Lao Tzu said: “Muddy water, let stand – becomes clear.” Sthira sukha asana. Posture should be steady and comfortable, as Patanjali states in the Yoga Sutra. No matter which school of meditation you choose to practice, the physical ability to sit comfortably and steadily affects the ability of the mind to stay focused during meditation. [...]
Beth of Both Worlds I used to be a total yoga snob. So when one of my yoga friends reappeared in our world-class class and confessed she’d been ‘doing yoga at the gym,’ I thought, ‘Gym Yoga?! I would never do gym yoga!’ She was back in our class now, because she’d been injured. Sure, [...]
Fueling the Flame Tibet and its people have withstood almost 50 years of repression, religious intolerance, the criminalization of reverence to their leader, a Chinese population boom and the appropriation by the Chinese government of their most sacred rite of identifying the next reincarnation of a Tibetan Lama. This began when the Chinese invaded Tibet [...]
We may think of meditation as a seated, static practice, but it can reflect the dynamic nature of life, its organic seasons and rhythms. The five categories of Taoist yoga meditation teach us how to draw our actions into consciousness. In Taoist meditation we move energy artfully, connecting breath with movement and rest, so that [...]
May 2008: Volume 7 / No. 5 Reflects On Thirty Years Traveling with Tibet’s Exiled Leader Well-traveled writer Pico Iyer’s newest book, The Open Road, shares an intimate glimpse of the Dalai Lama at a time when the global monk is in a bright spotlight on the world stage. For the past thirty years, [...]
Discovering Sensuality One Woman At A Time The traditional image of pole dancing involves scantily clad women, dollar bills and sleazy bars. But there is another view; committed groups of pole and sensual dance enthusiasts are changing that image and reclaiming the rightful place of empowered feminine sexuality in motion one woman at [...]
For people espousing progressive values, many November election results brought cheers. The passing of Proposition 8, on the other hand, which amends the California constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, brought sadness, anger and protests. Perry Hoffman and Doug Smith exchanged rings on the momentous date of June [...]
Creative Container Gardening Nourishes Ourselves And Our Earth NOTHING COMPARES WITH THE TASTE of freshly picked, vine-ripened, home-grown tomatoes. Sweet, juicy, delicious, colorful, bursting, it’s something special. Even the most organically grown, farm fresh produce isn’t quite the same as the loving care we take with growing our own food. While we may long to [...]