The Cosmic Taco

The Power of Intention
 

Several years ago, I decided to move to a different place in town. I had been looking for a place to live for a while and had even committed to leave my old place by February 21st. I looked and looked and looked. Nothing. Nothing that made me feel comfortable enough to move. I soon found myself with 5 days left to find a place, sign a lease, and move and I had no real prospects. Needles to say, I began to get a little nervous.

Maybe its because I'm a slow learner but it suddenly dawned on me that maybe I wasn't finding what I wanted because I didn't even know what I wanted. So, I took literally 30 seconds and wrote down about 12 things that I really wanted in a place. I didn't compromise, I didn't hedge what I wanted. I just laid it out: how much money, how much space, where, architecture type and era. Everything. Why not?

The very next day, I found it. Not just something that sort of matched what I was looking for. Everything I was looking for, down to the neighborhood, price, and even charm factor. Oh, and it had to be clean.

I was certainly pleased but not terribly surprised. Things like this have happened to me before. One dear friend says that if I really wanted a taco (perfectly Random), all I have to do is intend it and watch as my cosmic taco appears from the sky. Now I'm not so naive as to think that I get whatever I want from life, I have my share of disappointments, but I do see the effect of regularly setting intention manifest itself over and over in life. I feel that and meditation is simply a concentrated form of setting intention.

I don't believe that I'm particularly charmed, but I do believe that we should all be brave enough to ask the Universe for what we want. I think it has something to do with what we feel we deserve.

What do you deserve?

In yoga we call this Sankalpa. It is the practice of setting an intention like planting a seed or finding a star by which to navigate your ship through this existence. This Sankalpa is one of the ways by which, I believe, we have commerce and conversation with the world that is bigger than ourselves.

Try it out. Plant your seed of intention. Choose your star. Then devote your yoga practice and your practice of everyday living to this intention and keep your faculties of attention acute.

Watch out for falling tacos!

Scott

The Art of NOT Doing

What is the art of not doing? Seriously. Not as an excuse for getting out of work, but rather in a cultural climate that values production almost above anything else, how do we practice not doing? 

There are a couple of components I'm thinking about here. First, Relaxing is a practice. Like anything you don't do regularly, if you don't relax regularly you might find yourself like the cartoon of Mickey Mouse as the magician's apprentice whose master goes out (to play poker, I think) and comes back to find that Mickey has found his magic hat and wand and in an effort to make his chores more efficient and easier, created a the chaotic army of self-operated mops and rivers of mop water. In an effort to make life easier, Mickey forgot to discover where the off button was and consequentially instead of creating ease for himself, he literally made and ocean of chaos. Ever feel like Mickey, like your life doesn't have an off button? Gentle practices like Restore Yoga and Yoga Nidra are all about discovering the off button, not as a way of tuning out but as a way of replenishing the source.

Try coming home from work and dedicating 20 minutes to relaxing before you take on anything else. Your family will get used to this ritual and may even join in. Turn off the phone, dim the lights, lay down with your legs up the wall (the yoga pose Viprita Karani) put on some Kenny G and practice resting, like a savasana at the end of the work day. The Kenny G is optional. Wouldn't that be cool if there were a mandatory 15 minutes of savasana to end the work day? Welcome to my world. With a facility and familiarity with rest, we actually become more effective at what we do because we have taken a moment to replenish the source and clarified perhaps the reasons we do all that we do.

Another component in the art of not doing is very skillfully holding steady and not reacting to a situation. Sometimes, we simply need to hold our ground and see how the situation matures. Often, this is the harder practice. In yoga there is a principle called Ishvarapranidhana. Yeah, sounds serious. It literally means "to lay it down at the feet of God," to let go of the reins of apparent control and allow God, or the Universe, or the World to make its move. Sometimes, it's allowing your children to go out into the world and face the hazards of life to learn. Sometimes it's building something and handing over control to someone or something else and walk away decisively, not beaten or defeated, but as a powerful choice. Letting go can be a very difficult practice but one that ultimately can lead you to understand your own inner character and true being.

In some way or other I invite you to practice not doing this week. Maybe try Restore Classes at or the Restore Workshop (April 10) Centered City Yoga, Saturday at 10:30 am. And if not by a yoga class, discover a way of consciously resting on a regular basis. Or maybe look at those opportunities in life to decisively not act.

Scott

Naked Truth

If it hasn't happened already, there will come a time when we stop trying to produce that infallible vision of ourselves and allow ourselves the radical permission to be exactly what and how we are. This permission revolves around the yogic principle of Satya or truth. To be honest with who and where we are, both our strengths and weaknesses, allows us a solid platform from which we can skillfully step to the next place. We stop trying to be everything that we're not and finally find how perfectly we belong to exactly where we are.
 
With intention, direction, work, and most of all appreciation for our present situation, our dreams of where we want to end up will start to fill out. If we feel stuck, indecisive, depressed, or angry, our truth is to speak to that place. We can speak to all our situations with yoga, an embodiment of all our inner landscapes.
 
What we want is within our reach; it's simply laced with a bit of irony: the key to fulfillment in the future is to be content now. If we're committed to the honesty of where we are and are content for what is, knowing things change, we create a bridge of present content moments which links us to contentment in our fulfilled future. Without present contentment, without appreciating the truth of where we are, we may find ourselves where we previously hoped for only to discover our habit of malcontent, and, disgruntlement, wishing we were back where we started or somewhere else. We're back in the viscous cycle of hoping for anything but what is true, what is here.
 
Our main task as I see it is to understand where we are, where our love lies, and bravely organize our lives to focus on what matters most.
 
I hope that this truth and brave path may lead you to yoga this week.
 
Here is an offering I learned from my teacher that you may want to use in your meditations:
 
By the power and truth of our simply practice,
May we and all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.
May we and all beings be free from sorrow and any causes of sorrow.
May we and all beings never be separated from that sacred happiness which is beyond sorrow.
And may we and all beings live in equanimity, without too much attachment and too much aversion.
And may we live recognizing and honoring the equality of all that lives.
 
Sarva Mangalam (May the greatest goodness unfold)

Bone

I'm thinking of that big part of our yoga practice, our souls. What is that, anyway? This week, as I was practicing yoga, I felt it again for the millionth time. That big, big, part which is right there, which is everything but which is the part that I can't really put a name to. It's not Scott. It's bigger.

And I guess this is what people have been trying to point to since there have been people. We all have such a grand language for it. Such a crisis over it. We go to war over it. We put each other in hell for it. Something that isn't a question. Something that's right there. I can reach out and touch it. And sometimes, I feel that you can too-- yours, yes but mine, too. As I'm teaching and I can see you getting into your groove, I see you breathing, I see the focus. Then I see it when things click, lights go on behind your eyes and I see you think to yourself, "There it is!"

And if you're like me, you get it and before you know it, it slips between your fingers and suddenly you're looking all over for it again, under the couch, behind the dresser, because you thought you knew what it was and what it looked like but now you're not so sure any more.

Then it seems to find you because it was there all the time, or you were there and you and it are all the same thing.

Pretty soon, I guess we get so comfortable with it--it's like Peter Pan stitching his shadow onto the sole of his shoe--it doesn't go away anymore. Maybe Patantaji, the ancient guru/yoga scholar who wrote the yoga sutras about finding that big part of yourself called Samadhi, maybe his first given name was Peter Pan until he was reborn with the truth that his sole is always there, right at his feet, and it was then that he was bestowed the honorable name, Patanjali. He learned and teaches that it is by singular concentration that we simply open our eyes to it. We learn to see again.

