Chop Wood, Carry Water

by Jamie Shane

  Sometimes, the transition is the posture. There is no such posture as “Runner’s Lunge” and yet you’ll see it in classes. It is one method to get your feet into position for a possibly more ‘significant’ asana. But that doesn’t mean that it has no yogic worth. This position has great value in terms of opening hips, lengthening leg muscles, and creating balance. Furthermore, it has great subtle value. The runner’s lunge creates a feeling of motion in stillness. It is the physical representation of being “ready to go”. From the runner’s lunge you can get practically anywhere.

  If one can find the significance in every transitory posture, one can gain a greater understanding of yoga asana as a whole. Many think a good practice is one in which certain postures are visited in a certain order. I like a practice where one can experience the flow between the poses. Where one can sense that, yes, being in the asana feels good. But getting to the asana feels better. Riding that moment is an amazing expression of being free.

  That freedom can be found in every moment if you take the time to see it.

  Every yoga class is representative of life in microcosm. Sometimes we achieve. Sometimes we don’t. But mostly it is about the work, the act of doing. Yoga lets you experience that work as life-giving. It allows you to meditate on motion and stillness and the transition between the two. A yoga class helps you to see the true nature of life; It helps you find the moment. And it teaches you that life is not necessarily about the end-game. Just as yoga is not about the final achievement of the perfect posture. Yes, it is empowering to get there, but the journey often proves to be more enlightening.

  Transition is the nuts and bolts of our existence. If we are always looking ahead, waiting for something to happen that is perfect and right, we will miss out on the simple joys of being here. Sometimes, it is the place in between achievements that holds the key. And if we can find equal joy and value in that, then we can truly unlock the secrets of life.

  69

  There are many yoga instructors who will tell you that a yoga class is not complete without at least one round of Sun Salutations. I would hazard to disagree with that.

  However, I will say, that knowing the Sun Salute is to own the perfect vinyasa flow for any situation. Limited time? Short on space? Don’t have a mat? Then work through a few rounds of this flow and you have covered enough of the yoga bases to fell refreshed, relaxed and recharged.

  Originally, the Sun Salutation was a method of honouring the sun. Obviously. Practitioners would rise in the morning and offer this greeting to the provider of life, light and food. The motions were not only good for the body, but a devotion for the spirit. I’ve known teachers who have applied all kinds of prayer to the Sun Salute, including “Our Father”, but, at its heart, this Salute is a way to give tribute to that with which we could not exist.

  As old as the practice of yoga itself, the Sun Salute varies with the teacher. And, there are so many variations to the flow that to claim there is only one proper way is like saying that only vanilla ice cream really qualifies as ice cream. This is the way that I was taught, and its not always the version that I teach, but out of respect for my teacher it will be the method I share here.

  Stand in Mountain Posture with your feet rooted into the floor, weight evenly distributed between all four corners of the foot. Feel the legs lighten, as if you were being lifted by a string connected to the top of your head. This expands the spine and draws the tail into alignment. Bring the hands into prayer position, palms together before the heart. Inhale.

  Exhale, turn the fingertips towards the floor and hinge forward from the hips, bringing the hands to the floor. Flatten out the palms and scoop up the earth, inhaling to bring the earth up to the sky, reaching the arms overhead and arching back. Exhale, hinge forward again, laying the hands on the floor on the outside of the feet.

  Inhale, step back with the right foot into a long runners lunge, dropping the knee to the floor and releasing the top of the right foot to the earth. This brings your left knee into alignment over your left ankle. Press the right hip forward. Exhaling, bring the left foot back next to the right foot so that the body comes into Plank position. Its like a boy’s push-up position with a strong, firm core. Inhale.

  Exhale, release the knees and feet to the floor and shift the hips back. Inhaling, drop the chest and chin towards the floor, sliding them forward and through the hands until you can drop your lower belly on the earth and press yourself up into an Upward-facing Dog posture. Here the arms are straight with the wrists situated beneath the shoulders. The chest is lifted and the shoulders are dropped and tucked back. Look gently to the sky. Exhale, lift the hips and jackknife into a Downward-facing Dog, bringing the body into a ‘v’ shape, pressing back through the legs and spine. Rest here for a few breaths. Inhaling, step forward with the left foot into that same lunge, dropping the knee to the floor. Exhale, bring the right foot forward, straightening the knees and hanging in a Standing Forward Fold. Inhale and roll up the length of the spine, reach the arms out to the sides, sweeping them overhead to arch back. Exhale, bring the hands back to prayer position.

  Whew! Think you’re done? Not so fast, buddy. That was only half of one round. Do the whole thing to the other side and then you can call it complete. And you thought I was kidding when I said it could be all that you need.

  70

  Some of the most powerful yoga postures are the ones that make you feel the most ridiculous. They are the ones that leave you open and vulnerable, questioning your position in space. They make you wonder whether you are making a fool of yourself and if anyone noticed. Am I doing this right? Can anybody see how stupid I look? Did you see that jiggle?

