Today is the Birthday of Poets June 7, 2020
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Uncategorized.Tags: asana, Gwendolyn Brooks, insight, inspiration, Life, Loss, Louise Erdrich, Love, Nikki Giovanni, Poetry, Prince Rogers Nelson, protests, trauma, truth, yoga
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Today I bring you poetry. True
It is no longer poetry month / but
It is the birthday of poets – and so,
I bring you their words, their lyrics, their music.
I bring you their movement, and
their Movements.
I bring you POC [Poets of Color],
NOT because of what’s happening…
BUT because…
That is what I’ve always done, while you pose… {Did you not notice?}
AND
Today is the birthday of poets.
Nikki dared you to listen to “The Song of the Feet” (and apply
Hear The Painted Drum (Louise, please…more:)
Gwendolyn wrote “about what I saw and heard in the street,”
and asked us what we would do “with all this life.” Then she warned us…
“that we are each other’s
harvest:
we are each other’s
business:
we are each other’s
magnitude and bond.”
Looks like we failed to listen, even
To the royal “Condition of the Heart”
Now, birds cry in the snow and the rain,
“I think I know a better way y’all.”
And I ask,
are you “Willing and Able”
“America”? “Around the World…”?
Anybody?
– whisper, shout, scream, or –
will we continue to be “like a child lost in the wilderness [?]”
If we live, we [still only] have two choices:
“[we’ll] either learn or we won’t;”
“growing up or decaying.”
(One requires love & listening “to [y]our own Black heart[s].”)
Of course…
those were our choices all along.
©MKR 2020
Please join me for a 65-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Sunday, June 7th) at 2:30 PM. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. PLEASE NOTE: Zoom 5.0 has gone into effect yesterday. If you have not upgraded, you will need to give yourself extra time to log into Zoom. You can always request an audio recording of this practice (or any practice) via email or a comment below.
Today’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. (Interlude music is different between the playlists. YouTube is the original.)
### DON’T WASTE ANY SWEETNESS ###
To Play or Not To Play June 6, 2020
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Uncategorized.Tags: acupuncture, D-Day, divine play, George Williams, Johan Huizinga, leela, lila, Plato, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Sosthenes, YMCA, yoga, yoga philosophy, Yoga Sutra, yoga sutra 2.23
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“Let us look at the matter thus: May we not conceive each of us living beings to be a puppet of the Gods, either their plaything only, or created with a purpose-which of the two we cannot certainly know? But we do know, that these affections in us are like cords and strings, which pull us different and opposite ways, and to opposite actions; and herein lies the difference between virtue and vice. According to the argument there is one among these cords which every man ought to grasp and never let go, but to pull with it against all the rest; and this is the sacred and golden cord of reason, called by us the common law of the State; there are others which are hard and of iron, but this one is soft because golden; and there are several other kinds. Now we ought always to cooperate with the lead of the best, which is law.” (Book 1)
– from The Laws by Plato
Yoga Sutra 2.23: svasvāmiśaktyoh svarūpopalabdhihetuh samyoga
– “The union (yoga), alliance, or relationship between our power to see (and what we see) is the way to experiencing our own true nature.”
I’m going to acknowledge, right off the bat, that there are other ways to work – or explore or play – with the sutra of the day. I’ll even go so far as to say that if we were encountering this sutra at almost any other time, even on this day in any other year, I would definitely be all about the play. Play is, after all, essential to our growth and is also an element of the Divine. In Hinduism, divine play is lila (or leela) and the concept occurs in non-dualism Indian philosophy (as a way to describe everything in the universe as the outcome of creative play) and in dualism Indian philosophy (as the interaction between God and God’s disciples, in order to understand the nature of the universe). If you are having a hard time telling the difference, do not despair… play around with it a little.
“According to my view, any one who would be good at anything must practise that thing from his youth upwards, both in sport and earnest, in its several branches: for example, he who is to be a good builder, should play at building children’s houses; he who is to be a good husbandman, at tilling the ground; and those who have the care of their education should provide them when young with mimic tools. They should learn beforehand the knowledge which they will afterwards require for their art.” (Book 1)
And what is the right way of living? Are we to live in sports always? If so, in what kind of sports? We ought to live sacrificing, and singing, and dancing, and then a man will be able to propitiate the Gods, and to defend himself against his enemies and conquer them in battle. The type of song or dance by which he will propitiate them has been described, and the paths along which he is to proceed have been cut for him.” (Book 7)
– from The Laws by Plato
“Life must be lived as play, playing certain games, making sacrifices, singing and dancing, and then a man will be able to propitiate the gods, and defend himself against his enemies, and win in the contest.”
