Yogis! We know that in our yoga practice we are on a journey into stillness. We are working towards quieting the mind, and moving deeper into stillness, so that we can experience a deeper connection to our Self. We also know that once we experience this deeper connection it changes our relationship to everyone and everything around us. We change our relationship to our Self and that changes our relationship to everything else. It’s like we have to get alone with our Self before we can truly connect with others.
Get off the roller coaster! Peace of mind doesn’t come from looking out. Happiness in the world is fleeting. Satisfaction is short lived. The yogis know that lasting peace comes from looking within. When you experience your Self in the stillness, when the mind is quiet, then you don’t want to go anywhere or do anything else. You are content, happy, right here, right now. You feel love and compassion for others and a connection to everything and everyone. Get off the roller coaster. Take the journey inward. Find peace.
Deep hip opening practice! Digging into some of that tension, bringing it to the surface, and letting it go! How quickly can you get passed the fear and resistance and go to the pain. Sit in that intensity. Feel that sensation. Let your stuff bubble to the surface. Look at it. Stay present. Don't distract yourself! Surrender. Let it go. Take the journey inward to the center of your Self. Stop running away. Yoga is about getting into deeper relationship with your Self. This is deep and profound work. It's not easy and it's not always fun. You've got to really show up for yourself. A spiritual practice is about vulnerability and intimacy and connection. It's not fake and phony and flowery and you don't get there by avoiding things. This practice is real and often raw and confrontational. If anybody is selling you rainbows and unicorns run away as fast as you can!
We started the morning with just sun salutations, a long savasana, and then meditation. Sometimes that's enough. My teacher's would say if you don't have time for a full practice, do some sun salutations. The sun salutation practice is a gratitude practice. Thank you to the sun. Thank you for this day. Thank you for this moment. Thank you for this life. You can choose what to focus on today. You can choose what to give your energy to. You can choose who to be around. Focus on the positive. Focus on the things you are grateful for in your life. Build on them. Shift your perspective.
I was talking today before my event about the difference between practicing yoga and doing yoga exercise...
There's nothing wrong with a class that is simply a yoga exercise class but it's very different than a yoga class. The goal of yoga is to quiet the mind. In stillness, we have the opportunity to experience the deepest aspect of who we are. Yoga is really answering the question: Who am I?
So often we complain about things that aren't working in our lives. It is so important to be grateful for the things that are working in your life too.
I was picking up some things at the grocery store tonight. One of the things I grabbed was a piece of garlic bread. They had individual sized pieces of garlic bread! I was so excited. Individual pieces of garlic bread! Incredible. You don't understand. They didn't used to do this and I asked them to make these individual pieces of garlic bread for me a few weeks ago. I have to explain this to you. A few weeks ago, I had asked the people at the bakery to please make some smaller pieces of garlic bread. I was always disappointed when I was shopping, finding only giant, family sized, pieces of garlic bread, when I just wanted a small piece, to heat up for myself. So, they started to cut some of the garlic bread into smaller pieces and began to offer this as well. It was such a small thing but it made me so happy. So, I started to add a small piece of garlic bread to some of my meals over the last two weeks. Perfect. Just enough for me to add to my meal without having to throw any away. Perfect!
Yogis! One of the things I've been talking about in class this past week comes from classical yoga and the 8 limbed practice of astanga yoga, written down by Sage Patanjali around 2000 yrs ago.
Classical yoga gives us our description and systematic approach to concentration and meditation practices, leading us into a state of samadhi, a state in which the mind is quiet. When we say we are looking to "go inward" and "quiet the mind" in yoga, we are referring to classical yoga. When the mind is quiet, the classical yogis tell us, we are able to experience the most subtle aspect of who we are, the pure consciousness part of ourselves, the part of us that is beyond the body, mind, thoughts and ego.
It’s one of the most important poses in a yoga class and often one of the most misunderstood poses. The Final Resting Pose. Savasana.
My teacher, Sri Dharma Mittra, includes savasana in the category of the eight essential poses in yoga. Dharma is well known throughout the world for being a master teacher and having created the asana chart, which hangs on many studio’s walls, featuring Dharma in 908 asanas. According to Dharma, though, there are just eight ESSENTIAL poses: Head Balance, Shoulder Stand, Fish Pose, Lotus Pose, Cobra Pose, Seated Forward Fold, Seated Twist and The Final Resting Pose.
