Use

When planning a quilt consider the intended use. What fabrics are used, the type of quilting done, etc. - are dependent on the intended use of the quilt.

So decide if the quilt will be used as an everyday quilt on a bed or is it meant to be an heirloom and thus displayed but not used.

Keep in mind that a quilt for a cot, child or lap quilt definitely needs to be of a fabric that is durable and washable, as it will require more frequent laundering.

Cleaning

Baby and lap quilts will get soiled and need to be washed often. It is important that a mild soap is used and that the quilt is rinsed well. Quilt shops carry products specially designed for quilts.  "Quilt Wash" is one such product. All commercial detergents are much too harsh and will strip colour from quilt fabrics.  A great product for stains, yellowing or other stubborn marks is "Restoration".

Laundering a quilt may not be necessary. Many will only require having the dust removed. The best way to remove dust from a sturdy quilt is to place a nylon stocking, over the nozzle of a vacuum and then gently vacuum the quilt--preferably on both sides. Avoid surface abrasion.

Airing a quilt can also remove odours and dust. There is no need to beat the quilt and keep in mind that sunlight is bad for your quilt.

Dry cleaning a quilt is not recommended. It is not a gentle method as large tumble machines are used and harsh chemicals are applied, which can be quite damaging.

Storage

Light and moisture are a quilts worst enemies.  Direct sunlight will not only fade the newest and highest quality fabric in no time at all, but it also will cause the fibers to weaken. Moisture can cause mildew to form, which can be not only difficult to remove, but impossible.

Many people use cardboard boxes and plastic bags with the intention of protecting their precious quilts. Both of these gather moisture, causing stains and encouraging mildew and musty smells.  They are bad choices for storage. The big plastic storage boxes are not any better, as they do not have ventilation.

A closet shelf is a much better choice. Do not use open shelving as this exposes the quilt to light and you will end up with fading along the folds. The storage area should be clean, cool, dry, dark, and as free as possible from drastic changes in temperature and humidity. If you have shelf space, it is a good idea to fold the length of the quilt and roll, to eliminate creases. The next time, fold a different way before rolling.

It is also essential that the quilt is clean and dust free before put it away. Stains can attract insects while dust particles actually create abrasion, causing wear.

Avoid storing near an outside wall where condensation will occur particularly in winter. Be aware that smoke for cigarettes and fireplaces can seek out stored textiles leaving an ugly surprise.  One of the best places to store a quilt is on a bed. Do you have a guest room? Pile your quilts on the unused bed, in layers, and then top with a cotton sheet to block the light.

No matter where you choose to store your quilts, it is important to inspect them every two to three months. Take them out to air them for a few hours and examine, front and back. It is a good idea to clean the storage area at this time before putting the quilts back.

Display

Both sunlight and artificial light will cause fading. Never display a quilt where direct sunlight will reach it. If you have fluorescent lighting, it is wise to cover the tubes with a UV shield.

When hanging a quilt, use a method that will distribute the weight over the entire width of the quilt. Sew a four inch wide tube or sleeve of fabric along the top edge on the back of the quilt and stitch through all layers of the quilt every inch or so. Do not use nails, pins or staples to hang a quilt. These can tear through fabrics, corrode and cause staining and cause distortion of heavier quilts.

Cherish your quilts and they will reward you with years of enjoyment.

I asked UK photographer Phil Selfe why he sold his very successful studios a few years back and he answered, "I just got bored Rog".

I remember when he was my assistant back in the seventies, I would set up the first still-life shot, then say to him, "Shoot off the rest Phil" and go out for the rest of the day.

Of course not all still-life is so mundane and in fact some still-life shots are very exacting, requiring careful planning, construction of the set and attention to lighting details, which would include running test shots to acquire the effect that was needed. Sometimes this could take a day or two to successfully complete.

If you were shooting room sets as I use to do some time back, this would require a lot more work and would involve the use of many assistants, carpenters for set building and in many cases taking days to successfully complete. You would also need some serious studio space to accomplish this type of specialist work, as I use to have.

But as UK comedian Ronnie Corbett would say "I digress", lets get back to the basics of still-life tabletop photography.

