I'm not sure what the significance of the number is, but that is how many salutes to the sun we will be making tonight.
Happy Summer Solstice.
It so happens that this year it falls on a Wednesday. A little more than a month ago Diana asked Jill and I if we'd be interested in participating with her at the Yoga Shala for the Summer Solstice, 108 Sun Salutations. We said yes, we'd love to. I am anxious and excited. I am nervous and in awe. 108...wow.
It's been said you don't have to actively do all 108, but listen to your body and do what you can and when your body says to rest, think of the salutes and in your mind you are saluting. Someone said to me yesterday, "you're already thinking of copping out?" after I had mentioned that was an option. I don't look at is as copping out, but rather listening to my body and not allowing my ego to rule my practice.
Whatever you do today, do it with thanks to the sun.
5 comments:
teach me yoga please.
i'm 33, going on about 80.
can you recommend some stages or styles or anything or an infexible old bag like me?
where do I start?
wanna commute from portland and give lessons-o-goodness?
:)
I've taken some yoga classes, and I find I like this book the best:
Om at Home
The directions for the positions are all with little stick figures, so you don't have to be intimiated by those fantastic yogis with all those muscles.
There's also journal entry pages, so you can remind yourself what hurt and what worked.
Still, Shannon's yoga kicks my yoga's ass. Maybe she'll have a better recommendation.
Shannon, as for the "108" it's a very special number in Indian Culture. Think of it like the bible's repetition of the numbers 7, 12, and 40. Instead of the 12 tribes of Abraham, Hindu religion has 12 Alwars. As for 108, there are 108 names for Sadgurudev. There are 108 Srivaishnava Temples. It's also a special number in the Bhuddist religion. I think as with most religions and their auspicious numbers, it was probably arbitrarily set by some king many, many years ago.
Nice work on your sun salutations.
B- There is a book I was given by my yogi and the name escapes me at the moment. I will look at it when I get home and send you the title.
Femalegrad- when you come home, we will practice together. I will check out the link to the book (I'm sure that it is a wonderful book since you recommended it). THank you, too, for the 108 explanation. I will let you know what else is said tonight (assuming I remember anything...even my name...after tonight).
Namaste.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345442083/sr=1-1/qid=1150926646/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8383040-5852645?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=books
(I so can't figure out how to make it a damn link in the comments...)
Jivamukti Yoga is the book's title.
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