July schedule

Breath and movement help open up space within the body.

Let that space awaken you.

Yoga for those in the Saratoga Springs area:

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Devoting Oneself

Ganesha, a.k.a Ganapati, Vinâyaka, Ekadanta

How do you know when you're imposing your aversion to suffering onto your decisions? And how do you know when you are actually making the right sacrifice? What if we believe we need to be humble, and do not fight for something that in fact we should fight for? What if, in believing we are making a great sacrifice, we are only running from a bad experience we had in the past? What if we sacrifice the very thing we were given to have, in the name of giving up something for God? In other words, what if our desire for our own pure and perfected kind of spiritual path, in fact, becomes an attachment that obfuscates the beauty and idiosyncratic quality of our life or path of devotion? If we are called to give up attachment to all desires, then at some point are we called to give up our conceptualizing or conception of our spiritual path?

Modern rendition of Ganesh

I learned from recent lectures on the Gita that we do best when we are not attached to our desires. We cause suffering when we become consumed with a specific outcome, especially to ourselves. This is easy to grasp even in just watching a blockbuster movie with a semi-critical eye: We see characters suffer with a desire they have and are unable to obtain, whether business or personal. Usually, the American formula is to deliver the desire at the end of the movie rather than to see the protagonist come to terms with existence, reality, and the difference between material and spiritual gain - that would be truly anti-climactic for audiences and our media culture does not often invite people to reflect. In a decent film, we may see the protagonist's perspective shift as he or she opens the self to new ways of thinking about what was originally desired. Most often, the protagonist achieves his or her goal and any suffering they had at the beginning or middle of the film only helped them to rise above and make that desire real: Thus, the happy ending American audiences have come to expect. But life is not a film or a formula. I am not Sandra and you are not Danny. I am not Thelma and you are not Louise.

Artwork from the film, Animals and the Buddha

So, perhaps it is hard to know if we may be imposing something as our duty or the right thing to do when in fact we could simply be running from an aversion we have or reacting to a deep-seated fear. We are human after all, and can oscillate from being horribly flawed and wondrously inspiring, sometimes at the same time (thus our pull to the tragic hero). In our best bet and effort, we can devote ourselves to a spiritual path, a continual committing of self to. We have more ethical guidelines, insight, and inspiration if we read ancient wisdom texts, but in the personal details of our lives, we can also get quite confused regarding grey areas. Individuals strive to develop a sense of individual duty (dharma) in this life in order to find fulfillment and create meaning. Yet, inevitably, life and the path of devotion will grant us new experiences, new questions, new quandaries/adventures, and there will be times when applying what we already know about moral/ethical issues to problem resolution is not clear or helpful enough, as in fact, no divine set of instructions has been provided for this, your particular situation or mine. Just as the influences of genetics is a vast and indecipherable sea of mutual influences that a program cannot account for as each individual is so uniquely different from another, so we as individuals come with all these samskaras - perspectives, habits, genes, environmental factors, ways of thinking, personal history, family, conceptions of who we are etc. What works for one may not work for another. Surrendering the self in the uniqueness of the self, humbly, respectfully, knowing we do not have it figured out may be the best we can do to steer the boat in the dark or in the fog.

   Chao-Chou: What is the Way?
   Nan-Chüan: It is our everyday mind
   Chao-Chou: Is it necessary to realize it?
   Nan-Chüan: To intend to realize the Way is opposed to the Way
   Chao-Chou: Without intending, how can you know whether it is the Way?
   Nan-Chüan: The Way does not depend on what you know or do not know. If you know it, your knowledge is just speculative ideas. If you don't, your ignorance is like the inanimate. When you have no doubts, the unlimited universe will open in front of you, and no discrimination is possible.

This dialogue from Thick Nhat Hanh's Zen Keys (1973) exemplifies the obstacles that can be created by conceptualizing or forming conceptions of our spiritual path. What I find interesting in this section is the concept of upaya-jñana, what Buddhism calls the Wisdom of the Skillful Ways, and how a good Zen master will create and employ varied methods to help individuals enter the world of awakening for different personalities and different occasions. Buddhism speaks of the 84,000 Dharma gates to enter into reality, and will not describe reality, for it has to be experienced, and in order for any skillful ways or means of the Zen teacher to be effective in helping an individual to enter awakening, "they must fulfill the real needs and particular mentalities of those they seek to guide" (52). I like this, for even though we are not the mind body, we still need the mind body to help us discover who we are (see the Gita or Yoga Sutras for a discussion of the atman) - and thus addressing who we are as a particular makeup of mind body is truly the best way to get us in the direction we are needing to go. Perhaps this is why we resonate with some people or teachers, and not with others.