  I always thought this was part of Yoga’s great sense of humour. As if, in their quest to discover health and light, the yogis of yore stumbled upon the silliest methods to transcendence. Of course, this is only speculation, but when you find yourself bum over teakettle with your nose in places it just shouldn’t go, huffing a fire- breath to cleanse the mind, well… I wonder.

  And then I realize that the joke is on me. Or, on my ego, more precisely. And that it is no joke at all.

  It is only in abandoning that sense of self-consciousness that we can begin to move forward. That we can forget about how we appear and really work on Who We Are. This is a life lesson wrapped up in a Deep- kneed Squat. It is wisdom folded into Knee-to Ear Posture. Yoga takes you beyond your surface self and into the deeper realms of your awareness. This transition of consciousness cannot happen if you continue to remain concerned with aligning yourself to what everybody else is doing. Or, more precisely, what you think everybody else thinks you should be doing. Goodness, what a messy thought. No wonder it needs to get out of the way.

  We spend so much time worried about our external lives that the inner wisdom gets shunted to the side. Without this inner knowledge, we have no hope of connecting, or learning what our highest purpose is. And without this connection, we can easily be mislead down paths that are not healthy, peaceful or true. The path of self-delusion is filled with the appearances of ‘others’, the attitude of ‘others’, their ‘other’ perceptions of you. The path of self-delusion does not ask you to question yourself. It relies on your blind willingness to go where you are led.

  Questioning yourself and your place in the Universe is not comfortable. It does not make you feel all warm and fuzzy. Truly questioning your purpose is very much like a Deep-Kneed Squat—it puts all your secret business out in the open. Everything you try to squirrel away, everything you want to hide comes right on out to look you in the face. And when it does, you have to find the peace in that. You cannot wonder what the person next to you can see, or think, or smell, or hear, whatever.

  That stranger’s judgment is not more important than your own experience. It does not matter what they think. It does not matter what anybody thinks. It matters what you learn from your discomfit. What you know about yourself that you did not know before.

  And the yogis learne
d that. They passed it on through centuries of yoga asanas. Our earthly awareness begins with our bodies. It is our first identifier. If we experience a challenge in the body, we can use that experience to challenge the mind. And, ultimately, we can use that to challenge the spirit back into a higher place. It is a process of integration that begins from the bottom up, from the body to the light. This is not an easy process, or necessarily a fun one. But it is critical if we are to lead full, liberated lives.

  This can happen only when the ego is out of the way. So, toss your legs over your head. Roll around like a happy baby. Put your nose in places it doesn’t belong. Embrace the vulnerability of sublime ridiculousness. Adore the space that exposure has left you.

  It’s a powerful experience, and one of yoga’s many gifts to you.

  71

  No man is an island. Nothing exists in a vacuum. Naught functions in isolation.

  As much as we may feel that, at times, we are all on our own out in the big, bad world, it is simply, patently untrue. We live in a world of interwoven relationships from the most complex and misunderstood to the most basic and elemental.

  This is a hard thing to comprehend as we are inherently self-contained creatures. We live within our skins, physically, emotionally and intellectually. These internal systems are what support our existence and create our perception of life. This type of perception can only be understood from our ego perspective which can lead us to behave as if we are the primary actor of our world, reliant on nothing else. Do you follow?

  This is a false perception. Were you only connected to yourself, completely self-sustained and functioning in isolation, you would go hungry very quickly, lose your mind in a week and have the intelligence of a toad-stool. You are what you are because of the web of relationships that feed you, love you and teach you. Every facet of your existence is tied to another, and another, and another.

  Yoga begins to teach you this on a very basic, and easily understood, level. It starts within that skin of perception, demonstrating the interconnectivity of the body to itself so that you can eventually expand your consciousness outside of the body, connecting to everything else. Try this simple experiment to better understand.

  Sit on the floor with your shoes off. (If your back curls behind you, place a folded blanket under your hips until it straightens out.) Bring the soles of your feet together and scoot your heels as close to the pubic bone as you can manage without rounding your back. Interlace your fingers together—making a basket-- and tuck the palms underneath the toes. Sit up straight and tall and relax your shoulders. This is called Cobbler Position as this is how Indian cobblers used to create and repair shoes.

  From this position, it is quite obvious that the hips are trying to open and expand. It is easily discernable that the inner thighs are lengthening. But there is so much more happening. If you forge the primary connection—hips--then you can work your way through other connections until you realize that very nearly every piece of the body is involved somehow. Your whole system is participating whether you are aware of it or not.

  The pelvis has tilted slightly forward to facilitate the opening of the hips. The movement of the lower belly with breath is helping to expand your thighs. Tension in the knees will affect the position of the toes, which affects the positioning of the hands, which affects the tension of the shoulders, which affects the neck, back and head. This tension can also work backwards, starting from the shoulders down. Like a domino effect it travels through the whole system, affecting not only the physical body, but the emotional body and the mind. You may become frustrated which can then affect the breath, which affects the body, and so on. If you find you are struggling, search the connections; follow the struggle to the root. You might be surprised.

