March Workshop - Day two

I arrived a few minutes late, but ready to take on yoga! I was feeling ill a bit, still, but well enough to practice. We started off with an invigorating and instructional "flow" yoga class led by Kathy. She paused to show us a few things.

Transition back from forward bend to plank

1. while bent, walking feet back and lower body to plank
2. while bend, hop feet together back while lowering body to plank
3. raise feet up together and slide feet about 4-6 inches along mat to plank position (as though your feet were on a skateboard back to position)
4. jump feet together high, arcing out and down to plank (rough landing on the toes!)

Transition upward-facing dog to downward-facing dog

1. lower to plank, push and curve up into upward dog, press feet to lift butt high up while head and chest come down, press arms into mat to align into downward dog
2. lower to plank, push and curve up into upward dog, curve back along same path and press arms straight to align downward dog.
3. lower to plank, push and curve up into upward dog, curve back to plank position, push up and back with arms as butt rises back to downward dog.

We helped each other get into handstand using several methods.

• Jump like frog with knees bent until up above our heads
• One leg low, one high, jump up into handstand. Keeping legs split with lower leg still low to ground
• One leg low, one high. Jump into handstand and bring both legs up

Kapalabhati
We did several kapalabhati pranayama sessions. Several people discussed how they liked to do the pranayama. Some suggestions we tried were:
- rigid straight arms against your legs, strong back with a loose spine
- strong bandhas, loose arms and relaxed upper body
- hard, loud exhale vs. soft, quiet exhale

Ongoing Homework
Kathy reiterated the things she wants us to think about and do on our own.

• List 100 things you do that is yoga
• Start teaching
• Memorize and understand yamas, niyamas, and 8 limbs
• Learn three chants
• Build your yoga library with at least one book of: asana, biography, ancient text, something interesting
• Regularly practice asana, pranayama and meditation
• Notice when your practice moves from Emulation (learn from others) to Absorbtion (learning from within)
  

Karma
Kathy gave explanation of different levels of karma that we do. Vikarma is deliberate, negative karma. When you wish harm upon someone, or act in a manner that harms them. Sukarma is the where you intentionally do positive karma. This is action with expectation. Akarma is "no karma" or actions that create positive karma without intentionally doing so. This is where we are striving to be in yoga. A good way to get there is practice action without expectations. I wrote a small piece on karma a few months ago when I was reading The Dalai Lama's An Open Heart.

We discussed karma for a few minutes and what constitues good vs bad karma with regards to intentions. Your karma has to do with you. So if you intended something to be good, it should be good karma. Thoughts are karmic as well.

Buddhist quote:
Greet those who are happy with friendliness
Greet those who are unhappy with compassion
Greet those who are virtuous with delight
Greet those who are evil with disregard