Holiday Weekend Home Practice

July 3, 2010
Posted by Sharon
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One of the main foundational texts on the Buddha’s teachings on meditation, written by Upatissa in the first century after Christ, is called The Path of Freedom (Vimuttimagga).  It is interesting to me that a path that requires dedication and practice, things that we tend to see as un-liberating, would be seen as producing a sense of freedom.  In addition, this work that we do in yoga and meditation helps us to promote compassion for all living beings.  In our American culture, there is significant value placed on being “independent.” When I was in the last few weeks of my pregnancy with my son, I visited with my future child’s pediatrician and he gave me a little booklet put together by the pediatric practice on how to prepare to care for a newborn.  This booklet informed me that it was of the utmost importance that I obtain a crib and that my newborn sleep by itself.  The booklet did inform me that this was the safest way for baby to sleep, but it also made clear that it was important for the baby to sleep alone so that it would gain a sense of independence.   What a strange way to talk about a little one that so very clearly relies on its caregivers for everything.  We even try to make complete dependence look like independence in our culture.

So, in honor of this holiday of independence, I give you this short home-practice that fosters inter-dependence and helps us to find peace in our relationship to the earth and to one another.  Peace and love to everyone in the extended Yoga Matrika community–ENJOY!  This is designed to be a very simple and mindful practice that is appropriate for everyone, but please be careful and if you have any concerns about practicing yoga, wait and talk with a teacher first.

Step 1:  Grounding, Establishing our Relationship to the Earth (Vertical Relationships)

Find a place outdoors to stand (if you need to, please feel free to practice sitting in a chair) in your bare feet (ideally) or indoors if weather or environment requires it.  Stand in Mountain pose with your feet hip-width apart.  Legs are strong, but relax a bit through the knees.  Roll your sitting bones under you and lengthen through the sides of the body.  Roll your shoulders back slightly and let them drop down away from your ears.  Stretch the crown of your head towards the sky.

Bring your awareness to your feet.  Notice the weight of your body pressing down on the earth through the soles of your feet.  Then, shift so that you bring your awareness to the pressure that the earth is exerting up into the soles of your feet.  As you inhale deeply, focus on the weight of your body connecting with the earth.  As you exhale all the air out of the body and the energy rises out through the crown of the head, feel the energy of the earth rising up through your feet through the entire body.

You can do this for as long or as little as you like, but I recommend 3-5 minutes.  At the end of your grounding meditation, do some gentle stretching.  Inhaling, reach your arms over head and stretch—-come up onto your toes if balance isn’t a problem for you.  Explore your relationship to the earth and sky.  Inhale stretch and reach.  Exhale and release the stretch.

Step 2: Relax the Spine and Explore the Horizontal Relationship to the Earth

Come down onto the ground on your hands and knees.  As you inhale, open your heart, let your belly drop towards the earth and stretch your sitting bones back behind you (wise cow).  As you exhale, round through the spine, spreading the shoulder blades and bringing your chin towards your chest (cat).  Continue on in this movement for 6-8 repetitions of Cat/Cow.  Inhaling and opening the heart and exhaling and rounding the spine.

After these repetitions, come into Child’s Pose and hold it for 2-3 minutes.

Step 3: Stretch the Hips and Groin in a Seated Pose (Cobbler’s Pose)

Sit here for at least one minute, but preferably 2-3 minutes.  Breathe deeply into the body and feel the connection between your pelvis and the earth beneath you.  As you exhale, feel the energy rise from the base of the spine up through the crown of your head. Feel open and confident.

Step 4: Explore the Back Body and the Legs with Head to Knee Pose

Relax through your shoulders, face, neck and jaw and just allow gravity to do the work.  You should feel a nice stretch through the sides of the back and the leg, but do not strain to touch your toes.  Actually, do not strain at all.  Allow this stretch to be pleasurable and be curious about sensation in your body as you stretch and breathe.

Step 5: Happy Baby

Have fun!  Wiggle your toes.  Roll around and move and smile.  There you go!

