HAPPY New Year 2024! ** UPDATED** January 1, 2024
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Bhakti, Changing Perspectives, Donate, Faith, Healing Stories, Health, Hope, Japa, Japa-Ajapa, Karma Yoga, Life, Love, Mala, Mantra, Meditation, Mysticism, New Year, One Hoop, Peace, Philosophy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Vipassana, Wisdom, Writing, Yin Yoga, Yoga.Tags: 108 Sun Salutations, Anthony Shumate, Kwanzaa, New Year's Day, Nguzo Saba, Nia, Sun Salutations, Surya Namaskar
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[“Happy New Year!” and “Kwanzaa, yenu iwe na heri!” – “May your Kwanzaa be happy!” to everyone who is celebrating!]
Part of the 6-piece “Monumental Moments” series by Anthony Shumate, 2015 (located in Buffalo Bayou Park, along the Kinder Footpaths)
TRANSFORM • RENEW • HEAL • ENERGIZE
Celebrate the New Year with 108 Sun Salutations 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM CST!
AND/OR
RELAX • RELEASE • REST • RENEW • HEAL
Celebrate the New Year with Yin+Meditation
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM CST!
The New Year is a beginning and an ending… and it is also a middle. On New Year’s Day we honor and celebrate transition with 108 Sun Salutations in the morning (10 AM – 1 PM, CST) and/or a Yin Yoga plus Meditation practice in the evening (5 – 7 PM, CST). We also put things in perspective. These practices are open and accessible to all, regardless of experience.
Please wear loose, comfortable clothing and make sure you are well hydrated before the practice. It is best to practice on an empty stomach (especially for the 108 ajapa-japa mala), but if you must eat less than 1 hour before the practice, make sure to keep it light. Make sure to have a towel (at the very least) for the 108 practice. For Yin Yoga, a pillow/cushion or two, blocks or (hardcover) books, and a blanket or towel will be useful. I always recommend having something handy (pen and paper) that you can use to note any reflections.
IN-PERSON IS FULL! Use the link above for login information (or click here for more details about these practices and other practice opportunities related to the New Year).
The 108 playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “New Year’s Day 108 Ajapa-Japa Mala.”] NOTE: This playlist has been revised for 2024, but should still sync up with the 2021 — 2023 recordings.
Friday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “01072022 A Reflective Moment”]
Both practices are available in-person (if you are registered) and online. They are also donation based. If you don’t mind me knowing your donation amount you can donate to me directly. You can also email me to request my Venmo or Ca$hApp ID. If you want your donation to be anonymous (to me) and/or tax deductible, please donate through Common Ground Meditation Center (type my name under “Teacher”).
Please note that there is still no late admittance and you must log in before the beginning of the practice (so, by 9:45 AM for the 108 or by 4:45 PM for the Yin+Meditation). You will be re-admittance if you get dumped from the call.)
Part of the 6-piece “Monumental Moments” series by Anthony Shumate, 2015 (located in Buffalo Bayou Park, along the Kinder Footpaths)
Part of the 6-piece “Monumental Moments” series by Anthony Shumate, 2015 (located in Buffalo Bayou Park, along the Kinder Footpaths)
*Anthony Shumate’s “Monumental Moments” sculptures are located in Buffalo Bayou Park, along the Kinder Footpaths in Houston, Texas. They are unexpected reminders to “Explore,” “Pause,” “Reflect,” “Listen,” “Emerge,” and “Observe” – all things we do in our practice!
### NAMASTE ###
Time to Gear Up (a quick announcement about the new year)! December 11, 2023
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in 108 Sun Salutations, 7-Day Challenge, Fitness, Health, Hope, Meditation, Minneapolis, Minnesota, New Year, One Hoop, Surya Namaskar, Twin Cities, Yin Yoga, Yoga.Tags: 108 Sun Salutations, asana, in-person classes, meditation, Restorative Yoga, studio classes, vinyasa, Winter is coming, Yin Yoga, yoga, Zoom classes
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Happy, Peaceful, Joyful Holidays, to all!
It’s been a while; but, do you remember all the gear I put on to deal with winter in Minnesota? Well…
It’s Time to Gear Up for a New Year!
For a limited time only, I will be back in the Twin Cities. In-person practices (also available on Zoom) will be held at various locations Monday, January 1st until Sunday, January 7th — with an additional practice held only on Zoom on Wednesday, January 10th. Spaces are limited for the in-person practices!
Click here for more details and to reserve your spots now. Let’s start the 2024 together!
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)
### Let’s Go! ###
My Answer? Yoga August 4, 2023
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Books, Changing Perspectives, Fitness, Health, Kundalini, Meditation, Music, One Hoop, Qigong, Science, Tai Chi, Tantra, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Yin Yoga, Yoga.Tags: African Yoga, Ashtanga, Barack Obama, Egyptian Yoga, Forrest Yoga, Hot Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, John Venn, Kemetic Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Louis Armstrong, Meghan Markle, Power Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Sema Tawy, Soma Yoga, Somatic Yoga, Svaroopa Yoga, Tantra Yoga, viniyoga, vinyasa, Yoga Sutra 1.3, yoga sutra 2.18, YogaSkills
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Stay hydrated and hopeful.
“Of course, such classes must be somehow distinguished or distinguishable from others, or the symbols would not be significant. If I am to make use of the terms x and y to any purpose, I must obviously have some means of making it clear to myself and to others which things are x and which are not, which are y and which are not.”
– quoted from “Chapter II. Symbols of Classes and Operations.” in Symbolic Logic by John Venn Sc.D. ; F.R.S.
Before class, my friend Meghan used to always ask, “What are we doing in class today?” My answer, every time, was exactly the same: Yoga. If I was feeling very cheeky, I might have said, “haṭha yoga,” but what does that even mean? What makes a particular positioning of the body – or a sequence of positions – yoga versus gymnastics or dance or calisthenics or step aerobics? Since John Venn was born today in 1834, we could use his diagrams to identify three elements that distinguish the physical practice of yoga, haṭha yoga (regardless of the style or tradition), from other disciplines.
The first circle is the position of the body (i.e., the asana (“seat” or pose)). The second circle is specific breathing (i.e., prānāyāma (awareness of breath or extension of breath), which is not commonly found outside of yoga. Focus or intention might be considered a third point of intersection, because there is a specific purpose to the practice of yoga. While people practice yoga for different reasons – and some people do other things for those same reasons, the physical practice of yoga is (classically) intended to prepare a person for deep, seated meditation. Since we have different minds, bodies, and circumstances, it makes since that there are different practices. However, many styles and traditions use the same shapes and breathing techniques. So, what distinguishes the different practices? For a moment, let’s consider energy.
Traditionally, all physical practices are (in some way) connected to a medical science and we could break things down according to these types of energetic mapping. For example, there are practices based on Āyurveda as it comes to us from India; there are practices based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM); and there are practices rooted in African science. There are also modern practices that are derived from the aforementioned medical arts and tied to modern science and/or religious mysticism. Right now, however, I am not talking about the energetic vitality of the mind-body. Here, I am focusing on the level of physical activity.
“Paul B, one of my first yoga teachers, said that our yoga practice should be the ‘most intense’ part of our day. Some people hearing that or reading that might find that really appealing, ‘Ooo, I want that kind of practice!’ Others may be immediately turned off – for the exact same reason others get turned on. But, the practices with Paul B might not be what either group expects. In fact, his classes were the reason I always wanted to go deeper.”
– quoted from my November 17, 2020 post entitled “‘The Most Intense Part of Your Day’”
There are practices with a lot of movement and practices with little to no movement. However, within each of those categories, there are practices that are physically active and practices that are more actively relaxing. Very vigorous practices include Hot Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, and some forms of vinyasa (like Power Yoga and Forrest Yoga). I would also put AcroYoga and Aerial Yoga in the vigorous box; however, they could be considered more moderate. Similarly, ViniYoga and Iyengar Yoga might be considered moderate, because they require active movement, but are not super vigorous. All of the above are weight-bearing exercises and can build strength.
Yin Yoga can have have elements of Tai chi and Qigong (both of which I would put in the moderate category), but there is not a lot of movement in pure Yin Yoga. This TCM-based practice cultivates dynamic tension, which makes it more active than a Restorative Yoga practice (which is based on Iyengar Yoga). On the flip side, when we think of yin as “softness” and yang as “hardness,” some teachers consider Restorative Yoga more “yang” than Yin Yoga. Similarly, micromovements place SomaYoga and Somatic Yoga (including Gentle Somatic Yoga) in between Yin Yoga and Restorative Yoga. That little bit of movement can be continuous (similar to vinyasa), but it is not vigorous. These moderate to low (or no) activity practices are not considered weight-bearing.
To be clear, all of the aforementioned practices can be considered energetic practices (based on how they engage the vitality of the mind-body. However, within their traditions, Tantra Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Kemetic Yoga (also known as Egyptian Yoga or African Yoga, which includes Sema Tawy), and Svaroopa Yoga are considered “energetic” practices (not physical practices). If we look at them from a physical standpoint, Tantra Yoga can be tied to practices in the vigorous circle and, also, to practices that (physically) feel more like Restorative Yoga. Kundalini Yoga has kriyās that are extremely vigorous and, also, kriyās that feel more restorative – and everything in between. The different traditions of Kemetic Yoga can also run the gamut in terms of activity level. Svaroopa Yoga is sometimes referred to as a restorative practice and takes it’s name from Yoga Sutra 1.3. Additionally, all of these types of practice can feature some weight-bearing poses.
Yoga Sūtra 1.3: tadā draştuh svarūpe’vasthānam
– “[When the fluctuations of the mind are mastered] the Seer abides/rests in their own true nature.”
In theory, you can draw a Venn diagram of any pose or sequence, breathing (or a specific type of pranayama), and energy level based on what I’ve outlined above. Keep in mind that many poses (or shapes of said poses) are found in all the different practices. Additionally, you will find that some practices – especially very vigorous practices, like some vinyasa – have different levels of activity at different points in the practice and that those energy levels can be used to create a specific effect (i.e., stimulated, relaxed, balanced). We can use different words to describe the different levels of activity, just as we can use different words to describe the different effects of the poses and sequences. Note, however, that all the descriptions are just different ways to describe the gunas. Finally, the end effect is what we find in the space where all the circles overlap.
That’s yoga, where everything comes together.
Yoga Sutra 2.18: prakāśkriyāsthitiśīlam bhūtendriyāmakam bhogāpavargārtham dŗśyam
– “The objective world (what is seen), consisted of a combination of elements and senses, and having a nature of illumination, activity, and stability, has two purposes: fulfillment and freedom.
Please join me for a “First Friday Night Special” tonight (August 4th) at 7:15 PM – 8:20 PM (CST), for a virtual Yoga practice on Zoom. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
This practice is accessible and open to all.
Prop wise, this is a kitchen sink practice. You can practice without props or you can use “studio” and/or “householder” props. Example of “Studio” props: 1 – 2 blankets, 2 – 3 blocks, a bolster, a strap, and an eye pillow. Example of “Householder” props: 1 – 2 blankets or bath towels, 2 – 3 books (similar in size), 2 standard pillows (or 1 body pillow), a belt/tie/sash, and a face towel.
You may want extra layers (as your body may cool down during this practice). Having a wall, chair, sofa, or coffee table may be handy.
Friday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.
NOTE: More often than not, I often spend today noting what makes people like Louis Armstrong (born today in 1901, in New Orleans, Louisiana), President Barack Obama (born today in 1961, in Honolulu, Hawai’i) and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (née Markle) (born today in 1981, in Los Angeles, California) – as well as those previously mentioned – “impossible people.” Tonight, however, the practice is mostly about what makes the physical practice of yoga “the physical practice of yoga.”
Click here if you are interested in “a quick, wonderfully, fearlessly, hopefully impossible note (with links)” from 2022.
Click here if you are interested in the original “wonderfully, fearlessly, hopefully impossible” post from 2020.
