Sangati Yoga, A community of the Heart

Blog on Love and Terrorism 5/2/11

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Tue, 10 May 2011 04:25:00 +0000

Blog on Love and Terrorism 5/2/11

Who really knows what the best choices are? We may only make the best ones we can for any given moment. When someone chooses to kill and murder innocent people, when someone makes it their mission to destroy a people, a race, a culture, then who will stand for those victims? Is peaceful resistance available to encompass violence if that means that it will end more mass violence? How does one sit down and talk peacefully with a terrorist? How does one respond to others when they have created harm? Some say that the only answer is light and love. I submit that that light and love sometimes can come in laser ways, in incisive and even with some violence. The Bhagavad Gita teaches this and yet we may misinterpret. If all our Seals dropped their weapons, would our world be better? Can those of us who are starting to create peace within really say that there is no room for killing certain thoughts, living with others, cutting some off, releasing others-as far as I have experienced, I see that a sort of violence has helped to move into a higher wisdom. When I am sick, I have taken just tea and vegetable broth and other nourishing foods. If I don’t get better, I may bring in more heavy hitting remedies. And if I am really sick, I may take antibiotics or some drug that seeks to kill the infection. Should I allow the infection to live on in my body? And if I would die? Does this serve life? Gandhi has been a hero of mine since childhood, but as I look at this extreme example, I think of his celibacy. If all of us were to stop having kids, we would have no world. If we did not stand up for those without the ability to do so, would we feel peaceful still?

My dharma, as far as I can tell, is one that involves the facing of my innermost fears, being vulnerable with my ego out in the winds and elements and allowing it to transform, sometimes slaying demons, sometimes making friends with them--or at least tolerating them and keeping them as part of navigating the inner world of mind and heart. What I know about this process is that it can appear warlike on a one level, but beneath is that deep abiding peace. Inside that is that deep rooted desire and passion, and inside that is the stillness. Peace and passion have ever been intertwined. I know what it means to be battered, to be torn and violated, tossed out in the ocean with no one on the shores of rescue anywhere in sight. I know what it means to forgive and to want and hope for healing. But what of the one who has gone so far as to kill and murder so many, and one who’s life mission is to kill, to destroy people because he doesn’t agree with someone? And sliding back onto the continuum, I think of how I feel inside when I argue, sometimes measured and hoping to serve sri, sometimes out of it’s own power. There is only resolution when I finally decide inside myself that it is time to let it go. There surges an great ocean of peace inside, sometimes with regret that I wasted all that time, that I may have caused injury. If we all stand up and walk in the streets and march and call for peace, will it be heard? Can our passion back up our call? If each of us who are yogis sit in meditation with more urgency, roll out our mat to create more beauty, lend a smile to one who we call stranger, reach out to a friend, will terrorism be banished? Can we kill sometimes and still be yogis?

When I was younger, I thought that peace was the only way. Since I was a child, since I was a teenager, since I was in college, since I began practicing yoga, I thought peace. It is so simple and one can stand behind that, but something has shifted in my fullness of understanding. One could say that that understanding is worldly and not of the highest wisdom, but my experience of feeling the suffering of the world, the suffering of victims, and their families and communities is deeper each time my awareness expands and I can’t help but want to strive to grow brighter, to practice yoga because in the world others are doing things to create more power to use for bad. I want to create more power to use for good. And I think that soldiers in this world are necessary. I think that they serve the world. And I think that they each may choose to do what they are doing to bring goodness to the world. Certainly then they are not necessarily deluded. Is there ever a time when all diplomacy has been exhausted? Could we all walk up to Bin Laden’s compound and hold hands and surround the compound with our love? How many could he shoot down till they were out of bullets? Would he walk out and suddenly realize he had been wrong all this time? If we had not gone into the compound would he just keep giving orders for more terrorism? I have no weapons. I walk unarmed, but I have love in my heart, I have passion in my heart, I will stand up. I have those celestial weapons of the goddesses, at least in my imagination. I carry them with me inside, and whenever I need them I pull them forth. I reside in love even with these. I reside in love and want only that for all. I believe that I am authentic, and that if I try I can positively influence my children, my family and others. I realize and have no doubt that each individual must come to their own knowing in their own time. Even though I have written perhaps more questions than answers, I know that I believe in the power of love. What do you believe?

Sutra 1.6-1.11 Movements

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 05:00:00 +0000

Sutra 1.6-1.11
There are basically five movements of consciousness. They are:

correct knowing
errors
concepts
sleep
memory

Sutra 1.7 Correct knowledge is direct, inferred, or proven as factual.
Sutra 1.8 Illusory or erroneous knowledge is based on non-fact and non-real.
Sutra 1.9 Verbal knowledge devoid of substance is fancy or imagination.
Sutra 1.10 Sleep is the non-deliberate absence of thought-waves or knowledge.
Sutra 1.11 Memory is the unmodified recollection of of words and experiences.

When the vrttis occur we can basically categorize them into five categories. They are correct or incorrect, we have concepts, we sleep, and we have memory. Our correct turnings have to be in contact with our incorrect knowing. They influence each other. When we are erroneous in our thoughts, we do not know we are wrong until we do. It is very interesting how correct we can think we are, and then find out later we are wrong. Following “wrongness,” we may feel ashamed, sheepish, or even stupid. Sometimes, we are just plain wrong.