Step 7: Savasana

Do not skip this pose.  Find a comfortable place to lie down and just be present for your thoughts, for your breath, for your feelings and body.  Try not to judge and just BE for 5 to 10 minutes.

Interdependence
Gentle
By Sharon
1
tadasana
Tadasana
Mountain Pose
2
Bitilasana_CowPose_150
Bitilasana
Cow Pose
3
Marjaryasana
Cat Pose
4
Baddha Konasana
Bound Angle Pose
5
JanuSirsasana_150
Janu Sirsasana
Head-to-Knee Forward Bend
6
YIN_213_AnandaBalasana_150.jpg
Ananda Balasana
Happy Baby Pose
7
savasana_150
Savasana
Corpse Pose
Yoga Journal Sequence Builder, Patent pending

This sequence designed by Sharon Rudyk, Owner and Director of Yoga Matrika.  You can design your own sequences at Yoga Journal online.  We hope you’ll stop by our beautiful studio in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania sometime soon.

Direct vs. Indirect

June 28, 2010
Posted by Sharon
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As I like to keep this Yoga Matrika blog  focused on yoga and take a mindful approach to all issues, I wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted to bring this highly charged issue to the blog.  I decided to bring it here, not to have a debate on abortion—right or wrong?  Legal or illegal?  Instead, I wanted to question and explore what happens when we fail to use all of our intelligence to consider challenging questions.  The original posting is below and it is from the Women’s Health Policy Report that is put out weekly by the National Partnership for Women and Families.

The issue in the article, in case what I have already said has infuriated you or led you to believe that you don’t want to or just can’t read any further, is that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have made a clarification on abortion.  Direct abortion is when you terminate a pregnancy for the only purpose of terminating the pregnancy. In summary, direct=bad, very bad, super bad.  Indirect is when a pregnancy is terminated in order to save the life of the mother.  In summary, indirect=bad, very bad, super bad, but allowable in extraordinary circumstances.

When I read this, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.  Part of me wanted to laugh out loud thinking about all the meetings and arguments of the men in charge as they debated the difference between direct and indirect abortions.  Seriously, any woman who has ever been pregnant and any man who has ever known a pregnant woman knows that this kind of dialogue fails to reflect the mysteries of the whole situation, never mind the realities of pregnancy, miscarriage and abortion.  Certainly, any family that has faced the terrible situation of weighing the continuation of a pregnancy vs. the life of the mother, wife, daughter, WOMAN, would assure all of us dear readers that there is no worse hell imaginable.  Considering the state of health care for women in the United States, this type of dialogue also seems to steal the stage from the more banal and everyday questions of health for women—not just our reproductive status, but our hearts and minds.  Why isn’t the leadership group of any religion focused on addressing the incredible health disparities in our country?  Why is the maternal and infant mortality rate so very high here in the United States when we have the resources that we have?  Another part of me wanted to cry because these men, men who have made a significant lifetime commitment to their spiritual practice and service of their communities, have missed something important—-how could time invested in this madness ever produce a more positive human experience for anyone?  How is this in service of God? While I imagine that those who feel differently about the issue at hand than I do would be delighted to tell me with great passion about how this is very much so in service, it still seems a fair question—at least philosophically, if not otherwise.

How is this related to yoga?  This is yoga.  A very wise and brilliant student at Yoga Matrika recently communicated her revelation that what happens in her life is her practice.  What happens on her yoga mat is just a trial run.  What we realize through yoga practice is that just when we think we have the answer, the game shifts.  Life is like being invited onto Jeopardy and practicing for months only to find yourself, with no notice, as a contestant on Wheel of Fortune!  Direct or indirect, perhaps we can just use this as a public example of what happens when we use our brains to attempt to find logic in what we need to bring our higher intelligence to.

