Category: Yoga

  • Christopher Alexander – The Stress Reservoir

    Broadly speaking, the reaction to each unsolved problem, or annoyance, or conflict that is encountered creates in the individual some level of stress … There is, in effect, a stress reservoir in the body …

  • Christopher Alexander – Freedom of the Spirit

    The capacity to do these many positive things, to do them well, and to do them freely, is natural. It arises by itself. It cannot be created artificially in a person, but it needs to be released, given room … anything which causes a blockage of this ability … causes a loss of freedom.

  • Yoga Practice Reflection – Sping 2018

    It’s been a while since I’ve posted a practice review. I am not much inclined to doing so. I am in a period of relative silence, not inclined to talking too much (especially if not asked to). So this is mostly note-taking for myself. This is what my current practice looks like this (this is…

  • Graduality and Edges in Practice

    Breathing Formula A prerequisite for following the example in this post is an understanding of an expression such as: 4x 8-0-12-0 It is a formula for breathing, where the breath is made up of four parts: an inhale, a pause, an exhale and a pause. This particular formula indicates 4 breaths each of 8 second…

  • A Seed of Meditation in Distraction?

    I was nearing the end of a practice, sitting. I experience subtle flavors of sitting, but for me they are like dreams, hard to hold on to later. One of the prominent indicators is a feeling of being welcome in sitting. This time was like that. Another prominent indicator is an apparent interest to stay…

  • A Living Sharpness

    I’ve been experiencing an interesting convergence in my practice in recent weeks: As distractions dwindle, I feel more collected and focused. The short visit, at the end of practice, in maha-mudra is becoming more of a stay. I am settled again in a quality pranayama practice. I am experiencing more stability in my mind and…

  • Dancing with Allergy

    About 2 weeks ago first subtle signs of allergy appeared. It was a subtle itching sensation in the back of my throat. As the days went by the signs accumulated and gradually intensified … though for the most part subtle (in comparison to past years). The most stable aspect of my life is my daily…

  • My shoulders, socks and lowerback … doing and not-doing

    Shoulders My practice includes lying back bends with active arms. I start with my arms alongside my body and swing them “up above my head”. One of my focuses in this posture is softening and relaxing the shoulders every time my arms are placed back on the floor alongside my body. I have been working…

  • Lecture Summary of Samkhya Philosophy

    I came across this PDF which is someone’s lecture notes on Samkhya. I don’t know who wrote it, I found it here, I found it good enough to read through and store in my own archives. I am still looking for a more integrative experience of Samkhya, something less bullet-list, more whole story.

  • Asana Practice – December 2016 (Before Review)

    My current practice is: Some comments on asana: I forgot to note on the page that the practice begins with kapalabhati 20br + 30 br The repeated langhana pattern (3, 4, 16)  of midrange and micromovements was gradually introduced to introduce a sense of containment. During summer I found especially during the first part of…

  • Practice Reflection – Fall 2016

    This reflection is long overdue … but my writing motivation is still low and my ability to do so fragile … I hope I can recall some of the subtleties that appeared along the way. Relationship with Practice My allergy period this year ended somewhere around mid-July. It lasted slightly less then two months. It…

  • Yoga: Tuning & Change On and Off the Mat

    A recent conversation with Annelieke left me reflecting on the relationship between Yoga on-the-mat and  Yoga off-the-mat. How do life choices off-the-mat resonate with on-the-mat practice to form a continuous tapestry of change? I was surprised to recall a device I learned about many years ago in high-school when I was studying electronics (surprised because…

  • Yoga incorporates felt experience

    Again this reminded me of Alexander and unfoding wholeness – a process of making in which felt experience is constantly incorporated in guiding choices … and of Pirsig’s sitting on a hot stove. “Practice is action. In this, Yoga differs from – without exclding – other schools of philosophy and of belief that rely solely…

  • Relating with something higher

    These words, inside me, resonated with Alexander’s Windows to the Ground “All artists I’ve known whose works surpass anything we’ve known before invariably ascribe the source to a higher force, whether they call it God or not. The work then becomes a object for our own contact with something higher. In the course of my…

  • I can care

    “Halfway down the street I rented a large house with space for offices, individual classrooms, and one large lecture hall … Since its opening, more than twenty thousand people have come to the Mandiram … mora than twenty thousand entirely different situations – but each asks, in one form or another, “Can you help  me?”…

  • On Religion … and truth and freedom

    A few days ago I was trying to illustrate in conversation why I have a resistance towards any religious expression in MY world. While I do believe that religion had a constructive role in social evolution … and maybe it still does in some contexts … I do feel that in some parts of the…

  • Summer 2016 Allergy continued: disturbanced, sleep, tick

    After the first few days there was a drop in my sense of well-being. An initial blow came when I allowed a disturbance to take places – a visit to the city. I came back feeling tired, with a slight head-ache and agitation. The next day I was somewhat contained, I was able to get…

  • Breath and Allergy – Spring 2016

    A few days ago allergy symptoms started to appear and have been gradually increasing. A itchiness in my throat, eyes … and sometimes sneezing sequences. This morning, for the first time this season, I had to get out of bed at 5:45 to move myself into a vertical position (lying down aggravates the symptoms) and…

  • Yoga Practice Review with Paul – Spring 2016

    Following my periodic reflection I had another review with my teacher. Though my original intention was to focus on the pranayama sequence, the development of breath in asana and its relationship to pranayama called for some attention. The following changes were introduced to the asana sequence: Adding parsva uttanasana in the standing sequence. Continuing structured…

  • Yoga on the Mat Practice – Spring 2016: Continuity

    I’ve had a fairly continuous period of practice … the main interruption ironically due to my visit to Israel to study Yoga. There have been a few of minor illness / slight injury related interruptions. I’ve continued with the same practice plan. I have still not felt inclined towards exploring the alternative shoulder-stand path of…