Perhaps we can say that, owing to our individuality, we ultimately create ourselves in the grey areas: We can open to grey areas as learning, or we can close them off in aversion, and we certainly can deliberate and go back and forth between the two poles. As Viktor Frankl would say, it is up to us to create meaning. Perhaps more important for the bhakta tradition, and this is just my thought, is that we can follow a leading, a voice in the silence, and where there is none, we can concern ourselves with the how rather than the what: we can create ourselves in the grey areas as a humble offering, something that may be sweet because of our intention, even if we are unsure of the footsteps.  Perhaps the wiser decision is to choose the path that makes you have to trust more. New ground is good ground when you are moving in faith.

Bhagavad Gita 
Krishna & Arjuna on the battlefield

We can learn a lot in this regard from the Bhagavad Gita. As we find in the Gita, Arjuna has conflicting duties or dharma. The Gita was sung 5,000 years ago, and is situated within the great Hindu warrior epic, the Mahabharata. The setting for the Gita is the battlefield where two sets of cousins, the Kauravas (not so nice) and the Pandavas (mostly nice), must duke it out. On the one hand, the Pandava prince Arjuna is in the midst of a real crisis: his dharma would tell him to in no way kill his guru and his grandfather (who are aligned with the Kauravas on the field of battle), whereas dharma is also telling Arjuna to pick up the bow and fight. His heart is moved in seeing the men he always respected, and falters to the point that he lets the bow drop, and tells his charioteer, who happens to be Krishna, that he will not fight. Is it courageous of him to surrender his warrior duty and sacrifice justice for his people so as to not kill his grandfather and guru? His heart would tell him so, but Krishna will give him a greater perspective. And so, this is the moment when the Gita starts; with the dilemma of conflicting duties or dharma. The questions Arjuna asks are profuse, riddled as he is with doubt about the right course of action, even though Krishna is very clear and convincing as he appeals to Arjuna through warrior-like thought and then philosophical (and eventually bhakta) thought. In fact, the text can be quite repetitive with Arjuna's languishing, but this is the textual opportunity for Krishna to teach us that we should act without attachment to the fruits of actions. (The text is so rich, and offers so much insight on existence, action, desires, etc.). Another important aspect that emerges from the Gita is that, while for some people going off and meditating and doing yoga in the forest until the end of life is good, not everyone can be a forest-dweller yogi. In the Gita, we learn that yoga can also be done in the everyday world as the yoga of action (karma yoga).

19th century manuscript of the Bhagavad Gita

In conclusion, devoting oneself seems an appropriate title for this post. Devoting oneself may very well involve repeated, progressive, ever-evolving sets of decisions. All this in the hopes of arriving nowhere, for life is constantly unfolding, as is our being and our sense of relation to the Supreme Being. Ancient wisdom texts offer stepping stones for your feet, but how you take the steps with your whole self is up to your unique self and experience. It is reassuring, however, that there is a set of efforts, work, that one can consciously undertake in the yogic tradition. And while this begins with tapas, the fire of discipline, it can become so sweet that you cannot bear to not engage in reading the tales, saying the names, meditating, redirecting, loving, opening yourself to the mystery, the beauty, the fire. We are a being, but we are a being in relation to. And this is a lifelong discovery to manage and give space to.

Bhagavad Gita 
Krishna & Arjuna on the battlefield

Remembering our unique goal in life is a journey, an art, and it is the way you choose to give your life back. In some regards, we have very little control over our lives. We cannot control or even call to mind where we were before we arrived here in this life. We cannot control even our own emotions sometimes. But we can learn from deeper study of the yogic tradition in the Gita or the sutras to observe the mind, emotions, and thoughts (all things of the material world or prakrti) rather than to identify with them. Observe rather than identify, open rather than close, let yourself feel, let yourself let go, see all things as being for the best, wishing love to all, and releasing the past to the past. Releasing what no longer serves you. While many people accumulate and amass things, imagine if we opened ourselves up by letting go and creating space instead. This goes for bitterness, unforgiveness, fear, etc. as well as possessions - we know these can clog our minds and hearts. And so, what do we actually have or possess? This is a question we may face at the end of our life. For me, I hope the answer will be: a sense of gratitude, in love. We can choose to address that question and cultivate that graceful flow of gratitude and love now. 

