Flying through the eyes of Rilke

Angel!: If there were a place that we didn't know of, and there,
on some unsayable carpet, lovers displayed
what they could never bring to matery here -- the bold
exploits of their high flying hearts,
their towers of pleasure, their ladders
that have long since been standing where there was no ground,
    leaning
just on each other, trembling, -- and could master all this,
before the surrounding spectators, the innumerable soundless dead;
    Would these, then, throw down their final, forever saved up,
forever hidden, unknown to us, eternally valid
coins of happiness before the at last
genuinely smiling pair on the gratified
carpet?

Antigravity Perfect Balance

Twice in the past month I have gotten, playing base, to this magical place of perfect balance with my flyer... once with Saki and once with Sally, once in shoulderstand and once in pashi. So, both have been with my partners full weight on my arms, and my arms stacked perfectly through the shoulders, all the way to the solid ground. And when that perfect moment of lateral balance is found, literally, the asana takes absolutely zero effort to maintain. In fact, it freaked me out so much both times that I thought something was wrong, and I intentionally pushed each of them back off balance so that I could exert some muscular control over the situation. I mean, its very strange when you are using strong muscles to bring something into manifestation, and then all of a sudden, poof! its like God just came in and lifted the whole weight of the flyer right off of you, like they are really *free flying*.

*next time* it happens, I will recognize it better, and just begin to blissfully laugh at the perfect balance. Soon, soon...

placegolder: Dog-walkin and Poi-spinnin

to be concluded

step off your mat and enjoy eachothers gifts :)

continuing:

We are looking for win win situations, where you get a lot out of the training and you leave with the tools to share this magic. We honor your interest and your passion for the work. We look to serve you and your community in becoming a playground for yogis to step off their mats and enjoy each others gifts.

requirements to apply for AcroYoga teacher training:

It is up to you to decide what form of yoga moves you and what you want to share with your students. Becoming a yoga teacher is not a requirement to be filled to become an AcroYoga teacher, it is a vital part of knowing yourself and your relationship to spirit. Clarity and steadiness on your yoga path is what we are wanting you to find before you come to this training.

AcroFlow 2.0

Just got through my second private AcroYoga jam today, and it was as blissful as I dared to imagine.

We had all the time in the world, so we started real slow with partner stretches, and some of the stuff I had warmed up with in NY at the Om Factory. That was nice, since my practice had been getting more and more acrobatically, and simultaneously, macho oriented. Which only means, acro / circus has a tendency to jump straight into the advanced / highly physical stuff, and I've begun to really miss some of the really basic stuff which is the real foundation of the practice: like, two people coming into trusting physical contact.

What really brought this home to me was class on Sunday, where there was a 60/40 mix of complete newbies and experienced acroyogis. The experienced group was really pushing into some new ground which, with some of the heavier partners, was really beginning to strain my shoulder, so I went back and played with some of the new kids. To see, feel, and spot the instability of some of their basics (folded leaf even), really brought me back to foundations... and then to see the look on their eyes after completing... pure bliss and joy!

So H and I went through the foundation and got really relaxed and comfortable prior to a deep therapeutics session. My stated intent was to really start working on our flow... as in, really intuitive, natural transitioning through poses and full sequences, so we could get to that magic place of being.

We went through three or four sessions of intense practice, and worked verbally and bodily through some intriguing places and body spaces. One of the synchronistic highlights of the afternoon was when I had her up in throne, working through some nice one leg poses and arm movements, and she placed her hands above her head and said "wow, this feels like a halo..." literally at that precise moment the chandelier flickered and leapt to like 300% brighter than it had been. I looked up and saw all the arms of the chandelier (which she was perfectly positioned below) extending from her head, and it was a moment. :)

Since it was just me and H, my body/legs needed to recover between sessions, so we often returned to the mat and just did gentle partner mirroring work while having a natural conversation. Being able to have conversation while in physical flow was something completely new to me, and it was refreshing and fun. Normally I am so caught up in the blissful physical intensity that I am speechless.

So tonight I'm up now, after crashing early, and I received some intense dream intelligence about acro flow.. yes, finally I'm getting to the real reason for this post :)

Working through acro-flow with a partner is like a microcosmic mirror of working through a relationship with a person. The way your bodies feel, touch, balance, move, and flow together, how it feels for each of you, where the sticking points are in the pattern, how you choose to work through them together, the dance of flyer and base... these can all be seen (and in my dream, they were literal manifest) of the story of flow of the relationship... THIS MIRRORING IS THE CORE TRUTH OF THIS DREAM.

the real kicker was towards the end of the dream, where we started to add mechinical externals to the core acroyogic play. I visualized this as actual metal knobs bolted onto our hip bones for external attachment. H is an aerialist as well (trapeze, silks), so soon this will probably integrate into the practice. And the trapeze is a form of technical gear, a step away from purity but also an augmentation... and then I woke :)

AcroFlow

Today we rocked out a serious sequence. Here goes. At the start I thought, this is *long*... by the end, I think I got it.