For the more vigorous practices, the 2020 playlist is also available on YouTube and Spotify.. [Look for “08042021 Wonderfully, Hopefully, Fearlessly Impossible”]
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)
### YOGA ###
More Like Birds & Trees (the “missing” Tuesday post) July 26, 2023
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Confessions, Daoism, Depression, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Health, Hope, Life, Maya Angelou, Meditation, Music, One Hoop, Pain, Pema Chodron, Philosophy, Poetry, Science, Suffering, Taoism, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Twin Cities, Wisdom, Writing, Yin Yoga, Yoga.Tags: "Major Heat", 9 Days, 988, Abbie Betinis, anger, Ayurveda, Barbie, Beau Lotto, Carry app, Dà shǔ, Dermot Kennedy, Elyse Meyers, LG, Maya Angelou, mental health, Sarah Powers, Thich Nhat Hanh, Victor Hugo, wellness, White Flag, Yin Yoga, yoga, 大暑
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Stay hydrated, y’all, and “may our hearts be open!”
This is a “missing” post for Tuesday, July 25th. NOTE: Some links direct to sites outside of this blog. You can request an audio recording of either practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.
Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.)
“When we suffer, we tend to think that suffering is all there is at that moment, and happiness belongs to some other time or place.”
― quoted from from “1. The Art of Transforming Suffering: Suffering and Happiness are not Separate” in No Mud, No Lotus by Thich Nhat Hanh
How are you doing today?
Seriously. I really want know how you’re feeling and how you’re doing today.
I’m asking because I care.
I’m also asking because, in order to answer (honestly), you have to check in with yourself – and that’s an important part of the practice.
My personal practice includes this blog, my class notes (a. k. a. the notebooks full of hieroglyphics), videos and playlists, and my personal journals. All of those bits and pieces of the process give me the ability to look back and notice how the ways I’m feeling change: from one moment/day/week/month/year to the next. Nestled together are big changes and little changes that I might have missed if I didn’t have this type of practice. There are instances where I find myself experiencing the same things around the same time of year (or month). Similarly, there are times when an emotion/sensation that was simmering in the background comes to a boil.
Then, there are times when something like anger is still present, but no longer carries the same charge.
“Anger is a mental, psychological phenomenon, yet it is closely linked to biological and biochemical elements. Anger makes you tense your muscles, but when you know how to smile, you begin to relax and your anger will decrease. Smiling allows the energy of mindfulness to be born in you, helping you to embrace your anger.”
― quoted from “Two – Putting Out the Fire of Anger: Tools for Cooling the Flames” in Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames by Thich Nhat Hanh
A couple of years ago, I was contemplating anger, because it was everywhere. As I do, I turned to my practice, which included a bit of history and the wisdom of teachers like Thích Nhất Hạnh and Pema Chödrön. I noted that external factors, like the “great heat, major heat”, can affect our emotions. I even dived into the tropes and stereotypes around “angry Black women” and I touched on the flip side of that – people thinking I shouldn’t feel strong emotions because I practice yoga and meditation. That last part is something that some men in certain cultures have also had to deal with because of tropes and stereotypes related to their gender and emotions.
I also mentioned how eastern philosophies and their medical sciences – like Daoism and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Yoga and Ayurveda – view every emotion as an energetic experience (as well as a mental, psychological, physiological, biological, and biochemical experience) whereby energy is either in-balance or out-of-balance. Finally, I outlined some steps any one of us can take in order to move into balance. Keep in mind, as Dr. Beau Lotto pointed out, that what may seem like a baby step to me, may feel like a giant leap to you (and vice versa).
The thing is, all of the anger that I referenced, in 2021, is still present. For some people, it has even been magnified. However, anger is no longer on the top of the list of the things I’m feeling. Instead, I’m a little weary… and tired of the shenanigans that previously made me so angry. This feeling is something that I brought up this time last year, in a “9 Days” video* inspired by a map (that a little kid gave me back in 2008) and a Dermot Kennedy song.
“My sense of wonder’s just a little tired”
― quoted from the song “Lost” by Dermot Kennedy, co-written by Carey Willetts
Considering our emotional experiences from an energetic standpoint may help us accept our emotions as natural (which they are) – even if we don’t believe in the traditional sciences. First, they give us a place to start; a first and second step if you will. The eastern philosophies and their sister sciences can be useful processing paradigms, because every energetic experience has an opposite reaction (as well as what we can consider a near-peer) and we are encouraged to cultivate the opposites (when we are out of balance). As I mentioned on Sunday and Monday, heart (YIN) and small intestine (YANG) meridians have several associations, including joy (when in-balance) versus anxiety (when out-of-balance). The other big emotion pairs (based on Yin Yoga) include:
- Anger and Frustration versus Kindness/Lovingkindness
- Worry versus Peace, Faith, and Acceptance (or Trustful Surrender)
- Grief and Sorrow versus Courage, Resilience, Tenacity (balanced with non-attachment), and Reverence
- Fear versus Wisdom
Consider, for a moment, how your emotions shift when you are feeling angry and/or frustrated and then do something kind (for yourself and/or for someone else). Consider, also, what happens when cultivating a moment of peace/acceptance enables you to let go of a worry. Maybe, in that moment, of trustful surrender you find the wisdom inside of yourself that alleviates some fear.
Years ago, in a meditation group, my dharma and yoga buddy Lenice dropped a little wisdom during a particularly harsh winter: What if we were more like the trees? Think about it, as long as they are alive, they grow and blossom and let go of the things that no longer serve them. In the essay, “Africa,” published in the collection Even the Stars Look Lonesome, Maya Angelou wrote about trauma and stated, “An African proverb spells out the truth: ‘The ax forgets. The tree remembers.’” Another way to think about that is: the tree remembers it’s trauma, but keeps living; keeps blossoming and growing; keeps letting go of what no longer serves it.
Of course, Dr. Angelou and Victor Hugo also remind us that we are (or can be) like birds – and, sometimes the practice just comes down to knowing what we need in order to blossom, grow, sing, and let go of what no longer serves us.
“Be like the bird, who
Halting in his flight
On limb too slight
Feels it give way beneath him,
Yet sings
Knowing he hath wings.”
– quoted from the poem “Be Like the Bird” by Victor Hugo
NOTE: In Abbie Betinis’s musical composition (which is on the playlists), “she” has wings.
Again, you might be having a moment where some (or all) of this feels like giant leaps. And, that’s OK. Maybe it’s too much to think about smiling, blossoming, singing, and flying. Maybe you just need to focus on the breathing! The key is to find the thing that makes sense for you in this moment.
Then, when it makes sense, consider what seems like the next logical step, given where you are and how you’re feeling. Maybe, what you need is a different perspective; so, you reach out to a friend or a professional. I recently heard of a new app, called “White Flag,” that cultivates peer-to-peer support. (Full disclosure, I haven’t checked it out or investigated it much, but I’ve heard good things.) Maybe what you need is to go back to that first step and breathe some more.
Maybe what you need is more movement or maybe less movement (depending on the weather). Maybe you don’t wanna move today (and there’s now a video on the Carry app for that). Either way, keep in mind that, as Sarah Powers pointed out in Insight Yoga: An innovative synthesis of traditional yoga, meditation, and Eastern approaches to healing and well-being, “All emotions associated with the organs are considered natural responses to life. Yet when they become compulsive or prolonged, they become injurious to our overall health.”
“If we can learn to see and skillfully engage with both the presence of happiness and the presence of suffering, we will go in the direction of enjoying life more. Every day we go a little farther in that direction, and eventually we realize that suffering and happiness are not two separate things.”
― quoted from from “1. The Art of Transforming Suffering: Suffering and Happiness are not Separate” in No Mud, No Lotus by Thich Nhat Hanh
So, how are you doing, in this moment?
While I hope you are doing well, I also recognize that you may be, simultaneously, feeling a certain kind of way about things and that you might label some of those ways as “not so well” and/or “not so good.” You might even be having one of the moments/days/weeks/months/years/lifetimes that you would describe as “mostly good.”
Or, maybe in this moment, you’re “good” and you’re taking everything a moment at a time.
I see all that. I care about that. May you be where you need to be; “[going] in the direction of enjoying life more;” moving towards your experience of happiness – whether that experience is an ecstatic kind of joy, not being miserable, or somewhere in between.
“Happiness is possible right now, today―but happiness cannot be without suffering. Some people think that in order to be happy they must avoid all suffering, so they are constantly vigilant, constantly worrying. They end up sacrificing all their spontaneity, freedom, and joy. This isn’t correct. If you can recognize and accept your pain without running away from it, you will discover that although pain is there, joy can also be there at the same time.”
― quoted from from “1. The Art of Transforming Suffering: Suffering and Happiness are not Separate” in No Mud, No Lotus by Thich Nhat Hanh
Due to technical difficulties, we used two different set of playlists for this practice. The evening playlist is the one specifically mixed for this date.
Tuesday afternoon’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “04102021 Si se puede & Birds”]
Tuesday evening’s playlist is also available on YouTube and Spotify.
NOTE: The evening playlist on YouTube contains additional videos. I was not aware of this “Birdsong” when I made the playlist, so it is not (currently) included on either format.
“Each morning I offer a stick of incense to the Buddha. I promise myself that I will enjoy every minute of the day that is given me to live.”
― quoted from “Five – Compassionate Communication: Nourishing Ourselves” in Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames by Thich Nhat Hanh
*That aforementioned 9 Days” video
If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can dial 988 (in the US) or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call this TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.
During the practice, I mention a new app (White Flag), which I have not researched, but which may be helpful if you need (non-professional) support.
If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).
### NOTICE HOW WHAT YOU’RE FEELING CHANGES ###
Dà shǔ “Major Heat” 2023 (an updated and revised post) *UPDATED* July 23, 2023
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Changing Perspectives, Daoism, Faith, First Nations, Food, Healing Stories, Health, Life, Music, One Hoop, Philosophy, Religion, Science, Suffering, Taoism, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tragedy, Yoga.Tags: "Major Heat", 988, Batman, Bhagavad Gita, Chief Seattle, Christian Bale, Dà shǔ, Dr. Gill, Efrem Korngold L.Ac. O.M.DS., Harriet Beinfield L.Ac., Intertribal Powwow, Jack Hawley, Katie Holmes, Raymond Chandler, tapas, 大暑
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Stay hydrated, y’all, and “may our hearts be open!”
Some parts of the following were originally posted in 2022.
“‘Consider purification, tapas, which literally means “to melt,” as in refining ore. The purpose of purification is not pain and penance, but to deliberately refine one’s life, to melt it down and recast it into a higher order of purity and spirituality. The goal is very important; it is not self-punishment but refinement – to shift from human existence into Divinity!
There are three main methods of purification: the refinement of one’s thoughts, words, and deeds – also called the purification, respectively, of one’s instruments of mind, speech, and body. When you modify these three you automatically change for the better.’”
– Krishna speaking to Arjuna (17.14) in The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners by Jack Hawley
If you’re anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, I don’t have to tell you that it’s hot. Neither do I have to do much to bring your awareness to the heat – the great heat, the major heat. Since I use different calendars, I may talk about different things on this date. However, because it’s almost always really hot this time of year, no matter where you are in the Northern Hemisphere, I’m always aware of the heat – and that shows up in the practice.
For instance, in years past, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar has fallen around this time of year (on the Gregorian calendar). The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar and, like other religious calendars, the names of the months (and days) have special significance. In this case, the ninth month is the holy month of Ramadān, which means “scorching heat” or “dryness,” and is one of the “99 Names of Allah (God)” or “99 Attributes of Allah (God).” It is a period of fasting and reflection – which, in the Yoga Philosophy, is a form of tapas (“heat,” “discipline,” and “austerity”). On the other hand, if we want to just stick with a yoga paradigm, Guru Purnima, which is based on the Hindu lunisolar calendar, fell around this time on the 2021 Gregorian calendar. This celebration of teachers is also a celebration of light (in the form of wisdom/teachings) burning away darkness (e.g., ignorance).
“… but, it’s not who you are underneath, it’s what you do, that defines you.”
– Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), quoted from the movie Batman Begins
Speaking of burning away darkness, people celebrated the very first Batman Day today in 2014. This date was chosen to coincide with the San Diego Comic-Con and to honor Batman’s first appearance in the May 1939 issue of Detective Comics. Not realizing that subsequent celebrations of Batman Day would end up being held in September, I got super excited about the fact that Batman Day was also the birthday of the novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler, who was born today in 1888.
Raymond Chandler was known for his hardboiled detective short stories and novels featuring Philip Marlowe. All but one of the novels was made into movies (some, multiple times) and were also adapted for radio and live theater. Many of the movies featured Humphrey Bogart in the leading role. Batman and Philip Marlow (courtesy of their writers) both have a way with words that can make a person pause and think, “Huh, I never thought of it that way, but I know exactly what that means.”
“She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.”
– quoted from Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Or, maybe you know exactly how something feels – which is the whole reason I mention any of this: to get into how we feel. Svādhyāya (“self-study”), which is the niyama (internal “observation”) that directly follows the practice of tapas, is classically associated with sacred text and scripture. Since it is a practice that can cultivate empathy and deeper self-awareness, I consider a lot of different elements as an opportunity for svādhyāya. Just as you can feel a smile in your hip pocket, you can feel what it’s like to be surrounded by major heat, great heat – even when you’re in an air conditioned space.
“The center of most ancient cultures, from China in the second century B.C. to the twentieth-century native America, was the earth. Human welfare was attached to the rains upon the soil, the wind of the heaves and pliable trees embedded in an abundant forest. Chief Seattle, in 1854, summed up this ancient view of how humanity stands in relation to the world” ‘This we know – the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood unites one family. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.'”
– quoted from “Chapter Three – Philosophy in the East: The Doctor As Gardener” in Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine by Harriet Beinfield, L.Ac. and Efrem Korngold, L.Ac., O. M. D.
The traditional Chinese calendar, also known as the Agricultural Calendar and the farming calendar, is a lunisolar calendar that is also the basis for many other cultural and religious calendars throughout East Asia. It breaks down into twelve lunar months and twenty-four solar terms. Each day, month, season, and year is based on an astronomical and/or natural phenomena. For instance, days begin and end at midnight; a month begins and ends with the new moon; and the Lunar New Year begins on the second (or third) new moon after the Winter Solstice. Each month of the Lunar Year is associated with an agricultural phenomena as well as with a zodiac animal. On the flip side, the solar year begins with the Winter Solstice and each of the twenty-four terms is based on the sun’s celestial longitude and associated with “pre-climate” and “mid-climate” experiences. (NOTE: This system also includes intercalary or “leap” months during some years.) According to the traditional Chinese calendar, the sixth pair of solar terms are Xiǎo shǔ (小暑, “slight heat”) and Dà shǔ (大暑, “great heat” or “major heat”). This year, the latter started on last night and continues through August 7, 2023.
Dà shǔ (大暑, “Great heat” or “Major heat”) is the twelfth solar term and the last part of summer. It is considered the hottest time of the year in most of China and, last year, Chinese news media reported that it was the hottest “great heat” in recorded history. Agriculturally speaking, it is believed that “crops grow most rapidly, fireflies appear, soil becomes more humid, and heavy thunderstorms arrive” during this solar term. As is true of other religious and cultural observations, people in different regions throughout East Asia have different rituals and traditions related to this time of year. However, one commonality is the focus on how heat affects the mind-body and what people can do to boost their health and longevity. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), this time of year is focused on “clearing” heat and excessive dampness and stagnation from the body and “clearing” and nourishing the heart.
“Since everything is connected by the circle, health is understood broadly, defining the whole being within the social and natural order. What is good for nature is good for humanity, what is good for one is good for all, what is good for the mind is good for the body, and so on. To harm a part is to harm the whole. What is bad for the heart is bad for the body, what damages one person damages all people, what injures the earth injures me. Conversely, to restore and preserve the good health of one body and mind is to foster the well-being of the whole, the earth and all life upon it.”
– quoted from “Chapter Three – Philosophy in the East: The Doctor As Gardener” in Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine by Harriet Beinfield, L.Ac. and Efrem Korngold, L.Ac., O. M. D.
Like Ayurveda and Yoga, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) associates the vitality of the heart with the arms. The heart meridian (YIN) begins at the inside of the armpit and runs along the front inside edge of the arm to the pinky finger. It is paired with the small intestine meridian (YANG), which runs along the back inside edge of the arm, starting with the pinky finger, zigzags across the shoulder and up the side of the neck to the outer corner of the eye (just in front of the ear). These meridians are associated with fire, summer, mid-day (which is sometimes the hottest part of the day), red (with a little hint of blue), and joy (when in-balance, versus anxiety when out-of-balance). Additionally, this time of year is associated with the “yang within yin” (you can think of it as action within the inaction) – a reminder that each energy type illustrated in the Yin-Yang symbol includes the opposite energy.
A common TCM practice is to “treat winter disease in the summer,” which is really about taking preventative measures against ailments like bronchitis, bronchial asthma, nasal/sinus allergies, and other cold weather ailments – all ailments related to the lungs, the meridians of which (along with large intestines meridian) are also located in the arms. Preventative care may include a customized herbal treatment, acupuncture, and/or a treatment whereby herbal patches are placed on specific meridian points. Being mindful of what we eat and drink is another way people take care of their mind-body vitality. Along with a lot of other traditional (and modern) medicines, TCM practitioners recommend eating light and staying hydrated during extreme heat. Specific to Dà shǔ (大暑, “Great heat” or “Major heat”), people avoid spicy food, oily food, and heavy meals – as well as (extremely) cold meals and raw food. There is also an emphasis on getting enough rest, not overexerting one’s self (say, with strenuous exercise), and not spending a lot of time outside in the heat.
“The key is to achieve balance, which means being flexible, diverse, moderate, and in harmony with your own rhythm and needs. Chinese medicine makes use of acupuncture, herbs, diet, physical exercise, massage, mental discipline, and the modification of life-style habits as forms of therapy to reestablish the rhythmic swing of the Yin-Yang pendulum.”
– quoted from the “Everyday Life” section of “Chapter Four – Cycles of Circles: A Theory of Relativity Yin-Yang” in Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine by Harriet Beinfield, L.Ac. and Efrem Korngold, L.Ac., O. M. D.
As I mentioned before, different regions have different traditions and rituals related to Dà shǔ (大暑, “Great heat” or “Major heat”). In Guangdong province, people eat herb jelly, which is made of “divine grass.” Also known as “immortal grass,” this flowering plant is part of the lamiaceae or labiatae family of plants, which includes basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory, marjoram, oregano, hyssop, thyme, lavender, and perilla, as well as conventionally identified medicinal herbs like catnip, salvia, bee balm, wild dagga, and “Chinese motherwort.” In Taiwan, this is the best time to eat pineapple. In at least one part of the Fujian province, people may make mizao from fermented and pickled rice (often cooked with brown sugar) and consume it to revitalize any energy sapped by the heat. They may also drink warm mutton soup – made from “summer mutton” – and litchis that have been soaked in cold water. In Hunan province, people may eat a spring chicken in order to harness the power of youth.
Finally, in Zhejiang province, one of the highlights of the summer festival is a “Great Heat Boat,” which is giant boat filled with offerings made in hopes of a good harvest, a good catch, and a happy life. Fishermen carry the boat during a parade that leads to the sea, where the ship is cast off and then set afire. Like many other festivals in China, this one includes firecrackers (to ward off the bad luck) and blessings (to cultivate the good luck).
“Eastern Philosophy is based on the premise that all life occurs within the circle of nature. Things within this matrix are connected and mutually dependent upon each other. Nature is one unified system, the Tao with polar and complementary aspects: Yin and Yang. Nature is in constant motion, following cyclic patterns that describe the process of transformation. When the elements of nature are in balance, life is harmonic and flourishes. When the balance of polar forces is upset, disaster looms.”
– quoted from “Chapter Three – Philosophy in the East: The Doctor As Gardener” in Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine by Harriet Beinfield, L.Ac. and Efrem Korngold, L.Ac., O. M. D.
Please join me for a 65-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Sunday, July 23rd) at 12:00 PM. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
Sunday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “08222021 Fire Thread”]
“It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do, that defines me.”
– Batman (Christian Bale), quoted from the movie Batman Begins
Extreme heat can not only make people lethargic and unmotivated, it can also lead to extreme agitation and anxiety-based fear. We may find it hard to think, hard to feel (or process our feelings), and/or hard to control our impulses. If you are struggling in the US, help is available just by dialing 988.
If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can call 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call this TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.
If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)
*Errata: The 2023 dates for Dà shǔ have been corrected. Additionally, the news reports of record heat were related to 2022.
### H2O ###
FTWMI: The best thing since… July 7, 2023
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Art, Faith, Food, Health, Life, Love, Music, Religion, Science, Yin Yoga, Yoga.Tags: #blackouttuesday, asana, C7H8N4O2, chocolate, International Chocolate Day, Ivan-Kupala, John the Baptist, Kupala, Michael Pollan, Nativity of John the Baptist, Otto Frederick Rohwedder, sliced-bread, Susan Steinhauer Hettinger, World Chocolate Day, yoga practice
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Peace and blessings to everyone (and especially to anyone who was celebrating Ivanа-Kupala)!
For Those Who Missed It: The following was originally posted in 2020 (and an abridged version was reposted in 2021). In addition to slight revisions, class details, links, and an additional quote have been updated and/or added.
“He showed the words ‘chocolate cake’ to a group of Americans and recorded their word associations. ‘Guilt’ was the top response. If that strikes you as unexceptional, consider the response of French eaters to the same prompt: ‘celebration.’”
– quoted from In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan
When people like something (or someone) – I mean, really, really like something (or someone) – they sometimes say “it’s the best thing since sliced bread” – which is funny when you consider that there’s only one day honoring “sliced bread.” On the flip side, there are at least ten days devoted to chocolate:
- Bittersweet Chocolate Day (January 10th)
- Chocolate Day in Ghana (the second largest producer of cocoa) (February 14th)
- World Chocolate or International Chocolate Day (July 7th and/or 9th)
- World Chocolate Day in Latvia (July 11th)
- Milk Chocolate Day (July 28th)
- S. National Confectioners Association’s International Chocolate Day (September 13th)
- White Chocolate Day (September 22nd)
- National Chocolate Day in the United States (October 28th)
- Chocolate Covered Anything Day (December 16th)
Chocolate contains phenols, which may act as antioxidants in the body and reduce “bad” cholesterol. Other documented health benefits to eating chocolate include the fact that chocolate can cause the brain to release all four of its so-called “love chemicals” (oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins). That, however, doesn’t explain why there are so many different kinds of chocolate. I mean, when you really get down to it, there are probably as many kinds of chocolate – and ways of enjoying chocolate (or, in my opinion, ruining chocolate) – as there are people on the planet. We can break chocolate down as chocolatiers do: into real chocolate (made from chocolate liquor and cocoa butter) and compound coatings/chocolate (cocoa powder and vegetable oil). However, even then there are different kinds of chocolate.
Some people say mass produced chocolate in the USA tastes like plastic compared to chocolate from Europe. (It kinda does, see previous paragraph to understand why.) Some people only like chocolate in candy, while others only appreciate it in cake or brownie form. Dogs can only eat white chocolate, because, well… it’s not actually chocolate. And some people will eat anything – and I do mean anything – covered in chocolate.
“Wie ich Dich liebe, Du meine Sonne,
ich kann mit Worten Dir’s nicht sagen.
Nur meine Sehnsucht kann ich Dir klagen
und meine Liebe, meine Wonne!”
In which way I love you, my sunbeam,
“I cannot tell you with words.
Only my longing, my love and my bliss
can I with anguish declare.”