– Dutch philosopher Johan Huizinga summarizing Plato (in Homo Ludens)
Outside of Indian religion and philosophy, you find a similar concept in the ancient Greek philosophers and in forms of ecstatic dance (which exists in various Christian traditions, as well as in Judaism, the Sufism, various Shamanism, and Santeria). You also find it in sacred text. For example, in First Corinthians 3:18 -19, Saint Paul (and Sosthenes), the people who make up the Christian Church in Corinth (Greece) are instructed, “Let no one deceive himself: If anyone among you thinks himself to be wise in this age, let him become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” (Berean Literal Bible) Some translations state that the “wise” should “become fools.” A little later in the letter, the authors will speak of “put[ting] away childish things” (1st Corinthians 13:11 -12); which many people see as a reference to physical age/maturity – when, in fact, the authors are speaking of spiritual maturity. There is, then, an implication in the text that all wisdom here on Earth is, actually, foolishness and that as long as we only “see” the material world (and ourselves in the material world) there is a need to keep playing. (This dove-tails back to the sutra and to Plato, in that there is a definite purpose to playing.)
“On the contrary, Augustine says (Music. ii, 15): ‘I pray thee, spare thyself at times: for it becomes a wise man sometimes to relax the high pressure of his attention to work.’ Now this relaxation of the mind from work consists in playful words or deeds. Therefore it becomes a wise and virtuous man to have recourse to such things at times.”
– from Summa Theologica (2a 2ae, 168 3) by Saint Thomas Aquinas
Saint Thomas Aquinas not only points to the need to play, as a way to rest the soul, he also provides very specific guidelines for spiritual. Additionally, in the Second Part of the Second Part of the Summa, when addressing question 168, he cautions against excessive play, as well as “the sin” of too little play. With regard to the guidelines, first and foremost, he says that “[play] should not be sought in indecent or injurious deeds or words” and, ultimately, that “we must be careful, as in all other human actions, to conform ourselves to persons, time, and place, and take due account of other circumstances, so that our fun ‘befit the hour and the man,’ as Tully says (De Offic. i, 29).”
All of this to say that the theme(s) for today beg(s) for a little divine play, as the sutra indicates such interaction helps us to better understand the universe and our place in the universe. Also, in the past, I have played today (mostly at the Y) to celebrate the day the YMCA was founded by George Williams in 1844. I have always endeavored to balance the play with an element of seriousness as today is also the anniversary of D-Day (1944). Add to that everything else that is happening in the world, in my little piece of the world, and in my personal world, and sometimes even I find it hard to play. However, even though I am super late in posting, we are still having class at Noon today.
It is up to you if you play, explore, or work during the 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, June 6th) at 12:00 PM. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class.
Today’s playlist will be available on YouTube and Spotify. (Links will be available on Zoom and I will update this page, with links, after the class. If you are not feeling particularly playful, you can use the playlists titled “06032020 How Can We See, Dr. Wiesel.”)
Another way, to refresh and restore your body today is with free (outdoor) acupuncture available in Saint Paul today(11 AM – 5 PM, see details here).
### NAMASTE ###
The Power of Being Seen & Heard June 4, 2020
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Changing Perspectives, Healing Stories, Philosophy, Suffering, Tragedy, Women, Yoga.Tags: 1919, 1989, Changing Perspectives, June 4th, Life, protest, revolution, six-four
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TANK MAN
If you are a certain age or older (as I am) and from certain countries (ditto), and you don’t even have to click on the link above to see the photo. Just the name immediately conjures up the general timing (1989), if not the exact date (which is June 5th), and circumstances. Even though the picture is still, you can probably “see” the little bits of motion that surround this “incident” in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989. That’s how the people in China refer to it (if they refer to it): the “June 4 incident” or the “six-four incident.” Not the protest and (definitely not) the massacre, unless they are outside of China. The Chinese government initially referred to the events in 1989 as a “counterrevolutionary riot,” but then started diminishing the impact. The “counterrevolutionary riot” became just a “riot” and then a “political storm.” Now, the government calls it “political turmoil between the Spring and Summer of 1989.” They did not initially acknowledge that anyone died in and around Tiananmen Square, after what started out as peaceful student-led protests against the government. Later, they would acknowledge that “some” people were injured and “a few” died…but they still distance the injuries and deaths from the “incident.”
Keep in mind, “some” and “a few” are calculated in the thousands.
