Well, we got off to a rockin' start today. We have 23 people here this week. 11 of them have travelled from outside the Tucson area for the Immersion. We have folks from Calgary, Idaho, California, Flagstaff, Ohio, Colorado and other such exotic locales with varying degrees of Anusara Yoga experience but all with a similar love for learning, practice and personal exploration. It is really a great group.
Darren and I talked a lot about our main goals for the training and both of us felt strongly that the purpose of Day One is community building. It is really a "getting to know you" kind of day. AS teachers we need to assess what the group's baseline knowledge is and their capacity to receive and implement instructions. The students are having to jive with us and get in sync with us as teachers, with the other members of the group and with this learning format. No matter what you plan, you have to be willing to scrap it on a moment's notice because you have planned for the "etheric group" and there is is always the meeting of the actual group!
Anyway, we used Community as our theme for the day. We spent about an hour on introductions this morning and then I taught the opening asana class. It was the kind of asana class I must be getting famous for by now- hard work in the basics-- lots of energy, lots of work, basic details repeated over and over again with unflagging passion and zeal! We did lots of work in chataranga, lots of shoulder principles, some standing poses and foray into bhujangasana , setu bandhasana and ustrasana.
At lunch Darren and I debriefed the morning, refined our plan for the afternoon and practiced. Each of us spent a lot of time in sarvangasana which was great because we worked a lot on shoulder stand this afternoon. After lunch we talked about community as it relates to studentship and as that relates to the 5 elements. Then was a long foray into the fundamentals of shoulder stand and we finished up with some pranayama.
Darren and I went out for some great vegetarian food at Govinda's, the local Hare Krishna restaurant. That is a fun scene of sorts. It reminded me of India although that is weird to say because Govinda's is clean and calm so in some ways very unlike India but there was lots of Indian things to buy and so forth. And the whole Hare Krishna thing must be part of the connection.
Anyhow, it was a real pleasure to co-teach and since Darren is one of my favorite people, teaching with him was particularly fun for me. He is really easy to work with and I felt like we were really able to bounce ideas and insights off each other and really serve the students. I felt really charged up from the day. All in all, it is was quite easeful.
All right then, now I am tired and must get myself to bed.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Invocation
All right, the WHY CHANT question. Craig has promised me his two cents on this topic as well but probably not for a day or two. So stay tuned for that.
Quite simply we chant to invoke the Blessings of Grace on our practice. I really could end this post right here, in fact because that, in many ways, is it. We chant to ask for Blessings, to remember the Source of our transformation and the reason why we are practicing in the first place. What is funny is that the reason why we chant is very simple. It is only one or two sentences long. Dealing with the reasons why we do not want to chant or do not want to teach the invocation made for a very long post. Interesting, huh? (This is another post all together, however, but worth considering how consuming resistance can be and how simple the truth of the heart and spirit can be. But I digress.)
So, to round out the post a bit more, however, let's continue on... We chant to remember the very nature of Grace from which we are asking help and with which we want to align. We chant to remind ourselves and each other that "Grace is the true, auspicious teacher; That it assumes the forms of Being, Consciousness and Bliss; That it is ever-present and full of peace and that it exists as it is, regardless of circumstance as the Light of the Spirit." Like that.
In Costa Rica last spring, John Friend mentioned that when we chant we are acknowledging our contracted state. We are saying, "I know right now that my perception is one of separation. And in this state of perceived separation, I am longing for Union. I am longing to know the Truth of my Heart. I am longing to be Unified with Grace." So we chant as a means to Open to Grace. First Principle.
Another really cool thing is that when we chant, we are, in a certain way, Shakti longing for her lover Shiva. We are Shakti saying to Shiva, "I know that Essentially we are One, but right now, honey, I miss you, I do not feel connected. Those are simply fancy words to me and I need you to help me experience the truth directly. Come make love to me. Come off the mountaintop, come into creation and share with me the ecstasies of heaven here on earth."