* Throne
* wild dance on throne
* legs wide, no hands throne
* unhook legs
* hop / throw to forward flying
* flyer grasps ankles, full bow
* flier bends forward, base arms on shoulders
* flier grabs base ankles, powers up to
* shoulderstand
* stag
* legs wide, grab bases feet and bring them to hips to
* folded leaf
* the twisty thing to turn them over into reverse leaf
* they go pike and grab their ankles
* pashi
* base releases and relaxes feet (yum), all weight on hands
* flier up to headstand
* base toes to fliers back
* flier backbends over into whale / upside down flying
* flier grabs ankles
* rock flier back, forth
* ???
* reverse shoulderstand (fliers arms behind back, grasping base ankles)
* i have no recollection of where this went next or how it ended. like i said, its *long* :)

I <3 Acro!

Piloboli

Well, long time since I posted. Here's the skinny:

Went to my 9th Burn, Burning Man 2008. It was great. One of my absolute highlights (in addition to fornicating in the middle of the open desert) was kicking it wild style with the Contact Improv kids. It was a rocky start, but once we were in flow, we were in FLOW. I literally just closed my eyes and followed my body (and the body of my partners) through a rollicking flow of inversions, wrestles, lifts, crawls, rolls... you name it! 20 minutes later I left the floor completely out of breath and I hadn't even realised the exertion I was putting into the practice. I talked with the people, especially Renee, and he explained to me some of the fundamentals of the form.

I left Center Camp resolved to begin a Contact Improv community in Atlanta. Upon arriving back home, I followed my classic "Shoot! Aim! Fire!" routine, and emailed several people and my favorite yoga studio asking for space and time to gather. Of course, 2 hours later, after a little google research and some emails, I found out that there already is a *thriving* contact improv (CI) community right here.

Better yet, I found out that there was to be a 3-day workshop with Matt Kent, choreographer for Pilobolus, beginning in just 5 days! I signed up immediately.

Matt was the first person I met upon walking into the backstage door of Atlanta Ballet. And he quickly clarified to me that this was a dance workshop, not contact improv. No matter. It was awesome! And to me, it *was* contact improv, because, aside from like two times that we were gifted 10-15 minutes to synthesize a "piece", all the activity was improvisational and immediate. What's more strange is that out of 30 participants, I was the *only* male! Fine. I've been to the Hoop Convergence. I can handle the estrogen :)

AcroYogi / AcroBat

This Sunday we had another Jedi Kula class with Todd at Jai Shanti. A good diversity of players. We started off with simple and deep therapeutics, then moved to some forward flying, advanced to forward flying bow, and just as I was starting to think: "Oh, this is all such basics!" Todd threw us into some serious full inversions, including both candlestick and some other thing which required SERIOUS abdominal / core pushes along with real arm strength for both the base and the flyer. In fact, in this class, I began to realise the limits of my body, and where some old old injuries came out.

Playing with PC was very fun. She has a joyous and confident and ambitious energy to her that is fun to be around.

It was funny enough how the class began. Late to show and just in time was Vincent(?), a classically trained acrobat and dancer who had actually spent several years in the Circus... like, as a real job! He gave me some very detailed tips about how to place my hands and how to work grips that really allowed me to get into the advanced work.

In the end it was Trish and Vincent and I pushing the limits of our bodies with an inversion. As I tried for the second time, I could feel my muscles beginning to literally pop in both my triceps and legs, like I was going to pull one. That scared me a little. Nothing would suck like pulling a muscle while upside down 4 feet off the ground. Nonetheless, I was determined to hit the pose, so after stretching and breathing and jumping jacks for a few minutes, rejoined the fray... and damn if I didn't HIT IT! BAM!

Once I was up and in layout, it was all about balance and less about strength... hooray!

We also began to learn about "wrist love" in addition to the core practice of "leg love." Good stuff all around.

I realised leaving (in a very high state) that we had really begun the transition from AcroYoga into Acrobatics. Great stuff. And I now know where I need to build strength (arms and core). Boom! :)

Capacitor

epiphany / mantra

Yesterday I was feeling suicidal again at work, so I left at 1pm and headed home to hug the children. When I'm with the kids (especially one on one), I can always just revert to my inner child and experience the pure joy of simple being in the Now, a smile, complete spontaneity without consequences, play, natural existence.

