I held off on the previous two posts cause I thought they were unreflective of how I actually feel, which is: great. They do have some funky ideers in them, though, if I do say so myself [even if most of the ideers are borrowed if not outright stolen]. Yup, it’s been a tremendous winter and some of the contributing factors are delineated below:
1. Finally shelled out for the iPad. I’m still figuring out how it hooks up with the WordPress app and am so far having minimal luck with my style of blog posting [i.e.: irregular, dilettantish, and when finally prepared, overcomplicated] but it’s perfect for everything else I want to do…primarily having access to the Internet as close to my frontal lobe as possible. It’s durable, cuddly, shiny and small. Definitely looking forward to travelling with it, although I haven’t had as many travel opportunities in ’10 as in ’09.
2. Christine and I will be teaching an advanced workshop at Yoga For The People on Sunday January 30 2011 from 12:30 to 3:30. Watch this space for details.
3. I get to teach at the stunning Inner Space on Thursday nights from 5:30 to 6:45. It makes me feel so good just being there. If you’ve never been, check it out.
4. Yaletown Yoga will be closed for renovations from Dec. 10 through Dec. 20. Until its new gorgeousness is unveiled, catch me at Inner Space above or Big Rock Friday.
Just one; I am full of babies. Whattaya need?
5a). Being pregnant with twins is way more awesome than I had been led to believe. Thank Everything for Anusara yoga, without which I am really not sure how I would cope with this new body in the context of yoga or at least what I previously thought yoga was about. For front body softness, thigh loop, muscular energy in the legs to alleviate SI pain…but mostly front body softness and trusting the divine…thanks John. Srsly. It’s so sweet to be able to continue with an active practice and not be treated like a fragile delicate flower just because OMG THE CORE. Handstands and forearm balance feel the best, with backbends a close second. Oh, and eating whatever I want. [Side rant: Why is this only permissible when in the ostensibly self-sacrificial mode of gestating humans? Whoops, I forgot this is supposed to be a non-grumpy post.]
5b) This is why I haven’t posted too much: because while of course this is a big deal in my world I haven’t wanted to write about it. It’s like very quiet music that only I can hear, and while I could conceivably gas on and on about the subjective inner experience, it can be alienating and/or tedious. It’s also a very sensitive topic. Now that they are getting a bit bigger, and hopefully more stable, and people are getting out of my way when I go to the mall, I suppose it’s more public-domain. I am terribly pleased, though 
6. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. I wish it was snowing more, mostly because I got the first proper winter coat I’ve had since university, and also because I enjoy the State of Emergency snow provides here on the West Coast…or, well, to be perfectly clear, I enjoy not SUCCUMBING to the State of Emergency that seems to prevail because it makes me feel tough, and you all know how much I like to feel tough. Stay warm, everyone. Happy Hanukkwanzmas.
You know, sometimes you’re just wandering around the Bay with CP, sniffing at the $595 Halston Mrs. Roper muumuus, when all of a sudden it comes clear: the source of so much of my anxiety and frustration w/r/t the technologies known as “spiritual practice” is that the game is rigged. The house always wins. Since you’re here anyway permit me to elucidate.
Let’s take an aspect of human experience, you can pick your favourite:
One for each deadly
- hunger
- thought [viz. the dreaded "monkey mind" or other pejorative]
- sexuality
- sleep
- anger
- (there are more but let’s start there)
And here are some questions for your contemplation:
- are these aspects of the human experience going away anytime soon?
- what would the world look like if they were gone?
- if you believe any of these aspects of human experience to be undesirable, is that they are INTRINSICALLY and inescapably wrong, or are there some situations in which they might be desirable?
I chose those ones, the five deadlies, cause those are the ones that catch the most knee-jerk unexamined flack from various spiritual technologies. Sometimes a modality will be bold enough to censure all five and then some; sometimes they will stigmatize only a couple (desire in the guise of “attachment”, &c.). In fact, this contrariness has come to be a dead lock on any of these practices, to the point where any emotion or behavior outside of a sort of a bland bemused pleasantness is interpreted as “unyogic” or similar. This (inherently nonsensical btw) assessment is leveled both at self and others, and is an endless source of flagellation a la those crazy mofos in the Da Vinci Code who hit themselves with spiky thongs because they are just so baaaaaaaaaaad.
Working title: It’s not the band I hate, it’s the fans
One of my fave bloggers, Amanda at Pandagon, has had a running series lately about “hipsters” (no, I don’t know what they are either, but bear with me) and this post got my brain juices a-flowin re: our cultural obsession with authenticity. Of course I’m going to focus on our yogic subcultural obsession with authenticity, because that’s what you pay me for, and you always get what you pay for at Heavy Metta†.
The beef with hipsters appears to be that specifically clothing, but any cultural marker like clothes, music, social events &c. make a statement about the wearer/participant. For example, somebody wearing a Judas Priest t-shirt is assumed to know what or who Judas Priest is. To make matters more complex, a young man who has always been within wireless Internet distance might wear a “Whalley Tractor Pull” t-shirt, and his genuine knowledge of or support of said tractor pull is undermined by the dreaded ironic hipsterism. How can we know whether the shirt-wearer’s support of Judas Priest or their devotion to the Whalley Tractor Pull is real? What if they can only sing the chorus of a couple of marginally radio friendly singles but don’t know the whole discography? If I am a true adherent of the WTP is this hornrimmed ass clown making fun of me? Or is this a sign that I can give him the secret Tractor Pull handshake and we can retreat to more private environs to discuss last years’ finals?
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