our-yoga

Warning: This post contains descriptions of dead animals being chewed to bits and then burnt. It also contains what is commonly referred to in the blogosphere as food porn. If you are offended by any of these things, read no further!

But things took an interesting turn on Sunday morning. For brunch, we went to this hole-in-a-wall Vietnamese place in a more... industrial part of town. I took one look at the menu, and knew that this was going to be difficult: There were no tofu or other meat-substitute dishes listed on the menu. Still, I decided to try my best to find something that does not have meat in it (we needed to be somewhere immediately after brunch, and I did not think it appropriate to make an issue by alerting my friends to the apparent absence of vegetarian options on the menu). Under "Appetizers", I saw something called "Spring Rolls". It doesn't say anything about the presence of meat in it, so I ordered it. Then under "Noodle", I saw something called "Noodles with Egg Rolls" which, again, does not say anything about the presence of meat. I asked the server about whether there was meat in any of these two items. In halting English, she told me what was in them. I couldn't really understand what she was saying, but whatever she said did not sound like any kind of meat. Just to be sure, I asked her if there was shrimp (some Asians do not consider shrimp to be meat) in any of these dishes, and she said no.

Having thus ascertained the absence of meat (and shrimp) from what I took to be a reliable authority, I went ahead and ordered the spring rolls and the noodles with egg rolls. A few minutes later, the noodle dish came. I bit into the spring roll, and felt this stringy, slightly rubbery texture which had to be pork. Ha! Do Vietnamese people not consider pork to be meat (or is there some place on this earth where pigs grow on trees?...). But I ate it anyway, because not to do so would involve either eating nothing of the dish or eating only the noodles, and I really did not feel like loading myself with only empty calories in the morning.

A couple of minutes later, the spring rolls came. They looked something like this:

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"The world does not disclose its non-beings to one who has not first posited them as possibilities."

Jean-Paul Sartre

I haven't been posting very much lately, probably not because there is nothing to blog about. The truth is, I can probably find something blog-worthy every single day if I want to. But between teaching classes and reading and thinking and doing a whole bunch of other things, I just haven't been able to find the extra desire to set down on this space whatever fleeting observations about my inner and outer life that occur to me from time to time.

Or, to look at things from a different angle, we could say that, from the point of view of a regular visitor to this blog, somebody who "comes" here regularly in the expectation of finding a new blog post, the absence of a new blog post fixes this blog in its evanescence. This absence haunts this blog, so that the visitor, on scanning the blog and finding no new posts, finds at the same time that the rest of the blog (the older posts, for instance) disappears and decomposes successively into the background. And it is against this ground-- this "soil", if you will--of the decomposition of the rest of the blog that the absence of a new blog post raises itself as an absence, as a nothingness, as a non-being.

But I am definitely being very grandiose and self-important here. For one thing, I am presupposing the non-non-being of regular visitors/readers of this blog who actually come here regularly expecting to find new posts. And it is only in the worlds of these visitors--if any such exist--that the non-being of a new blog post is disclosed as something in the world. Or, as Sartre would put it, the world only discloses the non-being of a new blog post to those who have first posited such non-being as a possibility.

I suppose I should switch gears now, and try to move away from my existentialist musings, and talk about something else. Although, come to think of it, to talk about something else is to not talk about some other thing which could otherwise have been talked about. Thus, nothingness pervades and is the necessary condition for any kind of choice; in this case, the choice of choosing to talk about one particular thing rather than another.

Hmm. So we see that existentialism isn't a mood that one can just snap out of. Ah well. So be it. But let me just say a few things about the state of my Ashtanga practice the last couple of days. Yesterday being Thanksgiving, I decided to, in the spirit of the holidays, gift myself the gift of a new posture--Karandavasana. Well, actually, Karandavasana isn't exactly a new posture for me. But I haven't being practicing this posture for about a year now, ever since I moved here to Idaho and decided to rebuild/reset my practice in a new place. But yesterday morning, as I was getting into Pincha Mayurasana, this thought suddenly hit me, "Hey, you haven't tried Karandavasana for quite a while now. Why don't you give it a shot, and see if you are still impotent?"

I listened to that thought, and gave Karandavasana a shot for the first time in a long time. Well, it turns out that I am still impotent; still can't get it back up: I could get into Pincha and get my legs into lotus while in Pincha. And then when I tried to lower down, I kind of wobbled a little, and had to bring the crown of my head onto the mat to prevent myself from falling over, before slowly (or not-so-slowly) lowering my lotus to my forearms. I held the lotus there on my arms for five breaths, but coming back up was, well, not coming.