I invite you to read this article and think of a time when you struggled to make logic of a situation in which there is no logic.  Thinking back on this time, see if you can now, even with hindsight, go back to the process and use your deeper intelligence to make peace.  To do this, sitting on a chair with your feet firmly planted on the floor or in a comfortable seated pose on the ground gently create distance between your lowest rib and your hips.  As you feel the sides of your body lengthen, bring your navel center over your pelvis.  This allows your pelvis to support your enteric nervous system—-otherwise known as your gut.  Now, bring your heart over your navel.  This allows your heart to be supported by your instincts.  Now, gentle tuck your chin towards your heart so that your neck lengthens and you relax your facial muscles.  This allows your brain to be supported by your intuition and your heart.  Watch your breath for a few moments and feel the peace that comes from equanimity.  Even if it is just for a moment.  Isn’t it a relief to take the world off your shoulders?  Now, breathe this sense of peace and calm to everyone in the world.  Let us all heal and put our energy into work that benefits the health and wellness of all living things.

Catholic Bishops Clarify Abortion Definitions in Light of Ariz. Case

June 28, 2010 — The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops‘ Committee on Doctrine released a statement last week clarifying how the church classifies direct abortions and indirect abortions, the Arizona Republic reports.

The statement refers to a recent case in which Sister Margaret McBride, an administrator at a Catholic hospital in Arizona, was excommunicated for her role in authorizing an abortion to save a woman’s life. The statement did not review the particulars of the case or take a position on the excommunication; instead, it said USCCB wanted to clarify “confusion” about the church’s stance on abortion.

According to the Republic, the church condemns direct abortion — meant to terminate a pregnancy — but permits indirect abortion — in which fetal death is a secondary effect of another necessary procedure — in some cases, such as a hysterectomy to treat uterine cancer. “As the church has said many times, direct abortion is never permissible because a good end cannot justify an evil means,” the statement said, adding, “There are no situations in which it can be justified.”

The statement “appears to confirm” the Phoenix bishop’s classification of the Arizona case as a direct abortion, the Republic reports (Clancy, Arizona Republic, 6/25). In the case, the young mother of four was 11 weeks pregnant and had pulmonary hypertension, a rare condition in which continuing the pregnancy often jeopardizes the life of the woman. Physicians concluded that the placenta had to be removed to prevent the patient from dying (Women’s Health Policy Report, 6/9).

Posted by Sharon Rudyk, owner of Yoga Matrika https://www.yogamatrika.com/

You’re a Star…..Literally.

June 16, 2010
Posted by Sharon
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In my estimation,  of the greatest joys of being a parent is that you get to reconnect with children’s literature.  Sure, there are nights when I’m quite sure that if I ever even accidentally trip over a Dr. Seuss book again that I might immediately burst into flames–never mind READ it again.  For the most part, I am delighted by the beautiful illustrations, the kind and meaningful tone and the idea that there is such great potential in this life.

Recently, we checked out The Greatest Intergalactic Guide to Space Ever by the Brainwaves from our local library.  The illustrations by Lisa Swerling and Ralph Lazar are imaginative and, quite frankly, hilarious.  The book is a brilliant collection of facts about space and it is everything that I had hoped my college course on astronomy would be, but without the physics.

Then, on page 25, I read something that awed me and put me in touch with a sense of wonder and wonderment that made me kiss my sleeping blondie on his little head before I continued my new favorite book:

“The Sun is mostly hydrogen and helium, but it also includes small amounts of other elements.  Earth formed close to the Sun from the same cloud of matter.  Humans are material made from Earth’s elements, so everything in our bodies was once a star.”

Just in case you didn’t catch it—–EVERYTHING YOU ARE MADE OF WAS ONCE A STAR!  Now, I’d heard something similar in some yoga or energy text that suggested that our bodies are made up of the same elements that stars are made of, but this is something different entirely because it creates a chronology.  The statement in this children’s book suggests a past for all of us, a past when our parts were shining clouds of matter in the night sky.  This idea is at once humbling and liberating.