– German and English lyrics of a love poem (to Alma Mahler-Werfel) associated with the final movement of “Symphony No. 5” composed (and written) by Gustav Mahler (b. 07/07/1860)
Chocolate has a long history of being used as a gift / token of affection and friendship. It also has a long wartime history as it was consumed during the U. S. Revolutionary War and has been a standard part of the United States military ration since the original ration D or D ration bar of 1937. The D ration bar was intended to “taste a little better than a boiled potato.” Arguably, it did not (but, the K ration bars arguably did.) Allied soldiers reportedly gave bits of chocolate to people they freed from concentration camps and it is still something soldiers use to establish connections in the field. According to The Chocolate Store, (US) Americans consume 2.8 billion pounds of chocolate per year (over 11 pounds per person), which is significantly more than our European counterparts – who, I’ll repeat, arguably have access to better mass produced chocolate.
Maybe one of these (chocolate) days, I’ll do a deep dive into why there are so many different days celebrating chocolate. (I mean, other than the obvious commercial reasons and well… because it’s chocolate.) Today, however, I just want to point out that people are as particular about chocolate as they are about beer, wine, and burgers – which makes yoga a lot like chocolate.
None of that, however, points to why we compare really amazing things to sliced bread instead of to chocolate.
“He was a very patient, inventive man. He had an office in the basement of this big house they lived in, in Davenport, Iowa, that he called his dog house. He went there every time he got in trouble with my grandmother. When he was there, he was inventing or thinking about inventing things.”
– Susan Steinhauer Hettinger talking about her grandfather Otto Frederick Rohwedder
Otto Frederick Rohwedder, born today in 1880, in Davenport, Iowa, invented the first automatic bread-slicing machine for commercial use. Rohwedder was an inventor and engineer who studied optometry and spent a short period of time as a jeweler. His work with jewelry and watches inspired him to create machines that would make life easier for people. After a delay, due to a fire that destroyed his original blueprints and prototype, Rohwedder was able to apply for a patent and sell his first bread-slicing machine, which also wrapped the bread to ensure freshness.
Rohwedder sold his first machine to his friend Frank Bench, owner of Chillicothe Baking Company in Chillicothe, Missouri and his second machine to Gustav Papendick in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1928. Papendick reportedly improved upon the way the machine wrapped the bread and applied for his own patents. While there is some argument about who sold the very first loaf of sliced bread using Rohwedder’s machine, documented evidence points to Bench selling the first loaf today in 1928. It was advertised as “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped.”
Texas Toast not-withstanding, commercially sliced bread was thinner and more easily accessible than a regular loaf of bread – so people ate more bread. Like chocolate, sliced bread was rationed in the United States during World War II. In fact, sliced bread was briefly banned in 1943. Whether the ban was lifted because of the huge outcry from regular every day housewives and people like New York City Mayor Fiorello Henry La Guardia or because there just wasn’t that much saved in the ban is a matter of opinion.
Bottom line, sliced-bread changed people’s lives and the way they moved through their days… kind of like yoga.
NOTE: In 2020, World Chocolate Day and (what I’ll call) “the best day since sliced bread,” fell on the same day as Ivanа-Kupala in the Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and Russia. Ivana-Kupala is a Slavic summer holiday that combines the pagan celebration and fertility rituals of Kupala (and midsummer) with Orthodox Christian observations of the Feast Day of Saint John the Baptist. The observing countries use the Julian calendar (as opposed to the Gregorian calendar) so their celebration actually occurs (for them) on June 23rd – 24th (as opposed to July 6th and 7th, in non-Slavic countries). In 2023, the celebration fell on July 7th, in non-Slavic countries. One of the elemental aspects of the celebrations focuses on the combination of fire and water.
Please join me for a “First Friday Night Special” tonight (July 7th) at 7:15 PM – 8:20 PM (CST), for a virtual Yin Yoga practice on Zoom that may be the best thing since sliced bread. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
This practice is accessible and open to all.
Prop wise, this is a kitchen sink practice. You can practice without props or you can use “studio” and/or “householder” props. Example of “Studio” props: 1 – 2 blankets, 2 – 3 blocks, a bolster, a strap, and an eye pillow. Example of “Householder” props: 1 – 2 blankets or bath towels, 2 – 3 books (similar in size), 2 standard pillows (or 1 body pillow), a belt/tie/sash, and a face towel.
You may want extra layers (as your body may cool down during this practice). Having a wall, chair, sofa, or coffee table may be handy.
Friday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.
For a more vigorous practice, the 2020 playlist is also available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “07072021 Bread & Chocolate”]
Consider buying chocolate from one of these brands!
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.
Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.)
Revised 07/07/2023.
### C7H8N4O2 ###
The Grace of “Being Sensational and Seeing Clearly” & FTWMI: When Intuition Expands *UPDATED* June 3, 2023
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Baseball, Books, Changing Perspectives, Healing Stories, Life, Music, One Hoop, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Science, Wisdom, Writing, Yin Yoga, Yoga.Tags: anonymous, Dr. David Hubel, Dr. Gerald Edelman, Dr. Oliver Sacks, Dr. Torsten Wiesel, Ernest Thayer, Martin Gardner, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Phin, Vihari-Lal Mitra, Yoga Sutra 2.20, Yoga Vasishtha
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Happy Pride! Many blessings to everyone, especially those celebrating Jyeshta Purnima.
“2. It is gross ignorance which is known as nescience, and it becomes compact by the accumulated erroneous knowledge of previous births and past life (namely; the errors of the dualities of matter and spirit and of the living and Supreme soul, and the plurality of material and sensible objects).
3. The perceptions of the external and internal senses of body, both in the states of sensibility and insensibility, are also the causes of great errors or ignorance crasse of embodied beings. (i.e. The sensible perceptions are preventives of spiritual knowledge which transcends the senses and is called [Sanskrit: atíndriya]).
4. Spiritual knowledge is far beyond the cognizance of the senses, and is only to be arrived at after subjection of the five external organs of sense, as also of the mind which is the sixth organ of sensation.
5. How then is it possible to have a sensible knowledge of the spirit, whose essence is beyond the reach of our faculties of sense, and whose powers transcend those of all our sensible organs? (i.e. Neither is the spirit perceptible by our senses, nor does it perceive all things by senses like ours). So the Srutis He is not to be perceived by the faculties of our sense, who does and perceives all with our organs. ([Sanskrit: na tatra vaggacchati namani ápanipádau yavanagtahítá]).
6. You must cut off this creeper of ignorance, which has grown up in the hollow of the tree of your heart, with the sharp sword of your knowledge, if you should have your consummation as an adept in divine wisdom.”
– quoted from (Book 6) “CHAPTER XI. Ascertainment of Living Liberation.” of The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki (translated from the original Sanskrit by VIHARI-LALA MITRA)
When Dr. Torsten Wiesel, born today in 1924, started working with Dr. David Hubel in the 1950’s, they were under the impression that animals (people included) saw whole images. We might call their lack of knowledge “ignorance;” however, there can be a slight disconnect between the Sanskrit word “avidyā” and “ignorance,” the English word most often used in translations. Ignorance can mean that something is being ignored and we could go down a whole rabbit hole regarding what we are unconsciously and subconsciously ignoring, however, Drs. Wiesel and Hubel were scientist who did not ignore new information – even when it contradicted their original beliefs.
Click here to read my 2020 post about the Nobel Prize-winning research on ocular dominance columns and how their original thesis around neural pathways and the mechanisms of the visual cortex was way off center.
In translating The Yoga-Vasishtha, Vihari-Lala Mitra used the “nescience” and this, perhaps, is the better word. It indicates that the lack of knowledge is “without science” or pre-science. In other words, it is what we know before the work is done to know. Of course, doing the work requires going down the rabbit hole.
For Those Who Missed It: The following was originally posted in 2022.
“A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to the hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, ‘If only….'”
– quoted from the poem “Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic, Sung in the Year 1888” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer
In October 1967, American Heritage (volume 18, issue 6) featured an excerpt from Martin Gardner’s The Annotated Casey at the Bat: A Collection of Ballads about the Mighty Casey. Mr. Gardner was a popular mathematics and popular science writer – whose life and work is fascinating enough to have it’s own theme – and he was known for his work in recreational mathematics, magic, and criticism of fringe or pseudoscience. He was also known for annotating works that were popular with the masses, but not always understood by the masses. His book about a very popular baseball poem includes a history of how the poem became so popular, as well as a biography of the poem’s author. At times, it is also just as scathing and hilarious as the actual poem.
The poem, “Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic, Sung in the Year 1888,” was originally published in The Daily Examiner (now The San Francisco Examiner) today in 1888. It was published under the pen name “Phin,” a diminutive of the nickname “Phinney,” which is what Ernest Lawrence Thayer was called when he attended Harvard University. Like Mr. Thayer, Martin Gardner studied philosophy (albeit at the University of Chicago rather than Harvard) and both landed in the publishing world. But they lived in different times, pursued different interests, and – I’m willing to bet – had really different egos. What is interesting to note, however, is how egos come up in their work – especially with regard to “Casey,” which is (ultimately) a poem about egos, emotions, and how our judgement and behavior can be swayed by our egos and emotions.
Yoga Sutra 2.20: draşțā dŗśimātrah śuddho’pi pratyayānupaśyah
– “The Seer is the pure power of seeing, yet its understanding is through the mind/intellect.” [Translation by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait (for comparative analysis), “The sheer power of seeing is the seer. It is pure, and yet it sees only what the mind shows it.”]
“I stopped explaining myself when I realized other people only understand from their level of perception.”
– Anonymous
Human beings are sensational beings. This means a few different things. First, it means that we are infused with sensation – we feel things. We have sense organs that soak up information and communicate via sensation or “feelings,” which the mind-intellect processes. Second, we place value on things (and people) that make us feel things; we call them sensational. Finally, we find sensational things appealing – meaning, we are drawn towards people and things that provoke a visceral reaction, (i.e., that make us feel things). Being sensational beings can be amazing; however, it can also be problematic. The problematic part is that our intellect can sometimes be so overwhelmed by sensation that we find ourselves doing irrational things, while simultaneously believing they are rational things. Sometimes, being sensational beings means we don’t “see” clearly.
To be transparent, part of the problem may be that we don’t always understand how we “see” things. We assume that we have the full picture and that what we see – and understand – is exactly what someone else sees, but for some reason doesn’t understand. (“I mean, for goodness sake, it’s right in front of them! How can they not see that?”) This disconnect can manifest as people arguing even though they are on the same side of a debate and/or “agreeing to disagree” and coming to a stalemate in a situation where movement towards resolution and reconciliation is vital to survival.
In these situations, everyone ultimately loses.
It would be great if we could take a deep breath, step back, and get more perspective. It would be great if we could really talk with each other and ask the right questions. But, there are certain things about which we are quite impassioned – which means we are quite literally infused with suffering. We don’t want to (or can’t) ignore what we’re feeling – especially in times when we are feeling quite a bit (or when we are feeling quite numb). Instead, we need to balance the mind-body experience – and, gain some insight into our sight (i.e., how we “see” things and why we “see” things the way we do when others “see” things in a different way).
“Intuition is important, knowing what questions to ask. The other thing is a passion for getting to the core of the problem.”
– Dr. Torsten Wiesel, co-winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, June 3rd) at 12:00 PM. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “06032020 How Can We See, Dr Wiesel”]
NOTE: The 2022 First Friday Night Special (Baseball-inspired) playlist is also available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “04012022 An “Important” Story””]
“‘Every act of perception,’ Edelman writes, ‘is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination.’”
– Dr. Oliver Sacks, quoting Dr. Gerald Edelman (co-winner of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine)
(NOTE: Some blog quotes by Drs. Wiesel and Hubel are from a short biography produced by National Science & Technology Medals Foundation when Dr. Wiesel was awarded the 2005 National Medal of Science.)
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)
Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.
