is the starting point for my class today. "On New Year's Eve 1962, as he was preparing for a musical assault on Las Vegas, he more than held his own at a gospel concert in Newark, NJ, where he appeared alongside the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Caravan Singers, and the latest incarnation of the Soul Stirrers. Cooke explained his continuing connection with his roots: When the whites are through with Sammy Davis, Jr., he won't have anywhere to play. I'll always be able to go back to my people 'cause I'm never gonna stop singing to them. No matter how big I get, I'm still gonna do my dates down South. Still gonna do these kind of shows. I'm not gonna leave my base. (from A Change Is Gonna Come, Craig Werner)
Sam Cooke is talking roots in terms of a personal history, but roots to our truth and our cosmic history are just as important. There is so much life and noise and chaos constantly swirling around us, and the practices within yoga can be like those gospel shows or dates down South. The practices become our safety zone or the home base where we can be renewed or even reborn. No matter how our outer life changes we have to keep an eye on that unchanging source center within us so that we can always find our way back to our roots to be made a siddha (a perfected one) all over again. Through this constant returning to the safety and stillness of the rejuvenating seat upon the earth – using asana and devotion and mantra and meditation – we will begin to create a home, an ease, and a firm friendship with out truth-roots. So that even when we are away from our base we still never really leave it behind.
Sam Cooke is talking roots in terms of a personal history, but roots to our truth and our cosmic history are just as important. There is so much life and noise and chaos constantly swirling around us, and the practices within yoga can be like those gospel shows or dates down South. The practices become our safety zone or the home base where we can be renewed or even reborn. No matter how our outer life changes we have to keep an eye on that unchanging source center within us so that we can always find our way back to our roots to be made a siddha (a perfected one) all over again. Through this constant returning to the safety and stillness of the rejuvenating seat upon the earth – using asana and devotion and mantra and meditation – we will begin to create a home, an ease, and a firm friendship with out truth-roots. So that even when we are away from our base we still never really leave it behind.
