"It's all jenni"

clear, clean and free...

2012-01-30T07:29:00.003Z

Sutra 4.12
"The existence of the past and the future is as real as that of the present. As moments roll into movements which have yet to appear as the future, the quality of knowledge in one's intellect and consciousness is affected." (Iyengar translation)
So the "past and future are woven into the present". This I can relate to. They are real, but they are real now, not at another time. Everything that happens or have happened is here and now as a form of a dormant state.
Iyengar writes that "The understanding of time, releases one from bondage", and when I go along with this suggestion; that past and future only have existence in the now, I'm free to have an other childhood, past experience or future at any given moment. I consider this one expression of ultimate freedom.

Time has both positive and negative effects. It can allow development or acquisition of knowledge to take place, a broadening of the horizon. But intellectually it can be used as a story of being robbed of spiritual knowledge and time can be used to position us into pride (asmita). Emotionally it can create attachments to pleasure and aversion to pain, and instinctively it can bring us a clinging desire to live.
Iyengar writes that this sutra gives us the promise that we can be set free from this and rest in the present and become "clear of head, clean of heart and free from time".

It inspires me to work with the "set a side - prayer" (great reality, let me set aside everything I think I know, so that I may have an open mind and a new experience)and searching for a new experience with an open mind in every asana and every class.
It inspires to explore being new, because in being new, however frustrating this is for the pride-position :-) it's the most clear, clean and free I know right now.
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

into an other dimension

2012-01-15T19:45:00.000Z

Iyengar translation of sutra 4.11:
"Impressions and desires are bound together by their dependence upon cause and effect. In the absence of the latter, the former ceases to function."

This reminds me of Van Morrison singing "it's not why, why, why - it just is", (yes I've quoted this before, but it's a personally important wording of an experience for me). So when the "why" disappears the effect disappears too!!! This is my experience.
When the story of why I'm being mad/angry/sad/victim... disappears, the state of being ... also disappears. (I can't help all the exclamation marks, this is personal strong spark - propelling forward in a divine direction.)
The stories are ego-stories, built to be limited and thereby destroyed. The new direction that builds within is a divine direction that has no cause and no effect in jenni-words. It just is. As I told you - I've been asked to notice what is and what is not. Well this is one of the "is's" :-)

I know I'm fortunate, because I've been given back to life, from an experience of dying, so I don't have to use my intellect to decide whether there is a greater power or not, that can release me from the chain of cause and effect.
I'm one who can use the path that includes help from God; Desikachar writes "There are many ways, including the help given by God." But he also states that the atheist who cannot use God for help, can find help in the first three chapters of the yoga sutra.

In yoga asana work, I also have stories about why I can or cannot do certain things.
I know that; even though I might not be able to do a specific asana from one day to the other (even if this sometimes happens), I can get set free from the story of "not being able because...". This makes me absolutely present in the moment. When the stories of "why I cannot do a certain thing", lets go, then I can do/act/be at the place I'm really at right now.

Relating to the last weeks sutras, it's about being set free from dualities, or polarities. About moving from "good and bad" into an other dimension of actions that are "pure" or "something else". I find help in a greater power here, I put the judgment over in the hands of great reality, and thereby I'm set free from the judging position. In the yamas and the niyamas, we're asked to do a daily inventory of our conduct and life. I find that this inventory practice brings me into this "other dimension", this is such a paradox! By judging my day, reviewing it, evaluating or inventorying it - all judgment ends.

Namasté
Jenni Saunte

longing for imortality

2012-01-08T19:33:00.001Z

Both Iyengar and Desikachar gives me a cosmogony, when they unfold their understanding of this sutra. I get to read about a world view that describes how we humans came about and were... put together..

Here is the sutra 4.10, in Iyengar's translation:
"These impressions, memories and desires have existed eternally, as the desire to live is eternal."

Desikachar writes that this eternal desire to live is "what inspires the instinct for self preservation in all of us" . Just like our eternal longing for immortality, so is the memories and our desires eternal.
Since there is something destructive in the urges that are built upon these impressions and memories, I relate to this sutra by my life experience. I have both the destructive and the constructive powers in me. Iyengar writes about how yoga can set us free from oppositions (black and white actions) polarities of pleasure and pain. Hereby we will not be driven by past memories and the fears and desires they lead to and we will get free from experiencing joy and sorrow. Maybe destruction and construction end here, like time ends here?
Ok, I'm gonna let me go there :-) maybe the circle of destruction - construction - or karma, if you want - gets so close that we suddenly cannot see a beginning or an end and suddenly there is no time any longer, the autumns chestnut falling of the tree is the birth of spring.

This is a great meditation, to try to rest in the pause between breathing in and breathing out, to try to find the exact moment where one breath is transformed into the other. Impossible and great meditation.
I also love the meditation to experience breath as a giving and a receiving. As soon as I think I've got it figured out (for example; "inhalation is giving") it turns up side down and into it's opposition.

Ok, this sutra inspires me to search for freedom from being driven by "wants" and "fears" in asana work, to go for neutrality. But it also inspires to work with whatever brings vitality to me and pass this on. Right now it's to work with chest full and abdomen hollow. Rotations and chest openers brings vitality to me, so this is a focal point.

Happy new(?) year :-)
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

continuous process

2011-12-22T19:01:00.002Z

sutra 4.9
Desikachar translation: "Memory and latent impressions are strongly linked. This link remains even if there is an interval of time, place or context between similar actions."

Iyengar translation:
"Life is a continuous process, even though it is demarcated by race, place and time. Due to the uninterrupted close relationship between memory and subliminal impressions, the fruits of actions remain intact from one life to the next, as if there were no separation between births."

Iyengar tells that the theory of karma is explained to the sadhaka to inspire movement towards non-white and non-black actions. Since these desireless actions makes it possible to explore "the kingdom of the soul".
In my world this turns into; as Jenni is not driven by fears and/or wants, I get free to see what actually is and relate to reality more intensely and become.... more real :-) In asana words; when Jenni don't avoid an asana because I'm afraid what I might meet in me in this challenge and/or when Jenni don't do the asana to show off (to get your approval) -then I'm free to see what this asana really brings me. What really is there, and connect with this. NICE.

My master has told me to let go of this intense judgment, I have, of my lack of strength. I face it in some asanas (for example the virabhadrasanas). Instead he tells me to do less, either fewer of them or shorter time, so that I can experience ability (instead of failure) and work from this point. So the next time I go to these poses, my memory is not a failure, but a stable starting point. My possibility to start up new from where I'm really at.
Love and light - in the darkest day of the year..
Jenni Saunte

2011-12-12T10:00:00.001Z

Iyengar translation of sutra 4.8:
"These three types of actions leave impressions which becomes manifest when conditions are favourable and ripe."
He writes that we have four types of actions, the first three leaves impression and memory, that builds a base for desires or disturbance (such as anger, lust, greed, infatuation, pride and envy). The desires and disturbances can rise right a way, but they can also become dormant.
But Patanjali describes a way out; even when in desire or in disturbance, if we turn our consciousness towards the inner seer, through the path of yoga, we can practice the fourth type of action that have no desire and no disturbance.

I relate to this through the instruction to recreate serenity in the inner environment by softening the face, throat and abdomen, and letting breath be smooth and even. To stabilize the mind and be able to see more clearly, more neutral again.
I also relate this to one of the good things by showing up and taking classes. Just follow the lead of a teacher, sometimes this brings me more neutrality from my disturbances about wants and don't wants. (sometimes not)
At least I do what I don't want in a class situation - at home I sometime just skip the annoying or provoking asanas:-) that might be good for me.

I know this in getting over grave challenges- it all (old crap)surfaces again (have tried so many therapeutic and self-help techniques), unless I give it to great reality (path of yoga).

So my guideline is to show up and go for neutrality, soften face abdomen and throat and smooth even breath.
Namasté

A yogi's action are neither white nor black

2011-12-09T12:59:00.000Z

"A yogi's action are neither white nor black. The actions of others are of three kinds, white, black and grey." (Iyengar translation of sutra 4.7)
Iyengar points out that "The unmixed action of the yogi are beyond sattva, rajas and tamas. They produce no positive or negative reactions in the consciousness and hence are free from duality". I get to be the one to see how duality expresses it self in yoga sometimes, and I'm Not attracted to it (this and this teacher say so and so,,, and this and that is right and wrong). It is really uncomfortable to sit in - so I move along. And feel release. I guess this is being safe and sound and not be part of the duality game (this time).

Desikachar points out that the "state of yoga" can lead us to "the highest state of clarity and detachment [we] can be beyond motivation" . I remember the first time I heard the stories of Mahabharata (11 years old) the meeting between Arjuna (my personal hero) and Krishna, made a lifelong impression on me. This is where Krishna tells Arjuna to be a warrior and go into battle, not to win, not to loose, not because of right or wrong, but just because this is what he is, and I think the word duty was used :-) and I could just return to this moment again and again. Today it connects to the thinking of "what's true will last" to me it's an encouragement to be what I am (it's a really smart shortcut to reality).

First thing I think, when I read the sutra is; this is an instrument to measure "what is and what is not"- yogic. If my action is neutral and undisturbed, it's probably part of living the yoga-state.
So in my asana work; if I'm undisturbed (this doesn't necessarily mean not shaking or not sweating), and not in judgment of my asana, just being and experiencing, well then it IS yoga. If I'm in judgment (comparing me to the others, or showing off or being ashamed) -then the yoga-state IS NOT.
hihi
My master just thought me that it's not about good or bad, or right or wrong, it just IS or it just IS NOT :-) so I'm complying to this suggestion.

My experience can only confirm this sutra is. And just as I wrote last week, I still long for more neutrality. Neutrality feels like heaven.

In my personal practice neutrality is often a part. I almost always feel more neutral and free when alone with asana than in a group setting. With my master the neutral yoga-state almost always is a part. When neutrality-blessing is there, I usually don't even think about it. I show up in my warm, tight woolen underwear, that really don't suit me :-) but it's easy, I live spiritual consent with my master to adjust whatever I do on my mat, so he better be able to see what's going on, and I need something warm, so... wool :-)
Last time I really could feel I lost the "state" was in Stavanger, where I just got so tired of being weak. All my expression, work and mind got unstable, by judging me as weak. It's non of my business and I get free by remaining neutral.

In the beginning (some ten years ago) I was very picky on who did what and how, but today this neutrality is more extended, sometimes things happens (body-adjustments), change appears over time, instead of trying to pull every little bit out this one class, I can see is this an expression for how this student shape is today or is it a part of a development, a change. It also works much better for me to welcome people that are late than to yell or ban them - I know most yoga-teachers do the opposite, it just is Not efficient in my experience.
In my personal practice my effort is neither black nor white but I get to be stable, by showing up on a daily basis, I get to have a daily practice by showing up every day. I get to be loving by loving my practice unfolding. I get to be amending and caring, by showing up in my practice. So, sure all three gunas are there at times, off course I'm sometime overly excited, sometime lazy (often) and sometime balanced and harmonious - but just by showing up - I'm blessed and grateful.

Namasté
Jenni

neutrality is given

2011-12-02T12:03:00.000Z

"Of these activities of consciousness of perfected beings, only those which proceed from meditation are free from latent impressions and influences."
Sutra 4.6 Iyengar translation.
In Iyengars description; meditation set us free from the emotional wheel of obstacles like; lust, anger, greed, infatuation, pride and jealousy. Meditation leads us into the center of emotion to the consciousness of the heart so we can expand spiritually. Because this consciousness have "neither virtue, nor vice, fluctuations nor afflictions". This consciousness of heart is conducive to experience kaivalya (freedom/emancipation).

How do I relate to this?
I relate to this with my urge to become more neutral, more anonymous. To get to see things happen and not get disturbed, this sounds like heaven to me. I'm not there yet as you can tell, but in moments I have got to be identified with the observer instead of the "victim", or the "mother/ex-wife/lover/employee"... In yogaasana practice, this is "just do it" not because or to get or why or contingent on... bla bla bla but "just do it" and neutrality is given.

What is my experience?
My experience confirms this sutra. I felt absolutely free in the moments where I got to be neutral to the "stimuli" of the emotional wheel. Sometimes I have the opposite experience, to send or give something and then discover that I wasn't really free, wasn't neutral, because I want something from the other person, a certain response, or a certain action. I get to see I had a condition. The unconditional is, most of all; so easy , sometimes there is not even a thought of "having done something" and no judgments or wants or wills.

How can this inspire my personal daily practice my teaching?
I'm inspired to seek to develop the meditative state, in order to develop more and more of the neutral state - the observing position.
And I can seek to cultivate continuous awareness - by giving something to my students to focus on and to choose from the many suggestions of focal points in "light on life" that Iyengar suggests. I mean every sentence so far in this book could be a focal point for a class by it self!

Namasté
Jenni Saunte

free from the emotional wheel of obstacles

2011-11-20T13:12:00.001Z

"Of these activities of consciousness of perfected beings, only those which proceed from meditation are free from latent impressions and influences."
Sutra 4.6 Iyengar translation.
He describes it as meditation sets us free from the emotional wheel of obstacles like; lust, anger, greed, infatuation, pride and jealousy.
Meditation leads us into the center of emotion, to the consciousness of the heart, so that we can expand spiritually.
Because this consciousness have "neither virtue, nor vice, fluctuations nor afflictions". This consciousness of the heart is conducive to experience kaivalya (freedom or emancipation).

How do I relate to this?
I relate to this with my urge to become more neutral, more anonymous. To get to see things happen and not get disturbed; this sounds like heaven to me. I'm not there YET (as you can tell), but in moments I have been given to be identified with the observer instead of the "victim", or some role like; the "mother/ex-wife/lover/employee"...

What is my experience?
My experience confirms this sutra. I felt absolutely free in the moments where I got to be neutral to the "stimuli" of the emotional wheel. Sometimes I have the opposite experience, to send or give something and then know that I wasn't free, wasn't neutral, because I want something from the other person, a certain response, or a certain action. I get to see I had a condition, I wasn't really free. The "free" action have qualities of the meditative state. It is calm, clear and at ease.

How can this inspire my personal daily practice my teaching??
I'm inspired to seek to develop the meditative state, in order to develop more and more of the neutral state - the observing position.
And I can seek to cultivate continuous awareness - by giving something to my students to focus on and to choose from the many suggestions of focal points in "light on life" that Iyengar suggests. I mean every sentence so far in this book could be a focal point for a class by it self!

consciousness is single

2011-11-16T10:32:00.001Z

Iyengar translation of sutra 4.5 "Consciousness is one, but it branches into many different types of activities and innumerable thought-waves."

Even though consciousness is single it still can cause disparities between thought and action, words and deeds.
If [consciousness] stops directing thoughts (in all these ways), the need to culture the consciousness towards transformation does not arise.

This is the sutra where Patanjali gives us a reminder to channel our energy into the right direction, and gather up the multiple focuses (foci's)..
and Iyengar gives us a goal to move towards; "all sorrows and joys come to an end".

How do I relate to this?
Right now I relate to this, by doing amends. Or showing up willing to make amends.
I need us to be one, since there is nothing but oneness. So if I think I've somehow acted like there was anything but oneness- I need to make this as right as possible again (not to buy me free-card from some kind of sin, but to get back in center, into balance). Until now, the other part haven't answered, this is not necessary, in my experience. I just have to find the inner answer of how to make amends or find a surrogate to make the amends to. In this case the making of amends is a single positive focus that replaces the multitude of ego-foci's - the "I want" "I am bad" "I should" defense and judgment. I've been given directions that is really quite simple: If they were wrong - forgive them. If I'm wrong - make amends.
And then on we move...

What is my experience?
In asana work, if I shift back and forth between adjustments and focus on this and that - I get more and more confused.
If I instead, focus only on one adjustment, all of the asana gets stronger, and some of the other adjustments happen.
Like if I focus on lifting the back side of my ears - my chest bone naturally rises, and then the top of the shoulders naturally falls back, and naturally the chest opens. Then there is more room for a free and spacious breath to move and re-energize the whole system. Fantastic! and doing all this I have a quiet head, that just registers all the exciting things that happens instead of talking about weather the asana have been long/short/comfortable/hard ... Fantastic!

How can this inspire my personal daily practice and inspire my teaching?
I care for one focus at a time, and I go where the spark is. I take notice of what we have in common and let the differences float on - for someone else to care about.
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

Unity and individuality

2011-11-07T12:49:00.002Z

Iyengar translation of sutra 4.4:
"Constructed or created mind springs from the sense of individuality (asmita)."

He writes: from self-awareness, numerous activities becomes associated in ones consciousness, thereby giving rise to mental states called moods... They taint, distort or disturb the intelligence" (amen!!) He tells me that if my confused and mood-driven mind becomes steered towards the right focus, it can unfold a fine sensitivity.

I relate Iyengars understanding of this sutra to a speaker I once heard, who said that all problems arise out of self, and that "being something else than "at-one" is the root of all pain and suffering. Iyengar writes "The sadhaka [the yoga practitioner] has to draw back ... the "I" consciousness, from the head towards its base, so as to lose its identity." To me this sounds like becoming the hole in the donut.

Ok, so in asana-work this means, to me, that if I'm in individuality-mode, trying to show off or comparing (pride or judgment) I'm not "at-one" with the asana and my mind is disturbed. Then my asana is weak and often off balance. My asana-work suffers. When the roles of individuality is gone, the asana just is, and it doesn't matter if anybody sees it or don't sees it, if I'm adjusted or not. It is just fulfilled - this is a blessed state.
I've had the same teacher where there was many intrigues in the room (loads of ego and showing off), and every asana was affected by these tensions, and with the same teacher and no comparison or ego-motifs were on, and the asanas deepened and were more soft and intense (which is a remarkable combination!)

I relate the unfolding of this sutra to the saying: "hold dig til din egen måtte" :-) in english something like: "keep the focus on your own mat". Words I was given to teach from my first education. It also gives depth to the words in every class about letting go of all ideas and expectations there might be to this now.

It inspires my daily practice... well I've been complaining in my head like mad about always always always doing supta padanghustasana - every time. Oh I've had a grudge on this asana big time. But this sutra tells me - that it's not about me and my wants and wills. I'm to go into the asana for unity and cultivating awareness.

Namasté
Jenni Saunte

breathing spirit

2011-10-30T07:47:00.002Z

On sutra 4.3
"Nature's efficient cause does not impel its potentialities into action, but helps to remove the obstacles to evolution, just as a farmer builds banks to irrigate his fields." (Iyengar translation 4.3)
Iyengar writes: "Through yogic discipline, the yogi removes all obstacle to her evolution, and enjoys emancipation"

Prayer, as means to remove obstacles - or with connecting to "Natures cause" or "intelligence" through prayer. I use this in my daily practice, by not trying to force through an idea. Instead (this month) I've started to experiment with using my breath to adjust my body. To me this is a way to let nature have it's way and remove whatever obstacles shows up. I experience it most clearly when I work this in balance-poses. Ardha chandrasana, my old way of adjusting just created the motion of a pendulum. Just breathing towards an idea, feels ... slow, sane and caring. But sometime it feels too slow :-)
Breathing to me, is both prayer (exhalation) and meditation (inhalation). In latin "breath" is called "spiritus" and "spirit" is called "spiritus" - I think they were on to something, we have it in scandinavian languages as well - breath is "ånde (andas)" and spirit is "ånd (ande)". I experience this to be an authentic connection reflected in our languages.

Desikachar translation; How can such changes of mind be achieved? "But, such intelligence can only remove obstacles that obstruct certain changes. Its role is no more than that of a farmer who cuts a dam to allow water to flow into the field where it is needed" (D 4.3)
He describes it to be about knowing "what to do", in addition to having "good soil.." from the beginning. We must know the process and how to support it..

To me, the yoga-inventory, working the yamas and niyamas on a daily basis - in addition to the daily asana practice, brings me knowledge of my personal soil :-)
I get to be the farmer of the jenni-soil, it is most clear to me in these two mentioned practices (inventory and asana practice) But a set of guidelines grew out of these practices and they steers me towards something that I only can call ... more true/more appropriate or more authentic.
An example is; writing inventory about getting angry at people that don't come on time, then writing inventory on being angry at me for just waiting and putting everything else on hold, when they don't show up. Looking at these inventories again and again, and at the same time listening to a guide I have: I suddenly heard! I'm here ten minutes before and ten minutes after, if they haven't come ten minutes after and no messages !! I move on!! I have tested this guideline for the last 4 years! and this guideline sets me free from the obstacle of being disturbed (angry). Every time. Sometimes the other person gets upset, by me just not waiting - (that's their inventory :-)

Right now it inspires me, as a teacher, to do a bit more pranayama this week and work with the principle of vairagya (surrender), to let nature take care of the obstacles, instead of fighting them in the poses :-)
Namasté
jenni

rigorouse austerities

2011-10-22T16:57:00.000Z

"Exceptional mental capabilities may be achieved through genetic inheritance, the use of herbs as prescribed in the sacred texts, recitation of incantations, rigorous austerities and through that state of mind which remains one with its object without distractions (samadhi)." 4.1 Desikachar translation

Iyengar translation of sutra 4.1: "Accomplishments may be attained through birth, the use of herbs, incantations, self-discipline or samhadi."
Iyengar specifies that this is about different means of spiritual accomplishment.