For lighting you will need an attachment to your studio flash unit called a 'Soft Box'. This is as it sounds, a box constructed in fabric, which is reflective on the inside, with a diffuse panel at the front, providing a directional soft defused light to illuminate the subject. An umbrella attachment is not sutible for this work as the spread of light is to wide.

If you don't have a studio flash unit you can buy a soft box that will attach to a hammer head flash gun. If you have a second flash head you can put this to good use by simply bouncing it off the ceiling, to help fill any shadow area.

What you will need for Still-Life Tabletop Photography.:

1. Medium Format Camera and a 'macro' lens (close focusing). Better still a 5x4inch. View camera, which has tilt and swing front and rear panels for ease of focusing.

Did you know that only one in fifteen NEW cameras sold to day, are film cameras, this means there are great bargains to be had in the use film camera market, take advantage of that right now.

2. Soft Box Attachment.

3. Tripod, a good solid one.

4. Lighting Stands, you will need two or three.

5. White Card as reflectors or as a background, size 1mtr.x70cm. from your art shop, get three.

6. Background. muslin or material, off white or neutral in color.

7. Low table about 2ftx2ft. 18 inches high.

8. Light Meter for flash exposures.

What to do:

Set up your soft box at an angle of 45 degrees to the left or right of camera and slightly to the back of the set. This should be for small still-life objects and the light should be no more than a meter away from the subject, so you are able to stop down, (set the lens aperture), to at least f22, to get as much depth-of-field as possible so the image will be in sharp focus. If you have a second flash head, use it bounced off the ceiling to help to fill any shadow area.

Fix your reflector, (white card), the opposite side to the flash and an additional reflector the other side underneath the soft box.

Use a good lens hood, such as a bellows lens hood, to keep the light from the soft box hitting the lens. It's also good practice to fix a small piece of black card, suspended over the lens of the camera to prevent any light causing flare from the lens, taking care that the black card doesn't clip the picture area, or effect you meter reading.

Make test exposures to find out the best result and after some experimentation, you will find the results that you want. It's also good to "bracket" your exposures, which means to make three exposures, one at half a stop, (f.stop number), above the reading and one at half a stop below, choosing the best density of the three exposures made. Most pro photographers, even after a tests, use this as standard practice. Film is cheap and digital is nothing.

Now if you think that there is some other 'magic' formula that the pros use to shoot simple still life, your WRONG. This is the most used pro photo still-life set up, but of course there many exceptions to the rule and not all still life work is table top.

Final comment: The best way to become an accomplished photographer in still-life or other work, is go work for one as an assistant. It's the way most good pro photographers make it.

Happy shooting.

A New Architectural Era Built in Hyde Park, London to house the Great Exhibition in 1851 the Crystal Palace is commonly considered as a significant turning point in architectural history. This magnificent structure built from steel and glass paved the way for further exploration of glass as an architectural element. The glass sail of the new Milan trade fair and Louvre pyramid are other stunning example of the use of glass as a structural as well as a design element. Other examples of glass architecture include the London Bridge, Agbar and Federazija Towers as well as the Tokyo International Forum.

While the use of glass in construction was previously quite limited to grand designs and office buildings it is starting to become a core structural and design element in many homes. Glass facilitates natural light and opens up rooms allowing smaller spaces to look bigger as well as facilitating a natural indoor/outdoor flow which often enhances the tranquillity as well as the value of your home. Glass is also relatively inexpensive and fully recyclable, an important consideration in the current era of heightened environmental consciousness. Glass use in construction has increased dramatically due to the rapid changes in glass production and technology. Previously glass was thought to be quite a fragile building material and many steered away from it because of this. Modern glass, however, is not only spectacular to look through but it is safer, stronger and energy efficient.