Remember, words and ideas are never enough for the Goddess- she always demands the direct experience. Hers is the path of involvement, of full participation of "getting into the nitty-gritty of life," so to speak. And so when we chant, if we infuse our words with the mood or bhava of this longing we actually enter into a timeless love affair of the richest variety and our yoga practice becomes something quite fantastic. (Not that I suggest talking about this angle in the average public class or without a pretty good context being laid out, mind you.)
On a more practical note, Geeta Iyengar says: "We chant so that at the very beginning that feeling of sanctification comes from inside, with the feeling of surrendering oneself, because nothing can be learned in this world unless you have the humility to learn. So the moment you think of the Lord at the beginning of doing a practice, you know that you are very small in front of that greatest soul. Once that is understood then the other problems which always arise while practicing, mainly concerned with the ego, will be affected. You know that you are "coming down" to learn something. And you can't learn anything unless you come down; if you think you are on the top and you know everything, then you are not a learner at all. In that sense, the chanting helps."
All right then, more could be said but I must get to my asana practice. Then I am off to Tucson for a week to teach an Immersion with Darren. YIPPEE.
Quite simply we chant to invoke the Blessings of Grace on our practice. I really could end this post right here, in fact because that, in many ways, is it. We chant to ask for Blessings, to remember the Source of our transformation and the reason why we are practicing in the first place. What is funny is that the reason why we chant is very simple. It is only one or two sentences long. Dealing with the reasons why we do not want to chant or do not want to teach the invocation made for a very long post. Interesting, huh? (This is another post all together, however, but worth considering how consuming resistance can be and how simple the truth of the heart and spirit can be. But I digress.)
So, to round out the post a bit more, however, let's continue on... We chant to remember the very nature of Grace from which we are asking help and with which we want to align. We chant to remind ourselves and each other that "Grace is the true, auspicious teacher; That it assumes the forms of Being, Consciousness and Bliss; That it is ever-present and full of peace and that it exists as it is, regardless of circumstance as the Light of the Spirit." Like that.
In Costa Rica last spring, John Friend mentioned that when we chant we are acknowledging our contracted state. We are saying, "I know right now that my perception is one of separation. And in this state of perceived separation, I am longing for Union. I am longing to know the Truth of my Heart. I am longing to be Unified with Grace." So we chant as a means to Open to Grace. First Principle.
Another really cool thing is that when we chant, we are, in a certain way, Shakti longing for her lover Shiva. We are Shakti saying to Shiva, "I know that Essentially we are One, but right now, honey, I miss you, I do not feel connected. Those are simply fancy words to me and I need you to help me experience the truth directly. Come make love to me. Come off the mountaintop, come into creation and share with me the ecstasies of heaven here on earth."
Remember, words and ideas are never enough for the Goddess- she always demands the direct experience. Hers is the path of involvement, of full participation of "getting into the nitty-gritty of life," so to speak. And so when we chant, if we infuse our words with the mood or bhava of this longing we actually enter into a timeless love affair of the richest variety and our yoga practice becomes something quite fantastic. (Not that I suggest talking about this angle in the average public class or without a pretty good context being laid out, mind you.)
On a more practical note, Geeta Iyengar says: "We chant so that at the very beginning that feeling of sanctification comes from inside, with the feeling of surrendering oneself, because nothing can be learned in this world unless you have the humility to learn. So the moment you think of the Lord at the beginning of doing a practice, you know that you are very small in front of that greatest soul. Once that is understood then the other problems which always arise while practicing, mainly concerned with the ego, will be affected. You know that you are "coming down" to learn something. And you can't learn anything unless you come down; if you think you are on the top and you know everything, then you are not a learner at all. In that sense, the chanting helps."
All right then, more could be said but I must get to my asana practice. Then I am off to Tucson for a week to teach an Immersion with Darren. YIPPEE.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
To Chant or Not To Chant- what was the question?
I got a text message from Craig yesterday telling me that he had read my blog and that he hoped I did not think that he only ranted when he was teaching. I think he was kidding but in the medium of text messages some subtle nuances of tone, inflection and so forth often get lost. So maybe he didn't realize that I was teasing him a bit in my blog to begin with. I mean really, I personally have a whole blog dedicated to the intelligent,compassionate and dare I say, insightful rant. I have now written two books because I have so many opinions to express. I seem to be making a living at intelligent, compassionate and insightful ranting, in fact! (Okay I teach some damn fine asana as well but, well, that seems to be becoming just a platform for other ideas...) But I digress.