Yogis! We’ve been talking a lot in class this past week about Vedanta Philosophy and Non-Dualism and the influence of this philosophy on our modern yoga culture.
Vedanta gives us the idea that we are ultimately connected to everything and everyone and any separation that exists between us is only an illusion that is only in our mind.
Classical Yoga philosophy tells us that in the stillness, when the mind is quiet, we have the opportunity to experience the pure Consciousness part of ourselves. This is what the yogi’s call Self-realization, the realization of the Self, the experience of the pure Consciousness part of our self.
I’ve been talking a lot in class this past week about how Samkhya philosophy informs our yoga practice.
Samkhya philosophy is all about numbers. This philosophy is very mathematical and very scientific in how it views the world.
According to Samkhya philosophy -- the world is divided into two things: Consciousness and Nature.
Yoga Is the Journey to the Center of Your Wheel
So much of our practice is about getting to a place where there is more peace and calm, a place where we can be of service to others, a place where we can hold space for others, a place where we can support each other, a place where we can empathize and have compassion for each other and a place where we can love each other.
I’ve been talking a lot in class about how the practice is like one of those children’s wheels in the park that spins around. The children laugh and scream, holding on tightly, as the wheel spins faster and faster.
The past few days in class I’ve been talking about jnana and cin mudra, two mudras that we use a lot in our practice. Jnana mudra and cin mudra are very similar, both consisting of bringing the index finger and thumb together. These mudras are most commonly used during meditation practices.
Jnana means knowledge. When the index finger and thumb are placed together and the hands are placed facing down on the knees this is called Jnana mudra. Cin means consciousness. When the index finger and thumb are placed together and the hands are placed facing up on the knees (or thighs) this is called cin mudra.
One of the ways to remember these two mudras is to think of knowledge as coming from below, from the world around you and from other people in the world -- and to think of wisdom coming from above, from inside of you, from the pure consciousness part of yourself.
My teacher Dharma Mittra always says, “you have to contemplate the knowledge you are learning.”
It is in contemplation that we receive wisdom and our understanding of things we are learning deepens. If you never contemplate the knowledge you are learning then you never gain a deeper understanding. Things just go in one ear and out the other. Where does the deeper understanding come from? You didn't gain any more knowledge during your contemplation. Nobody told you anything new. When you go inside you tap into Universal intelligence. Wisdom and greater understanding of things comes from within and flows through you.
One of my teachers used to say, "You don't have thoughts, thoughts have you!".
The little finger, ring finger and middle finger in jnana and cin mudra represent the 3 constituents of Nature. In yoga we call these the 3 Gunas. They are: tamas (stillness), rajas (movement) and sattva (illumination). The index finger represents the individual self and the thumb represents the Universe.
These 2 mudras symbolically represent our journey beyond the 3 gunas and the uniting of our individual self with the Universe. This is what we are trying to achieve in yoga and in meditation. In my practice I want to let go of the world and the distractions of my mind and bring my individual self into alignment with the Universe.
Jnana and cin mudra are primarily used in seated mediation practices but you can also find them in other asanas throughout your practice.
This week in class I've been talking a lot about having to go through the fire to get to the other side.
There is a saying in yoga and spirituality called spiritual by-pass. This is where you don't do the work. Where you pretend that you are already there. Everything is love and flowers and sunshine and everyone is so amazing and so incredible. Have you ever met someone who says things like this but immediately the voice of your intuition says something doesn't make sense with this person, something doesn't feel right? It's like you can feel the tension within them that they aren't acknowledging. These people scare me a little. They are pushing their stuff down and repressing so much and one day they are going to snap and on that day everything isn't going to be all flowers and love and sunshine.
The past few days I've been talking a lot in classes about the microcosm and the macrocosm. The way you do anything is the way you do everything. If you change your relationship to stress on your yoga mat and during your meditation practice you can change your relationship to stress off of your yoga mat. The yoga mirror is always there. You have to look at it. This is the beginning of svadhyaya--Self Study. Before we are able to get to the stillness and study the most subtle element of ourselves that is only revealed when the mind is quiet we have to understand the pattern of distraction that is keeping us from getting to that stillness. We replace negative patterns with patterns that will lead us to a more positive outcome and then eventually we let those patterns drop away as well. What is being revealed to you on your yoga mat? What are your patterns? What is coming up for you in the fire of your practice? What are the ways your mind distracts you when you are trying to concentrate? Do you fidget your body instead of confronting the intensity of the fire? Do you let your mind wander somewhere else? Where does it go? Does it go to the future? Does it focus on something from the past? Do you judge yourself? Do you judge other people? When negative emotions rise to the surface do you blame others? Who do you blame? Your teacher? The students around you? The temperature of the room? People from your past? Whose voice is in your head commenting on everything you're doing? Mom? Dad? What pattern are you stuck in? This is the deeper work of yoga? Are you looking at the yoga mirror? What is being revealed? Are you practicing yoga or just making an asana of yourself? ;) Happy Friday, yoga tribe!