To my surprise, the house was completely empty.

To my relief, the house was completely clean.

I went about a little personal cleaning. Since my possessions can now all safely fit in the back of my truck, this is fairly simple. A little laundry here, a few pieces of old mail and file folders there. And then, I rediscovered my costumes and my Miata.

It was about this time my inner voice said "I can do art." It was that simple. And I heard it over and over and over again. And it brought a smile to my face. As I hummed, I remembered my dear old friend Belle, who used to pass out business cards that said in big stenciled letters on the back "ART SAVES LIVES". And then my hum broke into a chant, and soon the chant became a song, and I was singing! It was a wonderful beautiful harmony melody dance of notes, and it brought pure joy to my heart and lungs.

I Can Do Art, ICANDOAT, ICanDoArt, EyeKanDooArt, I CAN DO ART

I wrote on my door of madness, and instead of the robotic entheo-runes, out flowed natural, zen like calligraphic script! The big word said:

ARTIST

Throughout this I ran into little doubt machines, and I summoned my strength and banished them.

My first project, somewhat questionably (doubt machine again? BAH!), will be the manufacture of an art car.

1994 Mazda MX-5 Miata >>> Transforma! >>> The Mach 5

I got out the BEASTdrill (an old 1950s direct drive 1/2" drill that puts any modern machine to shame), throwing blue sparks everywhere, and drilled out the last stubborn stuck bolt holding the passenger seat to the chassis. I now have a pristine Miata, new roof, no seats, ready for mod.

My awesome grounded Georgia neighbor Hugh came over later that night and we surveyed the car for like 30 minutes, comparing it against my c. 1988 Fujimako MX-5 model car kit, mapping out the mods. Playa ready by 2009. Let the art begin! :)

inspiration NOW

Step strong, know yourself first. Step through and beyond your wildest dreams. Let yourself go to the next level today, right this minute. A new spring has come, a pivotal year in a time of tremendous change. You are the leaders, the ones we have waited for.

- from Amo -- http://amoration.wordpress.com/

Bhagavan Das plays the Sitar

A sitar is a very complicated instrument. This one had dozens of strings, and I didn't know how to tune it. I didn't know where to begin, so I left it in the empty room next to Ram Dass' room. Every day I'd bring it flowers and worship it as Sarasvati -- the goddess of music, art, and letters. For weeks I sat with it and meditated.

One day, the sitar spoke to me and told me to pick it up. I picked it up very respectfully, as if I was holding a beautiful woman in my arms. Then it said, "Tune me." And I started tuning the strings. For the next couple weeks I spent hours tuning the sitar, never playing it. Finally, something happened and it all came together. I started to play. But it didn't feel like I was playing the sitar -- it felt like the sitar was playing me. Sarasvati was playing the sitar by using my fingers. I never had a lesson. I just surrendered to the Goddess. The music was sublime.

-- Bhagavan Dass, "It's Here Now (Are You?)

Practice

He explained how yogis and holly men travelled and how people gave them free food so they could focus exclusively on their inner practices. If you meditated a lot, people in India felt that you were doing good work that benefits everyone. You purified the psychic airwaves, so they took care of you. (Its not like in the United States, where, when people hear you're focusing on a spiritual life, they roll their eyes and tell you to get a job.)

In India, being a full-time meditator is a job, which comes with a great benefits package.

- from It's Here Now (Are You?),
by Bhagavan Das

chance and symbolism

Everything for a reason, everything with a purpose.

The other night I had a particularly depressing time on the town. The beginning of the 4th of July, around 1am. I got so flustered that I changed my dinner order to take-out, and sat there debating whether to pay cash or credit. I counted my cash and put my card on the table. Finally went with cash. And I was so done, that I just left the cash on the table (in Mew York City!), walked to the front desk, and told the waitress "I left it on the table" as I fled the scene of the crime.

he next morning I counted my cash. Something like $75 total, about $20 of that in 1s. I couldn't find my ATM card but didn't think much of it... until I had spent almost all my cash on a new pair of shoes, a new shirt, 2 slices of pizza and a drink. I had $8 left. And spent 30 minutes searching for my ATM card in vain.

I made it through the night through the kindness of strangers. The club gate girl who slipped me in, the girl who bought me bottled water.

Come the next morning, I had a single $2 bill and began to strategize how I might transform that and a metro card into a passage to the airport the next morning. It felt like Burning Man all over again, in a way.

Anyways, waltzed over to the restaurant, and asked the maitre de about a lost card. She was super sweet, checked the office, asked the bartender, even called the manager. No luck. I told the bartender "I lost my green card." He said "That sucks." And I replied, "Good News, Bad News... Who knows?"