Craig has agreed to be a guest writer on my blog and so I will be including some of his writing on this blog over the next few weeks. I was going to post an article of his today but I got a pressing question posed to me from one of my favorite students and so I am going to answer it here today in case some of what have to say on the topic is useful for others. In general, when you ask me a question via email, Facebook, and/or phone call, you are pretty much agreeing for me to answer it on my blog. Just so you know. Forewarned is forearmed, so to speak.
So the email I got went like this:
A few things come to mind for me. But before answering the question about why we chant we have to address the insecurities that arise for us as yoga teachers that take the form of assuming that we know what our students are thinking because that is between the lines of this question.
One of my favorite teachings from John Friend about teaching yoga is that we should all "stop focusing on what our students think about us and our teaching and start focusing on our love of the practice, the tradition and on serving our students." If we place our attention on sharing our love of yoga and on serving who is front of us then our self-centered concern about what our students are thinking about us will be put in a more proper perspective. It may not go away entirely but it will certainly shift in a positive direction. So there is that.
Along these lines, one thing to keep in mind is that, chances are, YOUR STUDENTS ALREADY THINK YOU ARE WEIRD. You are their yoga teacher. You believe in this stuff, you have dedicated your life to these practices and your idea of a good time on Saturday afternoon is a 4-hour grueling asana practice with a few good friends and some Sanskrit chanting playing in the background. Face it- that is kind of weird by any conventional standard and so are you! So, really, change your name, tattoo yourself, run off to India for a few months, get a guru- do whatever turns you on- you are the flaky yoga teacher in your student's lives. Realize this and you have immense freedom to say and do whatever you want. Believe me--they like you-- but chances are they hardly think you are normal. So relax, already.
And continuing on along the"weird thing", someone can think chanting is weird the whole time they do it and that will not interfere with its efficacy. You do not have to "believe" in it to benefit from it. That is yoga's great gift to us. Its technology is more powerful than what we think about it. Ever start an asana practice feeling like shit and within one adho mukha svanasana you are thinking more clearly? Ever get surprised that "once again, it worked"? Think about it. (I happen to believe that yoga is more powerful when we have faith in it but that is a matter of degrees and is another topic all together.)
And more on the weird thing-As a yoga teacher we have to cultivate detachment about whether or not people join in the chant. We should be 100% fine with the fact that we might chant all alone. Be 100% unattached as to whether someone likes to chant or doesn't like it. So there is that. A little detachment goes a long way.
Now, that I addressed the question within the question, we can return to the question itself--WHY DO WE CHANT? Oh, but wait! One other thing is that there is certainly the question of "Why we chant in Anusara Yoga" which we can answer and outline in great detail. But there is also the question of "Why do you chant personally?" which is worth exploring. (Those of you in the Teacher Training process can relate to these two questions as the Universal Reason v. The Personal Reason.) I suggest that we all should have facility at answering these kinds of questions and at teaching yoga from each perspective. Sometimes if you give the teaching from the perspective of the tradition it is very helpful. For instance, you say, "The tradition says.... and that is why we do it." This gives solid, credible, historical reference points for what we are doing in class.
Sometimes, however, that sounds too rigid, dogmatic or conversionistic and you can bring the teaching more down to earth by adding a personal commentary. For instance, teaching beginners by saying, "This is what the tradition says about chanting..blah, blah, blah..." and then telling them, "but you know, when I first was introduced to chanting I thought it was really odd and foreign and I felt really stupid doing it. But I have noticed that whenever I begin my practice this way I am more settled, more in touch with myself, more in my heart and so I have come to really enjoy and benefit from the practice" might make it more accessible and less weird. Share with your students why you do something and they can take it or leave it. Try to convert someone to something and you will encounter either blind adherence or rebellion. Just a piece of free teacher training advice. (Although truthfully, nothing is free- you had to "pay" for that by reading this far into my post!)