But the thing about correct knowledge is that it too is growing. If it is not then we have a stagnancy. In the tantra we say that consciousness is ever-expanding. If this is true, which we only have to look at the universe to know that it is, then this would lead us to knowing that knowledge will also ever-expand. If we limit ourselves to a certain knowing, we can’t really grow our knowledge. There are things we know in our hearts and this knowing keeps growing, keeps expanding. During this expansion, we have to let certain things, thoughts and concepts go

Knowing that is not based on reality is like day-dreaming, dreaming, reverie. While it may not necessarily harm or be negative, it can be ineffectual and keep us in a whilrling tide pool of unproductive, unconscious thinking. Substance is found in the depths, and part of our yoga is to draw it out and express it.

There will be more on how sleep is related to samdhi in sutra 1.19. The only way we know that we had a good night’s rest is how we feel after it. There is more on being aware even in sleep in the Sivasutra. I am called to remember the 4 states of consciousness, also delineated in the first chapter of the Sivasutra. They are waking, dreaming, sleep and turya. Turya means “fourth” and is the state of consciousness that is poured like liquid into the other states. It is always present-as the self, but we can live unaware of the continuous-ness of consciousness.

Memory is an incredible movement of consciousness. What we remember is always shifted as we grow. It is the same story yet somehow different each time. When we look at the Yoga sutra again, it is as if we have never seen it before. Where was all this before? Remembrance of consciousness itself happens for anything to even be here, for consciousness must remember itself to create.

Sutra 1.5

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 04:38:00 +0000

The movements of thought and consciousness are fivefold which are afflicting or not.

In the next few sutras, we find out what the five are, but even reading this for now, after sutra 1.4 knowing that we identify with our whirling thoughts, we say that this will either be disturbing or not. And the distress could be in any of the five categories. What is it that disturbs us? We may think that apparently the disturbance comes from the outside but it always arises from within in the mirror of our own consciousness.

Vrttis categorized, sorted and collated.
Here is the first sutra to look at that doesn't have a sort of meaty and direct message, rather it refers to the previous and the next several sutras to come. Yet looking at the categorization itself can be useful in the same way we can re-organize a closet. We clean it out, we give some things away, we throw some things away, we can see everything we have and so we have a new appreciation for those items. If vrttis are the ways that our thoughts can be collated and sorted and also we know will get cluttered again to be cleaned out again, we will also see in the organization that some are negative and some are positive. What if we only saw what was good and did not see the bad in the world? Would we be able to make choices? Would we think that everything was acceptable and good? At the essence, consciousness is beyond category, beyond labels of good-bad.

As Anusara teachers, we always look for the good first. We begin by seeing where the energy is flowing, where the pose is connected, open, and the beauty of the pose. Then we look at the energy of the pose and see where the major misalignment is. Seeing where the energy is misaligned gives us a choice. Now we can enhance the pose by one instruction. If we were unable to see the energy of the pose, we would not know where to go or what to adjust and so we may make an insignificant adjustment that doesn't really transform the energy of the pose into its fullest potential. The interesting thing here is the contrast-we see the essence flowing just as it is. And we can also see that underneath, somehow locked inside the pose, is one adjustment that will bring even greater energy flow to it. This is aligning along with the vrttis to the main source of energy in each pose.

Yoga Sutra 1.4 Identifying with Vrttis

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 01:08:00 +0000

Blog #5 Yoga Sutra 1.4
vrtti saaruupyam itaratra
At other times the seer identifies with the fluctuating consciousness.

Yoga Sutra 1.4 is the stepping towards what else happens when we are not in the experience of recognizing we are the delightful seer.

The deal with embodiment is that we have time, space and identity. We simply would not be here as embodied beings otherwise. The irony of yoga is that there would be no need for it if we were not condensed forms of One supreme consciousness. And for every moment we are having one experience. Within each experience, we are experiencing on multiple levels, some concealed, some revealed. If there weren’t concealment we would not be able able to experience what is revealed at any given moment. So even though we may be daydreaming of a place faraway or a place only in our imagination, in the past or the future, there we are thinking and feeling whatever it is that we are experiencing. Our body may be in one time-space, our mind sometime-somewhere else-but that combination of where our body is, where our mind is, where our heart is, is going to make the experience. Between what is revealed and what is concealed is a vast array of some things being in the forefront, some being in the background. Sometimes, our more subtle energies are in the forefront of our awareness. The previous sutra describes that experience-we dwell in our true splendor. So, the next question is, what happens when we don’t dwell in our true splendor? On one level we are always dwelling there, we are just not aware of it. On another level what is sat, what is, what we are experiencing as real is the experience of more fleeting and fluctuating waves, vrttis. Rather than dwelling in one’s swarupe, one’s splendor, one’s own true state, the seer is sarupya, identifying, being close or near to the vrttis.