Back to the homestead all 35 feet south, a renewed effort to find my card. It *will be* here. I *will* find it. A mere five minutes later:

bending three magazines (with a sneaking suspiscion), I sense something rigid inside one of them. Hmmmm... I grab them by their spines and shake. Low and behold, what falls out of, but my little green ATM card. Right behind the flap of "quiet your mind... 5 poses for inner calm," followed closely by "Transform your life with yoga of the heart"

This was a powerful message atop the Ram Dass Be Here Now, and Bhaghavan Dass' It's Here Now (Are You?) reading of the night prior. Slowly, but surely, a picture is forming...

soreness

My body still had not fully recovered from Monica's Sunday class when I went into the Acro Jam on Thursday. It actually shocks me that certain forms can now make my body sore for 4 days. Wow.

Now, 1 day post acro, my body is *really* sore. I wonder if professional athletes live in a state of constant soreness?

This might also have a little to do with alchohol and poor nutrition. I have been exercising like a banshee. So physical health is in good progress. My strength is better than its ever been... so is flexibility and balance. Drinking mildly. My diet sucks. I hate shopping for food, which basically reduces me to being a forager.

So this is my next goal: EAT RIGHT.

Happy 4th of July

This is my fourth public performance. (following Hollywood, Bryant Park NYC, and Central Park NYC)

So as midnight neared last night, I had to celebrate in some way, so I threw on a pair of shorts, scrambled up some batteries for the iPod amp (Music was a required part), lit up my flowtoy glowpoi, and headed for the rooftop. A couple was romantically perched on the ledge, and I said a brief hello but decided not to intrude (breath). I cranked up my music and proceeded to spin a really nice set to Michael Franti (Love, Why did you Go Away?) and then to Bassnectar (Underground Communication). Franti was heartbreaking. Bassnectar was mildly reassuring. I spun a pretty good set. And the whole time I could see the big mis-numbered clock on the rooftop nearby, so I knew exactly the moment we entered July 4. I imagined how my performance would look from the eyes of the couple. I thought, properly done, this could be excellent romantic fuel for them. I hoped it was. I concluded my set and gave them a bow and a polite good night and a "Happy Fourth!". And went back to my own personal independence day in Apt Om.

The Purpose of Yoga Asana

I've been thinking more and more of my Sunday session with Monica.

As noted (a few blog posts) below, I think I lost 5 pounds of water weight during her teaching. And at the start, and the middle, and the end, she repeated the same wisdom:

"The entire purpose of asana is to bring our minds to a state of stillness. Some can achieve this in simple lotus. Others need to completely physically exhaust their body forms before their mind can come to rest."

Me, I'm in the latter. But lately, I've been practicing in other places. Like on the plane up here today. I was sitting next to a sexy young girl, and obviously I desired to communicate with her (and I did), but there were also times in the 3 hours of flight and tarmac that I wished to turn inward deeply (and I did). To get to that deep inner place, I thought of Monica's teaching.

And I did it again today walking through Central Park. And again tonight in my apartment. remain calm. seek inner peace. it will all be OK. :)

G

We be AcroJammin NYC!

Well, Jake started the AcroNYC Google Group, which takes up on the text-messaging foundation that Mary built, and perfect timing since I just joined this community.

So now we have a NY city-wide acroyogi superhero community building / flash mob decentralized communication hub! YES!

Via this mechanism, I was able to participate in the playtime in Central Park today. It was ultra-fun, very challenging, and by the end, I was ready for both a nap and a beer.

Participants included Jake, Mary, Metta, Jules, Wendy, and me. We warmed up for about 15 minutes then paired off for some basics. But pretty soon, we were into some *crazy* moves, including a daring inverted twist into full flip!

I put Wendy through a fairly advanced sequence including the flip and a jumping inverted flying handstand start, and we practiced it three times to make sure it was recorded in our bodies. it just got better and better each time.

In this sense, AcroYoga is incredibly similar to rock-climbing; it blends elements of balance, raw strength, improvisation, and serious problem solving skills all together in a spontaneous partner-based art-form.

In all we jammed for about 5 hours straight. The high is so good, I often found myself just drawling post-sequence, especially after flying.

Jake was a genuine ambassador to the arts, and not only gave me great training, but just by watching him I learned a lot. There were admirers all the while (the meadow we were playing in prolly had about 2000 people in it), but one group in particular started doing basic gymastics about 200 feet from us. Dear Jake just called out to them and said "wanna play and learn?" and the best of them came over with his two girl friends, and Jake proceeded to base him into a pretty badass sequence... this was this kids very first time doing acro. Afterwards, coming down, with a stunned look on his face, he asked "Is there somewhere I can learn how to do this more?" A card was given. I knew the look in this kids eyes. He was hooked.

