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Zen and the art of Yoga
Frannen has to do a journal for Yoga. Frannen did it Fran style. :D
It's rather had to meditate properly when you're constantly aware of your body.
Meditation is often about transcending the physical to get in touch with the spiritual or metaphysical. Concentrate on your breath creating rhythmic patterns that act as a mental white noise. In, out, in out; slow and steady, linked to motion as your mind and body are in sync and fall away.
In theory anyway. In practice, it's more: Breathe in, ignore muscles screaming at you to stop holding this idiotic pose and move already, breathe out. Breathe in as you move your arms up and breathe out as you pause, not sure how to split up a single solid motion into two parts. Breath in and out in a way that's faster than your body wants to breathe. Try to make a sound while you breathe when you've been trying to train yourself not to snore at night. Awareness of the body floods the mind into a discordant catastrophe of ache and awareness of blood circulation and iron levels, and the lack there of.
Where is the meditation in ignoring a screaming body? Where is the balance in trying to force your breath into patters your body refuses to even comprehend?
It's rather ironic in a fitting sort of way, the twists and bends that force the awareness inwards. In a way, we are attempting to transcend by force. Practice, practice, practice, and you can move your body into shapes that are totally man made and man envisioned. The balance of man and nature seems skewed.
But really, for most people, isn't yoga just another sport? Why else would we be practicing these exercises that are suppose to strengthen and add flexibility while sitting upon mats made from toxic materials that are environmentally destructive?
Where does this concept of awareness take you? Practicing motions, being aware of breathing and of body, but not aware at all of your actions.
Perhaps it's awareness of self that is the aim. But when self is divided from the current self, what are you truly aware of? To separate yourself from your active consciousness and to profess that there are two layers of self, the everyday self and the sublime self seems counter productive. The waves are not separate from the ocean. The waves are merely the expression of the ocean reacting to the world. It is part of the world, as the world it part of it, even though it may seem to be a separate body from the air that dances across the surface, and the moon that calls it to rise up. Similarly, we are not separate from our thoughts, nor are we separate from the things that cause them to dance upon our surface. The heart of meditation is oneness; recognizing that one is not apart. To say "These thoughts are not me; I am not these thoughts" is to deny them, and to deny responsibility for them. Those thoughts are you, and you are those thoughts in the way that everything that you produce is you, and you are everything that you produce. There is no line that you can step back across to say: "This is the me that truly is." To separate your self in such a way is to cause a divide. You may say that the self observing the expression of yourself is the true self, but the moment that you make that separation, you are creating for yourself an ideal. To say that there is a hidden self inside that is one with the Universe is to say that the expression of yourself that is your thoughts is not one wit the Universe, and is thus apart. The rock only makes your mind heavy if you are carrying it as if it were.
It's rather had to meditate properly when you're constantly aware of your body.
Meditation is often about transcending the physical to get in touch with the spiritual or metaphysical. Concentrate on your breath creating rhythmic patterns that act as a mental white noise. In, out, in out; slow and steady, linked to motion as your mind and body are in sync and fall away.
In theory anyway. In practice, it's more: Breathe in, ignore muscles screaming at you to stop holding this idiotic pose and move already, breathe out. Breathe in as you move your arms up and breathe out as you pause, not sure how to split up a single solid motion into two parts. Breath in and out in a way that's faster than your body wants to breathe. Try to make a sound while you breathe when you've been trying to train yourself not to snore at night. Awareness of the body floods the mind into a discordant catastrophe of ache and awareness of blood circulation and iron levels, and the lack there of.
Where is the meditation in ignoring a screaming body? Where is the balance in trying to force your breath into patters your body refuses to even comprehend?
It's rather ironic in a fitting sort of way, the twists and bends that force the awareness inwards. In a way, we are attempting to transcend by force. Practice, practice, practice, and you can move your body into shapes that are totally man made and man envisioned. The balance of man and nature seems skewed.
But really, for most people, isn't yoga just another sport? Why else would we be practicing these exercises that are suppose to strengthen and add flexibility while sitting upon mats made from toxic materials that are environmentally destructive?
Where does this concept of awareness take you? Practicing motions, being aware of breathing and of body, but not aware at all of your actions.
Perhaps it's awareness of self that is the aim. But when self is divided from the current self, what are you truly aware of? To separate yourself from your active consciousness and to profess that there are two layers of self, the everyday self and the sublime self seems counter productive. The waves are not separate from the ocean. The waves are merely the expression of the ocean reacting to the world. It is part of the world, as the world it part of it, even though it may seem to be a separate body from the air that dances across the surface, and the moon that calls it to rise up. Similarly, we are not separate from our thoughts, nor are we separate from the things that cause them to dance upon our surface. The heart of meditation is oneness; recognizing that one is not apart. To say "These thoughts are not me; I am not these thoughts" is to deny them, and to deny responsibility for them. Those thoughts are you, and you are those thoughts in the way that everything that you produce is you, and you are everything that you produce. There is no line that you can step back across to say: "This is the me that truly is." To separate your self in such a way is to cause a divide. You may say that the self observing the expression of yourself is the true self, but the moment that you make that separation, you are creating for yourself an ideal. To say that there is a hidden self inside that is one with the Universe is to say that the expression of yourself that is your thoughts is not one wit the Universe, and is thus apart. The rock only makes your mind heavy if you are carrying it as if it were.