Any day, I would choose the ordinary life, give me an extra dose of it actually. This life of coming back to the balcony and looking at the verdant backyard. The life of watching in awe how babies can teach you so much about what practice really is. This life of going back to the same worn-out mat and same old asanas. A life of absolute boredom and a life of putting the same, yet somehow new toy in the mouth. Yes, yes, give me this ordinary life where I come back to my foreign language books and sigh non, je comprends rien! Let me sit with this life of procrastination, practice and letting go.
Monsoon Mediation
I accept this life, this so completely ordinary life that I come back to every morning. That teaches me that there is so much beyond the mind that demands, the mind that beckons and the mind that pushes and shoves. This ordinary day of embracing baby and husband, this oh so very ordinary day of afternoon naps and quiet times, of colors and acrylics and work and some more work.
This extra-ordinary day today is so much like yesterday and yet so different from yesterday. What does it bring today? What does it make you feel? What does it demand from you and what possibilities does it hold? You know and yet you don't.
Titled:Monsoon Mediation in Acrylics
Yes, I choose the extra-ordinary life. A life where the sun comes out everyday, the birds chirp, the weather changes and the flowers bloom-the same old and yet not at all.
P.S: As the universe would have it Karen Miller says something similar, so MUCH more articulately than I do in this post: "Settle". Enjoy!
I know, that title might mean that I was sitting on the moving treadmill (huh?) in cross-legged position and meditating. Impossible, and I wasn't doing that. I have however finally made sense of how to use my knowledge in yoga, meditation and running for my days on the treadmill. I have been told that runners intuitively know this but I have been running (on the treadmill) for over three years and what I would experience after running was complete exhaustion and listlessness.
So how does meditation, yoga and running come together? Here's how: What is Meditation?
Chogyam Trungpa in "Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior" gives precise and clear instructions on the sitting practice of meditation. There is no better way to convey that than to just quote him:
"The practice of meditation is very precise. it has to be on the dot, right on the dot. ...if you don't have a good posture your practice will be like a lame horse trying to pull a cart....So first you sit down and assume your posture, then you work with your breath; tshoo, go out (sic) [referring to the out breath], come back to your posture; tshoo. When thoughts arise, you label them "thinking" and come back to your posture, back to your breath" ....You are not working with your mind alone. You are working with your mind and your body, and when the two work together, you never leave reality" (p.25)
Chogyam Trungpa essentially points out that all you do in sitting meditation is focus on the out breath and the in-breath happens all by itself. So, focus on the out-breath, then bring awareness to your posture, then focus on the out-breath, then again, come back to your posture, then focus on your out-breath..and so on. When thoughts arise gently call out in your mind "thinking" and come back to the breath and the posture. Simple but not easy.
So now, what does yoga have to do with running, you ask?
Stiram-sukham asanam
Asana is steadiness and ease
-Yogasutra:Sadhana Pada
The first thing I learnt in my yoga training was that there are three platforms in the body: the feet, the pelvis and the shoulders. When you bring awareness to these three platforms of your body in your yoga practice as well as everyday, your posture improves, you can breathe far more easily and you can be at ease even in difficult situations.
Full disclosure: Posture is something that I constantly work at. I tend to have awful postures while I read, work on the computer and even while doing yoga, so for me this is a lesson I keep coming back to time and again as I am sure most of us must.
So what is the most precise and accurate stance for these three platforms? Below is a video instruction of a wonderful yoga instructor who gives instructions for Tadasana or the mountain pose. When I first learnt the number of muscles one can be aware of in just standing, I was SO amazed. Here is the video, notice the instruction she gives about how the three platforms must be aligned for a precise posture.
The same instruction goes for bringing awareness to your feet, pelvis and shoulders while you are doing almost anything. Running included.
What do I know about running?
I do not call myself a runner, there are experts at that I am sure. But I have been running regularly for three years now and I know that I have a love-hate relationship with it. What began as absolute hate turned into surprise that I could actually run, then determination to run and increase my stamina and then complete and absolute bewilderment at what to do with all the thoughts and boredom that I meet with when I run. For a while there I was also having awful body aches (because of not cooling down gently) and god awful exhaustion. I used to run every evening at one point and would come back home and just drop dead on my bean bag never to get up till it was time to go to bed.