Well my well-being in the world is contingent on my spiritual growth. So this is an important sutra to me personally. I don't think I'm genetically more capable than anyone else to pursue a spiritual life. Then again this disease, I genetically inherited, made me reach a bottom in self-reliance pretty quick, so maybe thats a sort of genetic predisposition?! First good thing ever about this crappy disease. The use of herbs... just the thought scares me so much I move to the next part of the sentence. Recitations and rigorous austerities seems to be the way for me. Not, that I have any power in myself to "be" rigorouse, but since I've just showed up on the path, I seem to be given "rigorous austerities" in my everyday by my greater power. In no way, does it become a rigid path, but a frame of stability in my practice, that grant me so many gifts, working meditation, prayer, contemplation, yoga-asana-practice, inventory (yamas and niyamas) in my every morning, my every evening and precious contact to a loving fellow-journey-mates in between, just makes a jenni-variant of rigorous austerity happen in my life. Grateful for this.

This week I'm moved to adjust asana using breath - I seem to correct too much when I think "muscle power". As a teacher give room and place for working towards moving with conscious contact to the inner body. I've started to read mr. Iyengars book "light on life" and was inspired here. I love how my master starts us up in sitting pose, and when the body is seated, he says "now, wait for the inner body to settle" It makes so much sense and is a very concrete experience for me.
Namasté
Jenni

immediate, spontaneus and total

2011-10-09T16:55:00.003Z

Desikachar translation of sutra 3.54:
"Such clarity is not exclusive of any object, any particular situation or any moment. It is not the result of sequential logic. It is immediate, spontaneous and total."

We gain it by samyama on time and sequencing or as Iyengar writes about sacred knowledge, in the translation "the yogi... grasps instantly, clearly and wholly, the aims of all objects without going into the sequence of time or change".
I can relate to the sutra, since any experience I've had - however short - of a truth or an insight that makes sense in all ways possible, have been immediate, not growing. Suddenly it just makes sense. For example the realization that energy is not just another word for a "mood", or how “fresh or tired” we are. Maybe; I have been moving towards a new experience with what “energy” means, by showing up in classes and doing what was told. But !! suddenly a new sensation was there, that had nothing to do with “mood” or “power-level” in the muscles. It was: immediate, spontaneous and total.

Sometimes when I work the sutras this way, my ego wants me to be more humble :-) and suddenly I'm sooo new and soo small that I have nothing to contribute with. I guess, just like a micro macro cosmos, there are micro and macro connections to the sutras. Today, it is more important to share what I can relate to and have experience with, rather than be humble and connect to "I know oh soo little". Some days it is the opposite.

Sutra 3.55
What is freedom?
"Freedom is when the mind has complete identity with the perceiver." (D translation)
Desikachar explains; "The mind has no colour or features of its own."

This is where I have an experience of freedom in yoga asana practice these days:
1. after chest openers (ardha kapotasana on chair or elevated chest on block in supta bada konasana).
2 after class in savasana.
3 singing mantra in Italy :-) still mantra with my students resonates on the same experience.

These are areas in life I experience freedom this week:
1. When I find the humor angle (on me), I got frustrated at work, because of to much to do,, so I walked away of an situation very upset, and suddenly I could see myself behaving like a martyr, it just became completely funny and I could laugh and I was free - without the situation changed the least..
2. When a problem looses its importance (unsolved or solved). I have a relation that I choses to stay in because of my kids, it's a challenging one, but when I find that its not important what they communicate to me - I'm free, not because they communicated better or more respectful/lovingly.
3. I experience freedom with my partner. Freedom to be me and to chose to interact, do stuff together or not do stuff together. And more new - I experience freedom the reversed way to. I'm free from having anything to do with weather he wants to be alone or together. Nice!
My experience is, that if I feel it in one place in my life - it will spread!

Iyengar writes: "kaivalya [freedom] the indivisible state of existence" this is particularly interesting for me. I've studied the concepts of "sens" contra "reason" or in Scandinavian languages: fornuft - kontra- forstand. Both of the concepts has to do with our ability to understand, grasp or seeing clearly. But reason or "forstand" is in history of philosophy, understood as the power to analyze by dividing in to parts to put together in sense-making patterns. However sense or "fornuft" (slægt med fornemme) has to do with making whole, uniting, recognizing, relating and connecting. For me this just makes sense that Patanjali states that freedom is indivisible and still a sacred knowledge. One we get to know using another part of us than our analytical thinker. I might be slightly of track for the rest of you, but for me this is right on spot :-)

This is the last sutra in pada 3, now we move to pada 4: "Kaivalya Pada" where, as Iyengar writes; Patanjali takes us to the subtlest sheath, the soul

Thank you for reading and thank you for letting me share!
Namaste
jenni

to distinguish, see clearly and to be in the now

2011-09-23T09:14:00.000Z

Desikachar translation: "This clarity makes it possible to distinguish objects even when the distinction is not apparently clear. Apparent similarity should not deter one from the distinct perception of a chosen object."

Iyengar: "By this the yogi is able to distinguish unerringly the differences in similar objects which cannot be distinguished by rank, qualitative signs or position in space." (3.54)

The first thing I have to do - is to remind myself of "what" is this sutra referring to... It referres to last weeks sutra and how we can be set free from our stories about time and get into the clarity of the present moment.

Oh!! I'm having a revelation right now :-) This is why it is so important to share a moment with someone!!! in the moment we are clearly at one with whatever we are experiencing and as soon as the experience is "over" there is only a subjective story of an experience. If I have traveled to a place with someone this experience is alive in the now when we meet afterwards. If I saw a concert with someone the concert is alive in the moment we meet.
Well this sutra gives me some words to why it makes such a big difference to be together - it is in the clarity and authenticity in the here and now.

In my asana work this brings about why it is so vital to go to a teacher and to take classes - to share the experience - and no story about these can replace the direct wordless being together.

In asana and teaching it moves me into working with the "here and now" the wordless experience and the search for clarity.
Letting go of old stories and fear of coming stories.

It fit well (again) since I just borrowed a bunch of books and Cd's on the subject mindfulness. I have only tried a little of this, since every time I try it I can't figure out why this should be something other than yoga. But now I finally decided to educate myself a bit :-)
Namasté
Jenni

Moment and movement...

2011-09-10T09:46:00.001Z

This feels like a very important and dense sutra.
As I read it, its about being in the present moment and reality.
Desikachars translation: "Samyama on time and its sequence brings about absolute clarity."
Desikachar gives us two definitions: "Clarity is the ability to see distinctly the difference between one object and another and to see each object in its totality without impediments." "Time is relative. It exists only by comparison of one moment with another. A unit of time is.. a representation of change." Change means that one characteristic have been replaced by another. We need to meditate on and integrate the link between time and change.

This is the why and the how of "a daily practice". We need to have a daily practice to be able to study, meditate on and integrate the difference between what changes and what is still. What is undisturbed and what is affected and transient. (new word for me - a good one!)
How to have a daily practice in the present moment is described by Iyengar: "One of the reasons why, as a teacher of asana, I'm so intense, and was in the past even harsh, is that I wanted to give the students one and a half hours of present life in a lesson." I recognize this, both as a teacher and as a student, when the demand and the challenge meet my ability and possibilities I land in the present moment - always in my teaching, and most times when taking classes. (I've only once left a yoga class because it was,,, well bad, and only very few out of hundreds have been boring, and this might just as well have been my state of mind as the teaching..)

I can relate to the description of the "now" as a timeless, changeless and sacred moment; "Moment comes between rising impression and their restraints and vice versa: it is a quiet intervining state, auspicious and pure, and is to be stabilized, prolonged and expanded so that consciousness becomes absolute."
It relates to my experience on meditating on the breath, the point in between inhaling and exhaling, and exhaling and inhaling. Where I start of with the quest to find the exact point in time where we go from one to the other, and by this is given prolonged pauses between the rise of the inhalation and the falling of the exhalation. I also have this amazing experience with meditating on the space between two thoughts. It also relates to the hatha-yoga teacher training I first took, that accentuated every pause between two asanas - gave time to experience the effect of the asana done and the neutrality on the inner palate, to be ready for the next asana.

Iyengar writes that; "Movement is timebound, transient and ever-changing", that movement of mind creates psychological time, and movements of moments creates chronological time (past and future..).
In yoga we are to stay attentive to the moment, not to the movement of moments.
The promise is that this will make it possible for us to stay undisturbed.
We need to stay undisturbed to see what is reality and connect to it.

So for this week - to be in the stillness between movement and stay attentive to the moment and not the movement.
Namasté
Jenni

moving towards freedom

2011-09-07T10:29:00.000Z

"The temptation to accept the respectful status as a consequence of acquiring knowledge through samyama should be restrained. Else, one is led to the same unpleasant consequences that arise from all obstacles to Yoga."(Desikachar translation)
Desikachar adds that obstacles can include false identity and he specifies that high learning is a smaller goal to the yogi than everlasting freedom.

This sutra reminds me of my goal. This is the most important; to become free or unfold being free! I'm grateful for the reminder.
Higher knowledge or more understanding is fine - clarity of vision and wisdom is a beauty - but it's not the goal. Being free is.

In asana "being free" means, to me, for example to be still while arms or legs moves, or to be at ease even though there is an effort (strength/flexibility)to invest.
In life "being free" means, to me, today :-) I'm not attached - to my work, role as girlfriend, mother, daughter, friend, bike owner :-) hihi to you liking me - to your approval of my writing or being or doing.

I have repulsive feelings both when I idealize someone but also when I'm being idealized - today I know this is a healthy reaction, to not be attracted by this, because it is a false identity.
Namasté
Jenni

motivation for doing yoga

2011-08-28T06:02:00.000Z

3.50 these extraordinary capabilities can be gained through samyama, should not be the final goal, in fact: "Freedom the last goal of yoga, is attained only when the desire to acquire extraordinary knowledge is rejected and the source of obstacles is completely controlled"
Desikachar

3.49 Iyengar "By destruction of the seeds of bondage and the renunciation of even these powers, comes eternal emancipation."
Iyengar talks about the seeds of sorrow, bondage and weakness - that comes if we mistakes the extraordinary power of yoga as the goal for doing yoga - the goal for engaging in the process...
When we pursue the goal of yoga (kaivalya) and renounce the powers that comes along the way- the self can achieve absolute independence and abide in it's own nature.

So I've felt great and free in some respects - by doing yoga on a hard situation in my life I've felt free and powerful like never before. But this sutra brings me awareness of what a dead-end it is to pursue the nice sensations of doing yoga. This sutra suggests to me, that maybe this is just part of what comes along the journey, not the goal for the journey. Maybe I can become totally independent in the challenging situation and neutral - not even feel great and strong and free. Just be - not feel- free... I'm curious and willing to try anything to become free from this dependent state of being (when the dependence is hooked on stimuli, affirmations, people, success and whatever that comes along).

For class; find out motivation for doing yoga, connect to this during class.
To go for neutrality and being free.
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

flawless perception of reality

2011-08-21T18:23:00.001Z

Sutra 3.49 (Desikachar translation and count) “When there is clear understanding of the difference between the Perceiver and the mind, all the various states of mind and what affects them become known. Then, the mind becomes a perfect instrument for the flawless perception of all needs to be known.”
Oj I love this! Clear perception is my goal. My last six years have been dominated by a passionate love for reality – all included – even some of the worst things I could imagine to see, doesn’t touch this love for reality and the sensation of being real – authentic.
I’m told by my master to keep my eyes on the reason for doing yoga – not to be getting lost in the vast playing field of yoga. I guess this is it – yoga makes me more real and makes it possible to see what really is – even though it still just is in glimpses and moments. I treasure them.

Other stuff I’ve practiced this week and will continue on is keeping it simple and basic. I don’t fool around. I show up on my mat every day. What’s gets done gets done. I don’t even spend time thinking about the rest.
I’ve been teaching chair supported asanas – it’s like having a new toy. But here I also stay with the basics, I don’t try to do something advanced. Not that my lovely students couldn’t do it, but because I need to keep me grounded and real :-) also as a teacher.

So – flawless perception – to you all :)
Namasté
Jenni

keeping it simple

2011-08-14T06:37:00.000Z

Sutra 3.49:“By mastery over the senses the yogi’s speed of body, senses and mind matches that of the soul, independent of primary causes of nature. Unaided by consciousness, she subdues the first principle of nature (mahat).” (Iyengar translation)
(This is Desikachars counting sutra 3.48, I was wrong, they still have different count)

I really have no experience with this. It reminds me of how many people say that flying goes so fast “you can’t get your soul with you”. And this sutra turns it around, to yoga can give us to always be in sync :-)

To work this, without having an experience to build upon I chose to work with coordination and synchronization. To let body, mind and breath be one. Inspired by this sutra I will continue my focus to find truth and reality and hereby I trust I get closer to mahat. I need to keep things easy right now and look at what I know and have experience with these days.

Inventory, daily posture practice and you know, seek reality, clean house, help others :-) will be it for this week.
Namaste
jenni

Mastery over the senses

2011-08-08T17:10:00.001Z

Sutra 3.47: "Mastery of over the senses is achieved through samyama on the ability of the senses to observe their respective objects, how such objects are understood, how the individual identifies with the object, how the object, the senses, the mind and the Perciever are interrelated and what results from such perception." (Desikachar translation)

I’ve been thought to monitor and measure my body in the asana, to get deeper and clearer on what’s going on and who I really am. Well here I’m given the characteristics of mind that assist perception; heaviness, activity and clarity. So I can monitor my perception, on what characteristic is dominant at the perceptive moment. This in order to measure the influence this have on my idea of the object (reality)and perhaps manage the influence to become less so that I get more close to the truth, closer to reality.

Iyengar writes "at some stage when the senses are appeased, they and the organs of action becomes passive, and a state of quietness is experienced.” Normally this is a passing state, until the next stimuli triggers the senses and we go of hunting for more (pleasure) or trying to avoid it (pain)… But samyama on this process may set us free, from being driven by the senses and this is what this summer retreat have been about for me – getting more and more free.

I thought I was going to get inspired as a teacher and more efficient as a teacher, this might be – I have no contact to this, but there is a clear contact to the experience of getting to know me honestly, authentically and I have a clear contact to this promise of "being set free" from being driven by wants and fears.

Namasté

Jenni

hardness and brilliance

2011-07-31T14:15:00.000Z

3.47 (Iyengar counting+translation) “Perfection of the body consists of beauty of form, grace, strength, compactedness, and the hardness and brilliance of a diamond.”

I relate to this, mainly by recognizing these aspects in teachers I’ve recognized a true yoga-relationship in. I relate to this as a body-sensation of the asana itself while doing it. When my teacher calls me – across the room- to tell me that my belly shouldn’t be hanging in ardha chandrasana :-) and I follow instruction, my sensation is that my body becomes more hard and the asana more sharp. As a teacher I guess that going for the exact detail, sharpness of movement, is a possible unfolding of this sutra.
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

stay unaffected while...

2011-07-30T16:49:00.001+01:00

sutra 3.45 Thus, "When the elements are mastered, one is no longer disturbed by them. The body reaches perfection and extraordinary capabilities become possible." (Desikachar translation)
sutra 3.45 "From that arises perfection of the body, the ability to resist the play of the elements, and powers such as minuteness." (Iyengar translation)

here is my "YEY" we're back on the same count of the sutras again, relief to me, that always wants my world to be together :-) That’s why I posted both translations.

So a promise - working with yoga, meditation and integration ~samyama~ will set one free from being driven by outer circumstances.
To me this translates into; as becoming more and more one with the reality, the (illusion?) possibility of being driven, disappears in the true unity between the yogi and the great reality.
Iyengar writes that we gain "wealth of the body" and stops "falling victim to the obstacles posed by the elements.
As I read the comment on the sutra (Iyengars) I see that we are promised to be set free from the elements affect on us (to be neutral to heat/cold, dirt and damp) and the movements of the elements will no longer cause disturbance or obstructions.

What a great promise!!!! This is what my year has been about so far - to become less disturbed, more neutral and well… unaffected.
I don't know if I can relate this sutra to any of my own experiences...
Maybe in bits and pieces. I know that when I have made a decision and it is based on my inner most self - connected to reality and just right - nothing can affect it. It just is - done.
It's like when I'm in a balance pose and the foundation is right, it's almost restful even though it might have been the toughest and a very strength-demanding pose, just a second ago...

As a teacher I get to see how one information suddenly make a change for the student - that's a blessing- and it manifests in a stable and serene kind of expression.
So In personal practice, go for the stable – I experience it most clearly in the start, for example I stand in tadasana, and have great contact to the earth and a lifting! To keep the grounding and stay unaffected while lifting arms or moving back or legs.. This is a nice challenge.
Maybe I try to pass this on in teaching as well.
Love and light
Jenni

"come together, right now" sutra 3.42-44

2011-07-24T16:01:00.002+01:00

Summer salutations from Italy
Here are the reflections on the sutras I brought with me to a wonderful yoga-retreat I went to for three weeks. Maybe I post the reflections on the retreat itself later...
But most important first!:

Sutra 3. 44 “Samyama on the origin of matter in all forms, appearances and uses can develop into mastery of the elements” (Desikachar translation)

Again I felt like this journey was supporting to me reading exactly this sutra. We were told about how all matter origins from the four elements and how their characteristics can change. This was the first time I ever wanted to listen to ayurveda wisdom. My masters wife spotted my true nature at once, and just because my heart knew she saw my energy and not talked about some “woman-magazine-quiz” I was open, at once, to recognize my truth. Well I know my right element and I have opened up and welcomed a few suggestions. Well You can’t expect me to give up my opinion –that all categorizing of the world into boxes are futile- to fast. I still don’t believe in it ...except for me myself. I know she spotted me and I know all her yogic- and my herbalist friends food- suggestions are true!

I know why I have craving for some asanas and what asanas can help me. I have a starting point – not bad for a vague, unclear person – yes! happyjenni

Sutra 3.43 “By examining these phenomena (how mind influences our perception) and developing conditions when the mind does not confuse perception, there arises an extraordinary faculty with which one can probe other minds. In addition, the clouds that obscure right perception are minimized.” (Desikachar translation)

I found that all my three weeks was about this – to become less obscure (stepping into the sun). More connected to the truth, to reality. My master talked about this (and I soo dearly love when what I read and what I hear support and connects to each other) and he called yoga posture practice a “house cleaning process” to be rid of what’s blocking us from perceiving truthfully.

I also got it – why it has to be yoga to the extreme, not only just nice and safe, for me. I get to meet the parts of me that are unavailable when I’m not at the “edge of reality”.

To be at the edge of reality, for me – is to be close to God (=reality) and very close to the most true in me – and it doesn’t matter that I don’t like it. It doesn’t matter that I don’t want to be that way. It just is, because when at the edge, my egos opinion have no power and egos hiding mechanisms are out of order.

I surely met some stuff in me I don’t want to see, but I also got to see things that had been transformed and healed. Yes we cry, laugh and sometimes both in this cleaning process, but it sets me free ...even though some of my crocketies most certainly traveled back to Denmark with me :-)

Sutra 3.42 “By doing samyama on the relationship between the body and space, and examining the properties of objects that can float, such as cotton fluff, the knowledge to move about in space can be achieved.” (Desikachar translation) Desikachar mentions that the cottonseed has a character that prevents it from floating, but when changed into cotton-fluff it floats easily. This is a promise to me that all my potentials might not be outlived right now, but (yoga-) transformation might make me free and light like the cotton-fluff so that I can unfold the possibilities in me that I hardly believe I contain at this moment.

I relate to this practice from my summer retreat in 2009 where I suddenly felt so thin, like paper in utthita trikonasana. I had this possibility in me all the time, but suddenly I could access it and –well the sensation was different. (wish I could have hold on to this experience, but I couldn’t, probably for my best)

In my three weeks in Italy this became a game, to collect “floating experiences” to stop up and take in every floating seed-fluff, butterfly, clouds, rose-pedals, blanket fluff and thin garment (see through shadow). I got to see the resemblance with the movement of things and people in water. I somehow know this is the easy part for me. The floating possibility is not a stranger to me.

Oh, and a personal favorite was when my master talked about being light and achieving a floating quality – I almost said out load “Yes! Like cotton fluff!” hihihi

Namasté
Jenni Saunte

lit a fire :-)

2011-06-18T09:50:00.000+01:00

Here is a sutra I can only vaguely relate to:
Desikachar translation: "By mastering samana, one can experience sensations of excessive heat." (3.40)
or Iyengar translation: "By samyama on samana vayu, a yogi glows like fire and her aura shines." (3.41)

Desikachar places the focal point to the navel and Iyengar places it to be in the middle of the torso - maybe this is the same, kind of?? And they both writes about; heat, fire, digestion and life forces.

