My teacher, Dharma, usually does at least one or two partner poses in his classes. I've tried to add in a little more partner yoga into my classes since I started practicing with Dharma.
Partner yoga is a great way to connect with others. You learn to help support your partner and you learn how to let someone else support you. Every relationship requires this dynamic. Sometimes you are leading and driving the car, and sometimes you are going along for the ride.
You’re on your motorcycle. You’re flying along. You’ve got no lights, though. You can’t see where you’re going. And, you’ve got not brakes. You can’t slow down and you can’t stop.
You’re flying down the mountain on a winding path and it’s starting to get dark. You’ve got no lights. You’ve got no brakes. You can’t slow down.
Thanks for all the birthday love, everyone! It's been a beautiful day. This has been a great year and I have much to be grateful for in my life. There are always challenges in all of our lives. I think it is how we meet those challenges that matters. I look forward to the year ahead. I'm ready for whatever challenges come my way and I'm exciting for the opportunity for growth which each one will bring.
The Peacock is a symbol in yoga of Sattva, which means light, clarity, illumination. The reason the Peacock is a symbol for Sattva is because of its feathers. When the peacock opens its feathers it looks like a thousand eyes are looking at you. These eyes symbolize the light moving through you from within and your awakening. The Peacock pose is a great example of how hard it is to achieve this state of Sattva too. It requires a tremendous amount of strength and flexibility, and a tremendous amount of balance.
This past week I've been talking a lot in class about taking the journey to the center of your Self. This is really the journey we are taking in our yoga practice.
Do you know those wheels on the playground, or in a park? The ones for kids to play on, or that you used to play on when you were a kid? You get on the wheel and someone spins it and you are flying around on the wheel with the other kids. It's fun! It's exciting. There's lots of drama. Sometimes it's scary. You're out of your comfort zone.
Most of us have heard the word meditation. You might have a vague understanding of what meditation involves. I think most people know that meditation is something to do with sitting in stillness for a long period of time. In order to develop a deeper understanding of this ancient technology it's important that we understand specifics of the practice. What is the goal of meditation? Where are we headed in our practice? What are the tools that use in our practice?
This was our last day to explore the islands. The trip had started off feeling like it was going slow and then a few of the days just flew by and suddenly we were on our last day. We had bonded so much as a group. It had been such an amazing time together on the islands. I was going to miss this Galapagos Islands family and our home away from home at Semilla Verde.
We started off with an early morning pranayama and meditation practice at Semilla Verde. Love watching these yogis transformation after these seated practices. Powerful stuff!
A quick breakfast at Semilla Verde and we were off to Tortuga Bay for some hiking, hanging out at the beach, and kayaking.
When we arrived at Tortuga Bay we hiked through this beautiful forest to get to the beach. The trees were all white and silver and it looked like they had been blanketed in ice. It was really beautiful!
Day 4 of our Galapagos Islands adventure we were up early to do an asana class to start the day off!
I was getting up a little earlier than everyone else to do my own practice on the retreat before leading our morning classes and most days when I headed from my room to the studio it was still dark outside. I often came very close to stepping on one of the giant turtles who were sleeping on the pathway to the studio or nearby. The turtles hiss at you when they are scared or startled and it sounds very strange.
Day 3 of our Galapagos Islands adventure took us to North Seymour Island.
We woke up early and I led the group through a challenging yoga class to get us ready for our day.
After class, we grabbed a quick breakfast at Semilla Verde and then took a bus to the port to board the Sea Finch.We arrived at North Seymour island and went exploring with our guide, Steve, giving us deeper insight into all of the animals we encountered.
This was our first official day waking up at Semilla Verde. I was up at a little before 5am to do my practice so I could lead the group through a morning session at 6am. We did a sun salutation practice, followed by a seated seedless meditation.
After a quick breakfast, we were on our way to the port to head to Bartolome Island.
Steve, a really nice, down to earth guide was to lead us on this journey. We lucked out with Steve as he turned out to be a walking encyclopedia.
We left from LAX on Friday morning. I was flying with three other students coming from Los Angeles: Amber, Alexa and Jaro. We flew to Panama City and then on to Guayakil, a small city in Ecuador. We met up with two more students, Peter and Tina, at the airport in Guayakil. They had arrived on a different flight but were booked at the same hotel that we were. We spent the night in Guayakil.
Yogis! It doesn't matter what your pose looks like. We are all subject to different conditions. You're driving around in a different car than me and I'm driving around in a different car than you. The asana is just a tool to be used to go beyond the mind and the ego.
One definition of yoga from the Bhagavad Gita is that, "yoga is skill in action". This refers to karma yoga. This is the yoga of action. What is karma yoga? Karma yoga is offering your actions to the Divine. Not focusing on the fruits of the actions or the results. How does this translate on our mat? Do your best. Your effort and the quality of your effort is far more important than the results you obtain, which are largely out of your control.
There are three types of karma:
Parabdha karma which is the karma that is playing out for us in this life. We don't have control over this right now. We did in the past. My actions in previous lives led to the manifestation of the Garth-body and my current life.
There's new karma that I'm creating in this life with every new action. This karma is called agami karma. I can control this karma. I can choose my actions. I can put forth my best effort and not worry about the results or focus on the goal, which is out of my control.
The third type of karma is called sanjita karma and this is the karma that is stored in my sub-conscious, waiting to play out in the future, later in this life or in a future birth.
The idea of replacing old patterns in yoga with new patterns and eventually replacing even positive samsaras (mental impressions) with samadhi is the journey of yoga and addresses the cause and effect principle found in the karma theory. If you do something positive there will be a positive effect. If you do something negative there will be a negative effect. What are you doing by offering your actions to the Universe? You're really practicing focusing on the Divine. You're creating a pattern of shifting your awareness to the pure consciousness part of yourself. You're moving beyond the ego and mind. Offering your practice is another tool to go beyond the ego and mind and reach a state of Samadhi.
Do your best. Put forth your best effort. The quality of your effort is the most important thing. Don't worry about the results. Judgment and criticism are products of the ego and the mind. Move beyond your ego. Make everything you do an offering. Let the Universe move through you. Trust your intuition. Move with "skill in action"!
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.
