Yoga – Page 19 – Matthew Remski

May 29, 2013

The Guru as Artist

If we recognized that what we are attracted to in the guru is the war they are waging on their own pain, we would just watch them with whatever degree of empathy we could scrounge, see what their rage drove them to see, wonder at the ways in which their language bends the typical arc of the mind, and feel their terror expand our hearts into a greater tolerance for uncertainty. But we would not do what they told us to do. Because we would know that they were on their path, and we were on our own. Because we would know that the directions they really really want to give us are meant primarily to fulfill their own needs.

April 25, 2013

Notes on the nirguṇa / saguṇa paradox, by way of homage to Aghori Babarazzi

Aghori's masala of cruel empathy flavours the absurd task of making us naked and strange to ourselves, forcing us to wriggle, shift, and grow in the glare of our own contradictions. Itâ€™s a dirty, dirty job, but somebody â€“ I mean nobody â€“ I mean somebody whoâ€™s made himself a nobody pretending to be everybody â€“ has to do it.

February 24, 2013

Recovering the Era of Water Medicine through Ayurveda

We can dream of the story of human medicine through the progression of the elements, from earth to space. Today, we sit on the juncture between fire and air modalities. But we long for an older water medicine.

March 7, 2012

Grounding Anusara 3: intimacy, methods, therapy, and making it open-source

1. In yoga it is obvious that economies of scale obstruct relationship. Go big or go home? Iâ€™ll go home, thank you very much. Letâ€™s think smaller. 2. Transglobal corporations need definable and saleable products. A Yoga Method with â€œUniversal Principlesâ€ works well for its marketing, as we have seen. But a product is not therapy.