Additionally, I never assume that because someone is new to yoga and has a stiff body that they have no inner life. We just do not know. It is a "beginner mistake" to assume that a new yoga student has no connection to themselves or to God. It is also irresponsible to keep such awesome tools (like chanting) from someone because of our projection on said person about what they may or may not be thinking and feeling. We need to give people enough credit that we assume that they can deal with their own discomforts along the path and stop attempting to rescue them in advance from what may or may not even be an issue for them.
For instance, think about your own life's journey. Have you agreed with everything you have been told right away? Aren't your deepest and most useful guiding ideals the ones you have struggled with, chewed on, deliberated over and allowed yourself to challenge and to be challenged by? Yoga is full of confrontation and intensity. It may be intense sensation in asana or it may be that we have to confront the religiosity that informs the practice of yoga or something else entirely. It depends. But if it is always comfortable then you better believe you are not doing yoga and you are certainly not in the game of transformation if you are never burning. So why keep people from asking difficult questions, from dealing directly with their conflicts?
This takes us back to the original idea from John Friend about serving people. What really serves? Generic, white-bread ideas that are devoid of nutrition, have no fiber for digestion but are easy to eat or do we want to provide our students with hearty, whole grain ideas that require time to chew but still have nutrition to offer?
Tomorrow I will actually answer the question about why we chant so stay tuned for that. (I have a great quote from Geeta Iyengar in mind and I have asked Craig to give his two cents about the importance of invocational prayer although he has a busy day and might not get to it.) But now, I am going to practice asana.
Craig has agreed to be a guest writer on my blog and so I will be including some of his writing on this blog over the next few weeks. I was going to post an article of his today but I got a pressing question posed to me from one of my favorite students and so I am going to answer it here today in case some of what have to say on the topic is useful for others. In general, when you ask me a question via email, Facebook, and/or phone call, you are pretty much agreeing for me to answer it on my blog. Just so you know. Forewarned is forearmed, so to speak.
So the email I got went like this:
Dear Christina-
I know this is super basic and I seem to remember John talking about this over the years but Why do we chant? I need to explain this to a bunch of cynical beginners who think chanting is just plain weird. I am waiting for divine inspiration to hit me but so far nothing.
A few things come to mind for me. But before answering the question about why we chant we have to address the insecurities that arise for us as yoga teachers that take the form of assuming that we know what our students are thinking because that is between the lines of this question.
One of my favorite teachings from John Friend about teaching yoga is that we should all "stop focusing on what our students think about us and our teaching and start focusing on our love of the practice, the tradition and on serving our students." If we place our attention on sharing our love of yoga and on serving who is front of us then our self-centered concern about what our students are thinking about us will be put in a more proper perspective. It may not go away entirely but it will certainly shift in a positive direction. So there is that.
Along these lines, one thing to keep in mind is that, chances are, YOUR STUDENTS ALREADY THINK YOU ARE WEIRD. You are their yoga teacher. You believe in this stuff, you have dedicated your life to these practices and your idea of a good time on Saturday afternoon is a 4-hour grueling asana practice with a few good friends and some Sanskrit chanting playing in the background. Face it- that is kind of weird by any conventional standard and so are you! So, really, change your name, tattoo yourself, run off to India for a few months, get a guru- do whatever turns you on- you are the flaky yoga teacher in your student's lives. Realize this and you have immense freedom to say and do whatever you want. Believe me--they like you-- but chances are they hardly think you are normal. So relax, already.
And continuing on along the"weird thing", someone can think chanting is weird the whole time they do it and that will not interfere with its efficacy. You do not have to "believe" in it to benefit from it. That is yoga's great gift to us. Its technology is more powerful than what we think about it. Ever start an asana practice feeling like shit and within one adho mukha svanasana you are thinking more clearly? Ever get surprised that "once again, it worked"? Think about it. (I happen to believe that yoga is more powerful when we have faith in it but that is a matter of degrees and is another topic all together.)
