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I’ve gone to a few Mysore practices over the past couple of weeks. Heard from Sanskrit Scholar a few weeks back that Starbucks of Yoga was starting up a Mysore program again. According to the grapevine, the proprietor had an Ashtanga awakening and is interested in pursuing the SKPJ way.

So why am I going? Well, to see what it’s like to practice with people again. To have a teacher help me out with some adjustments. Just because I can. It’s been nice, too. The Mysore room is manned by two teachers who alternate days: Muscle Man, who is Volleyball Guy’s son, and The Archangel.

I’ve really been enjoying having two teachers. Neither of them is overly “teachy” — so there’s no conflict; in fact, they seem to complement each other quite nicely. I’ve just been going in, setting up my mat, and setting off. This morning Muscle Man made a comment about having to take a long walk to get to my mat, since I was off a ways from the others. Ha! I figured my reintroduction to practice in the company of other humans was best taken gradually.

And about those other humans. I think there were five of us today. The most I’ve seen is around 7-8. I think almost all are pretty new to Ashtanga. Which begs the question: where are the veteran Ashtangis? Surely there are ongoing practitioners in the Phoenix area, Ashtangis who get up and practice every morning. They must be out there. Mustn’t they?

I am loving going to the shala, but I am also going to avoid getting too attached. What if the handful of people who are practicing at the shala decide it’s better to sleep in and skip the practice? What about the owner? If he loses interest, is the Mysore program over?

Whatever.

For the time being, there is an opportunity to practice with a couple of young, enthusiastic teachers. So I’ll make the most of it.

***

From Book 4:

Sequence corresponds to a series of moments perceivable at the end of a process of transformation.

Yoga: Discipline of Freedom

Morning. Tyler is learning to hang out in his playpen during practice time. The playpen is wedged into the doorway of the yoga room so I can pull it across and close off the room when I’m not in it — which is necessary because nothing says DOG TOY like pretty much any yoga prop.

After work. Tyler climbs into my lap.

Before dinner. Waiting… Waiting…

I have too many books. The Cop will verify. Tyler will chime in, too — though he mostly likes them because they are tasty and fun to chew.

Every so often, I look at my bookshelves and am amazed at something I find there. I worked in independent bookstores in Boston, New York, and Mountain View for 10 years — and I collected some exceptional books. One of which I rediscovered yesterday: The Future of the Body.

Esalen cofounder Murphy has produced a massive tome that could become a bible of the New Age movement. His main thesis is that each of us harbors latent metanormal capacities rooted in biological evolution: ESP, clairvoyance, extraordinary movement abilities, uncanny somatic awareness and self-regulation, superabundant vitality and universal love, among others. Our genetic inheritance, he argues, predisposes us toward developing these powers, which can be mediated by Christian grace, the Tao or the workings of Buddha Mind, and also can be developed through specific practices. These include psychotherapy, fitness training, martial arts, meditation, biofeedback and prayer. Murphy’s claims for extraordinary human potential are annotated with references to 3000 sources, ranging from physiological studies of meditators to reports of near-death experiences. In closing he scans the impulse toward wholeness in ancient and modern cultures and warns of the mental imbalance that misuse of transformation discipline can cause.

I love that along with Christian grace, the Tao or the workings of Buddha Mind, he suggests that latent metanormal capacities can be developed through practices like psychotherapy, fitness training, and martial arts. I would also, definitely, throw rock climbing in there.

I am a firm believer that it isn’t WHAT you practice so much as THAT you practice. Your body can learn as quickly and clearly as your mind. This comes as no surprise, of course, to the naturally athletic, the Bodily-Kinesthetic among us. But for those of us who are “brains in a jar” (i.e., hyper-identified with our minds), it’s a big deal. I mean, look at me: psychoanalyzed, fitness-trained, taekwondoing, rock climbing gal. STILL I go around thinking my MIND is where it’s at — that all of the magic happens inside my jar.

You know, this is all just a conspiracy of that mind.

But I know better.

***

Any fits that get thrown or opinions that get heated about Esalen, Michael Murphy, the terms “New Age,” “metanormal capacities,” ESP, clairvoyance, extraordinary movement abilities, uncanny somatic awareness, universal love, human potential, or near-death experiences will be made fun of. By me. Consider yourself warned.

The Cop and I took our coffee and laptops to the garage to conduct a puppy test. Tyler, confined to his doggie playpen, barks inconsolably. And by inconsolably, I mean until steam comes out of your ears and you want to tape his mouth shut.

Anyhow, we wanted to see if he settled down when we were out of the house. It’s pretty clear he totally freaks if confined when he can hear or see us. And, as The Cop predicted, he did in fact relax once he understood we were out of the house. Good to know.

That said, I am going to put him in his playpen and do a little stretching this morning. He has to learn to be amused on his own for at least the time it takes me to practice in the morning. I imagine this morning’s practice will be accompanied by howls and drama. Luckily, I intend to keep practice short and sweet.

***

From Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness, Shunryu Suzuki:

It may take time before you can accept the teaching completely. The most important factor is you yourself, rather than your teacher. When you study hard, what you receive from your teacher is the spirit of study. That spirit will be transmitted from warm hand to warm hand. You should do it! That’s all. There is nothing to transmit to you.

