being in music
is like being in love
or riding a wave
or seeing a field of sunflowers disappear
into Montauk mist
on a mid September morning
where all that’s left
is a feeling

couldn’t tell you what we played
how the guitar came in when i sang
radha ramana govindaaa
radhe krishna keshava

couldn’t do it again
but the feeling
my eyes are not quite ready
to open up to the silence
yet
and i could hold off on breathing
for an hour or two
worlds in a moment

then walking out into sun rivers
windy trees and berries
the feeling pervades my bared steps
tinges the rest of my walking

being in music
when I sing
gopala gopala gopala krishna
living a tune
walking through a dance
dunes at night
new layers to everything
where music is just listening

Try this listening exercise the next time you’re able to sit still for a bit. Begin by closing your eyes and imagining your hearing range as an orbit field that surrounds you. Make that orbit as small as you can so it only surrounds your inner ear. Notice what you hear, then allow the orbit to expand a bit so it surrounds your head. Notice what you hear, then your whole body, a few feet beyond your body, the room or small space you’re in at the time, then more… envelope the neighborhood, the horizon, this paumanauk island, the country world universe. If you want, you can reverse it back to your inner ear or end at the expansion. It may be interesting to jot down everything you remember hearing at all the different layers of sound. Every time I try this, whether different location or the same, there’s something new that comes through. The music is everywhere and we can be in it if we choose to allow ourselves to listen and celebrate.

Life is constant transitions as we flow with Grace and live our lives to the fullest.  We are born as our first transition into this body and leave it as our last.

In between, our body changes with each breath.  Over seven years time we transform into a totally new physical body.  Our cells have totally replaced themselves and yet we are still the same person.

Each breath we take is unique and yet each one is based on the one before and is preparation for the next, an unstoppable and endless flow.  We inhale pranic energy and grow organically as we exhale.  Each breath carries us as we move with the rhythm of change, a constant and joyful development.

Each morning we transition and wake to a new day, complete with many possibilities for change, and each night we release ourselves to the growth that occurs with sleep.  We wake up taller each morning than when we went to bed as our spinal discs replenish themselves during the night.  Nature works to renew and change us even while we rest.

We celebrate birthdays to mark our annual transition and passage to a new age.  When we were children, we looked forward excitedly to that aging process.  Perhaps less so now that we blow out more candles on the cake.  Some Birthdays infer legal status; at 18 we can vote and at 65 receive Medicare.  These mark us as having become an adult or perhaps a senior citizen.  Others have a more psychological weight; 30, 50 and 80 may seem awesome, dreadful or a cause for celebration. Each age may change our outlook on life.

Sometimes events occur which force transitions on us and other times we have the ability to choose the road we take.  Either way, we can adapt ourselves and advance into a new stage of being.  When we open to the greater forces and energies around us these changes may become smoother and more graceful.  We ground ourselves in our experience and knowledge and then modify and shift into the next phase of our travel down the path.

Just as we move through life, we move through a sequence of asanas as we practice yoga on our mats.  Whether it is our own practice and we can choose which pose comes next or whether it is a set series dictated by a teacher or a style of yoga, there is still the need for a mindful transition between poses.  On the mat we note our progress as we master new asanas, but too often don’t take the time to focus on the fluidity as we release from one pose and prepare for the next. The grounding of the foot, the careful realignment and the graceful movement with the breath as we shift from Virabhadrasana II (Warrior 2) to Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon) is just as beautiful to the body as the shining out of the full pose.  Without the care in the transition, we would never feel the radiant glory of the final pose. When we rush from pose to pose we often lose the beauty and the grace of the asana practice.

When we learn to transition and unfold in our lives off the mat with the same care that enriches our physical practice on the mat, we will bring more beauty, harmony and joy into our lives and the lives of those around us.

Tapas, like most Sanskrit words, means many things to many people.  Most simply, tapas is heat, specifically the kind of heat generated by certain yogic practices, or a certain approach to yogic practice.