I've always believed in what I was told about agni - I was told this was the fire of life, that we could lit through yoga. This fire did not only digest food (or what we use to create body-heat), but it digested experiences (to me - it ate my bad experiences and set me free). Working with this, I know from experience that yoga can lit a fire in me and turn something into ashes and cleanse me.
Some of my colleagues tells that one can get pimples or bad breath from doing intense cleansing work with yoga, this, they tell, should be because the cleansing have been so strong that (affaldsstoffer) not poison but something along that line, let’s call it waste – has to come out afterwards. I have yet to try this, I only know of it from my mind, being cleansed from garbage in my mind/head and feeling neutral or clean like ashes afterwards.
Desikachars suggestion (passing down the tradition of) to work with retention after inhalation to access this, I have a vague baby experience with this from some of the longer retreats I've done but mostly, at home in my everyday- I don't get warm at all. My guess is that I have a long way to go.

Namasté
Jenni Saunte

mind, experience and stimuli

2011-06-11T21:01:00.001+01:00

Sutra 3.38 "By mastering the forces that transmit sensations from the body to the mind, it is possible to master the external stimuli. For instance, one can tolerate water at any temperature or the effects of thorns, or one can walk on unstable surface, and even feel as light as a balloon." (Desikachar translation).

This sutra comments on how much the mind has to do with what we call external stimuli. Like hunger, or lack of external stimuli; food :-) Desikachar brings up an example I know too well: the child who cries violently for food and the next minute plays and smiles, all absorbed by the game. This are my kids when they were smaller.

I know this very well in my self, sometimes I get so hungry it almost hurts and I get really irritated and edgy to be with. Other times I’m so absorbed by the work or asana that I forget time and space.. and meals.

Desikachar also brings up the example of how one mans the trouble of walking in a jungle is the other mans trouble of walking in Manhattan, for the person who grew up in the tropics, in warmth of the tropics are no bother at all, just like cold arctic winter doesn’t cause distraction for the person who grew up here.

This addresses how the mind affects our experience by being a “storehouse of experiences”. Experiencing hot and cold, or the steadiness or unstableness of what we walk on is affected by our mind and our previous experiences (habits) but it doesn’t have to, is the fine message of this sutra. We all can get perfectly free from the domination of mind, by engaging in certain practices, like pranayama.

As a teacher I know that certain in asanas it helps to .. offer a possible distraction to the mind, so that the experience of being a long time in the pose doesn’t talk us out of being there. It can be of applying details and variation. This is also the toughest part of self-practice, to stay longer in an asana that brings about an effect after, but is tough during the “stay”. For me this is typical for poses that brings strength, I just want to get out of them – they almost feels painful to me. I have a few of the poses which bring about flexibility and serenity (haha) that almost gives me an explosion of thoughts about getting out of the pose. Hard, when there is nobody, but me, to keep me in the pose. Last year I put an egg-clock on five minutes in some poses, just to stay longer, but it was not the same as having a teacher to tell me to stay.
Namaste
jenni Saunte

Reach beyond the confines of oneself

2011-06-04T10:14:00.001+01:00

I just love the challenge of this sutra!
the foundation is the understanding of the mind as a storehouse for distinct individual experience. "The function of the mind is limited to the individual to whom it belongs. Thus the mind becomes an isolated fortress, resisting all entry."
Desikachar translates the sutra 3.38:
"By enquiring into the cause of this rigid situation binding the mind to the individual, and examining the means of relaxing this rigidity, there is a great potential for an individual to reach beyond the confines of himself."
By working with these suggested disciplines for example pranayama and keeping the mind clean, "the mental activity can be extended to influence others". Desikachar exemplifies it as practical in the teaching situation.

To this I say - ok
I can relate to it this way; When I'm in a long time relationship I get more and more free from "wrong understanding" of my partner, I slowly get more and more clear insight into this persons universe and mind. This is due to yamas and niyamas work in the relation as well as each of the persons in the relation own personal inventory and unfolding.
When I'm experiencing that I'm safe and protected I get to challenge the rigidity of my mind and the limitations dissolves from inside slowly expanding the limits from the inside.
This is also where I get to experience being more than just an individual, or experiencing we are one or being part of something bigger. These experiences are the most valuable ones for me. Today I know I need them to live authentically and in accordance with my truth. I need to have a teacher who also have done the journey, I need to have many fellow-passengers to share the experience with.

In asana work (and thereby every situation in life) I have two types of understanding the "aha" experience, and the "dimmer" where I get to see the lights turned on slowly.
My literature (other than sutras) now tells me that understanding is a feeling. Nothing else. I can relate to this.
If the limit between two individuals minds, really goes away and there can be "true understanding" between persons is not important. But me sensing the feeling of being understood or understanding is great, but maybe just another color on the "palette of feelings".

I get a little dizzy when I think about how big the universe is, and I get the same weird feeling thinking that there maybe never is any understanding or meaning to it all, other than what we experience or project unto it....
So for this week, reach beyond the confines of oneself, opening and relating.
Maybe connecting or partner work?

Life is wonderful :-)
Namste
Jenni

sidetracks

2011-05-31T19:31:00.001+01:00

Desikachar talks about how the mind is like a double edged sword. The sweet gifts of yoga and samyama can easily be used by our creative mind to seduce us off the path and into seeking the gift that comes along instead of the ultimate state of freedom. Sutra 3.37 “For an individual who may revert to a state of distraction, this extraordinary knowledge and capabilities acquired through samyama ade worth possessing. But, for the one who seek nothing less than a sustained state of yoga, the results of samyama are obstacles in them selves.” (Desikachar translation and counting)

If I do continuous yoga posture practice I get rewarded with for example a sense of lightness or vitality in my everyday. But if I change my commitment to be about getting this sensation I somehow loose it and something else in my life breaks down or I loose contact with the sense of being free that was carrying the experience that brought about the sense of lightness hmm not easy to write about.
I can relate on a personal level as well. After a larger traumatic injury the healing process brought about some unexpected gains in form of new work and different living situation(s). And when I get sidetracked by these gains, and I do sometimes, I loose contact to what really matters… to be alive and my passion for life, being ultimately free. Somehow I find that the “sidetracks” has a lot to do with ego and my … character-challenges :-) oh yes let’s call them this today.

So I keep the focus and keep on working and walking the path that brings about truth, ease and being free. One daily practice at a time, one evening review (yama/niyamas) at a time. One asana at a time :-)
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

sense and move on

2011-05-21T09:56:00.001+01:00

3.36 "Then, one begins to acquire extraordinary capacities" (Desikachar translation and count)
Tak
So the ordinary is to be driven by a hundred forms of fear and desires that clouds our sight and connection into the great reality and the state of yoga.
When I get set free set free from only focusing the outer object, and by samyama on the perceiving process gets connected to my inner seer, the inner truth gets revealed...
"So when I focus on the object my inner Perceiver stays unrevealed to me – but still strong. When I move my focus to the perceiving act or process, when I experience something in me receives or perceives the emotion or sensation – I start to experience the inner seer. That, which is not the stimuli, not the sensation but the canvas or the space. " from last week..

Sutra 3.36 promises me that some "extraordinary" capacities will arrive. In tha asana my surrender can lead me into completely new knowledge and experience. But reverse; my experience is that if my ego get boosted again, by for example insecurity, by visiting a new teacher, and I questions my inner truth. I can, suddenly, loose connection to the extraordinary strength or lightness I sometimes access.
This inspires my personal daily practice to keep sensing what I sense and try to move towards not being driven by my story about "why" I sense what I do and stay a bit longer
(I have a mind that always concludes I better stop, almost at any sensation of discomfort).

It can inspire my teaching to keep differentiating about what we sense in the asana and what the choices are based on. That the part of us that is sensing for example fatigue is not fatigue, the part of us that sense anger or grief is not angry or grieving. There is a possibility at all times to connect to this inner witness or observer.
I'm not good at this in asana practice, I'm actually a complete beginner in life to Not try to fix any attraction and repulsion I sense in life. In march I had this returning meditation on sensations being just like colors - not something we should put meaning into. Just sense and move on...
hard for me :-)
Namaste
Jenni

change and stillness

2011-05-14T06:57:00.000+01:00

Sutra 3.35 “The mind, which is subject to change and the Perceiver, which is not, are in proximity but are of distinct and different characters. When the mind is directed externally and acts mechanically towards objects there is either pleasure or pain. However, when at the appropriate time, an individual begins enquiry into the very nature of the link between the Perceiver and perception, the mind is disconnected from external objects and there arises the understanding of the Perceiver itself.” (Desikachar translation+counting)

So when I focus on the object my inner Perceiver stays unrevealed to me – but still strong. When I move my focus to the perceiving act or process, when I experience something in me receives or perceives the emotion or sensation – I start to experience the inner seer. That, which is not the stimuli, not the sensation but the canvas or the space.
Desikachar writes about how an attachment to an object is like having muddy glasses on – it doesn’t help that the eye is good and the sight is clear, the mud on the glass makes the object blurred.
Iyengar writes about being “free from egoism” this is very useful for me. I was given the definition of the ways ego “blurs the sight” we know them as “selfish, self-seeking, dishonesty and fear”. Or the yamas and niyamas give us useful hints :-)

When I read these two texts, I think what Iyengar calls the soul, is what Desikachar calls the perceiver. I find that in my world it is more easy to relate to the inner seer or inner Perceiver for now. But I’m not sure.
I love these sentences; “By samyama, the yogi has to disentangle the knot that binds the intellect and the self, and isolate the refined intelligence. From this comes isolation of the senses, mind and ego, and finally the release of the light of the soul.” (Iyengar on sutra 3.36)

Namasté
Jenni

heart and mind

2011-05-08T06:19:00.002+01:00

3.34 "Samyama on the heart will definitely reveal the qualities of the mind." (Desikachar translation+counting)
Heart is considered the seat of the mind.
If the mind's quality is unsteady, shifting and nervous - well my experience is that my heart beat is affected as well. If there is pain on my mind I can actually feel it in my heart region. Medically they have found that there are cells in that heart that we also have in the brain. You can read about it here:

"The idea that we can think with our hearts is no longer just a metaphor, but is, in fact, a very real phenomenon. We now know this because the combined research of two or three fields is proving that the heart is the major center of intelligence in human beings. Molecular biologists have discovered that the heart is the body's most important endocrine gland. In response to our experience of the world, it produces and releases a major hormone, ANF - which stands for Atriol Neuriatic Factor - that profoundly effects every operation in the limbic structure, or what we refer to as the "emotional brain." This includes the hippocampal area where memory and learning take place, and also the control centers for the entire hormonal system. And neurocardiologist have found that 60 to 65% of the cells of the heart are actually neural cells, not muscle cells as was previously believed. They are identical to the neural cells in the brain, operating through the same connecting links called ganglia, with the same axonal anddendritic connections that take place in the brain, as well as through the very same kinds of neurotransmitters found in the brain."

I had a slight problem to find the (french, I think) researcher who made the discovery... But I read his book 6 years ago, and this reference is describing the same thing.

Iyengar uses the word consciousness in this sutra- which is different.
I'm still not sure about what the mind is and what the consciousness is, in your beautiful language, but I will get there, I'm getting more and more close.
Iyengar writes that the yogi can tap the source of her being and identify herself with the supreme - by samyama on the heart.
If reality or authenticity is the supreme, and already the hearts movements so easily reveals to us where we're really at, I'm all open to the suggestion that samyama (meditation and integration) on the heart should lead me to my essence, and to the great reality within.

In class and practice; let the heart lead, connect to heart in practice and asana. Maybe make the connection more tangible by doing some chest-openers and some pranayama that make the area sensitive and aware.

Namasté
Jenni Saunte

to understand instead of being understod

2011-04-30T07:48:00.001+01:00

Sutra 3.33 “Anything can be understood. With each attempt, fresh and spontaneous understanding arises.”(Desikachar translation and counting, Iyengar 3.34).
I resently took a class where the teacher passed on the word from Iyengar that “as long as we’re trying we haven’t failed”. I guess this makes sense to me. I’ve had some time to follow the guideline of “trial and error” what’s right will always survive, what’s true is still true after any test or tryout. Only the false and … wrong, will vanish or disappear (I love the later).

Godfrey Deveraux repeated to me that the birth of new cells and the new generation of cells, make it so vitally important – this attempt we’re in right now! right here.
To me this connects into this sutra.

This sutra also relates to Saint Francis of Assisi’s prayer; (grant me;) to understand instead of being understood. An authentic position for the “I” maker is to try to understand, it’s ok that it is a “trying” not just “doing” it :-) I’ve had some difficulties about the position as “trying” which ment for me, not to succeed but I’m another place now. Trying is just as true a position, alongside succeeding or doing – trying to understand, is just as fine as understanding. The balance or tension between these two positions is a spark, a transformative power.

Iyengar writes; “As day follows the dawn, impulsive nature is transformed into intuitive thought through which the yogi possesses universal knowledge”
Starting to trust, having an intuition is fantastic, nothing less, and doing this in a fellowship among others on the same path is even better, having a guide to share with; who has gone through the journey is a blessing. I get more real, sharing my experience and I get more connected to My path, My truth and clarity.
My path and truth becomes clearer when I listen to others expressing their truth and path.
When we are in very different worlds I get to reinvest in what’s working for me, free from “agreement” and safety of consensus. I get to play I choose my path as something different and as independent. When I listen to someone who’s having the same path as me, I also become more real and rich (this experience is just more pleasant for my ego ;-)

So this week; attempt and facilitate new understanding. Keep on trying and keep on living it – moving towards and being already there!!!
And experiment in practice, with trusting new intuition.
Namste
Jenni

reality is here to live

2011-04-24T14:00:00.000+01:00

3.32 “Samyama on the source of high intelligence in an individual develops supernormal capabilities.” (Desikachar translation and count)
Through this, he writes, we may receive support and greater vision from the divine forces. To me it means supernormal, so deep into the normal (real) that it touches its essence.
To receive support and vision from the divine forces, is to me to connect into what’s real on a deeper more true level. When my mind and perception is less disturbed, I can see more clear and thereby find guidance and support in something real instead of my disturbed story of whats going on…
So this week go for a deeper more steady connection – reach out to touch and sense and be as awake as ever possible!
We will be working with heart and chest, with feet and foundation.
Partly because this is as real as it get’s for me these days, but also because this is the most rewarding and transforming part of my practice – as a teacher I stay true to where I’m at, and thereby I give the best I have to my students at all times.
Namasté
Jenni

the scared is here to die

2011-04-16T06:16:00.001+01:00

“Samyama on the chest area and enquiry into the sensations felt there in different physical and mental states gives one the means to remain stable and calm even in very stressful situations.” Sutra 3.21 Desikachar translation+counting)

We experience the symptoms of stress and anxiety in chest area.
Iyengar mentions the six spokes of the mind; lust, anger, greed, infatuation, pride and envy. Samyama on the chest transforms them into friends and brings steadiness and the emotional center into a state of undisturbed.

I relate to this, intuitively I've searched into asanas where I can feel my chest (and meditate on this sensation) in times of stress or anxiety. It works. In my world it's been formulated as - chest-openers takes courage and brings courage.
The sunsalutation, the virabhadrasanas, the natarajasana and chandrasana...
Mostly this year I've enjoyed the preparation work for kapotasana.

I also have had great enjoyment of a teachers words about the "yoga-heart" where he tried to talk about this sensation where the heart is more and transcending the heart and chest area - an energy clearly felt and beautiful to meditate on.

In my life I have a gesture where I touch my chest with my right hand, to invite the scared or worried position in me to join in the situation we're at.

I guess for practice this is an observation-point that enriches the practice. It's easter so my focus is also on being reborn. I guess the scared is here to die and the position of being reborn into courage is a possibility - for example this could be via the journey of samyama on the chest.

Namaste

Jenni Saunte
happy easter light

throat is a vital area

2011-04-09T09:03:00.002+01:00

Sutra 3.29 (Desikachar counting) “Using the throat as the point of enquiry Samyama provides an understanding of thirst and hunger. This enables one to control extreme symptoms” (Desikachar translation)
My first reaction was that I have nothing what so ever to relate to this, but I love the suggestion and the game it invites to. I’m a pig for candy and sugar is a stimulant that just grabs me and I get this urge or craving for it sometimes… oh yes. So this sutra suggest the game, next time with sugar-craving try focusing on my throat ;-) and see what happens. Ok! I’m on it.

I can relate to Desikachars words “the throat is a vital area” and to me appetite is a part of loving life and a sign of vitality. When it’s in balance… I know that something is working when the bandhas just happen, and the jalandhara bandha is fabulous and clear to experience.
To the women that have given birth; I think the most similar experience to the bandhas are the experience of giving birth; when the body(or reality) just takes over and uses the body and the only position left for “me” to take; is to follow along, observe, enjoy (not so much the birth, but the bandha). We can make certain effort to make it happen (tired of the rhino–experience, remember? We tried to make the birth happen with sex :-) walk, wash the floor, drink certain tea, and hospital can give drugs..) but we still can’t do it, suddenly it appears and we can be more or less consciously participating (or trying to get out of it). Ok, I’m not completely sure, but that’s fine.

Now I have been in teacher training for a month and I love it! I love the focus on the everyday practice and I love the transformation that happens. I have to order some of my books still…
Namaste
*jenni*

navel navel who am I??

2011-04-02T16:42:00.000Z

Sutra 3.28 (Iyenhgar counting) “By samyama on the navel, the yogi acquires perfect knowledge of the disposition of the human body” (Iyengar translation)

And since it’s the body we gain knowledge Iyengar recalls what the five layers of the body are.. I just keep on quoting;
“The anatomical sheath consists of seven substances: skin, blod, flesh, sinew, bone, marrow and semen…
The physiological sheath consists of the circulatory, respiratory, digestive, excretory, endocrine, lymphatic, nervous and reproductive systems.
The psychological sheath is the seat of motivation…
The intellectual sheath, reasons and judges.
The spiritual sheath, body of bliss, is also called the casual body.”

So these are the areas of knowledge we are promised to achieve, if we meditate on and integrate (samyama) the navel.
One of my daughters had a very close relation to her navel her first 7 years in the world. She should always touch it if she was sad or when the evening came.. She called it “maldi” which means nothing in Nordic languages (it’s called navel here as well…), so when Iyengar mentions that the navel is a centre of all the nadis in the body, known as kandasthana (kanda=egg) and that all our energy arrives from this centre, well I’m not completely surprised :-) even though I still have only a vague idea of the nadis.
But this new form of Yoga I’m committed to, shows me so much more from the inside, (wordless I’m gaining knowledge of the nadis and the chakras – sorry guys if this is too flowery for you)
I don’t have to read books (haha working at a library, even if I work a lot with development it’s still a BIG statement). Actually the organization of the sheaths is also interesting if you work with organization of knowledge or databases in any old way (Linné, dk5…Dewey classification system). It serves as an opposing force – beautifully to us westerners thinking we have it all put into the right places – I just love this!!

So for the asanas, the teaching, the home practice this week; energy of the body (thanks) and focus on the navel, recognizing the sheaths or starting to experience some of this wisdom (not instead, but along with).
Namsté
Jenni Saunte

My new litle friend :-)

2011-03-28T13:00:00.002Z

How amusing - I just loove this game :-)

2011-03-26T10:21:00.001Z

Sutra 3.28 “Samyama on Polaris gives knowledge about the relative movements of the stars” Desikachar translation (3.29 Iyengar counting).

So by integrating and meditation on the Polar star the yogi will get knowledge of the movement of the stars. I have never tried this, I have no experience with this. But I can relate to Iyengars word by word translation;
dhruve – fixed, firm, permanent, the Pole star, era, tip of the nose
tat – from that, of their
gati – movement, course of events, fortune
jnanam – knowledge

To me this means by meditation on and integrating what's firm and fixed I get to know what's changing and moving.

I can relate to this! For example, in the asanas where I twist, when a part of the spin is fixated (upper back fixated by arms along the floor to the sides or lower back fixated by knees together...) I get to deepen my experience the part which actually moves. The sutra also brings to mind "looking at the sky" and how intense the clouds movements gets when there is a high building or a mountain to look at simultaneously.
The sutra gets turned over in me to every time I know something about the change and movement I know it from an integration of a fixed polar star in me. My position as an observer is that of firmness and steadiness.

In my teaching this becomes working the foundation (feet) working the focal points in balances and perhaps using floor and wall a bit more than usually.