### I CAN SEE YOU. CAN YOU SEE ME? ###
Take Another Look at Yourself (the “missing” Sunday post, which is a “renewed” post ) March 30, 2023
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Art, Books, Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Faith, Healing Stories, Hope, Lent / Great Lent, Life, Love, Music, Mysticism, One Hoop, Pain, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Ramadan, Religion, Robert Frost, Suffering, Tennessee Williams, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Wisdom, Writing, Yin Yoga, Yoga.Tags: B.K.S. Iyengar, Bramaviharas, Chaitra Navaratri, chakra, chesed, gevurah, Great Lent, heart, kabbalah, Lent / Great Lent, Maty Ezraty, parighasana, Patricia Clarkson, Ramadan, Ramadān, Robert Frost, Season for Nonviolence, Season of Non-violence, sefirot, Skandamata, Swami Rama, Tennessee Williams
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“Nine days and nine nights of blessings and happiness if you are celebrating Chaitra Navaratri!” “Ramadān Mubarak, Blessed Ramadān!” to anyone who is observing the holy month of Ramadān. Blessings to anyone observing Lent or Great Lent! Many blessings to all during this “Season for Non-violence” and all other seasons!
This is the “missing” post for Sunday, March 26th. It is also a revised (and expanded) from 2019, with an itty bit from 2020 – so, literally another look. Some links in the post connect to sites outside of the blog. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.
Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.)
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.”
– quoted from the poem “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost
“The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks. The world thirsts after sympathy, compassion, love.”
– quoted from the play Camino Real by Tennessee Williams (The first sentence is also the epitaph on his grave.)
There are people in the world who will say you haven’t read poetry until you read Robert Frost, and Southerners in the world who will say you haven’t seen a play until you’ve seen Tennessee Williams. Born 37 years and over 2,000 miles apart, these two literary icons shared a birthday (3/26) and way with words. Although, some would say they used their words in different ways.
Born in 1874, in San Francisco, California, Robert Frost wrote about things like “a snowy evening,” “mending a wall,” and “the road not taken” – although, in the latter case, people often mistake it for “the road less traveled.” His poems are often as much about perspective as they are about the way we tell a story (and the fact that the way we tell a story can change the story). They also illustrate how the stories we tell (ourselves and the world) are not always about the truth so much as they about what we understand about the world and ourselves.
Born in 1911, in Columbus, Mississippi, Tennessee Williams wrote about emotionally volatile people in the South and from the South. He wrote about characters and circumstances that reflected the emotional turmoil he saw and felt inside himself and all around him. Then, so that the emotional states of the the people and situations could not be ignored (or missed) he reinforced them with the use of props, sound effects, and blocking. In other words, he used the physical to embody the emotional and energetic – and, in doing so, drew the audience into the hearts of the characters.
Even though their mediums and subjects were different, they both wrote in a way that can make you pause, look again…and again. Once or thrice you may even wonder how many ways you can see/interpret/understand what has been said, and how it applies to your life. A good story, regardless of the medium, will make you do that: consider how it applies to your life.
“Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.”
– quoted from the poem “The Gift Outright” by Robert Frost
Every once in a while (as I did last Wednesday and again on Sunday), I mention Maty Ezraty, who was a teacher of teachers and who said that every yoga practice should be like a good story. One of my takeaways from that suggestion has always been that, each part of the mind-body-spirit is like a character in a story. Just like each character has a different purpose and a different point of view, each pose/sequence can give each part of our bodies and minds an opportunity to tell their story. Another takeaway is that everything is leading to and from the heart of the story.
So, let’s start with the hearts.
“What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through mountains.”
– quoted from the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams
Yes, I said, “hearts” – plural. Swami Rama from the Himalayan tradition said that we have three hearts: a physical heart, which for most of us is on the left side; an emotional heart on the opposite side, which for most of us is on the right; and an energetic heart that connects the two. That energetic heart, which some consider a spiritual heart, connects our hearts with all the other hearts around us. Additionally, in yoga and other Eastern healing arts, energy for the heart flows through the arms.
The heart chakra, in yoga (as it comes to us from India) is symbolically and energetically associated with the upper torso, shoulders, arms, hands, and fingers. In Yin Yoga, which is based on Traditional Chinese Medicine, the heart median has three branches, one of which runs down the inner arms into the pinky fingers. According to the Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, there are 10 Divine attributes (from the Tree of Life) through which G-d is revealed to the world – and 7 of these can be found in the body. Love/loving-kindness (chesed in Hebrew) is associated with the right arm and is balanced by strength (gevurah in Hebrew), which is associated with the left arm.
Just as people contemplate the Divine attributes when they are counting the Omer in some Jewish traditions, people in Buddhist traditions contemplate the Divine abodes (brahmavihārāḥ in Sanskrit), which are heart practices: loving-kindness or benevolence (mettā); compassion (karuṇā); empathetic joy (muditā); and equanimity (upekkhā). In some Indian philosophies (like Yoga), the ability to cultivate a good heart/make friends (suhrit-prapati) and generosity (dana) can also be considered heart practices. On (and off) the mat, we can contemplate these same emotional and energetic aspects of ourselves by bringing awareness to our arms and how we use our arms… to reach out, to embrace, to extend ourselves.
We may notice – as we move through our practice or through our day – how we are expressing our heart or how we are withholding our heart. But, there’s always the possibility that we don’t notice. We may not notice when we are off the mat, because we are distracted. We may not notice on the mat, because we are focused on other parts of the mind-body. This is why it’s important to notice how we move and why we move the way we move – because it all tells a story.
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,”
– quoted from the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
There are hundreds of poses and hundreds, thousands – maybe even millions – of ways to move into and out of pose. And each one of those ways gives us another way of looking at the story. The tricky thing is that sometimes we keep coming back to the story the same way. But, what happens if we came at things a different way? What happens if we let a different part of our mind-body-spirit take the lead? What happens if our circumstances and understanding of the world changes? What happens if our understanding of ourselves changes?
Sometimes, the practice can be like a favorite story that we read again and again – or re-read, years after the initial reading – and we suddenly see everything from a different perspective. In fact, one of the things I like about the practice is the opportunity to revisit themes and/or sequences and suddenly discover something completely different. It’s also one of the things I love about reading (and watching) great works of art.
“We have to use a spell to make them balance:
“Stay where you are until our backs are turned!”
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
“Why do they make good neighbours? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.”– quoted from the poem “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost
Parighāsana (Gate Pose) stretches the pelvic area and hamstrings, while also engaging the sides of the torso and abdomen eccentrically (up side) and concentrically (down side). According to B.K.S. Iyengar’s Light on Yoga, the pose “keeps the abdominal muscles and organs in condition and the skin around the abdomen will not sag but remain healthy. The sideways spinal movement will help persons suffering from stiff backs.” I find that it is a great way to get into the hips and the legs. Another aspect of the pose is what happens to the heart area – not only physically, but emotionally.
Parighāsana offers us the opportunity to open up the shoulders (physically) and open the gates on all sides of the heart (emotionally and energetically). It also offers some interesting insight into how we sometimes engage the different aspects of our heart. For instances, when I cue and describe the pose in a practice, many people have a tendency to lift the bottom hand up to meet the top hand – rather than extending the upper body down towards the lower hand. To be fair, many people do not have the strength and flexibility to kneel on one leg, stretch out the other leg, and then bend sideways until the top hand lowers down. But, what is interesting is how people deal with the resistance. Initially, they lift the bottom hand up – because it’s easy (and obvious). When I point out that it’s the top hand that needs to reach down, many people will fold in on themselves; essentially closing down and hiding the heart to make the connection. However, the “goal” is to open the gate and to stay open in the process.
“Lonely . . . When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone.”
– Don Quixote in the Prologue to Camino Real by Tennessee Williams
We all build walls around our hearts. Sometimes we do it for protection, because we have perceived an actual threat. Other times, we build walls, because of fear associated with a perceived threat. That perceived threat might turn out to be an actual threat, but it could also simply be a possibility (or a misperception). Of course, we can also get in the habit of building walls – because it’s what others have done before us, what we’ve been taught, and/or because we have experienced harm in the past. But, even castle walls have gates and drawbridges, a way in and a way out.
When we really pay attention to the ways we engage our heart, on and off the mat, we may find it challenging to open the gate. We may find that we take the easy route – especially when there’s a little awkward balancing, as there is in parighāsana – and/or we may find that we are compromising ourselves (and our hearts) in order to make a connection. One suggestion I make, during the physical practice, is to bend the lifted elbow (so the hand is behind the head) and then use the whole body to rotate the elbow up. This changes the focus and reinforces the idea that we are opening the heart and the side-body. I often sequence a modified side plank after the “Gate Pose,” as a reminder that there can be more than one way to open a gate.
Take a moment to consider a time when you compromised yourself in order to make a connection. How could you have refocused your awareness, energy, and resources in order to reinforce what was important? Could you have made the connection (or a similar connection) in a different way?
In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois says, “I always depended on the kindness of strangers.” Remember, we are all Blanche…but we are also those strangers. Click here for the brief 2020 post about making loving-kind connections.
“It should be of the pleasure of a poem itself to tell how it can. The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom. The figure is the same as for love. No one can really hold that the ecstasy should be static and stand still in one place. It begins in delight, it inclines to the impulse, it assumes direction with the first line laid down, it runs a course of lucky events, and ends in a clarification of life–not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion.”
– quoted from the essay “The Figure a Poem Makes” by Robert Frost (which served as an introduction to his Collected Poems beginning with the 1939 edition)
Two of my favorite lines from Robert Frost speak of wisdom and delight, and the gift that comes from giving our whole selves. Every time I step on a yoga mat, I experience the wisdom and the delight. I also experience a plethora of gifts. One of those gifts is how the practice affects the mind. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams has Brick acknowledging that he is an alcoholic, but not seeming to want to give up his drinking because, “It’s like a switch, clickin’ off in my head. Turns the hot light off and the cool one on, and all of a sudden there’s peace.” But then, as his father points out to him, there is the morning.
One of the gifts of yoga is that it brings peace without the hangover. It can flip the switch. Another thing to consider is that the practice has a way of opening the heart so we can get to the violets.
“To me, its meaning is simple. The hard, the cold, the oppressive will—at long last—be broken apart by a force that is beautiful, natural, colorful, alive.”
– Patricia Clarkson explaining why she was quoting Tennessee Williams during a 2009 HRC New Orleans Dinner speech
Sunday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.
Errata: The Robert Frost poem is called “Mending Wall” and a link has been embedded for a Winter Solstice post.
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The Fire We Desire & The Fire(s) We Need (a Tuesday post & a special Black History note) February 14, 2023
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Books, Changing Perspectives, Dharma, Faith, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Life, Loss, Love, Music, Mysticism, One Hoop, Pain, Philosophy, Poetry, Religion, Science, Suffering, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tragedy, Wisdom, Writing, Yin Yoga, Yoga.Tags: A. S. Klein, Anna Murray Douglass, Ayurveda, Black History Month, CBS Sunday Morning, David Hogg, Declaration of Sentiments, Frederick Douglass, Geoffrey Chaucer, George L. Ruffin, Helen Piitts Douglass, Jamie Woon, kabbalah, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, Martin Luther King Jr, Oscar Wilde, Parkland, Peter Cook, Rita Braver, Robert Pirsig, Saint Valentine, Seneca Falls Convention, shabda, siddhis, Underground Railroad, Webster's 1828, William Goldman
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Peace and ease to all during this “Season of Non-violence” and all other seasons!
This is the post for Tuesday, February 14th and (technically) the 14th special Black History note. Today’s word is gratitude and I am grateful for you. Some parts of the following were originally posted in 2021 and 2022. Some context, class details, and links have been added or updated. My apologies for not posting before the Noon class.
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)
“And, [L]ove – True [L]ove – will follow you forever.”
– “The Impressive Clergyman” (Peter Cook) in the movie The Princess Bride by William Goldman
No one can be surprised that “words” are one of my favorite supernormal powers. In fact, śabda (or shabda), ranks as one of my top six siddhis or “powers.” Yet, there’s also no denying that words are not only one of our super powers, they are also a form of kryptonite – especially when we’re dealing with English. The English language seems to have as many rules as exceptions and as many homonyms that are homographs as homophones. And if the homonyms that sound the same but have different meanings and/or spellings (homophones) and the homonyms that are spelled the same but have different meanings and/or pronunciation (homographs) aren’t confusing enough, there are words that just have different meanings to different people – or different meanings based on the context. The word “love” is a prime example of a word that can mean different things to different people and at different times.