We can go back to Rg Veda 10.90 about Purusha to remember that hymn that states that ¼th of consciousness reveals itself and ¾ths are always concealed. With three-fourths Purusha went up: one-fourth of him again was here. Then He spread Himself out to every side over what eats and what doesn’t eat (10.90.4-5). This hymn is a fascinating cosmological hymn describing how a cosmic person creates the worlds and also is somehow more than the world even as he too is created by it. Paradoxes aside, the yogin upon first practice may think the yoga is to uncover the ¾ths that are concealed, in the heavenly realms. But the Vedas have something far more interesting and expansive embedded in them than issuing a challenge to figure out some fixed measure of the ¾ths-in fact there is no fixed ¾ths because the universe is expanding. The Vedas teach that the universe is vast and expanding: This Purusa is all that has been and all that is to be (10.90.2). From the Rajanaka Tantric point of view, if we focus on the expanding ¼th, on the part that is here and revealed here now, we will have plenty enough to practice. We need not worry about what is concealed, but rather pay attention to what is being revealed. If we are always trying to figure out the ¾ths, we may miss out on the ¼th right before our eyes.

Today, as I am a little sick, I feel my sore throat, my lower energy, and I had a very full day and do again tomorrow, and so on. But the invitation of this sickness is to go deeper inside and feel the vibrancy on a deeper and more intrinsic level. Sometimes, when outer vibrant health is so present, we may not even notice, we can take our health for granted. But when we feel sick, we remember acutely what it is like to feel vibrant, but in a curious way we also forget what it is like, and so however the lens of sickness is allowing us to see the world, there we are, experiencing it just as we are. Sickness itself is not necessarily a detriment to spiritual practice, just as the vrttis are not necessarily a hindrance, just as the ¼ does not obscure that we know there is even more. Rather quite the opposite can be true, can be sat, can be what is our experience. Resting while being present in a full and active day-resting while acting fully: this is a concept of both identifying on one level with the fluctuations-and that the more we receive those fluctuations just as they are-for instance, sickness-vrtti, the more we can actually align with what their energies are offering us. If we are looking at the vrttis as more unsettled and anxious thinking that spins us away from accepting and receiving what ¼th is being offered in any given moment, then we could interpret this sutra ironically as this: we are splitting ourselves dualistically. We are identifying with the vrttis OR we are seeing ourselves as somehow separate from our vrttis and so we start thinking we should not be identifying with them and so then our thinking becomes based on what we shouldn’t do OR we are doing both of these!

The Spanda Karikas tell us throughout that each thought and emotion can be a gateway to the One. They also tell us that every thought and emotion is nothing but the One. May we bring ourselves fully to every moment so that we allow for each vrtti to be felt and thought fully. May we be present with every sickness, soreness, etc so that we may attend to what is. Today, a little sick, I feel the love of my family and their small gestures, their own vrttis swirling, unwinding, winding, I could sense my students’ sorrows and joys, know the fragility of health, acutely feel the delicacy and brevity of life, and that unconquerable spirit that pulsates and chants, “I am”, “I am”, “I am this and this and this”, and simply once more, “I am” no matter what or when. “I am” is eternal. “This” is infinite and whatever we as “seers” are able to “see” ourselves as in this ¼th revealed.

Sutra 1.3 Our Mind, our Splendor, Prakasha-Vimarsha

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 14:38:00 +0000

.Sutra 1.3 bestows remembrance of when we steep in our essence. Then the seer dwells in His or Her own splendor.

When does this occur? When do you dwell in your own true splendor?

I watch my son, Oliver, being tickled by his dad. That laughter and light shines. I watch my daughter belt it out on stage when acting and singing in her school play. Their lights are so purely radiating at these times. These are two instances of them shining in their own true splendor. For my experience of watching: of being the "seer" in this instance-the one watches other "seers" become and be themselves. A seer watching seers can lead to that seer dwelling in her true splendor. I bathed in the rays reflected upon the mirror of my own consciousness.

For a tantric thinker, to read this is to think of places in our tradition where words like "splendor" and "seer" and "consciousness" reside.

Prakasha is the power of the emanating light of consciousness, it is how we are “seers”. Vimarsha is the power of self-reflection. These are the powers of the divine to know itself. These are the powers within each of us to know our selves. Prakasha is not experienced without a mirror, without self-reflection. To empower our experience, we reflect. In the tantra, we say that the entire universe emanates within the screen of our own awareness.

There I was, reflecting joyfully watching my children being themselves. Yes, they are always themselves, yet sometimes we are somehow “more of ourselves”. Our children, and all of us really, seem to be ourselves when we are in our passion, when we are doing what we love, be it in nature, listening to or playing music, flowing freely in a challenging asana sequence, and so on. What is it about these circumstances that lend to the flow of consciousness somehow in a deeper alignment? Somehow the negative peripheral thoughts are quieter. Instead of being a league of overgrown antagonists, they become more like harmless, floating insects on a warm picnic day. They may still be there, but we are in the fullness of the experience of the entire shimmering landscape of our consciousness. Douglas Brooks of the Rajanaka tradition always says that “yoga is becoming virtuosic in being yourself.” Be yourself. Dwell in your splendor.

Sutra 1.2 and What IS Yoga?

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 03:55:00 +0000

1.2 yogas-citta-vrtti-nirodhah. Yoga is the cessation of the movements in the consciousness.

