Yoga Sutra 1.8


(on the vritti, or definition of mind, of misperception or mistaken knowledge. The five vritti: evaluation, misperception, conceptualization, sleep, memory.)

Viparyaya mithyajnanam atad-rupa-pratistham

Misperception is mistaken knowledge, founded on an appearance which is not that.

(the intended format of the piece may not translate properly on every browser)

My eyes
brightened when
you stacked a brick
upon a stone and a conk shell
upon the brick. I applauded when
you balanced an iron ball on the shell
and a square of steel upon the iron. I gleamed
when you managed to place a tree stump on the steel
and a sheet of glass upon the wood. How I beamed when
you perched a copper cup on the edge of the glass and a bronze fork
upon the cup. How I marveled when you rested a silver trinket on the fork’s
handle and a golden band upon the silver. Oh, I was in awe when you effortlessly
hovered a platinum locket on the gold and a hearty ruby on the platinum. Oh, I was in disbelief
when you seemed to float an emerald on the ruby and a massive diamond on the emerald.
Yet, I lost believe when it was unearthed that
the stone was balanced on a toothpick
bridged between two shelves.
My eyes blurred
when the simple
truth hit -
victim to the illusion
of firm
foundations.

© 2008, Sophie Herbert

If you’d like to read Yoga Bears: It’s No Stretch to Say Traders Are Taking Deep Breaths, visit their site.

Here I am, setting up to do jal neti in Chamrajanagar, Karnataka, India.

Jal neti, or nasal irrigation, is a beautiful cleansing process that removes excess mucus and pollutants from the nasal passage and sinuses. It relieves allergies, colds, and sinusitis. Jal neti can prevent and treat other disorders of the ears, eyes and throat, as well as respiratory tract diseases such as asthma, pneumonia, and bronchitis. The practice rinses and therefore opens up the nasal passages, which can help relieve mouth breathing. In addition to this, jal neti helps reduce muscular tension in the face which results in a fresh and youthful appearance. It can also treat and alleviate anxiety, anger, depression, headaches, and even improve eyesight.

So, what is this incredible practice? Jal neti involves putting 6 to 12 ounces of warm saline water (or other ayurvedic tonics) up one nostril and allowing it to come out the other. To do so, one uses a neti pot, a ceramic, plastic, or bronze vessel that resembles a small teapot.
The practice may sound a little uncomfortable and awkward at first. In fact, when I was first introduced to neti last year, I never imagined that it would be come a routine practice for me. I have since been able to reap the benefits of neti. It has even improved my singing and chanting.

a little demonstration… I know it’s not the most flattering shot!

A bit about the history of neti:
Jal neti, which means nasal cleansing with water in Sanskrit, is an ancient ayurvedic cleansing technique. Jal neti and sutra/dhanda neti (a practice in which a waxed thread or thin rubber tube is inserted through the nose and out the mouth) are classified as one of the six cleansing techniques mentioned in hatha yoga. These purifying processes, called the shat karmas (“six actions”), also included dhauti (internal, head, and thoracic cleaning), nauli (abdominal strengthening and massaging), basti (enema and other techniques to wash and tone the large intestine), kapalbhati (frontal brain cleaning. see related post), and trataka (internal and external gazing on a fixed point).
While jal neti has been practiced for centuries in India and other Asian countries, it first became popular in the West during the second half of the 20th century. Today, you most likely can find a neti pot at your local health store.

As jal neti should first be practiced under the guidance of an experienced instructor, I am not providing step-by-step instructions. If you are in the New York area and would like to learn, I will be conducting individual or small group classes for just $15. Bring your own neti pot or purchase one from me. If you are interested in scheduling a lesson or would like to learn more, feel free to contact me at sophiesundar@sophieherbert.com. You can also inquire about jal neti at your local yoga center.

The macrobiotic dishes I prepared or ate out have been wonderful and nourishing. After two weeks on a primarily macrobiotic diet, however, I found myself less energized, frequently lightheaded, and not quite feeling myself. I have therefore decided to return to a broader diet that includes healthy dairy and eggs.

I decided to explore macrobiotics under less ideal circumstances. In additional to my relatively full New York schedule, I was undertaking a freelance project and in the final stretch of preparing my photography exhibit. As a result, I probably didn’t have the most well rounded macrobiotic diet. Had I been better prepared, I would have included more sea vegetables and iron-rich foods into my meals, which might have prevented me from feeling light headed and occasionally dehydrated. (Practicing and teaching in the summer can lead to an abundance of detoxifying sweat.)

I’ll happily re-explore macrobiotics in the future if I have a more flexible and less busy New Yorker schedule. Perhaps I’d take a few macrobiotic cooking courses first. While it seems like a fascinating and potentially healing diet (well, lifestyle), I am not able to commit to fully to following it at this point in my life. This experiment, however, has re-inspired to cook in and pack lunches as much as possible. I am now incorporating more brown rice, faro, and other whole grains into my regular diet, which is great.

This experience has been the second good lesson in dietary moderation and extremes that I’ve had over the past eight months. (And thus, good lessons in moderation and extremes, in general.) In October, after nearly 3 years of forgoing meat and subsequently having imbalanced hormones, a doctor suggested I re-introduce more animal protein into my diet. Reluctantly, and after doing some research on eating for your blood type and ancestry, I eventually did so. Within two months, my hormones seemed to regulate themselves. This apparently intricate balance was affected again when I was primarily vegetarian from January to early March and from May until two weeks ago. From a moral (and economic) standpoint, I wish I could maintain a purely vegetarian or even vegan lifestyle. It seems, however, that my body will not comply. (Due to the cruelty of the meat industries, I am doing my best to eat small amounts of free-range and organic poultry.) Over the past two weeks have felt healthier and much more energized.