Glass in the home In the past glass was mainly utilized for windows to allow some air and light in to rooms. Today glass is utilized in the construction of several elements of exterior and interior architecture. Exterior glass architecture includes facades, display windows? skylights, skywalks, entrances, revolving doors, canopies, winter gardens and conservatories. All of which allow homes to be bathed in natural sunlight with gorgeous outdoor views. Interior glass architecture can be used for staircases, elevated walkways and even as traditional walls. There are some houses in which all of the walls are actually glass. Such high quantities of glass previously compromised other aspects such as the heating and cooling requirements. Often glass architecture would incur high heating costs in winter and cooling costs in summer. Fortunately such great progress has been made in the glass industry that we now have access a variety of different kinds of glass each with fantastic benefits. One such example is glass with spectrally-selective qualities, which allows light to stream into the house without being harmful or degenerative to occupants and their belongings.

Caring for your Glass To keep your glass looking great and streak free you will need to ensure that it is cleaned often. Try a few different cleaning solutions before you decide which one to use, options vary from store bought to home made solutions. Many use products such as ammonia, vinegar, borax, alcohol or Epsom salts to clean glass. An important point to remember is that when using your own solutions never combine an acid and an alkaline, for example vinegar and ammonia, as they neutralise on another. After washing use a dry cotton towel rather than paper towels or newspaper as they tend to disintegrate and leave deposits on your glass. For a great shine a dry blackboard eraser can be used.

To keep frost from accumulating on exterior windows during the winter, add two cups of antifreeze or rubbing alcohol to each gallon of wash water. For deposits of paint, resin or glue wet the surface and then scrape them off using a razor blade scraper. Take care to scrape in one direction only in order to avoid scratching the surface.

Another option, and a fantastic one at that, is the breakthrough technology that has brought us self-cleaning glass. An ultra-thin coating is applied to the glass during the manufacturing process; this coating has two highly beneficial effects on the glass. First organic residue on the glass broken down by the ultraviolet wavelengths in sunlight then when it rains the dirt is washed off. As the coating is hydrophilic when rain hits the glass, it doesn't form droplets and in turn eradicates streaking. Rain water flows down the glass in a sheet and washes the dirt away. If you don't have time to wait for the rain a simple garden hose will be just as effective. Self-cleaning glass is making the lives of homeowners far easier and is giving home owners absolutely no reason to hesitate to use of glass in the construction of their homes. What could be better than bright, open rooms with excellent outdoor views facilitated by huge sheets of glass, without having to spend your days cleaning them?

Modern day architectural trends have elevated the way we think about the use of glass in our own homes. It is no longer simply a material for windows and the occasional sliding door; it is a design component in its own right.

With each passing day glass becomes a more important element in architecture not only in grand public structures but also in the lives and homes of families across the world. The beauty of glass lies in its simplicity, it enables us to be enveloped by nature while living comfortably in doors.

I hiked a few miles the first day and explored the woods, where I ate wild blueberries for an hour. Then I set up camp behind a small ridge on the beach. I collected dry grass along the edge of the forest, which made a nice mattress. I pitched my backpacking tarp fairly high, so the breeze would keep out the mosquitos. When camp was set, I went for a swim.

This area has many crayfish, which look and taste just like miniature lobsters. After swimming I caught a dozen under the rocks in shallow water, and carried them back to camp in a whipped-cream container I found. You never know what will wash up on a beach.

I boiled them with some cattail hearts and evening primrose roots, in my cheap three ounce pan. It made a good meal with the crackers I brought. (You remove the meat from the tail of the crayfish, after cooking.)

It was summer, so I hadn't brought a sleeping bag. At seventeen ounces, my bag wouldn't have added much to my packweight of eight pounds. I just wanted to try using a nylon sleeping bag liner I had recently sewn (5 ounces). I wore my clothes to bed, including a hat I made from the sleeve of an old thermal shirt (1 ounce). I slept well, and ate granola bars for breakfast.

Water was all around, so I only had a 16-ounce plastic pop bottle (1 ounce) and a few iodine tablets for purification. I took a good drink before I packed up.

I found fresh bear tracks on the beach. The bear had walked within 60 yards of where I slept. I had a freon horn (2 ounces) that I'd bought after reading that people have used it's high-decible shriek to scare off bears. I pulled it out. I followed the tracks for an hour, but only because I was going in that direction.

I had two old cabins to explore, another patch of berries I knew about, and a beach full things to check out. The strangest item that regularly washes up is light bulbs. I take them home to use them. After years of finding these, a sailor finally told me that they throw them off the ships to shoot at them in the water. I was finding the ones they missed.

