Living Yoga is a feature about the life and teachings of Swami Satchidananda. A couple of trailers are on YouTube or on the website. Swami Satchidananda was a major influence on the US scene when he arrived the 1966 and began re-introducing yoga and Tantric knowledge to a new audience seeking to break out of consumerism. Here in the Washington, DC, Yogaville is a monument to his legacy.
The feature will be shown at St. Mark's Yoga on Capital Hill on May 15 and the Smith Farm Healing and Arts Center on May 30. Check out the Living Yoga blog for exact times, dates and locations. I just chanced across the information about DC-area showings.
Labels: dc_yoga, philosophy, videos
Following up on my inventory of physical achievements, I want to clarify why that list was important for me. I am negotiating a new contract with my body. When I went through childhood and adolescence, I was laboring under several handicaps about how I perceived myself:
- Trauma: At the age of six, I had an appendectomy. I had felt a pain in my side for several days, but did not recognize it as a serious symptom. I kept asking my mother for aspirins. I was at school when it worsened substantially. After school was out, I tried to walk home, a mere two blocks, but that distance seemed as if it were two miles. (The sense of distance is still engraved on my mind; when I went back last year, I saw that my sense of dimension had been blown out of proportion.) I did make it home. The crossing guard saw that I was doubled over in pain, and got help. I was rushed to the hospital for an emergency operation because it was close to rupturing. While recovering from the operation, an infection set in and I had to stay another week. I was conscious when the doctors drained the abscess. I remember the putrid color of the pus as it flowed out of my belly and into the metallic pan. This was also my first separation from my mother so it must have been traumatic for me to spend the evenings and nights alone. When I went home, I was hit with several other childhood illnesses, which kept me out of school. I ended up repeating first grade.
- Wimp: I had allergies that caused asthma and skin rashes. I did not participate in organized sports or engage in fights or quarrels because I feared an almost pre-ordained defeat because my body could not defend me, it would break first.
- Feet of clay: I had a fungal infection under my toe nails and on my soles. My nails were very disfigured by the time I was a teenager. I did not want to show my feet in public, which meant that I hated going to the beach or the pool. The biblical metaphor of having feet of clay seemed to apply to me. About eight years ago, I saw a dermatologist and had the condition treated. I don't think I could have started practicing yoga if I had not first cured my skin condition; I would never have taken off my socks.
The unspoken conclusion of these visceral experiences was that I could not trust my body. It was going to fail myself. If tested, it was going to break. What's more, I could not anticipate when and how it would betray me. So I discounted it; I ignored it; I concentrated my efforts on a mental realm, in a fantasy world that consumed my energies during childhood and then intellectual efforts once I got into junior high and found that I could distinguish myself in the academic world. I did not participate in sports because I could never push myself to the maximum because I misinterpreted the exertion required for sport competition as a warning that my body was near its limit and close to a breakdown.
Those perceptions of my physical body have followed me for 40 years, shaped my self-image and conditioned how I dealt with the physical world.
Over the past four years, I have been moving slowly, gradually and hesitantly towards a new awareness of my body, a prolonged dialog between my body, mind and spirit to reach a new agreement about how all three hang together and establish a different interface with the outside world. I did not even know why yoga and pranayama felt so "right" to me when I started back in early 2004, or why meditation has been so liberating. But I have kept engaged in this new flux and have gradually changed the terms of the partnership. I am reverting to childhood and the primal tasks of walking, running, bending, lifting, extending. I even find myself re-examining something as fundamental as how I take each step, what parts of my foot are employed and when, and how that changes translates up my limbs and changes the way that I carry myself. It's a much bigger challenge than becoming physically stronger, more flexible, more skillful at moving my body. In a sense, I am taking ownership of my whole body and exercising full dominion over my personal space, rather than being confined to my head. It requires a greater command of sense and awareness. and an extension of my will through my core, out to my fingers and toes -- and beyond.
That's why this physical side of change has taken on so much significance. If I am able to run five miles or push myself into wheel or crow pose, that small achievement means that I can take a childlike joy in possessing my body and its capabilities.
