studying ourselves...

"Listening to talks about the dharma, or the teachings of Buddha, or practicing meditation is nothing other than studying ourselves. Whether we’re eating or working or meditating or listening or talking, the reason that we’re here in this world at all is to study ourselves. In fact, it has been said that studying ourselves provides all the books we need.

Maybe the reason there are dharma talks and books is just to encourage us to understand this simple teaching: all the wisdom about how we cause ourselves to suffer and all the wisdom about how joyful and vast and uncomplicated our minds are—these two things, the understanding of what we might call neurosis and the wisdom of unconditioned, unbiased truth—can only be found in our own experience." [Pema Chodron: When Things Fall Apart]

hara...

"An infant gains its first healthy sense of self through the steady flow of care for its needs, receiving nutrition, loving contact, and physical stimulation. Without the reliable flow of energy in these forms directed personally to the child, mistrust, shame, and insecurity colour the child's life experiences and ability to develop autonomy and self-reliance.

"By bringing awareness to your belly center, you are facilitating greater communication between your mental, emotional, and physical needs. In developing a strong relationship with your energy center, you are establishing a home base that serves as a place of safety in an ever-changing world. Rather than being pulled in one direction in some activities and in another direction by other activities, you have the possibility of initiating all activities from the belly center, remaining in contact with your vital source of energy."

[Don Stapelton: Self-Awakening Yoga]

emotions in the body need to be invited to release...

"When you think about (or encounter) a terrifying situation, do your shoulders tense up around your ears? do you clench your jaw? does your breathing become shallow and all of your senses go on hyperalert? To this list of physiological responses to fear add the stress you might hold around speaking up for yourself or communicating your needs and you begin to get a picture of why the cervical curve holds so much tension. "Swallow my words," "bite my tongue," "running off at the mouth," "choking under pressure" - these are just a few of the ways we commonly describe the experience of a disruption in the free flow of energy through the neck and throat.

"Another first responder to stress is the low back. Physical responses to fear cause the belly to constrict, shifting the center of gravity high into the thoracic cavity to mobilize the organism for rapid flight. The fight or flight reaction to stress is biologically instinctual. In many dangerous situations we do not have to think about how to protect ourselves; the instinctual wisdom of the organism takes over. Yet in circumstances where a person has experienced repeated threats or brutal physical, sexual, or psychological traumas, that instinct for self-protection can become suppressed to the extent that immobilization becomes habitual even in the most life-threatening circumstances. While we are instinctively programmed to mobilize our defenses in response to acute stress, there is no equivalent relaxation response in the human body; your organism does not necessarily quit protecting itself after a danger has passed. In fact, relaxation is a learned response; muscles do not know when they no longer need to protect. It requires awareness to consciously release tension after the body has been quickened by a threat of imminent danger. Without recovering our awareness of the instinctual fight or flight mechanism and without conscious assessment of the accuracy of our preceptions of danger, the body holds on to unnecessary tension."

[Don Stapelton: Self-Awakening Yoga]

attuning to the pulse of being...

"Many different kinds of pulses occur simultaneously in the body. The most obvious one is the flow of the breath in and the flow of the breath out. That is a pulse. Another pulse is the rhythm of the heartbeat. Pulses convey the movements of digestion and peristalsis and the undulating movement of our intestines. Every sense organ has its unique means of excitation, the stimulus getting transmitted to the brain in impulses. The speed of our brain's activities create the rhythm of our thoughts and thinking. Alpha, beta, delta, and theta - these terms refer to the frequency of chemical and electromagnetic waves emitted by the brain in various states of awareness. The waves of our moods, emotions, and feelings - these are body rhythms made up of more pulses.

"Many Oriental forms of medicine are based upon pulses associated with the energetic processes in the body, but you do not need to know the details of the meridians or to be versed in a specific tradition to begin to enhance your bodily functions by attuning to your pulses. In fact, the discovery of the ancient healing modalities associated with acupuncture, auyurveda, shiatsu, and yoga emerged from this inquiry... how does the sense of inner wholeness arise from noticing polarities in experience?

