TABBY CAT Ashtanga

The Cat on the Mat Comes Back

The Cat on the Mat Comes Back

Shiva Om

RIP

Yogasmic Tenacity

My pure 24K golden ShalaPal Y sweet talked me into taking a few Ashtangic snaps. Mind you I have done precisely zero (0) yoga for Five Full Months.

And yet I was amazed I could do some stuff, without even any warmup. By doing these without any A's and B's or anything I'm probably in violation of some pranic ordinance or something.

But it was fun. Yes, I know my postures here kind of suck. But, see, you are thinking about it all wrong.

Here's the spirit you want to cultivate when viewing:

"Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

-Samuel Johnson

Er... not that I personally have anything against a woman preaching, no not at all, perish the thought, it's just the idea, see,  ... I mean, I was merely trying to illustra- ... *cough*

My point is merely that  ol' AYS  must have given me a hell of a  great Ashtangic education, if I can still do this kind of stuff  after a total 5 month layoff, without any warmup or prep. Considering I've been doing nothing but boxing for all these months, for christ's sake!

I admit these are simple-ass moves that most Ashtangi's can do easily on command. But to me, it was a revelation that yoga can really get branded deeply into you, it's not just a surface stunt. These are a few of what Y shot for me. Yeah I know the foot's wrong and the arm's too this or too that and the  head and the  blabbitty blah blah. See quote above. All such mistakes are me me me, not AYS!

Without further ado, I give you Tabby Cat making an Asana of himself:

Prasarita Padottanasana A

Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana

Marichyasana B

Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana

Marichasana C

Oh hell and just for fun, here's me back in the day (age 17)

Hanumanasana   (^-^)

 

Advaitic Scam

Sample craziness from my New, Improved  Tabby Cat Gamespace blog.

"All the Megalomania, Twice the Total Irrelevance!"

Advaitic Scam

By Tabby Cat (with apologies to Dr. Seuss)
© 2007

I am Sam
I am Sam
Sam I am

That Sam-I-am!
That Sam-I-am!
I do not like
that Sam-I-am!

You will be happy
As a clam!

I do not like it,
Sam-I-am.
I don’t like your Advaitic Scam.

You’ll see there’s Nothing
Here and There!

I don’t want Nothing
Here and There!
I want Something,
Everywhere!

I won’t buy your Advaitic scam,
I do not like it,
Sam-I-am.

Won't this Pure Nothing you espouse?
You’ll find there's no more need to grouse!

Your Nothingness I won’t espouse,
When you shut up, I’ll no more grouse.

I don’t want Nothing
Here and There!
I want Something,
Everywhere!

Time’s not real, toss your clocks!
Shut down your brain, be dumb as rocks!

At you I’ll gladly throw my clocks!
If you keep talking I’ll throw rocks!
Your Nothingness I won’t espouse,
When you shut up, I’ll no more grouse.

I don’t want Nothing
Here and There!
I want Something,
Everywhere!

I won’t buy your Advaitic Scam.
I do not like it, Sam-I-Am.

Would you? Could you?
Too bizarre?
There’s no such thing as Near or Far,
Everything is on a par.

Yes for me that's too bizarre,
I want things to be Near or Far.
It's ok, I have a car.

At you I’ll gladly throw my clocks!
If you keep talking I’ll throw rocks!
Your nothingness I won’t espouse,
When you shut up, I’ll no more grouse.

I don’t want Nothing
Here and There!
I want Something,
Everywhere!

I won’t buy your Advaitic Scam.
I do not like it, Sam-I-Am.

You may like it.
You will see.
You can strip off Identity!

I do not want to strip, you see,
My personal Identity!
I will not strip it,
That is Me!
Hands off my Identity!

I will not throw away my clocks.
I will not be as dumb as rocks.
Your goofy stuff I won’t espouse.
You’re just a crazy, wingnut louse.

I don’t want Nothing
Here and There!
I want Something,
Everywhere!

I won’t buy your Advaitic Scam.
I do not like it, Sam-I-Am.

Your brain! Your brain!
Your brain! Your brain!
Could you, would you,
Stop your brain?

Not my brain! My brain is Me!
Hands off my brain,
Just let it be.

Hey!
From your dream please disembark,
You’re just living in the Dark!

It’s not a dream to me you see.
To me it’s real as can be.
I’m not living in the Dark,
It’s YOU who’s madly raving stark!

Awakening you can attain,
If you will buy Advaita’s claim!

I would not, could not buy that claim,
So from your prattle please refrain!

I don’t want Nothing
Here and There!
I want Something,
Everywhere!

I won’t buy your Advaitic Scam.
I do not like it, Sam-I-Am.

In your eye you have a mote.
When that’s removed you’ll easy float!

I like my mote! Why can’t you see?
I love my world’s Duality!

You think Advaita’s just a sham?
That down your throat I try to ram?

You do not like it.
So you say.

Try it! Try it!
And you may.
Try it and you may, I say.

