December 28, 2005
BEST OF DL 2005 - A Nomination from Yogini Jeannine
HP Yogini and DL Fan, Jeannine
8100 ft. above sea level in CO
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Dear Coach,
Although many of your entries this past year have *stuck to me* in one way or another, I think that I come back the most often to "Yogic Inversions and the Three Realities of the Genuine Human Being" from 9/12/05.
I happen to really like inversions due to my gymnastics background, and I've come to realize in the past few years that *amazingly* not everyone watched TV as a child in a headstand. My least favorite, in fact, is the inversion that many of my students automatically practice when given a choice -- shoulderstand/sarvangasana. Now that I am FINALLY finished lactating after nearly a decade, I am hoping to find shoulderstand more comfortable to practice myself. I won't go as far to say that I've given myself black eyes or anything, but it just hasn't been pretty especially with regard to breathing! :o)
The whole wall thing is what really struck me. I have definitely started moving away from encouraging students to use the wall for headstand because I think you are so right and profound in noting that "The 'teacher' of union, by de-couraging their students to use walls and props for inversions is creating addicts to external support and separation!" Holy sh*t, I was a yoga teacher enabler!!!
It's also really clear to me how after teaching yoga to and observing quite a few children including my own, how much more willing (many) children are to go upside-down than adults. I believe it's because their attachments on so many levels (physical, emotional, spiritual) have not rooted as deeply as many of us adults have allowed. "Thus, a headstand for instance, is a symbol of and a creative switch that says we are ready to have our entire lives turned upside down and See Clearly without Attachment such a different Reality. Headstand says that we are ready to have our children, parents, house, job, physical body, etc, ripped out from beneath our feet."
I really appreciate the opportunity this entry gave me to look at inversions and the teaching of them in a different way, just as practicing them can allow us to view the world from an angle that we are not necessarily accustomed to seeing.
I bow to you -- and thanks!
Yogini Jeannine
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Most Noble Yogini Jeannine,
head bowed in the Upward Flowing Dharma...
this morning's DL is devoted to your Practice and
Panache to share your Truth...
love and sweat well, well away from the Walls...
cuz in the Bardo,
there ain't no walls to hold you!
coach ilg