More telling than how they speak (or don’t speak) about what happened over the next couple of days in 1989, is the fact that if you grew up in China and you are 35 years old or younger, you can probably identify the location (after all, it is a landmark in Beijing), but you may not be able to identify the time, date, and circumstances associated with this picture. At least this was the finding of PBS interview dated April 11, 2006. When I watched the interview, I was a little surprised. What surprised me even more was that if you grew up in the United States and you are 35 years old or younger, you might not even be able to identify the location. (I asked around.)
Now, consider this second picture.
Tboyd5150 / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
Do you know this woman? Do you have any idea why (or what) this woman would have been celebrating today in 1919? It’s not surprising if you don’t, regardless of your nationality or age (since if you are reading this blog, you probably weren’t alive at the time). But there are some clues, in particular the date: June 4, 1919. Ring a bell? Does it help if I say she’s connected to the United States?
Feel free to Google it. I’ll wait.
Even if you somehow know this woman is a suffragist, her name (Phoebe E. Burn, “Miss Feeb” or “Feeb” to her friends) may not mean a whole lot to you. Even if you’ve attended one of my August 18th classes and heard me mention her name (and that of her son, then 24-year old Harry T. Burn, Sr. of Tennessee), it still might not immediately register that the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave women the right to vote, was approved by Congress today in 1919. It was passed with 56 “ayes” and 25 “nays,” and ratified by the required three-quarters of the Union on August 18, 1920. Harry Burn, the Republican Representative from Tennessee, was the youngest congressman and was expected to vote against the amendment; which would have killed the legislation. When he voted, he was wearing a red carnation, indicating he was against the amendment. However, unbeknownst to those around him at the time, he carried a note from his mother telling him, “Don’t forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the ‘rat’ in ratification.” And, so he did.
Some states got on board relatively quickly, but it would take a while for other states to make the law officially valid. In fact, women would not “officially” and legally have the right to vote (without impediment from the state) in Alabama (until 1953), Florida (until 1969), Louisiana and Georgia (until 1970), North Carolina (until 1971), South Carolina (until 1973), and Mississippi (until 1984).
If you’re wondering why it took so long, consider the fact that many people in power (i.e., men) saw women as little more than children or property. Additionally, they feared what would happen if the power dynamic shifted and women were not only seen as their equals, but also given equal time to be heard as they voiced their concerns about the country. (Speaking of power dynamics, don’t even get me started on how long it took some states to ratify the 13th Amendment, which didn’t even include the right to vote. Yes, I’m looking at you, Delaware, Kentucky, and Mississippi.)
Protests, revolution, and change: it always comes down to this. It also comes down, once again, to perspective. When leadership does not get on board with the changes their constituents are demanding, progress is slow and painful. When individuals do not do the little bit that they can do, for as long as they can do it, very little to nothing happens. When people do not speak up to those they love who may be on the wrong side of history, we find ourselves at a stalemate.
Just consider the historical examples of today.
Despite the quarantine, the political landscape in China looks similar to 1989 – people are once again protesting. And, while women have the right to vote in the United States, own property, drive, and operate a business (that’s not a brothel, boarding house, and/or saloon), there are still major discrepancies in the lived experiences of American men and women.
But, wait a minute. I’m kind of leaving something (or should I say, someone) out of the discussion. Do you see it? Can you see it? If you can’t, you’re in “good” company, because some people couldn’t see it in 1919 either.
### • ###
How Can We See, Dr. Wiesel? June 3, 2020
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Uncategorized.Tags: Alexandra Stéliski, Bear McCreary, Dr. David Hubel, Dr. Gerald Edelman, Dr. Oliver Sacks, Dr. Torsten Wiesel, eyes, ocular plasticity, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, truth, visual cortex, yoga, yoga philosophy, Yoga Sutra 2.20
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“I stopped explaining myself when I realized other people only understand from their level of perception.”
– Anonymous
“‘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)
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.”]
The beginning of today’s blog post looks like a Saturday blog post. During the Saturday practices, we’ve spent the last year and a half digging deep into the Yoga Sutras, where Patanjali outlines the 8-limb philosophy of Yoga and spends quite a bit of time talking about the mind and how the mind works. The last few weeks (and really most of the quarantine), there has been an emphasis on the “seen” and the “unseen” and how we perceive the world around us (and how the world around us based of those same perceptions). Much of what we’ve been exploring on Saturdays fits in with this week’s theme of how perception connects to ideals.
Remember, what we “see” translates into what we understand (because we can only understand what the mind shows us) and what we understand leads to what we believe, which in turn forms our ideals – and how we live is determined by what we believe. Check to make sure you got that: We live not by what we say we believe (or what we claim are our ideals and values), but by what we actually believe in our hearts. Before, however, we get into the emotional and energetic side of this – before we go deeper into the metaphor of “seeing” – let’s take a step back, and consider how we (literally) visually see.