Patanjali gives us the tools to quell the whirling vrttis when a teenager says one phrase, no longer than a sutra, and my vrttis start to spin chaotically... It's an amazing phenomenon to behold. And it requires much self-effort to practice the yoga of quelling the thoughts before saying the reactive, impulsive, negative words--to pause and remind myself that Now is the time to practice the yoga I have studied. Each life situation is a chance to study yoga, to study and review what works. For life itself truly gives us the most creative and surprising exercises of yoga. Consciousness in Patanjali’s yoga is within the level of mind. As yoga progresses, the definition of consciousness changes into one that encompasses mind, and the power to desire, create, know everything and all things possible, a One source from which all Purushas are born. That One source is Shiva-Shakti or Paramashiva.

The tantra has a newer understanding of what yoga can be...In a tantric text called the Kularnava Tantra, verse 14.38 states Shaktipata-anusarena shisho anugraham arhati. It means by entering the current of Divine Shakti's descent into the heart, the true disciple becomes capable of receiving grace.

If I enter the currents of grace completely, then I won't be so unraveled by my beautiful daughter. Instead I can see her beauty and see that, in that moment, I have the honor of being able to guide this amazing being. By listening to her--for she is that flow of grace descending and ascending--I may guide. And since I have learned a few things about how to flow with grace, and since I aim to teach it, I have come to love this definition of yoga, of Anusara Yoga. A little Patanjali (a stilling of thoughts for a moment), a pause, so that I remember I am either aligning with grace or not--whatever She brings me--in each moment.

From some tantric perspectives, it is not at all necessary to still thoughts of any kind because when we are in that current, all time and no time simultaneously exist. In certain extraordinary moments, all we know is this current of grace, for we enter it and even as it is moving us from inside, it is somehow utterly still and complete, even for just a moment. There is no need to still thoughts, for every thought ever born or to be born is within that current as we ride it, and it is in its own way beautiful. All the beauty of the world is in that current. There is no beauty nor richness nor good thing that is not present within that current. Enter life, enter into the current, enter life with all our heart, enter into Grace. Deep in the current of scintillating calm, She sings us awake, She sings us asleep. She is the beauty of my children’s faces, their smiles gliding freely, their impetuous currents, all.

What is your goal of yoga? When you say you practice yoga, what is it that you are using that word to describe?

Shall we still thoughts? If we still the movements, how will we know consciousness? Shall we ride the currents of them into that rushing one that is Shakti descending in our hearts? Shall we see each thought as nothing less than that stillness that She is inside Her current? Is it necessary to go and out? Is it even possible?

Thankfully Grace doesn’t kick us out of the club. We can’t make one too many mistake. We can try again. She will smile at us each time, She will not throw us out. She will not tire of us, She will not deny us. We have the opportunity to align with Her, again and again.

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:09:00 +0000

1.1 atha yoga anushasanam. Now is the time to practice yoga.

What could be more applicable to life than the first sutra? When Patanjali invites us to gather ourselves and remember all we have done to now receive these teachings, we sit quietly and set ourselves to the task. What is truly remarkable is that even if this is not the first time we have heard these teachings, it becomes new once more. The process is totally natural when we are engaged. Now we are ready to receive the teachings, perhaps again, perhaps for the first time.

Truly great teachings just keep giving. They are like love that is tended, like flowering faces of children smiling up at us. When we move towards them, they freely offer their sweet fragrance. This first sutra is not to be overlooked, as I have learned from Douglas Brooks. It is in itself a teaching of presence, of the fullness of time, of what meaning we infuse into our lives. One of Iyengar’s defintions of atha is benediction. How wonderful--bene is Latin for good or well, and dicere is to speak. Ironically it is usually an invocation at the end of a service. This gives us a twist in meaning for the word “now”. “Now” becomes “then.” At the end of our processes, we can invoke Saraswati and any other deity of such prodigious wisdom, because the end of whatever we were just doing is the beginning of now.

What does it mean to start with saying “now we will commence the study?” Saying the word now means everything. It means all time, and so encompasses a sense of timelessness. Past has placed each of us right here in our own individualities, and as such we are setting our intentions for future study in yoga. We are about to study, so we ready ourselves. We center. Presently, we pay the closest attention as we do when we fall in love with something, mesmerized by the potential that will possibly unfold in the future. And, to ravel time a bit more, all those times we have studied ourselves in the past--all those insights that have marked our way--will turn their lights towards this present endeavor to study once more. Each time we have gathered, it is as if we have gathered light and the light grows in its splendor. This light is a gathering of strands of past efforts and reflections on change, lovely intentions in the present, and future promises. Looking into the future, we say this one word: Atha. Now.

Not tomorrow, not next year, but for however long we have traveled thus, we find ourselves at the feet of a sacred wisdom that is a map of our own souls, so much more than some old forgotten, inapplicable and inexplicable pedantic text. Let us make no mistake--whenever we study a sacred text we are studying ourselves.

And so we begin. Shall we? A Patanjali Party anyone? An oxymoron if you are a classical yogin, but a challenge well worth the effort for us Tantrikas. It’s my first challenge to myself: Can I make this fun without reducing its seriousness or effectiveness in any way? It sounds so much like a Pajama Party, I couldn’t resist. Much of this will surely be written when all the lights but this one at my desk have gone out, when the children are nestled. Justin has said “come to bed”. . .soon honey, but not yet.

Okay, now. . . atha, bed. Tomorrow will be the time, will be the now to study and contemplate sutra 1.2. It is the big one.

