Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Yoga Anyone?


That was it. I kneeled on the floor, laced my fingers together and set my forearms on the floor. I lifted my knees, and slowly moved my legs towards my chest, raised my right leg followed by my left leg. I was upside down and I was still alive. After two years of my yoga practice, I finally did my own headstand.

My first encounter with Yoga was in 2001, during a study tour to India. It did not impress me much. The business school in Gurgaon, outskirt of New Delhi where we stayed, invited a yoga teacher who asked us to wake up at 4.30 am in the morning, be ready at 5.00 am in the hall and lie on our back. He was a middle age man, with a big belly and white hair.  The scene was still very clear in my head when he took a chair in front of us, sat, and started giving breathing instructions which did not make sense. With a strong accent, he kept on repeating his mantra: Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, and that was it. I was still remember that  he instructed us afterwards to lie on our belly, raise our heads up, and he repeated his sacred mantra again: inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Sitting on the chair but with crossed legs, I could see his eyes were half closed and his big belly was moving up and down, following his breathing rhythm. “Why on earth I do this?”  I asked myself.

Under the impression that yoga is a passive, boring activity, I turned more into gym, swimming and jogging for my exercise routine. In 2005, more and more friends of mine were actively doing yoga and they persuaded me to try few classes. I tried to attend one and it was such a turn-off. The teacher was moving with very fast pace while instructing poses which I have never done before. Without any knowledge of what downward dog and cat poses were, I tried to keep up with the movement and could not feel any enjoyment at all. Arrgh!  It was too fast! The poses unbelievably stretched every angle of my body very fast that I was afraid of getting injured.  I confirmed at that time, “Yoga is not my cup of tea”.

In the end of 2006, I felt that my life was off-balance and I started questioning my own religion. I really felt the necessity to explore more spiritual angle in life and I sensed that my understanding about my religion at that time was not “aligned” with my inner voice. I did not find comfort anymore in doing my religious practice. Something was missing. I investigated and made some surveys through websites, books and publications about different types of meditations and spiritual courses. Throughout these readings, I discovered that yoga was more than just a breathing movement. It is way beyond imitating animal postures and motions. It is not just an exercise.

It is a path for transformation.

I was overwhelmed with this findings since I did not feel it during my previous encounters with yoga. I decided to reset my opinion, unlearn what I experienced and embarked into a new journey of yoga with no judgment. I looked for a place where I could get more description of those animal poses and the benefits provided. Then, I thought I should get a yoga teacher who could teach at slow pace, and corrected my postures.

Good intentions are always come with positive results since I finally found a yoga studio which satisfied my query and curiosity.  It was interesting, it was calming, it was what I need. I found myself falling in between sleep and conscious during Savasana (corpse pose) in few classes. I started learning more difficult poses and in those days, despite ascending asana practice toward spiritual journey, my practice transcended from spiritual quest to physical needs. I became a yoga addict (or more precisely, one of those asana junkies). I attended other classes and workshops with faster pace, and I started practicing three times a week or more. In my spare time, I kept thinking how I could deepen my upper back in Urdhva Dhanurasana (wheel pose), how I move my center of gravity to lift my legs in Koundinyasana, and how I could stretch my hamstring in Hanumanasana (front splits),  until one day I overstretched myself. I tore my hamstrings and it created painful lowerback.

Did I quit after that?

Yes, but temporarily. I asked myself why did it happen and realized that, of course, Ego played its role. I forced myself beyond my body capacity to accommodate the stretch. That’s how I learned that yoga teaches us about life. If you want to progress, you can push harder, but your body needs time to adjust. All short-term gain has always higher risk than long-term gain. When I pushed my body, I exposed my body to higher risk of injury.

There is no such thing as a shortcut without consequences.

It has been more than five years now since I started practicing yoga, and I am still hooked.  The journey is like a sinusoidal wave, keeps fluctuating between addiction to the endorphin release after an intense physical practice, and a self-inward journey.  

