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Yoga and Jesus
Body and Bread
by Jenny Garrison
Yoga teaches us that our body is our
temple, the home of our Spirit, the form that surrounds and
carries our sacredness while we traverse this life on earth.
I teach yoga. I teach body as temple. I encourage my
students to “hang out in the temple”…to befriend their body,
to come to know it, to listen to it and talk to it, and to
care for it.
I am a yoga teacher who loves
Jesus….and during this Lenten season I was searching for his
teachings about the body, wanting to contemplate, integrate and
bring his teachings to my own heart and body. A friend gently
and deftly pointed me toward scripture, John 6. When I went to
the verses of John, in Christ’s teachings, I was taken right
to…bread. I read about how the bread was divided, how it fed the
multitudes. I read about Jesus telling the people that they
sought him after this because they had eaten their fill, and how
he spoke of food that he would give, food that would endure and
not spoil. He asked the people to believe in him. He told them
he was the bread of life, who gives life to the world. He said,
“I will raise you up.” He told the people that he was the living
bread, sent from heaven, and taught that the bread was his
flesh, which he was going to give for the life of the
world. He taught how Spirit gave life, how flesh without spirit
didn’t count. I read anew how this was a difficult teaching for
many, and how many followers left after Jesus said this.
With these teachings and
stories so laden with images of bread, I let my mind and heart
consider bread as a way of learning more about Christ’s
teachings of the body. It came to me that Jesus’s early memories
of bread were probably those of Mary, baking.
I thought of how his flesh came
to be inside of Mary, how his body came to form in the darkness
of her oven womb.
I thought of how
bread was the image that he chose when he revealed who he was,
when he fed the people, and when he gave us his own body, a gift
of pure love from God.
It is now Easter morning. I am
at the home of my own mother and father, and I am given the
happy honor of baking the bread.
I prepare the bowl, the form
that will hold the ingredients. I think of yoga practice, how
mind, body and Spirit are gathered together. I mix the
ingredients….water, yeast, sugar, salt and flour…until they
hold, until they come away from the sides of the bowl, together.
Then comes the first rising. I cover the dough, and let it rise
in warmth and darkness. I think of Jesus’s time in Mary, before
his birth. And then, light again, and the kneading, life. I
think of yoga practice, how the postures mimic life…the physical
stretching and returning, pose and counter-pose, deep massage,
expansion and contraction, all infused with breath, prana,
Spirit. I think of Christ’s life, and His death.
Then the dough is divided, and
formed into loaves. Again, it is covered…left to rest in
darkness. The tomb. I think of how the tomb was made ready by
those who loved him as I scatter cornmeal on the pans that will
hold the loaves. I carve two small crosses, one on each loaf,
and I think of the spear in His side. I put the loaves in the
readied oven. Darkness. Heat. Water is sprinkled on the baking
loaves as I remember the one who came before Him and died before
Him, his baptizer.
In the heat and the darkness
the miracle occurs as the loaves rise again, and change in their
form, becoming bread. I take them out, checking for their hollow
sound by tapping. I let them cool. I think of Mary Magdalene,
who came to the tomb grieving, to be near his body. She found
him here, so changed that she thought him the gardener, … until
He spoke her name, “Mary.”
I brush the loaves with butter,
anointing them. I sprinkle them with salt.
And then I pray. I am moved to
tears as my prayers cover these loaves that will feed others on
this Easter day. I bring hands to heart, grateful for all that
comes together in this life in body….grateful for Jesus, for
yoga, for God, for others, for life, for friends, for family,
for Spirit, for body, and for bread.
The Bread
1 pkg, yeast
2 C. warm water
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
Flour, about 4-5cups
In a large bowl., mix yeast and 1 c. water. Whisk in sugar and
salt. Add enough flour and another cup of water until dough is
sticky and comes away from the sides of the bowl. Continue to
add flour until a ball of sorts if formed. Cover and let rise in
a warm place until doubled. Punch it down and knead the dough
with floured hands. Add more flour if needed. Divide in two and
form into long loaves. Place the loaves on a pan that has been
greased and sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover and let rise again
till doubled. Place it in a 375 degree oven. After about 5
min, cut a little cross into the skin of the bread, and return
to oven for 35-40 min., baking until loaves are nicely brown and
sound hollow when tapped. Remove from oven and brush with
butter, then sprinkle with salt and a blessing.
Jenny Garrison
RN is a Kripalu yoga teacher and deep imagery guide in Wellsboro
PA . She is the author of Imagery in You. Visit her web site at
www.imageryinyou.com
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