Our minds need so much feeding and cultivating. One's individual sadhana or shastra can be a sincere way of beginning to approach and surrender further to the love of the divine. If you are a bhakta, then the ultimate goal is communion with your Beloved (Ishvara, whatever you choose to call the God of your heart) in all things, and in all ways.

Life is a landscape with so many deep ravines and high peaks and serendipitous paths that we can't imagine. It has been interesting to stop and marvel along the path, and it is good if we stop to examine and reset the intention of our hearts.

In deep appreciation of the lectures and teachings presented by Professor of Hindu Religions at Rutgers University, Dr. Edwin Bryant, in his lectures on the Bhagavad Gita at the Yoga Mandali studio in Saratoga Springs, NY, January 2018.

Frida Kahlo's diary and the Art of Rebuilding

Perhaps there is more insight available to us if we trust our mind-heart-hand connection and express ourselves on a page with colors. 

Consider an example of amazing emotional texture and quality from Frida Kahlo's journal:

Pages from the published diary of Frida Kahlo

I recently started keeping a notebook and drawing in it. The lines aren't just for words, I realized. One can draw on top of them and doodle in the margins. Maybe drawing opens up what words cannot say, nestled as dreams are in the imagination.

"Untitled"
gel ink on lined paper
2018

Keeping this journal with these drawings has become a hopeful, comforting anchor as I go through life's losses and stresses. The title alone of Lucia Capacchione's book was an inspiring impetus: The Picture of Health: Healing Your Life with Art. And then the drawings, phrases, thoughts Frida Kahlo colored onto paper in The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait were liquid inspiration.

Page of a dispersed manuscript of the Bhagavata Purana,
(Collection at The Met)

In order to be inspired to divine love and perhaps measure how clearly we see, we can enhance our yoga practice with a deep study of wisdom texts. I have been reading the Bhagavata Purana, translated by Edwin Bryant. I also found some interesting books about yoga--asana and pranayama--at the library. Here is a quote that has stayed with me from The Yoga of Breath by Richard Rosen:

Asana is an unusual position that, like unusual breathing, introduces a novel element into our habitual ways of doing - of sitting, standing, moving - and so clarifies these habits in our awareness. This also reverses the wandering (vgutthana, swerving from right course) and turns it toward the self. All yoga practice is like this: it keeps us immersed in and delighted by the process of transformation, which we recognize is accomplished both through our own efforts and through our acquiescence to a higher power. 

Our own efforts + our bowing to a higher power

Then, another insight from Rosen, as he refers to Patanjali's verses on yoga in the Yoga Sutras. (The author begins with a translation of these three verses).

'The posture [should be] steady and comfortable [sthira-sukha]. [It is accompanied] by the relaxation of tension and the coinciding with the infinite [consciousness-space]. Thence [results] unassailability by the pairs-of-opposites.' Each posture is a skillful balancing act between making happen and letting happen. This recalls the two great wings of classical yoga, exertion (abhyasa which has the same root verb as asana) and surrender or dispassion (vairagya). When these two elements are in harmony in asana, the yogi relaxes or loosens (sithila) all physical and psychological tension; consequently the normally perceived boundaries of the body map dissolve, and consciousness begins to coincide (samapatti) with the consciousness that pervades all space, what Patanjali calls the infinite or endless (ananta).

To add to this quote, a parenthetical comment about the Yoga Sutras: As I understood from Bryant's intro to the Bhagavata Purana, it is helpful to know that Patanjali's yoga is concerned with self-realization, whereas the object and goal of bhakti yoga is of a devotional (and thus sweeter) kind.

A dear man has passed.
Dear P.S., much love and joy to you now. Enjoy your great Western book
and see you...

Om shanti

Dalì and Schedule of Classes

Cordially inviting you: 
We have a nice & easy class Saturdays 9:30-10:45am & Wednesdays 9-10am, 
or a more intense, workout yoga class Mondays 9-10am. 
I like tailoring sessions to your interests in yoga. 
See you soon at 402 Rowland Street, Ballston Spa. 