Namasté

Jenni

smooth even breaths ;-)

2011-03-19T09:55:00.000Z

Sutra 3.28 “By samyama on the moon, the yogi will know the position and system of the stars” Iyengar translation (3.27 Desikachar counting)

Like the sun is equated with the seat of the soul (the core of ones being) spreading light through our life, the moon (candra) can be equated with the mind and the consciousness.
Coming from a country with four seasons I love the metaphor of how the sun changes in seasons, more or less light and warmth, but the cooling system stays the same all through.
We will gain knowledge of position and system. This last weekend I started Iyengar Teacher Training – I love it and I am in awe for the greatness of this gift in my life. Welcome.
One of the things, this sutra connects to the TT, for me, is for example that when we sit – we wait for the inner body to be still. This is for me to get the lunar aspect to be included in what’s next. The sutra also connects to the fact that in every asana we move our energy body as well, as the physical and the mental. And :-) Most Important for ME!! We’re on a quest for indifference, neutrality or getting undisturbed – I can’t tell you how grateful I’m for this. And this sutra, to me, means the same. Going for something smooth, cool and still. This reminds me of yogas words: “soft abdomen, throat and face, smooth even breaths”. It connects to the idea of learning to be indifferent in order to be able to observe everything with a clear mind and see reality more clear (instead of seeing little selfs stories) Great Reality. Seeing the system and the position in us and around us. Love love love

So, this week go for experiencing the inner body settle in every asana (every action in life). Starting up work with headstand and candrasana.
Namsté
Jenni

my inner milky way

2011-03-05T19:17:00.000Z

Sutra 3.27 (Iyengar counting) "By samyama on the sun the yogi will have knowledge of the seven worlds, and of the seven cosmic centers of the body"

This is one of these "coincidences" - that I love. Last week I asked the great reality to reveal itself to me within, free and clear from my intellectual interpretation of a sign. And I was given a day where I woke up a 4 am with a feeling that my whole inner center was a cosmos, a planetary system, a milky way within, slowly turning around itself.
Now Iyengar writes that Patanjali doesn't only talk about how the yogi should meditate and integrate the sun (in the sky) - but to search within! "As microcosm represents the macrocosm, man's body epitomizes the entire structure of the great universe."

So.. I say yes! I can relate. He also writes about the sun of within "The light that shines from the seat of the soul is the sun of life".
My teacher says that the Gayatri mantra is a celebration of the sun - that we pray to shine our light on all around us, as life giving and generous and not judgmental but including. We give thanks for the life that the sun gives and the light that makes us able to see clearly (awaken) the world.

So focus for this week - my inner sun (and the outer spring sun coming around) the Gayatri mantra and going for integration and meditative state on this :-) exploring the micro- and macrocosm.
love jenni saunte

focusing on the life force

2011-02-26T18:12:00.001Z

Sutra 3.25 (3.24 Iyengars counting) “Directing the mind to the life force itself, and through samyama, sustaining that direction, results in the ability to observe fine subtleties and understand what is preventing deep observation.” (Desikachar translation)
In my asana practice focusing on life force is most clear, when I focus on prana, experiencing presence, awareness, the sensation of energy flow or well some kind of power.
This will be my weeks focus point – life force itself.
It’s just a blessing, because this is exactly where I am. This week I’ve been in contact to being a survivor, being alive and my passion for life today.
And I have a meditation focus from before I read this sutra that is “Great Reality will reveal the Great Reality to me” so it all comes together.
Namaste
Jenni

my structure and course is solid

2011-02-19T07:06:00.001Z

Sutra 3.25 (3.24 Iyengars counting) “Samyama on the physical strength of an elephant can give one the strength of an elephant.” Desikarchar translation, he writes it up like an example of the previous sutra; that in our yoga practice we can cultivate different qualities of the mind and the body.

My first thought was: “Yes – it’s like that stone in the middle of the hill that you don’t want to hit, skiing. But the more you think about the stone, the more your skis somehow go there, and yes…
Samyama means integration, so I guess it’s natural we partly become what we integrate with.

This sutra also reminds me of earlier sutras, that talks about choosing our focusing point and/or our teacher as an important decision. I get this. What I focus on rubs of on me. After my first teacher training I used many of the same sentences and movements as my master, partly because I was new and didn’t have my own expression yet, but also because in the intense process of teaching/learning there is most certainly an element of samyama especially the integrative part.

But I will focus on strength this week. Asanas that give and require strength. But also being strong as shown in choosing reality, staying within personal limitations and being strong as daring to look and admit weakness. My meditation has been on “faith, love and worship” being the tissue of my life, the qualities that set my structure and my course. This relates into strength as well, and point of focus. If I worship … a man, or money or being right, the structure I build will have a base in human/material limitations, it will be weak. If I worship my gift of having this experience of being alive, having sensations or worship my solution – my structure and course is solid.
Love
Jenni

my inner friend :)

2011-02-12T10:23:00.001Z

Sutra 3.24 (3.23 Desikachars counting)
“Different qualities such as friendliness, compassion and contentment can be enquired into through samyama, Thus, one can learn how to strengthen a chosen quality” (Desikachar translation) In the same way as a mental or physical skill can be obtained.

“[The sadhaka] gains moral and emotional strength by performing friendliness and other virtues towards one and all.” (Iyengar translation)
Iyengar writes that the practice of friendliness, compassion and benevolence keeps the consciousness free from desire, anger, greed, lust, pride and envy. This disposition of the mind creates a graceful disposition of the heart.

How do I relate to this?
I relate this sutra to my daily inventory-practice, where I ask my self how the yamas and niyamas have been unfolded in my day.
In my yoga posture practice, I relate this sutra to how, asana to me, symbolizes all action in every day, and how I get to develope patience, loving kindness or acceptance in my relation to the asana and my human limitedness or amazement today :-)

What is my experience?
The sutra reminds me of starting to do the inventory many years ago gave me insight into being innocent. This last year with the yamas and niyamas, the inventory given me knowledge of where I'm consciously aware of for example "being moderate" or "being considerate". These inventories and moments of meditation on my actions also have the effect that I sometime during my day consciously get in touch with the idea - "ok, I'm listening and not talking here - this is me practicing "being moderate" today"...

This inspires me to go for working with the attitude of being friendly and with my inner friend. Both in my personal practice but also as a teacher..
My mind works with compassion to me - giving me a voice that says "Oh, honey" in a loving motherly way, really nice and comforting and I get to feel accepted.
"Do not listen to friends when the inner friend says: Do this!” (Gandhi)
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

My purpose of writing is to connect into a tradition and let it influence my life and teaching

2011-02-05T13:16:00.001Z

Sutra 3.22 (3.23 Iyengars counting) “The results of action may be immediate or delayed. Samyama on this can give one the ability to predict the course of future actions and even one’s own death.” (Desikachar translation)

The translations are very close to each other here. I love that – ease and comfort to me.
My everyday inventory of my actions is a meditation on this. And it is my experience that it brings me the ability to see where I’m steering at :-) and where I’m most likely to end up, unless my course is changed. I don’t know anything about foreseeing my own death, but I sometime have a big ego-trip, almost compulsive (ok let’s say compulsive) and my meditation on my actions can give me insight into when this part of my ego will die. But until now I haven’t had much to do about it, well knowing I should not do/say/argue/eat cake :) I have to let it take the time it takes. Other times I feel like I access a power greater than this ego-trip and I just stop. I’ve come to love them both. In asana work, I can know an obstacle and that there will be freedom after its removal. I can feel how long this will take and give into it.

Desikachar writes that all action is influenced by “the purpose of the action, the state of mind of the actor, the clarity at our disposal and the circumstances”. I love this list. I don’t have anything to add, that’s satisfying. My purpose of writing is to connect into a tradition and let it influence my life and teaching. My state of mind is somehow agitated (reacting to a stupid e-mail) but also smiling and calm. Clarity is given freely and in overwhelming amounts doing this!! My situation is a bit influenced by having kids at home, and part of me is paying attention to them, but this is also a situation I’m used to and embrace! Love this here and now!!
Namasté ¬
_/I\_
Jenni

to be the black pattern on black

2011-01-29T07:33:00.002Z

Sutra 3.21 relates to being noticed or not – to be the black pattern on black, or the white pattern on black, so to speak… “Samyama on the relationship between the features of the body and what affects them, can give one the means to merge with one’s surroundings in such a way that one’s form is indistinguishable” (Desikachar translation).
To me this is a great promise. If I work with inventory, meditation and integration I can get to choose weather to be noticed or not. To attract more or less attention.
In the last years I’ve been given the experience to sit in company with “attention-demanding” persons or persons who I don’t agree with at all or in big companies where I got all the attention or none at all.
The new thing, to me, is that I’ve been consciously aware of this and sometime been given the experience of choosing to not “take any attention” or choose to be seen and heard. This is new and very exciting to me.
In my past I always felt like a victim, or all powerful :-) not much in between – haha! For example; after a big dinner where I got a lot of attention, I could get all remorseful “Oh, I shouldn’t have told this/that. I should have appeared more humble and silent –haha “Oh, ego!” But it could also go the other way; “Why don’t they listen to Me?!”, “If I left – nobody would take notice”
I love that the Sanskrit word for ego is the same as for pride; ahamkara :-)

This sutra promises me to get power to make a conscious choice and feel content with the outcome.
I know it is my investment in the path that has given me the baby-experience of this.
I actually felt free when I don’t fill up. When I don’t “stand by my convictions” they can still fill me up – I get to experience my love for them inside me, freely. Without the attachment (addiction) to somebody’s confirmation of me.

To my teaching situation, this tells me that I can as a teacher choose how controlling or “visible” I want to be, if I work samyama on the relationship between the features of the body and what affects them. This is a gift to both my students and me. It also tells me that I can recognize when others fill up the room or try to become one with the wall. It’s ok.
Being part of something and consciously aware of how I participate. Going for balance and honesty in every asana.
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

Practical note

2011-01-29T06:57:00.000Z

After sutra 1.21, my three texts differ in the numbering of the sutras. Iyengar gives space to a sutra 1.22 that has the same content as sutra 1.21 (about attracting less or no attention from our surroundings), but this sutra relates to other senses than sight, not being heard/smelled or felt…
I will relate to sutra 1.22 in Iyengars translation, together with sutra 1.21 in all my texts.
Therefore when I move on to sutra 1.22, this will be Iyengars sutra 1.23.
My texts put different numbers on the sutras – but (almost) the same focus/content/subject.
If this is not clear, write to me :-) and I will try to make it more understandable.
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

grace of yoga

2011-01-22T08:33:00.001Z

“But can we see from [our ability to know the mind of others] what the origin is of the state of mind?” Desikachars translation of Sutra 3.20, answers: “No, the cause of state of mind of one individual is beyond the scope of observation by another”

Ok, so in asana and teaching situation I can see symptoms of what’s going on in the student. I can have an idea of the origin of these symptoms, but I cannot know for sure. The more experienced I get, the more qualified are my ideas, but I still cannot know. And maybe it’s not important. “It’s not why, why, why it just is” like Van Morrison sings. Let’s just go with the answer “it’s the big bang” to all the “why” questions. Iyengar writes that for a yogi to try to look into the minds of others is a waste of time and a risk to loose “the grace of yoga”, unless it is to know how to act best towards this person. I have personal experience with this, it’s like staring into an abyss, to try to understand some people in my surroundings that act so… let’s call it negative. Trying to relate to this or trying to understand this and worst: trying to change this – I loose my contact to consciously knowing that I live in grace.

So here I am in my graceful morning. 1. I’m alive! 2. I love life and being 3. I love my idea for today! –whatever-

Iyengars translation is somewhat different, and he points out that this sutra is sometimes omitted, because it should be a later addition. I’m just keeping it simple and going with what makes sense to me right now. Desikachars translation gives me contact to my perception, experiences and it fits into a whole.
For this weeks class I’m going with “grace”. Right now it means to me; going with the position as “treasure-hunter” the one who receives and gets to experience. Not deserving the grace of yoga, just receiving it from showing up on the mat.
Namasté
Jenni

To see a world in a grain of sand

2011-01-15T11:14:00.000Z

Sutra 3.19, Desikachar translation "Samyama on the changes that arise in an individual's mind and their consequences, develops in one the ability to acutely observe the state of mind of others."
I relate this to William Blake's "To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour."
It's actually a shortcut :-) getting to know my fellow human beings - through getting to know me. I'm always around, I can always hear my ideas, opinions, thoughts -sometimes unfortunately :-)
At my other work, we been through some user innovation processes, they gave me insight to a problem and a gain that easily can apply to the process of this sutra.
The problem with examining or inventorying ourselves - is that we cannot see the tip of our own nose :-) the gift of examining ourselves, is that when we hit our target it goes deep and is most efficient! To me this is one of the sutras that builds upon the truth that "we are all one". Whatever I see in you or call you - is me. If you're an as so am I, if you are great, well, so am I.
Iyengar translates the sutra into: "(S)he acquires the ability to understand others"

At an asana perspective, Desikachar writes; "Every mental activity produces a distinct physical effects" like sleeping with slow, almost invisible breath and being agitated and red in the face, and almost hyperventilating :-) By knowing us and our physics we get to know something about our mind and thereby we will know the mind of others..

Iyengar; "The word "saksatkarnat... means seeing realilty" (oh, I love that), "The word pratyaya means perceiving the content of mind." "Both convey the same meaning."
By knowing me, I will know you. Knowing reality and knowing content of mind is not separated but inclusive.
I always act at the most awaken state I know.
This is the big forgiveness and the big love-declaration from universe to me.
In my practice and my teaching this means to inquire, to measure to explore every breath, every asana. And to experience and live the most awake in every moment of every asana - which is possible for me today!
namasté
Jenni

espresso asana experience!

2011-01-12T13:01:00.004Z

90 days "with asanas on a chair" celebration!!
soo what did it bring to the celebration?
I found out that I mostly just did preparation work for kapotasana but I never aimed to reach a certain variant of this pose, or even start to pursue it. From day one, it started out as a "follow up" from this summers intense yoga-work. I had troubles breathing (at the Orvieto retreat)with ease and in several other poses fought with stiffness in my shoulders. Soo, this was my motivation to start. To loosen up in shoulders and get to breath in the chair-variant of this pose...
But
I had only done it for a week or two before I noticed it had kind of an espresso-effect to me - it wakes me up! And it's reliable. If I don't have energy to do my daily practice I can always convince me to lay in kapotasana on a chair - and when I come out of it - I'm in "bring it on" mood :-)
Another great benefit is that I found out how much my ribs "sack together" in my ordinary work-life. Like an accordion that nobody played on :-( so vitalizing and pure melody was created through the kapotasana with chair pose - some days I even felt my abdominal muscles stretch - I didn't think that was possible!!!! I mean, pregnancies no strength what so ever...
I became longer, lighter and more straight out of this practice!

To take care of my back, I used a pillow, especially when I did the asana as the first thing in the morning practice, or when I was tired and had -not a back pain- but something in that direction. The asana was most suited for me, to do in the afternoon and after a "warm up", not as the very first thing. But I got too awake to do it as part of my practice in the evening, so many days I did the kapotasana on chair, when I got home from work, and than my practice later in the evening.
It was the perfect thing to start out with, with the tiny exception that my back was.. well let's call it overwhelmed. To do this I started with just laying still with my arms straight and a bit hanging, and after a minute -when my breathing is smoothe and easy- I reach for the little "plank" between the feet of the chair. Grabbing this plank is an "oh-have mercy" moment - but this is part of being set-free, for me.

I can highly recommend anyone to go ahead and use the chair as a tool in the hunt for clear perception and deepening experience on the way through change to freedom :-)
love jenni

a love relationship to reality

2011-01-08T08:23:00.001Z

Iyengar translation, sutra 3.18; ""Through direct perception of his subliminal impressions, the yogi gains knowledge of her previous lives"

When Iyengar writes and uses the Hindu concepts of "past and present" lives. I can relate, today.
It is not so much tied up in the death of my body. I actually know something about death and birth going on in my lifetime. The death of an old role, like "wife" she had to die or transcend being divorced. “Daughter” has died many deaths, in order for me and my mum to have a healthy present relationship. "Mother" and co-parent have to die several deaths, the kids and our circumstances and the relation to their father changed so drastically that death and birth is the most accurate description of the process. Going from being a student to being an employee was a death and a birth.

At my last sessions with Godfrey Devereux he insisted to stay on his mat and not play along in the "ending-story" of the class. "There are no endings" well maybe there are deaths, I've experienced this total transformation of mind: I suddenly see the world as I never did before. Maybe "detachment" is a death, death of an old idea or an old story... Maybe awakenings are births, something that dramatically changes the whole perspective and living afterwards.
To me it makes sense to play along and call it an "ending of the class" even doing it consciously as an symbolic act (to see clearly I'm playing). This is the same reason that makes “celebrate new years eve”, as if there is an ending of a year and a start of a new year, meaningfull – to play symbolically. These things that I do, isn't a reflection of my truth or beliefs but recognition of death and birth in a symbolical way. Celebrating them, separated from when they occur to me or my family as human beings.

"Samyama on one's tendencies and habits will lead one to his/her origins. Consequently, one gains deep knowledge of one's past." The same sutra 3.18, translated by Desikachar.
I have been doing daily inventory for 4-5 years. The last year it's been with the yamas and niyamas as inventory-model. It gives me insight into me, it brings perspective and proportions - not a bad thing and; Yes! very deep. This also relates to the asana-work. Doing the same asanas, daily, for about three months in a row, gives me deep knowledge of my habits and tendencies, but like with my inventory I don't enjoy the knowledge as much as seeing what this knowledge gives me - balance, strength, flexibility, lightness and wellbeing, comfort, contentment.
This is how I relate to the words of Desikachar:
"We learn how our behaviour and personal characteristics developed and what events in the past influenced our attitudes, likes and dislikes."
Or in Iyengar's words: "pains and pleasures experienced in present life as a result of good and bad actions in past lives"

Iyengar writes that: "When we see in truth, we see directly "independent of memory, and feelings of joy and sorrow""
This gets turned around for me into a guideline: The things in my life I'm not emotionally reacting to, is the things I'm closest to the truth about.
And :-)
When I’m emotional excited/sad/angry and on a “very important” mission – I might not be in contact with the most truth there is… Good guideline to wait until the wave have crusted and is retracting… I know this is true for me. I know how it feels when the story about "it is soo important!!" lets go and there is suddenly a possibility to move and change and; unlike nothing else, a sense of being real. After I started to have these experiences I've developed a passionate love-relationship with reality - loving it above all else - even when it hurts. (I'm done painting my red flags green - thanks for these words)
Namsté
Jenni Saunte

ocean of communication

2010-12-25T08:40:00.001Z

Merry Christmas
This sutra is about the samyama on communication. Words can mean so many things and can be interpreted in so many ways. Iyengar relates the samyama of words to the Christian wonder of the apostles breaking through the wall of language, communicating on a different level. I relate to this as “when words are not needed” – truth comes in many forms.

Desikachar translates sutra 3.17 to;
“Samyama on the interactions between language, ideas and objects is to examine the individual features of the objects, the means of describing them and the ideas and their cultural influences in the minds of the describers. Through this, one can find the most accurate and effective way of communication regardless of linguistic, cultural and other barriers.”
Desikachar writes “Our ability to see an object is based on our interests and potentials” This relates to a course I went through this week, where the leader explained about efficiency, how we have a space of interest; this space is bigger than our space of influence (potential space/possibilities). Her message was to put our effort and energy into the focus where we both had our interest and most potentiality. When I combine this with Desikachars comment on the sutra, I get that; my understanding of the world will be deepest where I have both interest and potential to connect, when one lack, my knowledge becomes more superficial and if both lack, well.. my understanding most certainly is close to nothing. (This doesn’t mean I don’t have an opinion about the matter ;-)

Language has been part of my meditation for years, this posting in English and reading philosophy translated from the unspoken Sanskrit into English is part of this. I come to experience different truths through this. Right now I’m at a balancing-point where meaningful and meaningless surrounds me. Words sails around like little boats on the great ocean of communication. I have no idea what they are all about. Sometimes I take them very personally and they can hurt the role that interprets in me. Sometimes I think I see how they are expressions of another subject and I feel like I get some more insight of another being.
But right now – words have become anonymous. They don’t mean anything. They are not meant for me/against me or expressions of her/him. They are just little boats on the ocean of communication.

When I relate into this sutra, I start to look at communication in my life today today – and this is a big one for me. So I turn to the asana, to get grounded again. In the asana there is this effortless state – to me, this is a state beyond words. Maybe this is the samyama of communication? As a teacher I dictate or I show the student what to do. Some lineages of yoga looks down on not showing the asana and some others looks down on showing anything at all ;-) this is so amusing – the human nature in yoga – Anyway, my personal way is to see what arises in the situation. If I can teach using only a few words – marvellous! If I need to show something – wonderful.
If I’m hurting in my body, and need to not show – well I need to dictate better ;-) my experience is that different student get it differently – some gets it immediately if they see it, some gets it through the right choice of words. Personally I love both words and showing.