This is what our practice is about. This is why it's a practice, yes, because it is slippery. And because it feels really, really, good every time we make that discovery, and even the journey leading up to it.

One of my guru teachers is poet Mary Oliver. She's a teacher whom I've never met but who has taught me so much by her simple and astounding words, written after she has paid acute attention to this amazing heaven, the world around us. She wrote (in much fewer words than I, mind you) something about this practice of searching for the soul. Enjoy.

Bone

1.

Understand, I am always trying to figure out

what the soul is,
and where hidden,
and what shape--

and so, last week,
when I found on the beach
the ear bone
of a pilot whale that may have died

hundreds of years ago, I thought
maybe I was close
to discovering something--
for the ear bone

2.

is the portion that lasts longest
in any of us, man or whale; shaped
like a squat spoon
with a pink scoop where

once, in the lively swimmer's head,
it joined its two sisters
in the house of hearing,
it was only

two inches long--
and I thought: the soul
might be like this--
so hard, so necessary--

3.

yet almost nothing.
Beside me
the gray sea
was opening and shutting its wave-doors,

unfolding over and over
its time-ridiculing roar;
I looked but I couldn't see anything
through its dark-knit glare;

yet don't we all know, the golden sand
is there at the bottom,
though our eyes have never seen it,
nor can our hands ever catch it

4.

lest we would sift it down
into fractions, and facts--
certainties--
and what the soul is, also

I believe I will never quite know.
Though I play at the edges of knowing,
truly I know
our part is not knowing,
but looking, and touching, and loving,
which is the way I walked on,
softly,
through
 the pale-pink morning light.

 

I hope to see you in class.

I Love Good Humor

I love good humor. I love the perfectly delivered punch line, packaged with impeccable comedic timing. To deliver good humor with an unmovable poker face is nothing short of an art.

More than humor I love music. As a musician, listening to music is very important to me. One of my greatest pleasures is to listen to a CD in the isolation of my car and as I'm driving around, digest the entire album over the course of a couple of days or a week. I listen to the album over and over, like reading a book, hearing the way the chapters/songs relate to each other, picking up on the musician's overall character, finding musical jokes, tragedy, irony, and connecting musical themes. I feel the sound of the entire album.

One of my other guilty pleasures is listening to radio talk. I guess I like to overhear others' conversations.

Well, one day I'm was on my way to teach a morning yoga class when I opened my car door to discover that someone had broken into my car and had stolen my car stereo. I was devastated. My car was locked, there were no broken windows, and the door didn't look forced open. Obviously, I didn’t have an anit-theft system. Judging by the skill and ease of this job, the guy who robbed me seemed to me to be the Bob Villa of car stereo thievery. Normally, when people steal your car stereo, the damage they incur trying to get your stereo out exponentially outweighs the value of the stereo itself. Fortunately, this guy was very thorough and created no other damage to the car than a hole in my dashboard with a few neat wires sticking out. In fact, the job was so neat, that I half expected to see the wires twisted off, taped, and labeled for me.

The only sloppy part, the part that added insult to injury, was the fact that while so skillfully absconding with my stereo, the thief ate an ice cream bar and decided to graciously leave the used, sticky wrapper in the front seat of my car. The Pink Panther leaves a single white glove; this guy chooses as his signature to leave an ice cream wrapper. Go figure. I picked up said wrapper and, fuming, was about to throw it away when I noticed the label on the wrapper, the irony of which almost smacked me across the face. It said in nauseatingly bright and happy colors, "I Love Good Humor." I was too upset to get this sick joke and appreciate the "humor" of the situation, although I sensed that there may be some rich lesson here. Instead of throwing it away, I placed the wrapper in the now vacant cavity that used to hold my stereo and drove away, brooding.

It's like my arm had a mind of its own. No sooner did I start to drive away than by complete and mindless habit did my arm attempt to reach over and turn on my stereo, only to nudge the wrapper sitting in the stereo's hole. I looked over to see "I Love Good Humor" in all its happy and sticky arrogance, gloating back at me. This did not improve my mood. The silence in the car was a screaming reminder that I felt someone had seriously wronged me. Perhaps 30 seconds later, again my arm attempted to turn on my stereo only to receive a similar result. My mood was changing from bad to worse. I lasted maybe another strong two minutes before my now music-starved arm reached out to fill the deafening silence in the car, only to hit the same infuriating wrapper. "OKAY, UNIVERSE. OKAY! HARDY HAR! JOKE'S ON ME! ONE OF THE THINGS I LOVE MOST IN LIFE HAS BEEN CRUELLY RIPPED OFF AND NOW I HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN BY LOOKING AT THAT STUPID WRAPPER. VERY FUNNY!"

Despite my internal rant, I kept the wrapper in its new home. I drove around that day, and the next, and the next, catching myself occasionally trying to turn on my new ice cream wrapper. It didn't work.

After about a week of sulking, something magical happened (no, the wrapper didn't spontaneously begin singing show tunes), I decided to try chanting while in the car. It felt good, really good. Then after a few days I tried singing to myself. My voice rocks when no one else is listening. I prayed. I also began to keep quiet and think about the yoga class I was about to teach, picturing which students would be there and what they might need from a yoga class. I began to notice amazing things, breathtaking things, things like the silhouette of the mountains against in the moonless, pre-dawn light of the morning. I noticed the way that the car felt as I drove it, the way it would take bumps, the vibrations of the engine tingling my hands on the steering wheel, the rush of acceleration. I began to notice with acute clarity my emotions and thoughts. All this silence was giving me an incredible opportunity to direct my attention inward.

My teaching and my personal practice improved almost immediately. I began to arrive to class much more ready to teach. I was less distracted, more focused, and could read the needs of a class much quicker and effectively. I found myself finally saying the things that I'd felt but could not find words to express. I said the right things because my mind had been "in class" since I left home. As I practiced yoga or meditated, I no longer spent the first half of practice trying to get the last song out of my head.

One of my most stark realizations was the understanding that I was completely addicted, not just to music, but more pointedly to the need to have some noise present, the perceived need to be drawn away from my own center and hear someone else's conversation, someone else's music, someone else's jokes. It was only then that I understood the looming joke resting quietly, stone-faced, in the car stereo cavity of the dashboard of my car. It had taken weeks but one day, while driving around, I finally got the joke! The comedic timing had built to this fantastic climax: here I was, a yoga teacher, traveling around like a mad man, music and chatter blaring in my head, only to screech to a halt, run into the studio, sit down, and talk about getting quiet. Ha! I wasn't practicing what I was teaching. What's more I finally got a taste of the brilliance of silence. I got it, Universe! I got it! The joke was on me. It took this lesson of "grandmotherly kindness," the ultimately compassionate lesson where your master beats you over the head with a stick (or steals your car stereo), to teach you something crucial. For me this lesson was how to know and appreciate stillness.
 
It took about a year until I eventually got a new stereo. Still, I learned something very valuable in the silence, something I wasn't entirely ready to give up. I learned that no matter what our work is, if we want to do good work, we need to have a solid relationship with silence. This is what we are practicing in yoga and meditation. Now, I listen to music as a choice, not a compulsion. Now, I listen to the silence.
 

I love good humor. 

