Meditation in Motion

February 14, 2011

Posted by Sharon

Read here on basic instructions for mindfulness meditation.

Meditation in Motion: 4-class Series
Mondays 6:00-7:30 pm, 3/14 through 4/4
Facilitated by: Sharon Rudyk
Cost for 4-class series: $65 (Online Registration HERE)

Research indicates that the benefits of mindful breathing, gentle physical movements and a variety of techniques including visualization and meditation are powerful tools for health and healing. From reversing heart disease to changing the expression of your genes, a regular meditation practice has a significant impact on your quality of life. In this small group series, we will specifically explore a variety of meditation techniques that can be used by anyone regardless of your previous experience with yoga or meditation. We will do some physical movements, but these types of movements are very natural and can be accomplished by any adult regardless of your physical shape or abilities (they can even be done while sitting in a chair!). Relieve stress, relax the body and learn quick and simple ways to improve your quality of life every single day.

Here is a video about walking meditation

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 Mountain Pose
2	Bitilasana Cow Pose
3	Marjaryasana Cat Pose
4	Baddha Konasana Bound Angle Pose
5	Janu Sirsasana Head-to-Knee Forward Bend
6	Ananda Balasana Happy Baby Pose
7	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

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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!

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

Gesture of Awareness

February 27, 2010

Posted by Sharon

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I have recently become acquainted with the most fascinating and inspiring book, Gesture of Awareness: A Radical Approach to Time, Space, and Movement. The book is authored by Charles Genoud (2006) and published by Wisdom Publications.

The dedication of the book reads “It is over.” which gives a strong hint to the reader that their experience with time is about to get shook-up and turned on its head. How can it be over when the reader has just begun?

“But how can it be over before anything has started? And can anything really start? To start something implies it will go on, will end. That is the movement of time. But is there truth in this sense of movement? To start something is to step into time, and to step into time is to step out from reality into an insubstantial world of images, of language. Therefore, to start, to go on, to be over–may all be equally illusory. (3).”

I have been finding this radical approach to time to be helpful both in waiting out this month of record snow fall and in how I am viewing my academic pursuits. It seems that there will never be an end to this snow and the challenges that it creates. And, on most days, I am not sure that I can recall how I got on this academic wheel and I certainly don’t see an end in sight. Yet, if there was never a beginning or an end to either this weather or my pursuit of a Ph.D, then I am free to just be here today—-looking out at the beautiful snowscape from my window and reading and writing and thinking.

In the Gesture of Awareness, the exploration is of the way that “physical sensations never depart from the nature of awareness. The body is the main place of inquiry…. The body knows itself not as this sensation, or as that sensation, but as pure presence.” (11) When yoga students are asked to become aware of sensation in the body, this is an incredibly challenging request and one that both instructors and students need to respect. The first challenge is that, in so many cases, we are required to become numb to our bodily sensations or we have been taught that our bodies are shells for the more important things that we do as driven by our brains and the wants and needs that these brains create. The second, and perhaps greater challenge is that it is so very hard to define precisely what “awareness” is. How exactly does someone become aware of sensations in their body? What is used to become aware—the brain, the mind? And, what exactly is the mind anyway? Where is it located and how do I use it in my sensation-seeking activities?

Genoud asks us if we are using meditation as a way to simply distract ourselves from life (27). If so, then he questions the value of a practice that takes us away from life (27): “If meditation takes us away from life, what is the use of meditation? (27).” Genoud asks if we can be open in our meditation, “Can we be open in our meditation–can we be open as we walk or touch another? What does it mean to be open?” (31).

Every page of this beautiful book is a gem and I highly recommend it to meditators, students of yoga, instructors of yoga and meditation and anyone who wishes to be inspired to see the body in a different way. The ideas are profound, but presented in simple statements and phrases so that the reader can use this text for a lifetime of growth, peace and exploration of the body, soul and time.

Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, owner and director of the Matrika Wellness Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania http://www.matrikawellnesscenter.com and the community-based yoga studio, Yoga Matrika, also in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania https://www.yogamatrika.com/.

