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I've had a few personal challenges over the past couple of weeks. It's as though the universe is giving me a pop quiz saying "So, smarty pants, you think you've been in your practice? How will you handle this?" Just as I feel that I can remain on an even keel, something comes along to tip the balance. One piece to deepen my own personal practice has been by participating in the 21-day meditation offered by Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey. It's the third series I've participated in from them and have enjoyed the process. I find that a different voice of perspective awakens my own meditation.
This past week it was certainly sparked when Deepak said and I'll paraphrase:
As we evolve along our own path of spiritual awareness, we can feel enthusiastic about sharing it with others. Often, their response is less than excited and frequently disinterested. Know that everyone is doing the best they can from the current level of their own awareness.
The last sentence landed right in the center of my consciousness, "they are doing the best they can in their current state of awareness" and I likewise find myself that very same position.
I don't know if it's a gene, but I have this wicked combination of being a perfectionist and being competitive. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as I get things done. Yet, when I am out of balance I can veer toward feeling that what I'm doing isn't effective or good enough. I'm quite practiced at beating myself up and often bypass the positive impact that my actions have on other people and in the world.
This is my practice. When something hits me in a profound way I recognize that's where I am in my own journey and when I have found a sense of peace with that I want to share it with others through teaching. My lesson is that what I am is enough. What I have is enough and what I do is enough...just where I'm at in this very moment.
When I come to that realization I sense an abundance in my being, not a lack. It allows a softening of perspective toward myself and others as well opening space for the next step of my own evolution. It allows a sense of freedom and forgiveness, something that sometimes moves out of perspective.
I hold gratitude for the voice of others and appreciated what Deepak Chopra brought into my awareness. My thought for the week is to do the best you can...I'll try to keep that in mind, too!
It's been a significant week in the yoga world with the passing of Mr. BKS Iyengar, affectionately called "Guruji". As yogis often say, "he left his body" on Tuesday as his kidneys were failing over the past few weeks while fighting infection. He would have been 96 in December.
It was a surprise how hard it hit me the morning after I had heard about his passing. I was beginning to tell my morning class about him, had lit a candle and dedicated the class to him. As I started to share how I and so many others were indirectly connected to him I began to tear up. I kept it together until I reflected on how I stepped onto the path of yoga. About twenty years ago, the first class I walked into at the University of Melbourne was an Iyengar yoga class. My teacher, Judith Hanson Lasater, was one of his students and that so much of what and how I teach is a direct reflection of his genius. His use of props was evolutionary and is deeply reflected in the practice of restorative yoga.
My tears began to gently flow as I recognized the powerful impact that one person had made on my own life as I sat in front of a class about to teach. I had no idea that when I stepped onto my mat for the first time in an Iyengar class, with my first instructor, Murray, eventually saying to me "Jayne, you should teach yoga" that I would actually have such a deep revelation so many years later. And all of this came about by one person who inadvertently set it all in motion...Mr. Iyengar.
He was born into poverty and struggled with illness. It was yoga that healed him and pointed him in the direction of his dharma, his purpose in life. He studied, practiced and taught yoga for over 70 years and apparently had an uncanny eye for seeing the body in incredible ways. His perspective, trial and error, evolved into an entire lineage that can be traced back to the modern day father of yoga, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. Two of his students, BKS Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois, created two of the most well-known styles of yoga: Iyengar and Ashtangha. Virtually any, and all, hybrid styles and forms of yoga that are being practiced throughout the Western world have trickled down through these channels.
What I love about the ever-evolving perpetuation of yoga is that when well taught and practiced, the practitioner begins to literally embody the teachings. From that place of knowing each person brings to the practice the alchemy of their own unique experiences. Some share it through simply living it, others through teaching it. It's a way of taking what resonates within someone and paying it forward through your own interpretations.
Countless teachers have gone before me, all passing along their inspiration, experimentation and insight. At some point, it landed so deeply within that I felt the calling to share all that I had learned. The many who have gone before us have lit the path for us to walk along.
Judith Hanson Lasater has shared the image of sitting before a class and seeing all of those teachers in her lineage standing behind her. I, too, hold a similar image and the people behind me aren't all yogis, but have offered something to me as I have journeyed along this path. It seems to be very crowded back there.