In the early scriptures, which still shape most yoga practiced today, tapas refers to the burning off of impurities. The idea being that we all arrive at yoga seriously stained by years of hard living, wine, women and song—the seven deadly sins, original sin, whatever.  So, we practice to rid our bodies of toxins and our minds and hearts of selfish, lustful, vengeful urges. We clean the slate and emerge pure as the driven snow.

Americans naturally gravitate to purity models—our culture was founded by Puritans, after all!  Note the 20th-century obsession with cleanliness and germ-free home-making, visible today in the ubiquitous hand-sanitizers.  We make amends for indulging in unhealthy diets with the more recent trends toward organic and raw foods and rigorous “cleanses” and fasts, where we refuse to let anything in, a kind of spiritual anorexia.

Later yoga, rooted in Tantra, discards the notion that we are “impure,” but salvages the notion of austerities. Which is where it all gets a little murky.  If we are essentially Divine in all aspects of our nature, why would we need to rid ourselves of anything?

The answer lies in another meaning of tapas, which is the friction generated by going against the grain of habit, of complacency, of doing what’s easiest, of getting away with things.  Tapas is the fervor of striving to be the best you can, which may mean shifting what you do and how you do it. So, if you are an intense, fiery person, the heat generated by a fiery practice like Ashtanga vinyasa may not truly be tapas for you; tapas for you might involve putting the breaks on compulsive, aggressive, ambitious behavior in all realms of your life—including what you do on the mat. I personally feel intense heat during the first few minutes of meditation; sitting still is such a challenge for me that it requires real tapas for me to stay put.

Swami Satchidananda said that tapas is self-discipline, not self-torture. Which raises the question of why you are practicing yoga at all, of intention. The Buddhists talk about right thinking and right action. Right effort is not the same as more effort. You don’t become a better yogi by doing more yoga or harder yoga; you become a better yogi by raising the bar of your intention to encompass something along the lines of enabling you to better serve the greater whole.

Tapas is a personal practice, it’s one of the five niyamas or personal observances.  Meaning, tapas has nothing to do with imposing your passions, your views, your yoga on anyone else. Tapas is not proselytizing; in fact, it may mean the restraint of not proselytizing.

In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, tapas is grouped with svadhyaya and Ishvara pranidhana(II.1) as the three crucial elements of yoga practice. Tapas is thus tempered by self-study (svadhyaya) and surrender to or alignment with the Divine (Ishvaraprandhana).  By really looking at and into ourselves, we glean which practices are serving us, which ones are merely generating more of the same old karmic imprints. By remembering that yoga draws us into alignment with the Highest, we choose to channel our energy into something much greater than the incessant building up and/or dismantling of our limited egos.

Tapas is a great tool. There would be no yoga as we know it today, on the mats and in the studios, without it. But yoga always invites you into conversation with the tradition and its offerings. What is tapas for you? What lights your fire? Look up at the bright August sun one of these long afternoons, and ask yourself where you could turn up the internal heat and ride its waves.

“The joy of life consists in the exercise of one’s energies, continual growth, constant change, the enjoyment of every new experience. To stop means simply to die. The eternal mistake of mankind is to set up an attainable ideal” – Aleister Crowley

Karma and I planted a root garden. I bought a kit where we plant a carrot, a radish and a green onion in glass tubes that are held in a wooden frame so you can see not only the shoots coming up, but the roots growing down into the soil. She is almost 4 and was so excited when she woke up the next day to run down into the kitchen and check on her garden. Until she saw it. Nothing had happened overnight. Or the next night. Or pretty much for the next week. But we had a lot of opportunity to talk about how things grow! You need to have the proper conditions to invite and optimize growth.

First, you prepare the soil. (We had to soak peat pellets in 1/2 c. water each over 2 nights). Then you plant a seed. You make sure you nurture that seed with all the things it needs to grow. Water, sunlight, love. And a LOT of patience.

