The Citadel

Present moments

As life is a journey so I am on a journey of a smaller kind. As there are bridges that carry us across a river or a chasm, so some Yoga practices are like bridges, they carry us from one part of life to another. Some chasms are huge, like relationship break up or an illness. Others are small like the holiday period we are in at this moment.

Like everyone I welcome the change of routine the holidays bring. But at this time when celebration of spirit seems to be the focus, the loss of my sadhana - my spiritual practice - is a loss I don't enjoy. An unplesant hole forms in my being, that space my regular sadhana nourishes, feels empty.

As the holidays is a time of feasting, so my holiday sadhana needs to be at least a mini feast or in my case a moveable one. I move through this holiday season from my family through airports, planes and time zones to more family in another country. All of that is a challenge to my soul and pysche.

I decided at first just to relax. At least 20 minutes of Yoga relaxation carried me through Xmas, 3 airports and 2 airflights kept me surprisingly calm and brought me a good sleep on a plane flight that is normally difficult. It has kept me happily connected to the centre of my awareness and a sense of soul nourishment.

Now I find I need movement to ground me in my new time zone, this present moment. On the phone (on which I write this blog as well) I list a morning practice. Sometimes I haven't time to do it all, but I do as much as travel will allow. It brings me to this moment, that the transience of travel underlines as the only moment we truely have.

So for your interest here's my present sadhana. It may serve you too.

Yoga relaxation focusing on Yoga breathing - 5 mins.
Pawanmuktasana (joint rotations) - 5 mins.
Danda kriyas, at least 3.
Standing forward bend - monkey paws rocking.
Trikonasana.
Downward dog drop to upward dog.
Simple seated spinal twist.
Lizard posture.
Rolling to shoulderstand.
Moola bandha.
Seated pranayama - Ujjayi breathing, then centreing awareness on the present moment.

A happy and wondrous New Year to all my friends,

Much love, Wendy.

The Sage views the straw dogs

I'm working through "Change your thoughts, change your life" by Dr Wayne Dyer at the pace of a very slow snail. That seems to be the right pace for me. The verse I am at describes the impartial nature of the Tao, its unconditional nature.

"The sage is not sentimental, he treats all his people as straw dogs." 

Often times things come to me when I give a Relaxation in class. Often times all my planning goes out the window, and the Relaxation becomes a creative flow. I experience it as do my students. Something that flows out of the unknown through my mind and weaves itself together all by itself. And it ties together all the questions that have been in my mind forming an answer.

Another thing takes over then. Something in the mind peaks. My consciousness blossoms and the answer grows into a knowing. When that happens I have learned to understand that that answer is then indelibly imprinted on my awareness. It has become, it is now part of me forever. Its hard to describe this kind of knowing as it has a heightened quality, like you touch a truth beyond reason. It fills you with a feeling and a sense of totality. I guess that's the union of Yoga, the moment when there's a deeper sense of connection with something much larger than your normal self.

So last weeks Relaxation was like that.

I began describing a star, gold and silver. Now a star is one of the very lofty images I sometimes use, very much beyond the symbols of sun and moon in Yoga. To me the star transcends all that, it's a symbol of where we come from and where we are returning. Its a lovely thought for me to contemplate the light of a star. Each star shines upon us and can be seen by everyone. Well not particular stars, but stars in general. It strikes me that the star is like the sage. It gives its light to all in an equal and "unsentimental" way. And from this there is a natural expansion of an idea...un-conditionality. The star is its exemplar.

The star shares its light equally and without stint on everyone. And if the star is the highest form of universal energy and light we can contemplate, then a (mystical) understanding unfolds from this. Its only our mind, with its narrower focus, that draws the conclusion of inequality, of more or less for us or others. It isn't the nature of the star. The star is unconditional in its giving. 

For anyone who contemplates this - not just intellectually - but meditatively, I believe there are some quite rich insights to be found. Contemplation of the star can unfold deeper recesses of our awareness of how the universe functions mystically.

Bring to your mind the image of a star in an indigo sky. Infuse the image with your breath, perhaps holding your awareness inside the space of the mind as you do. Contemplate the star and its nature and the journey of its light to you.

"He gives and gives, without condition, offering his treasures to everyone." - The Tao Te Ching

Much love,

Wendy.