A Patanjali Sutra-a-Day

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:28:00 +0000

On 1-11-11, Charlotte, North Carolina was a winter wonderland. We often feel cabin fever in the wintry weather, but this time, my family also cleaned out cupboards, enjoyed reading marathons, drew laboratories and goddesses, wrote spy tales, cooked delicious food, drank hot chocolate and composed music. Snow-boundedness at the beginning of the year also lends itself to refining our intentions, resolutions and goals. As a yogin, each time I come to my mat, I create intention. There is a beautiful root teaching in yoga that states, “Energy follows intent.” Some may think that since we create intention every day, there is nothing special about the beginning of the year. Let’s not miss out on this yearly opportunity to reach deeper, to create an intention that could last a whole year. 2011 for me is dailiness. To incorporate what I didn’t "have time for" in the past that I really want to be part of every day in this body, in my heart and in my mind. Every day in this life. One of my several resolutions for this year is to write each and every day. This practice is not to include emails, lists, checks, class plans, etc. Love letters, journal entries, creative pursuits, documentaries are all fair game.

As I recently planned for another weekend of Anusara Yoga Immersion, a thought struck me: What would it be like to contemplate and write each day about one of Patanjali’s sutras, in the context of my daily life? Patanjali's Yoga Sutras is perhaps the most popular and well read of yoga texts. As I looked back through old plans, notes, and the sutras, I realized that it would be nice to live with these more intimately this year, to get to know them better. I have enjoyed looking back at Patanjali from my favorite Tantric texts, like the Shivasutra, the Pratyabhijna Hrdyam, Vijnana Bhairava, and more, and noticing what is new and sparklingly true to me each time. The land of Yogasutra is quite austere and steep, and there is difficult climbing ahead, but the skies are clear and the lake is exquisitely placid. I am up for this yoga journey inside the workings of my heart-mind. To give structure to daily writing, I have chosen these particular sutras for their brilliance and clarity--they provide landmarks for a journey inside. A daily focus on these sutras over the course of half a year or so will also give structure to how I can be more conscious and more grateful for each day this year.

The project is really quite simple, in part thanks to the scholars who have dedicated countless hours to translate and interpret their meanings. I revere scholar-yogins who have been smitten by yoga teachings, and have committed to a lifelong love affair with these great teachings, and the great beings who wrote and lived them. These scholar-yogins make the teachings and the great beings who lived them come alive for us by re-contextualizing their meanings for today. They are also living these teachings, and teach us that this path is ours, that we too can aspire to such greatness as the likes of our very own Selves. Anything you can read today about yoga is certainly influenced in some way-directly or indirectly-by these scholars’ work. So from the beginning, I bow to Douglas Brooks, Paul Muller-Ortega, Sally Kempton, Bill Mahony, their teachers and so on, other scholars, Gurumayi, Baba Muktananda, and to John Friend who knows these teachings in his heart and mind and shares them from his experience. One of my favorite teachings from Douglas is that each of us is invited to make the teachings our own, that the teachings themselves invite and empower us to make them our own. Today, I hope you will join me on a journey to make the sutras our own.

As we begin, it is helpful to realize that the sutras are strung together as clusters, that they come in sets that go together as little packages. The order of the sutras is significant as the author leads us mindfully from his lofty goal and definition of yoga to the relentless practice with its pitfalls and rewards. It is also important to recognize that if we don’t know Sanskrit, we are at the mercy of those who do. Scholars and yogins have interpreted each word according to the rules of Sanskrit grammar, their own traditions, and to their own understandings of each word. Many words can have widely ranging meanings, so naturally it follows that the interpretations we receive are quite varied. Looking at a few translations side by side, we see that many sutras are identical, while others are radically different. Regardless of similarities or differences, we will have plenty to contemplate for ourselves. At the same time, when we really look at the differences, it will add a wonderful richness to our sutra study. Rather than trying to simply decipher an ancient text, I aim to let the sutra sit with me and reveal itself in my contemplation, meditation, and daily life. If you would like to contribute, then this practice will reveal our shared contemplations.

Trains in the yoga room, Music outside

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Sat, 29 May 2010 02:49:00 +0000

My son has lately been setting up his trains in my yoga/meditation room. And these past few days, building trains over my asana, sometimes reaching for puja items to use as parts of structures. He has picked up his trains and tracks, and then rebuilt. While a part of me would potentially talk with Oliver that puja items aren't toys and are to be reserved for special uses, I also recognize they are in a sense toys that I am using. I move them from one place to another, filling them with things, emptying them, and chanting, in my time that I might call free. And yet isn't time always free. For we are always free to choose how to be in it, how to be with it, how to engage life through and during it.

But back to the trains in the meditation room...
I am intrigued that he is drawn to play there. He has his own room to play in, the dining room table, the kitchen counter, the living room, the music room. Our house is a bit boundaryless in some ways and so he may just think it is another place to play. But the energy in this room is thicker and quiet, still, though alive, breathing even. He used to come in when I meditated and sit on my lap for a bit. When I was pregnant with him, I called him my Buddha because I always felt so peaceful, in his presence. How is it we are drawn towards one thing and not another?

My daughter plays music and creates the Ollie plays trains, all over the house, and outside and shines in the sweetness of daily practice. What beauty, I am grateful. May each of us be drawn to our hearts' contents, truly.