 Email Domenica at domenloren@yahoo.com for more info

Update: It's Snowing! Make some snow angels out there! No class on Dec 29, Christmas day or New Years, or January 20. Otherwise, refer to above for usual schedule!

We are thankful: Life is grand! no matter what it hands us, it always hands us learning opportunities and opportunities to choose love & light. I realize after this happy, reassuring scope: I have been gifted life.

In the space following, I share photos from Monday, my 40th birthday, at the Dali museum in St. Petersburg, FL. With a 1000 pieces in the family's collection, I always see a new painting or a painting newly. Fantastic exhibit with Elsa Sciaparelli. Decadence to the max for fashion and art.

Cherry nipple

Before Rod Stewart wrote Hot Legs

Wedding dress

Dalì

Lobster dress and phone

Schiaparelli

Tristan et Yseult et le filtre

Sagittario

Acquario

The Zodiac

Greek gods. Yet another mythological couple who chase each other in cursed forms

Kissing couch and her Prince shirt

Kissing couch and kiss

Dali detail 

The 3 stages of life

Family, like red wine

The girls and the Dalì museum

Con mio padre

Monday. December 18, 1917. Tampa Airport
Bling celebration courtesy of April!

My son, Summer 2016

The Traces We Leave

If you go back in time, and think of all your different cat lives, that was all part of you. But also, that is not you. You have been through a lot. We all have a story. What happens when we forget our story? Can we let ourselves simply be? Or maybe it is good for some to feel proud of your experiences, even the crappy ones that you learned from and that drew you into a fuller sense of self: responsibility, awe, correction, self-transparency, honesty, wonder, stillness, compassion for others, sorting out what kind of person you want to be. The experiences when you were at this age or that, in this relationship or that: That is all you. Of your past, to cleanse yourself from what you hold onto, forgive areas that feel dead and discarded. Release those you dislike from the power of your dislike. The dead trees are as much of a part of the landscape as the living trees.

Tree Goats of Morocco

Trees are worth more living than they are dead.
-Prince

Don't live in the past, embrace the present, who you are, and seek within and around you the understanding or elements that would help you be a kinder or a wiser soul or both. Pull those strings of you together, gather up the energy and bring it into the now. Here I am, in the present. How do I best move forward in the present? There is the yoga of contemplation and meditation, and there is also the yoga of action. There are many different kinds of yoga - see which you like. I am exploring too. Anytime I have gone through immense shifting or change in my life, I have needed to seek deeper faith and sometimes I have contemplated what ancient texts say, and then sit in silence and marvel at how my questions evaporate for a time.

Artistic rendering of Racine's Phèdre

Everything is illusion. Why chase the illusions: everything is temporary. Can you live without so much judgment, can you cultivate clearer perceptions? How do we still the mind, have disregard toward the wicked, have compassion for the suffering, and celebrate those who have compassion and love? How do we let go of that idea of self even when we have minor success in that?

Life is a lot of ignorance, a lot of fear, ego, attachment to living and survival, and a lot of avoidance of suffering. But is that really living? Inquire about your source. Identify your inspirational texts, thinkers, doers, or images.

Right thinking, right speech, right living, these are hard to get "right" - but when you see other persons and the light they carry within, when you read texts that make you truly think and reflect, when you develop a practice, when you seek... at least you can be semi-confident in what you are seeking. Maybe dharma means to do your duties with a clear conscience, as a devotional painting.

Pariksit hearing, rendering based on Part II of the Bhagavata Purana

Peace and wellness, good education, nutrition, and excellent healthcare for all.
Namaste

Hope

Hope shines bright and with greater buoyancy in the darkest night. In the pitch black and in the silence, you hear truth and real comfort only when it is spoken to you so preciously. You recognize people and their merits and their spirit. You see clearly life, the values of it, and there is so much more I can say, but it wouldn't matter until you found yourself in a similar position confronting death. It's all individual anyway - and relative in terms of urgency. But perhaps it is true that life should be considered preparing for your death: how do you want to look back and say you had lived? How do you leave without unfinished business or regrets or attachments? We all learn to think and act as if death was not going to happen to us. But that wonderful American televised painter, Bob Ross, says that a dead tree is just as much a part of the landscape as a live tree...I am paraphrasing. But imagine what a lesson to have hit home when you want to be there for your growing son.