And more on the weird thing-As a yoga teacher we have to cultivate detachment about whether or not people join in the chant. We should be 100% fine with the fact that we might chant all alone. Be 100% unattached as to whether someone likes to chant or doesn't like it. So there is that. A little detachment goes a long way.
Now, that I addressed the question within the question, we can return to the question itself--WHY DO WE CHANT? Oh, but wait! One other thing is that there is certainly the question of "Why we chant in Anusara Yoga" which we can answer and outline in great detail. But there is also the question of "Why do you chant personally?" which is worth exploring. (Those of you in the Teacher Training process can relate to these two questions as the Universal Reason v. The Personal Reason.) I suggest that we all should have facility at answering these kinds of questions and at teaching yoga from each perspective. Sometimes if you give the teaching from the perspective of the tradition it is very helpful. For instance, you say, "The tradition says.... and that is why we do it." This gives solid, credible, historical reference points for what we are doing in class.
Sometimes, however, that sounds too rigid, dogmatic or conversionistic and you can bring the teaching more down to earth by adding a personal commentary. For instance, teaching beginners by saying, "This is what the tradition says about chanting..blah, blah, blah..." and then telling them, "but you know, when I first was introduced to chanting I thought it was really odd and foreign and I felt really stupid doing it. But I have noticed that whenever I begin my practice this way I am more settled, more in touch with myself, more in my heart and so I have come to really enjoy and benefit from the practice" might make it more accessible and less weird. Share with your students why you do something and they can take it or leave it. Try to convert someone to something and you will encounter either blind adherence or rebellion. Just a piece of free teacher training advice. (Although truthfully, nothing is free- you had to "pay" for that by reading this far into my post!)
Additionally, I never assume that because someone is new to yoga and has a stiff body that they have no inner life. We just do not know. It is a "beginner mistake" to assume that a new yoga student has no connection to themselves or to God. It is also irresponsible to keep such awesome tools (like chanting) from someone because of our projection on said person about what they may or may not be thinking and feeling. We need to give people enough credit that we assume that they can deal with their own discomforts along the path and stop attempting to rescue them in advance from what may or may not even be an issue for them.
For instance, think about your own life's journey. Have you agreed with everything you have been told right away? Aren't your deepest and most useful guiding ideals the ones you have struggled with, chewed on, deliberated over and allowed yourself to challenge and to be challenged by? Yoga is full of confrontation and intensity. It may be intense sensation in asana or it may be that we have to confront the religiosity that informs the practice of yoga or something else entirely. It depends. But if it is always comfortable then you better believe you are not doing yoga and you are certainly not in the game of transformation if you are never burning. So why keep people from asking difficult questions, from dealing directly with their conflicts?
This takes us back to the original idea from John Friend about serving people. What really serves? Generic, white-bread ideas that are devoid of nutrition, have no fiber for digestion but are easy to eat or do we want to provide our students with hearty, whole grain ideas that require time to chew but still have nutrition to offer?
Tomorrow I will actually answer the question about why we chant so stay tuned for that. (I have a great quote from Geeta Iyengar in mind and I have asked Craig to give his two cents about the importance of invocational prayer although he has a busy day and might not get to it.) But now, I am going to practice asana.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Monday Morning
The fabulous Ari Stiles came and took a few pictures at the asana practice yesterday and that is the link to them. Enjoy... We had a great a practice, which focused on honoring the Cycles of Creation and on clarifying the Seven Loops. So we are 3 weekends into the 9-weekend Immersion and we have covered the 5 UPA's and the 7 Loops. Now what is great is that we have 6 weekends, to clarify, apply to harder poses and to refine. Wow- I love this method. You can outline the basics of it pretty simply and easily and then spend a lifetime deepening your understanding of it and skill with it. It is very cool that way.
Craig Williams came and gave a talk in the afternoon. I asked him to give an overview of the Yoga Tradition and also gave him persmission to talk about whatever he felt like adressing. I have heard Craig talk a few times and so I do know that no matter what the topic he has certain points he always makes. (Craig's rant #1 about following tradition, Craig's rant #2 about yoga therapy, Craig's rant #3 about vegetarianism and so forth. I am teasing him here and have told him as much and being that I am someone with the same list of rants, I can really appreciate the phenomena. Many of you know of what I speak: Christina's rant #1 about flow v. alignment, Christina's rant #2 about studentship, and so forth!) I think the talk went really well- he is fun to listen to and from what I could tell the group got a lot out of it.