I tried the pose again this morning, with the same outcome. Coming back up, still not coming.

I haven't been thinking too much about this whole thing--well, then again, maybe I have, if this is the first thing I am actually blogging about after not having blogged for, like, forever. But I was reading Sartre last night (yes, I know, I spent Thanksgiving reading Being and Nothingness...) when it suddenly occurred to me that the world would not have disclosed the non-being of coming-back-up-in-Karandavasana to me if I had not first posited such a (non)being as a possibility. I mean, think about it: Millions of people in this world who cannot do Karandavasana (and to whom it would probably never occur to even attempt to put their bodies into such a funny position) wake up every morning, and do whatever it is that they do in the morning, and then get through the rest of their day, all without the possibility of the non-being of Karandavasana ever being disclosed in their worlds. Why is this so? Well, because it has never occurred to them to question, "Can my body do Karandavasana?"

All of which proves the truth of the age-old adage, "What answers you get depends on what questions you ask the universe." Gosh, am I sounding wise, or what? Well, good people, I think I'll sign off here for now. Happy Black Friday. May your Friday be as black as the espresso I just drank :-)                  

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I just stumbled upon this very beautiful video of Sharath demo-ing Karandavasana on the stage at KPJAYI in Mysore. At the same time, at the other corner of the stage, his son performs a never-before-seen asana with some mysterious looking string (anybody know what the name of that asana is?).

Even though I am not working on Karandavasana right now, I suspect that many of you out there are, and will probably benefit from watching this wonderful video; besides, as of right now, the video has only 45 views! This is an injustice that needs to be righted, and you can play a part :-)

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Practice this morning was very interesting. I made three Karandavasana attempts:

1st attempt: Total crash and burn. Got up into Pincha. As I was trying to maneuver my legs into lotus, I lost my balance and fell over.

2nd attempt: Got into Pincha, then got into lotus in Pincha. Descended too quickly, missed the duck landing, and landed in a seated padmasana.

3rd attempt: Got into Pincha, got into lotus in Pincha, landed the duck, and held the posture for 5 breaths. Still no sign of coming back up though. Will keep working on it.

Oh well. But this is not all. In the finishing sequence, I forgot to do Sirsasana, and didn't even realize it until I was in the shower after practice. While showering, I was mentally going over my practice and the sensations that the practice had imprinted on my mind/body. And that was when I realized that my body does not remember having been set on its head this particular morning. But it was too late to rectify that; I had a meeting on campus to attend, and couldn't very well redo the practice.

Today is December 12th, 2012. Or 12.12.12. Which is supposed to be a very significant day, according to Jyotish astrology. I have no idea what the significance is, as I know nothing about Jyotish astrology. I could probably google something and reproduce it here and look like I know what I'm talking about, but why? In any case, it may very well be that with stuff like this, it is best to go through without knowing the significance.     

But here's something I know something about. The great Indian sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar passed away yesterday in a hospital near his home in Southern California at the age of 92. Here's the NYT obituary, if you'd like to take a look at it.

Mr Shankar's music has a special place in my life and yoga practice. Back when I first started practicing yoga, I would do my own Iyengar-inspired practice everyday to his Chants of India. I don't have any particular reason for choosing to practice to this album. I just came across it in a records store one day, listened to a few tracks, found them very absorbing, and suddenly thought, "Hey, this sounds like good music to do yoga to!" This was, of course, in the days before I discovered Ashtanga and the joy of silent Mysore-style practice. To this day, I still vividly remember holding headstand to the sound of Sahanah Vavatu. Actually, it's worth a listen here:

So, to sum up: On 12.12.12, the world woke up to a Ravi-Shankar-less universe, and an Ashtangi in some corner of the same world did a headstandless Karandavasanally-impotent practice. What do all this portent?   

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Continuing with my recent theme of getting it up in Karandavasana, I just read a great post on Paul Gold's blog about coming back up in this posture. There is a great video of him doing this posture in the post; be sure to check it out. Here's what Paul has to say about coming back up in Karandavasana:

"First of all, it’s only men that are required to lift back up. There are some women that have the strength to do it, but it’s not a pre-requisite for women to learn subsequent asanas. Lifting back up is a real hurdle for men making their way through this series. [Nobel: Tell me about it...] It’s not uncommon for gents to have to spend a little time sorting out this pose before advancing."