Sam!
If you will let me be,
I will try it.
You will see.

Say!
I like your Advaitic Scam!
I do! I like it, Sam-I-Am!
From my eye it’s stripped that mote!
I feel like I'm now afloat!
I see there’s Nothing
Here and There!
I see there’s Nothing ANYWHERE!

I do like your Advaitic Scam!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-Am!

Play Time

            Halftime over, the game resumes in a new playspace:
 
http://cattanga.typepad.com/tabby_cat_gamespace/
 
(For all 2 fans of extinct Tabby Cat Ashtanga blog!)

Silence is Golden

Toward dawn I dozed off, and in my dream I found myself surrounded by a group of skeletons . . . . One skeleton came over to me and said:

Memories
Flee and
Are no more.
All are empty dreams
Devoid of meaning.

Violate the reality of things
And babble about
"God" and "the Buddha"
And you will never find
the true Way.

I liked this skeleton . . . . He saw things clearly, just as they are. I lay there with the wind in the pines whispering in my ears and the autumn moonlight dancing across my face.

What is not a dream? Who will not end up as a skeleton? We appear as skeletons covered with skin -- male and female -- and lust after each other. When the breath expires, though, the skin ruptures, sex disappears, and there is no more high or low. Underneath the skin of the person we fondle and caress right now is nothing more than a set of bare bones. Think about it -- high and low, young and old, male and female, all are the same. Awaken to this one great matter and you will immediately comprehend the meaning of "unborn and undying."

- Ikkyu

Loathesome in its own Deliciousness

Though I hate props of any kind, I have to admit that the ONE prop that the teacher has finally pitbulled me into using each and every class is in fact making a big difference. That is a styrofoam square pad in sarvangasana. Not that it particularly helps in sarvangasana per se. I could already do that one ok, no problem. Fact is, I don't even much like sarvangasana to begin with, nor care about it whatsoever. No, the real target of this particular airstrike turns out to be Urdhva Padmasana, which, though I could always do it ok, never really felt right to me somehow. Just always a little off... But since I've been bulldozed into using that pad for sarvangasana, I find that practice has unexpectedly loosened up my chin somehow (or jalandara bandha or whatever the hell), so that now my UP feels and looks waaaaay better than before, I can really straighten my back in it. And that's nice cause UP is such a kickass posture, I mean, ya really look and feel like yer really doing yoga when ya get that one cooking on all burners. Guru Om to the max!

So does that mean I now see the utlimate value of props and I'll dive into them headfirst and become a bionic yogi like everyone else? Let me answer that with these lyrics from an old country song:

I got all choked up and I threw down my gun
And I called him my pa, and he called me his son,
And I came away with a different point of view.
And I think about him, now and then,
Every time I try and every time I win,
And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him
Bill or George! Anything but Sue! I still hate that name!

(Johnny Cash)

AHAHAHAHA! *cough* ...

*Tabby chokes to death on a hairball thereby putting this stupid blog out of its misery once and for all*

Anyway you get the idea.

~

Reading Michael Behe's latest, Evolution's Edge, it is radically obvious that the Darwinian account of evolution, the cornerstone of all modern biology is a scam. It does operate, don't get me wrong, but accounts for only a trivial part of the most primitive aspects of what needs to be explained (variation and speciation). The NUMBERS jes' don't add up. Doesn't make the cut. I already knew everything else is a scam, so I'm gratified to discover that even this Darwinian sacred cow is no exception to the rule. Everything is false. Reading all the supposed refutations of Behe on the web and the Times and elsewhere, his critics didn't even take on his probability and stat analysis of malaria, E. Coli, and HIV virus mutation rates. They basically just said they don't like his hairstyle and that tie is practically a fashion crime. Idiots!

But where does that leave us? Trouble with these critics of Darwin is that having refuted him, they jump too far, all the way over to "Intelligent Design", which to them means basically God. No way that could be true! Even if they try to shy away from any one particular Bible-thumpin religious doctrine, still its clear that no real God worthy of the name would screw up the job to this extent.

So now what? Well I figure, if we have to go with "Intelligent Design" then the designERS must be some kind of (obviously evil) space aliens. They probably had some good genetic engineering tech, way back in the day, 2 billion years ago, came cruising by here and thought they'd have some fun jiggering with our raw materials. In other words they were just Assholes from Outer Space.

It's weird that the Intelligent Design people who think themselves sooo iconoclastic and brave for standing up to Darwinian Orthodoxy, shy away from a truly radical explanation, like mine. They cling to their monotheistic baby gobblygook.

BOLO SHIVA RAJ!

Requiem

Tracy the maha-deva yogini who sometimes teaches Beginner Intensive at our Shala told us when I took it last Fall "Yoga will pull you out of bed in the morning". I remembered it but I did not experience that until today:

5:10:00 - RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! ALARM CLANGS OBNOXIOUSLY
5:10:10 - Eyes closed I destroy alarm radio with one slap of my 鉄砂掌 (Iron Palm)
5:10:15 - ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ....
5:20:00 - SUDDENLY AWAKE AGAIN !! For no reason, I woke up without alarm !