Discovering Ashtanga Mysore practice this year, my self-practice has been improving tremendously. This practice was popularized by K Patthabi Jois, and the method is to learn, memorize and practice certain set of postures. Each pose is taught by the teacher and one cannot learn the subsequent pose without mastering the pose(s) that has been taught. The practitioner does his/her self-practice by memorizing the sequence and the teacher corrects and adjusts his/her postures.  Many people feel that it is a “boring” yoga since we practice the same postures, over and over again.  

But Ashtanga Mysore practice resonates with me. Although I keep repeating the same postures, the sense of it is different in each practice. The mood influences the practice and the practice influences the mood as if it is a cycle.  I found that this method increases my self-awareness, not only when we practice, but also when I am off-the-mat. It forces me to be truthful and honest to myself, because body does not lie. If we force our body beyond its capacity, we got problems, sooner or later.  If we are patient but consistent,   doing our practice with intelligence and awareness, the reward is certain. When we master the posture, move our body with awareness, focus on what we feel rather than on what we think, we then forget all those technicalities, rely to our intuition and our practice becomes meditation in motion.

It is my wish to maintain my Ashtanga mysore practice consistently, as  the tapah, one of the key tools to work progressively towards the ultimate goal of yoga: Self-Realization, to find God in me, the Immanent God. 

Patanjali  Yoga Sutras II.1: tapah svadhyāya Īsvarapranidhānāni kriyāyoga

Burning zeal in practice, self-study of holyscriptures, and surrender to God are the acts of yoga 


1 January 2014: Blog Re-activated



By the thought of finding justification for reactivating my blog, I identify today as an auspicious moment to finally do it because: 

  • Well, I recently entered the fourth decade of living on this mother earth
  • First day of January 2014 coincides with the beginning of New Moon 
  • I started this new year with Yoga countdown contemplation, and my future writing will contain lots my yoga practice experience
Hence, decision is made. I re-activate my blog today.
All the best for 2014.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Trust

TRUST was the theme raised last Sunday in my first Anusara class in Singapore with a Certified Anusara Teacher, Bo Srey.

In entering new environment or a new relationship, it is our natural human instinct to find and to build the trust relating with new places or new acquaintances. Some people are easy to open their hearts to explore trust but not for some others.

Building inner trust in ourselves would--despite whatever things happen or people do to us, good or bad, high or low-- brings confidence for us to continuously grounded and connected to the greatest energy of the Universe, and to endlessly extend the light to all directions.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

What is Our Carbon Emissions and Energy Profile?

Every time my night flight approaching any airports, glimpse of scattered lights always strikes me: How human spends millions and billions of joules to generate electricity. How millions and billions of carbon are produced from that energy mix.

Most of the time we took it for granted.

Every Megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity transmitted and distributed through the grid consumes about three times of primary energy in terms of energy unit. It produces greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) which is measured in CO2e (carbondioxide equivalent). The quantity of CO2e/MWh depends on the type of primary energy, be it coal, oil, gas or renewable energy sources, which is used to generate the electricity.

Energy mix of Java-Madura-Bali grid in Indonesia contributes to about 0.75-0.89 ton of CO2/MWh. in India, the national electricity grid has the emission factor of 0.81 ton of CO2/MWh, while is Pakistan is about 0.43 t of CO2/MWh. Difference lies in higher coal consumption of energy mix of power generation in Indonesia and India, while cleaner electricity, in terms of lesser carbon emissions, in Pakistan is due to their high consumption of natural gas. Vietnam has almost 52% of of their power generation by Hydro and it was estimated that their electricity emission factor is about 0.62 t of CO2/MWh. Laos produces 98% of their electricity by hydropower and this creates a low electricity emission factor for sure.

A lady who spends 20 minutes/day, 365 days/year, drying her hair with 1000 W hairdryer would generate about 91-108 kgs of CO2e/year in Jakarta from this activity, while she would only generate about 73 kgs of CO2e/year in Hanoi. Assuming the rule of thumb of 3:1 in converting primary energy to electricity, she consumes about 3600 kilojoules of primary energy.

