We finished our second last weekend in my Shiva Yoga 200hr Teacher Training Program last night. I can't believe there's just one more weekend left. I'm so proud of all of the trainees. What a special group. Their level of understanding of yoga practice and yoga philosophy is getting pretty incredible and it's been so inspiring to watch them each grow so much this past year.
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.
Your energy affects everyone around you.
If you choose restraint you encourage others to restrain themselves. If you choose to stay calm and focused in the middle of intensity then you encourage others to choose to remain calm and focused in the middle of intensity.
In yoga, as a yoga teacher, I watch this happen all the time and it’s fascinating. When the group is focused and present (even newer students who have trouble staying focused and staying present), get caught up in the group energy and are pulled along. Everyone stays focused.
The reverse is also true. When several new students are in class together and are unable to focus and unable to stay calm in the middle of intensity, the whole class starts to become distracted. Everyone gets caught up in the group energy and pulled along. Sometimes even the strongest students get caught up in the distraction and are unable to stay focused and present.
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!
The way you do anything is the way you do everything. One simple shift in yoga on your mat will help you make the same shift off your mat. The microcosm is the macrocosm. The conflict in me is the conflict I see in the world. My transformation will have an impact on the world around me. I know it will. Your transformation will have an impact on the world around you too. I know it will. It's time for us to become more loving, more kind and more compassionate. Will you do this with me? That's my reaction to the conflict, the anger and the hate I see in the world. I will love more fully. I will be more kind. I will be more compassionate. I will be more of service. Join me and let's change this world together one action at a time.
There is no growth without discomfort. There is no healing without pain. Go into the fire. Go towards the heat, the discomfort, the pain. That's how you're going to heal yourself. Yoga is not about avoiding things. Stop distracting yourself. Sit with your suffering. Breathe into it. Heal yourself. Take the journey. It's all about the journey. And if the journey is leading you anywhere but inward and closer to your Self then you aren't really on the journey at all.
The sun is the lightest and brightest thing in our world. One of the things we are working to do in yoga is to become lighter and brighter. The ego and mind are constantly pulling us down. It takes hard work to move out of the tamasic state of heaviness and sluggishness. We must lift ourselves up and elevate ourselves, shifting our perspective away from the ego and the mind, attachment and aversion, and connecting with the part of ourselves that is pure consciousness, pure awareness. That same pure awareness, that same pure consciousness, that same light that is in you is also in me. That same light that is in us is in everyone. When you see me -- try to look past all the noise, all the confusion, all the armor I've put up to protect myself, all the walls, all the judgment and all the fear. Try to look past my ego and my mind. Can you see the light in me? I will try to look for the light in you too. Then we will be able to connect. I'm sure of it. :) Namaste! Let your light shine and flow through you.
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.
We carry around our backpack full of stuff with us everywhere we go. If you never turn inward and look at your stuff and give it a chance to process and release, you never unload anything from your backpack. Your stuff just keeps piling up and the load you are carrying gets heavier and heavier.
Find stillness and concentrate. Let the mind turn inward. Let the fire build. Sit in the fire and look at your stuff. Let it come up. Let it process. Let it release. Breathe into it and then breathe it out. This is the work. The more stuff you are holding onto, the more stuff you have pushed down, the more stuff you are carrying around in your backpack, the longer it will take for you to dig yourself out and to unload your backpack.
I was driving to teach a class today and this very aggressive driver behind me was right on my tail. We were in heavy traffic on the freeway and the traffic was ‘stop and go’. I watched this driver in my rear view mirror come really close to rear-ending me several times. I decided to get out of the way and move lanes and let the car go by me. I pulled into another lane and the car sped past me and then hit the brakes and almost rear ended the next car. I watched the car for several minutes almost rear end this car several more times as we continued in the ‘stop and go’ traffic. There was one moment where I was beside this car and I looked over to see what was going on with the driver. There was a middle-aged woman behind the wheel and she was incredibly angry. She was yelling at the car in front of her. She suddenly noticed me watching her. She stopped yelling and glared at me with ‘daggers’ in her eyes. She then lifted up her arm and gave me the finger and mouthed the words F&%k Yo%! I thought to myself, “Wow! This woman's behavior is crazy.”