Find information about purchasing the book here:

http://www.wisdom-books.com/ProductDetail.asp?PID=16150

Another review is here:

“Gesture of Awareness,” by Charles Genoud

Meditation for Haiti

January 15, 2010

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SAFE and EFFECTIVE FINANCIAL DONATIONS to HAITI

My web home page is the New York Times, and I would be lying if I didn’t say that the images of injured children, devastation and large numbers of bodies being scooped and dumped by trucks have not taken their toll on my heart-mind. This is a most challenging time for Haitians all over the world. This is most likely an understatement and one that I may never, and definitely hope to never, understand the true depth of. The New York Times has a list of organizations currently accepting donations and you can access it here: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/haiti-disaster-relief-how-to-contribute/?scp=12&sq=giving%20and%20haiti&st=cse

If you live in Pittsburgh, or even close, Quiet Storm, a local vegetarian and vegan restaurant, is hosting a benefit dinner:

HAITIAN MENU Jan 19

I want to offer Yoga Matrika blog readers some links to organizations that are accepting donations:

UNICEF
http://www.unicefusa.org/?gclid=CLzslMOfp58CFWkN5Qodrxrk1Q

DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS
http://doctorswithoutborders.org/

PARTNERS in HEALTH
http://www.pih.org/home.html

Obviously, there is GREAT need and money is a type of energy that we can send directly to these organizations who can make sure that care is provided to the almost 3 million survivors of this most terrible earthquake.

What else can be done? We can meditate.

There is a very important kind of Buddhist meditation that can be practiced by anyone, of any religion, any time, any place. Human suffering in Haiti (you can read this Human Rights report to find out more) did not begin with this earthquake and there is suffering all around you—sadness, hunger, violence, inequity, pain. While it is easy to focus on the pain and suffering that is shocking and remarkable, this meditation asks us to to focus on human suffering in general. This meditation gives us power to acknowledge our own suffering, to wish something better for ourselves and to extend this wish to everyone, everywhere who is experiencing suffering.

It can be overwhelming to accept that last week, before this earthquake, in Haiti, there were children being kidnapped (according to the Human Rights Watch report, as many as one kidnapping daily) and food riots as so many people were starving to the point of violence. The United Nations estimated in 2008 that there were 170,000 children employed in domestic labor and only 50% of primary school aged children go to school with only 2% of the population finishing high school. The reality is that there is great need and tremendous suffering in Haiti and around the world. Rather than turn away, we have an opportunity and an obligation to face this pain and draw on the strength of our practice to build compassion and create peace and beautiful wishes for all living beings.

MAKING A WISH: Loving-Kindness Meditation for Haiti and all Living Beings

STEP 1: Sit quietly in a chair or on the floor (if this is comfortable for you)

STEP 2: Notice the quality of your breath and do a scan of your body from your toes through the crown of your head, just noticing how you feel, any sensations in your body and places that feel open or closed.

STEP 3: Make a sincere wish for your own safety, happiness, health and well-being. You can use phrases such as: May I Be Free of Fear and Harm; May I Be Content as I Am; May I Be at Peace with What Comes. Or, you can just make an honest wish for yourself in your own words that is meaningful to you.

STEP 4: Extend this wish gently to all living beings starting with the people that you care about the most, see them all bathed in the light of your sincere wish. Then, extend this wish to all the people that you know, including neighbors, friends, colleagues, the person who serves your coffee in the morning. Then, extend this wish to everyone in your city, state and country. Take your time. Be honest in your wish and sincere in your desire that everyone be granted this wish.

Step 5: Call into your mind’s eye Haiti and the world. See the light and energy of your beautiful wish bathing Haiti and the entire world in a beautiful light. Be sincere in your wish that all living beings in Haiti be granted peace, health and freedom from pain and suffering.

