Welcome to Yoga Talk, a page that is a favorite of Namasté Yoga Sanctuary owner, Derek Rinaldo. As well as the current writings and musings of Derek and other yogi writers, in the future we will archive (what will become) past articles and essays, provide links to resources, tell you about books, cd's, dvd's, yoga products and practice techniques that will support you in discovering your deepest practice, your deepest self.
Inspiration In Silence
Remember that there is nothing separating you from the Divine or your innate Self-realization. At the core of all your conditioning you are already enlightened. Take time to dive deep to the roots of your conscious experience so that you may loosen your identification with your ego sense, and re-identify with your eternal pure conscious nature. Once fully identified with your changeless eternal Self, the waves of experience can come and go; yet you will remain in your natural state of awareness.
Mind goes on changing. This is its nature. Just a moment before you had one mind, a moment afterwards you have another mind. Just a few minutes before you were angry, and now you are laughing. Just a moment before you were happy, and now you are sad. Modifications, changes, and continuous waves up and down; like a yo-yo you go on. But something in you is eternal: that which goes on witnessing the play, the game. The witnesser is the Lord. You can use other words for it if you want… higher self, transcendent awareness, jivananda. The point being, if you start witnessing, by and by, you will come closer and closer to your untainted essence, pure consciousness, realizing that we do not possess consciousness, but that we are consciousness.
Adopt techniques that will still your mind and emotions. Mauna, the practice of silence, is one technique that helps us settle into that place of witnessing. It can be difficult to be silent in spoken words. Through the practice of mauna, we begin to watch ourselves hold back our words; we have to try to do this, at first. We are conditioned to talk, to be engaged in what’s happening around us, part of the show. It is almost reflexive to say, “Excuse me” or “Sorry” when we brush against someone, or to say “Fine thanks” when someone asks, “How are you?” When we start watching the words we use, or better yet, don’t use, we start noticing more the thoughts that generated them. We start witnessing ourselves from a deeper place. Eventually, we find that the thoughts that generated words lose momentum. Mind is like a stream. It flows on and on from its own momentum. When we stop giving our thoughts momentum because we are just watching them, the stream slowly comes to a trickle.
Start witnessing objects. You see a tree. You see the tree, but you are not aware that you are seeing it; then you are not a witness. You see the tree, and at the same time you see that you are seeing; then you are a witness. Consciousness has to become double arrowed: one arrow going to the tree, another arrow going to your subjectivity.
It is difficult, because when you become aware of yourself you forget the tree, and when you become aware of the tree you forget yourself. But by and by, one learns to balance, just as one learns to balance on a tightrope. Difficult in the beginning, dangerous, risky, but by and by, one learns the balance. Just go on trying. Wherever you have an opportunity to be a witness, don’t miss it, because there is nothing more valuable than witnessing. Doing an act: walking or eating or taking a bath, become a witness also. Let the shower fall on you, but inside you remain alert and see what is happening - the coolness of the water, the tingling sensation over the body, a certain silence surrounding you, a certain well-being arising in you - but go on becoming a witness. You are feeling happy; just feeling happy is not enough - be a witness. Just go on watching - "I’m feeling happy” is not as accurate as “Happiness is here”. I’m feeling sad…sadness is here. I’m feeling hungry… hunger is here" - go on watching. By and by, you will see that happiness is separate from you, unhappiness also. All that you can witness is separate from you. This is the method of viveka, discrimination. All that is separate from you can be witnessed, and all that can be witnessed is separate from you. You cannot witness the witnesser; it is like the eyeball trying to see itself. You cannot go behind the Lord; you are the Lord. You are the ultimate core of existence.
Mauna… yes, of course, it’s easy to not speak when you are alone. But are you silent? Are you a witness? Try not speaking for a whole day when you are around people. It has to be realistic that you do not speak, though, a time when you are not required to communicate through words. Sometimes people use a pad to write their words when practicing mauna. In the beginning of one’s practice of mauna, it is okay to communicate through gestures, expressions, etc. This is good beginning practice. Afterward, sometime try to not communicate with others at all, not even through eye contact, just cultivating your witness as the ego moves about its world out there. Another practice of mauna, especially challenging, is to allow yourself only 10 words through the whole day. What will they be? Eventually, you will say words as they become necessary, but you will not be breaking your silence. You will speak from a place of deep knowing. Through silence, we begin to see how we needlessly use words, and we begin to see people not through the words or gestures they use, but as the beings they are behind their words and gestures, the same as you.
This article is written by Derek Rinaldo.
If you would like to submit your article to be considered
for publication in upcoming issues of YogaTalk, send to submit_article@namasteyogasanctuary.com.
And from a student...
Teacher,
from outstretched toes and planted heels on wooden floorboards
to the crown of your graced head
i observe you,
watching every muscle, sinew tendon, bone
seeing past these
the river of your red blood coursing, connecting your sum total.