  This is a visceral demonstration of our cosmic situation. Interconnectivity is the truth of life. Nothing functions in isolation, not you, not the earth, not the smallest quantum atom. When you choose to accept that, a great respect emerges for all life from the bacteria to the biologist. To care for them all as you would care for yourself is to care for yourself.

  For who knows what small loss might mean the death of us all?

  72

  It's good to have goals. I wouldn't even dream of disputing that. But in our quest to achieve, we often forget about the importance of being where we are, even if it is just for a brief moment of observation. Life happens in instants, in breaths, and if our eye is always on the prize, then we are not looking at the present moment and hearing what it has to teach us. And that simple instant, that precious moment, could hold the key to an understanding that has the power to change our perceptions.

  Take, for instance, my favorite yoga posture, the Forward Fold. As an instructor, I have always felt this posture epitomized the goal/moment dichotomy. Of all postures, it is the one that appears to be the simplest. Not so. Many people make the mistake of believing that it is simply an effort to touch the toes. Easy, right? Just park your bum on the floor and reach for those toes. Reach for the goal; get those toes.

  Go ahead, give it a try. Sit on the floor with your legs extended in front of you, feet next to one another, knees relaxed in the earth. Sit up straight, shoulders in line over hips, spine long and straight. Now reach for those toes. What happens? If you're like most people, you can't get to the toes. But you'll pull your body this way and that trying to achieve that goal . Your shoulders will crunch up next to your ears, your spine will round and hunch. Maybe your knees came up off of the ground. Do you feel like this did any good? Do your hamstrings feel any longer? Does your body feel relaxed?

  Don't lie. I'm a professional. I already know the answer.

  This posture is a perfect lesson in letting go of the goal and enjoying the journey. The forward fold is one asana, or pose, that offers an opportunity to exist in the moment and surrender to it, to enjoy the process of getting there. The truth is, it doesn't matter if you ever touch your toes. It only matters how you try.

  Now, try it my way. Get back into position and bring the body into alignment. Lengthen the spine. But this time, place the palms on the thighs. As you inhale, lift the spine up out of the pelvic bowl, expanding it all the way to the crown of the head. Now, keeping the head in line with the spine, exhale, pressing the torso forward to hinge from the hip. Keep the legs straight. You should feel as if the heart is reaching for the knees, leading the body forward and then down. You are folding, not rounding. When you have come to your fullest extension (believe me, you'll know when this happens) extend the arms comfortably and grab on to whatever you can get.

  If you reach the knees: fantastic! If you catch the calves: perfection! If you reach the ankles: bravo! If you do manage to catch the toes, I'll let you in on a little secret: The body will eventually extend further than this. So much for goals. But, in my opinion, the greatest secret of the forward fold lies in its opportunities. It is a posture that challenges you to find form within surrender. Folded over your legs, with the back opening with breath, you have a chance to exist within moments. Life can be reduced to inhales, to heartbeats. You have the opportunity to hear what your body says, to learn where it resists — to learn where you resist — and then to exhale it away.

  You have a chance to surrender the goal. You have a few moments to be. How often do you get to let go? I mean really let go. All too often we forget that life is a marathon, not a race. The finish line is death, so why are you haulin' at Mach 10 to get there?

  It's good to have goals. But let's never forget that the process of achieving them has equal, if not greater value. So take the time to be where you are, existing fully in the proverbial scent of roses.

  73

  All right, I'll admit it. I have been wandering in the philosophical woods lately. Do you blame me? Its just so darned interesting back there. But for those of you who feel that my soapbox is too tall, my megaphone too loud, and my aspirations too lofty, I'll pull it back a little. Today.

  I believe yoga is a practical science. It
starts with the body because that is what we understand. Think of the postures as your boat across the river of consciousness. Now, when we row across something as deep and unknown as this great river of awareness, it behooves us to take the strongest, sturdiest boat we can find. Who wants to cross the Nile in a rickety dinghy? Not me. Practicing yoga helps to make your body healthy so that you are able to explore this other understanding with ease and comfort.

  This physical practice of yoga is comprised of many postures, all of which fulfill a function. When you boil these functions down, you come to one basic element. The spine. Whether we are opening hips, stretching legs or strengthening the arms, the spine is a vital component in correct posture. The spine is a vital component to good health. So, in yoga, you will often hear your instructor talk about your spine immediately after they introduce the breath. It's that important.

  A healthy spine takes more than just standing up straight. The spine moves. It moves in all directions and rotates to an astonishing degree. This is how we achieve a strong spine: by taking it through all of its paces, bending, back-bending, twisting, rotating. These motions help to support the body and also to clean out the discs between the vertebra so that fresh blood can flow into them. Blood flow is a good thing. One of the best postures for achieving this is the spinal twist. Trying to explain it is harder than doing it, and watching someone do it is confusing as all get-up, so listen close.

  Sit on the floor with your legs extended out in front of you. Cross the right foot to the outside of the left knee so that your knee is standing and the sole of the foot is rooted in the earth. Cross the left elbow to the outside of the right knee and take the right hand behind your spine, palm to the floor, pressing down. You should already feel a twist. Don't let your bum lift from the floor. Feel connected.