Angels in the Rafters

I love rituals. They make the everyday special. I also love chocolate. So it's no wonder that one of my rituals is to regularly and consciously go to my favorite chocolate shops and deliberately indulge. Everything about the experience becomes part of the ritual, including the people who work at the shop. It turned out that as part of one of the rituals, one of my sister's good friends worked at one of these shops. His name was Ryan.

When I lived in Korea, one day I was talking to my sister on the telephone and she mentioned that Ryan had killed himself, tragically, along with his sister in a joint-suicide. Even though I wasn't extremely close to Ryan and had never met his sister, this news hit me hard in the gut. I couldn't shake the thought from my head. Lucy, my sister, asked me if I would go to a Buddhist temple and light a candle for Ryan and his sister. I didn't know if they even did that in Buddhism but I told her I would.

It was about this time that I went on a meditation retreat up in the mountains with my dear friend and guide, Jin-Soon. After our time at the retreat was spent, Jin-Soon suggested that we go on a light hike up the mountain to her favorite temple. It was late Autumn and we hiked, swimming in the warmth and light of the sun, especially after the biting cold of the morning.

We came to a small temple and quietly, we took off our shoes and stepped inside. Already sitting inside the temple were 2 female monks, both with shaved heads and gray habit, sitting on mats deep in meditation. I thought about my own meditation experience, how difficult it can be at times, and I wondered how long they had been there or planned to be there. They looked as though they may as well have been permanent fixtures in the temple. Jin-Soon handed me a mat, and we all sat down and began our own meditation. The sun shone through the window of the door in a perfect rectangle that surrounded my body like a picture frame. I was warm and quiet. I don't know how much time we spent there. Time just dissolved.
 
Once we finished our meditation, outside of the temple, I remembered the promise I had made to my sister to someday light a candle for Ryan and his sister. I asked Jin-Soon how to go about getting candles lit in the temple. She kindly walked me to the center of the compound not far away and helped me buy two 14 inch candles.

With the candles in hand, I walked to the main temple, took off my shoes, and solemnly entered the door. Just inside the door was an old monk whose face was perfectly wrinkled, obviously from a life-time of smiling. He saw the candles in my hand and speaking no Korean, I motioned that I wished to place them on the alter. He understood and beckoned me to follow his lead. I watched as he approached the enormous, golden Buddha in the front of the room and performed a dramatic bow, lowering himself to the floor then standing up again with his hands together in a prayer motion. I was amazed and how similar this bow was to the Sun Salutations, Surya Namskar, we practice in yoga. The monk performed this beautiful bow simultaneously honoring both the Buddha and the Buddha Nature in himself and all beings. I approached the Buddha to give it a try. I kept Ryan and his sister in my mind and intended to honor their Buddha nature as well as my own and that of every other being. As I accomplished my bow, I tried to remember all the steps I saw the monk perform. I did my best version and then together the monk and I walked to the alter and placed the candles gently on the candle offering.

After placing and lighting the candles, I retreated slowly backward and made motions to leave. My monk, however, had more to teach me. He held up seven fingers and motioned that it was now necessary to complete seven more bows. Again, he made dramatic motions for me to see the precise actions to perform this rite. I tried to follow his exact gestures but got lost in the details. The kind smiling monk instructed me to do it again and made me watch him again to get it right this time. Again I tried and by now the monk was softly laughing. Despite the spectacle I was making, I couldn't help but smile as well. With my every attempt at a bow, the monk hovered over me and corrected me where I forgot.

Before too long, the monk decided that I was all but hopeless and encouraged my actions by physically helping me put body in the right places. After what seemed like 30 tries, I eventually performed seven correct bows. I guess this is how I learn the best; by experience.

This bow goes like this: Stand with legs together, hands in a prayer stance. Kneel down and cross the left foot over the right while placing the palms on the floor and lowering the forehead to the floor. The butt must come down and touch your ankles (which must be much easier for him than it was for me because the monk couldn't figure out why I couldn't get that right and corrected me repeatedly on this point). With the forehead on the ground, raise the hands off the ground, palms facing up. Replace the hands on the ground, palms down, uncross your feet, and press yourself to a squatting position. Then stand up, feet together, without using hand. Finally, with hand pressed together in a prayer, make a deep bow toward the Buddha. When I completed my offering, my monk gave me a gentle bow and an enormous smile. I reciprocated in bowing and smiling my deep thanks to him.
 
As I left the temple, I was certain that Ryan and his sister were sitting as angels in the rafters, laughing at my tutelage and grateful for my gesture. I'm sure of it.

What It Means to Be a Man

Photo by Dallas Graham

Yoga means union, in part union of masculine energy and feminine energy. The marriage of these two seemingly different parts creates a whole that is both balanced and interdependent. What better week than the week of Valentine's Day to celebrate this union as we practice understanding the marriage of these energies within us through the practice of yoga. Let me be clear: we all have both masculine and feminine energy regardless of our gender or sexual orientation. This week, I want to talk about the masculine, and though we all have both, some of us exhibit more of the masculine and others more of the feminine. To make it simple, I'm going to label the masculine as "man."

To be a man means to be courageous. Courage literally means full of heart. Therefore, being courageous is being connected to emotions, not divorced from them. Embodying this kind of courage has been a theme in my inter-personal work over the past few years. To be courageous you must know your own heart and that means doing the work, getting in there and finding who you are inside. It means meditation and yoga. It means soul searching, often times on a solo retreat, or a daily meditation or yoga practice, sometimes for an extended period, then coming back to your family, your relationships, your work, passions, and hobbies with that courage, that conviction and that strength of spirit to share that knowledge and stability as a gift to the world.

To be masculine means to be conscious. It means being spacious, holding space for the dynamic and beautiful qualities of the feminine. The quintessential archetype for the feminine is the dancer, the beautiful, expressive, dynamic, and changeable presence. The changeable world-nature, time, and everything that moves-is part of this feminine realm. So, anything that is changeable is an expression of the feminine. And the masculine's job is to be able to stand and witness this beautiful dancing feminine, to look it straight in the eyes and let it dance. Hold space. Going into nature and witnessing that realm of growth, decay, expression, and beauty is a marriage of the masculine presence and the feminine dancer. Of course this consciousness also extends into the realm of holding space for the women in our lives with honor, love, and respect. To be a man means to appreciate and celebrate what it means to be feminine, in the interdependent balance of wholeness.

Men are protectors. But to be a protector a man must be vulnerable. Protecting means going into the darkness to explore the unknown in order to make safe what you love. It means leaving the warmth and light of the fire to explore the sounds coming from the dark woods. Nature is feminine therefore the masculine can help protect it by giving a shit about our air quality and natural resources. Being a man means protecting the feminine. Women are certainly powerful. Let's not forget that the lioness is the fierce hunter of the family. But like a pride of lions, the protective males respond to any abuse of the female. Like lions, men must help protect women.

It's a tragic truth that one out of three women in the world have been, will be, or are currently subject to physical, emotional or sexual abuse. Being a man means creating a line of warriors, of lions, that will stand up to any abuse and say, "not on our watch!" It means being conscious of a problem and saying, "no." It is about marrying the male consciousness and the feminine call to action in order to make a world where all our brothers and sisters can enjoy living safely and nobly. True strength is not about muscle, it's about courageously exploring your heart, it's about consciousness, and it's about being willing to be vulnerable in order to protect nature, women, and all of us by sometimes challenging the status quo. The yoking or yoga of these elements is the true expression of masculinity.