To practice is not to collect things and put them in your basket, but rather to find something in your sleeve. It’s just that before you study hard, you don’t know what you have in your sleeve.

Great fun, the Ashtanga Mix class. Two hours of just messing around with a bunch of poses. Muscle Man (VBG’s son) taught the class, and it’s clear he thought the sequence through — the two hours flew by.

A short list of poses I recognized include:
- Marichyasana E
- Vasisthasana
- Vishwamitrasana
- Bakasana
- Supta Trivikrmasana
- Dighasana
- Trivikrmasana
- Nata Rajasana
- Salabasana
- Bhekasana
- Dhanurasana
- Ustrasana
- Bharadvajasana
- Ardha Matsyendrasana
- Gomukhasana
- and a bunch of weird stuff I’ve never seen before

We did a bunch from primary, too — including bhujapidasana, kurmasana, supta kurmasana and garbha pindasana.

And a lot of other stuff I can’t even begin to recall.

A very entertaining class. Smorgasbord classes really amuse me. Well, provided the poses are entertaining. I suppose you could look at a vinyasa flow class as a smorgasbord of poses — but they’re always the same old not-terribly-challenging poses.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

***

The Cop is watching a documentary about mountain biking, with lots of footage of guys missing their lines and hanging their bikes up in trees, or missing jumps across cliffs, etc.

He is mountain biking in earnest these days. Managed to break the bike-before-the-current-one by hitting a rock face. Following the rock face crash, he took an old bike out for a ride in the mountains of Flagstaff when we were up there for a visit. Called to say he’d had a good ride, but thought his forearm might be broken (turns out it was just a deep bruise). So anyhow, yeah. I’m saving up for a rescue helicopter and flying lessons.

***

Oh, just remembered. We did hanumanasana and samakonasana this morning in mix class. The famous West Coast add-on. VBG taught me to include the poses in my standing practice, but after a while I knocked it off — back when I stripped out all “extras” because I realized how much work I had to do on primary.

Interestingly, I found that when I didn’t do hanumanasana every day, it actually got better. I’d go to VBG’s weekly led class and do my one hanumanasana per week and was amazed to find that it was better and better, week after week. Any time I decided to work on it and added it back into my daily routine, it got worse.

The point is, I haven’t been doing hanumansana for months, nor has VBG been offering a led class, so it’s just off my radar entirely. So it was nice to do it today and find that it was shockingly easy to just sink into the full pose, and felt delightful to throw a backbend into it. I imagine the ease is because of all of the backbending work I’m doing, which is (according to today’s hanumanasana) opening my hip flexors.

At the end of the session, Muscle Man gave us some unstructured fun time — for inversions or whatever. And he offered to do dropbacks if anyone wanted. Why was I the only volunteer?? It’s kind of funny, I see assisted dropbacks as THE most valuable things I can “get” out of a class. What I didn’t bank on, though, was the way Muscle Man let me hit the mat on my own. He just made sure I didn’t crater. I think I looked shocked after the first one.

“If I let you go, you have… uh, a little fear. And it’ll remind you to keep your arms straight and push,” he explained. (Yes, explained AFTER the first one.)

Okay, though — I buy his rationale on this.

The Cop took some days off for puppy paternity leave. Hence my ability to go to the mix class. Next week, The Cop’ll be sleeping during class time — as he does after night shifts on Fridays. I need to teach the puppy to be quiet in his crate so I can go back to class again…

Crate training. Our current project.

Can I blog? Not so much. He jumps on the keyboard, he lunges at my chair, he grabs the leg of my pants and tries to run off with me.

Tyler is adorable and ALWAYS up to something. Something that includes chewing.

***

I want this suit. A lot.

***

Going to go check out an “Ashtanga mix” class this morning. A mix of poses from different series. Music. Laughter. The hilarity of defeat (one assumes). The British Director and Sanskrit Scholar will be there, too. Ought to be fun.

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You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you’re a dreamer, but you’re not the only one.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

It’s not often that I get really excited about web technology. But now is one of those times. Check out searchme.com — go ahead, type in something like “ashtanga” or “wrestling singlet” or… well, anything you’re interested in.

Cool, huh???

I’m going to need a new category for this one.

Okay, I am working on a course on international remuneration — scouring it for unconscious Americanisms and biases, and also any parochial or naive underlying attitudes.

Gah! My head!

***

Let’s take a break and look at the new puppy’s genealogy. Newsflash: We are picking him up on Sunday. The Cop moved the day back a day because he is so excited. And as an additional newsflash, I will announce his name: Tyler.

Anyhow, here’s both sides of the family.

Tyler’s paternal grandpa, Boyd’s Hobo:

Tyler’s paternal grandma, Boyd’s Graza:

And Tyler’s dad, Souza’s Boyd Toy — aka, Jake:

Tyler’s maternal grandpa, Souza’s Koa:

Tyler’s maternal grandma, Souza’s Matias’ Desert Diva — aka, Trevie:

And Tyler’s mom, Souza’s Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong — aka, Mia:

Wow. That’s a whole universe of bulldog to produce this little fellow.