Yogis! One of the things we talked a lot about on our recent retreat in Tulum was the idea of holding two opposites together in our yoga practice and what happens when we hold these two opposites long enough. This concept is told in so many different ways and in so many different yoga traditions and practices. Patanjali talks about tapas and surrender. Go into the fire and while in the fire practice surrendering. When you close off and contract you create suffering. When you open up and expand you increase your awareness. Karma Yoga from the Bhagavad Gita tells us to move with skill in action. This is like saying bring movement and stillness together. Yoga is an active practice. You have to show up. You don't move out of your tamasic state of heaviness, laziness, dullness, ignorance without first moving. It takes some work. Show up for yourself. Once you are moving, though, can you find some of the stillness you just left behind. Can you move with skill in action. The term vinyasa breaks down to mean: vi = movementny = no movementasa = posture. Movement, stillness, posture -- and is often translated as putting something carefully in its proper place. Hold two opposites together and something amazing happens. Awareness increases. We move from the heaviness, the ignorance of tamas to rajas. There's fire, tapas, intensity. We surrender into that fire. We find stillness in the middle of the movement. Holding those two opposites in perfect balance we reach a third state, a state of neither movement nor stillness alone, a state of sattva -- lightness, illumination -- and expansion occurs. If we hold this space long enough we reach what Patanjali calls samadhi, the dissolving of the ego, mind, thoughts, the quieting of the mind, letting go of the body and the outside world, Self realization, the experience of pure consciousness. No ego. No separation. No you. No me. All meditation begins with concentration. Surrendering towards the object of concentration, holding the two opposites together leads to a state of meditation. Sustained meditation, holding those opposites long enough, we merge with the object of concentration. The body, ego, mind and thoughts, all disappear. There's nothing but the object and pure awareness. Hatha yoga, with roots in Tantra, describes these opposites coming together as the masculine and feminine forces uniting at the mani poora chakra and the kundalini awakening, rising up the sushumna channel. Shiva and Shakti energy then coming together at the 6th chakra, the eyebrow center, agnia and the yogi turning inward and experiencing the Ultimate Reality, absorbed in pure consciousness. All these traditions, describing the same truth. Hold these two opposites together long enough and something amazing happens. Show up for yourself, yogis! Go into the fire. Do the work! Take the journey. Now, you're on the journey, practice surrendering, surrender into the fire. There's no goal. The journey is the goal. You're in it. There's nowhere to go. You're already there. You're already here. Karma Yoga. I offer my practice. Skill in action! Movement and stillness. Hold the two opposites together. Let your consciousness expand until there's nothing left but pure consciousness, the experience of yourself as pure awareness, the Ultimate Reality. This is yoga! This is the end of all suffering. Happy Monday! It's been a great week of practice since I got back from the retreat in Tulum, Mexico. I look forward to seeing you in class this week! :)
Namaste, Yogis!
We were talking in class today about some common yoga terminology, words we use in yoga and what they mean.
What does "namaste" mean?
This is a traditional greeting. It's often done with the hands at the heart in Anjali Mudra (a prayer like position), sometimes referred to as pranamasana, and a slight bow of the head. The physicalty isn't necessary, though. Sometimes you might just say, "namaste". You could also do the physicality without saying the actual words and it would still mean the same thing. I often touch my heart when I see a student and often they will do the same in return. Sort of the short form version of this greeting.
We've been doing a lot of focus on Head Balance in class recently and using this asana to stimulate the energy at the sixth chakra, Agnia -- the Master Control. We want to stimulate this energy center to help encourage going inward.
"My Guru taught that when you start seeing the light at the space between the eyebrows, that is the first sign that indicates the Sixth Sense (the Pituitary Gland) is awakening. This is the dawn of Divine Perception, the activation of the Psychic Telescope." -- Dharma Mittra
Concentration and meditation practices help us to stimulate this area and the Head Balance is one of the asanas that helps us to stimulate this area as well.
