Meditation community, Canine community, Ashtanga community
Posted in ashtanga yoga, dog!, insight meditation, Uncategorized on 05/10/2009 11:12 am by karenTan Dtoon on YouTube. I discovered this via the Dharma Overground, a community for meditation practitioners.
A delightful look at the busy nature of the mind:
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And an interesting (and familiar!) description of some “physical” effects of meditation:
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God, I grin like an idiot the whole time I watch these! You can find more of Tan Dtoon on the dhammatube playlist on YouTube.
The playlist is described as “…the sometimes raw inside of the world of meditation practice. Many clips are autobiographical experiences with meditation, meditation techniques or meditation teachers, some take stands on controversial points. While some of the people interviewed are well-known teachers, many are unknown publicly.”
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I walked into the livingroom this morning, took one look at this and spun around to get my camera. The first picture was to make sure I captured the moment. The second was a close-up of Waylon and his underbite.
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Practice was super good today. Starting later in the morning, the warm hot weather here in the desert, and a pre-practice walk with Waylon, ’cause he was full of puppy zoomies, all contributed to a very relaxed and warmed up body. Is it nicer to do backbends when I’m warm? Um, yeah. I’m still struggling to open hip flexors and shoulders, but there’s progress and I can’t complain. Sitting meditation afterwards is all about energy prickles moving around in surges. So basically, practice is about making energy sensations and then sitting down to note them.
05/10/2009 at 11:50 am
What about the Ashtanga community? Or have I missed that?
05/10/2009 at 11:59 am
LOL! Okay, what I meant to say about the Ashtanga community is that I am pleased with the spirit of playfulness in our community. The cold dropback challenge was amusing, but the really cool part was how game everyone was. I know I’ve said it before, but the cybershala really is a pretty special bunch of people.
05/10/2009 at 12:32 pm
You mean it’s not usual to have a bunch of people spontaneously populate the web with videos of crazy stunts?!?
05/10/2009 at 12:35 pm
Wow. What a wonderful human! I like this little guy!
I have been thinking how it is possible that a person could have the same attitude toward/ relationship with a sitting meditation practice as she does ashtanga practice. For better and for worse.
Some people might say that in the long run sitting has a better built-in BS-detector than asana, so the relationship would become better (“more skillful”) over time. I’m not sure though.
05/10/2009 at 12:49 pm
I have no idea whether sitting and asana are the same or different. And I know that in zen you always get “hit” when you ask those kinds of questions.
So sitting is sitting and asana is asana. Which isn’t to say they are different. Or the same. haha!
05/10/2009 at 3:12 pm
Ha! Yes, I was sort of making an invidious distinction.
But here is the reason it occurred to me. There are ashtangis who do sitting practice and ashtangis who don’t do sitting practice. There is owl who does her sitting practice and owl who blows off her sitting practice. And I want to say that there is no difference at all. But…. yeah. Different.
How dualist can I get? Hahahah.
05/10/2009 at 5:07 pm
I love how the dogs are leaning into each other… so very sweet.
I just wrote a whole thing about meditation and deleted it because I realized I am totally not qualified to comment!
Happy Mother’s Day, Karen! I hope it was special. It always strikes me how much you appreciate your Gift, and the other gifts in your life.
05/10/2009 at 9:23 pm
They are so cute on the couch like that!
05/11/2009 at 7:35 am
love those videos!
05/13/2009 at 4:46 pm
hi Karen
what wonderful descriptions of what meditation feels like. right now i feel i must practice mine with the mudras and chanting that i’m asked to do. i arrive at a peaceful feeling, but i like the Zen way of not having to reciting all the time. the dogs look cute.
hugs
Arturo
05/13/2009 at 5:53 pm
Hi Karen!
Will watch the videos later during a break…
LOVE the photos. Those two are adorable. So sweet that Maxine has taken Waylon under her wing. (or is it the other way around?)
05/14/2009 at 3:11 pm
now that i read the comments – i like the statement that sitting is sitting and asana is asana.