Recent Articles: Article D
tadasana
Inspired by study with Kofi Busia
Kofi had us all stand. Just stand there. I was sure if was for over half an hour though I never did actually really know the length of time. He just walked around the Shaddowbrook room at Kripalu Center and spoke. Each sentence fed us. Each word helped stay in the pose. Like trying to quell eager race horses at a gate, hooves clawing the dirt, us eager yogis at the start of a workshop were craving. We wanted to learn more and get somewhere - I don’t know where - but somewhere. We wanted to get something better - better knowledge, better poses...
He never came right out and said why he was making us stand there. It was very bold and confident of him. People pay a lot of money to study with him so you know, he has got to make them feel like they got their worth. Throughout the workshop he taught us this way. Never telling us why, specifically why he was doing something. It was as if we had to really breathe and delve in and struggle a bit and figure it out for ourselves. A very loving way of teaching I think - training us to reach up to grab a ripe apple so we will always be able to find the fruit. I think why he did it - why he made us stand there for so long was that it caused us to be very present and to resist. To stay with things just as they are. I wrote this poem wrote after Kofi had us stand. It made me think about how I stand, how we all stand, in our worlds.
take tadasana for an extended time
muscles holding space between bones
breath holding space between time thoughts
I can not run in equal standing
equal presence with all
forced to stand witness
all the movies, audio tracks and energy currents
all of me all who have shed their light upon me all who have walked with me
as the spine stays tall
vertebrae upon vertebrae
I find the places I extend
I find the places I tend to collapse
I find the parts of myself that I tend not to grace with breath
as if denying to someone who loves me to kiss me on that spot
when I take tadasana
there is no place to go
when I take tadasana
there is nothing to do but hold my self equal
with equanimity
with accountability
my whole self ceases to ride the waves
my whole self becomes the ocean
the filaments of pain are non-understanding
the filaments of pain are under standing
samasthitihi - another title for this pose - translated as equal standing
tadasana the alternate name for this pose meaning mountain
the ease of a mountain with all the views it allows
staying with the day-in day-out changes from sunrise to sunset
The filaments of pain are non-understanding
the filaments of pain are under-standing
standing beneath ourselves
in past and present
some sort of separation
compromise
low self worth belief
stay here and change
stay here standing
learning remembering
to grow tall