Tuesday Night

Okay so I am home, well-fed after a night of teaching in Austin. I got this really great email from a student. He had written and recorded this really great song and sent it to me along with these words:

This is a song I wrote. It's called Virya, which is Sanskrit for fortitude or steadfastness in heart and mind. My teacher at school was confused with the application of this title so I have included the explanation I gave him below. I hope you enjoy.

From my message to my teacher explaining the application of Virya:"...its the softness of unending perseverance I find as the fundamental necessity to actually maintain fortitude in my convictions. This softness, or tenderness is compassion for myself and the world for how challenging it is to be the beings that we are. For my life to have meaning, I am nothing without steadfastness in heart and mind. The expansion of life-affirming and uplifting values comes through hard work, but I find an undercurrent of tenderness that is the actual source of that steadfastness. This piece attempts to pay homage to that tenderness. Of course these words do little to explain my experience, which is why I wrote the piece."

Like I said in class, one of the things I really love about teaching and practicing yoga is hanging out with other people who practice yoga. I love finding out and hearing about how the Yoga Teachings come alive in others. I love hearing about and observing how, although many of us study the same information and practice the same postures and so on, the principles take root and get expressed differently among us. Like the same light, when reflected through different facets of a diamond, can be different colors and so on. So it was really great to get an email (And a song!) from him which pointed to his personal experience.

Anyway- that was my theme for the night of deep hip opening in both classes. The flow class worked mostly in standing postures and the advanced class worked more in the seated forward bends which cultivate for many in getting their foot behind their heads. And for some, both feet!
Susan, Mike, Susan, Svetha all double -dipped, which is always a treat. Anyway, pretty rockin. And yet...tender.

Other blunders of note include me saying mu-lasana instead of MA-lasana. Mu-la means sin, dirt, excrement. MA-la means garland. So we did "pose of sinful excrement" as opposed to "garland pose" tonight which is really unfortunate. (Big yoga OOPS!) I do hope the Lords of Yoga are not too offended as I am pretty sure we were all well-intentioned. (But then again you know what they say about good intentions... )But really- so much difference in one accent! Wow-tough language.

Okay official dates are set for my "Fun Times with Darren Rhodes" :
Immersion with Christina Sell and Darren Rhodes(all at Yoga Oasis, Tucson):
October 2-7, 2008- part one
December 2-7, 2008-part two
March 5-10, 2009 -part three
TBA, 2009- Level One Teacher Training with Darren and Christina in Tucson, AZ

And mark your calendars for August 9-10,2008 for a fun-filled weekend with Darren at The San Marcos School of Yoga. Yahoo.

Other commercials include:
Anne-Marie Bowery (aka- The Iyengar Emissary, Annzy-pooh, my sister) will teach all three classes of the yoga marathon on Thursday. She plans to teach inversions and variations at 4:30, standing poses and backward bending at 6:00 and forward bends and twists at 7:30. Come to one come to all. I will be at the Anusara Yoga Holiday Christmas Party in the The Woodlands, TX with Juan Amigo.

Also -Anne's regular YogaYoga class will begin at the first of the year. Saturdays 9AM at Northwest.

Tomorrow I promise, Creamy Green soup recipe.