The next day I headed back. The rain I expected never came, so I didn't get to test my garbage bag rainsuit (2 ounces), but I had used a similar one with success before. Overall, I was happy with my ultralight backpacking "test." Of course, you can get by with fragile clothing and gear when you're hiking an open beach. Oh, and I never did see the bear.

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I had a myriad of ideas when my employer laid me off. I've failed led canopy light manufacturers at one business already a couple of summers ago. Then I retreated; I retreated from work, from life, into my home, away from responsibility, away from my ideas and placed more importance on me. I felt selfish, irresponsible, guilty, lazy, et al. Again, anyone who has been out of work you know what I mean!

My computer died, along with it, so did much material for many of my ideas. Whoa! What's this I noticed, I feel lighter, more able to focus. It may be short-lived but I'll take it while I can. Rebuilding the computer I discovered I can finally play games; I did that. I forgot about a lot of what has been (key word here) DRIVING me. I learned to relax again. I learned a bit more about my self. Still not where I think I should be, but certainly more aware again.

Read a lot of books!!! Now this leads to where I'm going with this post. In light of all this striving, driving, achieving, dissatisfaction with life, work, meaning, etc. I really wonder the reason why. There was a time when the work wasn't so important, that we could enjoy just going to work and the rewards of work: Time off, money to enjoy it, family, friends, hobbies, volunteers, special interests etc.

Now, what's been happening to our world of work? Are we working harder, striving to do more with less? Are we feeling this malaise because we're not taking our time for our own creative pursuits, for our own Rest & Relaxation? Are we searching for some meaning? Is this lack of meaning because we're not feeding our spirit? Isn't our spirit a creative being? How do we feed that with this go, go, go, attitude in society today? How can we take time to relax and enjoy being ourselves when society is continually pushing us to do more, more, more; what?

I've been doing some interesting reading lately and some interesting re-reading. One that really raised a number of these questions is Aldous Huxley, Island, and then the Brave New World Revisited.

Now I'm working on the Vein of Gold, the sequel to the Artists Way. I'm no artist in the literal sense of our culture, drawing, painting and such, but I do think we're all artists of a sort. Now working with this book, getting back to some basics, which is what this book reinforces, I find myself slowing down and getting back in touch with myself. In light of the other reading, the cause and effect of our culture on my own particular situation, the similarities with others I've seen asking the BIG questions, I can't help but wonder if this questing, searching that we're all on, has more to do with our spiritual evolution than it does with our career?

I feel there is something here for us all to discover that may just alleviate our sense of despair. As a contact in my network said to me, "Our whole life is our career, not just what we've come to label our paid work." What he means is a more holistic approach to career. Your career is your life; it is your kids, your hobbies, your reading, your sports, your volunteering, your work, your relationships, and so on.

If our lives are so one dimensional, it's no wonder we're all eager to look elsewhere and it's no wonder we're so at a loss as to where to look.

Best wishes, Lee

As times have changed so too have consumers needs for different types of light. Fortunately researchers have kept up with the demand, creating many different types of bulb to suit almost anyone's needs. Think you need only a traditional light bulb? Think again. Once you discover the endless possibilities, you may change your mind.

New Discoveries in Incandescence

Today consumers can choose from many specialized forms of light bulb. Depending on your needs you will find one that suits you. Here are some of the more common light bulbs available today:

Full spectrum light bulbs - These light bulbs produce specialized light called "white light". They may help relieve disorders resulting from inadequate exposure the sunlight. Most produce light at an intensity equal to outdoor daylight.

Automotive LED bulbs - Automotive bulbs are specialized bulbs often used in automobiles. These light are the small lights you might see when you turn your signal on in your car.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs - Compact bulbs produce a softer light than incandescent bulbs. They also use less electricity and last much longer than standard light bulbs.

Halogen light bulbs - Halogen bulbs are expensive but provide more light than traditional bulbs and last much longer. They are good for household lighting needs.

Projector light bulbs - Wouldn't you know it, there is a specialty light bulb for everything. These bulbs are of course, for use in projectors.