And I went to class as normal.

The teacher jiggered my shavasana quite a lot. And then lying there, for the first time I had that, as they say in the Gita, "if the radiance of a thousand Suns were to burst in the Sky at once". Fun!!

Om Guru!

Too bad that I am OUTTA here as of Friday, last Mysore session for quite a while.

I wished for death often
but now that I am at its door
I have changed my mind about the world.
It should go on; it is beautiful,
even as a dream, filled with water and seed,
plants and animals, others like myself,
ships and buildings and messages
filling the air -- a beauty,
if ever I have seen one.
In the next world, should I remember
this one, I will praise it
above everything.

- David Ignatow

Knocking on Heaven's Door

A decent Mysore this morning. Teacher re-cranked my (self-bound) Mari C, made it into a whole new wonderland of fresh experience. He also torqued me into a correct and complete Mari D 1st side (Mari D 2nd side is easy for me) for about 1 nanosec before I exploded out of it. So that's something.

It's coming. The USA mil.gov (shadow High Command) is probably planning "9-11 2 - The Sequel", another major false flag terror psyop. Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under the Reagan administration, has stated the case very well:

"The administration figures themselves and prominent Republican propagandists ... are preparing us for another 9/11 event or series of events," he said. "You have to count on the fact that if al Qaeda is not going to do it, it is going to be orchestrated."

Roberts suggested that in the absence of a massive popular outcry, only the federal bureaucracy and perhaps the military could put constraints on Bush's current drive for a fully-fledged dictatorship.

"They may have had enough. They may not go along with it," he said.

They need it to lock USA down domestically, and expand the current Imperial shitstorm overseas to new territories. They'll probably hit the West coast this time, to teach us that "nowhere is safe". Most likely under the cover of some simulated terror prep drill, such as upcoming planned for Portland. I figure the only reason the core mil.gov operatives haven't done it yet is because  they are, deep inside, a bit ashamed of themselves for 9-11 (though I'm sure they can justify it in their own minds as a kind of super-partriotism, like the Nazis felt they were "saving" Germany.) They probably can't look their honest colleagues straight in the eye. But you'd think some of the lower-level FBI, CIA and military people would still have the guts and honesty to blow the whistle on this. Actually Coleen Rowley and others tried their best.

And Roberts is wrong to focus only on Bush and the Republicans. The USA is a One Party State. The puppets are dressed in various outfits and slammed against one another for show. But obviously the 9-11 psyop has got to be an open secret in Washington DC and you know what they say: to get along, go along.

Meanwhile we sleepily worry about yoga or kids or significant others or job trivia. While the hammer comes down.

Soñé la Espada

I'm within micromillimeters of getting Supta K feet-crossed-behind-head kickass version (as opposed to the  feet-crossed-in-front baby version). But still don't know if it will happen in this lifetime. After all don't they say we could go at any moment? Chicken today feathers tomorrow. Anyway I least I now can always bind hands with feet crossed in front. With teacher assistance natch.

I gave up on the all the straps and pads and whatnot for the high-tech baddha konasana the teacher was attempting to nudge me towards. My loss! No doubt... but I just cannot stand all that STUFF. Creeps me out! Probably because when I had near-lethal brain cancer at age 8 and spent 6 months in the fricking cancer ward having my skull drilled through and parts of my brain cut out (and back in the day this brain cancer stuff wasn't treated with kid gloves and MRI and all the namby pamby stuff they have now, it was hard-core Torquemada to the bone - pure torture all day every day - y'all don't know what pain really is), they used me as a medical school teaching case, and when the Prof would lecture with me on the display table in the big lecture hall, I'd be all trussed up, restrained in a similar style. Screw that, never again. If I wanted to be packed up like a chimp being shot into orbit I'd skip Ashtanga and head to Gold's Gym for a real 21st century style high-tech workout. Instead I'm looking for a 500 B.C. style workout AHAHAHA! Anyway even without all that, the teacher does not seem to have taken the rejection personally in the least, as he came over and gave me a very amiable and effective old-fashioned baddha k adjustment this morning (i.e. just push the hell out of my legs). It's working, I'm getting it.

Ah anyway. Today I don't feel like writing. I feel like linking.

My Irish buddy sent me a great link "The World Without Us". Do you realize, all this crap we have built up, there's no way we'll be able to maintain it much longer. We'll run out of energy, and we won't tear it down, so it'll all crumble to ruins. In a way, it's easy to build up stuff, but in the long run maintenance or tear down are both equally impossible. Too much energy needed. Nature will do the job for us! Such an interesting presentation, I have ordered the book and will review it later.

Here's the link to Scientific American's coverage: The World Without Us

And just to round out with some philosophy, here's my favorite thing ever written on Buddhism. Just a little fragment, but when I read it a like age 12 or whatever it really blew my mind. Read it slowly and give yourself a creepy little metaphysical thrill.