In the name of standing up in opposition to the abuse of women, I invite you is to look at this wonderful cause, One Billion Rising. This cause is dedicated to creating a voice for the abuse of women, raising consciousness, and making a difference in women's lives. Any abuse of any one of us hurts all of us.

Choose this Valentine's Day, the day dedicated to those you love, to evoke the spirit of masculinity and stand up for women.

Check out this beautiful video "Man Prayer," words by Eve Ensler. It made me cry.

---

The Woman I Love

I'm married to the greatest woman in the world.

I just LOVE her! She's the perfect partner for me. One thing about her that I discovered about her early on in our relationship was that because of my relationship with her I was a better man and a better person. She sees and celebrate my strengths. I want to step up to the occasion to be honor such an incredible woman as this. THAT'S how I knew that she was the woman that I'd spend the rest of my days with.

I'm so happy to have celebrate that love with her this Valentine's Day weekend by collaborating with her to host our Couple's Retreat.

We try to treat our relationship like yoga: as a practice. We all know that with relationships, just like with yoga, we can get out of practice, we can get into ruts, and we can down right suck at relationships sometimes. Sometimes the circumstances of a relationship can be out of your control. Sometimes you can steer things differently. Even when things are going really well, there is always something to practice.

Truly relationship (any relationship) is just the closest mirror to the growth that is happening within yourself. If you're not growing, your relationship is not growing. And vice versa.

Like yoga, we can always practice. Practice gives us permission to learn without the need to be perfect. Practice lets you use all for faculties and experiment until you start to get it dialed in. Practice lets try again if you've messed up.

I invite you to treat your relationships like a practice this week. Remember, the greatest gift we can give any relationship is PRESENCE.

Because the Woman I love lives
Inside of you,

 I lean as close to your body with my words
As I can--

 And I think of you all the time, dear pilgrim.

 Because the One I love goes with you
Wherever you go,
 Hafiz will always be near.

 If you sat before me, wayfarer,
 With your aura bright from your many
Charms,

My lips could resist rushing to you and needing
 To befriend your blushed cheek,

 But my eyes can no longer hide
 The wondrous fact of who 
You Really are.

 The Beautiful One whom I adore
Has pitched His royal tent inside of you,

 So I will always lean my heart 
 As close to your soul
As I can.

~Hafiz

“The Woman I Love” by Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky from The Subject Tonight is Love by Daniel Ladinsky, published by Penguin Compass. Copyright © 2003 by Daniel Ladinsky. All rights reserved

There's Something In The Tea

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I lived in Korea for a year teaching English and studying meditation. I loved to explore the locals-only part of this fascinating country.

One day a few friends and I wandered into a tea shop in the old part of town. At the back of the shop was a man, dressed in the Han Bok, the traditional Korean habit, who noticed us enter the shop.

Without a word he began to prepare tea. It took us a few moments to wander to the back of the store. By the time we noticed the man sitting behind a small wooden table, the water was hot. He motioned for us to join him. Delighted, we sat on a few cushions lying on the floor in front of the low table. He poured the tea into the pot and allowed the tea to steep.

After a few minutes, he laid out a few delicate tea cups and performed the proper ceremony to serve tea.

He didn't speak English. We didn't speak Korean. Together we spoke the language of human beings sharing tea. We simply sat in each other's presence and enjoyed tea. We didn't need to make small talk. We didn't need to make charades. Words would have been excessive.

Several long minutes passed. Then, we rose and bowed humbly to him. He smiled and bowed humbly back. We left the shop but he has never left our hearts.

There's something in the tea.

---

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Presence: The Yoga of Relationships

Valentine’s day is a few weeks away. It’s one of my absolute favorite holidays because for me giving and receiving love is perhaps the most important thing in my life. I love the fact that there’s a day dedicated just to luuuuuuv. (Cue the Barry White)
 
One of my favorite Valentine’s Days happened a few years ago. Seneca and I had started dating a few months previous and I was (am) so madly in love with her. I really, really, really wanted to impress her. I wanted her to melt in my arms, into a puddle of love and cooing, and kiss me all over my face. I wanted to see that look on her face she gives me when I know she’s burning for me.  Sure there’s attraction in that look, too, but there but this is something sweeter and deeper, a manifestation of rock-solid, burning-heart connection. There’s nothing like it.
 
I knew that she loves a good lasagna so I went to Tony Caputo’s and bought all the mondo-deluxe ingredients to make from scratch The Lasagna to End All Lasagnas. Why even try after this perfection of tomatoey, cheesy, and Italian spiced goodness?? It had 4 kinds of cheeses, the best pasta, veg, and spices, cooked with the finest olive oil. Damn! I was expecting a phone call offering me an honorary degree from Le Cord En Bleu. This thing was an institution!
 
I bought a nice, expensive bottle of wine, a 2011 Altamura sangiovese, a favorite of hers I’d heard her reference with a swoon.
 
Then I bought two dozen roses, one for giving and the other to use for a rose petal path around my house.
 
Then, I bought a box of chocolates and ate all the chocolate. Stay with me! I cut out like 75 or 100 little paper hearts and wrote on each one something I loved about her. “I love to hear your soft breath when you are sleeping.” “I love your beautiful smile.” “I love your amazing chocolate mouse cake.” “I love how you are such a hard worker.” “I love how you love me” “I love your beautiful heart.” “I love your hot bod!”. . .  You get the point. I gave all the hearts to Seneca in the chocolate box. This was a fantastic exercise that made me tear up several times when preparing it.

Please use this idea for your love this Valentine’s Day. For the next few weeks, start jotting down all the things, little and big, that you love about your special person.
 
I invited her over to my house and when she arrived, the house was filled with the incredible aroma of the Lasagna To End All Lasagnas. There were flowers, wine, wonderful music, all the preparations.
 
The evening was INCREDIBLE! It went off without a hitch.
 
I think the biggest success of all was the chocolate box turned into myriad Valentines. Take in that whole box and your heart gets fat, your thighs stay hot!
 
I could just be me but I think that a lot of women just want to feel like you give a shit, you know? Like you care about them enough to make a plan. It’s shows presence, an essential element that every relationship needs. Guys are the same way. When Seneca comes home with a surprise for me, something small like a nice beer she thought I might like, it melts me to know that she was thinking about me and went out of her way to buy it for me. Little things like that make me feel like she's present with me.

It's about being present and observing one another. When we are hanging out in the evening, the babe’s gone to sleep, if we have a few moments together and one or the other of us isn’t present (usually me) there’s static in the relationship. Often, I need to pull my head out (of my work) and go over, sit next to her, stroke her hair and look her in the eyes and connect. Cultivating presence in your relationship is one of the yoga of relationships.
 
Ok. So make this Valentine’s Day INCREDIBLE! Make it one that your special person won't forget. Cultivate some presence with your special person in a way that is fun, romantic, and unique. Show your person that you thought enough about them to plan a INCREDIBLE day together.
 
Check this out! Seneca and I are offering you and your special person an amazing Valentines Day retreat at Snowbird Cliff Spa. Either Saturday February 13 or Sunday February 14 10 am to 4 pm. ALL COUPLES ARE WELCOME. We've figured out the details. You just need to show up.
 
Share your love with your person by having tons of fun, laughing, getting to know each other even deeper, connecting, learning ninja-like heart connection techniques, and relaxing together in the world-renown Cliff Spa.
 
