Showing posts with label yogini. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yogini. Show all posts

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Wisdom of 131-y.-o. fruitarian Yogi


Ultimate wisdom from 131-year-old Yogi Raidas Baba
(The Himalyan Yogini) Aug. 18, 2024: यह एक आध्यात्मिक चैनल है। साधु - संतो की सेवा हेतु आपसे सहयोग राशि अपेक्षित है। अगर आपको वीडियोज पसन्द आ रहे है तो वीडियोज को ज्यादा से ज्याद Share करे, like 👍 करे और, comment अवश्य करे lUPI ID: himalyanyogini@oksbi. Queries will be replied [to] on donation basis only. You can do superthanks or upi.

How to sit for hours in meditation

Is there a way to stand up? - Do yoga.

Posture of Meditation (Johnson)
(Guru Pashupati) Jan. 24, 2024. [(WQ) Here is excellent advice on proper posture. Sitting flat is not the solution. The wandering ascetic Siddhartha Gautama would go to the foot of a tree, make a seat for himself out of kusa grass covered in cloth or leaves and sit in delight for long stretches in peace. Did he do yoga poses? He might have. He certainly walked up and down mindfully for circulation and exercise, walking for alms in the morning, going into seclusion in a pleasant forest grove. Posture is vital for ease of breathing and movement of chi (prana) along the meridians. And lymph needs to move, which is by movement. Here Guru Pashupati is merely pointing out the proper angle, which is not a stiff 90 degrees but a relaxed and elevated position such that the knees are lower than the waistline. The mind has more to do with it (because when the mind is alright, the body is at ease and natural) but the body can help or hinder. Mind-body in harmony is the way to progress.]

Samadhi with Paramahansa Yogananda?

He was very short so always positioned to compensate for that in photos

Commentary: What shall we eat and when?

Ultimate Yogini Jen Love H.
(WQ) India has amazing beings, even today in this Decadent Age (Kali Yuga). There are breatharians, fruitarians, yogis living in the Himalayan foothills in caves surrounded by snow. How is it possible? Breath control is one secret, which is achieved by concentration (samadhi) and breathwork (pranayama).

An important way to begin is purification. Fresh local seasonal fruit in the morning is very purifying (cleansing) for the body because the enzymes are intact and appropriate for the weather. Unfortunately, in the US we have access to everything all the time, and it is neither seasonal, local, nor in its original state because it is kept in suspended animation through refrigeration in the unripe state, ripened artificially with gas and few nutrients that would have been present in naturally ripened pieces.

The people of an area benefit from fruit from that area more than exotic fruit. But due to the altered sugar content of most commercial fruit, we are getting Frankenfruit instead of the work of Mother Nature. If breatharianism is real, fruitarianism (eating only fruit, which may be defined as anything that grows from a plant the eating of which does not kill the plant, so bean, pulses, legumes, and the like may be included).

How would it be possible to live on breath alone? It is not oxygen that is meant by "breath" but rather prana supplemented by sunlight, which through yogic exercises is converted to amrita from under the tongue. These may be practiced with risk under an experienced teacher. To do it otherwise will only wrap us in our assumptions and limited knowledge, dooming us to failure.

It is important to emphasize that the Buddha taught that it is not possible to become enlightened by diet alone. If it were, those who restrict themselves to this or that would be there. And they are not. However, diet is crucial. On one occasion a group of Buddhist wandering ascetics living a distance from the Buddha could not make progress in their meditation. They came to ask the Buddha about it, who recommended they eat from a variety of the eight flavors of food.

This was an ancient system to ensure a variety to get all their nutrients: hard and soft, salty and sweet, astringent and umami, spicy and mild might be those eight. The point is that by being offered a variety of greens and things, they got those nutrients and made quick progress. The idea that one could advance by strict fasting or only eating sesame or hemp, this rice or that, a single plant, leaf, or root, this was a mistake to avoid.

As for eating meat, that is a whole discussion in itself because asking for it or commending is approving of killing, and this cannot be in line with the Buddha's guidance. Wandering ascetics do not directly choose what is offered; that is the privilege of the donors. But tacitly, of course, by welcoming somethings and being less than enthusiastic about others, they make their likes and dislikes known. This seems like a form of asking, which is disallowed.