Namsté
Jenni

Sutras on change

2010-12-18T12:13:00.002Z

Desikachar interpret that the following sutras gives examples of how samyama can give us deep knowledge "the process of changing our mental potential from incomplete, or no comprehension at all, to total comprehension" (this I read as what Iyengar calls "transformation of consciousness"). I need to remember what samyama is, so no; “guessing wrong”, makes me take a detour here.. Samyama; "Sutra 3.4 “The three together – dharana, dhyana and Samadhi – constitute integration or samyama.” (Iyengar translation)" So, the experience of "moments of grace" where it all comes together, is tastes of samyama.

3.16 "Samyama on the process of change, how it can be affected by time and other factors, develops knowledge of the past and the future." (Desikachar translation)
Combining these glimpses of "coming together" on change… I guess I relate this to the feeling of; change making sense, or suddenly seeing the bigger picture, where change is the transformer and samyama is the state of graceful insight. When the experience of past and the movement towards future in the now feels like ... right/making sense/authentic/obvious..

I also relate this to the asana - where the past (why there for example is flexibility or pain somehow), the now (the experience in the body and mind in the asana)and the movement towards something (experienceing getting further or deeper), gets dissolved and just background that deepens the contact into the asana today.
Desikachar reminds us that Patanjali cautions us to misuse samayama to other focus than "true freedom" or "deep knowledge". This makes me think of Iyengars words on how easily we can get distracted by exhibitionism or the more enjoyable sensations we discover on the path of yoga :-)

Iyengar writes, on this sutra, that we develop knowledge of the past and the future, the present is felt. This knowledge unfolds in a good (correct) practice and we are encourage to "intensify [our practice] with sustained faith and enthusiasm and to be indifferent to our achievements, so as to avoid deteriorating into affliction, fluctuation and self-gratification"

My guiding words this week; to meet change with faith (for me trust) and enthusiasm in my daily practice and in the yoga lesson.
I love that the sutras I read now is all about change, the year is moving towards a fictive end :-) and the darkness of winter is turning towards more light of spring these days, so nature unfolds change and I most certainly experience change in my life- in my family structure. It's very real to live in and most giving to work the sutras on!! Grateful jenni! This Sunday I want to do all the letting go exercises, I know - to prepare and let go of what we are prepared to not carry into the story of a new year :-)
namasté
jenni

trusting the process

2010-12-12T07:46:00.001Z

Sutra 3.15 “By changing the order or sequence of change, characteristics that are of one pattern can be modified to a different pattern” (Desikachar translation)

“Change has a sequence” (Desikachar)
“this sequence can be altered” (Desikachar)
… like changing the flow of a river in a valley.

Iyengar tells me that consciousness partly exists beyond time but change of consciousness exists in time and therefore; can be altered.
I quote a lot this time, but well… that’s just it :-)
“There is a logic to the involuntary spiritual journey, just as there is in the growth of a plant from seed, to stem, to bud, to flower, to fruit. The original, pure consciousness which we trace through Patanjali’s method is the seed of transformation in oneself. Our own self is the maker of our own spiritual destiny.”(Iyengar)

This is why yoga teachers should be properly trained :-) and this is why a daily practice matters even more when it is lead by competent teachers and this is why it is so important to listen to the heart and the body while doing daily practice. It effects our spiritual path :-) or consciousness and our way of life. I’m bringing my inner teacher to my practice today!!

The second thing I relate to here is my experience with change – one little change a day; like starting my day in prayer or ending the day in gratitude may seem small, but it makes a bigger difference in the thought-sea. Brushing the teethes, with the left hand (standing on one foot) or walking a new way to work, can make a transformation in consciousness. I trust the effect of small changes. I fought with sukhasana (swastika asana) I cried and I tried :-) no progress what so ever. But I met up in the asana for three months in a row (yes the 90 days daily try-out) and suddenly this summer at the Glenn Ceresoli retreat in Orvieto, I bitched to my teacher (big giving up – I can make it on my own), the next day when he was going to check up what my problem was – it was gone –haha how stupid and happy I felt at the same time!
And the problem has been removed ever since. To me this means, I keep doing my daily practice, sometime the results come in small sudden experiences along the road, sometime the change comes big-time-suddenly. What I know is that this change had a huge impact on my consciousness. Mostly I felt it clearly as a relief of pain/problem and relief from some blockings in consciousness. But there was also a change in consciousness, from not giving up just because the effect is not immediate, but trusting the process.

Namasté
Jenni

essence and forms

2010-12-04T19:23:00.000Z

3.14 "A substance contains all its characteristics, and depending on the particular form it takes, those characteristics conforming to that form will be apparent. But whatever the form, whatever the characteristics. Some have appeared in the past, some are currently apparent and others may reveal themselves in the future"
(Desikachar) and he writes that the sutras tells us that; "everything we perceive is fact not fiction. But these facts are subject to change."
It took me such long time to see that if I'm sad today this might not be the case tomorrow, if I'm sick today this might not be my condition tomorrow. Being sad or sick are true experiences but they are changing states or conditions and maybe not the best basis for choice... For most my life I based my choices on trying to become more safe, happy and healthy - these are good motives. But if the facts I interpret as stable reliable static facts are in essence changing I will get screwed in my search for joy and health. Actually I don't have a clue.

Having a daily practice gives me a new relationship to changing facts like "feel like doing the practice" or "getting something out of my practice" and "doing it tomorrow"... I know I don't have the longest practice but I'm given something steady through meeting up on my mat (and these 90 days on my chair), perspective. This perspective shows me that my "kick of doing it" might not always be there, if I always should feel like doing it, I would have stopped years ago, and never gained a steady practice. And if I didn't get a steady practice I would never have seen how many things change. And I'm given a miraculous "trust the process" and patience that has nothing to do with me and what I recognized as my characteristics.

I'm given the following parables, for example is the substance the same in dust, clay and the formed vase. I guess that the substance is the same in water, ice and steam... So do we have something significant, something essential that is us through childhood, youth and old age.

I relates this to my asana work, something I might have been able to do in my childhood or youth and something I might be able to enjoy and do in my old age. And than there is the form I unfold today. Deep in the center is the essence or substance that don't change into forms, or is the same in all these forms.

Desikachar have written a longer translation than Iyengar, but with my language difficulties it was more understandable. When I read the surrounding commentary I read the same message to me. So it's easy :-)

bringing the most authentic, genuine and true

2010-11-28T08:03:00.001Z

Sutra 3.13 “Through these three phases, cultured consciousness is transformed from its potential state (dharma) towards further refinement (laksana) and the zenith of refinement (avastha). In this way, the transformation of elements, senses and mind takes place” (Iyengar translation)
So many things I need to check up on reading this…

As I understand, the three phases are; 1. the rising and falling of unbalanced thought 2. recognizing the alterations and hold steady a one-pointed attention 3. the maintenance of this uninterrupted flow and intensity of (one-pointed into no-pointed) attention.

And I need to check into dharma, laksana and avasta – again, to see how I can relate.
Iyengar describes it as a way to talk about the relation between the divine motionless self (purusa) and the ever changing, for us, human nature (prakrti). Dharma is somehow our essence or fundament, laksana are character markers or signs, and avasta is condition and state. I’m given the example of how I am a mother, a daughter, a employee and a friend.
This human jenni-being is my dharma, all the roles and situations I’m in, is modifications to me, part of my forming and avasta is the most authentic, truthful and genuine jenni-being in every situation and relation I encounter. Bringing the Jenni-contribution that only I can.
This reminds me of some words I’ve been given “I’m not me – nobody is” and “If two of us were alike than one of us would be superfluous” and “we are all part of the spirit, if one is missing spirit would be not perfect” well I’m changing the words a bit, mostly because I cannot remember…

To my teaching; It inspires me to go for the personal relation to every asana. To go for the balance in the balance-pose but also balance of mind in every asana. The possibility to take the position of observing the rise and fall of thought instead of being the thinker.
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

get back into the flow of uniterrupted attentivness

2010-11-20T09:27:00.000Z

"When rising and falling thought processes are in balance, one-pointed consciousness emerges. Maintenance of awareness with keen intensity from one-pointed attention to no-pointed attentiveness is ekagrata parinama." Iyengar translation

Oh God, in these days the maintenance -or what I call (keep coming back, or fight-surrender-process) sometimes is all i get to experience... I'm grateful that Iyengar mentions how the mind suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, can get upset and in fight mode. I know!!! it's astonishing!! fine thing for me, is that it have happened so much that I don't even ask why any longer. And the good news is that it (often) takes shorter and shorter time to get back into center! Yoga is one good magic wand - to get into one-pointed attentiveness, kids is another. Pain is kind of a good one as well.

I think maybe... balance is onepointed attentiveness (brain-freeze) maybe not.
In yoga posture practice I relate most clearly to this in the stillness of the asana. Where I can see how different ideas a

I don't think this sutra inspires my daily practice, but more... describes it. In my daily practice there is a constant possibility to experience the transformation into uninterupted flow and intensity of attention.

So when we get disturbed (and we will) the only thing is to get back into the intesity of one-pointed attention and back into enjoying the flow!
easy ! ?
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

from scattered to whole

2010-11-14T18:36:00.001Z

Sutra 3.11 “ The weakening of scattered attention and the rise of one-pointed attention in the citta (consciousness) is the transformation towards Samadhi” (Iyengar translation)
How do I relate to this?
I am more aware and present when my mind and my action and my body is at one place. There is a peace and a sensation of being whole in this.
What is my experience?
When attention is scattered I feel like eczema, a rash, I get more irritated and impatient and unsatisfied. In moments of one-pointed attention, a comfort comes along, because a discomfort would in essence be a scatter of attention.
How can this inspire my personal daily practice?
Well my daily practice often is the “thing” that gathers this loony mind of mine.
How can this inspire my teaching?
When students seem to wonder I can… challenge them so that they cannot ignore the present ;-) or I can keep my own focus – it usually rubs off. I can stop giving so many different instructions and try go for the simple..
Namasté
Jenni

Magic!

2010-11-09T11:47:00.003Z

Iyengars translation and comment on sutra 3.9 is one of the most important texts I've ever read.
If I could I would just quote the whole text to you :-) I give this a go instead.

To me it's all about getting free.
We are born into a human condition and it is a gift, a changing, challenging gift. Somthing in us know a stillness, a tranquility and moves us towards this, seeking to get free from the attachment from sensory stories of "need, want, don't want". Iyengar writes that the central thread in Patanjalis sutras is the relation between the divine Self (purusa) and nature (prakriti).

I hear that transformation happens in the pause.
For example it is not in the inhalation that the magic transformation to exhalation happens, it happens in the moment, the pause, the intermission in between breathing in and out.
It is not in the sensation of an experience or our reaction to the experience change takes place, the magic of impact or change in us, happens in the stillness between them. Between two situations, between a rising thought and relating to (restraining) the thought :-) He takes it further! the transformation takes place between the seer and the seeker. I am given inclusion of the one who search for (reality/god/connection/grace) and the one who live (reality/god/connection/grace).

I read my assignment:
"Jenni, the precious psychological moments of intermission where there is stillness and silence, are to be prolonged into extra-chronological moments of consciousness, without beginning or end"
Thank you I've got it!! Or as another guide put it to me; ever expanding our limits by softly dissolving them from the inside (or this is as close to the original I can remember..)

I've always enjoyed the moments between in- and ex- halation and the opposite (don't care if this is the right way to write this ;)
It's like there is a treasure in this moment, and here Iyengar passes down to me the name of the treasure - transformation or what I, as a kid called: Magic! Miracle!
I will post a minifilm of drops just before the float - this is a picture to me of magic moments... But I have to wait for my internet to work at home again...

As a teacher, these moments are the moments between asanas, moments in and out of asanas, moments of complying to conditions in asana. It is the moment of magic between analyses and action. As a teacher I'm just as much on the path when I encourage the student to go for it, to seek more, as I am when I encourage to experience wholeness and perfection like this.

Now, there are so many beautifully put words in this sutra, that I only can encourage you to read Iyengars light on the sutras (especially 3.9 and 3.10) your self.
Moving on to sutra 3.10 Iyengar translation; "The restraint of rising impressions brings about an undisturbed flow of tranquility."

I recognize my guideline this time followed by a promise:
"By maintaining perfect awareness in the intervals between rising and restraining impressions, steadiness becomes effortless and natural. Then the stream of tranquility flows without any ripples in the consciousness"
This is also where I see him presenting the use of vairagya and abhyasa as possible adaptations to stay calm and focused. This is part of what I have been passing on for four years now, so I'm glad to get it validated!
We move towards "- that the seeker and the sought are one; that the seeker is the seer."

so expand go try do lets see
still happy on the chair :-)
namaste
Jenni

Connection

2010-11-07T07:19:00.000Z

Hi
This is my dedication and love for the sutras :) My acces to the net is not working (6th day) so I will post again soon. Its about the stillness in between <3 Namaste jenni

Sendt fra min iPhone

soo tired and soo happy ;-)

2010-10-30T18:46:00.000Z

Be back on Monday – I am beat. So for a couple of days I will enjoy my kids that are back home from a long journey. The translations differ a lot this week, but here is Desikachar translation:

3.9 “The mind is capable of having two states based on two distinction tendencies. These are distraction and attention. However, at any one moment, only one state prevails, and this state influences the individuals’ behavior, attitude and expressions.” (Desikachar translation)

Signals which indicate where we’re at:
-serene, quite breathing, absorbed = attentive state.
- disturbed, irregular breathing, little capacity to be attentive =distracted.

personal practice and starting point

2010-10-23T10:20:00.001Z

First my weeks celebration - I want to celebrate all Iyengar-yoga-teachers for so consequently pointing out the importance of personal practice!! Thank you - you all seem to agree on this and you bring this message to me from all over the world and it is a beautifull experience.
Oh I'm tired, autumn has really set in - dark cold nights, bicycle lights and warm yoga rooms :-)

I love my 90 days on a chair (after-daily-practice-asanas). My first great experience -after 11 days- comes from kapotasana, I get to be able (even though it's only for a while after the practice) to lift my chest and no part of the movement is brought about from the lower back! tak!

Sutra 3.8 "The state where the mind has no impressions of any sort and nothing is beyond its reach (nirbija samadhi) is more intricate than the state of directing the mind towards an object (samadhi)" (Desikachar translation)
So we are moving in towards a centre. Desikachar writes; "this state is simply transparent". This is a promise to us, that we can get to experience a state with no resistance, where we are completely free from past impressions.

We have heard of it before, in sutra 1.51 it is defined as the highest state of yoga; nirbija samadhi.
Desikachar writes that samyama is only possible at our individual levels. There can be no universal gradation in choosing the direction of the enquiry. I relate to this as being present is the way to go I'm whole including everything in this moment, I don't have to change a thing.

Contacting and working from the now And the "here" which I understand as the specific personal place that each and every one of us have - seems to be utterly important. Last sutra Iyengar used ink on it and this sutra Desikachar writes about it. I hear, see and sense you!

Doing the asana from your own capacity, getting to use the breath in your own tempo, putting the hands and feet in adho mukha svanasana to celebrate and experience the length of your back - not the length of the mat or an idea of "how far apart your hands and feet should be". Right here right now... happyjenni

To me it is a practice of truth - or authenticity; we are not on the same level all of us, and we're not even at the same level at all times,
we bring different capacities at different times to start with. Starting where you are strengthens the contact to reality which is vital to practice.

Iyengar writes that this transparent deep state comes naturally like sleep. "The soul surfaces on its own accord"

This as well is a promise to me. I just meet up in trust. Trusting the process, not forcing it. I cannot force me to fall asleep, but I kind of surrender to it. Iyengar gives me a promise as well as a guideline for good practice.

Namasté

Jenni

subtle, internal, intimate and subjective

2010-10-16T13:36:00.000Z

Sutra 3.7 Desikachar translation “Compared to the first five components of yoga (sutra 2 – 29) The next three (sutra 3 – 1,2,3) are more intricate.” All my texts sees the first five aspects of yoga to be about; our attitude (action) to our environment (yama), our attitude towards us self (perception)(niyamas), practice of body exercise (asana), practice of breathing exercises (pranayama)and restraint of the senses (pratyahara). Iyengar writes about them all that they are cleansing and purifying practices, this is interesting to me. I’ve been given the guideline of uncover, discover, discard, with the promise that everything I truly am and everything that I need to be will still be there after discarding as good as I can :-) Or maybe in yoga-discourse, to be new, cleansed and purified…

Well they all write about how subtle and internal the last three aspects of yoga are.

Intricate, I need to look up, it means; “having many complexly interrelating parts or elements”. So I move on to Iyengars text, which gives me the words I can relate to: “dharana, dhyana and Samadhi are more subtle, internal, intimate and subjective practices.” It’s about the inner layers, the intelligence, the consciousness and the soul – all very close to the spiritual heart.

Yoga asana and pranayama can be a meditation and have these aspects. Have you tried to have a teacher that just strengthens you in your own rhythm, your own true path? Well I have, and this is what I relate to when I hear about these intimate, subjective and subtle aspects, when I’m with a good teacher who is not trying to control – then my experience of these subtle qualities comes fourth. Beautifully.

Love and light
Jenni

chair madness

2010-10-13T06:36:00.001Z

First day of 90 with chair programme :-) was yesterday 12th of October. Today I get to confirm that –yes it’s the right programme for me right now.
I do the chair stuff after my daily routine and sometimes with children talking to me, it's the only way I get to do it every day...
My success criterion is to do the kapotasana (and sing while in the pose -haha). But I also do sitting rotations, variant of halasana and sarvangasana. If I get really into it, I might even do the challenging pincha mayurasana with the chair to open the chest even more, but I don’t think so ;-)
So who else is on the chair for 90 days?
It is a trial and error process, after 90 days I’m going to look at the results and see if it changed something (to the better).
Love and light
jenni

trust the process

2010-10-09T17:05:00.000Z

When the translations differ a lot from each other I usually works with the one that relates the most to where I'm at. The most inner spark for me. A few times I'm not sure, in these cases I give you both translations. This is such a time :-)

Sutra 3.6 Iyengar translation: "Samyama may be applied in various spheres to derive its usefulness"

Desikachar translation: ""Samyama must be developed gradually"

Together they give me that this is a gradual process and that this process might apply to all parts of life. I can relate to this. The state of "being at one with" have been given to me in different parts of my life. I get to experience it more and more often. Iyengar tells us that this insight and wisdom, we can achieve are to be properly distributed in various spheres of ones life. This encourages me to continue to see how my asana can teach me about life.
I'm grateful to Iyengar for pointing out that samyama-glimpses is not "being enlightened". Not that I thought so :-) but I'm grateful for the idea that we sometimes are given this litle glimpses, appetizers of oneness or bliss, in order to return with greater commitment to the path! "Moment of grace", he calls it, to get to experience samyama, only as an motivation to go to yoga. Yes I get this. It's like the famous carrot. So in essence; -a guideline for me; bad day - go to the mat... good day go to the mat... When I give up practice and isolate me from this possibility I also see that the toutch of natures flow is what I move away from. I don't get it from the stimuli, like a beautiful sunset or a kids smile, I get it from an inner state of awareness that is awake to discover the sunset or the kids smiling face.

Even though the translations are different Iyengar makes a point out of development. He writes that it is very rare that someone becomes enlightened and stays that way. And the healthy way is through development and practice.
Desikachar writes that; "We should begin with simpler objects and with those with which we can inquired into in several different ways". He also states that a teacher who knows us, can be helpful in choosing objects for meditation and contemplation.

The eight fold path of yoga is "a path of spiritual evolution whose motto might be "safety first"" (Iyengar) Spiritual experience can be a frightening experience of loosing ones mind. Yoga is a safe way, where we try something and evaluate the result.
I just want to pas on the words of Vyasa (claimed author of mahabarata (of which bhagavad gita is a part))

"Yoga is to be known by yoga.
Yoga is the teacher of yoga.
The power of yoga manifests through yoga alone.
He who does not become careless, negligent or inattentive,
he alone rests in yoga and enjoys yoga."

this gives me perfect freedom, perfect ease and perfect path to walk
namasté
Jenni

insight and awareness mmmm

2010-10-02T06:15:00.001Z

Sutra 3.5 “From mastery of samyama comes the light of awareness and insight.”

Iyengar writes that in samyama “the knower comes closer and closer to the known, merging in it, loses his separateness.” When I take these two ideas together, I get that it is by loosing my distance, my identity, my “separate from” that I get to experience light of awareness and insight.

I relate to “insight” as a eureka-experience, it suddenly makes sense or I suddenly get the bigger picture. It is a deep sensation of contact to a purpose or meaning. It is an awakening, I never worked my way to it, my experience is one of suddenly arriving at this insight-point.

Desikachar writes about how samyama brings comprehension and knowledge. This gives me that insight and awareness is true knowledge and comprehension is in it’s essence insight, not this school-good-girl thing that I, sometimes, have going on :-)

It inspires me to go for awareness and light in my teaching. In my personal practice it awakes my attention to the experience of insight. To be in my every breath and every moment. It awakes my desire to move towards complete awareness.

