Well that was a mind-blowing four weekends, packed with a lifetime's worth of information!

As you're digesting it all, follow this link to flickr for a few photos from last weekend that might help bring back some memories:

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/131938077@N05/?


I'll also be posting audio from all three days sometime soon.

Namaste everyone, see you down the road,
Linda

I never understood Bob Dylan. Both because my parents were into him (so I wasn’t) and also because I could never understand what he said. But after reading this article- I get it. The reason he is such a well-respected legend is because of his complete and utter devotion to music.

Dylan wrote songs and sang songs just for the love of it. Not because he was looking for anything or had a goal in mind.

When is the last time you did something for the pure love of it? Not looking for a result or something in return?

The Bhagavad Gita states:

“You have a right to your actions,

But never to your actions fruits.

Act for actions sake.

And do not be attached to inaction.”

In our society is seems like a lot of our daily actions are to get something in return.  Either money, approval, or a pat on the back. But in many ways our asana practice and our pranayama practice are empty of promises. (Even though the Hatha Yoga Pradipika promises that if you practice Nadi Shodana for 3 months all of your 72,000 energy channels will be cleansed ;) ) We still don’t know until we put in the work and find out for ourselves. The practice is not easy. It holds a mirror up and sometimes we don’t like what we see. 

Can you still stay on the path when the road gets rocky?

Can you commit to helping a friend when there is nothing in it for you?

Can you explore each asana without looking for sensation?

I don’t think Bob Dylan looked for approval or affirmation from anyone. He just acted on his dharma; which was singing and writing songs.  He has earned the respect and admiration of many for this reason.

-          Jamie Lugo

Bob Dylan

I was never much of a Bob Dylan fan, even though I was always told by everybody that he was just plain genius.  I have come to truly respect his views on things and appreciate what he has done in the world.  After reading the transcription I felt even more kinship with him and the mechanisms that allowed for that were; his hardworking ethic and his persistence.  He believed in what he was doing completely as did others.  So, with love and support of members of his music industry community he became successful and recognized as a prolific musician and composer.  That very point is something that i believe is fundamental to thriving today and integral to the survival of our society.  Passing good energy from mentor or teacher to student or aspirant, being easy with how others use or incorporate what we ourselves have produced.  Honoring ourselves, those that have come before us and those that follow is a true mark of greatness.  We should always be mindful of where we are going, where we are from, and those we meet on our path.

Dharma Talk Inspired by - Bob Dylan's MusiCares Person of Year speech By - Deborah O'Brien

"For three or four years all I listened to were folk standards. I went to sleep singing folk songs. I sang them everywhere, clubs, parties, bars, coffeehouses, fields, festivals. And I met other singers along the way who did the same thing and we just learned songs from each other. I could learn one  song and sing it next in an hour if I'd heard it just once.

If you sang "John Henry" as many times as me -- "John Henry was a steel-driving man / Died with a hammer in his hand / John Henry said a man ain't nothin' but a man / Before I let that steam drill drive me down / I'll die with that hammer in my hand."  If you had sung that song as many times as I did, you'd have written "How many roads must a man walk down?" too. 

In our yoga practice our teachers tell us "practice and all is coming".  This concept is further elaborated by the statement above from Bob Dylan.  We are the vehicle for the growth and progression of art.  By singing the same songs - practicing the same asana - this repetition and routine stimulates and inspires the creation of new art.  This new expression of ourselves never would have exsisted without the regular practice. 

I could see Patabi Jois and Bob Dylan enjoying a conversation on the topic.  

Here's the Asthanga Yoga Opening Chant - Dylan Style

"But you know, they didn't get here by themselves. It's been a long road and it's taken a lot of doing.But you know, they didn't get here by themselves. It's been a long road and it's taken a lot of doing." 
Bob Dylan is invoking the principle of Abhyasa (effort). Creating art is hard work. It takes effort, dedication and sacrifice. And then it doesn't belong just to you. There is vairagya (surrender). "...everything belongs to everyone," he says. You share your gifts. 

Iris Cohen

Bob Dylan

In his MusiCares Person of the Year acceptance speech, Dylan revealed part of his composing process, saying, "I learned lyrics and how to write them from listening to folk songs. And I played them, and I met other people that played them back when nobody was doing it. Sang nothing but these folk songs, and they gave me the code for everything that's fair game, that everything belongs to everyone."

I liken this to what we have been learning these past few months. Practicing and experimenting with different poses to create sequences is part of a great tradition being passed down to us by Colleen and Rodney, who learned from their teachers, the importance of continuing to find different ways to evolve our skills and share more about the unending secret codes that can be uncovered through practicing yoga.

Dylan said, "Critics have said that I've made a career out of confounding expectations…I don't even know what that means or who has time for it." 

I have found that in creating sequences, something like Dylan has in writing songs, that we can positively confound the expectations of all those who practice with us in a way that often defies words but that can be realized and felt.

Dylan quotes Sam Cooke "voices ought not to be measured by how pretty they are. Instead they matter only if they convince you that they are telling the truth"

It's not always about the voice as it is about the lyrics of a song.

It's not always about the body but rather the poses of a sequence - that silently speak of an otherwise undefinable truth.

Doreen

“ You know, my yoga  didn't get here by itself. It's been a long road and it's taken a lot of doing. This yoga of mine, it is like mystery stories, the kind that Shakespeare saw when he was growing up. I think you could trace what I do in yoga back that far. My  yoga was on the fringes then, and I think is on the fringes now. And it looks like it has  been on the hard ground. "                                                          

                                                                                                            - Pierre Bismuth