For sitters of all traditions (Will Johnson)
The point is not to be an imposition. The larger point is to eat like travelers across a desert -- not to beautify, enjoy, savor, play, or treat it as a trifle. Food is medicine. Another amazing thing about the Buddha's guidance for wandering ascetics in his Dhamma-Vinaya (Doctrine and Discipline) is intermittent fasting.

Monastics are not ordered to go without food. They can eat every day and should to maintain their health and vitality. But these meals are spaced in such a way that they are limited to eating only between dawn and noon. The whole rest of the time is for proper digestion and cleansing in accordance with the body's cycles. The body needs to intake (eat in moderation), assimilate (digest), and eliminate (cleanse). When these are in balance, health is excellent, and the mind/heart is restrained and not allowed to become a hindrance.

One can, therefore, see why as householders we have so many problems with food: overeating, craving and eating the "wrong" (processed, ultra-processed, sugary, salty, spicy, depleted, fried, stale, burned, out-of-season, fatty, empty) foods, eating at all times, eating in excess, engaging in extreme diets, failing to fast (which allows the body to shut down the digestive system to clean it out), and not taking enough water, vitamins, and perhaps most importantly the micronutrients (72-92 trace minerals) needed for vibrant health.

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Why Joey hates yoga (video)

What if there were an ancient eightfold path to samadhi? Then another to enlightenment?

Why are they like this!?
American yoga is a cartoon, a facsimile, a joke.
(joeybtoonz) Sept. 1, 2024: Today let's explore people who pretend to be yoga instructors. [This is Kook Town, this is BS, this is, hold on, let me grab another pizza slice and brewsky so I can keep watching and criticizing this bogus bull.]

✭ PATREON ► joeybtoonz ✭ INSTAGRAM ► joeybtoonz ✭ X (TWITTER) ► joeybtoonz ✭ FACEBOOK ► joeybtoonz✭ FAN [NO HATE MAIL!] MAIL ADDRESS: ► 178 Columbus Ave. # 237190 New York, NY 10023 ✭ [HEAR MORE OF MY OPINIONS] 2nd YouTube Channel: Joey B vs. the World Clips: joeybvstheworldclips ✭ Joey B vs. the World Podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0Wfj8qb... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

Why we love yoga

We love the togetherness, health, movement!
It's easy to imagine that "yoga" is a bunch of beautiful gals and lithe guys capable of doing ballet, undressing into tights and athletic shirts so they can sweat while they pose. There's that. It's the face of the brand. But the brand is much older, much deeper, much more useful than flexibility and fulsome breathing. There's a point. The whole of yoga (union) is aimed at meditation and reaching samadhi ("stillness").

Tibetan Vajrayana yoga Yab-Yum
Anything can use the word. It needn't be from India nor linked to the Vedas, because "yoga" just means whatever the American industry can make of it. And that's money. One of the more woo-woo forms of yoga was invented by Yogi Bhajan, a turban-wearing Sikh promoter, who came to the U.S. to think and grow rich.

I was trying to make money and get girls. Win!
Sure there were sex scandals and profiteering, but don't think about that. He invented the company Yogi Tea, which has great boxes and too many synthetic "natural flavorings" (a term that means the artificial synthesis of a naturally occurring flavor) to recommend. Flavorants are artificial neurotoxins used to sell product not promote health. So when it says "natural flavor," read "artificial chemical" simulation of something real.

A pose series is not yoga even if called Ashtanga
Yoga can get to seem that way when it's Yogi Bhajan's brand of Kundalini Yoga. That is a lot of what Joey is boohooing. It looks crazy. It's trying to give participants an experience, a head rush, a movement of kundalini (energy bundled at the base of the spine, which if opened too soon will make one cuckoo); shaktipat might be a better name for what Kundalini Yoga capitalists are trying to evoke so that people keep coming back. Anything goes.

If it was good enough for JC...
American teachers want to patent something like convicted criminal Choudhry Bikram of Bikram Yoga infamy. Now it's Hot Yoga, keeping the overheated rooms and changing nearly everything else. But there are plenty of diehard Bikram fans still out there because it was anti-spiritual and all about the workout and kickstarting the endorphins, which is what city folk want. Cities have doshas (body types), too. It isn't just bodies. LA and NYC are very pitta (fiery). one can imagine a lot of kapha in Minnesota and vata in Hawaii.

