week 6
Day 36!
“From an engineer’s perspective, the owl’s silent flight shouldn’t be possible,” says William Devenport, a professor of aerospace and ocean engineering at Virginia Tech. “Because, if you look at the owl wing, it’s covered in edges, and each of those edges should radiate noise.
Day 37!
ZOOM LINK Class 7am Vancouver Time
“The old people came literally to love the soil, and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power. Their teepees were built upon the earth and their altars were made of earth. The soul was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing. That is why the old Indian still sits upon the earth instead of propping himself up and away from its life giving forces. For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly. He can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him. He loved the earth and all things of the earth.. He knew that man’s heart away from nature becomes hard, he knew the lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to the lack of respect for humans too.”
~Chief Luther Standing Bear
Day 38!
A Great Yogi
In my travels I spent time with a great yogi.
Once he said to me.
"Become so still you hear the blood flowing
through your veins."
One night as I sat in quiet,
I seemed on the verge of entering a world inside so vast
I know it is the source of
all of
us.
- Mirabai
Day 39!
ZOOM LINK Class 10am Vancouver Time
"When the mind and body are weak, you don't have the capacity to avoid bad habits. Cravings and desires will bother you. Never suppress any desire. Instead, develop a better desire. Then you won't have time to respond to the original one.
Don't force yourself to get rid of a bad habit. Forcing yourself is something like beating the darkness with sticks. You can walk into a totally dark room with some friends and begin beating the darkness with sticks shouting at it to leave. Hundreds of people can beat the darkness for hours and it will still remain.
The sensible person will just light a candle and bring it into the room. Yoga is that candle. Bring it into your life and all your unwanted habits will leave. You need not bother yourself about them. When the mind and body are strong they will just drop away."
-Swami Satchidananda
Day 40!
ZOOM LINK Last Class at 7am with Ryan :)
The Amrtasiddhi (11th century Tibetan Buddhist Hatha Yoga Text)
Chapter 14, The Inquiry into the Practice
(1) He who has obtained this knowledge has obtained a wish-fulfilling jewel, has received a pot of goodness, a tree of plenty, a great treasure.
(2) This secret triad of fundamental principles, the most important essence of the three worlds, does not bear fruit for men who are not devoted to practice.
(3) In the same way that a treasure does not bear fruit for those who are not inclined to use it, so this [triad of] fundamental principle[s] will definitely not bear fruit for those who do not practice.
(4) Having realised this, heroic men should practice regularly. Yoga results from regular practice [and] as a result of yoga everything is accomplished.
(8) By means of this practice Breath is trained. As a result of the of Breath, the bodily Fire increases every day.
15) Having obtained a guru as helmsman and made a boat out of the body, men who cling to the oar of practice cross the ocean of existence.
(16) Even if the gods themselves were to teach [this] wisdom again and again, [it is only] through practice that yoga manifests for yogis.
(17) All the bad deeds done in thousands of lives are burnt up in this very life by means of the practice, like straws by fire.
(18) The stated [rewards of] austerities, sacrifices, donations and observances arise a hundred billion times over through the practice.
(19) The various Prakstis, Gunas, Dosas and diseases in the body are destroyed by means of the practice, like clouds in the sky by the wind.