Yes, it’s going to be held at the legendary Snowbird Cliff Spa and access to the spa is included! We’ll do some fun partner yoga, appropriate and fun for all levels and experience—even if you’re a newbie. We will also do some wonderful, relaxing couples poses, an opportunity to stretch and open each other up comfortably. This will lead to the part where together you’ll give and receive a long, decadent partner massage. Knowing the technique, you can offer this to your partner when they’ve had a long day. This will help to continue to build your relationship with regular presence and intimacy.
 
One of the things I’m really excited about is practicing some mindfulness, breathing, and presence exercises together. This will literally breathe life into your relationship. We'll learn and practice some cool, esoteric, and very specialized yoga techniques to help build anextraordinary connection with your partner. You’ll feel your heart swell and feel more connected to your partner than you thought possible through these simple yet profound techniques.
 
There will be chocolate! There will be poetry. Great discussion. So many things for a perfectly fun day! You’ll leave feeling relaxed, connected, and in love with your special person.  
 
After it’s done, you’ll take your honey by the hand and go and get steamy in the Eucalyptus steam room, boil in the roof-top hot tub, or sit and whisper sweet nothings in the solarium. This is going to be an amazing day!
 
So, everybody is going to want to get in on this and unfortunately we can only accommodate a limited number of couples to attend each day so as to keep the experience intimate and fun. We already have several couples signed up but for the moment there is still room in both sessions.
 
This will sell out soon so please reserve your spot today!
 
Basic Deets:
February 13 or 14
Snowbird Cliff Spa
10 am to 4 pm with a lunch break
$250 per couple.

Arm Balances

Arm Balances:

I've said it a billion times but If I were to hold a yoga workshop where we bring our nemesis poses to class and work on them until we make peace with them, I could almost guarantee that it would be 2.5 hours of arm balances. If you're someone who is not on speaking terms with a lot of arm balances, don't worry, you're not alone.

As with any type of asana, when we understand the underlying principles of the pose it becomes not only approachable but fun--yes, even arm balances.  Also, when we remember that we are practicing principles in the form of the poses and not trying to simply perform poses, we lose our attachment to trying to mold the body into a particular form and become satisfied with understanding and accomplishing the principle. There is a version of arm balances for everybody. Even though we may not be attached to the form of the pose, when we are able to master a principle, it's fun to see how the body responds by accomplishing poses that perhaps we didn't think were possible.

Arm balances build strength and confidence, both in body and character. They cultivate our ability to hold ourselves in a way that different than normal. To practice arm balances, we use our deep inner-strength, our core.

The following are some of the principles weuse to practice arm balances:

Grounding
Establishing our ground is essential for every pose. For arm balances, we ground using our arms or hands. Therefore, we generally ground the hands shoulder-distance apart from each other. Connect to the floor with as much surface of the palm as possible by spreading the fingers wide then gripping with the fingertips to establish the muscular support for negotiating balance and decompressing the wrists. Wrist pain is often a deal-breaker for many practitioners. Strength in the forearms and gripping with the hands is one way to stay out of the wrists in arm balances. In class we will practice other ways to avoid injuring the wrists.

Legs, Hip Flexors, and Abdominals (Uddiyana Bandha)
To perform arm balances, not only must we ground in a way that doesn't use our legs butwe must also hold our legs off the floor. The muscles responsible for keeping the legs hugged into the body and/or our legs holding our arms are our hip flexors (the muscles in the groins), the adductors (muscles that pull the legs together) and the abdominals. Uddiyana Bandha (oo-dee-yana bahn-dah) is one of the three special muscular locks we use in yoga. It is the essence of our core strength and helps direct the flow of energy in our body. There are a few ways to perform Uddiyana Bandha. In arm balances we will practice this lock by drawing the lower abdominals up and in while maintaining our breath. In class we will cultivate awareness of the legs, hip flexors and Uddiyana Bandha as learn how to apply them to arm balances.

Breath
Breath is perhaps the most important principle in our asana practice. Especially when we are practicing challenging poses such as arm balances, sometimes we instinctively hold our breath and grunt our way through the pose. Holding our breath starves our muscles of oxygen and it's no wonder we find ourselves unable to do the pose. If we establish the pattern of deep breathing known as ujjayi (oo-jie-ee), in and out through the nostrils, using the muscles in the back of the throat to slightly constrict and elongate the breath, creating a whisper, we calm the nervous system at the same time that we provide copious fuel for our muscle fibers. This breath is key to all poses including arm balances.

Sense of Humor
As with all of these poses, we don't become any more enlightened by the ability to perform arm balances. Instead, enlightenment is what we learn is along the path as we practice these poses and practice life. The asana is simply practical application to the lesson, again practicing principles in the form of asana. So a healthy sense of humor is essential because it's not about the pose--it's about my attitude in the pose. Do I strain, grunt, and groan my way through it? Do I perform the pose easily and look around self-righteously at all the other losers who are grunting and groaning their way through the pose? Do I not even try for fear that I'll fail? It's all just a practice, just a game. Have fun with it. Do what is possible understanding that you are somewhere along a winding path of progression. If you don't master the pose today, you may still master the anatomical or mental or spiritual principles behind the pose. And who knows you might surprise yourself and someday master the pose, too.

See you in class.

Photo by Dan Morris

Ananda: Bliss! Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously

Ananda is a state of complete bliss, sometimes achieved by experienced yoga practitioners. One never achieves ananda by perfecting any certain yoga posture. You may feel that you have accomplished something if you are able to understand the principles of and manifest a technical asana, however there will always be another asana that will be too hard. Ananda comes as the culmination of many things. Sometimes, by simply not taking ourselves too seriously.

We can use the asanas simply as tools to help us strengthen our bodies, find our breath, and hone our concentration, all of which will lead us to feel good and find similar joy as the blissed out yogis. Most everyone who has been to yoga, even a few times, has experienced this bliss, to some degree, upon rising from savasana, our resting pose. Bit by bit, we may see that despite life's challenges, there is much to be happy about. In fact, it may begin to feel that joy is our most natural state of being.

If a good sense of humor isn't listed in the Yoga Sutras as a pathway to our highest selves, it should be.

You know, we don't have to be so serious all the time. Take a room full of barefooted, lycra-clad, sweaty, heavy breathers and throw in some gymnastics and breakdancing, a few droning chants and there's a lot to laugh at. Especially because you know that every one in the room at sometime or other is experiencing flatulance anxiety. . .(you know who you are).

My favorite (and I'm guilty of this too) is to see the yogi "look-how-awesome-my-yoga-practice-is" photo performed by being photographed in some outrageous and death-defying yoga posture at the edge of a scenic cliff. How yogic is that? They'll be saying at my funeral, "he was doing yoga right up until the end. . . literally." Then in heaven, I'll have to sheepishly tell all the other people in line to get into The Pearly Gates specifically what stupid thing I did to end up dead. They'll be undoubtedly curious and want me to show them the pose. I'll tell them that I'd like to but that " . . um . . I'm not warmed up." I can see them looking at me and then taking a long look down and say, "well, maybe not yet."

There are all kinds of yoga poses we encounter in daily life. One of my favorites is the balance-intensive, Putyourunderwearon asana. What are your favorite poses? Please leave a comment below.

If you want to read something really, really, funny about yoga check out this New York Times article called Guns And Yoga by Patton Oswald. My favorite line is, "Shooting guns and taking yoga on the same day was the biggest "You got chocolate in my peanut butter!" moment I've had so far in my life." One day I'll have a mindfulness around guns retreat called GUNS 'N POSES.

