Tag: soul

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

Make a Poem of your Flesh

September 23, 2009
Posted by Sharon
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“This is what you should do: love the earth and the sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men…re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss what insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem.”

WALT WHITMAN

Whitman suggests here what every yogi knows–the choices we make with our mind are reflected in our bodies.  This is  beauty.  You know when you are in the room with beauty. Thinking back on all the beauties you have been around you know that it isn’t the type of beauty that Cover Girl is selling that sticks with you.  The beauty that you see in others is their poem and the memory of it is a song that vibrates through your own body poem.

As we move through various asana (yoga poses), we have an opportunity to try on different characters and ways of moving and being in the world.  One minute a warrior, then next a dog—only to transform with just one breath into a pigeon and end up a cheeky little monkey.  Through this experiment, we find that we can listen to the poem of our body.  Sometimes, the poem rides the rhythm of the breath. Other times, it is our grunts and the sounds of our effort.  Crow or cow face, there is no yogi in history that does not come up against some darkness.  Sometimes, the poem of our bodies in practice is a ballad uncomfortably narrated by cellular memories we have not before dared to expose.  Sometime, the poem of our bodies is like going out for dessert at midnight.  Delicious.

Here is a simple way to listen to your body and get in touch with the poem of your flesh:

Lie down on your back somewhere comfortable.  Before you lie down, take off your shoes and socks, watch and release your hair from any clips or bands.  Place one hand over your heart and the other hand over your navel.  Feel the rise of your body as you take an in breath.  Feel your navel drop down towards your spine as you exhale.  Do this for as long as you like.  The mind will wander, but you don’t need to follow it.  As soon as you notice that your attention has drifted away from feeling the breath move through the body, you just return to watching your next in breath. 

When you feel ready, bring your awareness to the soles of your feet.  As you inhale, feel the energy of the breath enter through your feet.  Relax the space between your toes, ankles and the bones in your feet.  Feel the connection of your palm to your heart and your palm to your navel center.  There was once a time when you received all of your information about the world and all that sustained you through your navel.  Allow this breath moving through your feet and palms to remind you of your origins, your roots.

Inhale a deep breath as you release your hands and bring your arms up over your head.  STRETCH and reach through your arms and hands as you point your toes.  Hug your knees in to your chest and rock from side to side.

Come up to sit for a moment.  See how you feel.  If your flesh was a poem now, what would it be?

Keep up with the poetry Pittsburgh yogis!

Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk
Director, Yoga Matrika in Pittsburgh, PA
https://www.yogamatrika.com/

Guide for the Advanced Soul

July 14, 2009
Posted by Sharon
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I once had a roommate in New York that I never met. 

It’s a sort of complicated story and one that wouldn’t be all that interesting to repeat.  Suffice to say, I am now the owner of two of his left behind belongings that have changed my life.  One, is a pink crystal ball.  Seriously.  And, fortunately for you patient reader, not the topic of this essay!

The second, is a small book titled, A Guide for the Advanced Soul: A Book of Insight.  It is created and handwritten by Susan Hayward and published by Little, Brown and Company in 1984.  The intention for the book is that you use it as a guide when you have a problem or need guidance to help you make your decision.  After a brief period of meditation, you put forward your request to the universe and randomly open the book.  The guide’s instructions indicate that, “The first words you read will tell you what you most need to hear.”

Even the instructions are of interest to me.  They are interesting because they draw upon our ability to read something powerful and feel as though we have been told something or had it whispered to us or that we’ve used our ears to absorb something.  That’s how powerful the meaning of the words on the page are to us.  So powerful that as we read them, even as we use our eyes to scan the page, the part of our brain that listens—hears something.  This, as the instructions to the guide suggest, is intimately attached to the meditation before the reading.  It is the meditation that stills the mind and allows for us to access our intuition.  It is the intuitive self that reads the words and is able to make sounds of them.

I am particularly attached to “my” copy of the book because my roommate, whoever he is and wherever he is now, folded down the corners of some pages.  The pages that were speaking to him loud and clear.  Perhaps the very pages that told him that returning to New York, even to retrieve his belongings, wasn’t the right thing to do.  Sometimes, I cheat.  I don’t follow the directions.  I just open the book to the quotes chosen by its previous owner:

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”  ~Albert Einstein

“To change one’s life: 
* Start immediately
* Do it flamboyantly
* No exceptions (no excuses)”
~William James

“Man cannot discover new oceans until he has courage to lose sight of the shore.” ~ Unknown

Sometimes, yoga classes turn out to be our guide.  We just feel a little stuck and we need a class, so we just go to whatever is on the schedule and are disappointed to find out that it’s a different teacher than who we expected.  After class, we realize that this particular instructor met our need uniquely well.  That their words, style and tone were precisely what was required to advance in our practice, be creative about a project, to return home to wrestle the kids to bed………Or, maybe you’ve recently found a new teacher that is working just right for you now.  That’s just like folding down the pages.