Homework

Unknown

 

More Homework!

 

 

Homework for Weekend 6

Continue exploring your emotional energies in life: ups, downs and neutrals. Begin to notice the many voices wired into those emotions; I want, I need, me – me – me, mine – mine – mine. What are these creations of mind calling themselves “I” and claiming me and mine? The word ego is a popular one to describe the needy voices, but we need to look more deeply into the types of energies that lead to the creation of these separate selves. Connect this to the attachment process and your attachment profile. There is a link in the summary to weekend 5 posted on the blog page. By the way, I periodically edit/update these summaries, so be sure to check back from time to time. I will link them to this page to make it easier to find them.

Sutras: Yamas and Niyamas: II-30 – II-45
Breathing: Viloma I and II as described in notesAsana: connect your whole life to the poses

 

Homework for Weekend 5   (Summary of 5)

We will be looking at emotions, so for sutras work, lets go right to II-7 and II-8, raga and dvesa, our likes and dislikes. Follow how your emotional energies are manipulated by these. Continue abhyasa and vairagyam as well, moving the energies around as necessary. Master all material from the first 4 sessions. (Just kidding!)  But do keep practicing, observing your life unfolding and come up with questions. Outside reading can include sections from ‘Emotional Intelligence‘ by Dan Goleman, and ‘The Developing Mind’ by Dan Siegel. And practice the mantras! We have many more to get to.

 

Homework for Weekend 4  (Summary of 4)

Read the reviews of the first three weekends on the blog page and let me know if I forgot anything. Also, are there questions from these weekends to look into?

Keep practicing. Find the sutras in your asana practice. Work with the mantras. Find questions that deeply engage you.

Homework for Weekend 3   (Summary of 3)

Continue to explore the deep front line in all poses. Pay special attention to the feet and lower legs.
Keep practicing the  heart/torus meditation and the hub of awareness meditation.

Find more sutras that you can get ‘into’ tangibly, not just intellectually.
Homework for Weekend 2: image01

The Deep Front Line: find this in your inner perceptions. Track from soles of feet to hands. Find the diaphragm as well.

Yoga Sutras: Find one or two that intrigue or puzzle you. Relate to energy as: too much/too little/just right! Connect to your on-going emotional state and integrate into sustaining emotional equilibrium (samatvam).

Finally, read the blog on Yoga and the Torus, focusing on the image of the heart as a center of a heart-energytoroidal field. Building this will be our root meditation going forward and the seeding of our studies in embryology which we will develop in more detail later in the year.

 

(Summary of Weekend 2)

(Summary of Weekend 1)

Before the first weekend…

Read Adyashanti’s ” The Way of Liberation

Write a list of possible goals you would like to accomplish in the course.

Keep practicing at home. Bring Questions.

Read Samyama in Asana, Parts 1 and 2

Please rate the following possible topics for deeper exploration and e-mail me your list:

Very Important for my Practice: Somewhat Important: Not Very Important

1. Yoga Sutras
2. Bhagavad Gita
3. Neuroscience
4. Sacred Geometry
5. Embryology/Physiology
6. Anatomy/Kinesiology
7. Anything Else

Recent Posts

The Ten Oxherding Pictures

A Holiday Gift from the Buddhist World to all of us.

The ten Oxherding Pictures from Zen Buddhism represent the stages and path to awakening, integration and enlightenment, with the Ox representing our True Nature and the Oxherder each of us, the embodied being. It is important to note that the stages are not linear but spiralic and multi-dimensional, as we usually can get glimpses of more advanced levels before we have truly completed and integrated the any or all of the previous ones.

Also, we may often be working with several stages at the same time. More subtle awakenings in one level may trigger unconscious and unresolved traumas stored in the earlier levels that then need to be revisited, transformed and integrated. Then, the energy held in trauma is resolved and free to use for deeper growth.

There are many variations on the ten pictures representing the stages, and these are usually accompanied by poetic verses and/or commentary describing the journey. The paintings seen below are traditionally attributed to 天章周文 Tenshō Shūbun (1414-1463), of the Muromachi period in the late fifteenth century and are found at the Shōkokuji temple in Kyoto, Japan.

