Self Awakening Yoga by Don Stapleton
After reading the following words in the Prologue: Your Body as Earthen Vessel of his book Self Awakening Yoga, (Healing Arts Press copyright 2004) I was compelled to seek Don Stapleton out as my teacher. Now years later, I have studied under his guidance, wisdom and love achieving a Professional Yoga Educator 500-RYT certification and am currently working on my 1000 hour discipline from the Nosara Yoga Institute. Above all, Don is a trusted friend, personal and attentive to my growth, discipline and ever questioning nature as a student. He is my guru and I am forever grateful to both Amba, his wife, and Don for tending the fire within the hearth of my home.
Enjoy your reading. peace & good health – Lara
mud\’med\n.: wet , sticky, soft, earth, as on the banks of a river
hut\’het\n.: a small, cozy house, shelter, or cottage
adobe\e-‘do-be\n.: a sun-dried brick of clay and straw use to build a structure
We use the word “yoga” in a similar in a way in which the word “adobe” has become universal. The word adobe is not indigenous American or Spanish, as I had always thought. Adobe is an Arabic word that found its way into use throughout the world, from Africa to Israel, from India to Costa Rica, from Santa Fe to Peru. In all those places,adobe refers to huts and cottages that are constructed of mud bricks.
Sun Salutations
In my estimation, the word yoga has similar universality. As I watch the word yoga enter mainstream culture, I appreciate its wide reference to a multitude of practices and modalities that share the foundational intention of bringing abut integration of all aspects of one’s being through a combination of physical and mental practices that both expand self-awareness and produce spiritual attunement.
Our bodies, like the clay we impress with the designs and shapes of our imagination, are infinitely malleable. We are the beings endowed with the ability to both shape and be shaped by the worlds we live in.