This is really interesting. I did not know lifting back up is not a requirement for women in order to "pass" Karandavasana. I wonder what the rationale behind this is: Is it simply because women tend, on the whole, to have less upper body strength than men? Or is it because women simply have nothing to get up? :-)
  
Anyway... I probably should quit making double entendres about Karandavasana, and just, well, get it up already (couldn't resist making that last one either...). Paul continues his post by elaborating on the technical aspects of coming back up in much detail:   

It’s important to have strong bandhas and good breathing in this asana. In order to get the legs into lotus and lower down, one has to have a good strong waist to maintain balance, especially bringing the second leg into lotus.

The big problem when lifting back up is there’s a tendency to let the hips and seat sag and drop once one’s lowered onto the arms. It’s important to resist gravity and try to keep the hips and seat as elevated as possible. With each of the 5 breaths taken on the arms, fatigue increases and the hips and seat will want to drop. If the hips and seat get too low, it’s very hard to lift back up.

When it’s time to lift up, engage the bandhas strongly, take the weight forward and press the forearms straight down into the floor while pulling the hips and seat upward. All of this occurs on a long, full inhale. There is also a swinging movement bringing the knees up towards the ceiling as well, but the hips and seat lead the knees...

Don’t worry about ‘style points’ at first. It’s the mechanics of using the breath, engaging the bandhas and taking the weight forward and upwards that’s most important. Try not to get discouraged if it takes some time. Keep practicing and it will come."

Three things are key here: Bandhas, breath, and resisting gravity. I'll work on this. Well, I hope at least some of you out there will find all this useful as much as I do. More later. 

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I'm now sitting in front of my computer, snacking on a bunch of white chocolate slabs with almonds embedded in them. I seem to be snacking more on things these days, and possibly even developing the beginnings of a sweet tooth (I've never really been a sucker for sweet stuff...). Is putting my leg behind my head really making me more hungry? I sure hope so...

I also did a little idle internet surfing a couple of minutes ago. I googled "health benefits of almonds for men", and found this article that claims that eating almonds raises testosterone levels for men over 30. I am not sure how reliable this information is, and in any case, I am not particularly concerned about my testosterone levels. But apparently, there must be lots of men out there in their 30s (or beyond) who are really concerned about their testosterone levels; so much so, that entire websites (and with them, probably an entire industry) have sprung up to address the concerns of these men. Well, nothing to be embarrassed about; after all, the ability to perform in certain particular areas of life is a big part of many mens' lives, and is not something to be taken lightly.

But all this makes me curious about something else: If eating almonds can really raise testosterone levels and help a man to get it up, so to speak, could it also help this man to get it up in Karandavasana? In other words, could almonds be the Viagra that cures Karandavasana impotence?

As you already know, the answer is probably no. When all is said and done, the only way to get it up in Karandavasana is to keep working on getting it up. But I just can't help musing and pondering anyway. In any case, it is in this sense that Karandavasana impotence is a much more forgiving form of impotence than regular impotence; as you know, no amount of working on getting it up will help with regard to regular impotence. Almonds might, though...    

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First, a couple of things on this morning's practice. I tried following the advice of a few of the commenters on my previous post about Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana, especially the part about strongly activating the bandhas and really powering the standing leg. It's made the pose a lot more stable, especially on the first side, which, for whatever reason, has always been my weaker side (maybe my left leg is less strong than my right?). There was still a bit of wobbling, but the whole pose just feels more grounded and stable. Thank you commenters for your valuable advice. This is why it is nice to have a yoga blog :-) 

There's also some good development on the Karandavasana front. This morning, I was able to control my descent more; instead of just swinging/crashing down from lotus in pincha, and hoping that my knees will somehow "catch" and land on my upper arms/elbows, I was able to use my bandhas to slow the descent and kind of curl the body a little into a ball-shape. Because of this, the landing on the upper arms felt more stable and grounded. Still can't get back up to pincha, though. Will keep working on this.