If you mention love on February 14th, a lot of people in the West will automatically think of “romantic love” – which is kind of ironic since Valentine’s Day started as a Catholic saint’s feast day and that saint may or may not have had anything to do with romantic love. Neither does romantic love have anything to do with the fact that the African American abolitionist, writer, and statesman Frederick Douglass celebrated his birthday on this date is – although, his reasons for doing so are, loosely, connected to it being Saint Valentine’s Day.
“The Greek language comes out with another word for love. It is the word agape, and agape is more than eros. Agape is more than philia. Agape is something of the understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. It is a love that seeks nothing in return. It is an overflowing love; it’s what theologians would call the love of God working in the lives of men. And when you rise to love on this level, you begin to love men, not because they are likeable, but because God loves them. You look at every man, and you love him because you know God loves him. And he might be the worst person you’ve ever seen.”
– quoted from “Loving Your Enemies” sermon at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (11/17/1957)
In the song “Gravity,” Jamie Woon sings of loving “a girl who loves synchronicity” and who “confided that love, it is an energy.” We humans (in general) have a tendency to block and/or limit that energy instead of “passing it on,” as the girl in the song does. And, we often use words to limit that energy. Some languages have different words for different kinds of love. Ancient Greek, for example, has érōs for sensual or passionate “love” or “desire;” storgḗ instinctual “love,” “affection,” or familial love (which can also extend to friends and pets); philía, which can be translated as “friendship” or brotherly love and was considered by some to be the “highest form of love;” and agápē, which is also described as unconditional love and “the highest form of love.”
Early Christians co-opted the Greek agápē and added to it their own understanding of the Hebrew chesed, which is sometimes translated into modern English as loving-kindness and stems from the root word (chasad) meaning “eager and ardent desire;” and includes a sense of “zeal” (especially as related to God). However, even in the Hebrew Bible (and the Christian Old Testament), chesed has been translated (in different places) as “mercy,” “kindness,” “lovingkindness,” “goodness,” “kindly” “merciful,” “favour,” “good,” “goodliness,” “pity,” and even “steadfast love.” There’s also a couple of places where it is used with a negative connotation. Judaism (and, particularly Jewish mysticism) also have words like devekut (which might be described as an emotional state and/or an action that cultivates a state related to “cleaving” or clinging to the Divine). Additionally, there is an understanding of a fear/awe of God (that also migrated into Christianity).
In English, we have a tendency to just use the same word for multiple things. Sometimes we add qualifiers like “brotherly” or “romantic;” but, sometimes we just use “love” – which, again, comes with different meanings and associations. During a Monday night in 2022, when I asked people for a word or phrase that they associate with love, I got some really phenomenal answers: acceptance and compassion, bravery (specifically as it relates to social change), trust, all the people that [one] cares about, and giving. To this list, I added earnest.
The “Valentine’s Day” portion of the following is partially excerpted from a 2021 post about “Being Red,” which includes a story about red and the Lunar New Year, as well as how this all ties into the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the upcoming Lenten observations.
“EARNEST, adjective
-
Ardent in the pursuit of an object; eager to obtain; having a longing desire; warmly engaged or incited.
They are never more earnest to disturb us, than when they see us most earnest in this duty.
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Ardent; warm; eager; zealous; animated; importunate; as earnest in love; earnest in prayer.
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Intent; fixed.
On that prospect strange
Their earnest eyes were fixed.
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Serious; important; that is, really intent or engaged; whence the phrase, in earnest To be in earnest is to be really urging or stretching towards an object; intent on a pursuit. Hence, from fixed attention, comes the sense of seriousness in the pursuit, as opposed to trifling or jest. Are you in earnest or in jest?”
– quoted from Webster’s Dictionary 1828: American Dictionary of the English Language
Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People premiered on February 14, 1895, at the Saint James Theatre in London. It is a love story (or love stories) of sorts, but it is also a comedy of errors and a social satire full of love, love triangles, double entendres, double lives, mistaken identities, the dichotomy of public versus private life in Victorian society, and so many trivialities that one can hardly be blamed for questioning that about which one should be serious… or earnest. Like his other plays, Earnest was well received and marked a professional high point in Wilde’s life. However, it also marked a personal low point: Wilde’s trial, conviction, and imprisonment for homosexuality – which was illegal in Victorian England. Earnest would be the last play written by Oscar Wilde and, some would argue, his most popular.
While English speakers around the world might not come up with the same definition of “earnest” that was known in Victorian England, I would expect there would be some consensus around it meaning “serious” and “true.” On the flip side, the color red means something different to everyone. Webster’s 1828 dictionary clearly defines it as “a simple or primary color, but of several different shades or hues, as scarlet, crimson, vermilion, orange red etc.” – but even that doesn’t begin to address the fact that, on any given Sunday, the color signifies different things to different people all over the world. I say, “on any given Sunday,” but just consider Sunday the 14th in 2021 [see link above], when red was associated with Valentine’s Day, The Lunar New Year celebrations (in some countries), and even the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Many people associate Valentine’s Day with red hearts, cards, chocolates, flowers, romantic dates, and romantic love – a very commercial endeavor – but it didn’t start out that way. The day actually started as (and to some still is) the Feast Day of Saint Valentine, according to the Western Christian tradition. There are actually two Christian martyrs remembered as Saint Valentine, but the most well-known is the 3rd-century Roman saint (who is honored on July 6th and 30th in the Eastern Christian tradition). According to the legends, Valentine was imprisoned for practicing Christianity during a time when Christians were persecuted by the Roman Empire. Before and during his incarceration, Saint Valentine had several conversations with the Roman Emperor Claudius II. Throughout these discussions, the emperor tried to convert the priest to the Roman pagan religion (ostensibly to save the priest’s life) and the priest tried to convert the emperor to Catholicism (theoretically to save the emperor’s soul, and the souls of all that followed him and his decrees).
Around this same time, Valentine had multiple interactions and conversations with the daughter of his jailer. Julia, the daughter, was blind and one of the last acts Valentine reportedly committed (before he was executed) was to heal Julia’s sight. After he was martyred (around 269 A. D.), Julia and her household converted to Catholicism in honor of Valentine. His feast day was established in 496 A.D.; however, around the 18th century, many additional details of the story started cropping up. One such detail was that Valentine married Christian soldiers who had been forbidden to marry (possibly because it would divide their focus and loyalty). Another detail was that he left Julia a letter and signed it “Your Valentine.”
“For this was on Seynt Velentynes day,
Whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make,”
“For this was on Saint Valentine’s day,
When every fowl comes there his mate to take,”
– quoted from the poem “The Parliament of Fowls” by Geoffrey Chaucer, translation by A. S. Klein
As to why red became associated with Valentine’s Day, there are lots of theories and they all come back to those embellishments which focused on Saint Valentine as the patron saint of lovers. Some of those embellishments are attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer’s works about love – and love was associated with the heart, which people associated with red. Additionally, a red stain is traditionally viewed in the Western world as the sign that a woman came to her marital bed as a virgin – a view that is not scientifically factual. Still, the idea persists and there’s some very suggestive, subliminal messaging going on there.
But, let’s go back to the idea of the heart being red. Yoga and Ayurveda, as they come to us from India, use green to symbolize the heart chakra (i.e., the energetic or spiritual heart), but of course, these systems also recognize that the physical heart is red when exposed to the air – or it’s being depicted by an artist, which is why the Sacred Heart of Jesus is depicted as red.
Speaking of the energetic or spiritual heart: Swami Rama of the Himalayan tradition taught that we all have three hearts: a physical heart, which for most of us is on the left; an emotional heart, which for most of us is on the left; and that energetic or spiritual heart of the middle. That “heart center” includes the arms (also fingers and hands) and connects the hearts within us and also connects our hearts with all the hearts around us. Chinese Medicine and their sister sciences of movement, including Yin Yoga, also map the vital energy of the heart through the arms.
Going back to Jewish mysticism: In the Kabbalah, the sefira (or Divine “attribute”) of chesed is related to the right arm. It is balanced by gevurah (“strength”), which is the left arm, and tiferet (“balance”), which is the upper torso and includes the physical heart. These energetic paradigms really reinforce Robert Pirsig’s statement that “The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.”
“Indeed, some have called me a traitor…. Two things are necessary to make a traitor. One is he shall have a country. [Laughter and applause] I believe if I had a country, I should be a patriot. I think I have all the feelings necessary — all the moral material, to say nothing about the intellectual. But when I remember that the blood of four sisters and one brother, is making fat the soil of Maryland and Virginia,—when I remember that an aged grandmother who has reared twelve children for the Southern market, and these one after another as they arrived at the most interesting age, were torn from her bosom,—when I remember that when she became too much racked for toil, she was turned out by a professed Christian master to grope her way in the darkness of old age, literally to die with none to help her, and the institutions of this country sanctioning and sanctifying this crime, I have no words of eulogy, I have no patriotism.[…]
No, I make no pretension to patriotism. So long as my voice can be heard, on this or the other side of the Atlantic, I will hold up America to the lightening scorn of moral indignation. In doing this, I shall feel myself discharging the duty of a true patriot; for he is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins.”
– quoted from the 1847 speech “If I Had a Country, I Should Be a Patriot” by Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was born somewhere in Eastern Maryland in 1817 or 1818. If you’re wondering why I can name the exact time and place that Oscar Wilde’s play premiered a few years later (not to mention the exact time and place of that illustrious playwright’s birth), but cannot specify the time and place of one of the greatest speakers and writers of the 19th Century, it’s because Frederick Douglass was born into slavery. So, there is no heritage birth site you can visit (Covid not withstanding) in the way you can visit 21 Westland Row (the home of the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre in Dublin). You could visit Cedar Hill, the Washington, D. C. house that Mr. Douglass bought about forty years after he escaped from slavery. But, the historical marker related to his birth is at least four miles from where it is assumed he was born.
By all accounts, he was born on the Holme (or Holmes) Hill Farm and most likely in the cabin of his grandmother, Betsey Bailey – which is basically where he lived for the first part of his life. His mother, on the other hand, lived twelve miles away and died when he was about seven years old. Some of his vague memories, as he recounted in his third autobiography, included his mother calling him her “Little Valentine.” Ergo, he celebrated his birthday on February 14th.
Most of what we know about the abolitionist, statesman, and activist, comes from his speeches and his writings, including three autobiographies: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave; My Bondage and My Freedom, and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. In some ways, each book is an expansion of the previous books, with the third being the most detailed about his escape and activism*. As he explained in his the final book, he left certain details and facts out of the first two books in order to protect himself, the people who helped him escape, and some of the people associated with him.
Since slavery was still active in the United States when his first book was published on May 1, 1845, Mr. Douglass also relocated to England and Ireland for two years in order to ensure he would not be recaptured. While he was in Europe, his supporters paid ($710.96) for his emancipation. That’s about $26,300.66, in today’s economy, that went to the person who had enslaved him.
“This is American slavery; no marriage—no education—the light of the gospel shut out from the dark mind of the bondman—and he forbidden by law to learn to read. If a mother shall teach her children to read, the law in Louisiana proclaims that she may be hanged by the neck. If the father attempt to give his son a knowledge of letters, he may be punished by the whip in one instance, and in another be killed, at the discretion of the court. Three millions of people shut out from the light of knowledge! It is easy for you to conceive the evil that must result from such a state of things.”
– quoted from “APPENDIX, CONTAINING EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES, ETC – RECEPTION SPEECH AT FINSBURY CHAPEL, MOORFIELDS, ENGLAND, MAY 12, 1846.” in My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass
According to his first autobiography, the wife of his second owner, Mrs. Sophia Auld, started teaching a young Frederick Douglass the alphabet. When the lessons were discovered and forbidden, he overheard Mrs. Auld’s husband telling her that an educated slave would be unfit for slavery. This motivated Mr. Douglass to teach himself to read and write. The more he learned, the more he was motivated to be free. He was further motivated to escape when he fell in love with a free Black woman named Anna Murray, who was also a member of the Underground Railroad.