Circles

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Thu, 27 May 2010 03:30:00 +0000

Yesterday, my son graduated from Greek after-school. He is in kindergarten. Always in our years at the Greek school, there are elaborate ceremonies and gatherings to celebrate endings and beginnings. Each grade performed a poem, a song, or a dance. Usually the dancers are holding hands, dancing in a circle. One particular dance struck me that graduation day. In this dance, the circle was always left open. Between each series of steps, a dancer from the left side of the circle broke off and joined the dancer to his or her right. The dancers on either side of the opening would place their arm behind their backs, until that hand would join another dancer's again. This continued throughout the dance.

To leave a circle open, to even purposely and continually break it, leaves a seam of opening, that the universe, that the world, that consciousness itself is always leaving openings for us to re-enter. However broken our hearts, there is more invitation to enter in again. Keep opening the circles of your heart, widen them, let others join as trust reveals.

Love Structures

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:55:00 +0000

Love bolsters and propels us forth even when we are feeling small. I often ask my students to think of any and all acts of love they have experienced over the course of this lifetime. Any time someone gave love through an unadulterated gesture, through a warm touch, through a smile, and more, stays with us, is embedded now and rewrites our souls into the organic expanse of more-ness. We allow ourselves to build life on love. We can think of our core lines of our bones, our entire skeleton as love and build on that. We embrace our bones with skin and muscle completely, and simultaneously, we are feel we are utterly supported then by a structure of love.

From pillars and structure, heavenly architecture of love, we build. What are the highest ways you have given love? What are the most spontaneous, free, wild, real, sincere times you have extended love?

February Newsletter | 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:24:00 +0000

What a beautiful and bright beginning to our year! May 2010 be a year of delighting in life. May it be filled with meaning, play, rest, great joy and expansiveness of hearts and minds! Our new heater is in and the room is ready to be toasty for the rest of our wintry days. Anusara Yoga is a practice that invites us to participate fully on our mats and in our lives.

We raised $1200 for Carmela and her family in the Philippines. Thank you to all who helped make our giving so bright.

Bill Mahony gave such sweet guidance and support for us to enter into the inner splendor of our own hearts. Sarah wove the asana and breathing practices in to support the meditation and embodiment of our subtle experiences. We are fortunate to have Bill so close and look forward to inviting him back soon.

-Please take the time to fill out a quick questionnaire when they appear at the studio. We would like to serve your needs and desires to the fullest, and your feedback is very important to us.

-Check classes online, you can even check who the teacher is for each class, see your account, how many classes you have left, sign up for a class or workshop and more.

-Sarah is teaching an Intro to Meditation starting January 20 for 6 weeks. If you have a desire to start a practice or get back to one regularly, please sign up online or at the studio.

-Douglas Brooks will be in Columbia February 19-21. Check Cityyogasc.com for details. He will be speaking on Tantra and his book, “Poised for Grace”, a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita.

-John Friend will be in Columbia March 13-14. Check Anusara.com to register. We will have a group of us going up and students in the past got together and carpooled. Practicing with John is always a celebration of the heart!

-Sarah is leading an Intro to the Bhagavad Gita AND a more advanced study starting in February 23.

-We have a few Intro to Yoga classes coming up. Check them out, bring or tell a friend.

-We will have a benefit for continued relief and aid for the people of Haiti on February 28th. This will be a family friendly event intended to raise money and gather as a community. More details coming soon.

With Great Bright Love, Sangati

Sangati August 2009 Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:31:00 +0000

Dear Friends of Sangati Yoga and Massage,

It has been a wonderfully full summer of yoga and massage. In these last weeks of summer, may we enjoy the warmth, humidity and sunny days to the fullest expression!

Team Sangati rode their bicycles in the “24 Hours of Booty” with Sarah, Justin and Jen Jordan. We raised nearly $1000 for cancer research. The party was lots of fun and we plan to expand the ride and the fun next year so mark it on your calendars!

Michele is offering Thai Massage for a low summer price of $60 for one hour. Thai Massage feels like someone is doing your yoga for you. Also, we offer 20% off for all new massage clients. Call Sangati to make an appointment.

Hold on to your hats! Sangati is on Facebook. Become a fan, start a discussion group and check out the pictures and upcoming events.

We have several fun workshops coming up. First, the NC Retreat, aka Summer Camp for Yogins, is going to be a beautiful, refreshing weekend of expanding our regional communities of North and South Carolina with each other. There is a beautiful synergy when we all come together, in larger numbers that re-inspires us all to our own individuals practices, paths and lives.

Check out these other awesome opportunities as well:

Brooks and two life-coaches are teaming up for a 3-hour workshop called Facing Fear with Fierce Courage including, contemplation, journaling, and yoga on August 28, 5:30-8:30pm.
Allison, Lindsay, and Michele are offering a Hip Opener workshop, including massage techniques and yoga poses, on Saturday, August 29, 1-3pm.
Sangati is teaming up with the Karma Krew to host a book club on Sunday, August 30, 6:30-8pm. We will discuss “Three Cups of Tea” and take donations for Pennies for Peace, so bring all your loose change or a donation. Pennies for Peace is the author’s non-profit organization, established to help start and sustain new schools in regions of the world that could use our help.
Sarah is teaching a Hip Opener workshop September 13th.

To sign up for any of our workshops, please come by the studio or send in payment and registration to secure your spot.

