Commentary 2/28/23. Suggested use: start by calling up the bhavana of dawn, morning, things coming to light. Smell it, remember it, feel it, taste it. Then do your āsana, knowing your āsana is intended to prep the body for the day (whatever that means) and the breath for mantra. Then repeat the mantra, slowly building the bits, until you can do the whole thing without me.
This will probably take you a couple of weeks (at least). It might make for a lovely 90 day practice (oh, the gifts you’d glean). But until spring equinox, when we begin a new sadhana, work with this. If you like, record yourself and send me the recording for individualized feedback and help (I know that is scary. But it’s powerful.)
Notice: how having ‘this is my practice’ should never replace your life or take away from other things you want to do or like. But having and doing ‘this is my practice’ for a set period of time catalyzes all sorts of yoga in you (insight, clarity, authenticity. As we’ll see in Sūtras cohort: purification, self awareness and responsibility, and trust.)
Start with a recitation of the invocation chants to Ganapati and Saraswati before the Suryanamaskara Mantra. Then move into shoulder moving āsana before finishing with. seated pranayama.
We will meet live Monday mornings at 7 am CST (zoom link here) February 13, 20, & 27 to learn the Suryanamaskara Mantra from the Ṛg Veda. I will incorporate a wee bit of movement synchronized to the breath. The idea is this can support a morning sādhana for you. We can regard surya namaskara as a greeting of the day as opposed to a burpee. The context changes. Particular moves are individualized. And you’ll learn something of how ancient is also alive.
I will record the sessions here, and I will provide audio/text resources for the chant.
Monday Feb 27
okay. You now have all the tools: take them and apply. Basic bones of it: yoga is a practice of waking up. One of the technologies is morning practice - but that is infinitely adaptable and simply a prompt to reflect on your life. Another technology is mantra, which I think is many things but most importantly
learning. Understanding how to learn and your habits as a learner.
prayer, sacred language, meaning makers. Exploring how these can be a help, what they evoke and provoke, and your own mythologies.
PDF full suryanamaskara mantra (the double svarita or two vertical lines over a final letter turn into a box in sharing the document. I don’t know why or what to do about that right now other than print out, hand draw, and scan. But this will do for now.)
Monday Feb 20
I think that the underlying truth of ‘sun salutations’ comes down to a question of sādhana: the taking of responsibility to do yoga. It has nothing to do with the specific forms - except as those forms are adapted to the student and the moment. The most important thing is a decision to do SOMETHING and doing it. To move past forms or idealization and into action, into presence. Something in our recent conversation sent me looking for this old video (be kind: I mimicked a teacher in his pronunciation of ‘āsana’ for several years, and this was way back in the early days of making content). If it’s helpful:
how to use the audio: having your words in hand, play the following audio while you sing along, karaoke style. I repeat everything 3x, meaning you can listen/focus once and repeat with me twice. Get a little bit of the hang of the bits, then move on to full lines, then the full lines 1-3. I repeat 10 times in the final recording: maintain focus…try to really pay attention so that each repetition is a little more on point (not a little more sing songy and riffey but actually on point). You can do this all in one go or a few days building. But I pinky swear promise if you go through these audio several times, the mantra will begin to do it’s deep subtle work on you. It’ll pop up in the day. It’ll be in there.
And that is poetry.
Monday Feb 13
The above link takes you to a 30 minute video on morning practice (part of the art of self care program, which you can see in full over to the left). CONTEXT: I recognize not everyone has the luxury of morning self-care. But recognizing the power of it and what has been taken from us, and ways that we can personally reclaim some of that power, is important. Second, I mention flushing and drinking a liter of water. Again: context. I was practicing and teaching 8-10 hours of strong āsana everyday. I needed that much water. These days, it’s one mug. This video is just an FYI. For those who’ve seen it to recall. For those who haven’t, optional info.