No matter what kind of yoga you practice, the foundation of the practice is a kind of mindfulness that becomes available when we focus the mind and acknowledge the constant stream of thoughts that so many of us make the mistake of identifying with.  Maybe that stream slows down somewhat with time and practice, but for many of us, what we can obtain in this lifetime is just an awareness.  In many classes, the smallest element that we break our awareness into is the cell.  What I would like to suggest is that, based on this idea that our most elemental parts were at one time a star, we spend some time in meditation getting in touch with our inner star.

The first step, and perhaps the most challenging, is to release our physical body—the body of organs and bones and blood and guts.  Especially if you are in pain, this may be a considerable challenge.  But, to give it a try, just lie on your back and systematically relax from your toes to the crown of your head.  Then, just wait for your breathing to naturally slow down and become shallow.  Don’t rush it or try to control the breath.  Just lie there until you feel everything slow down.

The second step would be to watch the transitions of the breath.  Focus on the space where the in-breath becomes the out-breath and the out-breath becomes the in-breath.  If you lose your focus, just return to it whenever you realize that you’ve drifted.  If you constantly lose focus, then you can try to add counting—-count your inhale (1) and then just listen to the sound of your exhale, count your inhale(2) and then listen to the exhale and so on until you count to ten.  Anyone who has tried this before knows that you will probably get lost before you reach ten, but just keep it up and return to one when you realize you are lost.

The third step is starting to feel the way that energy is moving through your body.  There is no right or wrong answer.  Bring your mind’s eye to your navel and just see how energy is moving from your center to the periphery.  Maybe your center feels numb—that’s interesting!  Maybe you can only feel your right side—that’s interesting!  Please try not to make judgments.  Instead, just be incredibly curious.

Finally, start to feel the pulse of energy through the body and give that pulse a golden light.   When you feel the energy rise, feel yourself glow.  When you feel the energy start to wane, then feel a complete release as your light dulls a bit.  Just pulse energy and light like this for as long as you wish, until you fall asleep or until you wake up.

Confirmed by a children’s book—-you ARE a star!

REFERENCES

Stott, Carole
The Greatest Intergalactic Guide to Space Ever by the Brainwaves.  London; New York:DK Publishers, 2009.

Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, Owner and Director of Yoga Matrika, a lovely little studio in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: 6520 Wilkins Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217.  Contact information for Sharon is available on the website: https://www.yogamatrika.com/.  Please feel free to share and re-post, but be kind and give credit back to the Yoga Matrika blog and Sharon. Namaste!

Ode to Fathers

June 14, 2010
Posted by Sharon
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I was recently shopping at Target for garbage bags, Play Doh and “feminine protection products” (Exactly what are we being protected from? Who is being protected?  But I digress…..)   and on my way to the cash registers I saw a large display of Father’s Day cards.  How convenient!  I figured that I would easily be able to snatch up some lovely and thoughtful cards for all the Daddies in my life.  The first one I picked up was from the “humorous” section and it had a picture of an overweight man with an exposed belly and a dripping beer can in his hand.  The overt message of the card was that the recipient deserved a day to just sit on his butt and drink this beer due to his (On all other days but this one?) magnificent role as DAD.  The undertone of the card was that the recipient was lazy and had questionable hygiene and probably spent a lot of days on the couch with a beer in one hand and clothes that didn’t fit quite right.  So, actually, not that magnificent of a Dad at all.  The next 15-or so cards that I picked up didn’t get much better. One card even made a farting noise when you opened it!   The general idea is that American fathers are golf playing, beer guzzling, lazy, farting and/or fart joke telling, overweight, fishermen with somewhat questionable parenting skills, but who mean really well.  I was embarrassed for the state of fatherhood and my quick stop for cards turned into a rather lengthy exploration of what these cards reflected in terms of our expectations for fathers and the ways in which we feel it is appropriate to thank them.