Tanning bed bulbs - Of course tanning bulbs produce ultraviolet rays to help tan the skin. Most beds need up to 30 tanning bulbs.

Specialty light bulbs - These include all light bulbs in any category not listed above.

Don't think for a minute however that these choices are the only when it comes to light. There is virtually a light bulb to meet anyone and everyone's needs available on the market today.

Choosing The Right Bulb

If you want a long lasting light for your house, consider the halogen bulb. These bulbs have gained in popularity in recent years. Some people however, prefer fluorescent bulbs. Over time, one can't argue that fluorescent bulbs are more energy efficient than most other bulbs combined. That's why so many offices use them.

Another category mentioned above rapidly gaining popularity are full spectrum light bulbs. These light bulbs are not cheap. However, there are many perks. People often buy these light bulbs to relieve depression, seasonal affective disorder, jet lag and fatigue. Full spectrum light bulbs almost qualify as therapy. In fact, you may even be able to argue with your insurance company to pay for them. (If you can get your doctor to prescribe some full spectrum light for you). These are a good choice if you plan on creating a mini oasis in your home, with light intensity matching that of the sun. Keep in mind however, they are pricey. Many feel the price however, is well worth the investment.

Cheap light bulbs abound however. Cheap light bulbs (the incandescent type) are good for producing an average amount and quality of light. You can buy replacements for these easily and inexpensively. While not durable, they are easy to use and still the most popular choice among consumers today. Let's not forget their many benefits. They are inexpensive, easy to use, run using low voltage, can be battery operated AND come in a variety of shapes, styles and sizes. You really can't beat that when it comes to light bulb value!

So take a moment to review the many bulbs now available on the market. Why not try something new? You may find yourself pleasantly surprised!

Through e-mail, an internet user that is on the list will receive their updates through email. If a promotional material piques their interest they will go to the site to learn more or to purchase outright. For the website operators or owners, this is a chance to remind their list of their existence and parlor their wares.  With the numerous sites in the internet that offers the same products or services in one way or the other, the competition can get pretty tight and it is easy to be forgotten.

Back to my experimenting friend, he tried to find out which opt-in marketing strategies grabbed a person into begging for more. Some would send in very simple fashion, some would very outlandish while there are some that would just lie in between. The differences could easily be noticed and some have gotten the idea of an effective opt-in marketing strategy. He dubbed them effective because he felt like he just couldn't wait to go their site and learn more, the more persuasive ones even got him halfway to reaching for his wallet and to his credit card before he realized this was only for an experiment.

Many companies and site present their promotional materials in a wide variety of concepts. Each has their own distinctive style and designs, but more than the outline and the presentation, the content and the articles are what keeps the attention of your potential customer locked on to your opt-in marketing medium. Creativity is the key here.

From talking to many satisfied opt-in list subscribers and forums, I have learned of what is essential in opt-in marketing and what makes the subscribers begging for more instead of lining up to unsubscribe.

Keep your promotional materials light, creative and original. Many people are stressed out as it is. Getting a stuffy business proposal rather than a light hearted e-mail may just agitate them more. A warm friendly smile or banter is always more welcome than a serious business meeting or proposal. While you do want your customers to take you and your products and services seriously, you also want to show them that you know how to have fun.

Splash some color in your emails as well as provide some photos and articles that can be related to you but show good news or good light hearted images as well. Provide a newsletter or promotional materials that will keep them in a light mood. Make your materials eye catching and grabbing that they wont be able to take their eyes of them. Pique their interests.

Have good content and article, even if it means investing in an experienced and professional copy writer to write them for you. An effective  copy writer should be able to build trust between you and your customers. They should be able to establish your credibility in what they write. It must be informative but not too stuffy. Let go of the professional jargons and 'talk'to your recipients.

A good article and content should be able to outline the benefits of your product and services and why they need what you are offering. But do not look to be overeager and too persuasive. It should be able to entertain as well as lead them to buying from you.

Your promotional materials should be clear. Don't leave people guessing. You should lead them to you and not vice versa. Explain to them what they need to do in a manner that won't be confusing. Try to anticipate also what your target client needs. Do your research and information gathering, many sites will be able to help you with that.