Fall is just around the corner and we are gearing up to have a full schedule of classes and other offerings. Come check us out! Our name Sangati means “endearing community”. . . and we are growing every month!

If you are a student who wants to know more about the multi-layered path of yoga, the 2009-2010 Anusara Yoga Immersion is perfect for you. Please feel free to email or call Sarah to talk more about the in-depth program including the alignment principles broken down, building the poses from basics through towards all the poses on the levels 1 and 2 syllabi, philosophy, breathing practices, anatomy, energy healing, meditation and more.

We are sending you all love and laughter, and thanks for being a part of our wonderful studio.

Traffic Signs

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Fri, 01 May 2009 22:06:00 +0000

Yield, Stop, Merge, No Left Turn. Green, yellow, red lights. You
have to pay attention. Shakti, the Creative Power of the universe,
is always leading us. Are we paying attention? Are we blasting
through stop signs?

Are we pausing to wait for the light to turn green? We are free to
choose, but there are consequences if we don't follow the signs
a traffic ticket, or worse getting hurt or someone else getting hurt.
If we do follow the signs and welcome the pauses, we can flow with
Shakti effortlessly and masterfully.

April 2009 Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:57:00 +0000

Embody Your Spirit This April.

What does "Ultimate Freedom" mean? In the yoga world you will get many different answers to this question. It is a spiritual question that all seekers may ask themselves. From the most modern yoga perspective, we are born free. Yet, we don't always experience ourselves as innately free. So, we practice and study ourselves to gain liberation. We also practice yoga to remember our innate freedom, svatantrya. When we recall our free nature, then we practice in light of our freedom, and we celebrate the spirit in the body-mind-heart each of us finds ourselves in. We celebrate the embodiment of the spirit in our poses together. When we come together, honoring the spirit embodied, gratitude abounds in our hearts. In gratitude for this opportunity to experience the divine in ourselves and others, we shine our deepest nature outwards, into the world in our own unique ways.

*John Friend* will be in North Carolina this month. Our community will have such a wonderful time together joining a greater community of the Carolinas. Though the deadlines have passed for the trainings, you can still fill out an application on www.anusara.com to see if there is any more room for the various events. We always have a wonderful time together whenever we get together for such a grand celebration of the spirit and embodiment through yoga, with each other. John Friend names his tour each year. This year, he calls his tour of the country andthe world, "Ultimate Freedom."

We have the first of a series of *massage-yoga workshops*, "Body is a Wonderland." It is for you and a friend or come by yourself and we will pair you up. Space is limited to only 16 students so sign up soon! Footloose is our first one:yoga and massage for the feet, April 25th.

Mark your calendars! In May, we will offer our first *Free week* ever! Here's how it works: Come to 3 free classes for the week of **May 1-7** if you *bring a NEW friend to yoga.* What better time to share something you love with a friend you care about. How can you help to make our world and Charlotte and your smaller circle of friends and family a brighter community? One of the best things we can do is practice yoga, being loving, appreciating what and who we have in our lives, getting stronger and more flexible in body and mind. Share our special community with the ones you love and new friends alike. New students can come with you or on their own. They (and you if you bring a new friend each time) can come up to 3 times during the week for FREE! Check our May calendar for new classes in May.

March rains....Spring *Gratitude*. What a wonderful March we had with such rich offerings from our Sangati teachers! Thanks to Kellie, Elizabeth, Brooks and Sarah for their heart-opening teachings at the Yoga Jam! Thanks to Kellie and Gary from Asana Activewear for putting on such a heart-filled and seamless event that they hosted. Check out their store for the best yoga clothes selection in the southeast, www.asanaactivewear.com. Allison and Kellie lit up new students in their Intro to Yoga workshop. Brooks set students' practices aflame in her workshop last Saturday. Congratulations to all who attended! Speaking of Spring, have you noticed our edible garden blooming at the side of the yoga studio? Check it out!

Spring Love, Sangati

March 2009 Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:55:00 +0000

Happy March!

Welcome back to the swing of life after the holidays and January resolutions. Do you remember what your resolutions are? Each month, we can reassess our intentions and goals, spiritual and otherwise. Yoga takes us even deeper, as it offers us in every moment an opportunity to reflect, recognize and create anew.

When we engage our spiritual intentions, we live meaningful lives. If we find ourselves in a life-threatening situation, our will-to-be blazes, and all our energy is dedicated to the objective at hand: survival. For most of us, most of the time, our lives do not often require this sense of urgency, yet we may act as if it does. When someone asks how you are, is your response “surviving”, “making it through the day”, or “getting by”? If so, how do you make the leap from “getting by” to living? A better question is: How do you make the leap to living well? I mean “well” not as a cushy, catered existence but rather a continually cultivated skill set for living a full, rich life.

There is a sequence of steps to living a fulfilling life. The sequence is essentially:

1. Set your intention.
2. Align to your intention.
3. Create actions, words and thoughts in support of your intention.

This sequence comes from what we call the three A’s in Anusara Yoga. The 3 A’s are Attitude, Alignment and Action. Because the 3 A’s are universal, we can apply them to any venture, any intention in our lives. If you are going to set an intention and devote energy towards it, you will want to make it a good one. Won’t you? Being conscious, aware, and present allows us to live rather than to merely survive. Regularly practicing our awareness allows us to live well, as opposed to merely living.