Some people even practice "Laughing Yoga," where someone just starts laughing for no reason and it catches on until no one can stop. This happened to me last April. I couldn't stop laughing for a full 30 minutes. I think about the moment and it still makes me smile. Crazy!

Let's enjoy yoga this week.

Scott
 

Let Go!

The ultimate act of will is the act of releasing your will in the conversation with the Universe, Creation, God, or simply things that be. This final culmination of will and knowledge is known in yoga as Ishvara pranidhana. If yoga is anything, it is that conversation with what is real and practical in our lives and that which is ethereal. It is working up the courage to and knowing yourself enough to then finally step off the edge of the cliff and only when you begin to fall to you find your wings.
 
Ishvara pranidhana means to reach out your hand into the darkness and ask to know it. It is asking to be known deeper by what is in the darkness, the unknown. It is stepping out onto surfaces that you are not sure will hold your weight as you keep your fierce gaze at that which you love.
 
In this wonderful place, we allow our internal achiever to take a break and open up to simply being. And in the cosmic chess game of existence, we pause for a moment and allow for that which is larger than ourselves to make a move. And with this act of letting go, what we thought we knew about ourselves, what we planned on for our existence, doesn't seem to matter much anymore. The divine opens us up and we've discovered something new and magical about ourselves and the world, something exponentially greater than our previous conception.
 
David Whyte points to this perfectly in his poem,

The Truelove
 
There is a faith in loving fiercely
the one who is rightfully yours,
especially if you have
waited years and especially
if part of you never believed
you could deserve this
loved and beckoning hand
held out to you this way.
 
I am thinking of faith now
and the testaments of loneliness
and what we feel we are
worthy of in this world.
 
Years ago in the Hebrides
I remember an old man
who walked every morning
on the grey stones
to the shore of the baying seals,
 
who would press his hat
to his chest in the blustering
salt wind and say his prayer
to the turbulent Jesus
hidden in the water,
 
and I think of the story
of the storm and everyone
waking and seeing
the distant
yet familiar figure
far across the water
calling to them,
 
and how we are all
preparing for that
abrupt waking,
and that calling,
and that moment
we have to say yes,
except it will
not come so grandly,
so Biblically,
but more subtly
and intimately in the face
of the one you know
you have to love,
 
so that when we finally step out of the boat
toward them, we find
everything holds
us, and confirms
our courage, and if you wanted
to drown you could,
but you don't
 
because finally
after all the struggle
and all the years,
you don't want to any more,
you've simply had enough
of drowning
and you want to live and you
want to love and you will
walk across any territory
and any darkness,
however fluid and however
dangerous, to take the
one hand you know
belongs in yours.
 
Come to class this week and let's practice ways to let go of tension, stress, worry, illness, old ways of being, etc. Open up to the Divine by practicing Ishvarapranidhana.

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Mindfulness Retreat

with Vicki Overfelt

The Winter of Listening

Jan 16,17

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Valentine's Couple Retreat

with Scott and Seneca

Snowbird Cliff Spa

Feb 13, 14

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Yoga Adventure in Spain

With Kim Dastrup

June 12-19

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What Is Mindfulness

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What does it mean to be mindful? I'm sure we could all describe it in a different way. Some might say focused, conscious, alert, aware. How would you describe mindful? I believe that being mindful is the goal of yoga, it's what we practice, and all the other stuff like peacefulness, health, clarity, wellness, those are all byproducts of mindfulness.

Once we become practiced at mindfulness, we'll find ourselves applying it to all the other things we do in life: work, our relationships, how we spend our free time, even how we do those things we don't love doing like taking out the trash. And let's not mistake being mindful for perfect or blissed-out or even happy. It's just mindful. To have an emotion, for example, and to be perfectly mindful, is to allow yourself the capacity to be completely aware of it, completely involved. And that goes for anything. To really appreciate time with our kids, practicing yoga, the enjoyment of a meal, or enjoying whatever we like to do, we need to be mindful, lest that fun or those flavors pass by unnoticed.

But maybe because of this mindfulness, we'll have experiences and see that what we are isn't defined by them, that what we truly are is bigger than that emotion, that time with our kids, or that yoga posture. And it's by being mindful we can actually use the experience of an emotion or yoga pose or whatever to witness our true identity, which is mindfulness itself. The emotion or whatever is simply the brushstroke on the canvas of mindfulness. Don't mistake the brushstroke as the painting. If it weren't for the canvas, there could be no brushstroke.

So as we are in yoga practice this week, let's practice understanding our True Nature by practicing mindfulness. I also invite you to practice being mindful as you leave your house to go about your day or drive to work. Notice everything: the feeling of the steering wheel (or handlebars), the feeling of the road beneath you, the flow of traffic, the song on the radio.

See you in class.

Scott

A Life Burning Well

Have you ever found yourself saying things that you didn't know you knew? What's that about? I think it's about understanding yourself deeply. There is something in the articulation of an experience or thought or feeling that taps us into our deeper knowledge. Writing, dance, photography, and blogging could all be part of the creative process that helps articulate an experience. I love poetry and I think that's what the essence of poetry is: understanding one's self and life's grand mysteries through bite-sized bits of awareness. Like the legendary Leonard Cohen says, "If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash." The creative expression itself isn't the experience; it's a product of the experience. More than the craft and beauty of their writing, we love poets for the people they are to write such words. We love who they have become by writing their poetry.

I suppose I've been trying to learn about who I am my whole life. The same way writing or dance could tap this deeper wisdom, for me yoga and the separate practice of teaching yoga has been a creative avenue of personal growth and understanding. Yoga and teaching yoga has showed me hidden gifts. It's challenged me to confront my largest weaknesses. It's showed me how much I love people and love to be involved in their own personal growth. What a privilege! And in the process of practicing and teaching yoga, I've learned a bunch about myriad topics like philosophy, spirituality, anatomy meditation, etc. After learning about all this fascinating, intricate, and sometimes esoteric stuff, I invariably come to the same fat and resounding question: SO WHAT? What does any of this have to do with my daily life, or other people's lives? What does any of this stuff have to do with going to work and walking my dog and having relationships and fulfilling our dreams?

My search into "SO WHAT?" has led me to the wonderful and challenging and enlightening practice of writing this thing every week. This weekly blurb has been my wisest teacher. It's here, in this creative expression of my own inquiry, where I find myself saying the things that I didn't know I knew. I'm just happy that people want read my rantings. I don't write about what I want others to learn, I write about what I'm learning in this moment. Then when I teach it all week in yoga classes, I have so much more I want to say by the end of the week because I've learned so much more by the process of teaching it, a different creative expression. I should offer a post script to this thing at the end of the week to fill you in on what else I've learned along the process of articulating it.

I can't be having all the fun here. I'd love to invite you into this beautiful process of unfolding, knowledge, and experience, of finding your own deeper wisdom, by making your own personal expression of anything you do in life. I'd love to hear about or invite you to find yourself saying the things you didn't know you knew.

Here's my invitation:

1. Do something. Anything.
2. Document it in some way: journal, poem, Facebook Post, blog, photo, draw, dance, whatever.
3. Do it again
4. Document again, maybe this time explain it or teach it to someone.
5. Watch to see yourself say things you didn't know you knew. Watch for the insights that come naturally.
6. Then tell me all about it, because I'll be curious.

The end.

See you in class. 

