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SĀMARTHYA - POTENCY
The second quality describing the Goddess from the list of attributes in the Tantrasara, a Tantrik text, is sāmarthya. This Sanskrit word, which translates as potency or efficacy, is one of the activities of Consciousness which, if meditated upon, sits the Goddess in the heart to the practitioner.
KULA - TOTALITY
The Tantrasara is a Tantrik text attributed to Abhinavagupta, a significant scholar- practitioner of the Trika school of the tradition. Living from roughly 950- 1016, he was a prolific writer leaving many manuscripts, commentaries and practice guidelines.
THE THUNDER: PERFECT MIND - PART 2
Continuing our exploration of the excerpt from The Thunder: Perfect Mind, here we focus on the last three lines. Line six, “I am she...” articulates the totality at the heart of non-dual paradigms.
THE THUNDER: PERFECT MIND - PART 1
Non-dual experiences of Oneness are present in the writings of mystics from all religious traditions. These moments, fleeting or abiding, of oneness with the phenomenal world transcend the faith doctrines and transport the individual into an immersive experience with the Divine they no longer recognize as separate from their self.
GRACE
As the constraint of Act Four ties us up with the suffering of forgetting who and what we truly are, Act Five is the sword edge that cuts through the bonds of our distress. In the image of the Shiva as the cosmic dancer, the arm of concealment across his heart points toward the source of liberation, the upraised foot.
CONCEALMENT
Act Four of Shiva’s dance is tirodhana which means “occlusion” (blocked or closed off) or “concealment.” It is, perhaps, the hardest stage of the dance to understand. Succinctly, this represents the recognition that an inherent part of embodiment is to be closed off from our essence nature.
DISSOLUTION
The cycle of life is made of birth, living and death. While the first two are palatable and even celebrated, the last is more discomforting. It is the last of the triad, however, that is act three of Shiva’s wild dance. This stage of the dance calls us out of avoidance and draws us into contemplation.
MAINTAINING
The second act of Shiva’s five-part ecstatic dance is sthiti. It is the force that maintains something at a certain level for a specific duration of time. In our ocean - wave metaphor (introduced in Creation), this act is the wave rising up out of the surface of the water and growing into full form.
SHIVA NATARAJA - THE DANCE OF LIFE
Sages, mystics and contemplatives from all spiritual traditions have wrestled with the questions of how are we created and what happens when we die? Various traditions developed models to answer these questions, and here is a paradigm from the non-dual Tantrik worldview.
THE SUMMARY
Acceptance, silence, trust and joy have been the themes of the previous four posts. Important separately, they also weave together to describe the inner journey of meditation.
THE JOY OF BEING
Tantra uses several words to describe our essence nature. Ultimately, what or who we are is beyond words or descriptions but one of the words used to get close to describing our essence is ananda. Like most Sanskrit words, ananda does not translate directly into English. The words bliss and joy are most often used to translate ananda.
ACCEPTANCE
Yoga is about transformation; it is intended to create shifts, changes. For many years, I interpreted that teaching as needing to change parts of myself that were wrong, that I didn’t like or that were unbalanced.
SILENCE
Silence is not the opposite of sound; it is the invisible web from which all sound arises and returns.
TRUST - A LIFELONG PRACTICE / THE HOUSE BUILD ON ROCK
Navigating uncertainty is an ongoing focus of these times. We never know what is coming and now that understanding is even more present. The yoga tradition says is a defining characteristic of the human condition. At times, the reality of uncertainty is more hidden and at other times, like now, it is more revealed. An antidote to living with uncertainty is to deepen our capacity to trust.
YOGIC WISDOM FOR UNCERTAIN TIMES
These are uncertain times, no doubt about it. Uncertainty brings up questions, anxiety, fear and a generalized unease. It also brings up great opportunity for change, transformation and a new worldview.
DISCIPLINE AND DEVOTION
For many years, my yoga practice was marked by a clear set of expectations: two hours of practice, six days a week with one day of rest. This ideal was constructed from expectations communicated by my teachers, from reading how master yogis developed their craft and from my internalized idea of what it meant to be a yogi, do yoga and teach.
HANUMANASANA SEQUENCE
A few weeks ago, I invited a small group of teachers for an intimate exploration of Hanumasana, the front -back splits. The practice sequence ended up being so effective in that we all got deeper into the pose than before, that I want to share it.
A GUIDED SAVASANA
This Savasana is a compilation of guided Savasanas used by various teachers over the years. I draw inspirations from those memoires and from the Savasana in Erich Schiffmann’s book, Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness and BKS Iyengar’s Light on Yoga. Enjoy reading the following script to a loved one, being read to or make a voice recording to play while you lie in Savasana.
IN FRONT OF THE CLASS
The practice of yoga is a commitment on the part of the yogi to challenge established patterns of behaviour while delving into a process of self-inquiry. Learning to teach yoga asks for the same dedicated process. As we begin to teach yoga in teacher training programs, our engrained tendencies are being displayed, we are exposed and raw — just as we are when we move deeply into our asana practice.
BEYOND A WEEKEND WORKSHOP
As a yoga teacher, it is a deeply enriching experience to spend time as a student of a master teacher. A week ago, I did just that in a weekend workshop with senior Iyengar teacher, Father Joe Pereira. Father Joe is a skilled teacher with many years in devoted service and study both as a yogi and as a Jesuit priest. His devotion to his teachers, Mother Teresa and BKS Iyengar, inform the core of his teaching.
THE ROLE OF MYTH
For over 27 000 years, starting at the time of the first cave paintings, myths and the telling of myths have been one of most fundamental ways we communicate. The universal questions inherent in myth and the art of storytelling transcend time, culture and social status.
ANATOMY OF A PROGRRAM:YTT 2016-17
I started teaching my first solo teacher training this past weekend and welcomed a group of dedicated yogis interested in deepening their knowledge and experience of yoga. The preparation for it got me to review my own experiences in teacher training programs.