Nov
17
“The more we understand ourselves, others and the differences, the easier our path becomes. Obstacles become play things.” – Russell Smithers (November 2009)
Copyright © 2009 Russell Smithers
May
5
Yogic and Spiritual practice are not so much about the vehicle of practice, as it is about how you drive that vehicle. For example I have been practicing various yogic techniques for years now, and through it I have gained the understanding that each day, each moment is the real practice, when it is lived fully.
How do you make a start? Well you don’t have to go to yoga classes, or Tai Chi, or any other such class, although they will help you, and give you formal practices. They will also provide better understanding of the body and be very beneficial in many ways. However, all said and done, you can start right now, without a formal practice. Start where you are, be easy and understanding with your self, and never give up on your self or what your trying to do. Water given enough time reduces the nature of a rough pebble to a rounded and smooth one in nature, streamlined to fit into it’s role of being a pebble.
What is the practice? Anything you choose, pick say your job, make it your mission to become the master of the job you do. Or maybe pick one thing you do at work, or at home, and master that one small aspect. This will bring great benefits, you will make much progress, others will notice how well you do something, and negative feelings will drop away. Your state of being will become enhanced, just by taking care and attention of what and how you do it, and in the attempted perfection of what you do.
In terms of yoga this is seva (service) and karma (yoga of action). You will confront negative emotions and thoughts, you will be distracted and have to pull yourself back from these distractions. You will be practicing one of the 8 limbs of Patanjalis Yoga, or royal yoga. By continually bringing your self back to this one thing (a single task, the entire working day, whatever you chose) you will be practicing concentration, and in doing so you will be practicing several other limbs as well. The process you will go through in making this thing the focus of your attention, will be to make good progress and preparation for your future; you will become better at what you do, and better prepared yogic or other practices you may want to undertake. Becoming better at what you do, will make you more noticed by others, and more effective, now who wouldn’t want some one who shines out and causes less problems for others?
Over time, obstacles to your health, progress and state of being will fall away, and you will find success more naturally and easily flows with less and less effort. You will become more joyful and calm, and things will bother you less. Focus on the process and the working towards perfection and push other negative thoughts and emotions aside, recognise them, understand them, but don’t dwell on them to the point of being overlay distracted by them. The practice is in recognising, accepting, understanding and MOVING on from that disturbance (emotional, intellectual etc). The learning of your true nature is what we are talking here, you will dispel various non-truths that you hold about things including yourself, and you will flow and become harmonious in how you are as a person.
So, make it your mission to do your best at one thing, be gentle and understanding with yourself, never give up, although you may stumble and take a break. Do these two things (perfect, and never give up on that), and you will make much progress and be thankful for it.
Namaste
Copyright © 2009 Russell Smithers
Feb
7
“Why does anyone practice yoga at home without the aid of a teacher in the morning, day in, day out? Why, no one is telling you to do it, so why do many people practice yoga on there own?“
The new page Why Do I Practice Yoga? has been added which looks at this topic. This post serves to inform the people who receive weekly digests and those using an RSS feed aggregator, I use RSS Bandit which is a good tool for keeping in touch with RSS enabled websites.
Jan
27
Meditation and it’s relevance to the 8 limbs of yoga are important topics to understand. At first we gain an intellectual understanding so we can direct our practices, eventually the practices lead to experiences beyond the intellect. This subject is explored in the page Meditation and 8 Limbs, this is a post.
“Meditation is something I think most people have heard of, however, the meaning of this word isn’t as widely known. Meditation is a spontaneous state, most of the time when people say they are meditating they are not. They are not even concentrating, they are trying to develop their ability to concentrate. This is a very important point for two reasons, one it allows us to see where we are on the yogic path, and the other because it helps us understand what we are trying to achieve.“
Jan
19
I just received the first official newsletter from the K Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute, at the end was the following quote that I wanted to share.
“If you only read books, you only have book knowledge. You have to have practical experience by practicing the yamas and niyamas, and asana in the correct method, with correct breathing and correct gazing, in your daily life. This is how you realize the meaning of yoga—how you realize who you are.”
R. Sharath (taken from the offical www.kpjayi.org January 2009 newsletter)
Jan
17
Why would you want to have more than one copy of the yoga sutras? In the past I have mentioned that I find it beneficial to have more than one copy of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and certainly I have seen other people comment on this. That isn’t to say that I don’t gravitate to 1 version more, it’s just that sometimes a different version has an interesting perspective, better explained or easier to understand for a given sutra than in other translations. There are times two or more versions have excellent translations of a particular sutra, and yet the commentary might explain it in a different way that complements the other version. So it isn’t just that one version can be better, they can both be very good and complimentary.