Most of my day so far has been spent preparing for my move to Idaho; specifically, I had to take care of a bunch of immigration paperwork to transfer my employment visa from my present workplace to my new workplace. Not a terribly difficult process in and of itself, as I've already done this a few times in the past. But it's nevertheless a little... depressing, as it reminds me of how transient my status in this country is at present, even though I've been here for more than 10 years, first as a student, then as a college professor. This is why, politically, I have always been a supporter of comprehensive immigration reform; even if it does not benefit me immediately, it is still a good thing, especially if it will help many many people, especially the so-called "dreamers", who have been here for a long time and who have known no other home.

I'm not sure if this blog is a good place to be talking about immigration matters, especially as it relates to my employment, since I do try to maintain a separation of blog and work. But aside from the political dimensions of the issue, I have always found the notion of immigration law to be a very mysterious notion. I mean, think about it this way: Billions of people live in this world. Many of these people live their entire lives within a hundred or so miles of the place in which they were born, and are able to flourish and live relatively good lives in this way. It has never even entered the heads of these people to want to move anywhere far from where they were born. At the risk of oversimplifying things a little, let's call these people "rooters", because their lives are "rooted" in the geographical vicinity of the place in which they were born.  

Others, however, are not so fortunate, in a sense. For whatever reason (political, economic, cultural, etc.), they find themselves having to move at some point in their lives to a place far from where they were born, and having to make a life for themselves there. Again at the risk of oversimplifying things, let's call these people "floaters."

Some people in this world are rooters, some are floaters. Whether you are a floater or a rooter is no indication of what kind of person you are. Among rooters, there are morally upstanding people who live productive lives and contribute to their communities, but there are also morally evil people who commit crimes and inflict all manner of evil on themselves and others. Same goes for floaters: There are upstanding floaters and morally evil floaters. So the only inherent difference between floaters and rooters is that, well, one group chooses to "root" while the other chooses to "float". And since time immemorial, there have been floaters and rooters in every corner of the globe. No matter how politicians and those in power choose to divide up the living space of this world into countries and political systems, the fact remains that those who root will root, and those who float will float. 

And this is where I find the whole notion of immigration law mysterious. Much of immigration law--at least the way it works right now in this country, I can't speak for other countries around the world--seems to be designed to send a message to certain floaters that they are not welcome to live in a certain place, even if they are people who have committed no crime and are living productive contributive lives. The message seems to be this: It is not enough that you are living productive lives and are not a negative influence in your community. You also need to have these things called "papers" in order to qualify as a legal presence in this land. If you don't have "papers", you will be forcibly ejected from this land, no matter how productive a person you are. And since you did not have papers when you first came to this land, we are not going to give you papers now, no matter how productive you are as an inhabitant of this land.

I hope you see the catch-22 here. Why should it be the business of any government or body of laws to tell somebody that they can't live and make a life in a particular place, if they are not living in a way that is destructive or parasitical on others? Especially in a place like this country, where unless you happen to be Native American, you most certainly have an ancestor who was a floater? It's hard not to come to the conclusion that there is a certain double standard going on here, that the immigration laws of this land are basically saying that some people are welcome because they are descended from floaters who came here earlier, while others are not because, well, they didn't come early enough.

Anyway... why am I rambling about floaters and rooters on a yoga blog? I probably don't have any good reason to be rambling about all this; but then again, does one need a good reason to ramble on one's own blog? ;-) But in any case, I thank you for reading, if you made it this far.            

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What does an Ashtangi (more specifically, this Ashtangi) do on moon days? Watch asana videos, of course! Particularly videos of asanas that he is working on at the moment. Following Erica's suggestion in a comment she left on my recent Karandavasana impotence post, I decided to check out the following video of Sarah Dee practicing Karandavasana under the expert guidance of Lexter the cat. David (Garrigues) and Joy are the owners/parents of Lexter; I imagine Lexter must have absorbed much yogic wisdom from them, and decided to impart it to Sarah. Hmm... maybe I should also volunteer to cat-sit Lexter the next time David and Joy go to India? ;-)

Anyway, here's the video. Enjoy, and happy moon day!

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Ha, I can't believe I'm actually stooping to using such provocative titles to attract readers; but as they say, it happens to the best of us (not to say I'm the best blogger or anything; just a manner of speaking...).

Anyway, during this morning's practice, I finally returned to working on Karandavasana after more than a year of not working on this posture. I had been quite successful in getting my feet into lotus in headstand over the last week, so I thought: Why not give Karandavasana a shot?