Your Wildest Dreams Come True

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Imagine that you’ve finally made it. That goal, the thing you’ve desired that has been so elusive, has finally come to life. Imagine you finally found the love of your life. Or you’ve changed your relationship with money to be working for you, not against you. Imagine losing the weight you’ve been carrying around, or doing that Iron Man, or finding lasting relief to anxiety or depression. Imagine discovering profound peace and joy in your heart and mind. 

Are you perhaps sabotaging your own amazingness? Is there a part of you that is applying the brakes to your life?

There is something inside of YOU that knows that YOU are capable of accomplishing the impossible. It’s a part of you that is deeper than your rational mind. It’s the part of you that doesn’t doubt your astounding abilities. It’s the part of you that shows up on December 31 and dares you to dream new, exciting, and sometimes scary possibilities for the NEW YOU in the new year.

This week, prior to New Year’s, I dare you to dream big! I dare you to go deep inside to find those dreams and find the source of your deepest power. I dare you to release the brakes and see what your life is capable of doing. Not only do I dare you, but I can show you how!

I have been trained to perform a specialized, powerful, yet simple technique, a method of accessing this exciting part of you so that you can source it to jump powerfully into the new year and dream what’s possible in 2016 . . . AND THEN DO IT! Then, MAINTIAN your progress with the same technique. And guess what? Not only is it powerful; what’s better is that it’s incredibly relaxing.

This technique, this yoga, is called Yoga Nidra. It’s an ancient practice but like asana (poses) it is adapted to match your needs of today. For me personally, Yoga Nidra has been unquestionably the most profound method of self-discovery I’ve ever experienced. I’ve trained with the world’s preeminent Yoga Nidra teacher Dr. Richard Miller. I’ve been practicing and teaching Yoga Nidra for nearly a decade and I’ve seen life-changing results for myself and students through this practice that is virtually available to everyone. With Nidra, I’ve helped students conquer long-held fears, finish first place in ultra-endurance races, and discover the peace of their profound nature of being. If you can’t tell, I’m absolutely passionate about sharing this with others and I want to share it with YOU as the way to source your amazing visionary inside and help you bound into the new year with power and presence to accomplish the impossible. . . at very least.

Yoga Nidra is like a guided meditation, a method of deep listening where you establish a deep awareness of all the different parts of you, including and especially that incredible part of you that doesn’t doubt your awesomeness and that will help you fulfill your dreams in the new year. Through practicing Yoga Nidra you can rewire the self-limiting beliefs that are holding you back from tapping your potential.

Here’s what you do: simply lie down, get comfy, and listen to me guide you as I help you to pay attention to your body, your thoughts, your emotions, and deeper. . . It’s so relaxing that you’ll find yourself moving into the state of mind that is like a daydream, not asleep yet not awake. It’s not hypnosis although some people describe it as such. This state of mind is the Nidra state and acts like the bridge between your conscious mind and your subconscious. But don’t let the relaxing nature of this practice fool you, this practice is very profound and will be the engine that drives your dreams into reality for 2016.

“Years ago, when I first met Scott, I was grieving the end of a nearly 20 year marriage, alongside the loss of my home, my career, and my place in the world— Needless to say, I was in pain. Then Scott guided me through my first ever Yoga Nidra practice and I learned of my ability to hold joy and pain simultaneously. Helpful, to say the least. In fact, it may have saved me. Without it, I was planning to let Pain have all the rooms in the inn for a long time. ( I’m sorry Joy, this place is all full. No, I’m sorry you can’t even sleep in the barn. Pain is keeping his horses in there. ) Thanks to Scott, I knew better. I was able to welcome Joy along with Pain, because Nidra had shown me my capacity. Every time I have done Yoga Nidra since, I have learned something more about how spacious I really am, how many worlds I can actually hold.”

— N. Seymour

Is it dangerous? Will you have me unknowingly clucking around the room like a chicken? NO! This is a simple relaxing technique that simply hones your awareness and leaves you feeling open, focused, and relaxed.

Yoga Nidra is like closing your eyes and allowing me to guide you through the secret passageways into the recesses of your house of awesomeness, the part of you that knows how incredible you truly are. When you arrive to this place of deep awareness, your dreams, your power, your focus, your drive, your life’s purpose, your gifts to the world will emerge like hidden diamonds in the mountain, and will show your conscious mind what’s possible in your practical world, things you perhaps didn’t know you knew. Then with this awareness, you move back into your life and start making these dreams a reality, executing with clarity and confidence. It’s absolutely amazing! And deceptively simple to do.

Just like other forms of yoga, one session can be incredibly powerful but most of the time it takes practice. So I’d like to offer you a FREE New Year Yoga Nidra practice to do several times as you plan to spring into an incredible 2016. You can click the link and download it and bliss out several times as training to move into 2016. Use it as a regular resource. Share it with your family and friends.

And if you are serious about discovering your dreams and making them into a reality, then I invite you to enroll in my new, 6-week course:

Yoga Nidra: Sourcing Your True Power!

You’ll receive access to 6 modules (one per week) that will include lessons about the practice, reading materials, guides, videos, and 6 specialized Yoga Nidra practices (20 to 35-minute recording) that you can keep in your audio library and that will guide you into deep relaxation as well as uncovering the power that lies within you to transform yourself. 

Enrollment for YOGA NIDRA COURSE: SOURCING YOUR TRUE POWER! begins Now. Don’t miss this opportunity to SOURCE YOUR TRUE POWER!

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In The Dark

One thing I've learned from life and from sages is that on the journey toward self-understanding, we must inevitably experience darkness, grief, and loss to some degree or other. Part of our understanding is to see the whole picture, not only the parts which are peachy. We evolve from our naive understanding of God or the Universe as something which is only beneficent to the ability to hold the fact that to understand the whole picture means that we have to hold both of life's pleasures and life's losses. That to truly fall in love with this life we must somehow embrace the darkness. And I guess the true lesson, that lesson that ultimately will apprentice ourselves to experience the greatest joy, is the lesson of how to sing when you are in the midst of great loss and sorrow, when you feel the most abandoned.  I guess we learn that it's not about that shallow definition of "success," but what "success" really means is defined by who can speak to whatever place they find themselves, who can stand at the end of the battle, when your house is burned down, your life feels like it's in ruins and stand with your integrity and honor and sing into the darkness. Or at least hum a little, even if it's interrupted by tears.

The Winter Solstice is today,  the 21st of December. This is when the sun is at its lowest point on the horizon, the days are the shortest and the nights are the longest. Solstice means "sun stands still."

Yoga, of course, is a mirror for our life. Our practice of every-day living finds expression and offers us understanding through the ancient wisdom of yoga. So join me this week as we sing to the darkness, as we learn to hold both light and dark and therefore celebrate what it means to be fully alive.  

Wendell Berry says it best in this poem:

To Know The Dark

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.

Scott

Shoveling Snow With Buddha

I love this poem. It's perfect for today and expresses my thoughts on mindfulness better than I ever could in my own words. 

Enjoy!

Shoveling Snow With Buddha by Billy Collins

In the usual iconography of the temple or the local Wok
you would never see him doing such a thing,
tossing the dry snow over a mountain
of his bare, round shoulder,
his hair tied in a knot,
a model of concentration.

Sitting is more his speed, if that is the word
for what he does, or does not do.

Even the season is wrong for him.
In all his manifestations, is it not warm or slightly humid?
Is this not implied by his serene expression,
that smile so wide it wraps itself around the waist of the universe?

