me of the revolved yoga poses that also contain the word “vritti,” such as Paravritti Trikonasana and Paravritti Parsvakonasana. So for me, whirls evokes revolving, turning, and circling. And when we’re depressed or anxious or mentally stressed out, aren’t we tormented by the our whirls of consciousness, by negative thoughts and emotions that cycle over and over? What if I miss my deadline? What if the plane crashes? What if I can’t fall asleep tonight? Or, if only my lover hadn’t left me. If only I wasn’t so helpless/afraid/overwhelmed. If only my parents had loved me more.

In Andrew Solomon’s wonderful book on depression The Noonday Demon, he describes the difference between clinical depression and agitated (or anxiety based) depression, saying that clinical depression is an obsession with the past or, as I like to put it, all those “if only” thoughts. On the other hand, he says that agitated depression (or anxiety for that matter) is an obsession with the future, or as I put it, all those “what if” thoughts. Do either of those states of mind sound familiar? And if so, don’t you think it would wonderful to be able to “restrict” or “cease” or “quiet” those whirls of consciousness?

Spring Blossoms, Clouds by Nina Zolotow

Yoga was initially developed (or perhaps “evolved” is a better word) for that purpose. Thousands of years of different kinds of yoga practice have resulted in a lot of different methods for “restricting the whirls of consciousness” or quieting the mind, including meditation, breath practices, and chanting, as well as asana practice.

And, for me, this concept is the basis for using yoga for your emotional wellbeing. When I teach workshops on this topic, I always talk about this translation of sutra 1.2. Because my general principle for using yoga for emotional wellbeing is simply this: Start by becoming aware of the vrittis, of the way your mind gets caught up in them. And then observe how different yoga practices affect them.

Honoring the Process

by Sandy Blaine

Typically physical exercise is a goal-oriented pursuit; whether the goal is to beat your opponent at tennis, better your time in running, or improve your heart health and increase your muscular strength, you are after results. With yoga, the process, rather than the results, is the point. You will likely improve your strength and flexibility and might even achieve advanced postures along the way, but it is the quality of the experience, and not the outcome, that makes it a yoga practice.

In fact, according to Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford professor and leading stress physiologist, stress reduction activities such as exercise and meditation only work if you enjoy them. So there is little point in forcing yourself through something you don’t enjoy just because it’s good for you; that actually causes more stress and defeats the purpose.

When James Fixx, author of The Complete Book of Running and a leading proponent of the fitness craze in the 1970s died suddenly of a heart attack at age 52, there were a lot of dark jokes, and a lot of second guessing went on. But I wonder, would he really have preferred to have spent his life sitting in a Barcalounger eating chips had he known his fate?

Perhaps that’s the ultimate test: would you regret the time spent if it doesn’t get you the results you’re hoping for? It’s a package deal, the process and the results. That’s another aspect of the yoking together implied by the term yoga. Western culture tends to be highly goal oriented, and it can be hard to wrap our minds around the concept of process. Practicing yoga can yield wonderful rewards, but like everything in life, those rewards are transitory. As blissful as you might feel following your yoga session, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be around to enjoy it again tomorrow. Surrendering the fruits of your labors and being in the moment are tenets of yoga philosophy. And each Savasana is meant to provide a little preparation for ultimately giving up the body altogether.

After the Rain by Joan Webster

We can’t know the answer for James Fixx, but when I ask myself that question, I know I wouldn’t regret a moment of my yoga practice. I might increase my ice cream intake if I was given a fatal diagnosis, but I’m positive I’d continue to practice. I might actually devote more time to my practice, in preparation for letting go of life. In the end, it’s not about achieving anything, not doing more advanced positions, nor accumulating more years. Ultimately I’ll die, and I know whenever that is, there will be plenty of feats in Light On Yoga, the bible of asanas, that I never came close to accomplishing. But when I’m practicing, I have moments of being completely present, and aware of being connected to something larger than myself. That’s how I want to live, for as long as I’m alive.

Sandy Blaine has been practicing yoga since 1986, and teaching since 1993. She has a joyful devotion to her daily yoga practice, and seeks to bring these qualities to her classes, which combine her experience and training in the Iyengar, Ashtanga Vinyasa, and Kripalu methods. Her writing has been published in “Yoga Journal,” “Yoga International” and “Ascent” magazines, and she is the author of two books: Yoga for Healthy Knees and Yoga for Computer Users. Sandy is the director of the Alameda Yoga Station and the longtime resident yoga instructor for Pixar Animation Studios, and as a wellness consultant, she has spoken at Kaiser and Google. Previously, she taught yoga at UC Berkeley for many years, and she is a faculty member of the Berkeley Yoga Room's Advanced Studies Program, from which she graduated in 1995. Find more information about Sandy’s work on her website www.sandyblaine.com. Sandy is at work on a new book about establishing a personal yoga practice, and she blogs about her own practice at www.theyogaguidetohappiness.com.

Yoga Philosophy: Contentment

by Nina

“He who finds happiness only within, rest only within, light only within—that yogi having become one with nature attains oneness with Brahman.” —The Bhagavad Gita, trans. by Mohandas K. Ghandi

When I first started teaching, I was determined to find the right language to help my students come slowly out of Savasana (a bigger challenge than you might imagine!). Eventually I learned that repeating the word “slowly” three times (as in “slowly, slowly, slowly bend your knees and place the soles of your feet on the floor”) did the trick. My point? It’s simply that the language that you use can sometimes make all the difference.

I’m bringing this up today because I’ve been thinking about contentment, one of the qualities the Yoga Sutras encourages us to cultivate.