Let me be specific on this, II.32 lists the 5 niyama’s along with a brief description for each, where as II.40 looks into the first niyama. In TKV Desikachar version he translates the first niyama in II.32 as; “Cleanliness, or keeping of our bodies and our surroundings neat and clean“, where as Sri Swami Satchidananda says; “Purity“. I accept that the niyama sutra (II.32) is only listing what the niyamas are, and in this case II.40 tackles the first niyama in more detail, but even II.40 is more understandable to me in TKV Desikachar version. Desikachar has provided a practical description, one that doesn’t take much thinking about to put into practice, and yet, the second needs more thought and the commentary to be referred to before you can make a start at trying to apply it to your life.
In contrast lets look at I.33, TKV’s version has an excellent description; however, Sri Swami Satchidananda’s version has an ok description but a fantastic commentary. For me, both versions are complementary, together they provide a more complete picture of the sutras than just one does. I have to confess to owning several more than 2 versions of the yoga sutras for similar reasons, to keep things fresh and to gain many perspectives on the one center of wisdom, and also to clarify something that’s not fully understood. There are examples in Satchidanand’s version which are more undstandable to me than TKV’s.
Personally out of the 6 or so versions of the sutras I own, I reference the two discussed here more than the others, having said that I also like Swami Vivekananda translation, it has some good commentaries. So become settled in one version first, and then start exploring a few others, obviously you dont’ want to many, and some you may pass on or sell. But find a few copies that work well together and you will find studying the sutras more interesting and engaging. In fact it’s interesting to note that study of books like these which involves study of one self, is the fourth niyama II.44. This is an example where the description in both books for the fourth niyama in II.32 and II.44, work very well together, and at the same time stand on their own.
I hope this helps explain why it is worth investing in several translations. You might like to look at the general book list to see the versions I currently own, although there are a few missing from this list because I haven’t read them yet.
Copyright © 2009 Russell Smithers
Jan
16
The new page Philosophy, Introduction and Practice (see quote below) uses the yoga sutras as the backdrop to look at yoga in the wider context, and the sutras then provide the starting point for the practical aspects of applying the philosophy. It also explains how to put the philosophy into practical daily use. Some of the concepts near the end will be looked at in more detail in later posts.
“The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is an interesting subject to become acquainted with because yoga is about transforming oneself, and the sutras are of tremendous help with self improvement. Where do you start? Pick up any translation of the yoga sutras and you will see why I pose this question, so I wrote a quick start guide. ” from Philosophy, Introduction and Practice
Dec
17
The effects of practice are felt most over an increasing length of time spent attending to your practice. This is something I can now see for myself, for those of you who follow the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali you will know this is Sutra I.14.
So how then do I see this in my own life, proving for myself the path of yoga to be fruitful?
Firstly I have seen it emerging within me during the years of my yoga practice. Little bit by little bit, obstacles falling by the way side freeing me up. This is a lesson in non-attachment as much as it is about staying with your own yoga practice, see Sutras II.30, II.32 and II.37 (although probably others too).
The other way I see it is when I see how others take their happiness from things external to themselves, and how that all goes horribly wrong for them when their expectations are not met. I am reminded of how more and more I am going within to that which is unchanging, to that which is not dependent on the external world. The longer I practice the bigger the chasm between my reactions (or lack of reaction) to external events in comparison to others. The difference in how external things affect me in comparison to how they effect others becomes a more obvious indicator of progress on the path.
Along the way I have found as Gregor Maehle discusses in his book “Ashtanga Yoga: Practice and Philosophy“, that studying the Yoga Sutras, Upanishads and other yogic/spiritual texts are in balancing a daily asana practice. The two help each other, in fact Gregor says that these are “two sides of the same coin”.
Copyright © 2008 Russell Smithers
Dec
12
The moon exerts a powerful enough force on the earth thereby creating the tides. The human body is around 60% water (varying with individual). It’s easy to see the moon must have an influence on the human body, if you search the internet you will find much written, and even research papers on the subject.
There are many sources on the internet, and various books that say ashtanga is not practiced on new or full moon days, as it’s full moon day today I decided to observe this tradition and spend my time finding an Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois related reference to this. Why? because Pattabhi Jois is Ashtanga yoga, no one else can authorise people to teach. The Yoga Mala doesn’t seem to say anything about it, the official website www.kpjayi.org doesn’t appear to mention moon phases either. Matthew Sweeney in his book “Astanga Yoga As It Is”, has a section on it, but he does not appear to be listed as an authorised teacher.
