The tiniest nail

Jānu Śīrsāsana ~ “Head-knee pose“ 

“May I be the tiniest nail in the house of the universe, tiny but useful.” Mary Oliver

——————————————————————- “Every workshop

has its foundations set

on that emptiness.

The Master of all masters

works with nothing.

The more nothing comes into your work,

the more God is there.

We’ve talked so much! Remember

what we haven’t said.

And keep working. Exert yourself

toward the pull of God.

Laziness and disdain are not devotions.

our efforts will bring a result.

You’ll watch the wings of divine attraction

lift from the nest and come toward you!

As dawn lightens, blow out the candle.

Dawn is in your eyes now. “

—Rumi, “ Dervishes” transl Coleman Barks

———————————————————————- “Do your work

Then step back” —Bhagavad Gita ——————————————

The moment is open

“The experiment of what it is to be alive should be ongoing.”

—Manouso Manos

“The present could bend like hot glass, should the human heart at last listen.”

—Mary Oliver, “Blue Pastures”

. "Unscrew the locks from the doors!

Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!” ——Walt Whitman “Song of Myself”

Vāmadevāsana I ~~ pose of sage Vāmadeva /Śiva

“The very life force of nature is an initiating power, a driving force, an incitement to creation. It hears our call and responds to it in proportion to the valor and determined intent with which it is invoked.” BKS Iyengar, Light on Life, p. 62. 

Parśva Utthita Hasta pādāngusthāsana  ~~extended hand/arm clasping the foot to the side pose

Let your pains be your teacher.” Yogacharya BKS Iyengar

“How shall there be redemption and resurrection unless there has been a great sorrow? And isn’t struggle and rising the real work of our lives?”

Mary Oliver, “Winter Hours” 

The secret of the light

“Who knows what is beyond the known?And if you think that any day the secret of light might come, would you not keep the house of your mind ready? Would you not cleanse your study of all that is cheap or trivial? Would you not live in continual hope, and pleasure, and excitement?”

Mary Oliver, “Winter Hours”. 

the feeling of oneness

“Now we find ourselves in a realm where the inner is visibly trying to get out, to express itself. The space we create is such that the source body, the innermost, can begin to radiate out. One should be natural, like a happy, confident child. The soul seeks nothing more than to expand to fill our whole being.” Yogācārya B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Life, 2005, p.173.

Atmīyatā—“the feeling of oneness, as a mother’s feeling for her children” (from Glossary of Light on Yoga)

Matsyāsana —fish pose, supported and with daughter

Power Strength with Love

“Love begets courage, moderation creates abundance and humility generates power. ”

— Yogācārya B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Yoga, 1966, p. 29.

Pūrvottānāsana—intense stretch of the east side of the body pose.

Strength can be powered from a place of love and devotion. Lightness is created by lifting heaviness. Be One with love and duty.

Into the immeasurable light

“Exertion, or our effort through practice, generates the energy, which we need for the journey to penetrate to the core of our being.”

—Yogācārya BKS Iyengar, Light on Life p. 60

 “...Prayer is a dipping of oneself toward the light, there is a consequence of attentiveness to the grass itself, and to the floating bird. I too leave the fret and enclosure of my own life. I too dip myself toward the immeasurable.”

—Mary Oliver, “Winter Hours”. .