“The eye and the brain are not like a fax machine, nor are there little people looking at the images coming in.”
– Dr. Torsten Wiesel (b. 06/03/1924), co-winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
“We’re interested in how the brain works, and we work on the part of the brain that has to do with vision. And we…we record from single cells in the brain, and ask how it is you can influence those cells by shining lights and patterns.”
– Dr. David Hubel, summarizing research with Dr. Torsten Wiesel that won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
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. By connecting the brain of an anesthetized cat to electrodes which produced a sound when the receptor cells within the visual cortex were activated, they thought they could map the cat’s neural pathways. Eventually they would not only map the cells associated with the visual cortex (and determine the mechanism by which they work), they would also win the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research on ocular dominance columns. I say “eventually,” however, because they weren’t very successful when they started. Their basic premise was flawed, and it was by virtue of a “lucky” accident that they started making headway (pun intended). This, then, is one of those “aha” or epiphany moments I talk about all the time, where a realization occurs because someone is primed to recognize/understand what they are seeing.
“Science is not an intelligence test. 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
Wiesel and Hubel started off by shining bright lights at the cat, which resulted in no reaction from the electrodes, meaning no reaction from the receptor cells. They then moved on to slides of black dots. The black dots seemed to work – in that the cells fired and the electrodes engaged to produce a sound. However, the cells didn’t seem to fire consistently. When the researchers paid attention to the exact moment the cells fired, they realized the cat’s brain wasn’t reacting to the very pronounced black dot. Instead, the cells deep inside the visual cortex were reacting to the very faint line produced by the edge of the slide as it was moved in and out of the projector.
By experimenting with the placement and angle of lines (of various densities and from various sources), the scientist were able to identify and map “simple cells” and “complex cells.” Simple was the term applied to cells which reacted to lines presented at a specific angle (some cells reacting at one angle, others at another). Complex was the term applied to cells which responded to lines presented at a specific angle and moving in a specific direction. They were also able to determine which cells responded to light versus dark lines, which cells responded to bright versus dim lines, and which responded to lines of different colors and densities. All told, they expand were able to determine that the 125 million rods and cones in each retina sent information to 1 million fibers of optic nerve, which each transmitted signals to a variety of different regions in the brain. Those regions in the brain consisted of over 1 million cables of fibers which transmitted electric signals to additional regions before the signals finally reach the simple and complex cells in the visual cortex (about seven stages beyond the retina). All of this signaling and transmitting happens in the blink of an eye. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
As they went deeper, Weisel and Hubel discovered that if they covered one eye in kittens, preventing stimulation, the now dominate eye took over the areas of the brain (and the corresponding cells) which would normally be activated by the opposite eye. However, the cells of these kittens did not develop in the same way as kittens using both eyes. They did not develop binocular vision, which meant they did not see objects 3-dimensionally within their environment – and this lack of development was irreversible, which lead to a deeper understanding of ocular (and brain) plasticity.
“Innate mechanisms endow the visual system with highly specific connections, but visual experience early in life is necessary for their maintenance and full development. Deprivation experiments demonstrate that neural connections can be modulated by environmental influences during a critical period of postnatal development.”
– Dr. Torsten Wiesel
“We are born with this ability. So, as a newborn, open your eyes, visual system is ready to respond to the outside world.”
– Dr. Torsten Wiesel, explaining significance of research that won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Consider, for a moment, what you (literally and visually) saw as a child. Did you see people from different ethnicities, cultures, religions, and races? Did you see different genders and sexualities? Did you see people of different ages and socioeconomic backgrounds? Did you see people of different heights and weights? Did you see people of different abilities? How did you see these people? And, how did you come to understand these people and how they fit into your world?
These are important questions to ask ourselves, in part, because while science has shown that brains can experience quite a bit of plasticity over a lifetime, change and new neural pathways are only created when we understand what we are seeing/perceiving – and understand that what we are seeing/perceiving is different from what we have seen/perceived/understood before. Additionally, the neural pathways are only hardwired when repeated experiences reinforce the new experience. Ultimately, however, if we don’t have reinforced experiences (or we don’t understand what we are seeing/perceiving) then what is reinforced is our tunnel vision and lack of depth. Confirmation bias, the tendency to interpret new information as confirmation or proof of existing beliefs is tunnel vision and a lack of depth. It can also be a bit of hallucination.
“We see with the eyes, but we see with the brain as well. And seeing with the brain is often called imagination. And we are familiar with the landscapes of our own imagination, our inscapes. We’ve lived with them all our lives. But there are also hallucinations as well, and hallucinations are completely different. They don’t seem to be of our creation. They don’t seem to be under our control. They seem to come from the outside, and to mimic perception.”
