arturoyogi

Archive for June, 2008

Beautiful landscape architecture video

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I came across this beautiful animated video that describes the development of design ideas for a winning entry to a landscape architecture design competition held in Singapore. I tried to embed the YouTube video here, but it may not be available for embedding. So if you have the curiousity to watch it and five minutes of your time, you can try this link and watch it. The presentation shows a lot a lot of creativity. The design is futuristic and optimistic and it was prepared by SquintOpera. I stumbled across it in the 3D CAD Illustration blog. There’s something called a sky biodome, and eco apartments with gardens.

practiced, and the parade began

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I practiced at YSSF with Seven Petal Lotus, near Snow White, Mona, The Cyclist, Bandman, Moustache Blanc, Periwinkle Petals and Quiet Strength. QE2 and Marin Man joined us later. I did my usual Sunday practice, half Primary, half Second. I stopped at Supta Vajrasana because my energy, honestly speaking, was spent. I don’t have a cold anymore, but I still have some phlegm to leave my chest. So if this practice burns up the phlegm, it certainly helped to practice today. There were some items on sale at the shalas’ store, so I bought a beautifully illustrated book of another Botisattva contemporary of the historical Budda. I have to go. The parade is about to begin…(by the way, NY ashtanga yoginis, The Cyclist is moving to NY. He may be single, available, around 38 and professional. Sounds like I’m passing him on to you. Where are the places to practice? Where does Christopher teach now, Greg, and the others?) Bye, the women on bikes are coming. Too much noise. Yikes, my camera memory card stopped working after the third picture, so no pictures. I will go to my office for some quiet. It’s impossible to be in my apartment with a parade going on in front. Cheers and sorry for the, ahem, neurotic writing, San Francisco style.

Dhanurasana, dhanurasana and dhanurasana

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Yesterday afternoon I went to a Bikram’s studio to use the bathroom. I’m sure that story is nor original. I’m not the first cybershalamate to have written about going into a Bikram’s studio to use the bathroom. Then I went to another studio for a led hatha class I had been invited to, led by an anusaran. Their keys to the bathroom were missing. Yes I received a hug. Two in fact. One at the beginning of class and one at the end. I can see you’re yeallous. The class was interesting. I think we broke down what needs to happen for Hanumanasana to happen. That’s a lot of “h’s” in a sentence. Things like the thighs have to be scissoring towards each other; it’s okay to have the leg behind have the toes curled to give extra pushing direction. The teacher demonstrated. Of course, he’s a gummy bear so he went right into the highest expression of the asana. Except he said that on his left side he was higher up. Well from my Hanumanasana perch I could not tell he wasn’t on the floor.

OK. Then the other practices we did were mainly chest opening ones. We took turns spotting each other in Pincha Mayurasana. All I can remember is being aloft and being fascinated by the raised dots on my mat. It seems that was the only thing I was seeing. And they seemed black, not purple, from the upside down position. But that is not important. I’m sore from the Urdvha Dhanurasanas. Since we weren’t aiming to come to standing, I made an effort to really push high on high. Is high on high a term? I may be inventing it. I pressed the feet a lot and pushed the chest towards the arms. I think this is good form.

Aha. So. What else? Oh, yea. The most important thing, and I’m really rambling out of place. The Dhanurasana practice got me the highest Dhanurasana in the history of Market St for this shy monk. What? Never mind. We tootsie rolled a blanket, placed it on the pelvis, laid on it, then kept the chest on the floor while lifting the legs way up. Then we placed the roll on the belly under the belly button. That’s a lot of “b’s” in a sentence. At this point in the lift, the knees stayed on the floor and the chest came way up when lifting. The final version was sans candy - the sugar free version - no tootsie roll. The brain had processed what needed to lift and how high, so naturally and without props, the feet and legs went way up. I felt I was in a Ventikesh video. I probably misspelled his name, but you know the one that Elise posted a few weeks back. The one where the teacher seemed to be corralling a cabrito with ropes in a rodeo when assisting a student in Dhanurasana? Ring a bell? No? Never mind. OK now I’m off to Seven Petal Lotus’ room in SF because Springy Sitarist is out of town in Berkeley. Happy Sunday. (And thanks to Susananda for reminding me indirectly of the correct spelling of bow pose, Dhanurasana, by using it correctly in a sentence. Doesn’t a joke start that way? “OK students, today I want you to use the word Dhanurasana in a sentence…”)

frog drum metronome

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Aaaaaahhhhh - Uohgh!!!

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Here is another funny story of my dad’s. In 1982, he still was driving his Mercury Grand Marquis. His was the widest model Ford Mercury ever made. The steering wheel was so loose that he named the boat “la yola” (the sloop) because it steered like a boat in the ocean. We were attending a concert by Texan musicians at the Pablo Casals Museum, at the top of the narrow historic Calle Del Cristo in Old San Juan, with some of the performers. Someone driving an enormous van injudiciously parked it on the historic street. (The actual spot was about one block north of the spot in the accompanying picture, which belongs to this webposter.) My dad asked us to step out of the car and walk to the plaza while he went to park. Somehow, he managed to pass through the obstruction and join us. Later one of the musicians in the concert asked him how passed through the blockage created by the van. He said, “I drove right through the street. ” “Did you scratch it?”, asked my musician friend. “Yes, I scratched it, Puerto Rican style” my dad replied as he flashed his pearlies. You can’t drive a car without getting a scratch or dent in that small Island, after all.

inspired and encouraged by cybershalamates

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Inspired by Boodiba and encouraged by Alfia, I dedicated my entire practice today to Urdvha Danurasanas and dropbacks. Well I dedicated my practice to all of the teachers that have passed the lamp from generation to generation, but that is another song.