Considering the fact that over 21 million American children are being raised in single parent homes and over 84% of these single-parent homes are being facilitated by mothers, it seems that having someone to buy a father’s day card for has become somewhat unique.  To summarize, 26% of American children do not have regular contact with their fathers.  From the cards on display, it would also appear that the fathers who do stick around, are fools. Perhaps, even worse than fools.  These are unkempt fools who like to golf.  Today, I received a promotional e-mail from Organic Bouquet that offered 15% off their selection of Father’s Day gift section.  The gift section included some very expensive items like an olive tree, bonsai and a wall hanging of a brown fish that said “GONE FISHING.”  The less expensive items were cookies in the shape of backyard barbecue foods.  The discount could not be applied to any of the beautiful flower arrangements that this company offered for sale.  No, the discount was on this ridiculous selection of man-gifts—-over-priced olive trees and hot dog shaped cookies.

Can you imagine?  “Here honey, give this olive tree to Daddy—yes, he’s on the couch where he always is—-and, include this card of the fat man that makes a farting noise when you open it.  He’s just going to be so happy!”

Honestly, if this is fatherhood, is it really a club you want to belong to?  Sounds to me like a job with low expectations and no benefits.  As a society, we need to re-imagine fatherhood so that it is a role that men can see themselves playing and that we aren’t embarrassed to ask them to play.  In my role, facilitating Dynamic Childbirth workshops—–yoga-based childbirth preparation workshops for pregnant women and their birth partners—I meet a lot of men who want to be great partners and great fathers.  As a matter of fact, I know that many of them ARE great fathers and are part of a movement to re-define fatherhood.  Do some of them fish?  Yes, they absolutely do!  Do some of them drink beer, watch tv, play golf and occasionally make poor fashion choices?  Yes, they absolutely do!  Is this what defines them?  No, absolutely not.

These fathers support their partners in pregnancy and childbirth.  These fathers cook all the meals so mom can breastfeed all day and all night.  These fathers wear their babies and sing them to sleep at night and know where the band-aids are and the pediatrician’s phone number.  These fathers wake up at 2:00am and rush feverish babies with croup to the emergency room.  These fathers teach their daughters how to go down the slide feet first and push their sons on the swing.  These are fathers who share themselves and their interests with their children by taking them camping, to their favorite farmer’s market and the record store.  These fathers play musical instruments, have a love of film, poetry, good books or an interest in horror movies—–whatever it is, they are interested in something and they show their children what is possible in the world from a different perspective from their partner.  These fathers show their children that compassion, responsibility and generosity are excellent qualities in a man.

So, I’d like to thank my father for giving me the gift of music, adventure and for always making sure that I had the tools of the trade—a Swiss Army Knife, comfortable shoes and a calling card.  And, after my son was born, thank you to my father for bringing food by every night so I didn’t have to worry about making meals.  Thank you to my step-father for learning how to defrost breast milk.  Thank you to my grandfather for loving my grandma so very much and making your children and family a priority.  Thank you for being the one who didn’t mind if I wore tops that didn’t match my bottoms, for not liking my boyfriend, for helping me move in and out of countless apartments and college dorms and for picking me up from that party in the middle of the night because my ride was drunk and never, never, ever saying anything about it.

Thank you to all the fathers out there who we would be embarrassed to give these silly cards to.  This Father’s Day, let’s forget the olive tree and the ridiculously-shaped cookies and make our own cards.  Let’s create an Ode to Fathers that reflects their true gifts and the sacrifices and commitments that they make to be great Dads.  May our collective Ode be a part of a revision of American fatherhood that is inspiring and meaningful.

References:
United States. Census Department. Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2007. By Timothy S. Grall. Census, 2009. 26 Feb. 2010 [http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p60-237.pdf].

What is iRest?

June 1, 2010
Posted by Sharon
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This Sunday, Mickie Diamond is going to be facilitating a Yoga Nidra: iRest workshop, this Sunday, June 6th from 4:00 to 5:15 pm.  The cost of the workshop is $15.  REGISTER HERE

This workshop is for everyone and no experience with yoga or meditation is required.  Just wear comfortable clothing and keep an open mind—-it will be lots of fun and you will leave deeply relaxed with some skills that you can use in your real life off the mat.

