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Prajna Offerings (Our Blog)
Zen Motion Experience
Here is a great article by Devon Ward-Thommes about her experience with Tias’ Zen Motion:
http://www.elephantjournal.
The More Medicine, the Worse the Sequence
http://www.elephantjournal.
Tias discusses this Yoga Koan in an article for Elephant Journal
Tias at St. Louis Yogasource 2012
This is a great view into what a weekend intensive with Tias is like.
Thanks to Muse Sharon for putting this together!
Zen Motion
Designed by Tias Little, Zen Motion is a unique walking meditation part of Prajna Yoga’s Session III Teacher Training. This movement piece is a living meditation brought into a group form where people are engaged with each other creating a singular consciousness.
Latissimus Dorsi
This muscle resembles a cape, for its shape is wide and triangular. Yet rather than this cape draping from the shoulders, it sweeps upward from the lower back. It is a muscle that joins the back body and side body, thus it is part of the dorsal and lateral sheaths (and has a strong spiral component so is part of the spiral sheath). It inserts into the last six thoracic vertebrae and attaches to the lumbar vertebra, the sacrum and the crest of the ilia. Its upper insertion is at the inner edge of the arm bone. Thus when in a downward dog, any extension and span between the arm and the sacrum is established in part by the lats!
Notice the fan-like shape of this muscle and its attachments to the last four ribs. Given that it has slips that attach directly to the ribs, it is a muscle that assists in breathing (deep inhale). Thus it serves as a pranayama muscle and correlates to the respiratory diaphragm, for the diaphragm attaches to the lower ribs on the interior. One way to gain a sense for the expansion of the costal attachments of the lats is to loop a strap a over your trunk and position it over your lower rib basket. Sit in a comfortable position and expand your inhale against the strap so as to flare your side ribs.
When the muscle contracts it serves to draw the arms backward behind the body. This is done simply by interlacing your fingers behind you and drawing your arms back. This is a primary prep for positioning the arms for shoulderstand. If people are tight in the lats they cannot hold their hands to their back in shoulderstand! Given that the lat fibers lace over the base of the scapula, the lat aids in retracting the shoulder blade and in anchoring the shoulder down.
Notice how the lower fibers of the muscle are vertically oriented and the upper fibers horizontal. This suggests that this muscle allows for both vertical lift and lateral expansion.
When people have a “bendy back” or excess lumbar (and lower thoracic) curvature, then the lat fibers need to extend, so that the cape flares. This spreading occurs in bakasana (the crane pose) or bhujapidasana (see current description for this pose under Asana) or in squatting position. Aim to bring your in-breath to your kidneys which are located just under the lat and lower most ribs.
It is all too common for this mid back area to pinch in headstand in which case the lats have lost their wing-like capacity to expand. In sirsasana, practice broadening the horizontal fibers. In order to find this lift the upper inner arm in headstand where the lat attaches. Then lift your sacrum and back ilia upward away from the lumbar to get a feel for the entire length of the lat muscle.
Bhujapidasana “The Shoulder Pressure Posture”
This pose is worth getting into your repertoire, for it tones the organs and helps develop uddiyana bandha. It is the first of the arm balances to learn in the practice of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga.
Although it seems like the real challenge is arm strength, for many students, the limitation is with low back and hip flexibility.
Preparation involves working three essential areas:
1.) hip flexion
2.) lower back flexion
3.) hand/wrist/shoulder stabilization
To gain greater flexion in the frontal hips and flexion (rounding) in your lower spine, practice this series of poses:
Adho Mukha Virasana (child’s pose)
Utkatasana (Chair pose)
Uttanasana (Intense Stretch)
Malasana (Garland Pose)
Marichyasana I
In Uttanasana, keep your feet hip width apart, bend your knees and place your hands to the floor. With back rounded focus on exhalation as bhujapidasana involves the apana pattern of the breath—the exhalation pattern.
Of these five poses, malasana is the most critical, for we can think of bhujapidasana as an elevated squatting position. In malasana, be sure to pin your knees close to the side of your trunk. This squeezing action is what helps maintain the lift in bhujapidasana. In the squat position, keep your feet parallel and keep the inner big toe region in contact.
To prepare your hand/wrist and shoulder do the following series of poses:
Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Dog)
Adho Mukha Dandasana (Upper Plank pose)
Chatturanga Dandasana (Lower Plank Pose)
Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand) at wall
In each variation, be sure to lift the lower forearm upward away from the wrist as you spread the bones of your hands wide. Practice spreading the skin and musculature at your wrist, thereby widening the carpal tunnel. Hold the outer elbow area firm, that is, draw your outer arm inward toward your inner arm.
When entering bhujapidasana, enter from standing with knees bent. With your arms set between your legs, pin your hands to the backs of your heels and push your shoulders through your legs (like you are putting on a backpack!) Set your legs as high up the outer arms as you can. You can learn the essential action of a pose by way of its name. The “Shoulder Pressure Pose”, implies that the pose is held stable by firmly holding the legs against the outer arms. If the legs slide down the arms then you drop down the fire-pole! Keep your legs pinned against your upper arms as you set your hands parallel and transfer your weight to your arms. This is the moment of truth. Many lose height and lift at this point and the weight of the body crumples down toward the hands.
Some of you can practice by placing your hands onto the flat side of two blocks in order to gain enough elevation to lift your hips and torso.
Once you lift your feet up, cross at the ankles and latch them firmly together (the lower foot lifts the upper foot ). Practice drawing your feet vertically upward and also practice sliding your latched feet forward. These two movements activate different parts of the spinal column, spinal ligaments and discs.
