...as mentioned a little while ago, I’m doing this anusara-inspired Align & Flow training*...in which I'm learning all about, among other things, principles of alignment...
...like, for instance, the way the skull loop interacts with the shoulder loop...(anusara lingo)...the latter beginning all the way at the upper palate, and including the neck....human anatomy, it turns out, is quite distinct from that of the bobble head doll...
...twenty years ago, in Boulder*******, long before I even thought about getting into yoga*********...(and, anyway, at that point far more interested in attaining higher consciousness by other means***********)...went to a meditation class with a visiting Zen master at Naropa, and somebody asked him about posture....he said something like it’s important to keep the head on top of the neck, and people laughed...but, I’ve since learned, he was actually describing something profound and difficult...particularly for those of us who’ve spent most of our lives walking around with a Charlie Brown droop in the neck*************...
*just as, it turns out, controversy erupts in and around the anusara yoga world**...
** when, already, certain yoga friends were warning me not to drink the kula-aid or lookin' at me like I said I was joining the Westboro Baptist Church, or something...which I don’t fully understand, nor, to be honest, care all that much about***...at this point, I’m learning lotsa valuable stuff, from people I like and for whom I have nothing but praise****...
*** and, yes, that was the official statement of this blog, its management, writing staff, shareholders, legal representatives, clowns, concubines, and corporate affiliates...
**** and not that creepy, semi-lobotomized dogma-reciting too-far-gone-to-see-the-contradictions “my guru tells me to think for myself” kinda praise, either*****...
***** as long-time readers know, I get creeped out by that kinda stuff far more easily than most yogis******...
****** so, trust me, when somebody offers me the profound honor of licking the holy perspiration off John Friend’s feet, I’ll head for the door...but, at this point, it seems highly unlikely anything like that's gonna happen...
******* right, that Boulder, home to Elephant Journal and all those self-important yoga hippies...though I was there when it was cool********...
******** not that there’s anything wrong with being a self-important yoga hippie, or anything...namaste, Boulder brothers and sisters...
********* and, thus, blissfully unaware of the all-important high-falutin' conflicts & controversies of the yoga world**********...
********** a state of innocence to which I’d quite happily return....I mean, seriously, I work part-time at this residential rehab for women, y'know, tutoring in reading and writing, and, sometimes, clients like to kind of rant to me about their frustrations...they say they feel they can talk to me precisely because I'm not a therapist...which is cool...some weeks ago, though, I got a bit irritated with one client who kept ragging on the other women there...I said something like come on...you're supposed to be here helping one another through your recovery and all you do is snipe at each other...I think it kinda applies...
*********** a state of experience best, I think, left behind************...
************ notably also preceding my lengthy academic period, when I learned the value of foot-notes, about which readers can make their own judgments...
************* also explored in a notable Arrested Development episode**************...
************** unrelated to which, but I wanted to mention it somewhere, the title of this post was originally a good deal longer, like a classic Tom Jones-ish 19th century-type chapter title, but it turns out there's a limit to how many characters can be in a blog title...thanks for squelchin' my creativity, Blogger...
5 comments:
I promise...no, swear...to never lick the sweat off your feet.
And we never have to mention this again.
:D
How much kula-aid have you had today Dr.? How ever much it is I like it.
In my humble yogic opinion, some of the gurus have forgotten the self is the guru.
Does one's posture determine one's mood, or one's mood one's posture? I tend to think it's a two way street.
What? There is a character limit on blog titles? Those administrators simply have no character to squelch your creativity that way.
Your use of footnotes is unique in all the writing/blogging world and my brain is hooked on them.
This whole business of posture turns out to be pretty darned important. I am unlearning some bad habits myself and it does not come easily.
(Your comment at my Proust post was just so perfect; hilarious.)
I love the extensive footnoting. My Anusara experiences have been limited (ie one class one time on vacation) but the whole controversy piques my interest. That probably has more to do with the fact that my rebellious streak has deepened instead of mellowed with age than with Anusara or John Friend himself.
I remember that Arrested Development episode! How could that show get cancelled and shite like Jersey Shore seems to last forever?
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