Well, I ended up giving the pose four shots this morning. Here's how the four tries went:

First try: Got into Pincha Mayurasana, got the feet into lotus, tried to land the knees on the elbows, but ended on landing in a seated padmasana.

Second try: Got into Pincha, and lost balance before I could even get my feet in lotus.

Third try: Same as second try.

At this point, a voice inside me was saying: Look, if you can't even get into lotus in the last two tries, you should probably call this a day. Your muscles are probably fatigued. Maybe try again tomorrow?

But the stubborn side of me prevailed over this voice, and I decided to give the pose one last try. So:

Fourth try: Got into Pincha, got the feet into lotus, and then... voila, my knees landed on my elbows with a little spring! At least, it kind of felt like my hips (or whatever) had springs in them, because when the knees touched the elbows, they felt like they were going to bounce off my elblows. But they stayed, and I landed the duck.

But the hard part was getting the lotus back up into the air from the elbows. It's a very strange feeling: It just feels like there is simply no "ground" to push off from. I don't know if this makes any sense, but in arm balances like Bakasana and Bhujapidasana (as well as in jumpbacks) there's always the ground to push off from, and you know that if you are going to get anywhere, you need to push away from the ground. Of course, anybody who has ever worked on arm balances would know that the whole picture is a bit more complicated than that, but nobody would disagree that pushing off the ground is the starting point of the arm balance. But with Karandavasana, at least for me, it feels like there's just nothing to push off from. So after staying with my knees on my elbows for five breaths, I simply lowered myself down to a seated lotus.

So I, ahem, couldn't get it up in Karandavasana today. I wonder if there is a Viagra for Karandavasana on the market yet?

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Did second only up to Karandavasana today. Almost did primary only (I know, the traditional thing to do is to do primary only on Fridays, but I'm not traditional in this way; I do primary only on Saturdays, and rest on Sundays). But I almost did primary only today, because my lower back was feeling really sore for most of yesterday; I was half expecting to have to slowly crawl out of bed this morning because of the soreness; backs, as most of us know, have a tendency to really stiffen during the night when they are sore during the day. Thankfully, this did not happen, and I was able to walk to the bathroom this morning like a, well, normal human being.

But why was my back sore? During yesterday's practice, I tried a little too zealously to get my leg behind my head in Ekapada and Dwipada Sirsasanas, despite pretty obvious signs that my hip wasn't quite open enough: A combination of bad old ego and inattention. For most of yesterday, I felt the soreness when I got up after sitting for more than half an hour; it wasn't quite as bad as when I messed up my SI joint last year, but it was definitely something noticeable. In any case, I was concerned that this would mean that I will have to go back to doing primary only for months... isn't it funny, the kinds of things Ashtangis worry about? I suspect that any other normal human being would be worrying about whether he or she would be able to even walk...

So I was faced with an interesting dilemma during practice this morning. As I got out of Ardha Badha Padmottanasana, I had to decide whether to go into Utkatasana (thus doing primary only) or into Pasasana and with it, second series. I decided that my back wasn't that sore, and that I would probably survive second (perhaps ego played a part in this decision too; how big its part was, I cannot be entirely sure).

Well, I seem to be right so far, knock on wood. It's slightly after two in the afternoon now. My back is still somewhat sore, but not nearly as sore as yesterday. Hopefully, this means it is healing. This is probably because I paid a lot more attention during practice today, especially in the postures that are more likely to stress the SI joint (Pasasana, the leg-behind-head postures, etc.).

Back soreness and SI joint anxieties not withstanding, there are a couple of interesting things to note about this morning's practice:

(1) Going into Kapotasana, I tried Frank's suggestion to take the prayer position higher: elbows together in front of the sternum, instead of prayer hands in front of the sternum. The idea, Frank suggested, is to use the arms as something to press the chest against, and thus bring about greater opening in the thoracic spine. It seemed to work: I didn't have to hang for nearly as many breaths in order to get the opening required to reach back and grab my feet, and then my heels. I'll continue working with this.

