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More on balance I received the following question (shared with permission) in regards to yesterday’s article on yogabhyasa and health. “When offered a challenging asana, if I maintain my breath but with a bit more enthusiastic effort than what total ease requires, is that too rajasic? I understand that if […]

More on balance

October 27, 2021 in 40 days of Vinyasa Krama / READ tagged asana / balance / effort / jivana prayatna / right effort by jennifer

Yogabhyasa and health The question often arises from those of us who spent many years of our youth or midlife playing sports or frequenting a gym….”but what about cardiovascular health?” It is common thought that increasing heart rate (often to a breathless state) is healthy in moderation for the general […]

Yogabhyasa and health

October 26, 2021 in 40 days of Vinyasa Krama / READ tagged abhyasa / health / ramaswami / srivatsa / vairagya by jennifer

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Protected: What is Community?

October 25, 2021 in 40 days of Vinyasa Krama / READ tagged Community / sangha / satsang by jennifer

Becoming UnStuck Ramaswami recently posted the following: “In the matter of meditation (dhyana/samyama) there are three aspects to be considered. 1. Proper preparation for meditation 2. The methodology of meditation and 3. what is to be meditated upon. All the three are succinctly and meticulously explained by sage Patanjali“ Ramaswami […]

Becoming UnStuck

October 23, 2021 in 40 days of Vinyasa Krama / READ tagged philosophy / yoga sutras by jennifer

Yoga for Life. When we think of yoga in stages what comes to mind? We may think of kriya yoga as a preparation for taking up deeper inquiry. We may think of the 8 fold path of yoga as stages of preparation towards meditation. We may think of the stages […]

Yoga for Life

October 22, 2021 in 40 days of Vinyasa Krama / READ by jennifer

Helpful or not? “ Thought divides, the ‘me’ and the ‘not me’, ‘we’ and ‘they’, my country and your country, my ideas and your ideas, my religion and your religion, and so on. The very movement of thought is divisive because thought is the response of memory and experience, which […]

Helpful or not

October 21, 2021 in 40 days of Vinyasa Krama / READ by jennifer

Where’s your head at? Where I live we have a saying: “where’s your head at?” meaning where are your thoughts/what and how are you thinking? In yoga we call this the citta akasha, the mental space. And in that mental space just like in universal space there is a LOT […]

Where’s your head at?

October 21, 2021 in 40 days of Vinyasa Krama / READ by jennifer

Contemplating the Eternal Yesterday’s reading was on the invocations we chant at the beginning of practice. First to Ganesh, then Patanjali and the lineage of teachers and finally peace between and amongst us as we journey into our studies. The first utterance of all though is OM. OM is called […]

Contemplating the Eternal

October 19, 2021 in 40 days of Vinyasa Krama / READ by jennifer

Invocations and showing up with devotion Every morning we begin our practice with a prayer. That prayer consists of three parts First is the dedication to Ganesh Second is the Yoga prayer or Patanjali Prayer Third is the peace chant from the Taittiriya Upanishad often called the student/teacher invocation Beginning […]

Invocations and showing up with devotion

October 18, 2021 in 40 days of Vinyasa Krama / READ by jennifer

Not This, Not This “What is it that:Air does not erode?Fire does not burn?Water does not wet?Earth does not cover?” ~Paul Harvey translation Bhagavad Gita 2.23 To come back to the basics again and again is a worthy endeavor. Samyama (dharana+dhyana+samadhi) is sometimes called beginner’s mind after all. A proverbial […]

Not this, Not this

October 16, 2021 in 40 days of Vinyasa Krama / READ by jennifer

At-least as much awe… Today on the cushion these words came to me softly So can we stand in at least as much awe gazing upon that which never changes as we do with that which always with does? Sometimes in our studies of yoga it may seem we are […]

At-least as much awe…

October 15, 2021 in Insight / READ by jennifer

The partner to practice This week we discussed the definition of abhyasa as being defined by a marriage of time, consistency and enthusiastic devotion. This abhyasa is related specifically to the mental practices of the antaranga sadhana (but of course we can apply it to the entire 8 limbs). But […]

The partner to practice

October 15, 2021 in 40 days of Vinyasa Krama / READ by jennifer