Calm Waters: Teaching Flow and Restore at 808 Wellness: Kihei, Maui, HI: November 20, 2019

Calm is higher than ecstacy—Ramana Maharishi

Ramana Maharishi said, "the final obstacle to meditation is ecstasy; you feel great bliss and happiness and want to stay in that ecstasy. Do not yield to it but pass on the the next stage with is great calm. The calm is higher than ecstasy".

The yoga sutras call it raga, the attachment to pleasure, and boy am I afflicted. I think just because I"m in Hawaii I should be in an ecstatic state all the time. This is exhausting. And confusing. While much of my day is consumed by actually gasping at the beauty here, when I don't feel elevated joy it's tempting to believe something's wrong with me. The myth of "happily ever after" is a sticky one for me. But the truth is life in Hawaii is like life anywhere, there are wonderful moments and challenging moments. The sooner I can accept life on life's terms, the better, and I do this better at some times than others.

The yogis suggest a practice of equanimity, attached to neither pleasure or pain. I've had a lot of practice on the road of remaining calm under pressure, and the play in these first few days of Hawaii-time is to stay calm in the face of happiness highs. There's not much as irritating as a bliss bunny. I find being in the presence of authentic calm is much softer to my soul these days. And it sure softens the blow for some difficulites coming into view now that life has slowed down a little bit and I catch my breath to find some unpleasant unfinished business to attend to.

We practiced the alignment of calm while meantime I"m trying to get out of my pose rut--working with the same poses all the time, a raga of sorts, because I know they "work".

Here's today sequence for Flow and Restore class (I subbed today and likely will build on the theme because it still could use a lot of work). Calm is fascinating .

Sit
Breath of the Golden Thread
OM

Seated cat and cow

Green Tara side bend with hip stretch and sage twist

Side cat and cow
Plank
Downdog

Tadasana
Standing forward fold with shoulder stretch

Eagle
Warrior III
Lunge

Low Lunge
Hamstring Stretch

Reverse direction
Star Pose

Lunge
Plank

Side Angle with side Star Pose
Pigeon

Two Block Stretch
Heart Opener over blocks

Savasana

Sit
Namaste

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