Once you can cross your feet one way, then learn to reverse and cross in the opposite way.
Calm weather is a sign of a prosperous year…
This phrase comes out of the meditative tradition in China known as Chan. Here at the end of the year 2011 and the start of a new year 2012, it brings up the question what exactly is a “prosperous year”. The typical view of prosperity suggests material gain, monetary reward or outward success. In the meditative tradition, this notion of prosperity points to an inner wealth, an inner sense of abundance.
This abundance does not mean we have more, but rather, potentially, we have less. Less is more is an important mantra! In some regards “less is more” could be a mantra for the whole world, especially for those who have outward prosperity—many belongings. In this context less is more means that we have less turbulence within and more peace of mind.
What weather is this? We are not talking about atmospheric weather like tornadoes, tsunamis and droughts. We are thinking in terms of inner weather. Mind weather. To use the meteorologists’ terminology, we are referring to the high pressures, the cold fronts, the wind patterns that affect the mind and heart. What is the climate of the nerves? How do we avoid wind invasion of the nerves? We have the expression in English, “keep your nerves”. This is like the calm weather that is the sign of a prosperous year. That the winds of circumstance, the winds of cause and condition, the winds of karma have not distressed our dendrites.
We must be like weatherman, weatherwoman. If we are watching our own weather map, then we can work with states of high pressures, and states of low pressures. If we do not watch our weather, it may sneak up on us and we get drenched or our house may catch on fire. So this is a serious thing. Many of us watch the weather map of our state, our city on t.v, on the internet, on the news. Why not watch the internal weather map?
Often times the inside weather is bad. Like the kind of storms that you see covered on the weather channel, a reporter gripping his mic with raw fingers, half-shouting and going hoarse to make himself heard above the din of the storm, rain slashing across the camera lens, mounting sea swells crashing behind him. On the weather channel, this is top story. It is such good stuff that the cable channel will show reruns during the slow times, like at one or two o’clock in the afternoon. Or at eleven pm, right before bed time!
When the weather inside is like this it wrecks havoc on our nervous system. We can be flooded by frustration, impatience, anger and feelings of blame. We might then have a hard time sleeping, a hard time breathing. It can put us into a neurological, psychological, emotional, tail-spin.
The yoga sutras of Patanjali refer to these distressing fluctuations in the mind and emotions as citta vrtti. Vritti means to turn. Like the way El Nino moves, fluctuations in the mind can really churn. The task of the weather-watcher is to track the patterns. Don’t expect that there won’t be inclement weather. It is not that the citta just clears up and stays that way. That would be like the skies just staying blue. When we watch the skies of our mind, really observe with the neutrality of a scientist, a climatologist, then we can see the patterns coming, see them blow over, at times get soaked or have our trees blown down. So neutrality does not mean no weather. What it does suggest is that we do not become unmoored by weather such as anger, irritation, frustration, restlessness, competitiveness, lust, greed. By watching the weather you say to yourself, okay this is the weather pattern of today. Because its weather, it comes and gos. So we do not react to the weather like, oh I hate this rain or I wish it were sixty-five degrees and sunny. The weather is the weather. We become non-reactive, non-threatened by the weather-of-the-day. This leads to calm amidst weather. Calm in the face of all conditions– hot, cold or windless.
This is some of what is suggested by “calm weather is a sign of a prosperous year”.
Focal point in balance poses
Greetings Tias and Surya,
Shanti,
Leslie
Dear Leslie,
In the eagle pose (garudasana) I think it is best to teach the arm and leg movements separately before combining them, for it is a difficult pose. Teach the arm action in tadasana or virasana. And I think it is best to teach the leg movements when inverted—either lying on the back or in shoulderstand.(I prefer doing the leg action in headstand). By doing the leg wrap when inverted, there is less pressure on the knees. Knee compression is one of the challenges of this pose given the torquing and rotation involved, making the pose difficult to balance in. The gaze can initially be a wide gaze, peripheral gaze. That is the students can look beyond their hands. The next stage is to focus the dristi is to the fingers, and given the short focus, it is more difficult to balance.
May your raptor fly high!
Tias
Tripod Headstand – question about pressure on cranial bones.
I have a question that no one seems to know the exact answer to… In tripod headstand, no matter how I cushion my head, I feel like the floor is pushing the plates of my skull in slightly, like a slight shifting. Do you know what this is? I haven’t been practicing it because of it but am curious.
Leslie
Dear Leslie,
When practicing tripod headstand (hasta sirsasana) there is certainly pressure on the cranial bones. This is why when beginners are learning head balance, and they are inclined to do the tripod variation, instead of the hand-head cradle variation with forearms on floor, we discourage it. You may use a blanket to pad your head but only a 1/4 inch lift. Other wise it could jam the cervical vertebrae. Do be sure that your hands are on the sticky mat in order to get firm traction. The key in this pose is to prevent the elbows from splaying (you can use a strap over your lower humerus, just above your elbow to keep the upper arms parallel). Then be sure to powerfully lift your shoulder blades away from the floor. As with all inversions charge your inner legs upward to decompress the base of the pose.
The position on the head should be just anterior to the very crown point, so weight is on or near the anterior fontanelle. The pressure will help keep the stretch fibers within the sutures elastic, between the parietal, fontal and temporal bones of the skull.
Kindly
Tias
Yoga Modern Interviews Tias at the Yoga Journal Estes Park conference 2011
Yoga Modern Interviews Tias at the Yoga Journal Estes Park conference 2011
Tias Little on yoga, women’s rights, and abortion follow-up article.