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Dogboy
USA
2294 Posts |
 Posted - Apr 16 2022 : 05:39:08 AM
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My ‘latest thing’ is to ‘intentionally walk’ after dinner, along the trails in the neighborhood woods. The sun now sets around 7:30, on nice evenings there is plenty of golden light to bathe in. Other than a few dog walkers, this walking Dogboy  has the woods to myself. As mentioned in an earlier post, intentional walking has become a part of daily yoga practice, intentional in that it's similar to preparation before meditation: emptying the mind and scanning the body for where I find feeling today.. I pick up the pace of the walk, bringing my heart rate to a level where a conversation could be had, walking as if I have a place to Be.
Walking encourages reflection and self-inquiry, silent conversation with guru on what affects my present living. Lately I have been troubled by my “failure to wordsmith”. Writing is a neglected talent of mine, underutilized, fruit that has been left on the tree to rot. I met with some writing success in my early thirties, selling a few short stories and winning a contest for a few thousand (US) dollars. I participated in the same writer's group for twenty years, having to driving an hour each way into the city, once a month (the discipline!), overlapped with life, marriage, and then two kids. The writing stopped when my teacher fell too ill to continue (RIP Joan Millman)and then our family moved to another home in another town. We ditched the old PC in favor of tablets: it was apparent I was hardwired to Microsoft Word, because the ritual of writing didnt make the transition.
When I shared by rumination with my wife last week, bless her, she set me up with an old laptop, keyboard and monitor as a surprise. I began to realize, while on these arousing walks, I was writing in my head again, and overcome with a desire to change the course. Pecking at the keyboard is an act of magic, my fingertips allow words to form sentences that I whip couragously into some coherent froth, making something out of spilling the inside out.
In these five years of conductivity, the thoughts “who am I now?” and “what am I supposed to do with this?” kept bobbing about, not taunting me, just a slow percolation. I would drop that into silence and listen to nothing. It wasn’t until recently I realized there were answers all along, in the layering of experiences, in the confidence of guru, in the honoring of practice, grounding, self-pacing, and Radiance. Walking with intention is the next step on my path, pardon the pun. The heart rate elevates, body falls into rhythm, mind empties and silence steps forth in propelling through space and time, eyesight softens, jaw slackens as I open my senses to Nature, yearning to truly understand its relation to me. Regarding non-duality I often inquire “am I getting any closer?”, and then realize I need to surrender in order to realize.
In Lesson 331, Yogani states “kundalini is the emergence of the energetic connection between inner silence and the outer world” and that “fulfillment of Stillness in Action…is the reduction of our identification of it, and the allowing of it.” This sounds like a challenge worthy of exploring. Further he says “If we are developing a serious approach to self-inquiry…recognizing the essential roles of devotion to task, DM, and samyama, (we should not) ignore kundalini, because it is associated with the body. Of all the aspect of yoga, kundalini…is most rooted in the duality of existence, and therefore…an interest to someone seeking the higher truth.”
An AYP plug: I came here in 2013 as a meditation virgin, with some years of asana, some tantric practices, and pranayama under my belt. I took to it earnestly, kept up discipline, and saw results in three and a half years. There is comfort in having access to the vast knowledge on this site, to review lessons at my leisure, and to digging my well in one spot. I feel for those troubled by energy sensitivities, through prior practices or no fault of your own, it is a much more difficult path to manage. Although I haven’t used it much, self-pacing is really what sets AYP apart, it’s the mortar for your foundation stone, and very much part of a stable, spiritual process. I am finding I am ready to press the accelerator a touch, to see what this baby can do. If anyone reading this is energy sensitive please listen and follow guru.inyou, not me, I’m just a babbling old man in New England digging a well.
My desire is to contribute to this forum on some regular basis, to welcome engagement but also surrender any expectation of it. I am ripe explore my spiritual body in this manner, here and there, here nor there; discussing spirituality is frought with paradox and the knowing we are all developing individually with uniques challenges, karma, and attachments, and capturing experiences into words, over the centuries has not been encouraged. I wish to honor the intention of Yogani to open source his experiences, and share in my reporting on the influence his work and knowledge has made in/on me.
Tonight is the full moon, so special to me. Usually the pack of my Dogboy friends gather in the ancients woods by a campfire and howl at the moon, binding us together in comraderie and ritual. Unfortunately there will be no howling tonight because of Passover and Easter and family obligations, so instead I walk alone and Be in this spiritual body. The trail has led me to a hilltop and small field; She envelopes me with Her loving presence. Guru has me reaching my arms up to Her, cupping Her timeless beauty in the palms of my hands. I will honor you properly next moon, my love, for I am a dog of my word.
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Edited by - Dogboy on Apr 16 2022 2:57:35 PM |
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interpaul
USA
551 Posts |
Posted - Apr 16 2022 : 3:27:30 PM
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| Dogboy, This is wonderful. Having an articulate voice on this forum to share and extend the teachings is a fantastic idea. So much of the forum is about helping people who are struggling, a noble process. Your desire to contribute to furthering the teachings through sharing your experiences, with your natural writing talent, seems a wonderful way for stillness in action to radiate into the world through your fingertips. I for one look forward to the engagement as I know there are others out there who would enjoy the opportunity to be involved but just don't know how to get the ball rolling. |
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Dogboy
USA
2294 Posts |
Posted - Apr 19 2022 : 04:07:49 AM
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Gentle Favoring is now a body thing. Born with excessive calf and thigh muscles, inseam only 30 inches, my leg bones deserved 3 more inches. Don’t get me wrong, I love my legs, but floor poses require a strap, and are a pox on my house. Most of my home practice is standing, and incredibly mobile.
Two fingers on the strap are all that is required. Grasping is counter-productive.
I switched back to AYAM in January, and the simplicity of it resonates here. I still begin Shree Om, Shree Om, and let AYAM take it from there. Sometimes it spills out my solar center as letters.
In rest after a session I inquire who the hell do I think I am. It’s kind of funny when you say it out loud.
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Edited by - Dogboy on Apr 19 2022 04:09:04 AM |
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Dogboy
USA
2294 Posts |
Posted - Apr 23 2022 : 03:30:43 AM
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In building my spiritual body, I seek union with the sun, in gratitude for sustaining life here on Earth. Inevitably on my walks I stop and face upward and close my eyes and Be. Standing in Mountain, the warmth on my skin, lava flow behind my eyelids, I ask how my body needs to express, and follow through. Mindful of my cervical spine, I place my thumbs at the base of my skull and my head in my hands, and empty of thought, drink in life giving power to commit this silent moment to body memory, filing it carefully away so, in some future need of joy, or love, or peace, by creative will I may access this magnificence again.
As I turn away, there is a parting gift: the golden star has painted me black and overlayed me on Earth.
Just me and my shadow.
Straight up and narrow.
Everywhere we go, everyone knows
It’s me and my shadow. |
Edited by - Dogboy on Apr 23 2022 03:37:46 AM |
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Building My Spiritual Body, in Words
