Moment and movement...

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 Change means that one characteristic have been replaced by another.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

stay unaffected while...

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

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 :-)

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

sidetracks

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

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

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

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

reality is here to live

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

“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

navel navel who am I??

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

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

my inner milky way

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

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

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

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

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

To see a world in a grain of sand

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

ocean of communication

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

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