Maxims
Listen for the gold.
Every class is an event.
Relationship is your first priority.
Begin in a friendly way.
Learn names.
See God in each person, (especially the angry, difficult and judgmental people.)
Each person is God talking to you.
The student makes a decision in 12 minutes.
Every moment is grace. Every situation is perfect.
All words are mantra. Bland words are merely broken poetry.
Keep changing the language ....there are exceptions (beginnings and endings.)
Make the moment interesting
The bodymind is temporary
Impermanence is the doorway into the present.
“Always keep the awareness in the frameworks of the body.”
Breath and sensations are your connection to ultimate reality.
The more beliefs we have about life, the less we experience life.
Test the edges with love, then find the middle way.
New teachers know the rules. Old teachers have students who are exceptions.
Think of the body as fluctuating, alive and unique, not mechanical or geometrical.
Fill your words with prana.
Teach mostly love.
Teach from the big picture. Speak about the big picture. Be the big picture.
Set your intention, then....
Drop the dream state.
Almost always say “Yes.”
Never over simplify. Don’t get overwhelmed by complexity.
Beware of “never,” “always,” “I can’t “ and “I should.”
Never be too sure. Once you are sure, then move with the whole force of your being.
Hover, hover, hover, then decide decisively.
The source of wisdom is silence.
Theory is not Reality. The map is not the territory.
I choose “the point.”
It is always “my turn.”
Ideas are talk. Experiential learning is what matters.
Mind Matters Most.
Thoughts become sensation. Four sources of the sensation flow: food, environment, body karma, and current thought pattern.
Don’t form “your self.” The universe ultimately doesn’t support it. Don’t be a thing. Be all things. Living up to an image is the ultimate source of stress.
Strong Body, Focused Mind, Soft Heart.
Don’t get afraid ahead of time. Go to the moment and find out.
Expect Good Results.
I want to take you to the place where nothing will ever crush your spirit.
What you practice, gets stronger.
What are you practicing, right now?
What you are doing right now, is it leading you to the “Light”, or is it leading you to the “Darkness?”
Are you shedding light or casting shadows?
Where your mind goes, that’s where the praana flows.
(also the chi, the blood supply, the oxygen, the antibodies, immune system is directed to the point of your attention.)
Pause. Force yourself to pause. (Especially when leading yoga classes.)
Humans are driven by emotions, not reason.
(anatomically, there are 8 axons coming up from the limbic brain (emotional center) for every axon running down from the cortical areas that process rational thought.)
It is not serious, but it is important.
Seriousness is a crime in the court of God.
It is important, but it is not serious.
“There is a field beyond right and wrong, I’ll meet you there.” Rumi
“The highest spiritual practice is self observation without judgment” Swami Kripaluvanada
Your body is closer to Ultimate Reality than your mind.
Life is one Yoga posture after the next.
Breath, sensations, awareness of vritti
You have to do a lot of Doing,
before you can Be.
The Mind is an Idolator.
The Mind idolizes pleasureable sensation flow. It becomes attached to the people. places, yogic techniques and things that try to recreate the conditions that brought on initial experience.
We live in a Group Delusion.
Time will swallow us all, personally, collectively, this planet, this solar system, this galaxy. All our activities and most of our beliefs are designed to distract us from our finiteness, the incomprehensiblity of Time and the death of the ego.
Impermanence brings you to Creativity
Anicca is your doorway to the depth of the moment.
Dukkha brings you to Compassion. Genuine Love.
Mere mechanical repetition of postures will never be enough.
All Beings live with the background of suffering, their finite existence. when you clearly see this in yourself and in others, anger disappears, separation disappears.
If the self is insubstantial, Who or what exactly is getting enlightened?
Who is suffering?
Who am I?
Who is In?
In stillness, you become aware that all is fluctuation.
In movement, you find the stillness.
In action there is inaction and in inaction there is action.
Driven by the doing, we miss what we are doing.
It is always “my turn.”
Staying on “the Point” destroys “my turn.”
“It is nearer than near. It is as close as the next breath...”
Ehipassiko. Come to the present moment and find out.
The macrocosm is in the microcosm. a holographic universe.
If you find a yoga posture is easy to perform, it does not make you “good.””good at yoga.” If you find a yoga posture that is difficult, that does not make you “bad.” Yoga is about transcending this dualistic, competitive separative mind.
I want to take you to the place where nothing will ever crush your spirit.
Think for yourself