Tag: philosophy

First Hatha at YogaOne @yogaonemke Fox Point Report

On Sunday I attended the “Vinyasa Flow L1-2” class. Catherine taught it in Fox Point. This was my first class in a long, long time. Too long. It was so great to get back.

Catherine is a delightful teacher and she taught a delightful class. Let me elaborate.

I haven’t done hatha for a long, long time. Too long. I really haven’t done much of anything physical for a long time, either. That is the problem. No, that is the opportunity. Everything is either an opportunity, or not worth pondering.

I went to class without a clue about how I was going to get through 60 minutes of hatha. I mean, I knew that I couldn’t. I banked on being able to just stop and rest. I did, and that was fine.

I needed help overcoming the inertia of doing nothing, and this was my chance, so with a gentle nudge from my good friend to help me along, I went, even though people would probably figure out pretty quickly that I wasn’t attending class as my warm up for my Cirque du Soleil interview later that morning.

Nobody chased me out of the studio, it was no big deal. I didn’t run away from the whole thing, either. I did hatha for 20 minutes, rested for 20, and did the final 20, and that was no big deal. The last 20 was a lot easier floor stuff. The world didn’t end. Instead, the world expanded.

Could somebody going to yoga be embarrassed about being clueless? Yes. Could they be insecure about the whole thing? Yes. Might they wonder why the heck they are there when, everyone else there seems to be an expert already? Yes. I didn’t think any of it, though.

My mind didn’t even bother to start telling me those stories. Catherine created an environment where the minds of her students could be illuminated by the luminosity of that which is gentle and kind, so that they could just do their practice. There is work to be done, and you have to be the one to do it, but when you have a kind and masterful teacher, it is a delightful experience because you can utilize your energy for your own good, instead of your own detriment with doubt and fear. Catherine was super.

The whole thing was really, really great. I’m going to the beginner classes next, with the goal of working on strength and flexibility. Part of me wonders of some beginner-yoga motorcycle-riders classes will spontaneously be scheduled as Spring nears.

Teaching Fun

Whenever you see them, encourage those who are not having fun to take personal responsibility for their predicament.
Take it is an opportunity to teach them how you have fun, because they may have never learned how, and your kindness and gentleness can help you to teach them one of the most important lessons of their life.

My definition of attitude

Attitude is how you feel despite all of the logical reasons not to feel that way.
Attitude is how you feel despite what everyone else is telling you about how you should be feeling right now.
Attitude means that you are taking personal responsibility and control of your life and how you feel instead of giving it away to something or someone else.

Every definition is a constraint

Every definition is a constraint.

Primarily they define operational limits of this reality. Even defining something to be “limitless and without constraint” is limiting because it requires either the written or the spoken form (albeit both spatial) and doesn’t allow for other possible means of communication.

The basis of most forms of science is definition, and thereby, observation.

Artistic expression is both a definition, and, an expression. Because it occurs within the operational constraints of this reality, it is by nature constraining and limiting. This is counter-intuitive, and, quite surprising. Perhaps this is already quite clear to those who have experienced things which are beyond definition?

Perhaps your are familiar with this phenomenon where in the attempt to define those things, you, quite unintentionally, tarnish and drag down those things. It is quite a bitter-sweet experience when you do want to share them, due to the sheer joy of it, and find that you simply can not.

You may have a feeling that you are not sharing, but, you must quite seriously ponder the question of “How can you withhold that which is intrinsic to every human being and is their birthright in this universe?”.

Why Friends?

Another reason why…
In regards to an injury that may prevent the lead-singer of a rock band from ever playing guitar again, that singer relays what his friends (band mates) said:

As I write this, it is not clear that I will ever play guitar again. The band have reminded me that neither they nor western civilization are depending on this.

There are so many things woven into that. Painful and pleasant things especially. The love and kindness is quite apparent and sweet, and subtle, too.

One Heart Apart

Can we help people out half the world away? If that is too far, then can we help our people on our own continent? If that is too far, then what about our state, our city, or even our next-door neighbors?
Humans are only as far away from us as we are from our own heart. When you gain access to your heart, you are instantly connected with all other human beings. Once connected, your next step is to do something about it.
Every human is only one heart apart from one another.
The space, compassion, love, and the sheer grandeur contained within the human heart make a trillion universes look like a sweet little grain of sand in comparison.

Easily check src block correctness in org-mode

Thank you Nicolas Goaziou, for the beginnings of an org-lint. The goal here was to:

  1. Report an error if there is a source block without a language
    specified
  2. Report an error if there is a source block with a language specified
    that is not present in `org-babel-load-languages’

And, it does. 

(defun gcr/src-block-check ()
  (interactive)
  (org-element-map (org-element-parse-buffer 'element) 'src-block
    (lambda (src-block)
      (let ((language (org-element-property :language src-block)))
        (cond ((null language)
               (error "Missing language at position %d"
                      (org-element-property :post-affiliated src-block)))
              ((not (assoc-string language org-babel-load-languages))
               (error "Unknown language at position %d"
                      (org-element-property :post-affiliated src-block)))))))
  (message "Source blocks checked in %s." (buffer-name (buffer-base-buffer))))

Addendum: 2015-02-05
Sebastien Vauban just posted his improved version to:
– “Check as well for the language of inline code blocks,”
– “Report the line number instead of the char position.”

  (defun org-src-block-check ()
    (interactive)
    (org-element-map (org-element-parse-buffer)
      '(src-block inline-src-block)
      (lambda (sb)
        (let ((language (org-element-property :language sb)))
          (cond ((null language)
                 (error "Missing language at line %d in %s"
                        (org-current-line
                         (org-element-property :post-affiliated sb))
                        (buffer-name)))
                ((not (assoc-string language org-babel-load-languages))
                 (error "Unknown language `%s' at line %d in `%s'"
                        language
                        (org-current-line
                         (org-element-property :post-affiliated sb))
                        (buffer-name)))))))
    (message "Source blocks checked in %s." (buffer-name (buffer-base-buffer))))

Not seeing this post on the web yet so no link.