"All shamanic and energetic systems of natural healing have come from practitioners who were fascinated with the miraculous pulse of their own beings. By following an inquiry into the pulse of being, early yogis entered deep states of awareness that allowed them to penetrate the subtler dimensions of their own physiology. As you go deeper into the meditative state, you will discover that your ability to know yourself at every level is limitless."
[Don Stapelton: Self-Awakening Yoga]

Microscopic algae arranged on microscope slides from the California Academy of Sciences Diatom Collection 1950s.

role of proprioception in mastectomy recovery...

i've been developing my own rhyme and reason when it comes to physio post-mastectomy. the first thing i was drawn to do got its inspiration from something i heard about courtesy dr. stephen sinatra, the famed cardiologist and gestalt therapist, who discussed the physical relationship between the arms and the heart, for they share a common ancestor at the level of embryologic tissue... in particular he suggested that the reason orchestra conductors feature at the top of many longevity lists is that they routinely make big, expressive, arcing movements with the arms which tonify the heart and express emotion. there's also a relationship between the body language of the arms and well-being... for its with the arms that we reach out, that we bring another in close for an embrace, or keep people away with self-protective crossing of arms or stay-away gesturing. we also use the arms and hands as expressive point and counterpoint to the things we say, so they seem an intuitive instrument of personal EQ potential.

as soon as i came to after surgery i felt the need to start moving my arms in circles... small, big and in between. obviously my range of moment was compromised on the affected side, but this has been short-lived... before the first month anniversary i had full range of movement back, albeit with sensation and some tightness.

over time i've found that working in open space, even with mirrors available, was really not giving me all that i needed in terms of feedback. i found my best experience on the ground. getting down onto my mat and assuming a neutral SI joint position on my back with feet on the ground just a short distance from the gluteus. turning my hands to face up so that the back of the hands could skirt along the floor i would begin with arms down by my side and slowly move them out and up to come to rest overhead as you would when making snow angels, but without letting the back of the hands, especially on the affected side, leave contact with the ground. this allowed me to see instantly where i was having difficultly and where i needed to slow down even more and wait for the tissues to softly open and resume their natural arc and movement potentials. gravity also was able to play a part when this opening could not be accomplished fully. simply lying there with arms outstretched as they were able, even when not at first in contact with the ground, was enormously satisfying as gravity is slow and gentle and persistent. now that i have more freedom of movement and the effect of gravity is less, i ask for a partner to put gentle pressure on the balls of my shoulders with their hands, pressing down and then slightly upward, in order to more effectively open the fascia across the collarbones and chest.

getting feedback from a fixed surface has become something i really love and find nourishing in a way i never thought i would. i've even started doing some asana work on the bare floor, really letting myself  sink down to the hard welcome beneath me as a tool of awareness. where i find pain, i wait for it to soften and soften more.

self-awakening yoga...

"Self-Awakening Yoga (SAY) helps to develop discriminative wisdom by introducing yoga-movement inquiries that originate from internal sensory conversations. All systems of hatha yoga begin with attention to the body through the physical practices of postures and pranayama, but most do not provide transitional steps for turning to the wisdom of prana for entering into our creative, evolutionary capacities, which lie beyond the form of a rote practice. It is helpful to leave a few minutes at the end of a yoga practice to allow your body to be moved by prana, as a way to receive the benefits of the practice at a deeper level of self. But merely providing the time is not sufficient for bridging the modes of practice. I have repeatedly observed that yoga practitioners who are comfortable and familiar within a structured sequence of practices have a difficult time when asked to enter into a spontaneous flow of movement guided by inner promptings. Oftentimes the response is to simply repeat the same familiar routine.

