Coming up to ten years of practice....
To put that in perspective, Richard Freeman has been practising fifty years, Manju Jois, sixty..
I've been asking myself what I think..., actually believe, this practice is all about....
Cultivate Compassion
for all, all.
Cultivate Contentment
that what I have is sufficient
Cultivate Discipline
tapas (asana)
practicing daily a little more than I wish to
Cultivate Serenity
emotional stability (pranayama)
Cultivate Non-attachment
withdrawal of the senses
Cultivate Fixation
attend, concentration
Cultivate Absorption
abide with
Cultivate Liberation
applied absorption
Posted mainly to see how my thinking may change over the next ten years... and the next
below - on Yoga and Osteoporosis
Posted mainly to see how my thinking may change over the next ten years... and the next
Appendix 1
On Compassion - towards other
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| Photo: Gandhi - Salt march 1930 |
"Nonviolence means an ocean of compassion. It means shedding from us every trace of ill will for others. It does not mean abjectness or timidity, or fleeing in fear. It means, on the contrary, firmness of mind and courage, a resolute spirit".
Mahatma Gandhi
"The scene at Dharasana during the raid was astonishing and baffling to the Western mind accustomed to see violence met by violence, to expect a blow to be returned and a fight result. During the morning I saw and heard hundreds of blows inflicted by the police, but saw not a single blow returned by the volunteers. So far as I could observe the volunteers implicitly obeyed Gandhi’s creed of non-violence. In no case did I see a volunteer even raise an arm to deflect the blows from lathis. There were no outcries from the beaten Swarajists, only groans after they had submitted to their beating."- Eyewitness report of the salt march
Full report below.
Gandhi’s Salt March Campaign: Contemporary Dispatches (1/2)
Webb MILLER (Special UP Correspondent for India), The New York World-Telegram, Dharasana Camp, Surat District, Bombay Presidency, May 22, 1930.
"Amazing scenes were witnessed yesterday when more than 2,500 Gandhi ‘volunteers’ advanced against the salt pans here in defiance of police regulations. The official government version of the raid, issued today, stated that ‘from Congress sources it is estimated 170 sustained injuries, but only three or four were seriously hurt.’
About noon yesterday I visited the temporary hospital in the Congress camp and counted more than 200 injured lying in rows on the ground. I verified by personal observation that they were suffering injuries. Today even the British owned newspapers give the total number at 320 …
The scene at Dharasana during the raid was astonishing and baffling to the Western mind accustomed to see violence met by violence, to expect a blow to be returned and a fight result. During the morning I saw and heard hundreds of blows inflicted by the police, but saw not a single blow returned by the volunteers. So far as I could observe the volunteers implicitly obeyed Gandhi’s creed of non-violence. In no case did I see a volunteer even raise an arm to deflect the blows from lathis. There were no outcries from the beaten Swarajists, only groans after they had submitted to their beating.
Obviously it was the purpose of the volunteers to force the police to beat them. The police were placed in a difficult position by the refusal to disperse and the action of volunteers in continually pressing closer to the salt pans.
Many times I saw the police vainly threaten the advancing volunteers with upraised lathis. Upon their determined refusal to recede the lathis would fall upon the unresisting body, the volunteer would fall back bleeding or bruised and be carried away on a stretcher. Waiting volunteers, on the outskirts of the pans, often rushed and congratulated the beaten volunteer as he was carried off the field. It was apparent that most of the injured gloried in their injuries. One leader was he
ard to say, ‘These men have done a great work for India today. They are martyrs to the cause.’
Much of the time the stolid native Surat police seemed reluctant to strike. It was noticeable that when the officers were occupied on other parts of the line the police slackened, only to resume threatening and beating when the officers appeared again. I saw many instances of the volunteers pleading with the police to join them.
At other times the police became angered, whereupon the beating would be done earnestly. During several of these incidents I saw the native police deliberately kick lying or sitting volunteers who refused to disperse. And I saw several instances where the police viciously jabbed sitting volunteers in the abdomen with the butt end of their lathi….
Once I saw a native policeman in anger strike a half-submerged volunteer who had already been struck down into a ditch and was clinging to the edge of the bank. This incident caused great excitement among the volunteers who witnessed it.
My reaction to the scenes was of revulsion akin to the emotion one feels when seeing a dumb animal beaten: partly anger, partly humiliation. It was to the description of these reactions that the Bombay censorship authorities objected among other things.
In fairness to the authorities it must be emphasized that the Congress volunteers were breaking laws or attempting to break them, and that they repeatedly refused to disperse and attempted to pull down the entanglements with ropes, and that the volunteers seemed to glory in their injuries.
In eighteen years of reporting in twenty-two countries, during which I have witnessed innumerable civil disturbances, riots, street fights and rebellions, I have never witnessed such harrowing scenes as at Dharasana. The Western mind can grasp violence returned by violence, can understand a fight, but is, I found, perplexed and baffled by the sight of men advancing coldly and deliberately and submitting to beating without attempting defense. Sometimes the scenes were so painful that I had to turn away momentarily.