I have emailed my ashtanga teacher, who is listed on the offical list of teachers. When I have more information, I shall write another post on the subject, if it’s true I shall provide more information about this topic.
Of course, if you know anything, please do let me know your thoughts.
Dec
6
It’s been nearly 5 years since I started Ashtanga yoga, and for most of that time I have had a personal practice at home. It’s been interesting seeing the progress one makes in yoga over the years, and during that time it has become increasingly obvious that both a personal practice and yoga classes are essential. Lets not confuse personal practice with one on one coaching. For the purpose of this article I will treat one on one coaching and the class room as the same, clearly in reality you will gain more in a shorter period of time with one on one coaching. What have I found to be some of the differences?
The teacher will introduce you to the basics, help you progress and show you where your doing something inappropriate, and as you progress they will show you new aspects to practice. Also, a teacher is some one you can discuss yoga related topics with, physically performing Asana is one thing, but there is allot going on, and so discussion can be a big help. This helps the practice stay fresh and you moving along the path.
The personal practice is where you teach yourself and progress on the path. You need more regular Asana sessions than once a week, and even if you had a class everyday, you would be missing allot if you didn’t do a practice solo a few times a week. The personal practice you do at home helps you to be better in class, and as you do better in class you are helped in your personal practice. The two combine to form a positive feedback loop that nurture each other.
When practicing at home on your own, you are afforded a unique opportunity to be the teacher and the student at the same time. In class you are led through, guided, and advised at various times, whereas, at home you have only your self. You need to be motivated enough to get to your mat. You have to direct your practice and understand it for your self, this may sound tricky, but, at home you have no distractions like that of the teacher and other students. When you practice solo you can become more absorbed into your practice, and thats good because it is in the absorption and self guidance that real yoga is experienced. In class you can never get to the essence of yoga, at home, bit by bit, you increase the depth and realism of the yoga experience. Class and teachers are like school, personal practice is like the real world. It is good to learn from people, but, it’s ones personal experience through self directed action that allows you to grow and heal through the practice of yoga.
Going to class and not practicing on your own, well you will make some progress and benfit a little maybe. Practicing at home on your own is like being an adventurer. Would you rather go to a history class, without ever having explored it for yourself? Personally, I wouldn’t. The history class is good, go and learn, but don’t miss out on the adventure, experience, healing and growth that self practice bestows on the ardent adventurer.
Copyright © Russell Smithers 2008
Nov
18
The sutras help illumine ever deeper and more expansive ways to live ones life for greater harmony and clarity. Eventually, leading us out of the labyrinth of illusion. The sutras are holographic in that they tackle self transformation (personal evolution) from several different perspectives, and in that one can always gain something no matter how many times they are read.
Due to the nature of the sutras (holographic/levels/perspectives) a single translation can be enhanced by cross referencing with several others. One translation isn’t better than another and having several different translations of the sutras is useful, I would say essential. I have about 6 different translations, and they each offer something different, together, providing a better understanding of the sutras than one translation alone would provide.
Copyright © Russell Smithers 2008
Sep
26
Being tangled, the opposite to being de -angled of course, is when your thoughts and actions are not 100% your own. Now this at first may sound like an odd thing to happen, but how exactly do you think advertising works. How do the attitudes of parents become encoded in their offspring, and how do you think charismatic people influence their followers, even if sometimes it’s not intentional. Not forgetting of course society and its group behaviours/thoughts/ideas. These are some examples, ideas and thoughts of others becoming entangled in our own outlook and behaviour patterns. I’m sure people with degrees can explain this in much more detail, and much more eloquently than I, but this is enough to get my point across, I hope.
Whilst we are tangled our identity is like a patchwork quilt made up of lots of other quilts. I think we all suffer from this to a greater and lesser extent. In fact in recent years I have de tangled myself considerably from other people’s wants and desires, although no doubt I am still under the influence. Fears and the ego play a large part in all this business and ego is a subject all of its own.
So how do you de-tangle yourself from other identities, those other thoughts and ideas that are not helpful and cloud your own self? Uncover your truth, what it is that you know for sure, not intellectual reasoning, although developing your own reasoning based on your truth is of course a good thing. The best way to find your truth, possibly the only way, is to spend time on your own. Take your attention away from your thoughts, you could try focusing on your breath, or maybe wonder at something in nature, of course there are many, many techniques for this sort of thing. Just look at all the forms of meditation and yogic practices, not mentioning some of the more useful religious ones – whatever they are.