My dad would tell me how mindless this activity of running on the treadmill was and would gently veer me towards walking around the park with him. While I like that way better than the treadmill, I have always ome back to it wondering how to make my half hour on the treadmill more mindful. So here's what I have figured.
Meditation + Yoga + Running : How they all come together
So putting two and two together you get meditation on the treadmill. Today I went on the machine and started off, with awareness of my out-breath, then awareness of my feet, then my out-breath, awareness and gentle correction of my slumping shoulders; out-breath, feet; out-breath, body; out-breath, posture...thought, out-breath, posture; thought, thought, thought, lost in thought, out-breath, correcting posture; out-breath...and so on for thirty minutes. Basically, I allowed myself the freedom to focus on my out-breath and while the in-breath happened all by itself, I focused on my posture in a neat little loop for the thirty minutes that I was on the machine!
I was in the present moment, on the treadmill, with awareness of my being, what more could I ask for? It was a calming, energizing and rejuvenating run! (of course, it is not that this is the result of meditation or running every time you do either, but that's what this run did for me) I have not had that happen many times in these three years running.
This is icing on the cake for me, I found this cool video on HH Dalai Lama meditating on the treadmill! Enjoy!
I love meditating on the treadmill. What about you? do you incorporate a certain method to enhance your running, yoga or meditation? I would love to hear!
"The giver is our parents; we are the continuation of our parents and our ancestors. The gift is our body itself. The one who receives the gift is us. As we continue to meditate on this, we see clearly that the giver, the gift, and the receiver are one. All three present in our body. When we are deeply in touch with the present moment, we can see that our ancestors and all future generations are present in us. Seeing this, we will know what to do and what not to do-for ourselves, our ancestors, our children and their children" -Nhat Hahn in Peace is Every Step.
**********
Anger. Jealously. Hatred. Contempt. Greed. I have it all in my heart and as I move through my 21 day spiritual diet I seem to become more and more aware of it. I have had days when I wake up irate. Possessed by anger I express it when my husband doesn't fold the sheets, leaves a wet towel on the bed, or rushes me on his way to work. On irate days I am unpleasant with my parents who call me in the morning to wish me a good day. I am upset by the traffic, by the maid, by work and finally by myself for being irate. As the day gradually moves by I can 'suck it up' but I am never fully recovered from mornings like these. I find myself on a loop of regret and guilt for having been rude to myself and people around me.
Shining the light of mindfulness on my everyday life has led me to become aware of the seed of my anger, when it begins to form. While I sit with my destructive emotions and look at them, a new understanding dawns on me.Nhat Hahn in his book asks us not to push our emotions away but sit with them and breathe "Breathing in, I know that anger is in me, Breathing out, I know that I am my anger" breathe instead of being consumed by thoughts about what another person didto anger us.
Nhat Hanh ask us if we would scream at the lettuce for not growing well? No! If you have planted the lettuce and it doesn't seem to grow well you will look into the reasons for why it isn't growing well rather than yell at the lettuce or blame yourself or someone else for it. Once you understand the reason you will nourish it in a way that will make it grow well. Thus are humans. If you find that you are angry at someone, sit, breathe and ask yourself why that is so. When you shine this kind of mindfulness on yourself and others, real understanding takes place.
In an emphatic statement Nhat Hanh says "no blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding, if you understand, and show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change". While it feels like a tall order, I start with myself. All of psychology tells you that when you are angry you should breathe, count from 10 to 1 but I have found that this does very little. What has helped instead is this practice of everyday mindfulness even when you are not overwhelmed by negative emotions. Breathing in I calm my body, breathing out I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment!" . Practicing mindfulness through yoga, meditation and pranayam helps me catch my negative emotions the moment it shows up . Practicing mindfulness will place positive seeds on an everyday basis which will then act as antibodies, taking care of negative emotions when they seize us.
Nhat Hahn says, if we can see the entire humanity in a grain of rice, if we can see our mother in the palm of our hand, when we are one with our parents, our ancestors and our children in a way that is expressed in the first quote, we are open to knowing that there is a reason behind every destructive emotion and when we can sit with this insight utmost compassion is what flows forth.