We're just looking on our search
All places and bodies have all three but usually suffer a predominance of one over the others, an imbalance. Kundalini Yoga is very vata (airy fairy), which will seem odd, silly, fake, and phony to New Yorkers like Joey.

Yoga is very ancient, pre-Patanjali
Most of us imagine "spiritual" to mean "too airy" because air is the unseen force that moves leaves and whole trees and can be experienced indirectly by all its impacts. Hatha Yoga joins sun and moon, yang and yin energies, though some say that's nonsense, arguing it has another meaning. With so many kinds of yoga, like all the martial arts there are now, what is Royal (Raja) Yoga, the ruler of all other types? It is this very eightfold path of yoga called Ashtanga:
Isn't Yoga the same as Buddhism? They are different with a very different goal.





Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Yogini, Guru: Avoid meat, white rice, wheat


Many health communities view white (stripped of everything but its starch) rice as an unhealthy option. It’s highly processed and stripped of its hull (protective coating), bran (outer layer fiber), and germ (nutrient-rich core). Brown rice has only had its hull removed. For this reason, brown rice has many vitamins and minerals absent from white rice. There are some instances where white rice is a better option than brown, as for the sick who cannot digest food. Pranam, Yogini Shlloka, Isha Hatha Yoga teacher (facebook.com/shlloka, instagram.com/shlloka), student of sad Guru Sadhguru. #eatingrice #ayurveda #yogiclife

Friday, March 10, 2023

I want to do Yoga. Where can I Practyce?

Practyce.com: unlimited online yoga classes; Holly Saitta, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
Yoga's all about being beautiful in fashion brands, isn't it? Practice at home.
.
Go easy without strain. Pain is a warning.
Practyce [not Practice] classes that move you. START YOUR FREE TRIAL. [How much will it cost after that?] Unlimited online yoga and meditation classes $9.99 per month or $99.95 per year. If you don’t love Practyce, cancel anytime. START YOUR FIRST CLASSPRACTYCE.

MEMBERSHIP HAS ITS PERKS. For less than the cost of one in-studio yoga class, enjoy:
  • On-demand yoga classes
  • Stream yoga and meditation classes anytime and anywhere
  • Member pricing
  • Best pricing year-round on everyday yoga on top brands
  • Exclusive rewards earn 5% reward credits on everyday yoga
  • Receive exclusive offers
  • Learn more yoga styles
  • Immerse yourself in a total mind-body experience without leaving your living room. More + VIDEO
Can men do yoga? Yes, yoga is for everyone. Uniting flexibility, strength, and balance is yoga, each supporting the other. Effort-ease (sthira-sukha) is the key. Lift into the pose then rest in it (Y7).

Sunday, January 8, 2023

Group Meditation, Yoga Breathwork (Saturdays)

Stella Han (kinshipyoga.com) Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

Yogini Stella Han, social worker at heart
Yogini Stella Han leads us in Meditation and Breathwork on Saturdays.

Meditation is a practice where individuals use mindfulness techniques (presence of mind, staying in the moment, full awareness and acceptance of what is) to focus the mind on objects, thoughts, or activity to help cultivate attention, expanded consciousness, and heightened awareness.

This is done in an effort to enjoy mental clarity, decrease stress and worry, and return to balance. It is the higher training of the mind following the higher training in ethical conduct and stillness. 
ABOUT: Stella Han (stella4yoga@gmail.com) is a passionate full-time yoga instructor and former social worker from Los Angeles She earned a master's degree in social work degree USC) and has many years of experience in the fields of social work and psychology.
What is "mindfulness"?
This is a question that doesn't get asked nearly enough. It is not mere "awareness." It is paying attention to the present moment without giving in to the habits of
  • being fond and attaching to the pleasant,
  • being dejected and rejecting the unpleasant
  • being bored and inattentive to the neutral (neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant).
Mindfulness is therefore a special kind of awareness or presence of mind, wakefulness, vigilance that gives attention to whatever is in the present moment with radical acceptance, letting it be, and letting it go (just for the moment).