Here is some information about iRest that I have taken from the Integrative Restoration Institute website:

Would you like to live with greater ease of being, feel more relaxed, and sleep more soundly? Would you like to develop “tools for life” that enable you to rise above stress, anxiety, fear, pain, and emotional and mental turmoil? iRest is a deeply relaxing transformative practice that leads to physical, psychological, and spiritual health, healing, and well-being.

A non-movement-based meditation, iRest invites you to discover an intrinsic sense of peace that is always present, regardless of your life circumstances. You will learn to release negative body sensations, emotions, beliefs, and stress that otherwise give rise to self-destructive behaviors.

People who practice iRest report: • Decreased insomnia, • Reduced depression, anxiety and fear, • Decreased chronic and acute pain, • Improved interpersonal relations, • Increased inner peace and well-being. Extensively researched, iRest is used with PTSD-diagnosed soldiers and veterans, students, children, and the homeless, and people experiencing chemical dependency issues, chronic pain, and insomnia.

Hope, Marx and the Body

May 30, 2010
Posted by Sharon
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I have had the great fortune of studying with and, in some cases, just been able to listen to, some people that I would consider to be genuine geniuses.  My fortune has been so great, that it would not be possible to list everyone here.  One of these people is David Harvey, who I met and studied with when I was a student at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York.  David Harvey is a critical geographer and anthropologist with significant passion for improving the conditions of life for humans everywhere.  Anyone who has studied Anthropology, or perhaps, any social science, knows that, it doesn’t look good for humans.  Almost every ethnography documents some kind of suffering—-the kind that we inflict on each other, the kind that we inflict on ourselves and the tragedies inherent with war, famine, natural disaster, racism, disease and the list goes on.  After six years of graduate work in Anthropology, I can tell you that the research consistently reveals that we aren’t that nice to one another and we don’t like to share.  Therefore, it is of considerable joy to read the hardly lighthearted, yet somewhat hopeful, work of David Harvey.  Specifically, I refer to his Spaces of Hope (2000).  Basically, the news still isn’t good, but Harvey presents small flickering lights in the tunnel of human doom that provoke the reader to become a part of something bigger than themselves in the name of the greater good.  The other risk of reading Harvey is that you have a song in your heart for Balzac, Marx and Benjamin even though you’ve never had the least bit of desire to read their work.

What role does Karl Marx and the body play in all this?  Harvey (2000) suggests that Marx, “…from the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts onwards, Marx grounded his ontological and epistemological arguments on real sensual bodily interaction with the world (Harvey 2000: 101).”  Here, Harvey quotes Marx (1964 edition, 143):

Sense-perception must be the basis of all science.  Only when it proceeds from sense-perception in the two-fold form
of sensuous consciousness and of sensuous need–that is, only when science proceeds from nature–is it true science.

What is not discussed here is how, for many of us, we have lost our sense perception.  Many of us dis-abled our tools of sense perception somewhere along the way and now we move in a most un-sensual way through the world separated from our bodies.  We do not know hunger or fullness and spend a remarkable amount of time in some variation of the over-pose: over-whelmed, over-ate, hunched over, over it, over you, over and under—-trapped.  One of the only sensations we recognize is discomfort.  While this can be seen as negative, this discomfort is an invitation to return to a sensual state and to notice how we feel.  For many adults, this discomfort encourages a first experience with yoga and many new opportunities for health and wellness.

If all you feel is discomfort, there are two things that you can understand that may be helpful:

1-As you are human, and your discomfort is part of your experience, you can now be open to a deeper sense of compassion for all other humans.  I invite you to sit and feel your discomfort and know that you are not alone.  We can use our own suffering as a connective link to all living beings.

2-No matter where you are and no matter what your circumstances, if you can feel discomfort, there is still hope!  If you have remained sensual enough to feel this pain, then you can use these sense organs to feel non-pain.  You can use the skills of yoga and movement to wake up these capabilities that you have for something different.  Something better!