These stages can be seen as three sets of three transformations, with the final stage standing alone. The first three are the beginners journey, the second three those of the intermediate student, and the final three the most subtle and refined. The tenth transcends all and resolves as the awakened Buddha in the world helping others. Looking more deeply and ironically, we find that ultimately it is the Ox who is training and leading the Oxherder

1: Seeking the Ox
We know something is missing in our lives, but don’t know what it might be, or where to look. Our souls ache, our spirit feels fragile. The spiritual journey begins, but our minds are full of confusion and delusion. Our search is random and we cannot find the Ox anywhere. This is Dante at the beginning of The Divine Comedy.

2: Seeing Tracks of the Ox
Through study and guidance we begin to get glimpses. Maybe we discover yoga or meditation, or find spiritual teachers or writings that inspire us. But although we see the tracks, the Ox is still unseen, unknown. The tracks give us some confidence and we continue seeking, driven by the awakening cosmic impulse to discover/uncover the fullness and truth of our Being. The Ox is calling us.

3: First Glimpsing the Ox
There is the Ox. Wow! So magnificent! How did we ever not see! But the Ox remains elusive, disappearing into the forest. How could that be? Our minds are still confused, our seeking still undisciplined. The Ox teases us. She is everywhere and then nowhere to be found. Our mental habits and beliefs still dominate in spite of the revelation and we struggle to find ground. We are still beginners on the journey.

4: Catching the Ox
We finally catch the ox and grasp the rope to hold her, but she is wild and free, used to cavorting in the fields. We must hold the rope firmly and steadily. The rope of course is our evolving meditation practice and this is where it gets more serious. We are no longer beginners. We are in the realm of un-abiding awakening and must be ‘all in’ with our practice to stabilize the ground. Habits and conditioning have many tentacles extending into the unconscious, so our discipline must become stronger. The Ox keeps us on our toes.

5: Taming the Ox
As our practice becomes stronger, we can hold the rope more loosely as the Ox is relaxing somewhat. It is actually the mind that is relaxing as we begin to realize that the Ox is always steady and it is our minds that are wild and untamed. By relaxing our efforts, our practices can now include resting in the infinite and we become more comfortable in stillness and mystery. Habits still arise as the unconscious has many layers and levels of confusion and trauma, but we recognize the reality that our thoughts arise and fall from the depths of silence and that our delusion is self created.

6: Riding the Ox Back Home
The seeking and struggle come to an end and we can let go of the rope as Ox and herder are one, moving effortlessly together though the world. Buddha Nature is awake and free and we feel spontaneous joy and happiness. The Oxherder plays his flute for the birds and children of the village. This joy and delight can be a surprise as the practice has seemed quite serious at times. Unseen unconscious traumas may still exist so vigilance is still required.

7: Ox Forgotten, Self Alone
The Ox is now gone and the Oxherder sits at home alone. This is ‘Self as ‘I am’ without the need to ‘be something. This is Kaivalya of the Yoga Sutras, Purusha distinct from Prakriti. Up until now, there has remained a subtle sense of duality, of practice and life, of spiritual and not spiritual. This now dissolves. There is no longer ‘something to do’. Everything is meditation and nothing is special. Things are ‘just as they are’.

8: Ox and Self Both Forgotten
Total Emptiness. No concepts, ideas or beliefs, no sense of separateness. Even the “I am” is gone. All gone. Not even the scent of ‘holiness’ or special-ness remains. Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate.

9: Return to the Source
From the realization of Emptiness emerges the realization that the amazing flow of life always continues on in its own perfection. Seasons come and go. Cherry trees bloom in the spring. Birds sing and the rivers flow. Stars are born and others explode into cosmic dust. Emptiness is Fullness, Fullness is Emptiness. Bodhi svaha!

10: Returning to the Marketplace with Helping Hands
The enlightened being joyfully joins the world to aid all beings on their journey. Freedom, wisdom and compassion are the roots of action. Enlightenment is not passive but celebratory and engaged.

Here are some other perspectives:
From Tricycle Magazine
https://terebess.hu/english/Kuoan1.html
https://terebess.hu/english/oxherd0.html

  1. MU Comments Off on MU
  2. Comments Off on