Poetry in the Posture: Toe Stand
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So I've recently fallen in love with the last posture of the standing series: Toe Stand. A posture that will test your patience, develop your focus, and seriously work out the muscles in your feet, Toe Stand is a great one for yogis who have been attending Bikram awhile and really want to get deep into the meditation. Don't be worried if it takes you awhile -- it's a difficult posture to do -- but if you stick with it, the thrill of floating right above the floor will pay off. Plus, you free your knees and ankles of rheumatism, arthritis and gout, and you strengthen your stomach. Go, toe standers!
Also, a little poem dedicated to the posture. Enjoy, my yogis!
on point, on perfect
balance, both sides equal,
mind and body made even.
Steady eyes level
the mind. A gaze
goes a thousand miles,
a clear empty cloud –
being without thoughts the ideal –
goes farther.
Implausibility achieved:
what would appear to be
floating.
Our bodies made clear,
empty, like clouds
floating, hovering, we linger.
Our bodies made into birds,
small perched perfection
grown from a tree,
held closer to the ground
as if we were sparrows
who have been calmed,
no longer the flitting, stir-crazy
creatures they generally seem to be.
Here, we sit on our own energy.
We need not flit
from corner to corner
of a sidewalk, hopping,
making our own flittering
dance of jumps and nerves…
We are not sparrows.
We are still. We get here
by trust in our own bodies,
we carry this moment
motionless harmony of thoughtlessness –
the mind filled only by equilibrium,
balance alone –
what we bring to the beach,
the busy street,
the tallest woods,
prideful in their soaring limbs,
steady trunks…
the balanced bodies
we take home after class.
Also, a little poem dedicated to the posture. Enjoy, my yogis!
Balance Alone
We support ourselveson point, on perfect
balance, both sides equal,
mind and body made even.
Steady eyes level
the mind. A gaze
goes a thousand miles,
a clear empty cloud –
being without thoughts the ideal –
goes farther.
Implausibility achieved:
what would appear to be
floating.
Our bodies made clear,
empty, like clouds
floating, hovering, we linger.
Our bodies made into birds,
small perched perfection
grown from a tree,
held closer to the ground
as if we were sparrows
who have been calmed,
no longer the flitting, stir-crazy
creatures they generally seem to be.
Here, we sit on our own energy.
We need not flit
from corner to corner
of a sidewalk, hopping,
making our own flittering
dance of jumps and nerves…
We are not sparrows.
We are still. We get here
by trust in our own bodies,
we carry this moment
motionless harmony of thoughtlessness –
the mind filled only by equilibrium,
balance alone –
what we bring to the beach,
the busy street,
the tallest woods,
prideful in their soaring limbs,
steady trunks…
the balanced bodies
we take home after class.