Here is a short exercise that you can do for as long as you like or as short as you like and wherever you are right now. This is the exercise of pure sound:

Take a moment to open your hearing senses and listen to sound without  judgment.  No, it isn’t easy when you’d like to throttle your neighbor for power washing his driveway each time you try to take a nap with your newborn.  But, just for the sake of this exercise, hear the power washer minus the judgement.  The same goes for hearing something lovely, like the song of the Cardinal outside your morning window.  You might hear this lovely bird-song and suddenly wish that it would never end, or think of some other time you heard such a song or you might think that it is time to purchase more bird food.   The idea is to just listen—-without the stories, ideas, thoughts and negative or positive judgements.  As soon as your mind starts to wander from the pure sound, let go and return to a sensing of sound.  Don’t get frustrated if this takes work.  It is work.  This work helps us understand the quality of our thoughts and how so very much of our experience is determined not by reality, but by what we are doing with it.  The mind is constantly moving, but the more we can create some space between experience and thought about the experience, the more rested, relaxed and clear we are.  Less angry, less in pain, but more sensual, more open and liberated from the confines of our memories and experiences.

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REFERENCES:

Harvey, David.
Spaces of Hope.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.

Marx, Karl
1964 edition, The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844.  New York

Zen Sitting Group of Pittsburgh

May 24, 2010
Posted by Sharon
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Hogen Green has recently posted the new sitting schedule for the ZSGP.  Everyone is invited to sit with this group that meets by donation at Yoga Matrika in the Peace Room on some Sunday mornings and Tuesday evenings.  The Zen Sitting Group of Pittsburgh has been very generous to Yoga Matrika and it is their beautiful Buddha that creates a sanctuary out of the Peace Room.  If you are interested in Zen, I encourage you to contact Hogen directly.  He provides orientations for those in the community who are new to Zen if you let him know ahead of the meeting that you are coming and require this introduction.

Here is the focus for the next group of sittings as communicated by Hogen in his most recent e-mail to the group:

The Bodhisattva is the model of practice in Mahayana Buddhism, and our model of how to live a life in the midst of the turmoil and challenges we face both in personal relationships, the life and death of those we know intimately as well our own death, and the catastrophes we see and feel in the larger perspective of this world.
At then end of each sitting together, we take the Four Bodhisattva Vows:

Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them

Desires are inexhaustable, I vow to put an end to them.

The Dharmas are boundless, I vow to master them,

The buddha way is unattainable, I vow to attain it.

We chant these vows 3 times.

This is not a casual chant we do. Taking a vow, these vows, sitting after sitting is transformative. Can be transformative if we begin to make a connection between how we live in response to the challenge of our life, and what these vows are poinying at. Transformation is the point of Zen practice. But transforming what, from what to what? And how does this happen? How does our life actually change in a way that helps our self and others?

Over the next several months, I’ll be giving a series of monthly talks on the path of the Bodhisattva. We will look at that path from the perspective of Vow, from that of the Prajna Paramita Sutra- the Heart Sutra as well as from the perspectives of what the great teachers of our tradition have offered. I invite you to make a special effort to attend both the scheduled talks and the sittings so that the  words of the talks and the experience of investigating the Bodhisattva path can be given life: your life. I would encourage you to deeply question what is said in these talks and if it is helpful, to bring these questions up for exploration.

Here is our schedule for the next weeks:

Tuesday evening May 25th 6:30  zazen

Sunday morning May 30th 9:30 AM, zazen, liturgy and senior’s talk

Tuesday evening June 8th, 6:30PM zazen

Sunday morning June 13th, 9:30 AM zazen liturgy

Tuesday evening June 22d 6:30PM zazen, liturgy

Sunday morning June 27th 9:30 AM, zazen, liturgy and senior’s talk

I hope to see you in the zendo and sit with you in sharing the Dharma.

Sunday Spring Schedule (9:30 to 11:30 am):

May 30
June 13
June 27

Tuesday Evening Schedule (6:30 pm):

May 25th
June 8
June 22
You can read more about the Zen Sitting Group of Pittsburgh and obtain contact information for the group’s leader, Hogen Green, on the Yoga Matrika website:

https://www.yogamatrika.com//contact-us/zen-sitting-group/

Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, Owner and Director of Yoga Matrika.  Yoga Matrika is located in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of the City of Pittsburgh.