Our focus this month as we spring into summer at Yoga Shanti is GROWTH.

In many ways, growth is how we measure our life as it has to do with renewal and change. It has been a year of tremendous change for many of us. What we do with our experiences, and how we assimilate our circumstances can propel us forward or stagnate us. The strongest principle of growth is human choice. It was William Butler Yeats that said “… we are happy when we are growing.”

Growth is about expansion and saying YES! Not an easy thing to practice in these times of uncertainty where everything and everyone around us seems to be in a state of contraction. What a perfect time to start an endeavor! The conditions are ripe for sowing those seeds of “could of, would of, should of”s. Open up to the possibility of your life and reach past the attainable.

Seeing the brand new construction of a beautiful building in town must have planted a seed in Colleen’s mind.

This month marks the opening of an additional studio in Sag Harbor, Yoga Shanti Lakshmi at 32 Bridge Street, behind the Schiavonis supermarket (plenty of parking!). We are saying YES to expansion, growth and change.

Three days ago I came home late from work and went to clean up the kitchen. When I looked over at the windowsill there was a single green shoot that had emerged high above the soil line in our middle glass tube! I was in awe. I couldn’t wait until Karma woke up in the morning! We ran down to the kitchen. She was so thrilled and full of accomplishment.

As Henry Miller said, All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.

So go ahead…. Plant a seed. See what grows.

Happy Summer!
Love,
Kari

I have always scratched my head in wonder at the mystery of how strongly my father affected me in every decision I have ever made without having an everyday contact with him.

This wonderment carries over to my feeling of Pattabhi Jois. Pattabhi Jois was not my teacher. Personally, I had only a handful of classes directly with him, and even if you count all the classes I have taken in his direct lineage, from teachers who are in his inner circle, the count is probably still under 100.

Pattabhi Jois is one of the giants of the yoga world in the last 100 years. He died May 18 and the yoga world for the moment has been turned upside down and has lost its compass. No matter what school of yoga you are involved with here in the United States, you have inevitably been touched by this great yogi.

Colleen and I were teaching at the Yoga Journal Conference in New York City when David Swenson, a long time friend and colleague, and his wife Shelley, came to our Urban Zen classroom to bear the news. How fortunate we felt to have David, who is one of Pattabhi Jois’s most devoted students, there with us to share wonderful stories and emotions. The week has continued with ceremonies around the globe, paying homage to Pattabhi Jois and the way he served the world.

Colleen and I feel like part of our foundation has been irreversibly shaken and we feel the heavy responsibility of helping to carry the torch of yoga without the manifested presence of Pattabhi Jois. Much like the death of a parent, there is a now a huge void that is daunting. Nonetheless, we carry on and continue to touch the joy that Pattabhi Jois so masterfully shared.

“Impermanence can teach you a lot about how to cheer up”- Pema Chodron

Impermanence is something we usually prefer to avoid facing. We like when things are settled and dependable. We like to know that when we come home it is how we left it, that when we fall in love, we will stay in love; we like the security of knowing who we are and what’s next.

I can remember my first pair of sneakers, they were pink and white and when I started to outgrow them, I refused to believe it. My mom still reminds me how I loved them so much I even wore them to bed.

Of course there comes a time when we outgrow something, it outgrows us, or things simply change. We are asked to look at our attachments and illusions about something fundamentally groundless. The great Yogi, Master Patanjali reminds us in the Yoga Sutras (II.15) that it is the most pleasurable things in our lives that are actually the most painful, because eventually we will have to let them go.

In a yoga class I took a few weeks ago, the teacher had us hold that horribly awkward pose, Utkatasana for a horribly long time. She asked the class if the feeling we were experiencing was how it felt to be us, and how it was always going to feel. Although we knew we would soon transition into a different pose, we were completely engrossed in the difficulty of the moment. When you are immersed in such a heightened state you start to embrace the permanence of impermanence. You start to love it! In fact, you are mentally trying to woo it into existence so your legs, shoulders and back can have relief.