I am off to practice, to get some accupuncture, meet Kelly for lunch, meet Anne for Mani/Pedis and then go with her to Peggy's advanced class this afternoon. Big day off. Fun stuff.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Immersion Weekend
We had a great day at the Immersion yesterday. It is always so amazing to me how different every group is. This group has a lot of seasoned practitioners and teachers and the level of studentship is really high.
Yesterday's theme was, in fact, studentship. Whenever John talks about studentship in Anusara Yoga he almost always talks about it in the scope of The Five Elements. I love this approach because it helps us understand that good studentship is not any one thing or any one quality but is instead a dynamic blend of many attributes and virtues. What is also cool is that each element corresponds to one of the Five UPA's. So we used the elements to talk about studentship and to do a rockin' standing pose practice in which we reviewed the Five Principles.
The Ether Element is the element out of which all the other elements arise. It is the Highest Possibility, grand openness and full potentiality. It corresponds to the First Principle- Open to Grace. Everything arises out of the field of Grace in this tradition- Grace is our Highest Possibility, our Fullest Potential. Like that. As students we have to be wide open and open to possibility or nothing will happen in our learning and practice.
The Earth Element is the densest element. The earth is solid, long-enduring, steady and reliable. As students we have to be the same way: In place, reliable, long-standing and steady in order to progress. Muscle Energy creates this steadiness in our bodies, bringing solidity, boundaries, and firmness to our form.
The Water Element is, well, fluid. Water is yielding, it is reflective and is said to be a receptive element. If it runs into a block, it knows how to go around the obstacle. Water flows. So must our studentship and our relationship to life's challenges and circumstances. The Water element corresponds to Expanding Spiral as it expands naturally when unboundaried. And water will flow downward, like what happens energetically in the pelvis when we do Inner Spiral.
The Fire Element is hot, upward rising, dynamic and creates the necessary friction to grow, change and practice. This Fire in the Belly is our will to walk the path, to persist, to overcome and to challenge ourselves or to rise to the challenges put before us. Fire rises upward like the effect of Contracting Spiral.
The Air Element relates to our intellectual and mental dexterity. Air is changeable and quick moving and teaches us that we need not hold onto old ideas, opinions and outlooks. We can change like the wind when appropriate. It corresponds to Organic Energy which creates freedom in our joints, like a breath of fresh air creates an experience of greater freedom.
The Five Element View of Studentship is so great because it shows us that we need more than just openness, we need more than just steadiness, more than the ability to flow, more that fiery will, more than intellectual curiosity and so forth. We need all of these traits in a dynamic ever- expanding and skillful relationship to each other, to our personality and to our unique situation. It is really a great thing to consider.
So- more could be said, more certainly has been said on the topic but for me, time to go practice before I head out to teach. We do the loops today and then Craig is coming to give a talk. What fun.
Yesterday's theme was, in fact, studentship. Whenever John talks about studentship in Anusara Yoga he almost always talks about it in the scope of The Five Elements. I love this approach because it helps us understand that good studentship is not any one thing or any one quality but is instead a dynamic blend of many attributes and virtues. What is also cool is that each element corresponds to one of the Five UPA's. So we used the elements to talk about studentship and to do a rockin' standing pose practice in which we reviewed the Five Principles.
The Ether Element is the element out of which all the other elements arise. It is the Highest Possibility, grand openness and full potentiality. It corresponds to the First Principle- Open to Grace. Everything arises out of the field of Grace in this tradition- Grace is our Highest Possibility, our Fullest Potential. Like that. As students we have to be wide open and open to possibility or nothing will happen in our learning and practice.
The Earth Element is the densest element. The earth is solid, long-enduring, steady and reliable. As students we have to be the same way: In place, reliable, long-standing and steady in order to progress. Muscle Energy creates this steadiness in our bodies, bringing solidity, boundaries, and firmness to our form.