Simply being aware in the woods in not being mindful at all. Mindfulness (Sanskrit smirti, Pali sati) is remaining mindfully aware, dispassionate, detached, fully attending to without being entangled in that of which one is aware.

If lust or greed come up, be with them as a watcher without getting sucked in. If annoyance or anger creep up, be with them without becoming hostile. If boredom or mental-wandering arise, note them. That noting, that sudden awareness that the mind has wandered, is mindfulness.

Now it all becomes clear to me.
Now, bring it back to the present moment -- without becoming angry, frustrated, or dejected that wandered off, as mind by its nature will do.

Casting back to the past or forward to the future is the habit of the mind that mindfulness remedies. As Ram Dass famously said: "Be here now."

There is something magical about remaining in the moment. But we'll never know it if we never practice it until it becomes habit.

It is the way to happiness, contentment, and peace -- if done correctly, dispassionately, softly. It leads to clarity and vision, to knowing and seeing, and is essential for awakening.

The Buddha, in the famous "Fourfold Setting Up of Mindfulness Discourse," gives the four groups of things of which to be mindful:

Sunday, January 1, 2023

New Year's Day Yoga: 108 Sun Salutations

Stella Han (Kinship Yoga); Ananda (Dharma B Meditation), Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Let's reflect on the Buddha's advice to the householder Sigala (Sigalovada Sutta).
New Year's Day tradition of 108 sun salutations at Kinship Studios (mindbodyonline.com)

Yoga instructor Stella Han (Kinship Yoga)
On Sunday, January 1, 2023, from 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm, join Yogini Stella Han at Kinship Yoga for the 7th annual New Year's Day 108 Sun Salutations Ceremony! Instruction provided then participants go at their own pace. To participate, just drop in or contact Stella with any questions via:
What is a sun salutation? It's a flowing series of yoga moves, much like the ancient India practice of honoring the quarters or directions of the sky. The Buddha redefined the meaning of this ancient practice in the Sigalovada Sutra. Here Surya, the deva or "shining one" ("god" or goddess) of the Sun (Sol/Sól), is honored in the morning. It welcomes the new in yoga and is a traditional practice, particularly with the magical number of the mala or rosary of 108.

Friday, August 17, 2018

Mantras in Yogi Bhajan's Kundalini Yoga (video)

Gurujas (White Sun), Host Christine Blosdale (KPFK.org); Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly 


Gurujas of White Sun on Mantra Meditation and Healing
(Out of the Box Radio) Discover what Sikhs in Kundalini Yoga consider the most powerful healing vibrations on the planet. Indian guru in America Yogi Bhajan passed down these mantras following a tradition of thousands of years. They are presented here by giggling, Grammy Award-winning Gurujas Khalsa and her group White Sun.

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Black Metal YOGA, Los Angeles (Aug. 11)

(LA Weekly, 8/11/18); Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Alissa Nelson, aka the "Black Metal Yogi," teaching a class in Los Angeles (J Matt/LAW)
Black Metal Yoga and Black Metal Brunch
Black [brutal and Satanic] metal has long held a reputation for being the most abrasive and proudly underground corner of the heavy metal spectrum.

Those with even a passing knowledge of the genre may be familiar with the sordid tales of ’90s Norwegian acts such as Mayhem. The modern grouping of bands that are considered black metal is much more expansive, with dozens of acts adding layers of progressive musicianship and atmospheric shoegaze to the existing genre blueprint.

That said, there is still a sizable contingent of black-metal musicians and fans who are hesitant to see the genre expand and gain attention from outside its small, exclusive bubble.

Black heavy metal and yoga? Okay.
But on Saturday, August 11, two separate events -- Black Metal Yoga and Black Metal Brunch (DTLA) -- will drag black metal kicking and screaming into the lifestyle-events arena.
 
On a surface level the harshness of black-metal music and the calming therapeutic leanings of yoga seem incongruous. But for yoga instructor Alissa Nelson, aka “the Black Metal Yogi,” the combination is more than complementary.

“Yoga is about putting yourself in uncomfortable positions,” Nelson says during our conversation on a sunny Saturday morning in Torrance's El Prado Park.