When we finally did release into a forward bend, you could sense the whole room in celebration. We were thanking the Gods of impermanence!

But impermanence isn’t only worth embracing in times of difficulty, when we are reminded, this too shall pass…

It is because of impermanence that not only do painful times pass, but also great opportunities come. It is due to the beautiful fact that nothing is fixed or written in stone that we are able to transform. The next time you feel you have slipped into negative tendencies, remember nothing is permanent about who you are or what you are capable of. When you change just one aspect of yourself you have unveiled the farse of permanence. It is always possible for us to be healthier, more forgiving, more loving, happy in our jobs and with our partners. Without impermanence yoga practice could accomplish very little. It’s the transient nature of the body and mind that allows it to open and to ease up on its chit-chat.

The inevitability of change and the act of embracing this fact, brings us, as yogis, into a truthful state of mind. We are no longer blinded by false perceptions, we are seeing clearly the nature of reality.

The next time someone annoys you, remember impermanence. The next time you find yourself laughing and completely content, also remember impermanence. It is teaching you about the preciousness of the moment. Let it invoke your gratitude and appreciation for what is, and your openness to the miracles yet to come.

Looking forward to celebrating the summer with everyone at Yoga Shanti!

With Joy,

Heather

When you forget your true nature and look for happiness in external ways, that is the basic ignorance. The aim of all the Yoga practices is to stop anything from disturbing the mind so that it can reflect the Peace and Joy that is your true nature.”
~ Sri Swami Satchidananda

We heard this great line from a comedian named Louis CK. If you get a chance, check him out on YouTube. It is a wake up call put in a very funny package. I don’t know about you, but I am sick of complaining. We do live in an amazing time, but there seems to be a lack of gratitude. There are so many vehicles for communication, but what is being said? How many words are being wasted talking about what is wrong? What would happen if we could stop complaining for a whole day? And then we could add gratitude to our day of non-complaining. Our reality would be very different. Suffering in the form of selfishness, anxiety, and despair may dissipate. Maybe our minds would have a chance to settle. And then, to top it off, let’s add a service component to our day of non-complaining and gratitude. Swami Satchidananda says that all we have to do to be happy is to feed people. I believe that at the end of this day, we would crawl into bed with a peaceful heart, a calm mind, and we may be tempted to do it again.

I teach a women’s retreat in Mexico. This was the 9th year with the same group of women. There is one woman that has attended all 9 retreats. She has a large tumor on her spine, and is in an enormous amount of pain. She has little to no feeling in her limbs. She, laughingly, says that she wakes up every morning feeling like a scarecrow, wondering which limbs she will be able to feel today.

The point is that I have never heard her complain about anything. It is very obvious that her life is all about service. She is constantly amazed, and finds humor in every situation. She has chosen to be happy.

The comedian says that the next time we fly, we should be holding onto our seats, screaming with delight at the miracle of sitting in a chair in the sky, and flying like a bird across the sky. So, let’s not complain the next time we have a 2-hour delay, or sit on the runway for an hour, or get stuck in the middle seat. Let’s live in constant awe and gratitude. Everything is amazing and we can choose to be happy.

With gratitude,
Namaste,
Colleen

“it is through the body that you realize you are a spark of divinity”—BKS Iyengar

Tadasana, mountain pose, the primary standing posture. Stand tall, legs together, spine erect, arms at your sides. That’s it. Tadasana may not seem super challenging, but understanding its essence is vital to mastering other poses. In this foundation posture we aim to cultivate steadiness within ourselves and in relation to the world around us.

Steadiness in the body/mind is about right relationship, not necessarily about gaining control. Stand tall and you will feel the constant shift of weight that is balance. From grounded legs there is a rebound of energy upwards, giving lift to the spine and chest. In the simplicity of this pose we can observe the movement of energy, or prana, inherent in steadiness…in other words, be present and go with the flow.