(2) In Karandavasana, I did my usual duck landing on the first attempt (just barely managed to land it today, but well, I'll take what I can get :-)). On the second attempt, I tried Frank's suggestion to work on "Half-ways": I got into Pincha Mayurasana, got my feet into lotus, and then, instead of bringing the lotus all the way down to land the duck, I tried to go only as far as I could and still come back up to lotus in Pincha. I found that I was actually able to curl the lotus around the pelvis and bring the lotus down about one-quarter of the way, and still come back up to lotus in Pincha. The idea here is to work on gradually going lower and lower, so that I will eventually be able to touch down in the duck and then come back up. Once I can do that, I can then go on to try touching down and holding the duck for one breath, then two breaths, etc, etc., so that eventually, one day, I will be able to hold the duck for five breaths and come back up. It's the same idea as learning to come up from Laghu Vajrasana, except that one is moving the body in a different direction and using different body parts. Very interesting. I'll keep working on this.

I always feel that a post on Karandavasana feels weirdly incomplete without a spectacular video of somebody doing this infamous pose. So here's the famous Laruga doing the infamous Karandavasana. Gosh, she looks totally effortless doing it. Whereas with me, you can probably hear me breathing from half a mile away when I'm working on this pose :-) But, well, everything is a work in progress. I can only do my best.

Practice this morning was interesting. I did second only up to Karandavasana. Here are a couple of things that are worthy of note (at least to me):

(1) Backbends: I have recently come to the conclusion that I am not opening my thoracic spine enough in backbends. I say this, because in the last couple of weeks, I have been feeling a certain ache in my lower back whenever I come out of a deep backbend (like Kapotasana, for instance). It doesn't seem to be anything serious: The ache always goes away by the time I finish practice. But it's something to think about, nonetheless. So I have decided to do some things to try to address it:

(i) In Kapotasana B, for the longest time, I had placed my hands next to my heels, as I thought that made for a deeper backbend. However, at Matthew Sweeney (MS)'s workshop in July, MS suggested that I should try placing my hands next to my toes instead; according to him, placing my hands next to my heels was causing me to arch too much in the lumbar spine. I followed his suggestion, and made the change accordingly, and have been placing my hands next to my toes in Kapo B ever since: Which means that I would go into Kapo A, grab the heels for five to ten breaths, and then transition into Kapo B by letting go of my heels and placing my hands next to my toes.

Today, however, I decided on the spur of the moment to try placing my hands next to my heels again in Kapo B, just to see whether it would make any difference to that achy feeling in my lower back. And the interesting thing is, when I came out of Kapo B from that hands-next-to-heels position, there was no achy feeling in my lower back at all. Interesting, don't you think? Perhaps this means that, between MS's workshop and now, my body has changed in such a way that placing my hands next to my heels in Kapo B does not cause me to arch too much in the lumbar spine anymore, and may instead be good for my lower back now. But it's still too early to make any sort of definitive judgment right now. I guess I'll continue with this configuration of Kapo B for a couple more weeks, and see what happens.

(ii) For the longest time, in the finishing backbends, I have been dropping back with my hands in prayer position on my chest. I would simply arch back with my hands in prayer on my chest, and then extend my arms to the ground at the last moment. It's always worked so far.

Recently, I read a comment by somebody on somebody else's blog (I think it was a comment Bindy made on Savasanaaddict's blog) where the commenter said that according to Dena Kingsberg, it is actually healthier for the spine to drop back with arms extended and overhead rather than in prayer position. According to Kingsberg, the arms-overhead position opens the thoracic spine more, and prevents the lumbar spine from moving forward too much. So this morning, I decided to try this arm-overhead position again. I say again, because I have actually tried this position a couple of times in the past before, but I did not stick with it, as I found it hard to control the speed of the dropback with my arms overhead (lack of core strength/bandha engagement, perhaps?); I would find myself plunging towards the mat at full speed and just barely stopping myself with my hands at the last moment. So it was with some trepidation that I decided to try this arms-overhead position again this morning. To my pleasant surprise, I had better control this morning than in the past: It wasn't a perfectly slow and deliberate drop back, but I was able to control the motion enough not to just plunge back into the backbend. And my back actually felt pretty good throughout :-) I'll keep working with this arms-overhead position, and see where this takes me from this point.

I've heard so much about Dena Kingsberg, about what a strict teacher she is. I think she will so totally call out all my weird antics and habits if I ever study with her... I know that Pakistani Ashtangi is studying with her now, and has posted a few very detailed posts about her studies on her blog.

(2) Karandavasana: For the last two or three weeks, I have been able to land the duck in Karandavasana quite regularly. In fact, for the last few days, I have been able to land the duck on my first attempt, so that I do not have to make a second attempt.