This is different from prayer in that you are sending energy not from a higher being, but from your own heart and mind to everyone who might need it. Although our American culture has made a commitment to certain beliefs about time and space, this meditation teaches us that we are also humans with energy that knows no boundaries and we have power to release energy in ways that defy these artificial boundaries we have created or believe in.

To Haiti and to everyone in the world who is in pain, suffering, sad, lonely, thirsty, hungry or in need. Please know that there is a little woman and a strong community of yogis here in Pittsburgh who sit in the quiet power of our minds and send you light, love and happiness. May you receive our solemn wish for relief and may it give you comfort and strength as you move forward into life.

Written & Posted by Sharon Rudyk
Owner and Director of Yoga Matrika and Prenatal Yoga Pittsburgh
https://www.yogamatrika.com/
http://www.prenatalyogapittsburgh.com
http://www.sharonrudykyoga.info

Zen Sitting Group of Pittsburgh

September 19, 2009

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Update 4/16/12:
Please note that the Zen Sitting Group of Pittsburgh no longer exists as the leader has moved away from Pittsburgh. This is an older post from 2009.

The Zen Sitting Group of Pittsburgh (ZSGP) meets at Yoga Matrika on alternate Sundays. Please see the schedule and more information about ZSGP below.

What is ZSGP? What is Zen practice? Who can participate?

The Zen Sitting Group of Pittsburgh (ZSGP) is a member of the Society of Mountains and Rivers (SMR), a network of Zen Buddhist sitting groups and affiliates of the Mountains and Rivers Order (MRO). The MRO’s spiritual founder and director is John Daido Loori Roshi, abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery in upstate New York. WWW.MRO.ORG

Zen practice can help us to wake up to who we are and to live out of that understanding. The questions that we take up during the course of our practice are the questions of our human existence: What is life? What is death? How can we truly be alive and live and die in a way that is real and fulfilling?

The door of ZSGP is open to anyone wanting to enter deeply into these questions. Newcomers and experienced practitioners are welcome. Beginning instruction in zazen (sitting meditation) will be offered at each sitting for those attending ZSGP for the first time. If you are attending the ZSGP for the first time, please call head to arrange beginning instruction on your visit.

Suggested Donation is $5. No one is turned away for lack of ability to donate. All donations are used to cover the cost of the use of the sitting space.

Sitting Schedule

We meet on alternating Sundays starting from 9:30 AM-11:30AM at Yoga Matrika located at 6520 Wilkins Avenue in Squirrel Hill (closest intersection is Beechwood and Wilkins and the space is next to WHEEL DELIVER) for zazen and a liturgy service. On the second Sunday of each month there will also be a senior’s talk by the group leader, Hogen Green. These talks on the Dharma will focus primarily on the relationship of Zen practice to daily life.

Autumn Schedule:

Sunday August 23: Liturgy, Zazen, Senior’s talk By Ron Hogen Green
Sunday, September 6: Liturgy, Zazen
Sunday, September 20: Liturgy, Zazen, Senior’s Talk
Sunday, October 4: Liturgy, Zazen
Sunday, October 18: Liturgy, Zazen, Senior’s Talk
Sunday, November 8: Liturgy, Zazen
Sunday, November 15: Liturgy, Zazen
Sunday, November 29: Liturgy, Zazen, Senior’s Talk

The group’s leader, Ron Hogen Green, MRO, is a senior lay student of John Daido Loori Roshi, abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery. Hogen studied Zen with Roshi Philip Kapleau between 1978 and 1991, then became a student of Daido Roshi in the Mountains and Rivers Order that same year. Hogen was in full-time residential training at Zen Mountain Monastery from 1995 until 2007, serving as a senior monastic. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife Cindy Eiho Green.