Provide clear and crisp images of what you are offering. If the people know what you have for them, they are more likely to beg for more. For example, if you are selling a car, provide them photos but only enough to encourage them to go to your site for more.

There are so many different lenses with varying specifications available that it can be quite overwhelming to find exactly what it is that you require from a lens, but that is where we step in to help.

This article acts as a guide to explain the jargon and to allow you make a better-informed purchase the next time you are shopping for a new digital camera lens.

Choosing a Suitable Focal Length

Focal length is probably the most important factor that should be considered when choosing a lens, and for good reason: focal lengths determine the field-of-view of the photos you will be able to take successfully with your camera.

The two main types of focal length are telephoto and wide-angle, and while telephoto lenses have a narrow field-of-view and are best suited for close-up shots and portraits, wide-angle lenses have a wider field-of-view which is perfect for indoor photography and landscapes.

Keep in mind that the performance of lenses can differ from camera to camera,  with the magnification power behind a lens generally being greater on a digital camera than on a 35mm film-based camera.

The Need For Speed

When you hear about fast and slow lenses, reference is being made to a lens's maximum aperture, which is the maximum amount of light that a lens can let in. A simple rule of thumb is that a fast lens lets in a lot of light, while a slow lens lets in less light, which defines how your photos will look.

Maximum apertures are measured in f/stop numbers, which are actually a ratio of the size of the lens aperture and focal length. The smaller the f/number, the more light is let in. An increment in the f/stop number doubles the amount of light let in, so f/2.0 lets in twice as much light as f/1.4.

This may seem quite confusing at first, so the easiest way to make sense of it is to remember the following: fast lenses are best suited towards successful photography in darker lighting conditions, and slow lenses are targeted towards photography in lighter conditions.

The Ins and Outs of a Zoom Lens

Unlike a fixed-focal-length lens, a zoom lens often gives you the diversity of a range of focal lengths all rolled into a single adjustable lens. This can be great if you often have to switch between various lenses for different shots, but it is important to remember that not all zoom lenses have a constant maximum aperture, and those that do are often larger and more expensive.

Although the maximum aperture may be reduced as you zoom in using a lens with a variable maximum aperture, this may not be as important to some photographers as the reduced cost and size of such lenses. Keep this in mind when purchasing a zoom lens.

Add-on Lenses

Add-on or accessory lenses are targeted towards compact digital cameras, and allow owners of such models to significantly lengthen or reduce the camera's built-in focal length while at the same time being able to automate camera functions including f/stop settings and focusing.

These lenses can be an excellent low-cost add-on to your digital camera, with telephoto add-on lenses being able to increase focal lengths by up to 300%, and wide-angle versions allowing for reduction in focal lengths of up to 30%.

Final Considerations

There are several other terms to take into consideration when buying a digital camera lens to make sure you are making the best purchase. If your lens utilizes aspheric lens elements, then you can rest happily with the knowledge that your lens will help produce sharper photographs and help keep lens weight to a minimum.

Lenses using internal and automatic focusing also keep lens weight down thanks to less moving parts, and of course allow for faster focusing. Low-dispersion glass leaves photos looking less hazy or fuzzy, while stabilization systems help to keep images sharp when taken using slow shutter speeds.

Conclusion

Hopefully this article has helped you to better understand what to look for in a digital camera lens. There are a lot of terms to remember here - so before shopping for your new lens it may be a good idea to take the time to make a list of what you want to do with your camera. Then you can double check your requirements against the features of different lenses. If you are still unsure if a lens will cater for your needs then by all means try to test it so that you can see some results before you buy!

Yidam practice as a whole is based, in large part, upon a productive use of the imagination.  It takes that capacity (and strong tendency) most led canopy light wholesale of us have to make mental pictures, and uses this as a tool to align us with, open us to, a reality that is deeper, more profound, and 'truer? than the one we're habitually 'tuned into.?  The imagined forms of the deities have the quality of being able, potentially, to act as portals, or gateways into these deeper realities ? to put us in touch, directly, with aspects of awakened mind.