Hello There

Yoga and Hope

May 23, 2010
Posted by Sharon
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In the March 2010 issue of ODE Magazine, there is a thought provoking article, Great Expectations: How hope therapy can help banish mild mood disorders and boost happiness, by Catherine Ryan.  Among the many things that I started to think about was the way that yoga promotes hope.

What precisely is hope?  Hope is a subtle sensation and state of being, sometimes an emotion, that provides a vague sense that something other than what “is” can be possible.  It provides the foundation for every change, every decision and every transition that we find ourselves on the other side of.  Without hope, the capacity to love, to move, to grow or to change is stifled and the great shadow of fear and doubt can overwhelm us.  Hope is sometimes confused as faith, but although these both require one another, they are quite different.  In order to act on hope, one must have faith in the potentially positive outcome of one’s actions.  In order to have faith, there must be a song of hope in one’s heart or the faith grows hard like the stone of dogma.

The kind of hope that provides a boost to happiness is based on the idea that change happens.  Those of us who practice yoga regularly are able to experience this on our mats in every practice.  As we move through asana (poses) or pranayama (breathing), it is impossible not to notice that each breath is different, each moment of holding an asana or transition between the asana creates different sensation.  Some of these sensations and changes in the breath are not welcome!  But, we become uniquely aware through a practice that nothing is the same.  If you have not practiced yoga before, this may sound terrifying.  But, if you practice regularly, you are nodding your head and perhaps even smiling as you acknowledge the profound sense of liberation that this type of awareness creates.  None of us are stuck.  Not only do we have the capacity to change, but change is our natural state of being.

According to the psychologists who provided the data for the ODE article, “Hope, as defined by psychologists, is the belief that you have the skills and energy to make your dreams a reality (Ryan 2010: 53).”  They suggest that our current emotional state is often determined by our expectations for the future (Ryan 2010: 53).  In general, the idea is that hopeful people are happier (53).  If this is the case, then one of the best ways that we can cultivate happiness is to cultivate hope.  Research also seems to indicate that building high expectations doesn’t set you up for a harder fall (Ryan 2010:54).  In fact, high-hopers seem uniquely prepared to bounce back after a fall due to their ability to quickly evaluate a situation and make changes (54).  Yoga can play a role here too.  What we learn in our practice on the mat is that when we feel something “not quite right” we take a moment to breathe into it.  If things don’t change, then sometimes all we need is a soft blanket under our hip, or a block under our hand and, voila!, it feels just right.  What we realize is that it isn’t that we aren’t doing a pose “right” or “wrong,”  but rather that a simple modification can create an “ah ha!” moment out of an “uh-oh.”

Yoga also helps us learn how to set specific and achievable goals.  Apparently, for adults who do not have high-hopes, one of the first steps of hope therapy is to learn how to set a specific and achievable goal (Ryan 2010: 54).  In open level yoga classes, some students can do some amazing things with balance, with their strength, with their energy and some students struggle to just sit on their mat or lie still in savasana—yet they are all doing yoga.  When we first start out, we realize immediately that, while yoga shouldn’t be goal oriented, we can determine the types of goals that are and are not achievable.  It would not be realistic to think that we could come into an advanced balancing pose if we struggle to maintain balance in Warrior I, but it is not unrealistic to think that we can become more aware of our balance and the position of our feet in relationship to the earth.  We also find that great happiness and the complete benefit of the practice is available to us no matter what the poses look like.  After class, the person who could do a handstand in the middle of the room—feels great.  The person who did child’s pose for most of the class—feels great.  A regular yoga practice shows us that there is great benefit in simply being present.  If that isn’t hope, then I don’t know what is.

REFERENCES

Ryan, Catherine
Great Expectations: How hope therapy can help banish mild mood disorders and boost happiness.  IN Ode Magazine, March 2010, pages 53-54.

Written and posted by Sharon Rudyk, Owner and Director of Yoga Matrika located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.