In the mountain of tadasana the movement of prana gives us a sense of spaciousness and well being. It’s within this sense of well being that the alchemical shift of awareness occurs, the shift from experiencing ourselves as separate from the universe, to being OF it. Soul connection is at the center of every asana. Why not check it out first with two feet on the ground.

This time of year is a great time to get back to basics. Perhaps organize some part of your life that has fallen into disarray, or do a dietary cleanse and most definitely honor your yoga practice by checking in. Much of the reason why we do hatha yoga is to purify and tone our vehicles to accept a higher current of energy, ultimately so that we can sit in meditation and vibe with the light.

As the days grow longer, the outer world can reflect our inner world: stay steady, grounded, feel the earth energy awakening and be the light.

Chant of the month:

om bhur bhuva svah (earth, midworld and heaven)
tat savitur varenyam (let us meditate on the most)
bhargo devasya dhimahi (excellent light of the divine)
dhiyo yo nah pracodayat (sun that it may illuminate our minds)

Yoga Pearl: “It takes a whole lot of something to get to nothing.”

In Yoga philosophy, the word nothing is loaded with rich meaning. It is not like in English where the word nothing is synonymous with something one throws out. The English dictionary defines nothing as something of no importance or concern. Yogic teachings, however, place primary importance on the idea of nothing. The aim of Yoga is to reach nothing or nothingness. In Sanskrit, the language of Yoga, the word, shunya nothing is synonymous with other words like zero, emptiness, stillness, beingness. The initial starting point in Yoga moves from the manifest world, the something, towards the internal quiet realm of nothing. Experiencing nothingness or emptiness, is the experience of a state of Yoga.

The pearl above speaks to the practitioner, who often sets out on a journey in a search of him or her self. Most people approach the notion of Self, the way they’ve been taught to approach most of life, by trying to grasp or understand something tangible. The pearl above acts as both a guide and a support, that plays out in the mind of the reader, reminding one that the goal is reached in the movement from something to nothing, not in obtaining yet another something. No doubt this will seem confusing, since the mind is a part of the initial process, and mind always deals with something. ‘Something’ in the quote is synonymous with anything in the material world, thoughts and anything in the phenomenal realm. The student moves outward trying to grasp the idea of nothing as something new to obtain, imagining this is a means to peace, to gather it. A skilled teacher who pays close attention will gently guide the student away from the outer.

Movement outwards as a plan
The student will naturally come up with a strategy to relate with the outside world as a means to attain inner contentment and stillness. To remove all connection with the tangible realm is often too abrupt for students, instead a skillful teacher of Yoga will find a way to allow both possibilities to exist side by side together something and nothing. “It takes a whole lot of something to get to nothing,” describes a relationship between something and nothing, which as yogi’s-in-training we must examine. The teacher will find a way to help the student sit with whatever experiences add up to reality or something for them and then gently offer up the counterpoint of nothing as its backdrop. Soon this backdrop of nothingness is found to be the ground of being or existence itself.

Humor and Contradiction as aids to Experience Self
There is humor in the statement above. Using contradiction and humor to express the teachings is not only fun, but also allows the thinking mind to relax and be at ease in the intense process of Self-discovery. When the mind relaxes it has the possibility of connecting more easily with its quiet essence. An open and relaxed mind has the environment where the seeds of the great Yogic teachings can take proper root.

Copyright 2009 Sanskrit Studies, Manorama

I don’t think I know a single person who hasn’t heard of Yoga. Being a yoga teacher I get a lot of questions and comments about what exactly you do in yoga class. It is assumed that yoga is stretching and breathing and by practicing it you will become healthier, calmer and generally a better person. That is all very true but what does Yoga really mean? Where did yoga come from? And what exactly are we doing when we say “oh yeah, I do yoga.”