During the process of uncovering your truth, you will eventually gain an understanding of your true identity; this will give you the strength and knowledge to move out of your present life situation and into a new more favourable one. You can then repeat this exercise in a similar way to climbing a ladder one rung at a time. The more you develop your intuition, the more sensitive (in a good way) you are to it, the more clearly you are able to see it.
As you become more attuned to your intuition, which is how your truth is communicated to you, you will find that you will need to let go of old ideas and attachments in the same way you would a hot coal that is put in your hand, why burn yourself when you can let go. This as you may imagine is easier said than done, but it is doable. In fact over time you will naturally do this, this process is a certainty, after all at some point the energy to fuel these non-truths will run out, and then you will rest in your own nature. It’s just a matter of when and how, and how deliberate you want to be about this de-tangling process, which is why I have taken the time to write this article. I think most people would like to do this sooner rather than later.
In order to express this new found intuition and the truth it reveals – which don’t forget, is who YOU are, not what someone else thinks through you – you will develop some skills. In fact just by practicing these skills you will help develop the intuition and find your truth. These skills are, in the words of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, as translated by T K V Desikachar “Right communication (speech, writing, gesture and actions)” (Sutra II.30, page 62) which I feel has it’s source in honesty and therefore truth, and as the right communication is coming from you, that would be your truth. To quote Sri Swami Satchidananda from his translation of the same sutras as T.KV, “ to one established in truthfulness, actions and their results become subservient.” (II.36, page 131) – in other words, the more you become intuitive and understand who you are (your truth – not someone else’s) the easier you will find it to be yourself and not be troubled by others.
Of all the sutras Sri Swami Satchidananda says “Whether you are interested in reaching samadhi [enlightenment, nirvana, freedom from bondage] or plan to ignore Yoga entirely, I would advise you to remember at least this one Sutra. It will be very helpful to you in keeping a peaceful mind in your daily life.“ (on page 54, in his commentary on Sutra I.33). His translation of I.33 is “By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains it’s undisturbed calmness.”, I recommend you read his commentary on this sutra.
I find comparing different translations of the Yoga sutras most beneficial and helpful, therefore I feel compelled to include T.K.V. Desikachar’s translation of I.33 “In daily life, we see around us people who are happier than we are and people who are less happy. Some may be doing things worthy of praise and others may be causing problems. Whatever be our usual attitudes towards such people and their actions, if we can be happy for those who are happier than ourselves, compassionate towards those who are not as happy, pleased with those whose activities are praiseworthy and remain undisturbed by the errors of others, our mind will be very tranquil.”
It is important to mention that both translations mentioned also contain a commentary on the sutras, so you will get for each sutra the Sanskrit, the English meanings for each Sanskrit word, the translated sutra and the commentary which explains the sutra.
You will probably find both versions very handy to have, but the Sri Swami Satchidananda version has more descriptive commentary. Not forgetting you might want to look at the other translations and works based on the Yoga sutras. The yoga sutras are probably one of the single most central of pieces writing in the yogic tradition, and there is much written about them.
Copyright © 2008 Russell Smithers
Mar
31
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it“, Albert Einstein
Well it made me think, and I agree. What do you think?
Mar
4
The following article is pretty good at describing the differences between Ashtanga and Iyenger; however, it misses a couple of aspects about Ashtanga.
Those who practice Ashtanga know that it builds up heat in the body and muscles, this helps a yogi get deeper into postures;
“Astanga yoga differs from all other schools in that you deliberately heat the body first. The theory is that warmed muscles can stretch further and with more ease.” from www.whatreallyworks.co.uk/start/articles.asp?article_ID=90
Another aspect of Ashtanga is that the postures are arranged in sequences that help open the body up during a single practice. This means you will safety and easily stretch further into a postures (like a forward bend) as you progress during a session.
Jan
8
The other day I spoke about the Untamed Mind and discussed how deep understanding is different to intellectual understanding. I spoke about knowledge only being true knowledge, when you know something from deep within after a flash of understanding. That knowledge gained for myself has taken a few years, but certainly will help keep me on my journey, after all;
“It’s good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters in the end.” (Ursula K. LeGuin)
I think it was David Swenson (Ashtanga yogi) who said that he knows yoga more by it’s absence, today I had a deep understanding of this, although intellectually I could see how this may be true, it wasn’t until this morning that I understood it fully for myself. This understanding probably came about after a few weeks of not practicing over Christmas, then 5 days back into my personal practice, suddenly I understand it for myself.