Labels: blessing, life style, philosophy, practice
I just got through watching this video from the TED conference in Monterey, California, February 28. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist, recently gave an chat about her life-altering experience of a brain stroke. This emotionally charged story is going to spread like wildfire because it captures a vital life story and marries it to both science and spiritual insight. I'm still reeling from my first viewing so just don't mind me and set aside 18 minutes to be astounded.
Her website also contains a link to her self-published book, My Stroke of Insight through lulu.com. I got on to this because the New York Times featured it on the Well blog.
TED is heavy-weight conference that deals in thinkers of great ideas and doers of impressive deeds — and good story tellers. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It's worth exploring.
Labels: brain_science, inspire, philosophy, videos
While I was away in Colombia, my travel reading was Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness
I managed to get through the whole book (181 pages) by the end of my meeting thanks to Epstein's effortless writing style and the compelling content. He illustrates his central theme drawing on his own personal path of discovery and on his patients' case histories. A saving grace of the book is that Epstein does not bite off too much by trying to be an authoritative text on Buddhism, meditation, patient-centered therapy or any other big concept. He is not selling a particular theory or political line. Instead, he argues that we need to relax into the flow of life, rather than lock into an attempt to control our experience or accumulate pieces of self-improvement until we have attained perfection.
Since I finished reading the book about four weeks ago, I'm trying to reconstruct what I found most rewarding in the book -- without re-reading the book again. I am going to do some scratch writing off-line before posting it here.
Labels: meditation, philosophy, reading
Susan Bowen has announced the start-up of teacher training at Thrive Yoga. ISHTA Yoga founder and pioneer, Alan Finger, will be leading the four-month process. Alan knows a lot because he was born into a yoga-inspired family, knew original thinkers and grappled with translating these concepts into the U.S. culture as a business and as a philosophy. He co-founded yoga studios, like the Yoga Works studio in LA and the Yoga Zone studios in NYC, which later became the Be Studios.
The training will start in late March, mostly on weekends, and last until June. At 2:00 on January 20 at Thrive Yoga, Alan and Susan will present an overview of the program. Alan is actually based on New York City so he will be commuting a lot next year. I might add that you can take the course without wanting to become a teacher; it's an intensive gateway into a deeper understanding of yoga.
ISHTHA is an acronym for the Integrated Science of Hatha, Tantra and Ayurveda, and also a Sanskrit word meaning that which resonates with an individual's spirit, according to Alan's website. With Katrina Repka, he wrote Chakra Yoga: Balancing Energy for Physical, Spiritual, and Mental Well-being (Shambhala, 2005), which synthesizes his long evolution as a practitioner, teacher and thinker. There are also a bunch of Yoga Zone videos available that feature Alan.
Labels: life style, philosophy, reading, workshop, yoga
You can see a historic video of Iyengar from the same period.
Labels: history, inspire, philosophy, videos, workshop
What am I reading now? Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain
This whole groundswell of enthusiasm for Buddhism, mindfulness and meditation is sweeping into the business of tending to the mind. If Freud once laid down the law for understanding the contradictions of the human mind, now it's a spiritual practice without a supreme being. I've mentioned before that I like the idea that Buddha developed a sophisticated set of psychological protocols for relieving with human suffering.
What got me started into the book is that the transformation of human spirit can be manifested by remolding mental habits, but also actually alterations of physical manifestations, like spawning neurons and a thriving hippocampus. As someone who has felt the undertow of depression and literally sensed the physical change that it brought on me, the idea that I can take action to heal myself is an uplifting lesson at this stage of my life.
The BrainReady blog gives a rave review of the book.
Labels: life style, philosophy, reading
New York Times Between Poses, a Barrage of Pickup Lines: the YouTube video mentioned in this article is funny, though it's not ready for prime time. I just can't recognize a facsimile of a real yoga class in the video but that may just be an issue of production values. But the pretext of the video is a real issue and I've seen the phenomenon in a few of my classes.
Flow Yoga, my downtown studio, gets mentioned in the article because it has a Thursday night social get-together, and even has plans for speed dating.