The Water Element is, well, fluid. Water is yielding, it is reflective and is said to be a receptive element. If it runs into a block, it knows how to go around the obstacle. Water flows. So must our studentship and our relationship to life's challenges and circumstances. The Water element corresponds to Expanding Spiral as it expands naturally when unboundaried. And water will flow downward, like what happens energetically in the pelvis when we do Inner Spiral.
The Fire Element is hot, upward rising, dynamic and creates the necessary friction to grow, change and practice. This Fire in the Belly is our will to walk the path, to persist, to overcome and to challenge ourselves or to rise to the challenges put before us. Fire rises upward like the effect of Contracting Spiral.
The Air Element relates to our intellectual and mental dexterity. Air is changeable and quick moving and teaches us that we need not hold onto old ideas, opinions and outlooks. We can change like the wind when appropriate. It corresponds to Organic Energy which creates freedom in our joints, like a breath of fresh air creates an experience of greater freedom.
The Five Element View of Studentship is so great because it shows us that we need more than just openness, we need more than just steadiness, more than the ability to flow, more that fiery will, more than intellectual curiosity and so forth. We need all of these traits in a dynamic ever- expanding and skillful relationship to each other, to our personality and to our unique situation. It is really a great thing to consider.
So- more could be said, more certainly has been said on the topic but for me, time to go practice before I head out to teach. We do the loops today and then Craig is coming to give a talk. What fun.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Home Again
Well, I am home from Estes Park and back in Blog Land. I was staying in a cabin away from Internet access and whenever I was away from the cabin I was so busy that I just could not manage to keep up the blog from Estes Park.
The Grand Gathering was, well, Grand. Just so fantastic in so many ways. The scope of the event was staggering and the ease with which all the logistics were managed were certainly impressive. I spent every morning assisting John on the floor in his Master Classes, all of which were fantastic. Occasionally I would look up at the sea of 800 people all practicing beautiful Anusara Yoga and it was just staggering and almost dizzying.
Interestingly enough, the highlights of the week for me were really not connected so much to the asana classes or workshops but were oriented more around the personal time I got to spend with my friends and fellow presenters. I am just continually amazed at this community. You cannot find a group of people more fun-loving and more ready to party at a drop of a hat who also can instantly give you personal advice that is solid, grounded, compassionate and that challenges you to really step into your truth at new levels. It is a stunning configuration of people. It really is.
Please check out Pamela's Blog for the scoop and the play-by-play of Estes. She is now our famous Blogger and she deserves it given her zeal for communication and the written word.
I am off to go practice before my Immersion meets today. I anticipate traffic being somewhat hellish given ACL festival and the football game so I will need to leave early.
All right then. More later.
The Grand Gathering was, well, Grand. Just so fantastic in so many ways. The scope of the event was staggering and the ease with which all the logistics were managed were certainly impressive. I spent every morning assisting John on the floor in his Master Classes, all of which were fantastic. Occasionally I would look up at the sea of 800 people all practicing beautiful Anusara Yoga and it was just staggering and almost dizzying.
Interestingly enough, the highlights of the week for me were really not connected so much to the asana classes or workshops but were oriented more around the personal time I got to spend with my friends and fellow presenters. I am just continually amazed at this community. You cannot find a group of people more fun-loving and more ready to party at a drop of a hat who also can instantly give you personal advice that is solid, grounded, compassionate and that challenges you to really step into your truth at new levels. It is a stunning configuration of people. It really is.
Please check out Pamela's Blog for the scoop and the play-by-play of Estes. She is now our famous Blogger and she deserves it given her zeal for communication and the written word.
I am off to go practice before my Immersion meets today. I anticipate traffic being somewhat hellish given ACL festival and the football game so I will need to leave early.
All right then. More later.
A few pics-
Me and Naime on the limo up to Estes PArk, which is a story all in itself.
Brent and Shelley.
Me and Noah and Naime on our drive to the mountains.
The Goddesses go hiking...Me, Sarah, Rachel, Kelly and Christy on a hike.