Many more hours and water, and some poi spinning, and some hooping, later, we all joyously parted ways... until tomorrow, the 4th of July Jam :)

PLEASE GOD LET ME PRACTICE ACROYOGA AS A HAPPY FULFILLING LIFESTYLE!

How to Fly

Just had the most incredible yoga / flying dream ever. It was a deep profound vision. In it, Deven and I and some of the AcroNYC crew were in central park meditating in lotus position. Strong strong strong winds whipped up. Tornado force winds. We extended our arms and our bodies became like sails. The wind lifted us up and into the air. With ever so subtle (and some not so subtle) gestures, we were able to "reap the wild wind" and navigate through the storm, using nature's power as our flying power.

It took genuine courage to do this. In fact, we time / space shifted a bit between central park and the playa, as significant dust storms kicked up with the force of the wind. I found we could both breathe and see in the dust without irritation; it simply took willpower and faith.

This dream was such a powerful vision and yet I find I have no more words for it. I awoke excited and aware and awake, my heart beating fast in a purely passionate and pleasureable way.

In 10 hours I will be in Central Park (in real life) playing Acro with my new flying friends. May all our dreams come true!

Jivamukti Part 3

So tonight on a whim, and really needing to get out in the world, I made my way up to Jivamukti and took the 5 o'clock class with Monica. In fact, I met Monica in the elevator of all places.

It was a full 2 hour class, and very crowded. I placed my mat front and center right up facing the altar and windows. We started slow and easy with chanting, then in no time she had us pushing through some high speed vinyasa flow. Strangely, a sign on the street said "Bikram Yoga" which I had not noticed in my past two visits. Well, today's session was pretty close. It had to be at least 90 in the room, and I was literally making puddles with the amount of sweat coming off my body. I was amazed and happy about it. More than in any other exercise, sweat in yoga represents the impurities exiting your body. And tasting my sweat as it beaded and dropped into my mouth, it tasted like clear water. Meaning, to me, that my system was running pretty damn clean.

We even did some wild hand balances with one foot wrapped around behind our heads. I particularly appreciated this asana since it was what brought me into yoga in the first place 30 years ago.

Monica was born in India and her formal training showed, especially in the way she said "eeeeenhahl..... eXhayle." Her joyous energy and calmness pervaded the whole session. And she KICKED us with the bridges, which I hit better than I ever had in my life.

I walked out of JM in a complete bliss state, ready to live "be here now." Which I did as soon as I hit the streets. But thats another story for another blog. :)

The *other* handstand

So, on one of the online gymnastics tutorials I've been reading, it suggests to practice handstand, instead of kicking up into the wall, instead face your face towards the wall, tuck, and walk your feet up the wall. Then, once your legs are fully extended, walk your hands back towards the wall. This was a *completely* different way than the "dyno" style (shout out to your rock-climber-boulderers out there!) handstand I'd been practicing... and with the ability to free my feet and actually press my *stomach* against the wall as the only means of support, it really felt like it helped my balance.

I am so *jonseing* to get a free form unsupported handstand going. Cmon boy! Go Go Go!

art of hand balance

It all started with Ashtanga yoga. These kids have a special move, the "jump" from downward dog into forward bend, which has become almost universal throughout vinyasa flow practice. The trick of it is to make it graceful, prolonged, and fluid. Downward dog, for those of you unfamiliar with yoga, is simply placing your body in a pyramid position, with your feet back, your ass high, and your head low, your arms straight, your hands on the floor in front of you. Spine maximum straight, and legs straight. The proper form is a perfect triangle with the ground as the base.

Forward bend is simply "stand and touch your hands to your toes."

So the transition from dog to forward can be done with a simple walking of the feet, or more gracefully, by shifting the balance to the hands, flying the feet up into the air, and softly landing the feet back down between the hands.

Practicing this, one experiences a profound shift of both weight and balance, from the feet to the hands.

Another place I found this was in an AcroYoga warm-up that Becca put us through, the "donkey kick". In this, you start in forward bend, and kick your legs up high over your head. The point is to get as forward as possible, and hold the elevated (inverted) donkey kick pose as long as possible, without falling over forward.

And then there is the reverse bridge, and contortion videos.

Finally, there is the handstand.