Your head is turned from me, but
i can see your inner gaze fixed on Unknown Point
from which All issues forth, to which All is returning.
You stretch arms and hands to do willing Grace.
By this, you transform to Warrior before my open eyes
and become that arrow of which you passionately spoke
Truly Aimed, Truly Spent,
now capsuled in form for my absorption.
You stand poised, light as dandelion seed
between the aiming and the spending
suspended mid-flight, mission formed
enacted and accomplished
all in one effortless breath.
Your body freezes and flows time simultaneously
making a sweet joke of my entire library of books,
dawn philosophies, striving thought, burning desire, constant effort.
Wordless, so you teach me:
In Surrender, we are Abled.
~Sherry
Smilasana, a Mirror Meditation
Every moment of every day we are in a posture. Take a look at yours right now. Is it opening or closing you? The more we stay in any particular position physically, the more we are going to begin to feel that way and to think that way. The other day, standing in line at the bank, I caught myself kind of slouched in my back and shoulders, hip cocked off onto one leg. I was tired, and pre-occupied with some worrisome stuff. “Whoa, straighten up, man…” I did. Almost immediately my mood changed to my more natural feelings of confidence, integrity, and purpose, my inconspicuous tadasana, mountain pose.
Here is a different sort of meditation technique to try. You’ll need a mirror. Find a place to be alone, quiet and undisturbed for about 15 minutes. Maybe it’s the bathroom. Sit in such a way that you won’t have to move around much for about ten minutes. Look at your expression. Examine your face, your lines, the colors of your cornea… the pores on your nose. Notice tensions held in your face. Make crazy faces at yourself for a few minutes, and then be still. Lock into your own eyes. Watch your mind’s tendency to run off into some analysis or judgment. And then smile. Keep smiling, and mean it. Hold it… hold it… even if you have to fake it… hold it… seven, eight minutes… your mind will tell you it’s stupid, but don’t listen… hold it. Just a minute or two won’t do… hold it longer. “Smileasana”. Do this for ten minutes. Yeah, I said “ten minutes!”
During this mirror meditation, catch yourself in dialogue with… whom? We are fragmented into many. You will see just how many when you practice this mirror meditation. Don’t try to quiet the voices of the many, for that is just an added voice. Just listen, and smile. After some practice, and I mean real practice, not just a fancy for the day, these voices will begin to slow down. Our mind flows along the way it does because we have trained it so well to move, to attach perceptions to mental impressions. We give it momentum through continued attachment, lifetimes, and if we stop giving it momentum, it will gradually slow to a trickling stream. You don’t need to do any mantra to calm the mind, Hari Aum, Ram Ram Ram. Patanjali says to just watch, just be the witness. Mantra is just another attachment. The fluctuations of your mind will come to rest if you just watch. Absorption is your natural state of awareness.
After ten minutes… okay, smileasana is strenuous, so at first, just try it for seven minutes… lay in savasana or sit quietly with your eyes closed for a few minutes. This is important. Watch your mind’s tendency to sabotage your return to stillness.
I guarantee you will notice a shift in your mood and your mind, especially if you start out feeling a bit dumpy. A sort of psycho-soma feedback loop is activated. Your emotions change your body and vice-versa. The neurological structure of a smiling face is incompatible with depressive mental states. Don’t take my word for it. You have to find out for yourself. Experiment on yourself heartily. Practice this “mirror meditation” once or twice a day for two weeks and see what happens. See how your self-image changes to be more loving and accepting. Notice how your features can soften as your perceptions soften, and vice-versa.
Okay, now, in the same way… What would happen if you built up to stay in saravangasana, shoulder stand, for seven or eight minutes a day for three weeks? Or 30 minutes a day for six-months? What mood and mental state does relaxing into a prolonged warrior posture activate? And to think, every moment of your life you are in a posture of some sort. What have you created from a lifetime of your unique physical, energetic, mental, emotional, and spiritual holding? And what would you become from a real practice of releasing all of that? What if you could disengage your emotional and mental tension from your physical body? Of course, all aspects of your self are interconnected. A shift in one shifts the others. The moods of apathy, discouragement, and ill-confidence are not compatible with the structural configuration of a prolonged warrior posture, steady and comfortable. Try to feel scatter-brained after focusing in a practice of vrkasna, the tree pose, for 5 minutes on each leg. Your mind will become a steel-trap after a few months of this.
When your pranic body is freed from the physical body it can flow freely throughout your being in its own natural state of innate wisdom to open and purify, heal and tone, and empower your entire being. The practice of yoga is ultimately about cultivating a being attuned with one’s natural resonance in the universe, in which we hold a unique configuration of gifts and expressions of beauty and love. What would happen if “smilasana” sunk in to the rest of your being to become your permanent natural expression?
This article is written by the smiling Derek Rinaldo.