– Dr. Oliver Sacks in a TED Talk, discussing Charles Bonnet syndrome (a condition where visually impaired people hallucinate)
“I saw people that had been incarcerated and, you know, the whole issue about the rights of people determining their own fate has always been close to my heart.”
– Dr. Torsten Wiesel, discussing his humanitarian efforts as an academic and scientist
Dr. Torsten Wiesel turns 96 today. His career as a scientist, a researcher, and an academic allowed him to be exposed to people from all over the world. And, it seems, he always kept his eyes open. He served as chair of the Committee of Human Rights of the National Academies of Science in the US, as well as the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies for 10 years. He is a founding member of the Israeli-Palestinian Science Organization, a nongovernmental nonprofit established in 2004 to support collaborative research between scientists in Israel and Palestine. In addition to his many scientific awards and accolades, he was awarded the 2005 David Rall Medal from the Institute of Medicine and the 2009 Grand Cordon Order of the Rising Sun Medal (in Japan).
Please join me today (Wednesday, June 3rd) at 4:30 PM or 7:15 PM for a practice that’s as much about the brain as it is about the body and the heart. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You will need to register for the 7:15 PM class if you have not already done so. Give yourself extra time to log in if you have not upgraded to Zoom 5.0. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below.
Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.
“For me ‘plus tôt’ is a piece that talks about the sort of space and time that you’re in before things happen to you. The sort of calm you can feel when you don’t know that some events are about to change you. It’s the beginning of the trip. It’s the beginning of the inscape.”
– Alexandra Stéliski explaining the inspiration for the first piece on her album Inscape (the song title translates to “earlier”)
(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.)
### I CAN SEE YOU. CAN YOU SEE ME? ###
Noticing Things (on June 2nd) June 2, 2020
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Uncategorized.Tags: Afterwards, destiny, future, inspiration, Jeremy Irons, Jon Lord, Jude the Obscure, meditation, Thomas Hardy, will and determination, yoga
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“And will any say when my bell of quittance is heard in the gloom,
And a crossing breeze cuts a pause in its outrollings,
Till they rise again, as they were a new bell’s boom,
“He hears it not now, but used to notice such things?”
– from the poem “Afterwards” by Thomas Hardy, set to music by Lon Lord
Born today (June 2nd) in 1840, Thomas Hardy was an architect who is remembered as a novelist and a poet who noticed things. I know, I know, writers notice things – that’s part of their job description. But Hardy also noticed what he (and others) noticed. He noticed the art or practice of noticing. Take a moment to notice what you notice. Bring awareness to your awareness.
You can jump over to the April 19th “Noticing Things” post or do that “90-second thing” right here. Either way, pause, just for a moment and notice without the story or the extra dialogue that springs to mind. Or, notice the extra dialogue that inevitably springs to mind.
As I mentioned yesterday, this week is about perception and ideals. Start to notice what you notice, but also notice what you make important. When you notice what sticks in your heart and in your mind, you will start to notice the origins of your words and deeds. You will start to notice the kind of person you are telling the world you are and aim to be.
“‘It is a difficult question, my friends, for any young man– that question I had to grapple with, and which thousands are weighing at the present moment in these uprising times– whether to follow uncritically the track he finds himself in, without considering his aptness for it, or to consider what his aptness or bent may be, and re-shape his course accordingly. I tried to do the latter, and I failed. But I don’t admit that my failure proved my view to be a wrong one, or that my success would have made it a right one; though that’s how we appraise such attempts nowadays–I mean, not by their essential soundness, but by their accidental outcomes.’”
– from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
“‘Remember that the best and greatest among mankind are those who do themselves no worldly good. Every successful man is more or less a selfish man. The devoted fail…’”
– from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Hardy wrote about sex, religion, marriage, class, education, morality, and where all six themes intersected with each other as well as with a person’s individual will as it intersected with universal will (or a single other person’s will), what he called “Immanent Will.” He wrote about being alive, being dead, and about ghosts and spirits. He also wrote, in letters, about race and the impact different cultures could have on society. He noticed things… and made some of those things important.
Please join me today (Tuesday, June 2nd) at 12 Noon or 7:15 PM for a practice of noticing things, virtually. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. Give yourself extra time to log in if you have not upgraded to Zoom 5.0. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below.
Tuesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. (NOTE: This is the playlist titled “04192020 Noticing Things.” We are using the first half of the playlist.)