Contact the Zen Sitting Group of Pittsbugh:

Ron Hogen Green

Hogen@dharma.net

Tel. (412) 421-5176

Resources

Training in the MRO: http://www.mro.org/zmm/training/

Lay and monastic training in one of the West’s most established Zen Buddhist lineages

Meditation Instruction: http://www.mro.org/zmm/teachings/meditation.php

Clear, simple instructions in zazen (sitting meditation), the core of all Zen Buddhist practice

Retreats and Programs At Zen Mountain Monastery: http://www.mro.org/zmm/retreats/

Register online for weekend introductory retreats, week-long intensives and more

Monastery Store: http://www.dharma.net/monstore/

The Monastery Store is the online catalog of Dharma Communications, offering meditation supplies in the form of sitting cushions, books, audio and audio-visual teachings and altar supplies. The Monastery Store mission is to support home practice.

Mountain Record: The Zen Practitioners’ Journal is a quarterly published by Dharma Communications http://www.mro.org/mr/mountainrecord.html

For the last twenty-seven years, Mountain Record has offered powerful teachings of realized Buddhism from masters East and West, past and present, as well as essays, poetry, media reviews and art.

WZEN Web Radio: http://www.wzen.org/

WZEN is an original webcast produced at Zen Mountain Monastery, including discourses by Abbot John Daido Loori, Roshi, and talks by the teachers of the MRO, as well as a diversity of other programming relating to a life of spiritual practice.

Dharma Communications: http://www.dharma.net/

The educational outreach arm of the MRO, DC presents Zen teachings in a range of media

Qigong and Yoga: What is Zhong Dao?

September 4, 2009

Posted by Sharon

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It’s always a risk to put a class on the schedule that has a name that no one recognizes. I have taken just this kind of risk by creating Zhong Dao. But, the name is such a perfect reflection of this combination Qigong Energy work and Yoga class that I just can’t call it by any other name!

First, I think that we can examine what the different elements of the class are for clarity. One aspect of the practice of Zhong Dao is inspired by Qigong. Qigong is a system of exercises that allow the practitioner to “learn how to control the flow and distribution of qi to improve the health and harmony of mind and body (Cohen 3).” What precisely is qi? Qi (pronounced: chee—as if you were going to say cheese without the “se”) has been translated in many different ways, but one that can be helpful for beginners and is especially appropriate for this context, is that qi is life energy. Gong means to work. Qigong is a “wholistic system of self-healing exercise and meditation, an ancient, evolving practice that includes healing posture, movement, self-massage, breathing techniques, and meditation (Cohen 4).”

Second, what is the connection between this Chinese Qigong practice and yoga? “In India, the life energy, prana, is described as flowing through thousands of subtle-energy veins, the nadis. One of the goals of Yoga is to accumulate more prana through breath control exercises (pranayama) and physical postures (asana) (Cohen 26).” One system of Yoga that has incorporated Chinese yin-yang theory is Yin Yoga. One of Paul Grilley’s students, Sarah Powers, has written a beautiful book called Insight Yoga that shows the Chinese energy patterns (meridians) and yoga asana that activate different energy meridians in the body.

Zhong means middle or center and Dao means path or way. Therefore, this practice is the middle way and a way to create a sense of balance and ease in the body and mind. This practice is designed to relieve stress and tension in the body so that there is equilibrium in the spirit, the immune system is supported and optimum health can be maintained. We do some gentle stretching and energy warm-ups followed by a practice of the Eight Brocades and end every practice session with a healing meditation.

Hope to see you on Saturdays for Zhong Dao at 10:30am!

Here are some excellent references for Yoga and Qigong:

The Way of Qigong: The Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing. Written by Kenneth S. Cohen. Ballantine Books, New York: 1997.

Insight Yoga. Written by Sarah Powers. Shambhala Publications, Boston & London: 2008.

Yin Yoga: Outline of a Quiet Practice. Written by Paul Grilley. White Cloud Press, Ashland, Oregon: 2002.

Happy Happy,

Sharon Rudyk
Owner and Director, Yoga Matrika
https://www.yogamatrika.com/
http://www.prenatalyogapittsburgh.com

YOGA MATRIKA is located at 6520 Wilkins Avenue in the Squirrel Hill/Point Breeze neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You can reach Sharon by calling (412) 855-5692.