I am still unable to come back up. Every time I finish the five breaths with my lotus on my upper arms, I try to summon the strength to push the lotus up and away from the upper arms, but it always seems that either my body feels very heavy, or I seem to have run out of gas and have to come out of the posture, or both. Anybody out there have any tips on how to come back up into the forearm balance from lotus-on-upper-arms? In his recent post, Grimmly observed that accomplished "Karandavasaners" such as Laruga are able to keep their upper body lifted and not squished throughout the entire posture. I think this may have something to it: I have never seen myself in Karandavasana, but my Karandavasana definitely feels squished. Anybody out there have any tips about how to "unsquish" the Karandavasana?

In other news: 

(1) The temperature actually got up to 90 degrees fahrenheit today. 90 degrees in October in the upper-midwest. Now try telling me global warming is a hoax...

(2) In a couple of weeks (on the weekend of October 21st to 23rd), I'll be driving to Davenport, Iowa to present my procrastination paper at another philosophy conference. And then, a couple of weeks after that (from November 4th to 6th), I'll be in Portland, Oregon presenting the same paper at another conference. If you live in Davenport (or the general area), and would possibly like to hang out with me, please get in touch with me. I don't know if there are any Ashtanga shalas in Davenport; in any case, my schedule there seems pretty crazy, and I don't think I will be able to go to a shala if there is one. But it would be great to meet anybody out there who reads this blog, nonetheless. :-) 

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I am writing this post from Minneapolis. Yes, I made a trip down to the Twin Cities again this weekend. The ostensible reason was because my fiancee's birthday is coming up (on Tuesday), and it would be nice to leave town to celebrate. But really, I'm just looking for an excuse to go to a place that is more, uh, metropolitan and densely populated than my little corner of the upper midwest. So here I am, sitting in a coffeeshop and blogging.

These last couple of days, I have been going to morning practice at the Yoga House. Which is always a treat, as I get to practice with other people, and am reminded that there are other real people out there who, like me, also get up at stupid o-clock to put their bodies into funny shapes and sweat like animals :-)

Yesterday (Saturday) morning, I went to led primary at the Yoga House. I think there is this misconception out there among some Ashtangis that if you do second series (or beyond), primary is supposed to easy-peasy, a walk in the park. Well, whoever thinks this ought to have been at yesterday morning's led primary here. The teacher leading the class made us do three Utkatasanas (instead of the usual, perfunctory one), and I could have sworn that Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana felt way longer than it usually does when I do my own practice. By the end of standing, I was totally drenched in sweat. Makes my own primary practice seem like a walk in the park :-)

During mysore this morning, I did second only up to Karandavasana. Got a good assist from the teacher in Supta Vajrasana, which was wonderful, because practicing by myself at home, I rarely get an assist in this posture. Made three Karandavasana attempts:

(i) The first attempt was absolutely embarrassing: I kicked up into Pincha, and then almost immediately fell over! I rarely fall out of Pincha; to think that one of these rare occasions had to happen in "public" :-)  Yeah, I know, if I'm truly a self-realized Ashtangic saint, I'm supposed to be beyond embarrassment; well, I'm not.

(ii) I got up from the ground as nonchalantly as I could after the not-so-graceful fall (the "fall from grace", if you will :-)), and then made my second attempt. This one was slightly better. I got into pincha, got my legs into lotus. But I couldn't land the duck, and crashed rather unceremoniously onto the mat.

(iii) Urrgh.... how can I fail to land the duck in public? So embarrassing! So I made a third attempt, and finally landed the duck. No, magic flowers did not rain down from the heavens; nor did the statue of Ganesha at the front of the room wink at me, as far as I could tell :-) I didn't realize this at the time, but this was actually the first time I had landed the duck by myself in public (i.e. as opposed to during my solitary home practice). Not that anybody seemed to care, or even noticed. But still, it was quite an event for me. I still couldn't come back up. But I'll keep working on this.

After practice, the woman who was practicing to my left came up to me, introduced herself, and told me that I have a beautiful practice, and that I was practically defying gravity. I almost responded by asking, "Well, is falling over from Pincha Mayurasana and crashing onto the mat in lotus posture part of 'defying gravity'?", but stopped myself at the last moment. Nor did I muster the presence of mind/panache/guts/whatever to reply with my outlandish response :-) I basically just gave my usual default response ("Thank you"). We chatted for a couple more minutes, and the conversation turned to how long we have been practicing. I suggested that if one does the practice everyday, six days a week, the practice will get into one's bones sooner or later, and wonderful things will happen. (Hey, I'm not just saying this, I actually believe it... You know, "Do your practice, and all is coming...")