Love and light
Jenni Saunte

integration

2010-09-25T06:17:00.000Z

Sutra 3.4 “The three together – dharana, dhyana and Samadhi – constitute integration or samyama.” (Iyengar translation)
Ok, first for me, find out what integration means on a semantic level, Merriam Webster:

Definition of “Integrate”:
1 : to form, coordinate, or blend into a functioning or unified whole : unite
2 : to find the integral of (as a function or equation)
3 a : to unite with something else b : to incorporate into a larger unit
4 a : to end the segregation of and bring into equal membership in society or an organization b : desegregate

So I’m back at the subject of unite and oneness a unified whole. When I read Desikachar and Iyengar I understand that samyama is a describing concept of what goes on.
I relate to samyama as a description of a process in which dharana (removal of obstacles, concentration), dhyana (staying in focus, meditation) and Samadhi (unification of the seer and the object, absorption) is not always chronologically connected but happens in the now as a movement and a stillness. They happen at once. There is an evolvement but it is more like the breath, expanding and contracting.

Iyengar describes it as a depth, where dharana brings stability in mind, dhyana develops maturity in intelligence and Samadhi acts to diffuse the consciousness. “The intermingling of mind, intelligence and consciousness is samyama of the three.” At the deep level, within the mind, the intelligence and the consciousness is the seer.

(Iyengar also writes that a samyami is a person who subdues her passions and remains motionless. It relates to a theme of abstinence and ahimsa, which is growing in me, so I had to write it in. I think “motionless” was my personal hint/spark/jenniplace)

Somehow this makes my daily practice more steady, I don’t have to have all obstacles removed before I can practice, I don’t have to know where it’s going, I just have to do it and look at the results.
In teaching it reminds me of how we say “observe the state of your mind/thoughts/feelings” not that the student have to be in a certain way to be able to do yoga but just awareness to what is, is a start on this integration.

Namasté
Jenni –who’s cold and fever, gets medicine from Iyengar yoga treatment this now ;-) thanks for Janet MacLeod

Do we dare to say we have had an experience of samadhi?

2010-09-18T12:10:00.003Z

Sutra 3.3 “[When]… the individual is so involved in the object [of meditation], that nothing except its comprehension is evident. It is as if the individual has lost her own identity. This is complete integration with the object of understanding – Samadhi.” (Desikachar translation)

Samadhi is a word I first met in school. I was told that samadhi is the heaven of Hindu and Buddhist religion. This have somehow stayed with me, even through yoga-teacher-training and studying philosophy at the university. Sure, I got that it was something that you could reach through meditation and that it was a release from the bondage of earth – but here the reference to heaven and my old ideas about a Christian God (which also have changed through the years) took over.

Today it feels like wakening up. Samadhi becomes a whole new landscape where I actually have some experience.

A couple of years ago I had a professor at the university who said that we cannot have any experience without educating our intellect. Without experiencing it as an subject- object relation ( a subject who’s amount of knowledge grew). This is a part of the theory of “lifelong learning” (livslang læring) and “knowledge society” (videns samfundet). This was such a provocation to me and everything I had experienced – so I started to find academically honored theoreticians who have proved her wrong. And all they said is the same as Patanjali stated here 2500 years before!!!!

Anyone who has experienced losing oneself in art/nature/challenge/meditation (both in the creating and the receiving act) has tasted this unification, that Samadhi guides us towards.

My experience with this makes it clear, that there are some situations where intellect and sensation is lost and there is no “I” and no “object”.

This is where Iyengar takes it to the next level.

“For the yogi, however, whose “art” is formless and whose goal has no physical expression like a painting, a book or a symphony, the fragrance of Samadhi penetrates every aspect of her “normal” behaviour, activities and state of being.”

My favourite example is cutting cucumber, becoming aware of the sensation, the rhythm, the beauty and suddenly it makes it self, there is only a now – nothing else matters and it is self-fulfilling.

This is it – Yes. The process and the goal of the process becomes one. Moving towards perfection and being perfect is one – not oppositions but inclusions… hmm lack of words here.

Yoga as unification and the movement towards this unification becomes one – it is already done. Like praying/searching -well aware that everything is already given/found, and knowing that the prayer/search is still right, is still a true position.

This inspires me to go for the unification in class, breath and movement, body, mind and soul, the goal and the process of moving towards it. The limbs and the core. The front and the back. The here and now! It’s essence of change, move towards perfection knowing it’s already here. Open and courage is main focus as well, taking in that I get to teach and inaugurate this new yoga-space. Bring the sunlight in – Gayatri mantra :-) love and light

Namasté
Jenni Saunte

meditation, clean house, get born and die-move

2010-09-11T16:05:00.001Z

Sutra 3.2 "A steady, continuous flow of attention directed towards the same point or region is meditation (dhyana)." (Iyengar translation)
For years my breath have functioned as a focal point, not just in pranayama, but I remember as a kid I use to spend hours experiencing it. Making a sound again and again, to feel how the air moved in me, or spend days breathing on a window and look at the moist-picture fade away again. Breathing in different rhythms and holding my breath, challenging –whatever. Today breath is my shortcut into that state, it is my focal-point when things are tough, it is a revelator (yes I think you should have a word like that) someone who reveals stuff :-) My heart listened when my master told me that the breath is the key that opens up between different layers, for example the mind and the body. The best part of this focal point is that it is always with me, everywhere I go.

Desikachar writes: "Initially our understanding is influenced by misapprehension, imagination and memories. But, as the process of comprehension intensifies, it freshens and deepens our understanding if the object."
I relate to this, when I do yoga I sometimes get to feel the different obstacles disappear. I guess this is why I love intensity; I somehow know that that’s where it happens.

Iyengar makes me understand that dharana (explained in last sutra) is, the achievement of single-pointed concentration and dhyana is the ... maintenance of this concentration. In this maintaining act we move from "one-pointed concentration to no-pointed attentiveness" beautifully put down on paper! For me it fully fits into a huge theoretical universe from Bakhtin, Nishida, Gadamer, Dewey to Cikszentmihalyi, Juncker, Merleau-Ponty and well, so many more. The feeling of "fit" or conjunction is fine. I also love that it is a maintaining act, somehow it makes it ok to get off the beam and the act is to come back. Right now (cleaning house) it seems like life is not meant to be “done” or “tidy” its meant to move, get messy, clean up, start up, tear down, get born and die. From meditation, to theory, to clean house and to be born and die – that’s me :-) and absolutely fine!
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

a new begining: chapter 3

2010-09-04T17:45:00.000Z

Do you know the feeling of getting something that is very important somehow to you personally, and not being able to describe and tell anyone about it? And it feels so big that it is pointless to try to start writing about it, it will take forever to get it done. –well :-) that’s me right now!

So, I’m gonna try to keep it short and sweet.
In Iyengars start to the third chapter he talks about our quest in general terms. He describes how we, when we vigorously engage in this path, can achieve some power;
the eight siddhis:
(anima=to become as minute as an atom, mahima=to wax in magnitude, laghima=to become light, garima=to become heavy, prapti=the power to dominate and obtain what one wants, prakamya=the freedom of will and attainment of wishes, isatva=supremacy over all, vasitva=the power to subjugate anyone or anything)
However, Iyengar writes, that Patanjali “holds them to be obstacles” to meditation and oneness because they create attachment and affliction. We kind of get sidetracked. The powers of the siddhis are only of use if we have forgotten the aim of yoga. “”Discard them”, he says, “and devote all energies to the realization of God””

This is what is overwhelming to me. It feels like my heart is on fire for these sentences and singing; “listen jenni! Listen jenni!”

I have not felt like supremacy over all, as in supremacy over all other fellow human beings :-) but yoga-practice and regularity of daily practice have given me a sense of this feeling towards for example my emotional life, like there is something above this. And this could be such a kick that it suddenly could be the goal for me, instead of using this new freedom to realize oneness, unity or something greater than…
I had the urge to shift goal the first couple of times I felt the extreme lightness that yoga can give me, like all flesh is gone and there is only breath and spine left – an urge to go for experiencing this instead of a neutral acceptance and back the realization of the great reality.

I can’t write more about this, I have to sit with it. Back to the next sutra:

Sutra 3.1!!! “The mind has reached the ability to be directed (dharana) when direction towards a chosen object is possible in spite of many other potential objects within the reach of the individual” (Desikachar translation). I have so many relating points to the sutra and the text about them that I have to discard a lot :-)

I love the part that Iyengar writes about how absorbed we can become, how “dharana is the art of reducing the interruptions of the mind and ultimately eliminating them completely, so that the knower and the known become one”. Yes, I can relate to this. This is a part of both my work as a teacher and work in the projects at the library, this year especially with the young inventors and the innovation. It does bring humility and gratitude. And there is very little sense of ego, but not destruction or fight the ego. Something else. Dharana, I’m tasting the word, right now it tastes best whispering…
I am grateful for the suggestions that an external focus object should be associated with purity and that internal focus in reality is “pure existence”. Thanks.
I have to come back and write about my focusing points and unfoldings. I’m a bit to overwhelmed right now. Your are welcome, to make suggestions :-)
Love and light
Jenni Saunte

every end is a new beginning...

2010-08-28T17:42:00.002Z

We are at the end of chapter 2 :-) and I’m at the end, having my last class at my old work-place and at the same time moving into the newborn yoga-space at Yogacentralen.dk
The last sutra 2.55 “Then the senses are mastered” (Desikachar translation), can seem so little, but oh! What a long way to go – to let go of the “needs” and the “must haves”, the “I don’t wanna” and the “it hurts”.
But when it all is done – by the practice of yoga, then this sutra promises us total freedom from being driven by our senses. “The senses cooperate in the chosen enquiry instead of being a cause of distraction.” (Desikachar)
Chapter 2 have brought up the self inventorying, the practice of the body and the breath, the art of living together in society and the cleansing acts to impurities. How to get focused and how to maintain balance.
Now we can move toward “the internal quest of yoga” (Iyengar)

Maybe that’s the walk of the last seven years of teaching… From construction work, in some kind of control trying to build up poses, to go for the nuances, to let go of the control and be of service to the group as a teacher, to discover how impurities –wrong sayings, tensions or disturbance from outside (or my head) – get cleansed, not by me, but by focusing into the practice we are working with –right here right now!
More and more the nuances appear to me, the subtle differences that make a world change.
More and more I get to step into a certainty of teaching, which is evolving through me and to be a god enough teacher is perfect(tak Winnicot). Always improving is true, not a threat, a promise of there is more :-)

Things are changing in so many ways for me, and I can’t control them, I can’t fix them and it’s not about me. It just is. Welcome!

I wish I could tell you that “I” control my senses – this is just not my experience. I do relate to this sutra, as a sadakha (aspirant) I feel that yoga, the power of daily practice and the power of this practice masters my senses. That my senses follow along and I become more whole, more unified.
But I know several yoga-teachers that have the experience that they can master their senses – to this I say: “beautiful!! – good on you!”

Being free is my focus. Every ending is a new beginning is my focus and this is written to you with paint-spots on my fingers – from painting the lovely yoga room, where we can meet and get access to some of this caring, harmonious power of yoga!
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

not to be deprived - to be free

2010-08-21T06:27:00.002Z

Sutra 2.53 Patanjali defines “Pratyahara”(the fifth aspect of yoga see sutra 2.29):
“Restraint of the senses occurs when the mind is able to remain in its chosen direction and the senses disregard the different objects around them and faithfully follow the mind.” (Desikachar translation)
My first recognition of this sutra is from the trataka-meditation, where the whole world can disappear and there is only the flame of light and oneness. First after this initiating recollection I can relate, and recognize that pranayama is a good source for this type of experiences.
Ups I looked ahead, this is the second last sutra of chapter 2… (and the last one is really very revealing, long and challenging and important so you can look forward to next week!!)
Oh and there my focus went off…. Back into centre Jenni – Pratyahara, restraint of the senses, or focus in the inner world, the possibility to perceive everything directly (Iyengar on this sutra) the movement “towards the realization of the soul” (Iyengar).

What I personally get from reading Iyengar is that now! the journey back to the origin starts. The body and mind have been moving towards something external for gratification. We become hypnotized and drawn outwards towards pleasure. The need of pleasure and gratification (of the ego) is ever ongoing and brings us out of centre. “Pratyahara is the withdrawal of the mind from its contact with the senses of perception and the organs of action; then its direction is towards the soul.” (Iyengar) We get the suggestion that the science of restraining the senses is: “depriving them from what feeds them, the external objective world”.
All this in order to be free. Not to be deprived :-) to be free

Inspiration for class, focus on inner state. Does this mean to lay back on corrections/adjustments? Don’t think so. Maybe it is conscious contact in class to the focus on what is, in asana, before and after. We always do this, but increased contact… Maybe it is a “letting go” of seeking pleasure in every asana, and go for being free instead? To have a meditation focus point for the whole class, maybe personal maybe in fellowship?

Inspiration for my daily practice; I can feel my urge for this withdrawal. External world can make me absolutely disturbed (or I can use external focus to stimulate my own ego to boost and “disturbedness” is absolutely a good ego-booster). These sutras show me the way. I can follow.
Thank you – Namasté
Jenni

to get fit for focusing... and daily practice..

2010-08-14T08:18:00.003Z

Soo, a regular pranayama-practice reduces obstacles to clear perception "And the mind is now prepared for the process of direction towards a chosen goal." sutra 2.53,
(Desikachar translation)
Iyengar: "the mind becomes fit for concentration" sutra 2.53

I get some poetry this week as well, that talking about pranayama seems to bring about. Iyengar writes: "Once the new light of knowledge has dawned through the practice of pranayama, the mind is fit and competent to move on towards the realization of the soul"
I really want this. I can tell that some people use 2-3 hours a day to be in meetings with other people on the same path, some people can have a daily practice of 3 hours yoga asana-pranayama-meditation.
This is not me.
Sometime I think that having an enormous posture-practice or being in 2-3 meetings with others a day is the only way and I'm just doomed... but
Here I am.

Reality keeps sending me messengers that tell me that my everyday is my ashram, my work and caring for my kids is my yoga practice, my listening to the negative persons is a gift for my development in staying centered. My guru is the random next person on my path every day, ever-changing.
I have as much time as anyone. Right.
The best yoga-practice is to be. With this. Do the next thing.
God or yoga or universe haven't told me to leave my kids and go into a monastery. One strong sense of direction I get is to experience the promises of Patanjali come alive in my everyday.
I get to experience it here and now, I don't have to change my whole life (other than it has been changed for me). I just have to engage in today.
I found the courage to tell my teacher and guide that I have 30 minutes for yoga posture practice a day, that off course there were days every week where I could do more, but 30 minutes was the continuous possibility. “I”(the inner jock) felt so much shame, there is a very strict jock in me - that think no less than 3 hours a day can do it.

The fact is my regular practice often takes 3-4 hours a day, but as you can tell yoga posture practice is only a 4th of my regular practice. I haven't chosen how much time should be spent on prayer/meditation/study/inventory/posture practice. Life and what keeps me alive and in sanity have formed my daily practice.
Today it is more important to have continuity, than to be able to fulfill my inner jocks need to brag about loads of training time :-)
To have a reasonable goal like 30 minutes is something that takes me on the mat.

Some days I'm not still while doing yoga - oh-oh!!! bad jenni :-) but it is true. Sometimes while standing in adhomukha svanasana my kids come and show me drawings - and they turn the picture upside down - well those are the days where I know I'm too tired to do the practice when they sleep, so I do it in the kitchen with them, often they join me for a while.
Some days my ego is the only thing that brings me to the mat - oh-oh!! bad jenni :-) but it is true.. why not, it makes so much mess, let it use some pride (I do it every day!) to bring me into what works for me.

What really makes my daily practice a possibility is reality, it just brings practice into my life. Reality have brought a group of women that also have a daily practice to me. So that I can talk to them and we can share about having this practice and the efforts and effortlessness the gifts and the obstacles on the path.

Iyengar also writes that the practitioner of yoga, "who had to struggle initially to cultivate a yogic way of life by self-discipline and study, now finds her efforts transformed into a natural zeal" Here my ego could jump in and say that this transformation and zeal is to serve ego and make me more important than others but Iyengar passes down the goal for this transformation; we are transformed in order: "to proceed in her sadhana (practice)". I just love that the goal for the process is to keep on being in the process. It makes so much sense for me.

ok - so I got off on an tangent, I obviously have to share about having a daily practice... again. Maybe because it makes my life full of purpose and freedom or maybe I just have a weird brain - thank you for reading!!!
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

rythm of our every day

2010-08-07T07:07:00.002+01:00

Sutra 2.52 “The regular practice of pranayama reduces the obstacles that inhibit clear perception”

How can I relate to this?
Well regular practice of anything gives me perspective. It is only the last 7-8 years I’ve been given a steady practice. But I can tell that perspective is a part of clarity, it gives proportions. And proportions give me that some things actually shrink and become insignificant – they don’t fill up my sight, so that’s contributing to clear perception. Right now the regular practice of staying in my centre, when talking to a very negative person on a returning almost daily occasion gives me clear vision that the other person is not my problem, I get clear vision into me. My yoga practice can teach me something here.
Smiling helps to stay centred in the asana, not to become a fighter a militant gymnast :-) In order to smile in real life, I share my experience (the strugle with the negative person), with somebody outside the whole situation. We can smile and laugh at my reactions and sometimes confused actions – well I experience the same release into a centeredness and lightness, as in the asana. In this centeredness I experience clear perception.

I’m not avoiding to write about the “pranayama-part” in this sutra :-)
I’m very grateful to get, yet another push into action on everyday basis.
You see, last weeks sutra made me start my morning yoga-practice again – it was soo nice!!!! Until Tuesday (haha), where me and the girls left for a mini-vacation on an island… I just couldn’t get it done. Yoga and meditation become the walk alongside the water, the engaging in the kids play, tales and the sound of the waves and the amending meeting with oldtime friends and family. Which is all fine, but not the same, so continuity…

But this weeks sutra gives me, that this is fine. It’s true that we do all sorts of things in life and situations change, continuity breaks and we follow along. Then when we are back – there can be a rhythm in our everyday, that unfolds in for example a yoga-routine, a pranayama practice. Keep coming back, like in meditation. Not to do the same thing every day, but to keep coming back to what works..

My teaching will start up soon. This sutra encourages me to go for clarity in teaching situations. To try on whatever tiny start up level to introduce pranayama or conscious contact to the breath. It also tells me that I as a teacher is not the “problem remover” but the practice is. I love that!!

Namasté
Love and light
Jenni Saunte

awakening and evening review :-)

2010-07-31T09:28:00.001+01:00

Desikachar translation: In the state of yoga “Then the breath transcends the level of the consciousness” sutra 2.51. I love that he writes “It is not possible to be more specific” Yes! Gotta go there, gotta try, do, experience -not all this talking. Can’t learn to surf by watching the tv… go, do, try, experience. And it is a language-philosophically-logic fulfilment; not trying to explain what is beyond consciousness.

"The fourth type of pranayama transcends the external and internal pranayamas, and appears effortless and non-deliberate" (Iyengar translation, sutra 2.51)

I relate this to "being breathed" instead of being the "breather". Iyengar writes that this state goes beyond the ordinary pranayama retention and conscious contact to the breath. He writes about the experience of an awakening and the experience of being penetrated by "the light of intelligence" to our innermost being.

My focus will be on awakening; to live as awakened as ever possible in every situation, every relation. Morning as a focal point, this is really needed after my long journey I have had problems starting up my morning routine (kids still sleeping and Copenhagen still sleeping). Right now, thinking about awakening a big yawn comes to me, the picture of a cat waking up and stretching the back - so some long stretches will be included.

I will take some space here to write about my evening review. For a month (or 47 days) I've been relating to the yamas and niyamas before I go to sleep in the evening.
You can see the "evening-review-format" here.
These are some halfway reflections:
I love writing about how consideration have been a part of my day. I love discovering that it usually is a part of my day. I don't think, however, that my focusing on this makes me more considerate...
Often the considerate experiences are the same as the unfolding of "being at service", but not always...

"Resisting desire" have turned into the same as "moderation", since living with my desires as the driver, lack moderation in all kind of ways. I also think this change of meaning has something to do with not having a longing for other peoples stuff or stuff, this haven't been a big part of these 47 days :-) This is an old experience with writing reviews every day, if the question/stimuli don’t relate the inspiring level turns the question into something that does ring a bell (living moderation)

"cleanliness" and "the removal of impurities" could be seen as the same thing, but to me it have been turned into - cleanliness practical hygienic actions - spiritual life as karma yoga or spiritual life as the servant... and removal of impurities as actions or situations that cleanses mind, unfolds pure being, innocence, truth...

I love that work and study is something on my agenda every day - and the whole idea of vacation is abnormal, fit very well with my experience of how to live and not loose sight of "the goal".