The inquiries of SAY offer an experiential bridge designed to guide the practitioner through the developmental stages that are encoded within the body's memory from birth. While inquiring into the body's primal movement patterning and focusing awareness on the inherent sensations that arise in moving, the practitioner has the opportunity to access the flow of prana that animates the body.

SAY is based on the intention of opening channels of communication between the mind and body for the purpose of learning what the body has to teach us about the workings of prana, and to ultimately turn to the wisdom of prana as our trusted friend and inner guide."


from Self-Awakening Yoga by Don Stapleton

yoga techniques in buddhism...

"The Yogacara school, which flourished after the fifth century, reaffirms the necessity for the yogic experience; to destroy the phenomenal (i.e. the "profane") world and regain the unconditioned, it is easier to "withdraw to the center of oneself" through meditation and ecstasy than to undertake to annihilate the world through analysis." [Mircea Eliade]

thought of day...

I don't need any condition, food or drink to be at peace and comfortable. I only need to be completely in my body, to move, to breathe, to make sound and be touch.

Reacting With Anger

"When someone insults us, we usually dwell on it, asking ourselves, ‘Why did he say that to me?’ and on and on. It’s as if someone shoots an arrow at us, but it falls short. Focusing on the problem is like picking up the arrow and repeatedly stabbing ourselves with it, saying, ‘He hurt me so much. I can’t believe he did that.’ Instead, we can use the method of contemplation to think things through differently, to change our habit of reacting with anger. Imagine that someone insults you. Say to yourself, ‘This person makes me angry. But what is this anger?’ It is one of the poisons of the mind that creates negative karma, leading to intense suffering. Meeting anger with anger is like following a lunatic who jumps off a cliff. Do I have to go likewise? While it’s crazy for him to act the way he does, it’s even crazier for me to do the same."

Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche

The Utterly Visionary Quality Of Love ~ Chögyam Trungpa

http://bit.ly/1d7RqTl

Love is very noble, elegant, beautiful, resourceful and utterly visionary. Being utterly visionary has a touch of humor and a lot of fearlessness. It is the foundation of mahayana. You are willing to jump in, and you are entirely free from panic. You have long-lasting vision and effort. Bodhisattvas, mahayana practitioners committed to helping others, are known as warriors because they are visionary. They are not confused, and they do not shy away from others.

Chögyam Trungpa

from the book "The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion: The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma, Volume Two"

http://amzn.to/1eI8S41

source: http://bit.ly/1d7RqTo

on how to deal with difficult people...

Here is Rinpoche's response for dealing with difficult people:

"Do not think about things like that. There is no benefit in grasping and thinking about it. You have to let it go. Everything follows the law of karma naturally, there is nothing we can change about it by thinking about it much. If your family members treat you bad in this life, it is the result or karmic creditor of your own past actions. We are responsible for our own karma, we ourselves have created the causes for all our experiences. Enemies, obstructors, mischievous relatives, etc. are only conditions but not the cause. Moreover, the past is gone, it doesn't exist any longer, we cannot change the past, we have to let it go, so do not think about this. What is more important is that which is actually in your hands, the future. Thus you should rather give rise to love and compassion in order to ensure a happy future. If you think about others' faults you will only get angry and resentful. Think about their qualities and stop thinking about their faults, then love will arise. If you can't stop the thoughts, think of Tara and recite her mantra. The Buddha said, "Perfectly tame your own mind, this is the Buddha's teaching." The Buddha did not say, "Perfectly tame someone else's mind." You have to purify your own mind. If you cling to these thoughts of resentment and frustration again and again, you form a habit, and this habit will manifest before you in the Bardo in the form of a delusive perception which is the projection of your own mind, just like a TV show. This is what creates hell, it is the projections of one's own anger and resentment. Let go of it and make an effort to cultivate love. The only thing you should hold on to is love. Then you have no fear when you die, you will be born in the higher realms and slowly attain enlightenment. So do not worry about the faults of others, rather purify your own faults."

From Garchen Rinpoche