The success of his autobiographies changed the way some people – specifically, white abolitionists – viewed him and treated him. It expanded his audience and also uplifted his platform. While some pro-slavery advocates still saw him as a puppet and a parrot, abolitionists realized that he was actually an intellectual capable of giving very vivid (and compelling) first-hand accounts of the atrocities of slavery. Critics persisted in doubting him, but again and again, he dismantled their doubts and defamation. Furthermore, as he advocated for the civil rights of Africans in America, their descendants, and for all women, he lived a life that had been previously denied him.
“The marriage institution cannot exist among slaves, and one-sixth of the population of democratic America is denied its privileges by the law of the land. What is to be thought of a nation boasting of its liberty, boasting of its humanity, boasting of its christianity, boasting of its love of justice and purity, and yet having within its own borders three millions of persons denied by law the right of marriage?—what must be the condition of that people? I need not lift up the veil by giving you any experience of my own. Every one that can put two ideas together, must see the most fearful results from such a state of things as I have just mentioned.”
– quoted from “APPENDIX, CONTAINING EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES, ETC – RECEPTION SPEECH AT FINSBURY CHAPEL, MOORFIELDS, ENGLAND, MAY 12, 1846.” in My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass and Anna Murray married on September 15, 1838 – just twelve days after his escape from slavery. For a while, they lived under an assumed surname. Frederick Douglass made a living as a public speaker, writer, and publisher. He traveled the world, served as a diplomat, and also served as an Army recruiter. Throughout his lifetime, he influenced people like Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Benjamin Harrison. He was the first African American to be nominated for vice president (in 1872); the first African American person to receive a vote for president during a a major parties roll call (in 1888); and, if we want to get technical, one of the first people to publicly protest Civil War era statues. (He specifically objected to the way former slaves were depicted.)
Frederick Douglass started the first abolitionist newspaper, The North Star, whose motto was “Right is of no Sex – Truth is of no Color – God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren.” He was also the only Black person to (officially) attend the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention and the only Black signer of the Declaration of Sentiments.
“Believing that one of the best means of emancipating the slaves of the south is to improve and elevate the character of the free colored people of the north, I shall labor in the future, as I have labored in the past, to promote the moral, social, religious, and intellectual elevation of the free colored people; never forgetting my own humble origin, nor refusing, while Heaven lends me ability, to use my voice, my pen, or my vote, to advocate the great and primary work of the universal and unconditional emancipation of my entire race.”
– quoted from “CHAPTER XXV. VARIOUS INCIDENTS. NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE—UNEXPECTED OPPOSITION—THE OBJECTIONS TO IT—THEIR PLAUSIBILITY ADMITTED—MOTIVES FOR COMING TO ROCHESTER—DISCIPLE OF MR. GARRISON—CHANGE OF OPINION—CAUSES LEADING TO IT—THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE CHANGE—PREJUDICE AGAINST COLOR—AMUSING CONDESCENSION—”JIM CROW CARS”—COLLISIONS WITH CONDUCTORS AND BRAKEMEN—TRAINS ORDERED NOT TO STOP AT LYNN—AMUSING DOMESTIC SCENE—SEPARATE TABLES FOR MASTER AND MAN—PREJUDICE UNNATURAL—ILLUSTRATIONS—THE AUTHOR IN HIGH COMPANY—ELEVATION OF THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR—PLEDGE FOR THE FUTURE.” of My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass and Anna Murray-Douglass had five children. Rosetta Douglass worked on her father’s newspapers and eventually became a teacher, an activist, and a founding member of the National Association for Colored Women. Lewis Henry Douglass worked as a typesetter at The North Star and The Douglass’ Weekly before serving in the Union Army during the Civil War. Frederick Douglass Jr. was also an abolitionist and journalist and who, along with his father, recruited for the Union Army during the Civil War. (Lewis and the two Fredericks would also co-edit The New Era.) Charles Redmond Douglass, also a publisher, is remembered as the first African American to enlist in the Union Army in New York and was one of the first African Americans to serve as a clerk in the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (also known as the Freedmen’s Bureau). He also worked for the United States Treasury and served as a diplomat (as did his father). The fifth Douglass child, Annie, died as an adolescent.
Anna Murray-Douglass died in 1882 and, in 1884, Frederick Douglass married a white abolitionist and radical feminist who was two years his junior. Helen Pitts Douglass co-edited The Alpha and eventually worked as her husbands secretary. After her husband’s death in 1895, the second Mrs. Douglass purchased Cedar Hill from the Douglass children (because her husbands bequest to her was not upheld) and worked to establish the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association. After her death in 1903, the properties reduced mortgage was paid off by the National Association of Colored Women and is currently managed by the National Park Service.
“Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.
What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed.
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.”
– quoted from the “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” speech by Frederick Douglass (July 5, 1852)
Please join me today (Tuesday, February 14th) at 12:00 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
Tuesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.
NOTE: After the Noon practice, I remixed some of the before/after music after the Noon practice – which is slight different on each medium. The Spotify playlist includes Frederick Douglass’s entire “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” speech, recited by Ossie Davis. The YouTube playlist features a portion of the speech recited by direct descendants of Frederick Douglass.
Practice Notes: This practice is all about heart opening – however, it may not be in the way you expect. There is also some unexpected ways to engage the hips.
“But I should be false to the earliest sentiments of my soul, if I suppressed the opinion. I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence. From my earliest recollection, I date the entertainment of a deep conviction that slavery would not always be able to hold me within its foul embrace; and in the darkest hours of my career in slavery, this living word of faith and spirit of hope departed not from me, but remained like ministering angels to cheer me through the gloom. This good spirit was from God, and to him I offer thanksgiving and praise.”
– quoted from “CHAPTER V.” of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass
*NOTE: The full title of the third autobiography of Frederick Douglass is Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Written by Himself. His Early Life as a Slave, His Escape from Bondage, and His Complete History to the Present Time, Including His Connection with the Anti-slavery Movement; His Labors in Great Britain as Well as in His Own Country; His Experience in the Conduct of an Influential Newspaper; His Connection with the Underground Railroad; His Relations with John Brown and the Harper’s Ferry Raid; His Recruiting the 54th and 55th Mass. Colored Regiments; His Interviews with Presidents Lincoln and Johnson; His Appointment by Gen. Grant to Accompany the Santo Domingo Commission–
Also to a Seat in the Council of the District of Columbia; His Appointment as United States Marshal by President R. B. Hayes; Also His Appointment to Be Recorder of Deeds in Washington by President J. A. Garfield; with Many Other Interesting and Important Events of His Most Eventful Life; With an Introduction by Mr. George L. Ruffin, of Boston.
### “I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital importance of being Earnest.” ~ OW ###
From the Earth (a special Black History 2.5-for-1 note) February 11, 2023
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Books, Changing Perspectives, Dharma, Faith, Healing Stories, Health, Hope, Life, One Hoop, Pain, Science, Suffering, Tragedy, Wisdom, Women, Writing, Yin Yoga, Yoga.Tags: Bhagavad Gita, Black History Month, Dr. David Axelrod, Dr. David Jones Peck, Dr. James Derham, Dr. James Durham, Dr. James McCune Smith, Dr. Rebbeca J. Cole, Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, Dr. Robert Tanner Freeman, Eckardt C. Beck, environment, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Jesse Jackson, Julian Cribb, Lisa Depaulo, Lisa Perez Jackson, Martin Buber, Oprah Winfrey, Yoga Sutra 2.36
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Peace and ease to all during this “Season of Non-violence” and all other seasons!
“You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car!…. You get a car! You get a car! You get a car!”
– Oprah Winfrey on The Oprah Winfrey Show, original airdate: September 13, 2004
This is the “missing” Black History note for Wednesday, February 8th. It’s later than usual, because I got misled, bamboozled, tricked – tricked, I say – into believing something that doesn’t appear to be true. The thing is, it would have been really cool if it had been true and here’s why: When The Oprah Winfrey Show premiered on September 8, 1986, Oprah Winfrey became the first African American to host a nationally syndicated daytime talk show. She was following in the footsteps of Della Reese, Pearl Bailey, and Barbara McNair – whose talk shows were not aired nationally and did not last nearly as long as Oprah’s 25 seasons – and her show was one of the most popular, most watched, and most awarded daytime talk show in television history. Whether you are (or were) a fan or not, there’s no denying that Oprah and The Oprah Winfrey Show changed the way people interact and interrelate. It would also be hard to dispute the fact that the show (and it’s spin-offs) created more opportunities for people to have real encounters and true meetings, like the ones Martin Buber described, rather than purely transactional interactions. Since one of the most popular segments on the show was “Oprah’s Favorite Things,” I thought it would be cool to explain that one of my favorite things is having Ich-und-Du moments and then I could do my best Oprah impersonation.
At this point, you might be wondering why in the world I would even make such a random connection. Well, you see, as I mentioned before, I got misled, bamboozled, tricked – tricked, I say – into believing the show premiered on a certain day in February (which, clearly, it did not) and I got excited about the tie-in before I did my due diligence and fact checked the fact checker. That’s what I do, and what I encourage others to day: check, double check, and cross check – which is why I use 5 to 8 translations when I’m doing my sūtra studies. Normally, I do my cross-checks before I put pen to paper or fingers to keys. But, I was running late as I got ready for Wednesday practices, and left my fact checking to the last minute.
Double checking the facts (as you know them) doesn’t mean you won’t make mistakes, it just means that you are practicing that dedication to the truth – and the truth was very important to two women born on February 8th in two different eras.
Yoga Sūtra 2.36: satyapratişţhāyām kriyāphalāśrayatvam
– “When a yogi is established in truthfulness, actions begin to bear fruit. [Truth is the foundation for fruitful action.]”
I’ve said it before and I will say it again: When and where (and under what circumstances) a person is born matters. Those factors play a part in what opportunities a person has, how hard or easy it is to take advantage of those opportunities, how a person envisions their goals and desires, and who supports them – or gets in their way – as they make their dreams come true. Many people born in the last few decades have had the advantage of the times, what with the internet and other technology giving people access to information and experiences they may not have been able to imagine in an earlier era. If those same people were born in certain countries and grew up in certain socioeconomic circumstances, they also may have had the advantages of location. On the flip side, someone born in the next few years – especially in certain parts of the world, including the United States – may find their access to knowledge is limited and therefore their opportunities are limited. That’s a theoretical scenario, based on current events. What is not theoretical, however, is that that exact scenario has played out several times throughout the history of the United States. It was definitely at play when Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler (née Davis) was born on February 8, 1831.
So, how on Earth did she become the first African American woman to earn a medical degree in the United States back in 1864?
Dr. Crumpler, herself, said that a lot of it came down to timing and location.
“It may be well to state here that, having been reared by a kind aunt in Pennsylvania, whose usefulness with the sick was continually sought, I early conceived a liking for, and sought every opportunity to relieve the sufferings of others. Later in life I devoted my time, when best I could, to nursing as a business, serving under different doctors for a period of eight years (from 1852 to 1860); most of the time at my adopted home in Charlestown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.”
– quoted from the Introduction to A Book of Medical Discourses, In Two Parts by Rebecca Crumpler, M. D.
As far as I can tell, Rebecca Davis was born a freewoman in Christiana, Delaware. I am unclear about the status of her parents, Matilda Webber and Absolum Davis, but I do know that Delaware was still a slave state when the future doctor was born and that, for some reason, her parents sent her to live with an aunt in Pennsylvania. Again, I don’t know why she was sent to Pennsylvania at a very young age, but it could have had something to do with the fact that Pennsylvania had abolished slavery in 1780 and the family had the means to send their daughter away. (There is another, slightly scandalous, possibility for why she was sent away, but I haven’t been able to cross check certain court records.) The aunt’s primary occupation was caring for the sick and young Rebecca grew up learning the trade of being a caregiver.