So after the first five essential asanas, I started with bridge, followed by three sets of two Urdvha Danurasanas. My intent was to see how close I could come to standing from UD. I’ll keep you guessing. I got up by pulling my body up from a squat, reaching for the book case and the end of the closet. Then I practiced dropbacks. I did them:

• Kino style
• Lino style
• Limbo style
• Sweeney style

My internal dialog went like, “feet parallel, legs bent, tailbone down, pelvis forward, chest lifting, keep lifting, arms in prayer, arms over head…”. At other times it was, “feet apart, pointing outwards, bend the feet a lot, lift the chest, reach the hands to the calves, can you see the folded brown towel at the edge of the mat?”

After 8 of those, I went back for another three set of two Urdvha Danurasanas on the floor. Inhale up. Hold five breaths in the wheel. (I forgot, I could have attempted walking the hands towards the feet - must remember that next time.) I remembered Anna saying to coordinate the breath. You have to be inhaling when you’re going to come up. So I exhaled, pushed the chest up and back towards the wall, inhaled and pushed forward towards the front in a rocking motion. I did the rocking motion six times. The lower back felt warm and good. The arms felt tired. The breath was strong, focused and steady.

I got up by pulling myself up from a squat with the edge of the bookcase and the closet. Hey, I’m working on it…I went for another round of dropback practice. I felt a bit dizzy. I moved to closing, holding Paschimottanasana 20 breaths and doing the remaining closing poses.

When I sat down to the computer, my left knee bothered me a bit. I don’t think this practice was that different than the same movements at the end of my usual yoga sequence. It just had a different emphasis. My thighs feel stronger this morning, since they seemed to get the preparation they needed to help me in coming up to standing. My back feels lubricated by the motions. Would I repeat the exact practice of today every day for a week? No. It was just a mini-workshop.

The stadium display - a dream sequence

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Today I practiced Primary to Supta Kurmasana. It’s been comforting to practice this sequence while regaining one’s usual stamina. I don’t think there is a deep meaning to the following dream. It seems to put together things I had been working on throughout the previous day - designing meandering spaces around plazas, thinking about the practice, etc.
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I dreamt that Guruji, Sharath and Saraswati opened a new shala in the US in a historical Frank Lloyd Wright building. They took out all of the furniture to allow for practice space. During a rest time after practice, Guruji was giving advice freely, telling jokes and smiling a lot. The family was inviting people to eat at a restaurant in the premises started by someone in their nucleus. They talked about taking out some walls in the space to make for a bigger practice room, but I thought that it would be difficult to get permit for that, since most FLW buildings were historical and protected from being changed too much. It was a time of the year where there where some spectacles going on in town at a new arena that curved around a plaza. Every yoga practitioner, including myself, was expected to climb out of a window in the highest level of an arena gallery, do an asana on a high bleacher, receive applause from the audience, then climb back and out through the window. Then you would go and pay respects to the Family at the new shala. When it came time for my performance, the bleacher appeared at 10 feet below the window and I requested assistance in being lowered to its platform, either by being given a ladder to reach the platform, or by being lowered down. I did my asana and somehow sprung out of there and went to the shala.

Inspiring yoga photos

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If something looks too good to be true…

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…it probably is. On the way home for lunch, I stumbled upon a pair who frequent the bus lines that are most heavily traveled by tourists, the ones that go to the beach, the universities, or the museums. One of them holds a cardboard on which he’s playing a game with three balls and three cups, saying, “sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, round and round the ball she goes…” He asks people to place a bet and he’ll match the amount if the person guesses where the ball of a certain color goes after he shuffles the cups. A counterpart looks with great interest and laughs loudly from a distance, pretending he just stumbled upon a fun game. He entreats people by saying, “the middle one, pick the middle one.” Initially, someone, possibly one familiar with the group, places a large bet, such as $10, and is given $20 back, after choosing what the counterpart said to choose. It appears like a way to make easy money. Inevitably someone will have the curiosity to risk a few dollars and see if they double it. Once in a while, people are not in the mood to be taken for a ride and will ignore these entertainers. But today there were a lot of people wishing to be distracted, so the group was having a ball. This is what happens on a journey in public transportation, you are not in control of the surroundings.

How long is your primary practice?

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I have a technical question. What is the optimal length of the Primary practice? Lino once said he only takes about 45 minutes for his. People who have Sharath’s DVD says the breath count is about 3, not 5. One teacher told me that on a day of Second Series practice, I could do the Primary sequence faster. I’ve been so ingrained to holding the count for 5 breaths that it’s difficult to envision shortening it. My practice even probably slowed down a bit when I moved to San Francisco, while I perfected the sequence. In my home practice, inefficiencies arise from going to the restroom, checking the length of my finger nails or toe nails, monkeymind doing planning, or taking notes while practicing (uh oh, … busted.) Maybe I should get a chronometer and check how long I really take to do the sequence. The warm up is about 10 minutes long. The practice takes about an hour and a half. Sometimes I concentrate an ten minutes on Urdvha Danurasanas and dropbacks.