Yoga: Divine union. From the Sanskrit root verb yuj (to yoke, join or unite.)

Yoga developed thousands of years ago around India although the exact origins are uncertain. Yoga is for every person in every age; therefore yoga keeps changing just as time keeps passing. What ancient yogis did in dark caves many years ago may not exactly be what we are doing today, and that’s o.k. What’s important is that the essence of yoga is still here. Yoga is and always has been a way to connect us to the source.

The teachings of Yoga are based on many different philosophies and religions, but, Yoga is NOT a religion, rather it is a discipline, one that leads to ultimate freedom.

Patanjali was the first to write down the teaching of Yoga in the Yoga Sutras. Traditionally they were passed down orally from teacher to student. Each Sutra says in some way what Yoga is and how to attain that divine state. The clearest sutra that defines Yoga is sutra 1:2 Yogas Citta Vritti Nirodhah.

Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind, or the restraint of the modifications of the “mind-stuff “. In clearer terms, when you can control the rising of the mind, you will experience Yoga or Union. So what then is really uniting? Well, the union ultimately happens between the individual consciousness (jivatman) and the universal consciousness (paramatman). Yoga aims at changing the individual, (that is why our practice consists of asana, pranayama, chanting and meditation). Yoga does not bother much about changing the outside world. There is a Sanskrit saying, “As the mind, so the man; bondage or liberation are in your own mind.” So whatever you think you manifest. If you think you are bound, you are, if you think you are liberated, you are! Things outside ourselves neither bind nor liberate us; only our attitude toward them does. The practice of Yoga brings clarity to the mind so that we can see and experience this. As Gandhi said, “be the change you wish to see in the world” for you cannot change the world if you cannot change yourself! Gandhi was a great Yogi, and his practice was Karma Yoga, or selfless service to others. He also studied many great texts such as the Bhagavad Gita, so he was also a practitioner of Jnana Yoga.

Most westerners practice Hatha Yoga (postures). There is also Bhakti Yoga (devotional/chanting), Jnana Yoga (knowledge/study), Karma Yoga (service), Kundalini Yoga (awaken the shakti), Raja Yoga, also known as Ashtanga Yoga, (8 limb path); the list goes on and on. It really doesn’t matter what you practice, as long as what you do is focusing the mind and leading to that state of Yoga or now as we understand it, divine union.

Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati defines Yoga as “a state where nothing is missing.”

I found this definition very interesting. In a way we are not trying to reach some supreme state outside of ourselves, for then we are saying we are not enough, but rather we are discovering that place inside ourselves where we feel complete.

While writing all of this I began to get frustrated in seeing that Yoga is not as simple as we might think it is. Yoga is so much more than just going to class for 90 minutes. In feeling this frustration I asked a few people what Yoga meant for them. One said that Yoga is an experience, something that draws you deeper into your own self and cuts through all the “nonsense” of the world. Another said that yoga is a supreme state of being. Another said it was finding a place of peace within oneself, and yet another said it is breathing and moving and just feeling good.

Recently I went to the city and took a yoga class, and I left feeling not so “yogaish” I didn’t have that deep inner stillness you sometimes get after a really awesome class, and that was ok with me. Later that same day I went to a dance performance at the Joyce Theater, and what I saw and experienced was Yoga! I said to myself, they are experiencing Yoga and I can feel it!

After I began to understand the meaning of the word Yoga a bit more or rather internalize it a bit deeper, I stopped being so frustrated. I realized that you cannot “do yoga”. Yoga is a state of being that you find after you take an amazing class, or after you have chanted, or after meditation, pranayama or even after you take a quiet walk in the woods and just look around at the beauty.

Ultimately you can “do” anything and at the same time experience yoga.

So if we all say, “yeah I do yoga,” then a good question to ask yourself is what does Yoga mean to you? So that Yoga can become something more then just going to class.