“‘I had a neat stock of fixed opinions, but they dropped away one by one; and the further I get the less sure I am. I doubt if I have anything more for my present rule of life than following inclinations which do me and nobody else any harm, and actually give pleasure to those I love best. There, gentlemen, since you wanted to know how I was getting on, I have told you. Much good may it do you! I cannot explain further here. I perceive there is something wrong somewhere in our social formulas: what it is can only be discovered by men or women with greater insight than mine–if, indeed, they ever discover it– at least in our time. ‘For who knoweth what is good for man in this life?–and who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?’”
– from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
### “‘Be a good boy, remember; and be kind to animals and birds, and read all you can.’” – TH ###
The Bard of Democracy (and of getting better air in our lungs) May 31, 2020
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Uncategorized.Tags: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Dr. Robert Hudspeth, I Sing The Body Electric, Leaves of Grass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, slavery, The Poet, Walt Whitman, Willa Cather
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“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.”
“A political victory, a rise of rents, the recovery of your sick, or the return of your absent friend, or some other favorable event, raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.”
– excerpts from the essay “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson (b. 05/25/1803)
“I was simmering, simmering, simmering. Emerson brought me to a boil.”
– Walt Whitman (b. 05/31/1819) as quoted in a February 1902 article by John Townsend Trowbridge, published in The Atlantic Monthly
There are times when we have so much churning inside of our minds and our bodies that it can make us physically ill. It churns and churns, until it spills over. Or, another analogy is to think of all of that emotion as water inside of a pot on top of an open flame: it’s “simmering, simmering, simmering…” until it boils over. When we are children, we are taught to be mindful of the hot stove and the pot that sits on top. We watch our elders; placing various ingredients inside, stirring, churning, adjusting the flames – even tasting along the way, sometimes even letting us taste a little. We watch and learn that we can make something delicious, or potent medicine, or poison, or paint and dye. We watch and learn that if we don’t pay close attention we will make a big, unusable, inedible mess. We watch and learn that if we are not careful, we can hurt ourselves or others.
Many of us in the United States of America were raised with the idea that America is the great melting pot – a mixture of so many different cultures and flavors coming together into a single delicacy. The term started gaining traction as a metaphor for the USA after the production of the play The Melting Pot, which premiered in Washington, D. C. in October of 1908. The play had a happy ending. However, years before it was written (way back in the mid-1800’s), writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman had noticed that no one was watching the pot, or the open flame.
Emerson encouraged American scholars, clergy, poets, and every day people to take responsibility for the-pot-on-the-flame that is society. He kicked off the Transcendental movement and inspired people like Whitman, who decided he would be “The Poet” that Emerson said was needed to capture the spirit of America. Born today in 1819, Whitman was the father of “free verse.” He wrote about what he observed and what he perceived. So, he wrote about baseball, and slavery, and leaves of grass, and women’s bodies, and women’s rights, and men’s bodies, and their rights, and his own body, and about all of humanity crossing a single point over decades. He wrote about breathing, and about questioning everything.
6
….
“Do you think matter has cohered together from its diffuse float, and the soil is on the surface, and water runs and vegetation sprouts,
For you only, and not for him and her?
7
A man’s body at auction,
….
Gentlemen look on this wonder,
Whatever the bids of the bidders they cannot be high enough for it,
….
Within there runs blood,
The same old blood! the same red-running blood!
There swells and jets a heart, there all passions, desires, reachings, aspirations,
(Do you think they are not there because they are not express’d in parlors and lecture-rooms?)
This is not only one man, this the father of those who shall be fathers in their turns,
In him the start of populous states and rich republics,
Of him countless immortal lives with countless embodiments and enjoyments.
How do you know who shall come from the offspring of his offspring through the centuries?
(Who might you find you have come from yourself, if you could trace back through the centuries?)
8
A woman’s body at auction,
She too is not only herself, she is the teeming mother of mothers,
She is the bearer of them that shall grow and be mates to the mothers.
Have you ever loved the body of a woman?
Have you ever loved the body of a man?
Do you not see that these are exactly the same to all in all nations and times all over the earth?
If any thing is sacred the human body is sacred,”
– excerpts (abridged) from “I Sing The Body Electric” by Walt Whitman
The first edition of Leaves of Grass (published in 1855) contained twelve unnamed poems in 95 pages. It was a collection intended to fit in someone’s pocket. Right off the bat, Whitman had critics – and those critics included luminaries like Willa Cather (who called him “that dirty old man,” “the poet of the dung hill as well as the mountains,” and compared one of his poems to what would happen “If a joyous elephant should break forth into song….” But, among his fans, was Whitman’s inspiration: Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson’s approval inspired Whitman to not only produce a second edition of Leaves of Grass (published in 1856), but to add poems and increase the number of pages to 384. He did not stop there, however. After “33 y’rs of hackiling at it” (according to a letter Whitman wrote to a friend) – or after “thirty-five or forty years” (as announced in the New York Herald) – Whitman released the sixth, seventh, or ninth edition (depending on how you count) shortly before his death. This 1892 edition is referred to as the “deathbed edition” and contained almost 400 poems.
