Community and Family

thoughts on how we fit into the web of community, family and society

Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc)

Tatah Dvandavah Anabhighatah (and “winners and losers”)
ByElizabeth February 12, 2010

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra II.48, tatah dvandaha anabhighataha is translated by B.K.S. Iyengar as “from then on [after the yogi through steady practice has absorbed him/herself in the practice of yoga), the sadhaka (practitioner) is undisturbed by dualities.” This sutra follows the only two in all of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras that specifically discuss asana, which Patanjali…

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Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Photos

More Snowga (yes, we’ve all got cabin fever)
ByElizabeth February 11, 2010

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Art and Culture | Community and Family | Meditation | Photos

What Would It Be Like
ByElizabeth February 7, 2010

never to be able to come inside? I am reminded again how fortunate I am not only to have a warm, well-provisioned, pleasing place for me to bring my body inside and protected from the elements, but also for having the sweetness of the practice of going within.

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Art and Culture | Community and Family | Food for the Body | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Gardening | Meditation

A Moment of Insight (and suddha vidya)
ByElizabeth February 5, 2010

A rather conservative co-worker, who was one of the people who would have to go grocery shopping last night lest the family be without perishable food for a few days, was talking to me about the impending snowstorm (including me advising him of the one forecast for next Tuesday/Wednesday). “It shows,” he said, “how easily…

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Art and Culture | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Photos

It Takes a Snowflake
ByElizabeth February 4, 2010

It is almost inconceivable to my limited mind how many snowflakes it took to whiten our world yesterday morning. This weekend, there will be far more snow (alas, it will be too cold to stick to the trees and create such a beautiful canopy; instead we will have howling winds and heavy going). I might…

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Art and Culture | Community and Family | Photos

The Other Side of the Building
ByElizabeth February 3, 2010

This is the view from the corridor just outside my office door. On the left is the Tax Court. On the right, is the homeless shelter where Mitch Snyder, advocate for the homeless, committed suicide. In between, the highway emerges out from under our building. At rush hour, especially on a rainy day, it is…

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Art and Culture | Community and Family

February House Practice Donations
ByElizabeth February 1, 2010

This month’s recipient will be the Environmental Defense Fund. Why? Because in his State of the Union Address to much applause by Democrats (Republicans don’t clap for a Democratic President even if he is giving them everything they want), President Obama announced that part of the support for “clean” energy would be for nuclear power…

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Art and Culture | Community and Family

Advance Medical Directive (aka Living Will)
ByElizabeth January 29, 2010

This week I drafted, and today signed along with two witnesses, a living will. It has been on my “to do” list for a good 20 years, and I have been carrying in my wallet a card from the Society for the Right to Die (which no longer appears to exist) saying that I have…

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Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation

Starting with the Foundation (and Samtosha)
ByElizabeth January 23, 2010

Last night, at his workshop at Willow Street Yoga, Todd Norian discussed the niyama samtosha — contentment. “Perfect,” I thought, because I had been contemplating the practice of samtosha all day. When I had sat to meditate in the morning yesterday, it was hard for me to stay with my mantra or any sense of…

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Art and Culture | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc)

A Senate Majority with 41 Out of 100 (and Maya)
ByElizabeth January 21, 2010

In classical yoga, the term maya, one of the meanings of which is “illusion,” refers to all of our embodied being — the physical, mental, and emotional. The perceptible world is not real; only spirit is real. In the tantric philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism, maya tattva means something different. Kashmir Shaivism does not hold that…

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