As we all know, today is the 10th anniversary of September 11th. It's also been slightly more than 10 years since I came to this country (I arrived in Florida to begin grad school on August 3rd, 2001). I feel that so much has changed in both my personal life and in the life of this country; at the same time, so many things have remained the same. Although I have not gone through the heart-rending experiences and events that so many have gone through as a result of September 11th, 2001, I can't help feeling that my having being here all this time and trying to live my life as best as I can has somehow caused the trajectory of my personal life to become inextricably linked in some inscrutable way with the destiny of this great land.

Perhaps nothing is a better reminder of what this date can mean for us than our daily practice. In particular, on this particular day, the Mangala Mantra that we chant everyday at the close of our practice symbolizes the hope of all Ashtangis and all human beings in general for everlasting peace, and our shared aspiration to make the world a slightly better place through our practices. Here's the Mangala Mantra, in translation:

OM
May all be well with mankind.
May leaders of the earth protect in every way by keeping to the right path.
May there be goodness for those who know the earth to be sacred.
May people everywhere be happy.

And here's Sharath chanting it:


Namaste, and May the Force be with You.
   

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First, a little practice report. I did second only up to Karandavasana today. So it appears that I have gotten my Karandavasana muscles back (after yesterday's less than stellar "performance"; see previous post for more details): I landed the duck on my first attempt! Coming back up still seems very far away. After being on my upper arms for five breaths, I tried with all my might to lift up, and my knees lifted off by, maybe, half a millimeter? And then my strength gave out, and I had to simply come down into padmasana. I think coming back up has lots to do with landing the knees closer to the armpits; I have the feeling that one gets more leverage that way. Will keep trying.

A very strange thing has been happening with my laptop at work. From time to time, it would take the longest time to start up. But whenever I bring it in to the campus IT office for the IT people to look at it, it would work perfectly fine! It happened again this afternoon. I brought my once-again-slow-to-start laptop in to IT, and it worked perfectly fine once I tried to get it to repeat the problem there. Which is starting to make me look very silly, since this was already the third time I brought it in! I'm starting to believe that computers are like cranky pets; they act up when they want you to take them out for a walk.

Anyway, because of my computer issues, I had to prepare and teach my classes today the old-school way, i.e. using the chalkboard. Which is a very interesting experience. On the one hand, I didn't particularly enjoy getting chalk all over my hands, or the sound of chalk scraping the blackboard (yeah, that sound really disturbs me...). On the other hand, however, there is just something almost magical about writing things out physically; it's almost as if the act of writing physically reinforces certain grooves (samskaras?) of knowledge in one's brain, and causes knowledge to sink deeper into the grooves of consciousness. I also had the feeling that my students paid more attention when they had to read and follow words that are written on a physical surface in real time, than if they simply passively stared at words on a projector screen. Sometimes, I think that less technology makes for more learning ;-)

In any case, in my Introduction to Western Philosophy course today, we discussed St. Anselm's Ontological Argument for the Existence of God. Here's my formulation of his argument:

1. Things that exist in reality are greater than things that exist only in the understanding.

2. A non-believer in God (a "fool") understands what is meant by the phrase "a being than which none greater can be thought."

3. For the fool, a being than which none greater can be thought exists only in the understanding (since he does not believe that such a being exists in reality).

4. But if a being than which none greater can be thought exists only in the understanding, then it is possible that there exists a being which is greater than such a being (i.e. a being than which none greater can be thought, which exists in reality, and not just in the understanding).

5. Therefore, if a being than which none greater can be thought exists only in the understanding, then such a being would be at the same time a being than which none greater can be thought, and also not a being than which none greater can be thought.

6. But this is absurd, for something cannot both be and not be a being than which none greater can be thought.

7. Therefore, the fool is wrong: a being than which none greater can be thought cannot exist only in the understanding.

8. Therefore, a being than which none greater can be thought has to exist not just in the understanding, but in reality as well.

9. God is the being than which none greater can be thought.

10. Therefore, God exists.

I don't know what you think of this argument, but we had a lot of fun in class putting this argument together, taking it apart, and thinking through its implications. Perhaps if you have a spare moment, this might also be a fun argument for you to contemplate :-)  

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