Comments on Diary of a Bad Buddhist: Bad Buddhist vs. Yoga

"send the breath out through the fingers and ...

2012-01-24T11:48:48.744-08:00

"send the breath out through the fingers and toes"? No. I have no lungs or trachea in my limbs. I have muscles I can wiggle and stretch, or — if that's too darn Western and literal — I can visualize wiggling and stretching...

Thank you! I just giggled to death reading this post!

Here's a bit from my blog:
I have been meditating for years but I have really dedicated myself to deeper practice recently and I was starting to get all proud of myself for navigating tricky relationship issues with compassion and empathy and being in the moment when BAM! Car door. Right to the forehead.

Anyway, I definitely have had some moments in yoga where not laughing or saying WTF became my first priorities. One meditation instructor used the image "imagine a lotus is blossoming from your ears, your nostrils, your navel, your personal area...it's opening now..." and I actually had to leave.

But I have an excuse. I'm from New Jersey.

Oh my, "yoga mafia"...how very alarming....

2011-05-10T13:43:30.301-07:00

Oh my, "yoga mafia"...how very alarming. Hey, Diary of a Bad Buddhist person....looks like there are plenty of others out there! Dear, dear, all this hullabaloo about yoga mafia people is alarming...makes me want to burn my yoga pants.

This is a great post. I often have a very similar...

2009-08-12T11:55:22.698-07:00

This is a great post.

I often have a very similar sensation -- that of running out of time. Can you (please) recommend any books or resources that speak to you to this end? I'd be very very grateful.

What I've found so far are the term "hurry sickness," and this book called Full Catastrophe Living

Meditating exists in and of itself. YOU NOT NEED Y...

2009-05-17T05:49:00.000-07:00

Meditating exists in and of itself. YOU NOT NEED YOGA to get into it. It will not help you. Just do it. Get proper instruction - it takes ten minutes and is free. You learn the position - usually just keeping a straight back and you watch your breath and observe thefreak show that occurs between your ears. YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO IT WITH OTHERS. Yoga centers and the mafia that runs them are perptuating lies that they hold the answer. BULLSHIT! They hold nothing. Sit, watch your breath. It is not a group trip. Don't make the yoga mafia rich! Put them out of work! Charlatans, liars, theives with blissed out grins on ther faces. By the way anxiety, urgency and even panic (yes folks anger too) are your tools to awaken. Not repression, not pithy little sayings. Not all the shit you have to buy to be part of a yoga center.

I agree with Karen, self awareness is indeed usefu...

2009-04-23T03:17:00.000-07:00

I agree with Karen, self awareness is indeed useful. But I do think that if you are a Buddhist or any person wanting to get closer to the religion, yoga indeed helps in meditating.

Time is running out??? Out to where? Time is infi...

2008-12-03T21:27:00.000-08:00

Time is running out??? Out to where? Time is infinite, how can it run out? It is only our limitations that perceive the passage of time. Time exists as we exist and our paths cross.

The only time of importance is the now.

Great post!!

LOL funny, insightful and nice...

2008-04-02T16:07:00.000-07:00

Great post!!

LOL funny, insightful and nicely written.

I share your sense of panic, although I have more tolerance for both yoga and poetry.

I'll be reflecting on this for quite a while.

Time is running out, isn't it?

Oh well. We'll just come back again for another go at the whole life deal. I guess.

I think it might actually be nice to be a lady bug. Something simple.

Glad I found your blog.

And, we share a name!
Marie

What about metaphors like "get my shit together" o...

2008-03-16T00:07:00.000-07:00

What about metaphors like "get my shit together" or "go fetal?" Metaphor is often efficient and sometimes beautiful. Is it really so different from simile? As if!

You hate poetry, categorically? What poets have you been reading?

This resonates, painfully. I'm a Unitarian Univers...

2008-02-22T09:14:00.000-08:00

This resonates, painfully. I'm a Unitarian Universalist (for community that is there when the yoga studio is closed and your meditation teacher is on retreat) and a lover of the Buddhadharma (because the first noble truth sounded truer to me than anything I ever heard in my whole 50+ years of life.) But I am also trained to teach yoga in a method that has many excellent features, but that demands the kind of language you describe. And a critique rather like yours runs in the monkey mind part of my being whenever I succeed in performing in this way! Fortunately for my students, I am usually so taken by their concentration and silence that I am moved to shut up and allow them to experience their poses. Don't tell the registered owner of my yoga method's name.

Found your blog via YogaDawg-- thanks both of you!

Wow, my feelings exactly (about time running out)....

2008-02-11T15:06:00.000-08:00

Wow, my feelings exactly (about time running out). Somehow I think the solution is meditation, but I can't find the time! By the way, your knack for words is really wonderful.

Your self-awareness is useful, true, but for the s...

2008-01-05T18:44:00.000-08:00

Your self-awareness is useful, true, but for the sake of expedience, find a yoga teacher who doesn't talk that made-up bullshit. Find a Buddhist teacher who doesn't intellectualize. Don't trust teachers who drink that high-minded Koolaid. When they spit it back out, all you get is stained :)

Thank you for this post. I am wondering from the ...

2008-01-04T16:26:00.000-08:00

Thank you for this post. I am wondering from the same place as you and find your discription of Yoga great. I linked your post here

http://www.yogadawg.com/yoga%20links%201.htm

Great post!