My brother Chris recently attended an interesting lecture in Santa Barbara concerning diet and ancestry. According to the lecturer, Dr. Michael Luan, Chris and my ½ Polish, Czech, Austrian, German, and ¼ Irish is a tricky formula for vegetarianism. Ancestry and blood type (check out Eating for Your Blood Type) can have a serious impact on one’s response to various diets. I have even read that the Dalai Lama, at the request of his doctor, must eat meat for more strength and energy. So, after abruptly jumping into extreme diets, I am trying to find healthy and mindful moderation to best nourish my body and mind and, in return, have more positive energy to devote to my work.

Clarity Statements

1. These are the ways my childhood affected me.

2. These are the problems that I cause myself.

3. This is how I work on myself.

4. This is who I am.

5. This is what I want to add to my life.

Each statement is an essential building block to the one following it.

25% of any sales will be donated to Energy 4 Orphans, a non-profit that I am the New York coordinator and web designer for. To learn more about the organization and our goal to construct a much needed girls campus at the Deenabandhu Trust orphanage in Karnataka, South India, please visit our website.

I cannot send this invitation without expressing my deepest gratitude to Nielsen Bainbridge and curator/framer Gibson Glass. Your kindness and generosity has provided so much form to this show. Thank you Gibson for devoting so much of your time and energy on this project over the past three months.

Hope to see you there!

Stain Bar
766 Grand Street
Brooklyn, ny 11211
(L to Grand, 1 block west)
718.387.7840
daily after 5 p.m.

Also, I am due for an update about my experiments with macrobiotics… sneak preview – it was really interesting to try, but due to complications, I am back to a more well-rounded diet.

Lastly, I’ve added a page with my New York yoga class schedule.

Tuesday:
7:00am Express Open Level @ East Yoga
8:00am Basic Hatha @ Life in Motion

Wednesday:
2:15pm Open Level Vinyasa @ Park Slope Yoga
4:00pm Basic Hatha @ Park Slope Yoga

Thursday:
8:30pm Advanced Express @ East Yoga

Friday:
4:00pm Open Level @ East Yoga
6:30pm Basic Level @ East Yoga

Saturday:
10:00am Open Level @ East Yoga

Sunday:
1:30pm Basic Hatha @ Devi in Park Slope
3:15pm Open Level Vinyasa @ Devi in Park Slope

*All studios listed above have introductory specials for first-time students*

Before leaving the city on Friday, I taught a morning class at East Yoga in Alphabet City. En route there on the Q train, I came across an article in the New York Times Metro section that was particularly moving… or maybe it’s just particularly New York.
You can read A New York Slice of America, July 3: 128 Riders United by clicking the title.

Finding balance in sari. Tamil Nadu, December 2007

While we were out for a drive the other day, my mother mentioned that her physical therapist friend has been treating a rising number of patients with yoga related injuries. This brought to mind something a very wise teacher of mine once said. It was something along the lines of, “Yoga has and can never hurt me. I have only hurt myself by misusing (misunderstanding) yoga.”

Our culture can nurture an air competitiveness that sometimes drifts into unnecessary places. It can float off the streets and into yoga studios. Yoga is, has, and should never be about group competition, but instead about understanding, caring for, and enhancing the mind-body connection on an individual level. In many ways, there is no such thing as an advanced or basic posture. As H. David Coulter states in his book The Anatomy of Hatha Yoga, “Practicing with total attention within the body is advanced yoga, no matter how easy the posture; practicing with your attention scattered is the practice of a beginner, no matter how difficult the posture.” The more I progress in my study of yoga, the more wonderfully complex the poses I once considered “basic” become. I am always realizing subtleties I never knew existed.

I grew up in a relatively competitive environment. When I began practicing yoga, this mindset followed me onto the mat. Over time, however, I have found that yoga has helped me become less insecurely competitive with those around me and more honestly able to embrace and develop the skills within me.

Yoga is about constructing sturdy foundations by working with the available resources. Each individual has a different comfort zone and set of limitations that should always be respected. Yogasanas are about building and nurturing physical and, as a result, mental stability in a slow and controlled manner. By listening to your mind and body and staying within the framework of your limitations, your asana practice will certainly flourish. This will spill over into other aspects of life.

Blind girls practicing yoga at the Ranga Rao School for Visual Impaired Girls in Mysore, Karnataka, South India. Photographed by Sophie in August 2006.

In his work, the Yoga Sutras, the great Sanskrit sage Patanjali mentions asana in just 3 of the 196 aphorisms. (The performance of asana is just one small [yet very important] component of the path of ashtanga and hatha yoga. Asanas are intended to help purify the body and mind in order to prepare for seated meditation.) In this brief sutra, Patanjali sums up so much:

sthira sukham asanam

or

Steady and comfortable posture/seat

By working towards finding this composure in every asana, we can more easily carry this groundedness off the mat.

Embrace and love your practice as it is today and everyday. Find a practical balance between fearfulness and fearlessness while still respecting your limits. Remember each day is different.

One more note- Many yoga injuries occur during transitions from one pose into another. Remember to maintain control and comfort as you flow from one asana into the next. Allow the breath to guide you.

Honor your body, be aware of the climate. Sophie in Borovoy, Kazakhstan, March 2007.

Sundar playing around on a trip to through the largest mangroove in South India.

Sundar assisting me with tittibhasana in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, North India in 2005. (a slightly blurry photo…)

Performing the same arm balance at Deenabandhu in March of 2008.