Now it's important to notice the distinction between ~ on the one hand ~ this Yidam-practice way of using our imagination (as a very specific form of mental training, which ultimately can liberate us), and ~ on the other hand ~ a use of the imagination which amounts to no more than (habitual, and often largely unconscious) fantasizing.  To engage in fantasy is ~ from the perspective of Buddha Dharma ~ a non-productive use of the imagination: one that takes us further into the territory of conceptualization, mental elaboration, and as such further and further away from a reality which has the potential to liberate us.

So how does any of this relate to the practice of Yoga asana?  We could, first of all, consider each specific asana as a deity-form:  something we construct/project (a la the Creation Stage) and then dissolve (a la the Completion Stage).  And certainly asana practice is based largely upon a distinction between productive and non-productive alignments/uses of the body.  The productive alignments (a la the productive uses of mental imagination) are those which have the potential to open us into a reality deeper than the mere physical, e.g. to the level of the Central Channel/Shushumna Nadi, and the subsequent conscious flow of that awakened energy outward, into the whole network of nadis within the subtle body of the yogi or yogini.  The non-productive alignments (a la fantasies), on the other hand, simply keep the energy of our subtle bodies circulating unconsciously (divorced from the 'truth? of the Shushumna Nadi) in old samskaric patterns, i.e. keep us circling on the wheel of bith-and-death which in Buddhism is called Samsara.

And in the same way that in deity practice there is an evolution from the deity as a mere conceptual projection (though a potentially productive one!) to the non-conceptual appearance of the ?natural deity?; just so in our asana practice we often begin with a rather ?outside-in? approach, in which the asana is actually a form of conceptual projection, i.e. it's an ?idea? we have (from our teacher, or books, or whatever) that we put forth in the form of an arrangement of (the appearance of) bones, muscles, etc. ? but it's not yet 'real? or ?natural.?  As our asana practice matures, more and more we're able to work from the ?inside-out,? in which the asanas emerge spontaneously, non-conceptually, as aspects of our natural intelligence/radiance.  Our movements in and out of the asanas are infused with the spirit of what in Taoism is called Wu Wei:  an effortless effort which quite naturally produces the ?correct? alignments (as opposed to ?imposing? those alignments based upon some external 'moral code? of asana practice).

So how then do we progress from a conceptual to a natural way of expressing our asana practice?  From the poses as mere conceptual projections to expressions of an awakened bodymind?  A practitioner of the Generation Stage of Yidam practice might move in this direction by finding the Completion Stage within the Creation Stage, by finding the dissolution of the form as an inherent aspect of the form itself (much as ~ in Taoist theory/practice ~ Yang is an inherent aspect of Yin: they inter-are).  In this same way, our asana practice might re-member the dissolution of form within every form/asana taken.  And might ~ to extend the principle ~ put into conscious and ever-evolving relationship all opposing movements ? So little by little our ?ideas? about the ?right way? to do the pose are replaced by an ever-more-subtle tremoring which spontaneously aligns us in a way that allows our conceptually projected ?body? to dissolve into the blissful body of the deity:  an aspect of our own radiance, pouring forth, shedding itself continuously, for the benefit of all living beings.

One of the initial trainings in Dream Yoga ~ once the practitioner is able to be lucid (i.e. awake) within the dream ~ is to transform the body:  to change the shape of ones body into the body of a bird; into an airplane (and fly to Paris!); or ~ relevant to our current exploration ~ into the shape of a deity, which ~ in the context of dreaming ~ is quite easy to experience and understand as being an ?empty form,? i.e. a form made only of color, light & energy (much like a rainbow).  In this same way, our vinyasa ~ our movement in and out of asanas, upon the thread of our awakened breath ~ might become, with practice, a kind of ?Rainbow Painting? (I've borrowed the phrase from a book with this same title written by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche): merely a ?play? in color, light and energy, a toggling back and forth between the display of empty forms (the specific asanas), and the bliss which is the residue of their dissolution.

And this, perhaps, represents ~ simultaneously ~ the ?waking up? of the dream of our asana practice, and the ?waking up? of the dream of our Yidam practice; represents the ?waking up? from the dream/fantasy of religious practice into the blissful radiance of the Present Moment ? Amen and Sobeit.