SLVII: Omnibus · 9 January 2009

I’ve been occupied with the end of the world and, also, the constant reorganizing of my towel closet. Anyway, collected mutterings from this week.

● Remember Innerspace, the Dennis Quaid movie? Ok, here is something to do at the end of a Friday or Saturday. Set a timer for a 20 minute savasana, and lie down in a warm place with the body limber. Let’s say you’re cracking open the upper back and there is stuff going on in the shoulders or neck. Settle in to the matrix, get in your innerspaceship, bring up the fog lights. First, relax the teeth in their sockets; relax the place where the roof of the mouth meets the soft palate; relax the tongue all the way back to the root. Follow your sinuses back in to the pituitary gland and relax that.

Ok, so now cruise all the way down to the C7, the little bulb where the shoulders meet the brain. Very carefully, inch down in to T1. It’s hard to find, but then… you find it. Now turn the T1 to mush and see how that influences everything that connects to it and radiates all over the back. Same for T2 and T3. If you can differentiate down as far as T4, there might be this really nice payoff. Relax the teeth again.

Ok so now, what in the heck is going on with your arms and shoulders? Take a look at what patters they assume in relaxation. What is the placement of the shoulderblade on the back? Just feel that for a second, then slowly flip the arms up so you’re lying there in the shape of a saguaro cactus. Note the shift in the shoulderblades, traps, and delts as you flip. If you understand rotator cuff anatomy, you might be able to start parsing that here. Do some flying cactus flips with the elbow glued to the floor and the forearms moving from up to down-pointing. Find tiny ways to manipulate the complex in the other two dimensions as well. Then lie in dead cactus for a really long time, taking the Innerspace ship around the shoulderblade from every angle. This also works for space exploration of the sacrum and atlas-axis relationship. Advance consultation with maps and skeletons might help, or might make the whole thing way too analytical.

● Authoritarianism comes from insecurity. It has never been more clear to me. Teachers who are comfortable with the groundlessness of being are not authoritarian. They sometimes pretend, if their students are so insecure that they need a boss. But authoritarianism takes a lot of energy and leads to taking the weirdest stuff literally… as if we’re all children without fully developed abstract reasoning.

● Related (continuing a PTF rant that wants to take shape), abstract reasoning is a gift; we don’t have to pretend it’s a “nonspiritual” function! It's great! Humor is impossible without abstract reasoning.

● Mark Whitwell, yoga blogger. Check the Sept 30 entry in addition to the recent post.

● Speaking of omnibus, I heard London now has an Athiest bus? Anyone seen it? Amazing!

● I want to write about how there is no such thing as Kali Yuga, but then I see things like this.

● Also. I keep watching the apocalypse at the Potala. Kali yuga, 2012, etc. etc. Something must me wrong with me? I don’t understand why end-of-the-world-myths are quite so much fun: it’s almost as if the heights of graphic storytelling have been developed to bring greater and greater apocalypses. This version is undeniably beautiful. Anyway, I love how the last comment here notes the story can’t be true because God said after the great flood of Genesis that in future whims of earth-destruction, he’d use methods other than water. Thanks, God.

● Below is what you first see when you walk into Whole Foods, Brentwood. Food! This is a food store selling starvation—now even in a literal way. For most, the MC is insane and traumatic to the system, which is not to say I don’t love it. I do love it. Round about day 5 I hit some kind of stride and start to think about what it would be like to subsist on cayenne and lemons forever (the message boards are populated with freaks of just that sort). But, afterwards, the need for straight sugar stays in my system for weeks. This is why suckers who do the MC to lose weight just gain back twice as much. (And why in the medium term the MC is a great way for a food store to move inventory.) Seriously, I don’t know about this whole cleansing thing. Some is good, especially since it’s a way of releasing habits and experimenting with the body… but can’t deny the bedrock of Christian self-loathing ‘neath this particular shrine. Leave it to Brentwood denizens to convert curious experimentation into self-flagellation.

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1. Thank you for that link to Mark Whitwell’s blog—

   I’m going to be going on a little fantastic voyage tomorrow during savasana ;)

   Happy Saturday Owlette.

   Posted by: joy · Jan 10, 05:53 AM · #

2. What, voyage to the void? That one part of my spine that I like to ignore, not even breathing all the way up into it because my shoulder girdle is so stiff and undifferentiated?

   Okay, I’ll try it! :-)

   “It is hard to find someone who actually understands yoga that is right for you. That is why we are here.”

   Thanks for this.

   Posted by: karen · Jan 10, 06:17 AM · #

3. shoot, I came here to sink my teeth into your ghost ship entry and you hit me with this?
   The MC display is weird. And, of COURSE I’ve done it before- hasn’t everyone? Both times, 5 days, sent me right back to burgers. Too harsh. I prefer to re-set my system with a mild, 2 day juice fast if needed. But I never need it. ha ha ha! kidding. Fasting for weight loss is absurd.
   Your savasana experiment sounds intense. I’ll let Karen do it and get her report.

   Posted by: Liz · Jan 10, 10:31 AM · #

4. hi (0v0)
   it feelt like the first few paragraphs were meant to help Karen’s shoulder problems; what a good visualization exercise.

   affirmations? “every day and in every way things are getting betterer and betterer.” Buddhist teachers won’t steer one that way, because thinking that way is for people who always expect there is a ground under them, and things are not perfect all the time. can you tell i’ve been reading Pema?

   in the calorie restriction groups i belong to, some people do fasts. but the medical people in the group state that it is not a way to lose weight. it’s more effective to lose weight by being consistent in eating well and moderately, not all of a sudden shocking the system with a fast. fasting, however, seems to help some people in the spiritual arena. I think WF may just be taking advantage of the perception that people start the year with the idea that they will get on a diet.

   hugs
   Arturo

   Posted by: arturo · Jan 10, 11:58 AM · #

5. Dear (0v0)
   I don’t recommend the fasting thing, but since you brought it up, this website was discussed today in some of our nutrition circles:
   http://www.starvation-diet.com
   hugs
   Arturo

   Posted by: arturo · Jan 11, 12:50 PM · #

6. Food is my friend.

   Some cleansing may make for interesting experiments, but the self-hating vibe of most of it is totally disturbing.

   Seems like some people have a transformative experience with yoga, or weight loss, or whatever… and then sometimes they become addicted to catharsis. Hello. Control issues? Violence?

   I had the most thrilling morning—over in seedy, vibrant MacArthur park in 85 degree weather, overwhelmed by the resourcefulness and creativity of hardscrabble immigrant Salvadorans. Lunch in SaMo with an Israeli and a Japanese friend. Then… we got caught in the deuling Israeli & Palestinean demonstrations in front of the Federal Building for about 45 minutes. The glee of the Israeli flag-wavers, the jubilation. Oh my god it’s soul-crushing. Human creativity… human destructive force. God.

   Posted by: (0v0) · Jan 11, 05:28 PM · #

7. ... addicted to catharsis. That’s very interesting.

   Posted by: Liz · Jan 12, 09:14 AM · #

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