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:00:00 +0000

How Obama is Like Krishna
November 8, 2008

I wrote this during election time, 2008...
I couldn’t stop thinking of the Bhagavad Gita all week. It is the focused and far-reaching gaze of our new President-elect. And that he embodies Krishna qualities in all he appears to be. It isn’t that I put all my hopes and dreams into the chosen one person to save the day. Instead, it is that finally there is a president meant to represent Americans who thinks issues through, and then eloquently and concisely states what he will do. He’s not a vessel I am pouring all my hopes into nor is he the savior that I am waiting for. I am relieved, proud, happy to know there is someone in the office who also hopes, dreams, who has the highest goals and values in mind and heart for our country. This is not just a tall glass of water to drink for being thirsty. This is a revolution in time of a great man beyond politics and potentially a truly great president. I am as excited about our future as a nation as I am about engaging in and expanding the light of consciousness in my heart and helping others recognize and come to know their light. I feel there is a leader that I align with as he leads from the shining light within. That’s more than Ahhhhh-of-a-quenched-thirst, it’s the sustaining nourishment our country yearns for now.

In the first chapter of The Bhagavad Gita, Krishna takes Arjuna, the feared archer and unslayable warrior to the middle of the battlefield upon his request. When Arjuna looks out to both sides of the field, he sees teachers, fathers, sons, and others. Arjuna immediately realizes the atrocity of war and slumps into his chariot seat in despair: the famed archer is paralyzed. Krishna admonishes Arjuna in the next chapter and tells him that great men do not despair. Upon my first reading of the Gita, this response utterly threw me. I had a visceral and conflicted inner dialogue. How can this be? Krishna, who is the Lord in this story--God--is actually telling a soldier to stand up and fight, to kill, to destroy life. I thought surely Krishna would tell Arjuna that he had evolved in this new understanding, that he saw now the pointlessness of war. But, no, “Whence this lifeless dejection, Arjuna? Be a man…” is the Lord’s first verbal response in this world famous story. Later I learned more about this scripture that inspires countless spiritual seekers from all paths. All diplomacy has been exhausted and the enemy is much like a terrorist faction. Krishna says that righteous men must overcome evil. They must never lose hope. Krishna is a visionary, instilling hope and confidence in the most capable of men, even in their deepest despair.

Barack Obama has instilled new hope in millions of people from all walks of life, all over the world. His poise and graceful eloquence is embodied in a tireless, steadfast and shining representation of president-elect. He is calm and collected even in the face of slander and threats on his life. Krishna teaches Arjuna that the spirit never dies. If Arjuna won’t stand for what is good and true in the world, who will? If there is a man with vision of goodness, the wherewithal to attempt and possibly achieve the vision, and the vigor and tenacity to carry it out, who else should lead us? The charisma to inspire others to stand up for goodness is a rare gift. In the end, Arjuna’s despair is quelled and he enters battle never having felt more purpose in fulfilling his dharma, his duty in this life. Arjuna is that great seeker who at the darkest place, in the deepest doubts, he is called out, admonished, called to rise, encouraged, loved by God. Krishna never gives up in guiding Arjuna back to his greatness and urges him to serve good. May Obama lead as intuitively and wisely as he orates and inspires us.

February 2009 Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:55:00 +0000

Sangati, A Community of the Heart February 2009 Newsletter

Happy February! Welcome back to the swing of life after the holidays and January resolutions. Do you remember what your resolutions are? Each month, we can reassess our intentions and goals, spiritual and otherwise. Yoga takes us even deeper, as it offers us in every moment an opportunity to reflect, recognize and create anew. When we engage our spiritual intentions, we live meaningful lives.
If we find ourselves in a life-threatening situation, our will-to-be blazes, and all our energy is dedicated to the objective at hand: survival. For most of us, most of the time, our lives do not often require this sense of urgency, yet we may act as if it does. When someone asks how you are, is your response “surviving”, “making it through the day”, or “getting by”? If so, how do you make the leap from “getting by” to living? A better question is: How do you make the leap to living well? I mean “well” not as a cushy, catered existence but rather a continually cultivated skill set for living a full, rich life.
There is a sequence of steps to living a fulfilling life. The sequence is essentially:
1. Set your intention.
2. Align to your intention.
3. Create actions, words and thoughts in support of your intention.
This sequence comes from what we call the three A’s in Anusara Yoga. The 3 A’s are Attitude, Alignment and Action. Because the 3 A’s are universal, we can apply them to any venture, any intention in our lives. If you are going to set an intention and devote energy towards it, you will want to make it a good one. Won’t you?
Being conscious, aware, and present allows us to live rather than to merely survive. Regularly practicing our awareness allows us to live well, as opposed to merely living.

Join Sangati this February, align with your heart’s highest intentions.

February 25, 7:30-8:30 Aligning with Your Intention
February 21-22 Douglas Brooks is back again offering exquisite spiritual teachings.
February 19-22 Immerse yourself in yoga studies from the Shivasutras, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the Universal Principles of Alignment, loops and spirals, principles of the shoulders and hips, meditation instruction, the essential elements of Tantric philosophy. and more. The immersion is open to students of all levels of experience. The only requirements are to have an open mind and 30 hours of Anusara yoga studies.

noreply@blogger.com (Sangati) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:24:00 +0000

Welcome to my blog.