In a mini biography for Biography, Dr. Robert Hudspeth, Research Professor of English at Claremont Graduate University, said, “Whitman was called ‘The Bard of Democracy’ because all of his poems are based on the notion of a universal brotherhood. He thought that the possibility of America was to achieve a brotherhood that no other culture had yet been able to achieve.” This view of what the country could be was a true melting pot – that is to say, a heterogeneous society becoming a homogeneous society by virtue of all the cultures melting together to form something new. Whitman saw the ideal (American) society as one where everyone recognized the value and humanity of everyone else. What he saw around him, however, was that the-pot-on-the-flame that is society was boiling over. Instead of coming together, melding together, everything (and everyone) in the proverbial pot was churning in a way that overflowed; meaning, some things (and some people) were getting pushed out of the coming together process. The country was becoming homogeneous not because it was melding together, but because it was excluding certain aspects that made it heterogeneous.
Whitman tried, he really did, but ultimately, he could not get enough people to pay attention to what was happening around them. People, even back in the 1800’s, were distracted by his sexuality and the sensual nature of the poems. Writers like Willa Cather referred to his work as “ridiculous” and people in power (including the head of the Department of the Interior, for which he worked) called Leaves of Grass offensive, filthy, and/or sinful (especially to Christians). As harsh as some of that sounds, these are some of the least caustic reviews. (Much worse was actually printed in the press.)
And so here we are… Fast forward and the-pot-on-the-flame that is society has officially boiled over. Walt Whitman knew it was coming and he didn’t just leave us a little advice. He left us a whole manual for moving forward. In the preface to Leaves of Grass he wrote “This is what you shall do….”
“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”
– from the preface to Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman believed in celebrating the body, exploring, questioning, and coming together – and we can do all that in yoga. Please join me for a 65-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Sunday, May 31st) at 2:30 PM. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. PLEASE NOTE: Zoom 5.0 is an upgrade that went into effect yesterday (Saturday, May 30th). If you have not upgraded, you will need to give yourself extra time to log into Zoom.
Today’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.
(NOTE: The YouTube playlist includes recordings of some of the poems, as part of the before/after class mix. These tracks are not included on Spotify.)
“Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs.”
– Walt Whitman writing about the new game, baseball, in the Brooklyn Eagle (07/23/1846)
### “A KELSON OF THE CREATION IS LOVE” (WW) ###
See Change May 30, 2020
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Uncategorized.Tags: asana, perspective, reality, truth, yoga philosophy, Yoga Sutra, Yoga Sutra 2.21
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Yoga Sutra 2.21: tadartha eva dŗśyasyātmā
– The essence or nature of the knowable object or experience exists only to serve the Seer.
Yoga Sutra 2.22: kŗtātham prati naşțamapyanşțam tadanyasādhāraņatvāt
– Once the knowable object has served its purpose, it is destroyed [in the mind/eyes of the Seer], but it continues to exist to all others.
As we explored last week, once you see something you cannot unsee it. Your perspective is forever changed. While this is true of optical (and auditory) illusions – and devastating events like those we are currently witnessing in the Twin Cities – Patanjali focused on how a change in our perspective literally changes our reality.
Remember, in the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali pointed to how suffering is the result of the way we think and the world is also the result of the way we think. He also indicated (in Yoga Sutra 2.18) that all things in the material world serve “two purposes: fulfillment and freedom.” This week’s sutra informs us that once we see the true nature of something, once we are free of the afflicted thoughts surrounding the object, it ceases to exist in the material world. However, it only ceases to exist as that material object to the Seer(s) who see the object’s true nature; to everyone else, the object is still in its material illusion.
Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, May 30th) at 12:00 PM. We will continue exploring the connection between what we perceive and what we understand, while now also considering how what we perceive and understand changes our reality. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. NOTE: At some point today, Zoom is switching over to 5.0. Give yourself plenty of time to upgrade if you have not already made the switch.)
Today’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. (NOTE: These links are for the “05032020 See Clearly” playlist. Do you see what I did there?)
### STAY SAFE, BE WELL ###
A Place to Start… May 30, 2020
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Uncategorized.Tags: Black Lives Matter, Eric Garner, George Floyd, heart, Keedron Bryant, pranayama, trauma, truth, Tyler Merritt, union, yoga
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NOTE: This post has been updated (and upgraded) as a page.