When she was twenty, she married a formerly enslaved man from Virginia named Wyatt Lee and they moved to Charleston, Massachusetts where she started working as a nurse. Mr. Lee’s young son, from a previous marriage, died within a year of their move. This could have sharpened Rebecca Lee’s interest in medicine, especially as it related to children, and it is an event that could have contributed to her interest in medical school. Keep in mind that this was long before anyone could earn a nursing degree in the United States. This was also at a time when white medical schools typically turned Black students away and long before there were any Black medical schools. Don’t get me wrong, there had been Black physicians practicing Western medicine – like Dr. James Durham (or Derham), who was enslaved in Louisiana and learned the medical arts from his slave owners; however, the first African American M. D. and pharmacy owner in the United States, Dr. James McCune Smith, actually earned his medical degree at the University of Glasgow (Scotland, 1837). Exactly ten years later, Dr. David Jones Peck became the first African American to earn an M. D. in the US.
In the 1850’s, the different doctors with which Rebecca Lee worked might have had different expectations about the roles and responsibilities of their nurses. Yet, she distinguished herself and several doctors recommended that she go to medical school. Now, it is possible that this was just something they said and they wrote recommendation letters without actually believing she would be accepted. Remember, at the time, 1860, most medical schools were white-only and less than 1% of M.D.s in the United States were women… white women. It is also highly probable that the suggestion was for her to go to medical school to become an even more phenomenal nurse. It is also possible that the physician(s) who recommended her had some pull with the medical school board. Whatever the case, she was accepted by the New England Female Medical College and received a tuition award from the Wade Scholarship Fund. She was the only African American student in the school.
Her husband died of tuberculosis in the Spring of 1863. Almost a year later, on February 24, 1864, having completed her coursework, written her thesis, and paid her graduation fees, she and two of her classmates faced the medical school faculty for their final, oral exams. Although, the board expressed some concern about her preparedness (to be a doctor), Rebecca Davis Lee and her two classmates were recommended to the board of trustees. On March 1, 1864, she was declared a “Doctress of Medicine.” She would be the New England Female Medical College’s first and only Black graduate. Dr. Rebecca J. Cole become the second African American woman to earn a medical degree in the U. S. when she graduated from Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1867. That same year, Robert Tanner Freeman graduated from Harvard University, becoming the first African American to receive a degree in dentistry from an American university. Howard University (established in 1867), where my father earned his Ph.D., opened it’s medical school in 1868.
“Her later writings give no indication that she was aware of her status as the first black woman MD in the United States; indeed, until the later twentieth century, scholars had assigned that distinction to Rebecca Cole….”
– quoted from the profile entitled “Crumpler, Rebecca Davis Lee” in African American Lives, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham
In May of 1865, Dr. Rebecca Lee married Arthur Crumpler, another Virginia-born man who had escaped slavery and was determined to buy the freedom of his family members, and became Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler. Records show that they had a daughter (born in 1870), but it appears she died before reaching adolescence. While Arthur Crumpler worked as a blacksmith for the Union Army, Dr. Crumpler stayed in Boston, where she continued her training and cared for (often poor) women and children. When the Civil War ended, she re-joined Mr. Crumpler in Virginia, where she not only tended to veterans, but also treated formerly enslaved people and trained them on how to care for others. A lot of what she called her “real missionary work” encouraged other African Americans to seek formal training as healthcare practitioners – even though she knew, first hand, that Black physicians and nurses were not always welcomed by others in the field. The Crumplers eventually returned to Boston, where Dr. Crumpler established her practice at 67 Joy Street. Throughout her career, she focused on preventative measures and what might be considered “alternative medicine.” She strongly believed that people would be healthier if they had a better understanding of their bodies.
Around 1880, the Crumplers moved to Hyde Park, Massachusetts and it appears that Dr. Crumpler stopped actively practicing medicine. Three years later, however, she published A Book of Medical Discourses, In Two Parts. Dedicated to mothers and nurses, the book featured notes from her years of practice and offered guidance in the care and tending of women and children. The first part of the book focused on “treating of the cause, prevention, and cure of infantile bowel complaints, from birth to the close of the teething period, or until after the fifth year.” The second part “[contained] miscellaneous information concerning the life and growth of beings; the beginning of womanhood; also, the cause, prevention, and cure of many of the most distressing complaints of women, and youth, of both sexes.” She covered everything from “How to Marry” (the first chapter) to “Artificial Nursing” (chapter nine) to “Teething made easy” (chapter seventeen) and it is one of the first medical publications authored by an African American.
While there are lots of little historical breadcrumbs related to Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler’s life, there’s very little known about what kinds of obstacles she faced. In addition to the concerns expressed by the medical school faculty after her final exam – which may been purely a concern about her abilities or could have been related to race – there are records of male doctors snubbing her, pharmacists refusing to fill her prescriptions, and some people saying that, in her case, M. D. stood for “Mule Driver.” She did not, however, let any of that stop her from healing or from helping other people heal themselves.
“Let us strive to know more about ourselves, –it is human, it is Christian-like to do so. Then there will be minds from which to select students for the college, that may come forth to the community graduates in Pharmacy, Surgery, Dentistry, and Medicine. It is well known that many noble-minded women have graced the chambers of the sick with good service, in different conditions of need, too; but at the present women appear to shrink from any responsibilities demanding patience and sacrifice, or rather seem not to rely on the union of their strength with that of our great Creator, in time of need.
What we need o-day in every community, is, not a shrinking or flagging of womanly usefulness in this field of labor, but renewed and courageous readiness to do when and whatever duty calls.”
– quoted from “Chapter XIX. General Remarks.” in A Book of Medical Discourses, In Two Parts by Rebecca Crumpler, M. D.
According to the Bhagavad Gitā (2.31), everyone has a sva-dharma (personal duty) that “should be viewed as one’s responsibility to his or her highest Self, the Atma.” To answer the call would mean being the kind of person Dr. Crumpler said the world needed – “[someone not] shrinking or flagging of womanly usefulness in this field of labor, but renewed and courageous readiness to do when and whatever duty calls.” – a person like Lisa Perez Jackson, who was born February 8, 1962. Rather than a healthcare practitioner, however, she is a chemical engineer who served as Commissioner of Environmental Protection of New Jersey (2/2006 – 11/2008) and Chief of Staff to the Governor of New Jersey (12/2008). In January of 2009, President Barack Obama named her as the 12th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), making her the agency’s first African American director, a position she held until she resigned in February 2013. She currently works as the environmental director of Apple. Interestingly, some aspects of her background are similar to Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler’s background.
Like Dr. Crumpler, Ms. Jackson (née Perez) was adopted; developed her scholarly interest because of a crisis she saw around her; and accomplished much while married and raising a family. In Ms. Jackson’s case, she was born in Philadelphia and then adopted at 2 weeks old (by Benjamin and Marie Perez). She was raised in Pontchartrain Park, a predominantly African American neighborhood in the 9th ward of New Orleans, Louisiana and graduated valedictorian from St. Mary’s Dominican High School, an all-girls private Catholic high school. She was a National Merit Scholar and received scholarships from National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering & Science and Shell Oil Company in order to attend Tulane University, where she graduated summa cum laude (1983) before earning her Master of Science from Princeton University in 1986.
Knowing that she drove her mother out her flooding hometown in 2005, one might think that her interest in the environment started because of Hurricane Katrina. However, her interest actually started in the late 1970s when she, and so many others around the world, followed the coverage of the disaster that unfolded in Love Canal, a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York that was built on top of a landfill that leaked toxic waste. On August 7, 1978, President Jimmy Carter declared that the site posed a federal health emergency and, for the first time in U. S. history, requested emergency federal funds to clean up damage from something other than a natural disaster. Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as the Superfund Act, which would be administered by the EPA. But the damage was already done: a disproportionate number of residents were dead, dying, and/or living with birth defects.
“After a startling increase in [cancer,] skin rashes, miscarriages and birth defects, President Carter declared a State of Emergency over the site. [Eckardt C. Beck, an EPA scientist] warned that the ironically named Love Canal was far from an isolated case and there were probably hundreds of similar ‘“ticking time bombs”’ all over the USA. State health commissioner David Axelrod[*] presciently described the event as a ‘“national symbol of a failure to exercise a sense of concern for future generations.”’”
– quoted from “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” in “2 – Poisoning A Planet” of Earth Detox: How and Why We Must Clean Up Our Planet by Julian Cribb
*NOTE: Dr. David Axelrod, who is quoted here, is not to be confused with the political strategist and advisor who worked in the Obama administration.
In addition to working for Shell Oil during the summers when she was at Tulane, Lisa Perez Jackson worked for a non-profit organization that advocated for the timely cleanup of contaminated areas while she was at Princeton. So, she got to see the environmental issues from two different professional perspectives. Not long after joining the EPA’s Washington, D. C, office as an engineer in 1987, she moved to the New York office and worked on the team administering the Superfund. She met her second husband, Kenneth Jackson, towards the beginning of her 16-year tenure at the New York office of the EPA and they had two children within the first four years of their marriage.
Lisa P. Jackson had enough experience to know that when she became the first African American to head up the EPA she was going to be in sticky, icky, controversial situations. She had to know that one side of the aisle would almost always say the agency was overreaching and moving too fast, while the other side would simultaneously say that the agency was moving too slow and not reaching/doing enough. However, she had no way of knowing that an oil rig (Deepwater Horizon) would explode in the Gulf of Mexico, mere meters from her childhood hometown, a little over a year after her appointment. She had no way of knowing the disaster would lead directly to the House of Representatives passing a bill to cut the EPA’s funding or that she would be called to testify in Congressional hearings at least seven times in one month. Nor did she have any way of knowing that, before she stepped down (in 2013), she would be accused of mishandling private emails. All she knew, back in 2009, was that she was determined to make a difference – and make a difference she did.
Under her leadership, the EPA developed stricter fuel efficiency standards; recognized carbon dioxide and and five other gases as greenhouse emissions that create public health threats; and proposed limits on the amount of mercury, arsenic, nickel, and other toxic by-products power plants could routinely release into the environment. To this day, she especially works to make a difference in the lives of those disproportionately affected by environmental issues – those who, it turns out, are often found in the same groups that Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler was serving back in the 1800s: poor people, minorities, veterans, women, and children.
“The first girls to attend [the Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy] were previously at the city’s lowest-ranked middle school. This year the school’s eighth graders earned one of the highest scores of all public schools in Atlanta on a state exam.
They’re Jackson’s sweet spot, these kids. African-American girls, who, like her, may have faced obstacles but are full of promise. ‘Listen,’ she says, ‘if these young women don’t grow up strong and talented and committed to our environment, then our country’s gonna suffer, not just them.’
Her speech hits home: ‘You have a right to clean air and clean water,’ she tells the girls, touching on one of her core initiatives, environmental justice—that is, to give a voice to the people, usually poor minorities, who are most severely affected by environmental hazards and calamities. ‘You have a right to have a healthy school to learn in.’ But such heady rights come with responsibility. The girls must be willing to do their part, she tells them—to blow past the wheezing stereotypes that only young men wearing pocket protectors are good at math and science, and that black women don’t set policy or lead. ‘You will bring clean air to your community,’ she tells them. ‘Which you can’t do if you don’t have the education.’”
– quoted from the O, The Oprah Magazine (June 2011) article “Clean Power: Lisa Jackson Fights for Our Right to Healthy Air, Water and Land: Somebody has to do it. We’re lucky it’s her.” by Lisa Depaulo
PRACTICE NOTES: Similar to a practice I would lead on Earth Day, this sequence would be grounded… but also have some groove to it. I’d probably lean towards a “detox flow” with a good number of seated poses and twists (if I was going to stick with a straight-forward vinyāsa practice) or a Yin/Yang fusion with something for the meridians associated with digestion. Of course, I would throw in Vṛkṣāsana (“Tree Pose”) and emphasize prāṇāyāma (extension and awareness of the breath).
A Joyful Practice 