message for homer_hanumat

[Guest guest]

Homer,<br><br>I just stumbled across an old

message of your (#1234) about yoga viz-a-viz other

contemplative / meditative traditions in Christianity, Zen etc.

Interesting stuff.<br><br>I was in England visitng my brother

a few weeks back. He has been attending Quaker

meeting for about as long as I've been practicing yoga,

and was just going through the process of formal

acceptance into the Quaker community (I forget what he said

the correct term for this is). I have huge admiration

for the Quaker tradition, and I said to my brother

that I regard things like Quakerism and Zen as really

hard-core approaches. In yoga, we have the whole

asana-pranayama thing that operate as a set of toys for the body

and mind so that we can sneak up on the whole

"stilling the mind" business indirectly. A Quaker or a Zen

practitioner is just supposed to sit there and stare infinity

right in the face from the word go. How many actually

do, of course, is another question.

[Guest guest]

I'm an admirer of both Quakerism and Zen, too,

for slightly different reasons in each case.<br><br>I

was initially drawn to ashtanga because of how I

thought it might provide some sort of approach to

contemplative prayer/meditation, which I had been trying for

about twelve years before encountering

ashtanga.<br><br>My intro to ahstanga, and to yoga in general, was

from a NYC dancer, a student of Eddie Stern's. We were

both teaching at a summer school for gifted high

school kids, and she invited other faculty to join her

6:00 AM practices. She didn't exactly "teach" -- just

whispered brief verbal instructions as she flowed through

her on practice. Within a couple of weeks the few who

persisted were up to Marichyasana D, where she stopped us.

Not the standard way, I know, but very effective

given our particular circumstances.<br><br>Once I'd

gotten past my resentment of the precise breathing

instructions and the vinyasa I began to see the beauty of the

system. When I sat down in lotus I felt ready to focus as

I never had prior to that time (lotus was a heckuva

lot easier, too).<br><br>One of my foibles is the

desire to have the very "best" of any given thing; e.g.,

you get the idea that contemplation is the Cadillac

of prayer, so you just go straight for it,

regardless of whether or not elements of your disposition or

life experience indicate that you are "called" to it.

Of course nothing much results: maybe even you have

some backward steps.<br><br>My ashtanga practice is

also vulnerable to being messed up by the Cadillac

predilection. At least the asana practice provides some ways to

observe when it's at work.<br><br>Still sneaking up on

that contemplation, hopefully.<br><br>Peace and

Good,<br>Homer

[Guest guest]

And Allen, when you see godfreydev this summer:

if it seems appropriate and you don't mind doing it,

could you quiz him a bit about the impact of his Zen

training on his approach to yoga? From his posts and his

more recent books I get the sense that for him

pranayama/meditation is looking a lot like zazen.<br><br>Whatever

their pedigree, I find his views attractive and

useful.<br><br>Homer

[Guest guest]

There's a good novel in which early Quakers feature quite prominently -

"Restoration" by Rose Tremain. As recommended to me by my brother. Well worth a

read.