It becomes clear, rather soon, that in acrobatics, and yoga, the hands and feet become interchangeable grounding mechanisms. Once you gain the flexibility to bend your body over and place equal weight on the hands and feet, and once you gain the strength in your wrists, forearms and fingers to maintain balance, and once you gain the overall kinaethetic awareness and body balance in order to shift from feet to hands and vice versa, well, thats the grok of the hand balance.

Then its just a world of creative movement possibilities. :)

Tha Hang(ing) Man

I was recently dealt the Hanged Man Tarot card. This terrified me. I had always had fearful associations with this card... in a personal journey self-loathing kind of way.

I'll start this story with an aside. I recently met a girl at a Burning Man party. She had a Chinese character on the back of her neck. I asked her what it meant, and she replied "Chicken Soup with Rice". That was funny. As we got deeper into the conversation, she expanded on the meanings. She had picked it quickly from a book, under the impression it meant "princess, queen". Upon further exploration she found it also had a somewhat negative meaning, and this made it difficult for her. I felt she really had to own it, in the sense of getting all the vibe from it and recognizing it as a part of her past.

Now I'm feeling the same way about the Hanged Man. Here's the image, followed by some notes:

Grimaud, Tarot of Marseilles - France (1963, reprint of 1761 of Nicolas Convert)


Now, color me surprised, but this "Hanged Man" is clearly an acrobat. His face is calm, his leg is stagged perfectly; his foot is in a hanging loop. This is an aerialist at play! So there! :)

Handstands

I am getting very very close to the handstand.
My Tarot of the Day was the Hanged Man, which gives me thoughts about inversions.

At AcroYoga Jedi Kula Training, we did spotted handstands, and Becca, our coach, called out timings as we held it: "30 seconds, 45 seconds, 1 minute". When I applied for AcroYoga teacher training, one of the items on the questionairre was: "How long can you hold a wall handstand for?" I timed myself at just over a minute. I was sure at the time I coulda done longer, but it seemed sufficient for the application. Plus, what I *really* want is:

1) to hold a handstand in perfect balance, without support, and then my Holy Grail:

2) to push up into a handstand from a headstand

I nailed this second one a few weeks ago after Revolva and I exchanged some emails on technique. I realised that there were two key factors: a) spreading the hands *wide*, and b) just *gutting* through the first few inches of elevation. After my head was off the ground and I had broken through that psychological / strength barrier, it was easy.

Now, re-invigorated from the AcroYoga practice, and re-determined to nail my handstand, I've found a great web coach:

http://www.beastskills.com/Handstand.htm

Beast Skills. Love it! :)

Burning What

Probably the most far-reaching integration of Burning Man into the real world has been among art collectives living in industrial areas of cities, including Oakland, Calif., and Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Fellow Burners have moved into communal live-work lofts. Patrick Shearn, whose festival name is Eleven, moved into a loft in the Brewery, an arts complex in downtown Los Angeles, with a group of five friends he met at Burning Man. They named themselves Abundant Sugar.

To pay the rent, they hold dinners with circus performances and build whimsical sets for movies and Hollywood events, like a giant fake oak tree in their living area that was used as décor at the Emmy Awards last year. “Before this I was living in a two-bedroom apartment by myself in Santa Monica surrounded by jogging soccer moms and Range Rovers,” Mr. Shearn said. “I met a group at Burning Man and said to myself, ‘Why can’t I do this every day?’ ”

Surya Namaskar

best wake up stretch evah :)

Namaste

Tantra

been researching Tantra a lot lately. As best I can tell, it encourages engagement with physical reality, as opposed to detachment from it (Vedic)... and all this implies.

However, I also *just* found out that Tantra translates to "weave"!??!?

Sanskrit: तन्त्र "weave" -- denoting continuity

How cool is that?

Weave, Corkscrew, Headspins!

My weave had, over the course of the past month or so, been naturally migrating into a corkscrew. This was pretty neat and I liked it. I made sure to practice both directions :).

Now just the other day I got to do the weave to a corkscrew with high cielings and a high mirror. And lo and behold, as I raised my arms high into the corkscrew, I began doing the "behind / front / high" weave, or vertical corkscrew, or whatever you want to call it. The visual effect is a fast moving vertical circle clear around the head, as left and right poi alternate what is frontside and what is backside. Yay! Finally, breaking out of the weave wormhole, into new tricks!

More Yogic Guidance

The intensity and longing in romantic love creates a powerful fire in the heart.

When that fire is turned inward and directed toward God or toward the Inner Self, then it can transform our character, open our inner heart, and move us into great depths of surrender and adoration.

---
Depths, eh?

I have had several dreams so far about my NYC experience that lead me to believe that this is, in actuality, a trip deep down into the wells of my unconscious being. Multiple dreams about being deep deep deep underwater, swimming, light filtering in from high above.
---
And more:

There are two paths to dealing with wild and potentially reckless romantic love.

