Wisdom vs. Knowledge: a Proposal

Knowing something does not give you power over it, nor does it make you somehow more in control of the situation. Can you allow your knowledge of the said thing to provide you with insight into the fabric that weaves together the subject and the object? Can you allow your knowledge to actually make you more tangibly aware of your own vulnerability? To co-opt facts for the ego's benefit will only add strength to the fires of samsara.

Yogi and European Mysticism

            

More Dew

Morning Textures and Condensation.

Nature taking it back.

Ciudad vieja, en Panama

Misty Morning Raven

An old raven speaking the wisdom in the guttural way that they do. Location: Berkeley Hills

Hindi and the Harmonium

La Hoja de Palma

Strelitzia reginae

                  

Will work for the elation of others...

YOGA PRIVATES

Do you feel like your practice has plateaued, and are you looking to advance? Are you lost in your yoga classes and looking for clarity? Do you have nagging aches and pains from your practice that you just can't move on from? Do you want to know how to develop a sustainable home practice and have the support to make it happen?

Are you seeking a mentor to support you in your journey towards manifesting your teaching capabilities?

I am now available for for both periodic and ongoing private yoga instruction and yogic mentoring. Let's take it higher together!

Location: SF Bay Club or your personal practice space.
Length: 1 or 1.5 hours.
To reserve a session call 415-612-0190, or email matthew.champoux@gmail.com

~Headstand~

Radiant Morning

Flowers, Water, Tree.

Home Tree

-BE THE TREE-

The Architecture of the Universe and Avatar

The Heart is considered to be the architecture of the universe; the great weaving that binds all of creation (and anything seemingly empty of the qualities associated with creation) together. The Heart is furthermore, and rather obviously, found at the core of all beings, and at this Great Center(according to the tenets of Advaita Vedanta) we find the seat of the Atman, or our true self--it is a commonality that binds us to each other. This is the principle highlighted in the brilliant film, Avatar, which I hope that everybody sees at least once. This film crystallizes very brilliantly the true nature (and value) of the world that we live in with its emphases on the Great Goddess Eywa and the intimacy of connection felt by the Na'vi to their home, to each other, and nature. Through realization of the True Self we pierce the knot of ignorance that keeps us from the heart splitting the reality and beauty of the universe. We realize that we are Brahman , or the totality of the universe. Our ignorance, avidya or lack of knowledge, is due to the fact that our conditioned mind extrapolates ourselves to be essentially separate from things and things from us). Through awaking to the nature of Atman we liberate the subtle energy of the body which flows naturally, like water down a deep and rocky gorge, into the honeyed center of all things and through diving into the great ocean of the Heart with a one-pointed focus, the apparent "thingness" that we ascribe to the processes of continuum around us (and which are us!) breaks down to reveal the dependent arising of all phenomenon. Through the disintegration of the rigidity that binds our mind to subjects as if they were perminant and essential we come to view the vastness of creation like a beautiful weaving, a tantra, of gossamer brilliance that is empty, luminous, dreamlike, and the very fabric to enlightenment. We are connected and always participating in this flow that binds. Every moment we are connected the heartbeats of all beings; even to the hummingbird sipping nectar from a shimmering red flower that rejoices as it spills its heart out into the world high above the buzzing, heavy aliveness of the rainforest. We are One. This is the lesson of the great wisdom traditions of the world and what will give the film Avatar its lasting value.

Currents of Awareness

Deep inside all of us is a place where we naturally become aware of our being, of the life force coursing through our veins. By simply allowing the presence to bubble up, much in the same way that lava churns its way progressively upwards from the depths (from the heart of the earth to eventually erupt), we find a vast well of comfort--a comfort that one might find swimming during a warm summer's night in a dark lake with the heavens illuminated by the radiance of the Milky Way. There are creation myths among certain indigenous amazonian peoples related to the Milky Way but they call it the River of Milk; it was from this River of Milk that people came from the creator riding upon the back of a great and powerful serpent. In Sanskrit, the Milky Way is known as the Akasha Ganga, or the great sacred river of space (the macrocosmic continuum of the holy Ganges River on Earth). Space, in addition to being an outer state is felt when we release through the soft palate.



Milk, of course, is deeply symbolic and has meanings ranging from our connection to the Mother Goddess, to our human mothers, nourishment, safety, abundance, and even to gratitude and jouissance. So in many respects, our practice of yoga is about finding a way back to a primordial, mythical state by observing the breath, conducting ourselves with dignity and respect for all sentient beings, and practicing alignment with wisdom and faith. This practice is about finding ourselves at home once again as a part of the expansive cosmos and free from the fear that is born from disconnection.



Through a continuous layering of the alignment principles associated with yogasana, seated or standing postures, we grow naturally more aware of how the energy of universe flows through our system in the form of gravity, fluidity, earth, air, fire, water, space, and light. This is not something that we are making up, rather these are the felt qualities linked to the process and unfolding of wisdom and freedom in the mind and body; of liberating the dormant serpent energy at the base of the spine. We are developing layered patterns of experience that wake up the body and unblock the rivers of energy in our system, and as these rivers become unblocked a great and natural joy begins to fill the networks of interrelationships that form the body-mind consciousness. As these currents of energy begin to open we then begin our journey back down the River of Milk; riding upon the great serpent energy that constitutes the substratum of the universe. In the words of Mason Jennings, "how deep is that river?" Join me and we will find out together.

Compassion for All

May the capacity of our hearts to support and nurture each other, and every other life form on this planet, continue to grow.

Be Like a Mountain

In the Dzogchen teachings it is said that your View and your posture should be like a mountain.

Your View is the summation of your whole understanding and insight into the nature of mind, which you bring to your meditation. So your View translates into and inspires your posture, expressing the core of your being in the way you sit.

Sit, then, as if you were a mountain, with all its unshakable, steadfast majesty. A mountain is completely relaxed and at ease with itself, however strong the winds that batter it, however thick the dark clouds that swirl around its peak.

Sitting like a mountain, let your mind rise and fly and soar.

The posture we take when we meditate signifies that we are linking absolute and relative, sky and ground, heaven and earth, like two wings of a bird, integrating the skylike deathless nature of mind and the ground of our transient, mortal nature.

-SOGYAL RINPOCHE



-photo taken by Herbert Wong

The Vehicle of Air

When you bother a leaf katydid (seen below)!

This is an example of both extreme crypsis and batesian mimicry.

After being disturbed, the katydid presents its back and under-wings that have clearly evolved a pattern to represent a great and glaring set of colorful eyes, which, it has been theorized, evolved as a means to frighten off color sensitive predatory birds (Batesian Mimicry). I am truly awestruck contemplating the dynamic processes that joined together to result in this refined and elegant being, which, lest we forget, is still under the influences of its environment and still a dynamic droplet in the river of evolution. This is a brilliant example of the innate intelligence present within the substratum of the energy of life.

Some Amazon Pics