Me at Dream Lake. WOW.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Thursday Morning
Well, it has been a few days since I have written. I have been busy and just haven't made the time. Yesterday I spent the day in Austin. I met Kelly for lunch and then we went to Costco and then out to the Crossings for the Yoga Month event. It was a pretty mellow scene all things told but enjoyable none-the-less. About 35 people came to my class and it was difficult teaching situation in a lot of ways. The level of practitioner in the room was a very broad spectrum of ability and experience. I always try to "teach to the middle" but in that situation that still made a lot of things way too hard for some and way too easy for others. I think I did a good job though and lots of people told me they enjoyed the class, so that is good. (Although I have never encountered such resistance to moving mats into row as as I did there. Really, they sat in dead, silent refusal until it became obvious I was not going to teach the class until it was set up how I wanted it. Funny. That sort of thing used to really get to me- yesterday, not so much. I know I give a better class in an organized room. It is a pretty simple thing really.)
The topic I taught on was "Yoga for Self-Esteem." When the event organizer and I discussed what I would teach he said, "anything health-related." And I hardly think about yoga in terms of physical health so I was a bit stymied for a while. Then I thought about how, no matter what we want to do for our health, whatever positive change we want to implement or personal care regime we want to follow, we have to feel like we are worthy of the change and worthy of greater health, happiness and well-being in order to make lasting efforts over time. And yoga can helps us establish ourselves in a place of self-worth. What, after all, makes us more worthy than recognizing that we are part of the Flow of Grace?
A cool thing is that when I talked once about self-worth to Douglas Brooks he said that the line in the Kularnava Tantra where we get the name Anusara Yoga is sometime translated as "When the seeker steps into the flow they become capable of receiving grace" and sometimes it is translated as "When the seeker steps into the flow they become worthy of receiving grace." He said it is the same word. He told me--I think it was 6 years ago or more- that it is the degree to which we feel worthy of the Flow that makes us able to receive and experience It. How cool is that? So there is very little room or need to indulge our self-hatred and self-criticism on this path. It is at cross purposes with the very guiding intention of Our Way.
And so yoga is really a matter of practicing the art and skill of self-love, self-regard and self-worth. I went straight to 7th Street Yoga to teach. We worked on Inner and Outer Spiral in a pretty dynamic hip opening flow that moved through visvamitrasana and culminated with a foray into eka pada sirasana (Leg behind the head). Good stuff. I am really enjoying the class at 7th street Yoga. It is a great scene over there.
All right... Now I am going to spend some time practicing before I head into town for the Thursday night fun.
The topic I taught on was "Yoga for Self-Esteem." When the event organizer and I discussed what I would teach he said, "anything health-related." And I hardly think about yoga in terms of physical health so I was a bit stymied for a while. Then I thought about how, no matter what we want to do for our health, whatever positive change we want to implement or personal care regime we want to follow, we have to feel like we are worthy of the change and worthy of greater health, happiness and well-being in order to make lasting efforts over time. And yoga can helps us establish ourselves in a place of self-worth. What, after all, makes us more worthy than recognizing that we are part of the Flow of Grace?
A cool thing is that when I talked once about self-worth to Douglas Brooks he said that the line in the Kularnava Tantra where we get the name Anusara Yoga is sometime translated as "When the seeker steps into the flow they become capable of receiving grace" and sometimes it is translated as "When the seeker steps into the flow they become worthy of receiving grace." He said it is the same word. He told me--I think it was 6 years ago or more- that it is the degree to which we feel worthy of the Flow that makes us able to receive and experience It. How cool is that? So there is very little room or need to indulge our self-hatred and self-criticism on this path. It is at cross purposes with the very guiding intention of Our Way.
And so yoga is really a matter of practicing the art and skill of self-love, self-regard and self-worth. I went straight to 7th Street Yoga to teach. We worked on Inner and Outer Spiral in a pretty dynamic hip opening flow that moved through visvamitrasana and culminated with a foray into eka pada sirasana (Leg behind the head). Good stuff. I am really enjoying the class at 7th street Yoga. It is a great scene over there.
All right... Now I am going to spend some time practicing before I head into town for the Thursday night fun.
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