The first is discipline and renunciation, a detachment from the feelings. (Ugh.)

The second originates from the ancient Yogic philosophy known as Tantra. Tantra asks you to focus on the feelings behind the fantasies -- the pure feeling of longing for love that we all possess. This longing is activated by our connection to another person, yet it is much larger than that individual. When we find the inner feeling and follow it, the longing can lead us towards Essence itself.

This second path moves us into and through the fantasy to the longing at its core. By attending to the call of your deepest desire, you can transform your fantasies into pointers rather than ends in themselves.

---
I sure hope the second path works. I'm betting my life on it.

Yogic advice for Troubled Times

Your story about an experience can both define and direct your emotional response. The way you choose to interpret things will deeply effect the future of that encounter, or the future relationship with that person.

But when you put the story aside, emotions are simply emotions. At the heart of all these emotions is energy itself. Love is a particular kind of energy. Sadness is another. Anger is another. Each of these emotions has a characteristic felt sense -- for anger, a hardness of the heart or the gut; for love, a melting, rippling heat in the heart; and for sadness, a sinking, heavy feeling through the chest.

In times of upheaval one of the most powerful things that you can do is to practice catching each wave of emotion as a felt sense in the body, without acting on it or attaching to it. This is a kind of meditation practice; you keep bringing your attention to the sensation of the emotion in your body, just as you would bring your attention back to the breath again and again. You sit in the felt sense as long as you can, noticing the stories and thoughts that arise, constantly bringing attention back to the present moment and to the feeling of the emotion in your body.

As you do this, the feeling will begin to change. It might dissipate, or it might just lead to a different series of feelings. It's in that gesture of learning to be with emotions as sensation and energy, and then letting the shift, that you will begin to realise the path you are meant to follow.

-- excerpted from Yoga Journal, Feb 2008

Yoga Retreat NYC

The apartment I'm subleasing in Manhattan belongs to a professional and skilled aerial yogini. There is a complete library on the walls of every yoga / chakra / mudra book imaginable... a veritable encyclopaedia of arcane yoga information. In addition to that every inch of wall is covered with art and altars and living plants and sunlight, things to meditate on and about.

The quiet and elevation of the place gives me a genuine opportunity to turn inward; the central location of Manhattan gives me the opportunity to visit some of the best yoga studios in the country, to learn, and to play.

I intend to seriously advance my practice across this lunar cycle.

AcroYoga!

Today was my very first formal training in AcroYoga, and it was everything I imagined and dreamed... pure bliss!

All together exhillirating, exhausting, exciting, and purely activating!

I did an inverted flying backbend that was deeper than anything I've ever been able to accomplish through belly down physical straining... and it was so *natural*, gravity and trust doing all the work..

The *trust* component was truly profound in this practice... and unexpectedly, it took on two components... one, naturally, was trust in your partner... smiles were *so* important here, so many times you would come face forward inches away and a simple smile would be perfect acknowledgement.

The surprising side of the trust equation was trust in myself... that I had the ability to hit these poses, and that I had the ability to trust another to sit / arch so precariously and perfectly upon their feet.

Backbend with full grasp of feet, and the throne pose, atop a girl 70 pounds lighter than me, these were trusting, wonderful, precious moments.

And, as our Todd (our guide and teacher) said at the end of the practice, "This is only the beginning!"

Amen. Namaskar. :)

Weave Death

Well, this was inevitable. And now I progress to the greater evolution of this precious flow art.

My weave dance is about over. This, because I shot a video of it. And I looked at it without seeing the poi. And all I could see was a hunched over person focusing all energy internally, hands tied together and staying close to body core.

I didn't want my dance to look like that. I want it to be free and expressive and OPEN. I began to really move my arms and hands OUT from my body, stretching to maximum extension and re-discovering those BASIC poi moves. It felt good. For the first time in a while, I got the good ole spine tingle... for me, that means I'm opening up new energy channels. Yay!

The FINAL nail in the coffin was when I realised that my "tight weave" manuever could be best explained by saying "pretend like you have handcuffs on"... I did subsequently confirm that I can do forward / backward / spinning weave while handcuffed, but was that really the dance I wanted to be putting out into the universe?

So, farewell continuous weave, hello OPEN SPINNING.

With Open Heart Forward,
+h30ry

Weave Revelations

Well, I've been both meditating, and just started to begin feeling, what, a little "stuck" in the weave coccoon. So I thought I would expand the repetroire a bit and watch some Pele instructional video.