“Listening to black metal is absolutely perfect for yoga, because both are based on small changes in tone over time. The message for each is that you have to be okay with confronting things that are difficult, challenging, messy, and painful to get to a place where you are not experiencing suffering.” Nelson has been teaching yoga for... More
SAMPLE MUSIC: Dimmu Borgir, "Puritania"

Monday, January 1, 2018

Females make better Wanderers (photos)

(twitter, original post, July 16, 2016) edited by Amber Larson, Ananda M., Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Crystal Quintero, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
The Priestess Path with Elizabeth Wilcock (elizabethwilcock.com)
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10 lesser-known facts about female ascetics
Anum Ansari
The Maha Kumbha Mela ("Great Ambrosia-Pot Festival") is joyously celebrated in the city of Ujjain.

Few realized that the Kumbh Mela is attended by sadhvis, female sadhus, not only male sadhus. It is a great attraction for these naga-sadhvis and -sadhus.

There are certain rules for the ascetics who attend the mela, which are mandatory for males and females. Here are some interesting facts about them most people might not know:
 
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1. Prior to becoming a wandering ascetic or hermit, a woman has to follow all the rules of brahmacharya (celibate rules) for 6-12 years. If she succeeds in doing that, she is ordained by her guru.
  
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2.  Sadhus investigate the woman’s past, family, and friends before making her a naga sadhvi.

3. Before becoming a sadhvi, the woman has to do her own pinddan and libation.

How to become a female wanderer
What is the path to enlightenment, the Eight Limbs of Yoga or the Buddha's Path?
  • INQUIRE WITHIN
    How to become a wandering ascetic: Processes and rituals for becoming a sadhvi vary by sect. In almost all of them she is initiated by a guru, who bestows upon the initiate a new name and a mantra (a sacred sound or phrase), which is generally known only to the initiate and guru and may be repeated by as part of meditative practice. Becoming a wanderer is a path followed by millions. It is the final of four stages of a good Hindu life: after being a young celibate student, a retired worker, a householder, it is time to let it all go to become a celibate wanderer or pilgrim in search of Truth/godhood/moksha.
  • I did it! (Sadhvi Saraswati)
    But for most Hindus, particularly in modern times, this does not seem like a practical option. For a person to become a sadhvi/sadhu, vairagya is needed. This term means "a desire to achieve something by leaving the world" (cutting familial, societal, and worldly attachments).
  • A person who wants to become sadhu must first seek a guru then perform "service to the teacher" or guru-seva. The guru then decides whether the person is eligible to take to wandering (sannyasa) by observing the candidate or sisya (the person who wants to become a sadhu or sanyasin). If the person is eligible, guru upadesa (teaching) is done. Only then does the ordinary person transform into an ascetic, wayfarer, or wanderer. There are different types of sanyasins in India who follow different sampradya. But all sadhus, even Buddhist ones, from time immemorial have a common goal in mind: attaining moksha (liberation). More
FEMALE Buddhist monastics are known as bhikkhunis ("nuns"), Northern California.
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4. Females are first made to shave their heads and then bathe in the river as a part of a [baptismal] cleansing ritual.
 
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5. Female ascetics are given equal respect as males. They also take the royal "purification bath" along with males the holy river, usually the sacred Ganges.
 
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6. In the path of becoming a sadhvi, a woman has to show that she is a complete devotee of God/GOD and has no interest in worldly pleasures.
 
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7. There is only one difference in female and males. Females are made to cover themselves with a yellow cloth. They are not allowed to bathe naked -- like many of the "skyclad" males -- and so they have to use that same yellow cloth while bathing.
 
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Acharya Mahamandaleshwar ordains women in the holy river as sanyasins.

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8. As their lives are completely devoted to realization (of GOD/Brahman, of union with the universe, of finding the ultimate truth), their day starts with praying (japa) devotions (puja) and ends with the same.

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9. Female ascetics put tika (tilaka, colorful makeup using sacred cremation pyre ashes as the base) on their foreheads and wear just a single yellowish or white cloth.
 
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10. When a woman becomes a sadhvi, all of the priestesses/ascetics in her group start calling her mata ("mother," like female-padre). More
 
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Want To Know What Your Egyptian Zodiac Sign Tells About You?
Want to know what your Egyptian Zodiac sign tells about you?