Thursday, January 03, 2008

Dhanurasana

Got a new pose today. It was bound to happen soon since I was starting to become impatient about it. When I get to the point where I feel I need to tape my mouth shut to keep from asking for a new pose, it's usually right about the time that my teacher (whatever teacher, it's a pretty universal intuition that I have about pose-getting) tells me it's time to do a new pose. Not TRY a new pose. To paraphrase Yoda. Yeah, I know, I am coming late to the party on this one. But I just rewatched Star Wars Episode 5 (The Empire Strikes Back) and discovered to my family's utter non-delight that YODA is...YODA. An 800-year-old master of masters, teacher of teachers, he teaches Luke Skywalker to stand on his hands. Then on one hand. Then on one hand, holding Yoda on his feet. Then walking through the forest, holding Yoda on his back. You might as well substitue 90-something-year-old master of masters, teacher of teachers, teaching the yoga equivalent of Padawans to martial their bhandas, which is to say, THE FORCE, for good, not evil, without ego, with patience, facing their fears.

NB: Occasionally, he stands on his students.

Yoda: You do not try. You do. Or you don't. Try, you do not.

Or something like that.

Has anyone else ever written about this? If so, I mean you no derivativism. I assume this has been written about to death. But I just had to say it because, honestly, it got me through my practice today. You do. You do. You do. I kept hearing that.

Practice is feeling kind of long lately. As if it wasn't long before simply by virtue of my tendency to drag things out with R&D. Now, if I just do one breath per movement, it's still quite long. Not that I'm complaining. It just is. Long. And it's not going to get any shorter any time soon. So, it's time to tuck in and just do.

YC

5 comments:

Carl said...

Possible, originality is not. All has been said. With the heart you must speak. Only genuineness is possible.

Anonymous said...

no way could anyone else have written that. if they had, then they'd be the source, right?

Trainer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Trainer said...

whoops--here we go again....

Do, or do not. There is no 'try.' Yoda

aka

Practice.

DebPC said...

I was going to put a comment on here about switching things up sometimes to combat boredom, but instead wrote something along those lines on a blog I've been keeping-- and kind of keeping secret, although I did have one desparate moment of reader-seeking. Anyway, it's at debbypc.blogspot.

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Northern Westchester, New York, United States
I live by a duck pond. I used to live by the East River. I don't work. I used to work a lot. Now, not so much. I used to teach a lot of yoga. Now not so much. I still practice a lot of yoga though. A LOT. I love my kids, being outdoors, taking photos, reading magazines, writing and stirring the pot. Enjoy responsibly.

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