So from my perspective the important in life are things that can be understood at the deep level, the knowing without doubt, not because I have a big ego, but knowledge beyond ego that anyone can prove for themselves, if they take the time with genuine intention to tread the path.
Namaste
Copyright © 2008 Russell Smithers
Jan
3
This piece is about the mind and thoughts. It is about how we perceive, why not switching of our analytical mind when it’s not needed deceives us, and how it is possible to become in control by becoming an observer.
Some things can only point you in the right direction, like a menu, the menu is not the food but points to it. So please forgive me if some if this article seems repetitive, it maybe, but only because saying something differently helps moves one in the right direction, seeing something from multiple perspectives gives a rounder picture.
There are times when you have a flash of insight, maybe something you never understood becomes understood in a moment, a flash. It becomes understood at all levels in you, a feeling level, body level and thinking level, in moment understanding of something happens in all places in you together, at once and without any doubt. Essentially you know, and you know you know without any doubt, there is no need to be uncertain, because you know, the inspiration and flash of knowledge was so complete you just know it for your self.
This flash of understanding can also occur after intellectual understanding has accumulated and seems reasonable to accept; however, thinking/intellectual knowledge is like an island, only part of the world knows, part of you knows but not all. Thinking knowledge is not really complete until every part of you knows it. You can be reading things, thinking, logically deducing things, but the learning isn’t really complete until a flash of inspiration that fills in the missing areas of your being with the meaning of the intellectual knowledge arises in you. These flashes of inspiration rage in size and impact.
Yoga practice, that is personal and regular, seems to promote these flashes of inspiration, many a time I have had a phrase spring to thought after such a flash of inspiration. Or at least I seem most creative in writing terms after a yoga practice.
Today I had this pop into my mind with the flash of understanding; “As our untamed mind, so is our false reality. Mind Empty of thoughts perceives 100%.”. For a long time now I have been able to see how when the mind is empty of thoughts, switched off, not running wild is a good thing. It’s calming, peaceful and allows observation without misperception. It allows us to act from a deeper level.
I have understood for a while the benefits of not thinking when analytical muscle is not required, but today I realised the true impact, meaning and importance of training the mind so you control it, so most of the time you do not think but just are. So why and how does the untamed mind cause false perception. Well as you can imagine this isn’t easy to explain. The yoga sutras, philosophy and science explain this very well, but it’s only intellectual until the deeper understanding occurs, as it has with me.
Imagine your arm, you only use it when you need it, you only walk when you need to walk, when your sitting there is no need to walk. Well the mind is like your arm or leg, it is a tool, a function of the body, but it only needs to be used for certain things at certain times. The problem many people have, let’s say most, is that the mind is running wild like untamed horses. The untamed horses distract and get in the way of the real moment or situation. While the horses are running around and distracting us, we fail to notice many things. As I have proved for myself, it is possible to do many things with no thought; years of meditation have taught me that. And so once a person has experienced the ability to act without thought, and be in a busy place without thought, one understands how being in the world doesn’t need the constant flux and flow of idle thoughts like circus acts, distracting us moment by moment.
The mind and its thoughts need to become under our conscience control, this way we can learn to turn on or off the brain muscle, on and off the analytical, on and off the thoughts, at least to become aware of our thoughts without unconscious involvement, without our actions being caused by an untamed, unchecked thought. Reaction is when a situation prompts a thought that prompts action without the mind seeing this thought, and discerning if it’s appropriate.
To quote David Swenson an Ashtanga Yoga teacher; “The fruits of Yoga mature with practice and care”, and like K. Pattabhi Jois an Ashtanga Guru says; “99% Practice 1% Theory”. Lets also quote Aristotle; “Practice is the best of all instructions.”
How did I come to have this understanding? A combination of regular personal yoga practice including regular mediation, yoga lessons, reading the yoga sutras. Over time the garden of me cultivated in this way promotes understanding at a deeper level, allows me to develop the skill of not thinking, and improves my ability to not think and be in control. In essences to transform myself from conscience to unconscious, although I admit I still have a long way to go.
I hope I have been able to share some of my insight, although hopefully you will appreciate that these words only uncover a truth at shallow level, and are not the total understanding that I have talked about.
Copyright © 2008 Russell Smithers