“2.42 From contentment and benevolence of consciousness come supreme happiness.” –Yoga Sutras, trans. by TKV Desikachar

“Contentment or the ability to be comfortable with what we have and what we do not have.” —TKV Desikachar

To me, this means that here are many unpleasant situations in your life that you cannot change, some minor (traffic jams, not being able to find something you need) and some major (death, divorce, loss of a job). And in these circumstances when you normally would react with anger, anxiety, envy, frustration, sorrow, you might be able to choose to react instead with contentment.

But another thing I’ve learned from teaching is that the words “happiness” and even “contentment” can be a confusing to people. How, students will say, can I be “content” when something bad happens? Or how, a person with depression, will ask, can just tell myself to be “happy?”

Through the Mist by Brad Gibson

For myself, the answer was using different language: “I can be okay with this.” During the last four years, I’ve experienced a lot of loss: both my parents died and both my children moved thousands of miles away. But telling myself that, even while I was sad, I could be also okay with those circumstances did, in fact, help lead me toward contentment.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ll know that I’m a big fan of yoga’s stress reduction tools, including poses, breath techniques and meditation, for cultivating equanimity. But yoga philosophy has also been extremely helpful to me.

In our materialistic and success-oriented culture, we are bombarded with messages telling us we need to do more and buy more. So we become caught up in an endless cycle of desire and dissatisfaction, which benefits the economy but not necessarily our happiness. For me, yoga philosophy is the antidote. Although yoga promises freedom from the bondage of the unending cycle of desire and dissatisfaction, I can’t say I’m there yet. But at the very least, when I notice dissatisfaction taking over, I’ve learned to step back and remind myself there is a different point of view.

“2.42 From contentment, the highest happiness is attained.” —Yoga Sutras, trans. Edwin Bryant

“This sattvic happiness does not depend on external objects, which are vulnerable and fleeting, but is inherent in the mind when it is tranquil and content.” —Bryant’s commentary

ACCEPTANCE, ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT, AND "THE BHAGAVAD GITA"

by Nina

Since Brad started off by mentioning the combination of acceptance and active engagement as the best approach to healthy aging, and Baxter followed with his take on the subject, I thought I’d tell those of you who don’t already know a little something about the yoga philosophy to which they were both referring.

When I teach beginning yoga philosophy I often like to start by mentioning that most people don’t realize that the most famous yogi of the 20^th century was Mohandas K. Gandhi. And what made him a great yogi wasn’t the number of sun salutations he did (not very many, if any at all), but his practice of yoga in action, as inspired by the seminal yoga scripture, The Bhagavad Gita, which he referred to as his “mother.”

The Bhagavad Gita is one section of a much longer work, The Mahabharata, written approximately in 500 to 400 BCE. It tells the story of Arjuna, the most distinguished warrior in the Pandava army, as he stops and surveys his adversaries in the Kavara army. The Kavaras are power-hungry corrupt rulers, who had usurped the throne. The peace-leaving Pandavas, on the other hand, have the welfare to the people at heart. So this is considered a moral war.

But Arjuna sees among the opposing forces many with whom the Pandavas have no quarrel, including highly esteemed teachers and elders. He tells Krishna, his charioteer and great friend, he is determined not to fight. His scruples center on the imagined personal consequences of his fighting: his guilt for the decimation of his people. Krishna speaks with him about yoga—the Gita is their dialogue—until he is once more resolved to fight.

Paris in Motion by Brad Gibson

The main message of the Gita, which is repeated throughout the text, concerns the benefits of acceptance along with the need for action. Here is how Krishna puts it:

 Set thy heart upon thy work, but never on its reward.

Work not for a reward; but never cease to do thy work.

Do thy work in the peace of Yoga and, free from selfish desires, be not moved in success or failure.

Yoga is evenness of mind—a peace that is ever the same. — trans. by Juan Mascaro

Krishna tells Arjuna that work is a necessary part of human existence, so the only way to attain equanimity is to do your work without any thoughts of results, remaining open to success or failure. And that this approach—this letting of all results, whether good or bad, and focusing on the action alone—is the essence of yoga. For Gandhi work meant fighting for the independence of India and the rights of the oppressed through non-violent action. And he describes the importance of doing work without focusing on the results this way:

“He who is always brooding over results often loses nerve in the performance of his duty. He becomes impatient and then gives vent to anger and begins to do unworthy thing; he jumps from action to action, never remaining faithful to any. He who broods over results is like a man given to objects of the senses: he is always distracted, he says good-bye to all scruples, everything is right in his estimation, and therefore he resorts to means fair and foul to attain his end.“ —M.K. Gandhi

But how does this yogic attitude help us ordinary mortals? This week both Baxter and Richard Rosen recommended regular, steady practice as the best approach for both osteoporosis and Parkinson’s disease. But daily yoga practice is no quick fix, and results are never guaranteed, because this is real life, people. So for your peace of mind, at the same time that you work toward staying healthy you can let go of all thoughts of success or failure and simply focus on your practice. Then no matter what happens, you’ll be prepared to handle it. And outside the yoga room, this yogic approach allows you to cultivate equanimity in your daily lives. For no matter what work we have to do, whether it is raising children, going to a 9 to 5 job, being politically active, or helping a dying family member, practicing acceptance along with active engagement allows us to do what we need to do and be at peace with the results:

 In this wisdom, a man goes beyond what is well done and what is not well done.

Go thou therefore to wisdom:
Yoga is wisdom in work. —trans. by Juan Mascaro

(It took me a long time to learn this particular lesson, and a lot of practice to learn not to fall back into my old patterns of stressing out about the future, but personally I’ve found this yogic attitude to be as helpful as any of the other anti-stress yoga practices, such as inverted poses and yogic breathing, that I practice on a regular basis. Maybe even more so.)