Where to begin?
Like me, you may be reeling from the events of this past week, month, year, decade, lifetime. You might be hopeful about where we go next, cautiously optimistic, unusually pessimistic, or completely numb. You might be feeling a giant ball of emotion which sometimes spills out and sometimes just churns around in your stomach… until the next time it comes out. Or maybe you are safely, and blessedly, removed from it all.
For anyone slightly (or greatly) confused, let me break this down for you: I’m a Black woman from Houston, Texas who teaches yoga in the Twin Cities (Minnesota). This week, George Floyd, a Black man from Houston, Texas was killed here in Minneapolis. (For those of you who have read the last few months of posts, George Floyd grew up in the neighborhood where my grandfather had his bars and he was killed (Monday, May 25, 2020) on a corner where he and I quite possibly crossed paths (on Saturday, September 16, 2017). His death has sparked protest around the country, and some of those protests have turned violent. At least one additional person has died in the last few days during the protests. Millions and millions of dollars have been lost as local and big box businesses have burned to the ground and/or sustained damages that make it unlikely they will re-open. All of this is happening after a racially-charged death earlier this month (in the Saint Paul); after several years of racially-charged police-related deaths in the country; and during a global pandemic that has shut down much of the world over the last few months.
People are hurt, angry, confused, and fed up. People are also hurt, angry, confused, and scared. At least one international correspondent has said she has never seen anything like what’s going on here in all her years of covering protests and civil unrest all over the world. So, the question becomes, “Where do we go from here?”
As friends and family call and text to check on those of us that are here – and as we call and text to check on each – I have struggled with what to say to my students. We are largely impacted in very different ways because of our very different circumstances and backgrounds. However, because this is not our (the USA’s) first racially-charged rodeo, we have to face up to the fact that amidst all the possible aftermaths there are two very real probable outcomes:
(a) nothing-to-very little changes on a systematic level, or
(b) everything (or almost) everything changes.
For the latter to be even a remote possibility we have to heal and move forward together – something that may seem impossible when we are so far apart.
So, back to a variation of that first question: Where do we begin?
First, keep breathing. Like Eric Garner, who was killed in New York in July of 2014, one of the last things George Floyd was able to say was, “I can’t breathe.” Breathing is connected to our autonomic nervous system; it is something that happens to us, and also something we can engage or control. Situations that activate our sympathetic nervous system (making us want to fight, flee, freeze, or collapse) also create a breathe pattern that is not sustainable over long periods of time. Unfortunately, we are living in a time where are sympathetic nervous system is constantly activated – sometimes to the point of being over stimulated – and we develop a habit of bad breathing. Don’t take this next breath for granted. Never take your breath, which is a symbol of your life, for granted. Take the deepest breath you’ve taken all day, every day. Then follow it with another… and another. Make it a habit, a practice, to very deliberately and intentionally breathe. Do it for yourself and those you love. Do it, also, in honor of those who “can’t breathe.”
Second, pay attention to your heart. As I prepare to post this, the officer primarily associated with George Floyd’s death has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. (This could change, but I’m not betting on it.) My understanding is that in the State of Minnesota “third-degree murder” is associated with the term “depraved-heart murder;” that is to say, a murder committed by someone who acts with “depraved indifference to human life.” You can easily find more details on the legal points if you so desire. I, however, suggest considering that concept of a depraved heart.”
The word depraved comes to us from the Latin (roots meaning “down thoroughly” and “crooked, perverse”) by way of Old French and late Middle English. The late Middle English definition is to “pervert the meaning or intention of something.” So, while the modern usage of the word “depraved” is (linguistically) used to indicate something or someone is “morally corrupt or wicked,” the original idea of the word in this context is that this was a murder which perverted the intention of the heart.
Let that sink in for a moment. Now, consider the purpose of your heart. Energetically, even emotionally speaking, our heart(s) are connections and connectors. They are also a symbol of our lives. The operation of the physical heart is autonomic, but it is connected to the way in which we breathe. So, as you spend some time taking that deep breath in, and that deep breath out, focus on your heart. Notice how it feels and notice what it needs to stay connected.
Finally, listen. Below are links to “A Place to Start” playlist. If you click on the first video, it will take you through the others. Or, you could just click randomly on the videos. At some point I may add to this playlist. Listen. Notice how your heart reacts to what you see and hear. Breathe – and do it all over again.
A young man sings from his heart.
Could be my brother…except for that one part.
A question and an answer, maybe.
A song I dreamed of us all singing and then woke up to two angels singing it.
{Sorry Twin, I thought it would be less words.}
A Joyful Practice 