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Used to be that when I went to the movies, I’d put stuff in my bag. When in college, it was recreational drugs or alcohol; when My Gift was little, it was treats and toys to keep My Gift, and any of her friends who might be joining us, amused. Today, The Cop and I will go see “The Kingdom.” I just snuck a tennis ball past the dog, and packed it in my bag so I can sit on it during the movie. My piriformis — I guess, actually, periformi, since it’s both sides — are killing me. I am assuming this is from kapotasana.

The Sex & the Shala girls have a post about injuries and “openings” on their Ashtanga NY blog. I have heard tell that the part of second I am doing now is famous for pain and despair. I’m trying to go a little easy, but I guess it’s inevitable that there will be some rough spots. Why is it that we persist through the pain? I’m really not sure about this. I do know that any time I had sports injuries, I made it a point to go to a sports doctor, rather than a GP, because the sports doctors explain how to work around or work through injuries, whereas “regular” doctors tell you to knock off what you are doing and look at you like you are crazy (and irresponsible) if you don’t agree to follow their advice.

Luckily, The Cop is a “work through it” kind of guy, too. He’s had various injuries related to various undertakings and knows you can’t just chuck the whole project because there’s some pain. So he hears about my problems, as do my yoga buddies. Not a word, though, to “normal” people — e.g., my family, work folks, etc. It’s just too hard to explain how the advantages of continued practice outweigh any other concerns. Within reasonable limits, of course. When I tore my rotator cuff climbing, I stopped climbing and just did rehab for a few months. I mention that so you understand how reasonable I can be.

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Everyone has to knock off the drinking and drugs. That is the new rule. I keep seeing entries from people who are feeling bad about various aspects of their lives, and generally speaking, the entries include mention of substances.

Okay, I can’t make the rules. Seriously, though, it’s something to think about. Here we are, making ourselves sensitive to bodily reality (I’ll leave out spiritual reality, because then the conversation devolves into judgments about how “good” or “enlightened” someone is, and that’s not the point here). Anyhow, here we are, practicing and growing progressively more physically sensitive, and then we ingest substances. Where do we imagine that will go? What’s the purpose? Is it to blunt sensitivity? To mask the despair that can surface when you make a project of, as the monks would say, waking up? Too much chikitsa, so we want to take a few steps back?

I know the yamas are: no killing, no lying, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, and no avarice. I’ve always kind of liked them a little more than the zen rules, because avariciousness seems like a real problem, particularly in Western culture. But there’s something to be said for the zen precepts, which are the same except for one: no killing, no lying, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, and “no intoxicants taken to induce heedlessness.” I think this precept has some interesting subtlety. It makes it clear that substances are not bad in and of themselves, and it isn’t a blanket rule against them. But it does ask people to think about WHY they use intoxicants. Yeah, I know I’m lecturing, but if you are unhappy or ungrounded and you drank or took drugs yesterday (or a few minutes or hours ago), then come on, do the math.