So for those with a diagnosis or a very pressing, grief-like, or sad event in their life: What is hope? Is it brainwashing the self into thinking you're going to be alright despite some very real facts laid out before you? Well for me, I do not like brainwashing. I can feel when something is sincere - especially when there are some facts that you can go and do further research on. You need to do this, if you have a medical (or other) issue. Research things for yourself: Separate the false information and input from the real deal. I put out a question survey on a forum I belong to and I look for research and I ask the experts (a fellow told me there are two case studies) and even in a recent meeting, I get very, very few responses back because: We don't know. "Where there is no data, we are going to use our experts in different fields to share their experience," the expert female doctor (and reputable surgeon) explained to me. Now this was reassurance. Someone saying: We don't know. Looking back, I had been exposed to false reassurance: with the first GI doctor who told me I didn't didn't bother to biopsy the polyps he saw in one of my organs. He told me they were usually benign. Once again, we need to be aware that there is fake news (unfortunately) and then there is journalism. There is the red pill and there is the blue pill. There is also the pill cam that you need to swallow with a monitor over top of your clothes most of the day.

Anyway, this doctor who will work with me, she was the loveliest of surgeons I had ever met. She was so vibrant, and she seemed to be shining as she looked at me, heard me, and spoke with me, a woman of experience and wisdom and youthful beauty. I was in a Tolkenien forest and had met a creature of divine skill, one who was slightly strange only in how lovely she appeared. It is striking to feel the aura of a renowned female surgeon and woman who is inspiring all the way around, just upon meeting her. I went back a couple weeks later to meet my next doctor, one of the internists (internal medicine) that she and my previous surgeon recommended, and was wowza-ed by his expert and professional and thorough ways. I've met a lot of surgeons and doctors for my age, and I don't know that I have ever experienced so much in a doctor the incredible balance of: a genuine, inter-relational, personal tone and a deeply concise, thorough, and knowledgeable way of speaking about medical histories, research, and outcomes. This balance is another important component of their expert professionalism.

These doctors at centers like Memorial Sloan Kettering are another level. This guy was impressive and took his time with me, felt the areas of my body of concern, even at the epidermal level.

He had all the most relevant reports of my medical history printed in his hands, the condensed version, and went through the stages of my medical journey with me, the surgeries, the scope results. He asked for those that were missing from the pile.

Moral for all: Be your own health advocate. Ask questions. Seek second opinions from experts if you need to. It is a matter of quality of life and of death. When you're walking that line, don't mess around. I hope for more excellent healthcare for everyone.

We can all be very thankful for places like Memorial Sloan Kettering and other excellent doctors and nurses who really stand out locally.

In the meantime, work on those kleshas (ignorance, ego, fear, aversion to things you experienced and didn't like and now try to avoid, and attachment to life) - this is a never-ending work. And listen to your body: what is it asking for? More movement? Green, clean foods, vegetables, lemon, olive oil, no more boxed or canned food? Or quitting unhealthy habits? The self is not the body - but the body helps us get to know the self, and it definitely allows us to be around for those we love and who love us.

I'm thankful for the yogic tradition, which has helped me tremendously, cleaning out the spirit, the mind, and the body. Making changes in my life. Opening the heart to faith, trust, the divine source. Letting the breath and refocus within the practice sustain me through some very difficult days. Nights are hard when you are looking at two hard options.

Ionesco: "One must write for oneself,
for it is in this only that one may reach others."

Eugene Ionesco, a French playwright of the 20th century, author of Rhinoceros and The Chairs, said that in this life we should prepare for death. Maybe that was the theatre for him. Indeed, we all hide our fear of death in the unconscious. I have spent weeks in sadness, and am coming out of the clouds. I am seeking the practical and spiritual lessons in all this... Letting myself come to this. Preparing, learning, seeking my source and wisdom and love and letting go. Receiving hope and courage from truly awesome souls I have crossed paths with. I have a lot more hope now moving forward also, thanks to expert doctors. And still, I think Ionesco had a good point - several, actually.

"There are more dead people alive than living. And their numbers are increasing. The living are getting rarer" -- Ionesco

Try delving into an ancient wisdom text - verses. Love is what makes the world go round.
Namaste

Join me for a session at AAC Yoga