This story actually opens an ethical issue of human relations on the yoga mat, especially when teacher-student interplay moves outside the yoga studio and especially when sexual chemistry is thrown into the mix.
- New York Magazine Class Action: Amy Sohn examines some of the more base instincts and sounds Sex and the City, but she makes some valid points.
- Ethical Imperatives and Sexually Responsible Behavior veteran teacher J. Brown explains his own evolution in dealing with students.
- Ascent Questionable Conduct Luci Yamamoto discussed the boundaries of sex, power and yoga. Also see Letters to the Editor
- Whole Life Times Yoga's Silent Scandal
- Self Compromising Postions - another take on the teacher-student relationship.
- Common Ground Posing Problems (same as the Whole Life Times article) by Lisa Maria
- Gawker Rodney Yee: Caught In Pants-Down Pose? - now we start naming names. And back to the YouTube video.
- Business2 Yogis Behaving Badly
Labels: life style, news, philosophy
Get ready for the next big world yoga event: Global Mala Project: on September 21-23, the United Nations International Day of Peace, the Fall Equinox and my birthday!! Big yoga names, like Shiva Rae, Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Seane Corn and others are organizing it. A variety of causes, from trees to AIDS to ware orphans are being supported by the fundraising campaign.
The only local DC studio supporting the initiative so far is Little River Yoga in Annandale/Alexandria, Virginia. This will probably change soon.
In Sanskrit, mala means garland or a string of beads used to count mantras.
Labels: life style, philosophy, practice
Thanks to Daily Cup of Yoga, I ran across a recent audio interview with Krisha Das on CBC Radio. I've commented before that he's kinda been the soundtrack of my yoga practice. The lengthy discussion centers on his spiritual practice that parallels his experience with kirtan music. It really gave new insight into his music. I'll Krishna Das speak for himself.
Labels: music, philosophy, yoga_resource
This is my third and final installment on Stephen Cope's Yoga and the Quest for the True Self (Bantam Books: 1999) Anyone who wants to embrace yoga in its fullest manifestation should (must!?) read it. There, I said it. I would not recommend it for a novice. The reader should have a few years of regular practice and have a working knowledge of yoga's fundamentals, its history and philosophy. The book wet my appetite for digging deeper into yoga: my daily practice, my lab work in classes, my explorations in meditation and my intellectual engagement, in other words, the whole shebang. I feel that there is so much more that will be opened up to me with acceptance, patience and persistence, and it might come after a second reading. I'd give this book five stars on Amazon.
A trained observer of the human condition and a compelling storyteller, Cope combines his own life experience with those of other people who took up yoga and saw it change their lives, and throws in scientific research, philosophical scholarship and the theory of chakras for the bargain. It also provides an excellent look at how yoga is evolving in American culture, both the points of tension/friction and the synergy. Cope provide wise commentary and eye-opening insight into the human condition -- you can see why he changed the names of the people he chronicled.
I had originally thought that the book focused on the Kripalu Center's transition from a guru-focused institution to a more egalitarian, self-sustaining and more American organization. But only 15 pages (out of 330 pages) actually address the "scandal" of Amrit Desai resigning from the center because of sexual liaisons he had with disciples and the upheaval it brought to the people who had followed him. Cope really does not go into all the details so a full account will have to be found elsewhere. So the "crisis" only plays a minor role in the narrative, though it does give a distinctly different perspective to look at a yoga-centered residence (a kind of mega-studio/monastery, if your will) going through changes and it does influence Cope's own perception because he has gone through this test by fire. By the way, Amrit Desai is still teaching in Florida, and has launched a CD on yoga nidra. No mention of his years in Kripalu.
Here's a blogger's opinion. Here is a negative view from What's Enlightenment magazine. The first and second parts of my review.
Labels: philosophy, reading
I am working my way through Stephen Cope's Yoga and the Quest for the True Self (Bantam Books: 1999) and find it a fascinating read. It's up there with my three favorite yoga books. Cope makes a strong point for seeing yoga and transformation within the context of the community. Given the U.S. tendency to focus just on the physical side and strip away the rest, Cope writes, "Consciousness is transmitted in relationships... Company is more powerful than willpower... A caring community can help us create a safe domain in which personal experiences can be expressed, expanded and enriched." (pp. 166-7 — these are just a few of the sentences that I had highlighted.) Of course, Cope's own experience comes from within the Kripalu Center and naturally reflects that exposure to a sangha.