One surprising feature was the discipline of the volunteers. It seemed they were thoroughly imbued with Gandhi’s nonviolence creed, and the leaders constantly stood in front of the ranks imploring them to remember that Gandhi’s soul was with them."
Appendix 2
On compassion for ourselves
With so many in our area in their 70s, 80, even 90s (strong Shiga men and women, still farming at 93) I've been playing with the idea of sharing a little gentle Vinyasa Krama. But where to start and not do more harm than good. 'Relax into a Yoga for Seniors' by Carson and Krucoff has been interesting but has made me realise that it's from our fifties we need perhaps to consider modifying our practice, not at 70 or 80. With the dramatic increase in Osteoporosis post-menopause those deep twists, folds and bends loved (or tolerated) so much in Ashtanga may well be a time bomb and given that we generally don't know we have Osteoporosis until it's diagnosed following a fracture, the headstand and all those variations in Vinyasa Krama may also be risky, let alone handstands. This article from YJ outlines some of the issues but if you're into your fifties, as I am, and considering Marichiyasana D this morning (right there in 'Primary' series), rather than jumping on the mat all Gung-ho, it might be worth taking a look at the statistics for Osteoporosis, the 'silent disease'.
"USA: Osteoporosis and low bone mass are currently estimated to be a major public health threat for almost 44 million U.S. women and men aged 50 and older. (241). USA: The 44 million people with either osteoporosis or low bone mass represent 55 percent of the people aged 50 and older in the United States (241)".
International Osteoporosis Foundation
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| Amazon Link |
below - on Yoga and Osteoporosis
from Relax into yoga for seniors
below
"Halfway through an eight-day teacher training, I began to feel it: a dull throbbing in my right hip. For hours, I’d been sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of 40 students, discussing how to make yoga safe and effective for older adults. In such a supportive environment, you’d think I’d have switched to a different position—or maybe even sat in a chair. Yet I stubbornly continued to return to Easy Pose, which I began to think of as Painful Pose, until getting up became so agonizing that I had to walk in circles to straighten out my hip. Welcome to my late 50s.
Aging comes subtly. The risks and changes sometimes have a harbinger, like the pain in my hip, and sometimes they don’t. Signs such as graying hair, the softening underbelly of a chin, and joint stiffness are easy to see and feel. Yet other changes are completely hidden. Just after my 50th birthday, my physician suggested a bone-density scan since I had many risk factors for osteoporosis—including being a thin, postmenopausal woman with a family history of the disease. Osteoporosis is a disorder that thins and weakens bones, making them more porous. The resulting danger is a possible break, which is when many people discover they have this “silent” disease.
In my case, the bone-density scan revealed that I have osteopenia, or low bone density, a precursor to osteoporosis that puts me at an increased risk of fracture. And I’m far from alone. It’s expected that by 2020, half of all American men and women over age 50 will have, or will be at risk of developing, osteoporosis of the hip; even more will be at risk of developing it elsewhere.
The National Osteoporosis Foundation cautions people with osteoporosis in the spine to avoid certain kinds of movement that could lead to vertebral compression fractures, a hallmark of the disorder that can result in shrinking and a stooped posture—the so-called dowager’s hump. But only about a third of vertebral fractures are diagnosed, often because the pain may be mild or mistakenly thought to come from something else. Risky movements include bending forward from the waist, twisting the spine to a point of strain, and doing toe touches and sit-ups.
This information left me reeling. Could the yoga practice I love actually be damaging my skeleton? Should I stop doing forward bends and deep twists? Did I need to give up yoga entirely? It turns out that, like many other signs of aging—both plainly felt and out of sight—osteopenia requires me to have patience, honesty, and, perhaps most important, humility as I adapt my yoga practice to avoid injury and maintain the bone mass I still have.
Boning Up
Although many people think of the skeleton as solid and lifeless, it’s very much alive, constantly breaking down and renewing itself in a two-step process called bone remodeling. The rate at which bone remodeling happens is affected by how much calcium is stored in the bones and introduced in the diet, as well as by three catalysts (vitamin D, hormones, and exercise) that determine how effectively the body uses calcium to build new bone and prevent bone loss through resorption. Osteoporosis results from an imbalance in remodeling—where too much old bone is broken down and removed, or too little new bone is formed, or both.
About 90 percent of an adult’s bone mineral content (calcium) is deposited by the end of adolescence, with peak bone mass achieved by age 20, says Kathy M. Shipp, an adjunct associate professor of physical therapy at Duke University School of Medicine who was a contributing author of the surgeon general’s 2004 report on bone health. Osteoporosis prevention begins in childhood with good health habits (such as proper nutrition and exercise), she notes. After about age 40, bone’s withdrawal period starts, and less bone is replaced during remodeling. For women, a drop in estrogen at the time of menopause leads to a more rapid and significant loss of bone mass. For men, a drop in testosterone—often beginning around age 70—can cause it. So will certain medications (notably steroids), medical conditions (such as rheumatoid arthritis and eating disorders), smoking, and excessive alcohol consumption".
