Paul Muller-Ortega

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

The Importance of Doubt (and Shrada)
ByElizabeth March 1, 2013

I was just led by a friend’s Facebook posting to the website for an upcoming movie about the Siddha yoga ashram (Siddha yoga was part of the teaching and practice lineage of John Friend and Paul Muller-Ortega, and both have told stories about how useful the fierce ashram discipline was for them, but who adopted…

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

Quote for the Day
ByElizabeth August 9, 2012

My chosen reading for the train journey to New York and New Jersey to visit with friends and to attend a weekend workshop at Dig Yoga with Paul Muller-Ortega and Sianna Sherman is Mariana Caplan’s Eyes Wide Open. I have my reasons to have reservations about some of what she says and advocates. I am…

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

Great Gary Snyder Quote (and Sadhana)
ByElizabeth July 31, 2011

My friend Dan just posted on his blog a great Gary Snyder quote on the need to do maintenance (of the self) in order to be most creative. The idea that we need to maintain our tools and toolbox, as it were, in order to be most creative, is exactly what we are taught about…

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

Lady Macbeth (and Bhavana)
ByElizabeth June 19, 2011

The young woman sitting next to me on the train north from New York, who is impossibly tall and has lovely, strong features (i.e., is perfectly cast), is memorizing Lady Macbeth’s lines. I had on my own lap print-outs of mantras that Paul Muller-Ortega has invited us to memorize as part of our continuing studies….

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Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Body | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Gardening | Meditation | Photos

The “Highest First” and Knowing What Is a Weed
ByElizabeth June 17, 2011

Webster’s On-Line Dictionary defines a “weed” as”any plant growing in cultivated ground to the injury of the crop or desired vegetation, or to the disfigurement of the place; an unsightly, useless, or injurious plant.” At first blush, this might seem like an easy concept, but if we start breaking down the definition, we can see…

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Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Photos

Nyaya of the Rosebud and the Rose
ByElizabeth April 30, 2011

As I walked through the neighborhood for the past couple of days, going from one place to another, I have seen hundreds of rosebuds. In enjoying the exquisite form of the buds before they open, I thought about the teaching I have heard from Paul Muller-Ortega of the rosebud and the rose. The buds are…

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Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Miscellaneous (blog matters, etc)

Web Version of E-Newsletter “New Year’s Greeting”
ByElizabeth January 2, 2011

Dear Friends, The changing of the calendar gives us a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the past year and think of how we might wish to grow or shift to best serve ourselves and others in the coming year. 2010 was such a difficult year for so many, with suffering of a magnitude of which…

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

Airport Delay (and “Unreasonable Happiness”)
ByElizabeth December 6, 2010

I am sitting in Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International airport waiting for the plane that should already be carrying me home to finish being repaired. After having done a full hour of practice this morning in my room, having a last delicious breakfast at the retreat center, and enjoyed the two-hour ride with friends to the…

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

Going on An “Advance”
ByElizabeth December 2, 2010

I am sitting at the airport getting ready to fly to Phoenix. At Sky Harbor International, I will join friends, and we will drive together to Sedona for a weekend of study, meditation and other practice, and companionship. On the most recent study call, our teacher Paul Muller-Ortega said that we are not going on…

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

Outrageous Light (and Sadhana)
ByElizabeth July 28, 2010

I just spent a week looking at the celestial realms — inner and outer. Fifty of us spent a week meditating and studying with Paul Muller-Ortega at a retreat center in Sedona. It might seem from these pictures that there was not a moment when we weren’t exclaiming in awe over magnificent visions. The truth…

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