The two non-yama related questions: "What did I put into the stream of life today?" and "How have I unfolded unity with my past and how have I lived meditation and visions for today?" are old questions in my review but what power they bring!! Presence of my meditations purpose and presence of becoming more whole more in unity. It was good for me to add these two questions.

I've been reading about the seven deadly sins and the seven virtues :-) and I must say I think the yamas-niyamas got it all. For example, the check into the "moderation" kind of includes all of it :-)

So this is it for now -
I'm moving my classes after 6½ year into a new baby yoga place here in Copenhagen: Yogacentralen You are allways welcome!
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

Read more about Yogacentralen at: http://www.yogacentralen.dk/ and http://www.facebook.com/Yogacentralen

Pranayama and the forgotten sutra :-)

2010-07-24T17:02:00.003+01:00

This week is still in the name of pranayama, sutra 2.50 “Pranayama has three movements: prolonged and fine inhalation, exhalation and retention; all regulated with precision according to duration and place.” (Iyengar translation)
This is really a hard text for me to read, this much I get; during inhalation the inner body (the seer) moves toward the outer body. In exhalation the outer body moves towards the inner seer. The first three components of breath we’ve touched and consciously contacted in pranayama classes with Glenn and also the retention following inhalation (antara kumbhaka).

Iyengar gives us some guidelines or focusing points. If the retention after the inhalation “establishes consecration of the seer” if the retention of the exhalation establishes “frees one from the four aims of life”.

Dear – if you want to know more about these four aims of life ;-) you have to keep on working the sutras (or your yoga practice) because Iyengar refers us to the very last sutra, and there are no shortcuts in this…

I forgot my papers about sutra 2.48 in Italy, so now I’ve spent some extra time to recreate the reflections that came in that weeks meditation on the sutra (and maybe some new ;-)

2.48 “From then on the sadhaka [yoga-practitioner] is undisturbed by dualities” (Iyengar translation)
Just for myself I remind me that it is after performing asanas has become effortless ;-) that we can become undisturbed by dualities…

Iyengar talks about, in this sutra, how the practitioner gets undisturbed. I love that, I have a guide who suggests that we should make "getting undisturbed" our top priority. He also says that if there is something "wrong" it’s not with them or the situation; it's with us - we're disturbed :-)
I also love that it is undisturbed by dualities - I can surely relate to how often dualities are part of me being undisturbed. Typical example is when I think I have to choose this or that, and (I) drive me crazy, thinking of what to do, and then the, never thought off, third option comes along –haha
I guess that there is no opposition any longer when the effortless state has been reached.

In Desikachars translation he writes about how external influences get minimized. This is a great motivator for me. He talks in terms not being influenced by age, climate and diet. But for me the big promise (in this days) is from other persons, their judgements, opinions and wellbeing as well as not being influenced by situations that might evolve and negativity or … bad energy (in lack of a better description).

Back to this week’s sutra: 2.50 it calls for some more pranayama work, to follow up on what have been granted me to learn and to explore life under water in the air :-) And I have to figure out what this consecration of the seer means – since it is a measuring point for the pranayama work.
Namasté

change

2010-07-23T07:35:00.003+01:00

I’m back from a beautiful and challenging retreat in Italy (Quercia calante). We were about 25 yoga-teachers from all over the world that met in the most beautiful nature and worked about 7- 8 hours a day with Glenn Ceresoli (Iyengar yoga) with change. Around the practice every possible comfort, that I can imagine, was seen to.
Personally my focus point was change – so it suited me just fine, that he stressed this as a fellow-focus-point, for the retreat – I was so grateful for this. Other main subjects occurred during practice, for example there was a pranayama focus, for me. My pranayama-practice was both disturbed and developed, by changing the sitting position so drastically. Sometimes I had to open my eyes (secretly ;-) to check if it was really true – that I moved so much or so little… Often it visually didn’t look like so much – that I internally experienced the movement.

I brought 3 sutras to my three weeks of travelling. They beautifully matched the yoga-work. My teacher even used some of the pictures that Iyengar uses to describe prana :-) in the sutras I was studying the night before.
Now, I start posting about sutra 2.47 and 2.49 – since I have the papers from my contemplation and meditations on these sutras with me home. Somehow I have lost the papers for sutra 2.48… But it’s all in me, so I will write it down soon.

2.47 "Perfection in asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached" (Iyengar translation)

The first experience that I remember, when I read this, is learning to drive a car or a MC for that sake. In the beginning I had tension in every muscle, even my tongue :-) when I was driving, as the effort to make the vehicle move and join traffic became ... almost subconscious - effortless I often experience "the stream of life" or the truth of the travelling position, while driving. Effortlessness.
I can also relate this to my yoga-asana-practice. But right now, I’ve done (to me) seriouse challenging yoga, so the effortless is a bit further away from me, but I can relate :-)
A more tangible experience is when the prop I've been using to hold a pose is no longer needed or when the pose I've been struggling to get into, suddenly (typically for me, by learning a small technique) is just there and available and easy.

Iyengar writes that there is a balancing edge for us, between the effortless state and the way to get to this state; through "perseverance, alertness and insight". I get this, sometimes I can try too hard. Often I give up before I even tried, the two "out of balance" or off the edge positions that lead nowhere. From the yoga-work I've been doing in Italy, this reminds me of the words from our teacher about not to lose our goal in the techniques and details that gets presented to us. To me the most significant touchable goal is lightness and ease. (tak gud)

Sutra 2.49 "Pranayama is the regulation of the incoming and outgoing flow of breath with retention. It is to be practiced only after perfection in asana is attained" (Desikachar translation)
The first thing I read is the clarity (in all my different translations) that pranayama comes AFTER mastering asanas. I take this as a very clear guideline. Don’t mess with this. And my tiny experiences of how huge I experience the subtlest of movement in my body – while doing pranayama – makes it easy for me to understand why this is so.
I only teach pranayama, for longer times with more experienced students, that chose to take this class. But I also do introductions, small “conscious contact” to the breath in every class, I think it is so important to start having a relationship with our very essence of life, or as Iyengar writes: Prana is "the prime mover of all activity. It is the wealth of life"

I love this poetry that comes in trying to describe prana "Prana is an auto-energizing force which creates a magnetic field in the form of the universe and plays with it, both to maintain, and to destroy for further creation". This is significant to me. The both destroying and creating, the both being and non-being - the all inclusive. And maybe this is change? Does all change include something dying? Our teacher said that the only thing that hurts in change is our resistance to the change. But can the death of something (like an old idea) be felt?

I’ll be back on sutra 2.48
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

The body, mind and soul are one

2010-06-20T06:45:00.000+01:00

Sutra 2.46 "Asana must have the dual qualities of alertness and relaxation." (Desikachar translation) I’m given the understanding that sthira can be understood as; alertness, firm, steady (without tension) and sukha can be understood as ease, delight or relaxation (without dullness or heaviness). So I’m given a guideline to my asana work. Sthira points in the direction of sneaking up on my limitations and enjoying the steadiness as a gift, not as me doing it. When I try to produce stability it often turns into rigidity… addiction to habits (unflexible, one form as the only right one). Asana lets me experience that stability is already there and I just have to show up alert. Sukha points me towards the peace and ease there is to experience when I am in this stability and firmness. Sometimes I find myself clinching my teethes even though it makes no difference what so ever for the asana, except my attitude gets (or is) locked and hostile (remember driving a car for the first time, my shoulders wore sour and my face...).

I experience in this sutra-work, that asana often can be replaced with “my actions in life”, and thereby I can apply the wisdom of the sutras on every action that is in my life. And now I have a guideline for actions in Jennis life :-)

Iyengars translation; "Asana is perfect firmness of body, steadiness of intelligence and benevolence of spirit." He writes that this sutra is the "how" asanas should be "understood, practised and experienced."
Asana "should be done with a feeling of firmness in the body; goodwill in the intelligence in the head, and awareness and delight in the intelligence of the heart"
One way I experience this is that my joints are still, my thoughtlife is loving and accepting of whatever experience I have in the sutra, including my non-ability at certain times. And when I experience the stillness, firmness and my mind is loving and tolerant then there is very little noise from the ego :-) and the awareness and delight of the heart (that I suspekt is always present) can be experienced.

Iyengar continues; "when this is done a rythmic flow of energy and awareness is experienced evenly ...throughout... the body". I can relate to this from two very different experiences. When I work the sun salutations, I sense this rhythmic flow and being full of awareness and feeling complete, whole. This is a very dynamic, rhythmic experience, but I have the same experience when I do a sitting, sometime I experience this rhythmic flow throughout all of me, and sense of being complete and… “getting together” or with Iyengars words: "A pure state of joy is felt in the cells and the mind. The body, mind and soul are one."
This week the balance between sukha and sthira is my working guideline.
I will be travelling for some time (taking part of a yoga-teachers retreat) so I will write the next couple of sutras in hand and transfer them to you when I get back. Maybe I can get one more online before leaving, maybe not :-)
Love, kindliness, tolerance and light
Namasté
Jenni

my evening review -new format :-)

2010-06-15T10:08:00.002+01:00

Inspired by the sutras I will start a new evening review. I've added two areas of review and I speciefied three or four things, that acctually comes from my old formula.

How did the following yamas and niyamas unfold in my day (was I.../where there...?):

1. Consideration towards all living beings, especially those who are innocent, in difficulty, or worse off than we are.
2. Right communication through speech, writing, gesture and actions. (dishonest, fearfull, resentfull?)
3. Noncoventousness or the ability to resist a disire for that which does not belong to us.
4. Moderation in all our actions.
5. Absence of greed the ability to accept only what is appropriate."
6. Cleanliness, or the keeping of our bodies and our surroundings neat and clean.
7. Contentment or the ability to be happy with what we have and do not crave what we do not have.
8. The removal of impurities in our physical and mental systems through the maintenance of correct habits such as sleep, exercise, nutrition, work and relaxation. (do I owe an amend? need to share about something?)
9. Study and the necessity to review our progress.
10. Actions done more in the spirit of service than for personal gain.”
11. What did I put into the stream of life today?
12. How have I unfolded unity with my pastand how have I lived meditation and visions for today?

Anybody wanna try asking yourself this every evening befor going to bed?? I would love to have fellowship in trying this - let's say for three months :-)
Namasté and love
Jenni Saunte

spirit of serving

2010-06-11T19:35:00.001+01:00

Sutra 2.45
"Actions done in spirit of service promote the ability to completely understand any object of choice." (Desikachar translation)

"Surrender to God brings perfection in samadhi." (Iyengar translation) Iyengar writes; "the power of samadhi (profound meditation or unity) comes to the practitioner who takes refuge in God."

Since in my understanding God is reality, and understanding any “object of choice” means to me that there is something real besides me (experiencing reality) – there is no difference in these two translations or two unfolding of sutra 2.45.

The essence, for me, is that when I’m in a position as a servant I see things clearer than from any other position.

When I do my yoga-practice in spirit “to serve” my body or my health, I get to be rich and giving.

In my work as a teacher, if I get to serve the student, I get to be so wealthy that I can keep on trying to give it a way and what I give a way is not even mine, so I cannot get in a lacking state.

In my library work place, I can be rich in knowledge and serve by answering, finding or helping the user, I can be a rich person giving back to the local community or a rich person giving back to the treasure of wisdom, knowledge or arts. Fantastic. All I have to do to live in this wealth is to serve. And by serving I give something away and that's the only way I ever can have something (truely- everything else is a story of owning). And it becomes clear I’m not the source (and the only source;-) and there is something real and objective besides me.

“How can I best serve my body, my mind or my practice – right now?” is my starting point for classes this week. How can I serve by challenging or by going softer, easier? A possibility to serve by expressing the most authentic and loving me in every asana.

Namasté

Yours servant

Jenni :-) Saunte

Study, brings one close...

2010-06-05T17:28:00.001+01:00

2.44 “Study, when it is developed to the highest degree, brings one close to the higher Source that promotes understanding of the most complex.” (Desikachar translation) From reading both Iyengar and Desikachar I get at least three ways of unfolding “study”. It is the understanding of weaknesses and strengths in us that can nullify the weaknesses and make us use our strengths. It can be the study of sacred scriptures and reciting of mantras. But I love the suggestion that it is the communicating process in which the sensations and experiences gets through the skin and all our inner sheaths to the inner seer and from the inner seer to the outer layers of the seers abode :-) Study as the process in which the inner seer breaths through me, the expanding and contracting motion ever ongoing – I get really happy.

To my yoga teaching (and practice) this becomes the mantra reciting :-) and the exploration of what the inner seer tells each and everyone of us.

In my life this gets united with what my dear friend, used to tell me, (before exams) that there is no use focusing on what we didn’t have time to read and work through, he said lets focus on what we know and did. I just love that! Today this turns into the wisdom of the sutra - to get the weaknesses nullified and the strengths in use. And I’m grateful for a guideline to live life today, keeping my eyes on the price :-) what already is working, free and filled up with love.

Namasté
Jenni Saunte

removing impurities

2010-05-29T09:38:00.003+01:00

2.43“The removal of impurities allows the body to function more efficiently” (Desikachar translation)
To me; the removal of impurities refers to my daily practice – body refers to physical existence “being” in this form and efficiently is measured against (towards :-) my authentic inner guidance and meaning (to be happy joyous and free). Iyengar gives me some extra translation on “tapasah” as the ascetic devotion, and self-discipline. In these days self-discipline is out of my hand, it’s not my business, I can’t make me pure :-) I just do the dishes and the practice and follow the next direction and reality takes care of the rest.
My (small) self cannot discipline my (small) self – there is need for an other instrument – I guess spirit (grand self) is a good one! All this small and grand from the sutra about the God-spark in all of us being the big self and the little self being the ego who is part of human existence.

So this week practice will be about removing impurities (rotations, conversions, pranayama, oh… everything can do it) and lets look at the results in practice and measure our efficiency – why we do yoga.
Love

I'm the practitioner not the propeller

2010-05-23T07:00:00.000+01:00

“The result of contentment is total happiness.” (Desikachar translation)
This is what I read: when I get a practice over a longer time, with the yamas and the niyamas I get cleansed and clarity unfolds. Then contentment comes out of being clear and on this path, and out of contentment comes this total happiness or “supreme happiness” as Iyengar calls it.
It is granted, because … I’m the root of my own troubles and when the cleansing process puts this “I” in perspective something else than ego can fill up time and space..
Iyengar writes about the propelling power of the tapas, the devoted practice, which will propel the practitioner into a transformation. This is a part of being on a path of concentration which makes self-study (inventory) possible and leads towards God or reality or what you understand (or don’t understand) as a higher power.

The practitioner is not the propeller neither is the practitioner the power that drives the propeller. This is given through practice. I’m the practitioner. That’s it. Everything else is a gift. I’m the observing receiver of this gift. Thanks. Tak.

Now, my teaching is influenced to be about seeking the contentment and not trying to force the asana but enjoy the force that starts up in every asana by just meeting up on the mat and follow instructions.
Namasté
Jenni

cheerful and benevolent :-)

2010-05-15T19:24:00.000+01:00

2.41 “When the body is cleansed, the mind purified and the senses controlled, joyful awareness needed to realize the inner self, also comes.” (Iyengar translation)

When I experience “clarity of mind and body”, do I feel joy? Yes. Not exaltation or bubbly but… Joy, as being free, light and at ease. When I move away from this clear centre, do I experience pain? Yes. I once heard a wise man say that pain is only a signal to guide us back into centre (the broad highway)

And Iyengar passes on the promise that “When the consciousness is cheerful and benevolent, the seeker becomes ready to receive the knowledge and vision of the soul.” I know that insights that come to me, when I’m cheerful or benevolent, reminds alto more about the words of the wisdom literature.

We are halfway through the sutras and I’m giving an event to celebrate this. It will be about subtleness and cheerfulness and benevolence. Yoga, meditation and fellowship. I look forward to it.

Love jenni

guidelines about cleanliness

2010-05-09T09:01:00.000+01:00

Sutra 2.40 “When cleanliness is developed, it reveals what needs to be constantly maintained and what is eternally clean. What decays is external. What does not is deep within us.”

I discover I have guidelines about cleanliness, how often I shower, brush my teeth, how and when I do laundry, how my living areal is kept clean, how my minds jumping and messing things up- is inventoried, amends gets done and how often I do these things.
The guidelines have not been passed down or pointed out to me but aroused from a trial and error over many years. What are your guidelines on keeping clean (body and mind)?
It’s not unimportant. Iyengar points out that the cleanliness of body and mind creates a good temple for the seer, the dweller deep within us. And Desikachar hands down the promise of getting freed from attachment to outward things will get reduced. Thank God! As I wrote last week, these attachments hurt…
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

great river of life

2010-05-01T16:57:00.001Z

Sutra 2.39 "One who is not greedy is secure. (S)He has time to think deeply. His (her) understanding of himself (herself) is complete." (Desikachar translation) In me, the sutra awakens the word; “what we own - owns us”. We spend time and energy getting it, keeping it and fearing the lost of it.

Iyengar translates it into: "Knowledge of past and future lives unfolds when one is free from greed for possessions." And he points out that holding on to ones thoughts, can be possessive. We are given the guideline to shun the holding on to thoughts and material possessions.

I relate to the aspect of past and future lives, it reminds me of letting go.
To me, the concrete action, to not gather possessions (material or thoughts/stories), symbolically represents my honouring of the spiritual truth; that I actually cannot own anything and that human life and material conditions will eventually die. This sutra makes me face my mortality.

Sometimes (ok- my darker moments) I wonder if everything I experience has the purpose of making me realize that life in this human body will end. Love stories end, people, situations, conditions I love disappears. “It” hurts, but I guess what hurts is my "attempt to hold on".
Other times (my lighter moments ;-) I see a big slow great river, the stream of life, and I courageously step into it and I lay down and let it carry me - wherever.

The dark and the light stories are the same; the stories just evoke different emotions in me.
This sutra makes me think of "panta rei" -everything flows, Heraklitus statement. I've loved it since I was a teenager and heard it the first time. I thought I could see this great flow in life in glimpses.

I want to let yoga be the big river of life and my role as a teacher is to invite my students to step into the water and let it carry them :-) flow, being carried and not greedy…
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

right communication=there's been some wrong communication here...

2010-04-23T18:42:00.003Z

Sutra 2.39 – but before I write this I kind of glanced down the “paper” and saw me going from 36 to 38 hmm let me look into this..

Ups – what I’ve called 2.36 seems to be 2.37 Soo… Hmmm I guess this will be a little loop –a pertinent one..
Because, my dears – sutra 2.36 states “When the sadhaka (the practitioner) is firmly established in practice of the truth, (her)his words become so potent that whatever (s)he says comes to realization.” (Iyengar translation)
And then he moves into a cellular plane, where all the cells have to agree, for something to be a truth – and I actually don’t have a problem with that – my body knows when there are no cells opposing. Often it sound like “we all want to play” my inner nun, kid, fame fatale, professional, grey mouse and so on – they all agree to play :-)
but oh! It hit’s me… right communication. The only right communication, I know this week; is to be as true to the now and my ideals in the present as I can be… I can’t make them communicate, so that I recognize love and respect, and I cannot communicate as they seems to wish… But being true to the most loving, respectful and honouring I know, seems to be right communication to me this week.
(just a little check in)
“One who shows a high degree of communication will not fail in (her) his actions” (Desikachar translation) I get to love my communicating skills through this week, and to realize I cannot do it as (a Buddha) perfect as I would love to, and exactly that is perfect!! In mercy, I communicate in mercy.
When I love what I say -I get to act on what I say.
When I’m in truth (attha – here and now) what I could have done with an asana or what might be possible tomorrow disappears – then I get to act in success. In the now!
Namasté
Love and light
Jenni

on moderation

2010-04-18T19:08:00.000Z

Ultra short
I have tiredness swimming around in me…
Desikachar translation sutra 2.38 “At its best, moderation produces the highest individual vitality”
I relate strongly to this even though my experience with feeling “alive” or “vital” is ego-experiences and have very little to do with moderation :-) too much of anything surely doeas give problems (just gave up eating a whole litre ice cream :-)
Iyengars translation goes toward a discussion about continence, celibacy here and chastity. I love his writing “The life-force which finds sexual expression also serves to find the warmth of our emotions, the passion of our intellect, and our idealism.”
Love and light
Jenni

now about stealing :-)

2010-04-11T17:49:00.001Z

Now about stealing :-) sutra 2.36 continues to unfold the yamas. I’ve found myself in class to pass the yamas along as: non violence, truthfulness, not stealing, moderation in action and non greediness. I know it’s not the abbreviations that Desikachar and Iyengar uses, but translated from English to Danish and now back into English – this is what happened :-)
Iyengars translating sutra 2.36: “When abstention from stealing is firmly established, precious jewels come.” And Desikachar writes about being trustworthy and gaining confidence.