The first four lessons were all stuff I already knew, but it was still nice to see it executed with perfect form, and I learned a few things about planes. I also found a "hole" in my practice which I didn't know about. Strangely, I could with ease do the backwards left over right crossover, the forwards right over left crossover, the fowards left over right crossover. But when it came to the backwards right over left crossover, I hit myself in the face, every time. Wow! So, I practiced that until I "healed" the hole. I'm sure it will open up new areas in my freestyle play, since now we are back to "balance" with that move.

Now, the next thing was something that C had taught me, the corkscrew. But Pele gave me an entiirely new revelation with a single comment:

The Corkscrew is simply the Weave on a Horizontal Plane

BAM!

First, I could now do one weave at least, the split time counterclock, with ease. I practiced that a bit. It felt good. I practiced spinning my body in circles while corkscrewing. It felt good. I really tried to keep my spine completely upright, because one of the things that bothered me about Pele's corkscrew was that she was constantly bent forward over it, hunched. I wanted to do it standing erect. This meant that the poi came *really* close to my chest, almost buzz-saw style, but as long as I could deal with that and remain calm, it worked.

OK, now heres the second part of the revelation:

Like I said, I have a pretty decent feeling freestyle weave dance, where I can spin, change directions, and reverse directions at will anywhere in the beat. I've also been doing a lot of experimenting with moving the center of the weave up and down in space (high over head, low near groin). Finally, I've been experimenting with both "loose" and "tight" weave, which I define as how much the wrists move through space, and relative to eachother, as the weave moves. You can basically do a "tight" weave with handcuffs on. Seriously. You just psychicly "glue" your wrists together and movve those poi.

Sudenly, in a fairly tight weave while spinning my body, I realised that the poi had shifted to horizontal planes, and that I was doing an erect spinning corkscrew! Sweet! Then what Pele said about the corkscrew being a horizontal weave made total sense, and I also had an ultrasmooth transition between the two moves.

But best of all, its just more life into my freestyle flow improv, which is the only way I really like to dance :)

Weave Flow

Yay I'm celebrating for a new "trick"... not really a trick, more like a natural flow.

First I had to nail my front to back weave transitions, so I just kept doing them over and over until I could do them without thinking. This is where you rotate your body 180 mid-weave and simultaneously transition from front weave to back weave or vice versa. It was a lot harder smoothing out the clockwise rotations than it was the CC, go figure.

Once I got these rotations nailed, I realised that I could do a continuous circular body rotation instead of just moving 180. So I started doing FW-turn-BW-turn-FW-turn, etc. continuously.

A few days later, I realised that I could rotate my weave without rotating my body, so that if I could be running a forward weave with my torso torqued 90 degrees leftward, than I could simply rotate my torso 180 (to the right), keeping my feet firmly planted, and in doing so switch to the back weave, on the right side. Neat!

It was only natural at that point to realise that I could stop, start, or reverse both my body rotation, my torso rotation, and my weave direction at ANY TIME in the dance, and I didn't need to have set entry / exit points or "cardinal directions". That was where the fun began. For like 20 minutes I listened to a series of songs (a good mix of 180bpm techno and 45bpm folk FYI) and just freely explored the bodyspace inside the coccoon of the weave. I stopped thinking about where the poi actually were and my body naturally rotated, my wrists naturally reversed when needed, and I reveled in the dance.

backflip 101

oh yes, spiderman cometh!

Steve Harvey's Big Time Challenge

Prolly not a Burner, but a Hooper true to heart:

look, pa, new tricks!

yay, this week I learned two new hoop tricks:

1. the ability to do a lift and without hesitation bring it back down to the waist (with an optional acceleration, nice)... the trick to this was to realize I needed to rotate my hand full around the barrel from inside to outside kind of using my thumb like a hook... I got it from doing: lift, beat, drop, and kept going until i removed the wait beat.

2. that thing i see everyone do where they pump their arms in and out of the hoop one after the other (it looks like some crazed 60s go go dance :) ... that was way easier than i thought, and again I got into it by just putting one arm in, waiting, remove arm, wait, put other arm in (down), wait, etc... then just got more and more in tune to the beat of the hoop and started pumping it without the waits.

3. the neat thing is, both these things have allowed me to come a lot closer to achieving one of my own holy grails, the precision timing of the hoop rotation to the beat of the music.

4. the laser hoop is coming! stay tuned!

In the Flow

Some say "dance like no ones watching"... I say, "Hoop in your underwear!" Greetings, Earthlings! I come from the Planet Hooplaughteron!



PS - beats by Bassnectar. Unless you are allergic to ass-shaking, BUY THIS ALBUM NOW!

PPS - black socks R kewl