Do your own math and you'll see how much emissions you have generated and how much energy you have consumed in your life!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Happy New Year


As the end of year drawing near, both lunar and solar, Hijriah and Gregorian, we are preparing of the future that lies before us. This year is so rich with global shocking news: US Election, financial crisis, Pakistan bombing, Mumbai Hostage, etc, etc. It gives doubt but at the same time a slight hope. Thus, we also start listing our individual plans for 2009: Will I have a promotion? Will a get a new job after being laid off from my old company? God, oil price have decreased a lot, it is impossible to get more bonus next year….Can I still take holiday this year? Hmmm, I’d better save more cash than spending.......

We, as human, tend to focus on what happen next, and worry about what happen in the future. We often forget that the future is built on the past, and it is necessary to prepare our future by taking time to look back, learn from the past.

We, as human, tend to be carried away by success and afraid of failures. We expect joy and try stay away from sorrow as much as we can. Nevertheless, many great successes are result from capability of learning in failures. And how we could appreciate happiness without experiencing sorrow?

Our past, be it good times and be it bad times, provides us the opportunity to enrich ourselves. It comes in a sinusoidal cycle of circle, no starting point and no end. We could imagine as if this universe is a classroom, and all of us are student that keep on learning in dimension of time without beginning and without an end. Past and Future are integrated into a full infinite cycle and “Present” is the balancing point where we weave our future based on our past experience.


“I am not afraid of tomorrow for I have seen yesterday and I love today”

William Allen White

Wish you a happy, thoughtful, and enlightening Hijriah 1430……….and Gregorian New Year 2009………

Saturday, October 18, 2008

It All Depends on How One looks at Things

By Taoist writer, Lieh-tse:

"A man noticed that hiz axe was missing. Then he saw the neighbor's son pass by. The boy looked like a thief, walked like a thief, behaved like a thief. Later that day, the man found his axe where he had left it the day before. The next time he saw the neighbor's son, the boy looked, walked, and behaved like an honest, ordinary boy."


Saturday, September 20, 2008

Luggage Tag


It was 12.30 at Changi Airport. I was waiting in front of the conveyor belt delivering checked luggage and baggage, SQ 873 from Hong Kong. One, two, three, and chain of baggage were circulating slowly. My eyes were focused to the belt, following the movement of the conveyor. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. 15 minutes. I did not see any sight of my greenish-Grey (or grayish-green?) 23 kg-luggage.

20 minutes. 25 minutes.

A security officer was approaching and he asked me, “Excuse me ma’am, are you still waiting for your luggage?”

And, of course, I said yes. So finally, 10 minutes after that I was asked to report to the lost and found counter, where they prepared a report for missing luggage and a request of worldwide luggage tracing.

“we’re so sorry ma’am, but we will try the best that we could do to locate your luggage and deliver it to your place, can you sign here please? Meanwhile, we shall provide you a compensation of 120 $ and amenities kit for you”.

Ooooopssss.

To date, checked baggage and luggage are identified by the paper tag with bar code which allows for automated sorting of the bags to reduce the number of misrouted, misplaced or delayed bags. The transfer of bags from one airline to another is possible and we just need to inform at the first check-in counter, to which destination our bags shall be delivered according to our itinerary.

Quoted from Wikipedia, Bag Tag :

The first "separable coupon ticket" was patented by John Michael Lyons of Moncton, New Brunswick on June 5, 1882. The ticket showed the issuing station, the destination and a consecutive number for reference. The lower half of the ticket was given to the passenger, while the upper half, with a hole at the top, was inserted into a brass sleeve and then attached to the baggage by a strap.

The criteria for issuing a baggage check or luggage ticket with liability limit was established in Warsaw convention, article 4.

How on earth people traveled with bags those days??

I woke up the following day, full of anxiety. Switched computer, connected to internet and virtually went to www.worldtracer.aero, keyed-in file reference and name and clicked “Enter”:

Status: Item located. Pending confirmation. The phone rang.

“Is this Ms. Priambodo? Ma’am, we would like to inform you that your luggage has arrived in Singapore and we will deliver it to your address within the next two hours”.

HURA!!!!!!!!!