Most yoga studios are not going to have the capacity to create community, unless there is a very strong personality driving the initiative beyond being a mere business venture. This opens up a lot of other issues because of the bad vibes from gurus and cults. For that matter, not that many of practitioners are actively seeking community.
Cope's insistence on the context of consciousness and the power of human relationships strike a resonant cord with me — I'm a PK and I grew up in the shelter of a church, a natural extension of my family.
In response: Asia Nelson asked in a comment whether I had any tips for promoting sangha. As a writer, I am not qualified to give advice in creating community. I tend to be aloner who shows up for class. Because most studios tend to be swamped by newcomers, there is a certain transience to classes, rarely the same people showing up for a class. The needs of a novice are different from an experienced yogi who would be more inclined to seek community. So the challenge of the instructor and the studio is to find ways that build continuity and collective experience. I've noticed that programs like teacher training, work study exchanges and workshop/retreats tend to instill a deeper sense of community.
Labels: philosophy, reading, yoga
I've been reading Stephen Cope's Yoga and the Quest for the True Self (Bantam Books: 1999) for the past few weeks, mainly while on the Metro to and from work. It makes for fitful reading, but Cope has produced a book that is worth thoroughly absorbing and pondering. It is definitely not a book for a yoga novice. It is not a book about asanas, vinyasas and how to fit them together. It is not another book about interpreting the enigmatic refrains of Patanjali (Cope's latest book is actually about that).
Cope's book deals with how yoga can change you in dramatic ways, with why yoga is uniquely equipped to help delve into the human mind and condition, and with the dilemma of self-identity and the real world. But despite its lofty topics, it is still very accessible because it comes at yoga and human change from a personal perspective of his own life, his process of change and the community within which he was working, the Kripalu Center in western Massachusetts. Cope is a trained psychotherapist so he brings a full tool kit to analyze his experience and also a remarkable capacity to communicate a potentially ethereal process in palpable terms.
In order for the book to make sense, you need to have sweated on the mat for at least a year or two. It's also worth trying to discuss it with other practitioners and teachers because it challenges the intellect and benefits from multiple perspectives. At this point in my evolving practice, it has responded to a lot of formless questions that were bouncing around in my head and I could not condense into concrete inquiries.
Labels: philosophy, reading, yoga
In America, most yoga studios are intent on transforming the classroom into the peak yoga experience. Instructors choreograph their asanas and vinyasas, script their dedicatory monologues and invoke rituals to make each class unique and vibrant. Each session is blessed with a musical soundtrack worthy of a DJ, exotic scents, and candle light. Indeed, the best classes can lead us to achieve a unique state of being, purged of the mental and physical toxins that weigh us down, exploring the edge of our capabilities -- and maybe a little farther, and enpowered by the stillness that remains. A dozen or more bodies breathing and sweating in unison build up a lot of energy in a room.
In the United States, it's preordained that the consumer market dictates that each studio owner -- and teacher, for that matter -- competes against the other studios and fitness centers for customer allegiance, as well as against all the other temptations in the market. They must have a firm grasp of supply and demand, and find the hook, nuance or niche that will distinguish them from other options and keep customers coming back for more enlightenment. That's also one of the reasons yoga styles and approaches have proliferated beyond the lineages traced back to India.
There is a subtle corollary message in the U.S. studio system, that a student will never be able to duplicate the ambiance, pace and intensity of the studio in the privacy of his/her home, even with audiotapes and DVDs. No wonder students get discouraged at how pale their home practice seems in comparison.
But the real test for a good teacher is whether a student can take something learned in each class back into the home practice. Only rarely do I hear teachers give assistance focused on the home practice. I've come to the realization that the class setting can only be of true value when it helps students take yoga's essence back to their home and into the world. That's why I want to be more consistent with recording my "one thing from class" idea -- to find something in each class that can feed back into my home practice.
Labels: philosophy, yoga