The overwhelming part is how deeply it can touch our lives, how profoundly it offers a sense of community and how humbling it is to have been touched by the hand of genius.
Rest in peace Guruji and, like millions of others, I thank you and bow deeply to you.
Radical Presence
Imagine hiking up to the top of a mountain with a group of people, one of whom is hauling a standing bass, amplifier and small mixing board. You then find a place to sit on the ground and face the setting sun as the lower resonant tones of the musical scale begin to penetrate the surroundings. There's nothing left to do but sit, listen and allow the experience to wash over your being.
I didn't have to imagine this scenario as I experienced it twice, in fact, at Wanderlust Squaw last month. A talented and accomplished musician, Garth Stevenson, offers sunset and sunrise meditations where he carries his 70-pound load of musical gear in a custom-made "back pack". He "plays music in nature" and WOW...the experience was the highlight of my time at Wanderlust. When the music ceased playing after about 30-40 minutes, all of nature's sounds were amplified. I sat gazing out into the wilderness with such clarity and sense of connection. My breath was present but almost literally taken away at the same time.
I have had the good fortune of magical travel experiences over this past month. Following my Wanderlust trip that took me to Lake Tahoe, Ed and I embarked on a two-part journey. Part one was hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, Peru with part two, spending six days exploring the Galapagos Archipelago in Ecuador.
For those unfamiliar with the Inca Trail, our 4-day trek covered 26.5 miles (42.5 Km) as we climbed to 13,779 feet (4250 m), then again to 13,123 feet (4000 m) (and all in one day) as well as descended countless steps to finally climb up the "Gringo killer" steps to pass through the Sun Gate at 8956 feet (2730 m) to catch our first glimpses of Machu Picchu. To say it was "steep" would be putting it mildly, yet despite the lungs and quadriceps burning and reacting to the high altitude, it was more than just a worthwhile effort. We had incredible porters who hauled the heavy stuff (and could run the trail with seeming ease and focus), a talented chef and incredible guide. Our small group of eight had the life-bonding experience of vistas, ruins, rain, hail, fog, an ancient trail, bone-chilling nights and glaciers. We saw other groups along the trail but had many moments of quiet and solitude. In order to traverse the unpredictable terrain, one needed to be completely focused. It was a 4-day walking meditation where distraction could mean a slip or a fall.
The final phase of this trip was the other-worldly exploration of the Galapagos, a stark contrast to the Inca Trail. Located along the equator, the temperatures were perfect, the sun was shining on an endless ocean. Ed and I ventured off on our own to join 14 others on a yacht. Being in the Galapagos is like having the most bountiful and wild zoo at your footsteps. Giant land tortoises, blue-footed boobies, flightless cormorants, Galapagos hawks and penguins, pelicans, frigate birds, marine and land iguanas, green sea turtles, families of sea lions, dolphins and a whale abounded!
One of the many incredible things about this part of the world, as Charles Darwin observed, is that the animals have little fear of humans which allows you to walk freely among them (keeping a safe and respectable distance too, of course!). What often seemed to be volcanic islands with lava flows revealed themselves to be overflowing with life and particular eco-systems. We needed to be fully awake and aware as to not step on any precious creature all the while having all senses alight with animal and natural delight!
In these three experiences-meditating on a mountain, hiking the Inca Trail and being amid wildlife enabled one particular and common experience - that of being radically present. What all of these moments had in common was a complete absorption of the experience. My mind was simply in the present moment. Work, worries, politics, world and social woes, heartache and despair were not even on the horizon of my consciousness. The sole experience was being on the mountain, then on the trail with each foot fall, then, in a different moment, face to face snorkeling with a marine iguana.
It reminded me of what the essence of yoga is largely about-being present in the most profound and radical way. No distraction exists to pull you away from the feeling of absolute connection to all beings and all creatures. These experiences reminded me of being divinely connected - of being one. No separation existed between me and all else.
What a gift this travel adventure uncovered. My hope is that this reminder is one that comes to me often, fully and in my ordinary rather than just in the extraordinary moments of my experience.
Wow...radical presence...what a gift!