It makes me remember the feeling of honouring my sources, and passing along the yoga-tradition, in my class. Sometime I honour a teacher and dedicate a whole class to this lineage of teaching; sometimes I use precious time in class to talk about differences between traditions or just passing along, from what tradition a specific movement came to me.
This makes me a less important part of the deal and the tradition stands out. But even if I gain less “ego-boost” out of class I get to be rich in “being part of” tradition and rich in safety and protection by traditions trial and error that’s been going on for centuries…

This sutra also reminds me about stealing ideas, opinions and values from others. Pretending to know (steal knowledge) or to have an opinion, robs me; even though I seem to be rich in wisdom-treasure and personality; it robs me – when I stop this stealing and simply starts to say: “I don’t know” I get to receive the precious jewel of wisdom and knowledge and the precious jewel of no opinions peace :-) ever tried that peace? I can recommend it!!!

Now I’m beat. Dead meat-as we said in my teenage years :-)
God night and a good brad new week!

staying still- to get into the refined and subtle

2010-04-02T14:19:00.001Z

Salutes from northern jutland :-) I love the sea, the big waves, the eastern bunnys, the pheasants and hundreds of wild geese and my tiny pice of amber, that I've found...

Sutra 2.36 tells me that:
"one who shows a high degree of right communication, will not fail in his action" (Desikachar translation) and Iyengar translates to:
"when the sadhaka (practitioner) is firmly established in the practice of truth, his words become so potent that whatever he says comes to realization."
The truth, or right communication is not true at the position of the mind nessecerily but honest whole-heartedly, with every cell of our being.
I know this feeling on a physical level, when "it's all comming together..." it just fits, and it has a physical resonance in me. Nice.

Desikachar writes that:-the ability to be honest, communicating with sensitivity, not hurting others, not telling lies and necessary reflection
requires refined state of being.
To me this refined state is a state of awareness, a place where my mind and ego doesn't make a lot of noice. subtle nuances can appear.
Actually I guess that inventory or self-examination both demands this subtleness but also kind of produces it.

Latley I've had kilometer long arms in my practice, and I've enjoyed it so much. When I stretch my arms out in front of my this awareness arises and I'm just there, just by inventorying my movement and surrendering into how breath and spine is totaly connected and infuate a movement in my chest and long, long arms :-)

So this week - staying still- to get into the refined subtle nuances and messages, to get honest and in peace.
Love Jenni

consideration and peace in words, thoughts and deeds

2010-03-28T08:36:00.000Z

Sutra 2.35: "The more considerate one is, the more one stimulates friendly feelings among all in one's presence" (Desikachar translation)
Yes – hear, hear!
But my experience also tells me that “stimulating friendly feelings cannot be my motive when being considerate”. The first time I read about these ideas I decided that from now on, I was going to change the world by thinking and acting in a positive way. But nobody changed around me, and I got really busy trying to make them be more positive :-) and my partner was just depressed and negative. I got the feeling that it doesn’t work.
This is why Desikachars focus in this sutra; to reflect upon ones motives, really helps me. If my motive for being considerate is to become a considerate jenni, giving room for consideration to unfold I my day, I get in contact to the source and power in me that have a considerate form. When I’m in contact with this source or power, I much more easy recognize consideration in others.

Part of me really wants to write the Iyengar translation down to this week: "When non-violence in speech, thought and action is established, one's aggressive nature is relinquished and others abandon hostility in one's presence." Partly because it’s a boost to be actually working with the text of AHIMSA !!! non-violence (childhood dream), but also because his words about seeking “peace in words, thoughts and deeds” gives me clear guidelines and connects this sutra with the earlier ones.
For my yogawork this week “peace in words, thoughts and deeds” and unfolding consideration :-)
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

Through introspection comes end of pain and ignorance :-)

2010-03-19T19:15:00.001Z

2.34 “Uncertain knowledge giving rise to violence, whether done directly or indirectly, or condoned, is caused by greed, anger or delusion in mild, moderate or intense degree. It results in endless pain and ignorance. Through introspection comes end of pain and ignorance.” (Iyengar translation) Today “uncertain knowledge” means jennis-ego-filters in between reality and me. When I relate more to my story of what’s going on than just be part of reality. "Ignorance" means being asleep, not awakened to reality.

Greed often sound like “I want…”, “I want more, there is not enough, I will feel better when there is some put aside for hard times” :-)
I know greed in all kinds of forms: never enough money, time, or never enough love or how about enough safety, security, energy, health, strength, flexibility, respect, love and so on… Even yoga :-) I want more… yoga. The ego-greed filter, that gives an uncertain knowledge of truth and distance to reality.
Anger affects my judgement, well to me this sentence says that when angry I tend to focus more to what I tell myself about a situation, than experiencing what is – gives uncertain knowledge.
Delusion is especially hard :-) no, that’s not true, they are all though and I agree they lead to endless pain all of them, but this night –delusion- just seems so hopeless, I’m really screwed here.. Haven’t you tried for example to “let go” of something you never had, like letting go of an ex lover – like you ever “had” him/her!!! Off course it’s hard to let go :-) or letting go of “controlling the future” how tomorrow’s work or tomorrow’s situations will turn out – that’s a tough task, to let go of the control I never had. Delusion makes it clear to me how much I need a greater power (to me reality), surrender, practice, guidelines and you, my fellow travellers :-) Because when I’m in delusion, I never know it, delusion: “implies an inability to distinguish between what is real and what only seems to be real, often as the result of a disordered state of mind” (Merriam Webster dictionary).

I can have this in my asana work, if I get greedy, to become good fast, or to be able to do more than what is healthy (put in to many asanas in my daily practice) my body starts to hurt.
If I get angry on my body for not doing what I want it to do, I often end up in pains, or if I’m angry when I do yoga, I don’t connect and it all becomes superficial, and only gives me uncertain knowledge – not real connection - if I don't fall and break something, just by being distracted. If I’m deluded about what I’m doing, I easily can get hurt; by repeatedly place my body in unhealthy positions.

Therefore it’s is so giving to do it together with you, to have one (or several) masters, teachers who follow me, and reminds me to connect and be aware when I stray. It helps to read the sutras and to be given guidelines, so that my delusion is put in perspective and not holding the steering wheel.
And to look in to me, into my experience and meassure :-) do inventory or self-examination.
To search for reality, no; to unfold reality through introspection, are my guideline for yoga classes and my week.

Namasté

Jenni

to be present, aware and search for a centre

2010-03-13T20:43:00.001Z

Sutra 2.33 answers the question of how we can examine our attitudes to us and others, yamas and niyamas… “When these attitudes are questioned, self reflection on the possible consequences of alternative attitudes may help” (Desikachar translation) Iyengar brings up the understanding many have of this sutras direction, as a focus on oppositions, when sad focus on happy and when fearful focus on trust and so on.. But I love that I read that this is ok, but maybe not the only way – instead of focusing on the opposing “sides” we can look into what is, here and now in “me” and by looking into me, instead of trying to change stuff (inside and around me) a neutrality, a centeredness will arise. I get this, this is my experience.
The fight is over, I don’t need to correct my bad feelings to some feelings I judge as good, I can just observe. Instead of trying to do the asana as the woman or man on the mat next to me, I can focus on the way it unfolds today through me and dig deeper into my experience of now and a balance and lightness will occur. One of my masters used to say; “measure”. I guess I connect his word to this sutra and Iyengars words of “knowledge of discrimination”, the wisdom to see the difference. When I measure what I do, or some other way relate to my living, self-examination – I interact and relate in a meditative awareness to my being. This brings about knowledge to see the difference. Reality gets my attention and guides me into the yamas and the niyamas.
The themes for my teaching this week: to be present, aware and search for a centre. And personally I also get to look a bit more on how daily practice of self-examination can bring about yamas and niyamas in my life.
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

2010-03-11T10:06:00.001Z

HI
Somehow my daily practice suddenly had 5½ inversion, not planned by me – but what a gift from reality!! Inversions brings such new perspectives, a sense of playing and so much energy – I’m grateful

and this is not me ;-) but some nice inversions surely...

sense of getting cleaned, and being the cleaning-person at the same time

2010-03-06T08:42:00.003Z

Sutra 2.32
“Niyama comprises:
1. Cleanliness, or the keeping of our bodies and our surroundings neat and clean.
2. Contentment or the ability to be happy with what we have and do not crave what we do not have.
3. The removal of impurities in our physical and mental systems through the maintenance of correct habits such as sleep, exercise, nutrition, work and relaxation.
4. Study and the necessity to review our progress.
5. Actions done more in the spirit of service than for personal gain.” (Desikachar translation)

Ok. So this is our attitude towards ourselves. Here is my "check in": 1. yes, Cleaning as an act, is very present in my life :-) two kids, 6 and 10 years – makes it very urgent to keep on cleaning – not to get It done, once and for all, but to be in the process. It is kind of a creative act (am I too weird now?) to organize and to play that I know where stuff should be, in relation to other stuff :-) creating jennis-universe through cleaning – ha. But it sometimes also brings me the position as the servant, number 5. Because I can tell that my kids loves their rooms and our place more when the surface of the table is visible and the dog is to be found. 2. contentment is a gift, and I love the thought of us – always being content, underneath :-) some five or ten years ago I was a supporter of the idea, that if I ever got mad or sad, I’ve probably always was mad or sad, but just not in touch with (suppressing) my tru depressing feelings. Well a wise person told me – it might as well be the other way around. Maybe I’m always content and happy, and sometimes I forget it in the turbulence of my ego or life’s overwhelming richness. But there is an ease and a peace of mind, in contentment that reminds me of “were the piece of the puzzle fits”. This makes it attractive to me.
3. When I sleep well and there has been a feeling of healthy food and moving of my body, I guess I feel pure – and the opposite is also true, I feel impure or like “a mess” when I slept bad or eat really only sugar and fat and didn’t move at all :-) yea that happens !
4. I love that work and study are mentioned in 4 and 5, because I feel so passionate about these aspects of my life. They melt together, but is also a true sound position for me to be in. The months after graduation before I got a job, I renamed my job-applications to “my job”. I couldn’t relate to being without job, fine lets call my new job “hired as unemployed” but the idea of: "without job"… too weird for me. My daily and weekly practice of self-inquiry or self-examination and study of yoga, is a lifeline, my beloved oxygen mask. And it reveals me to me, again and again depths of realization, patterns and brings me to bottoming out in non-functional patterns and bringing me through vague, uncertain periods into new grounds, new positions. It brings me perspective and proportion.

In my yoga practice and in the asana, it gives me: sense of getting cleaned, and being the cleaning-person at the same time. The asana gives me (most of the time) contentment. It brings me exercise and a good nights sleep. It is both my work and my study :-) and it often gives me the position to be serving a crowd of yoga-lovers <3 This little relation practice tells me that; doing the niyamas, is the same as doing my personal practice – fantastic!
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

go for the wordless and for the unconditional

2010-02-27T17:45:00.000Z

Sutra 2.31 “When the adoption of these attitudes to our environment is beyond compromise, regardless of our social, cultural, intellectual or individual station, it approaches irreversibility.” (Desikachar translations) The “attitudes” are the ones from sutra 2.30.
Yoga, or to me – reality is beyond the stories that builds the social, the cultural, the intellectual and the individual. This sutra makes me search for something – maybe not deeper – and maybe not search :-) – but leads me into an awakening into an authenticity beyond my wildest dreams and thoughts. Maybe a wordless truth… whereas the stories (just mentioned) are so full of words. I once took a great class with a teacher who lead us into a meditation which stripped us from being “academic”, “mother/daughter”, “”smart/stupid”, “fun”, “interesting”, “good looking/travelled/successful” and left was… – well I’m not gonna tell you :-) you have to give it a try – it really is amazing!!!
Desikachar writes about not adopting them abruptly, but through practice and self-examination give room for a maintaining process of the yamas. Iyengar tells me that the yamas are the vows of the yoga practitioner, which are unconditional and ought to be practiced by every yoga student.
To go for the wordless and for the unconditional, that doesn’t depend on time, place or situation -is my inspiration for the class and my week.
Love
Jenni Saunte

(I’ve been looking into the next sutra – and I look forward to that as well (the niyamas))

given to me through continuous practice

2010-02-20T11:23:00.001Z

sutra 2.30

"Yama comprises: 1. Consideration towards all living beings, especially those who are innocent, in difficulty, or worse off than we are.
2. Right communication through speech, writing, gesture and actions.
3. Noncovetousness or the ability to resist a desire for that which does not belong to us.
4. Moderation in all our actions.
5. Absence of greed the ability to accept only what is appropriate." (Desikachar translation)

wow! Ok… my first reaction is - There is no way I can do this!! But than I'm relieved, "I" don't have to do this, this is given to me through continuous practice. "It's not about getting it and to be done with it - it (yoga) is a process... more will be revealed". Or as Desikachar writes "we strive for them… how we behave towards others and our environment reveals our state of mind".

I can relate to "consideration towards all living beings" in my everyday. When I'm in contact of how we all are connected and in my position of “I get to have a work”, I can see consideration take form. In my work I get to serve as a teacher, project manager or as a librarian. Sometime my consideration looks like "leave me out of the equation", stay in bed, and don’t met the world today. But I love to say "how can I help you?" or "If there are any questions or wishes - please come forward".

Considering "right communication" hits me especially when I write to the net, or the blog. How to communicate when the receivers eye and heart is not "there" in skin and blood (oh how dramatic) but only unified with me in mind and action. It gets very real. As honest as can be - is my guideline here.

To not be greedy, is as close as I can understand "noncovetousness", so where does this vibrate today? Well I can be greedy on making appointments, I really want to do it all and right now! To resist this desire I need help :-) yogapractice, listening to you and awareness is help!! I get to know my truth and the authentic possibility for engaging in projects. Oh, but now I can tell that not being greedy is the number four, so this one is more of not stealing? Ok, I've got to figure that word out… I'll be back on that.

Moderation in all our actions, reminds me of how I used to try to fix me a daily practice - and I figured out loong advanced schedules for training the body, and I lasted - at the most - a week, often I never got to the actual training, just kept on planning how much I was going to be faithful to my workout or practice tomorrow :-) Today, moderation vibrates on the "ambition-chord". Again "I" can't do it, but reality seems to be pretty good at making moderation happen, in one way or another :-)

Absences of greed - well I've already written about that subject.

Again, my plan is to just deliver this sutra in class – and check in during my week, to se how it unfolds in my day.
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

components of yoga

2010-02-14T09:17:00.000Z

This is the sutra that a lot of people get introduced to with no reference to how to work it or what the aim is and no frame of meaning to shine light on the words. Amazing! that it is so successful and gives so much to so many in spite of this… lack…
Sutra 2.29 “There are eight components of yoga. These are – 1. Yama – our attitudes towards our environment. 2. Niyama – our attitudes towards ourselves. 3. Asana – the practice of body exercises. 4. Pranayama – the practice of breathing exercises. 5. Pratyahara – restraint of our senses. 6. Dharana – the ability to direct our mind. 7. Dhyana – the ability to develop interactions with what we seek to understand. 8. Samadhi – complete integration with the object to be understood.” After translating the sutra Desikachar moves on to tell us that they don’t necessarily has to come or be practiced in this order and that every person has to find their own way – I just love that. All these components develop as we move along our way. Beautiful.
I guess I just bring it along and read it out loud in class and take some time to focus on how the different components are unfolding in my life this week.
Namasté love and light
Jenni

heart of heart

2010-02-06T18:27:00.001Z

So, I’m introduced to the seven states of yoga, given to me by Iyengar. In Patanjalis words we have:
emerging consciousness - to me recognizing my human condition and limitations – an admitting process.

restraining consciousness - to me getting a daily regular, repetitative :-) practice (think I have addressed that in last sutra writing, but it have had many forms the last 8 years, only the very last 3 years have had the form it unfolds today)

individualized consciousness – my self-examination process and joining you and others (guides, sisters and brothers on the same path as me)

consciousness – to me; a blessing that i sometime referes to as serenity, peace, fellowship or ease

attentive consciousness – for me, living prayer and meditation in the broadest possible sense of these words

fissured consiousness – for me; to experience inclusion of what is, for example being able to feel sorrow and gratitudeor even joy at the same time, being upset and serene at the same time ego and spirit, unity through fissured experiences…

pure consciousness – freedom, emancipation, neutrality and ashes (everything and nothing)

This week I chose to focus on these seven states, for some time before I move on. Iyengar also gives me Vyasas words on the seven states and I am absolutely in love with them (the first five suggestions I relate to as above):
what is knowable is known
what has to be discarded is discarded
the attainable is attained
what must be done is done
the aim to be reached is reached
untainted intelligence (no qualities can taint the intelligence) to me- placed in a position of neutrality - safe and protected, our thinking is cleared... we find that our thinking will.. be more and more on the plane of inspiration
self illuminated consciousness (the knower is self-illuminated and maintains her inner light while attending to her wordly duties) spiritual experience. my experience can be uniquely usefull, .. assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things my human limitedness makes unpossible.. to be at the place where you may be of maximum helpfulness to others

At last Iyengar presents the seven states in yoga Vasistas words:
right desire – my commitment to my path comes first
right reflection – engage in the process (my object of attention rubs of on me – nice to collect evidence of what I love instead of what is wrong for example))
disappearance of the mind – a blessing that comes out of the above mentioned
self realization – to know my own true self, my heart of hearts, the unfolding of authenticity in my everyday.
non-attachment - gift of process (we ceased fighting anything or anyone)
non-perception of objects - placed in a position of neutrality - safe and protected.. our thinking is cleared... we find that our thinking will be more and more on the plane of inspiration
experience of state beyond words - nearness with our creator/nature/truth

Well this is enough to rumble and wrestle with.
I wonder how it will influence my teaching, I guess we just go for pure consciousness :-) and see how far we get ;-) why not.. and the rest will come out of the process moving towards this goal…
Love and Namasté
Jenni Saunte

great length :-)

2010-02-06T07:21:00.001Z

Before I write to you on sutra 2.29 I need to take some time to digest all the information coming up here… all the translations go into detail and great length so, I will be back and right now – I start contemplating and finding what my own bullion in this fantastic soup.

whats your practice?

2010-01-31T08:38:00.001Z

Sutra 2.28 “Practice and enquiry into different components of yoga gradually reduce obstacles such as misapprehension (kap.2.3) Then, the lamp of perception brightens and the distinction between what perceives and what is perceived becomes increasingly evident. Now everything can be understood without error.” This is the “what can be done” sutra. At first I think that I am clear on “what perceives what the means of perception is and what is perceived”. But than statements like “you are not your feelings (I am in love/I am angry)” or “you are not a human doing, but a human being (I am a writer/I am an actor)” and “you are not your opinions (I am a conservative/I am right-haha)” well these statements started rocking my boat. And when I see that they are bound to the changing human condition it becomes apparent I am not… so many different things I thought I was. And my need to distinguish between the perceiver in me and my tools of perception and what is perceived becomes apparent! Then this sutra answers what to do. Practice! Enquiry! Into yoga.
Thanks. I will.
This is what I do: I write to you, one sutra a week, I enquiry into what yoga can clarify for me. I apply this into my everyday and I share it with others. I have a practice physically, even though it has been tiny in January, it is mostly an everyday practice of asanas, pranayama and meditation and contemplation. In my everyday I also have a practice of self examination it is pure yoga it brings perspective, proportions and continuous awareness. And I recognize my truth in this sutra – practice and enquiry works. How pertinent that I should read this sutra just today when I get moved into new lands of daily practice. This is it for now!
Love Namasté
Happy “world yoga day” who ever came up with that idea :-)
Jenni Saunte

giving time to the gradual process

2010-01-23T16:37:00.000Z

Sutra 2.27 “The attainment of clarity is a gradual process.” Desikachar translation, and he unfolds the understanding; the first step is to recognize that certain tendencies of the mind are responsible for producing painful effects. Well, I recognize this, when I’m in some sort of pain, a voice in me tells a very seducing story about “why I’m in pain” and there is always someone or something’s to blame, there is a reason outside of me :-) this sutra and Desikachars expansion on the subject, directs my attention towards my mind. Maybe the pain isn’t caused by the situation, but rather by my attitude towards it. When I start my computer at work, I need to have other things to do the first 5-10 minutes because it is… immensely slow and utterly lazy, and I go crazy if I position me as “the waiting jenni”. But if I go and get my hot water and put my things in their places, me and my computer are just “on time” to start practicing my daily morning routine. (I just love that the word “practice” is so connected to yoga, that I can see the yoga, in every practice I have in my every day.)

But that is not just my mind, that can also be called being effective, but what stops me from getting irritated is not, that I do something else; it is that I don’t have my mind set on a fixed time. I don’t expect the computer to be faster, I just comply with the circumstances – in my mind. And that is what dissolves the waiting time.

It’s a relief to read that it is a gradual process, it is my experience, for me it has not been one big bang, but several big bangs (sorry science peeps). And I really do experience clarity to arrive more and more, for every year, every day.

Focus on clarity and keep on keeping on, giving time to the gradual process.
Love
Jenni