But here we are, working our way down the driveway,
one shovelful at a time.
We toss the light powder into the clear air.
We feel the cold mist on our faces.
And with every heave we disappear
and become lost to each other
in these sudden clouds of our own making,
these fountain-bursts of snow.

This is so much better than a sermon in church,
I say out loud, but Buddha keeps on shoveling.
This is the true religion, the religion of snow,
and sunlight and winter geese barking in the sky,
I say, but he is too busy to hear me.

He has thrown himself into shoveling snow
as if it were the purpose of existence,
as if the sign of a perfect life were a clear driveway
you could back the car down easily
and drive off into the vanities of the world
with a broken heater fan and a song on the radio.

All morning long we work side by side,
me with my commentary
and he inside his generous pocket of silence,
until the hour is nearly noon
and the snow is piled high all around us;
then, I hear him speak.

After this, he asks,
can we go inside and play cards?

Certainly, I reply, and I will heat some milk
and bring cups of hot chocolate to the table
while you shuffle the deck.
and our boots stand dripping by the door.

Aaah, says the Buddha, lifting his eyes
and leaning for a moment on his shovel
before he drives the thin blade again
deep into the glittering white snow.

Billy Collins

You Can Never Go Back

The crossroads is a magical place. It’s the place where the ethereal, spiritual, and philosophical meets the physical, real, and practical. Where these two roads intersect is the holy ground of transformation, it’s the place where we have to drop our one-track thinking and see the many roads. Practicing yoga means to be at the crossroads.

One legend of the Crossroads involves the King of the Blues, Robert Johnson. It is said that one night, deep in the South, the Delta, Robert Johnson left home and as the clock struck midnight, he found himself standing at the intersection between here and there, now and then, this way and that way. There he found the Devil who showed him what was possible with a guitar and told him he would never amount to anything unless he sold his soul in exchange for learning how to play the guitar like nobody’s business. Robert Johnson weighed his options and cashed in his soul (or maybe found it) by making the deal with the devil. He threw his guitar over his shoulder and walked down the road to there, possibility, and everything, giving up on the roads from there, safe comfortable, and the predictable. As he strutted down the road he said to the Devil, “I am the blues.”

These crossroads don’t only involve the devil and the blues. Crossroads exist all over the place, wherever the other world meets this one, wherever the spirit world meets the physical one. Places like churches, temples, and holy sites. Places like your yoga mat. It’s like a tabernacle, what ancient people used as a traveling temple. Your yoga mat is the traveling temple where spirit and body meet to show you what’s possible inside of you. And yes, I’ve meet the devil there before. I’ve seen him in sitting on my tight hip in kapotasana, pigeon pose; on my steel hamstrings in hanumanasana, the splits pose; and I’ve seen him doing a victory dance on my quivering raised leg in that damned standing splits pose. I’ve come face to face with my physical limitations, yes, but also with my own neurosis, my deepest fears, self-limiting thoughts, and deep, deep wells of grief. I’ve seen that everything is linked to everything else. I’ve meet the divine on my mat as well.  I see regular joy in handstands, pleasure and peace in savasana, fun in transitions, and possibilities in postures. I get regular hits of insight, of purpose, and a deep sense of belonging. Most importantly, at the crossroads of where physical meets spiritual, I get regular glimpses of the real who and what I am.

Robert Johnson sold his soul, meaning he gave up the simple, naïve way of seeing the world for a richer, more comprehensive and real view of the world. And for us to experience the larger view of ourselves we have to give up something. I believe instead of selling our soul, we sell the armor that protects us from experiencing only the good, the simple, and the happy. I believe that sometimes we must walk down the roads of grief, struggle, and pain to see how immensely beautiful life is. It’s the larger view. It’s the view of heaven and it will cost you your life. At least, the way you’ve been living it before now. And you can never go back. But in the end after seeing what’s possible, would you want to?

This week, meet me at the crossroads. Meet me at Centered City Yoga on your yoga mat and explore that place where heaven meets earth.

Samurai Do It, Pro Tennis Players Do it, and World-Class Lovers Do It.

Breathe. Of course. Breath is life. We talk about it all the time in yoga. Without it we’re dead. Our breathing is regulated both automatically as well as the deliberately. In other words, unlike our heartbeat, we can manipulate our breath if we want to. Unfortunately, being unconscious about our breath, or things that help us breathe such as good posture, often contributes to habitual, shallow breath that only allows us to receive the bare essentials for living. In this state, our muscles, organs, systems, and brain are literally running on power-save mode, reducing us practically to the walking dead.

Pause for 5 seconds right now and take a long exhale, then a faaaaat inhale, followed by a long breath back out your nostrils. Then do it again. Simple. Easy to forget. Notice how good that feels! Do that once in a while.

Ok. Now that power-save mode is off, let’s talk about how we can use the secret power of this vital yet ever-present element of breath to do more than just survive—to thrive. For millennia breath control has been one of the biggest life hacks—a way to get more by doing less. Check it out . . .

Yoga is the combo of body mind and spirit, right? Well, I think of breath as the ambassador to each of those realms.

Biologically, our breath fuels every cell in our bodies. It’s the key element of the production of ATP for you biology nerds out there. Using our breath consciously is like enabling a fuel injector for our muscles. Most martial arts make a regular practice using the breath for power and control during a fight. Anyone who begins to breathe uncontrollably will soon hyperventilate or starve their muscles and brain of oxygen and will soon succumb to their opponent.

In fact, the kiai (read: Hee-YAH!) is the Japanese term for the short little shout during a strike in many forms of martial arts. It’s a way of harnessing the power of an exhale for maximum power. Also, ever watch a pro tennis match? Those athletes also belt out a grunt, something akin to the kiai, that helps them to harness the power of their breath to rocket the tennis ball at their opponents, often at speeds of over 200 miles an hour! Even if you’re a lover and not fighter, by consciously using your breath, you unlock a secret power to get more doing less, whether that’s pounding up a trail, busting out a yoga posture, or even climbing a flight of stairs.

Mentally, your brain functions faster and more clearly when we have a good, solid, and steady source of oxygen. Too much or too little makes our mind frantic or dull. Interesting how breath seems to be a primary component of almost every discipline of meditation. Those who find themselves in a life-or-death situation often survive by their ability to keep their mental cool, often by keeping their breathing at a slow, steady pace. This allows your brain to function optimally without jamming it with or starving it from oxygen. One of my favorite meditation exercises is to simply count my breaths backward from the number 30 to zero, starting over every time I lose count. This will also work wonders to reduce anxiety.

So we’ve heard about the power of breath toward body and mind, what about spirit? The Latin word for breath is Spiritus. Prana is the Sanskrit term meaning the life-force energy, or spirit, in everything. Prana is what makes galaxies spin and is also what makes you tick. Breath is the simplest, easiest, and the most powerful way of affecting your own prana. By the skillful use of your breath you can master a control of your energy which in turn will produce greater power, vitality, and even a connection with others.

Speaking of energy and connection with others, here’s where this bit about breath gets gooooooood (cue the Barry White). Since breath controls our energy, and sex (that’s right!) is such an amazingly energetic exchange, we can use our breath to be world-class lovers. Yep. In fact, some people are so sensitive to energy that they feel most satisfied sexually by the ability to feel the energy of their partner. I don’t intend to go into the nitty-gritty details about love making here, you can look up Tantric love making for the finer details on this, but one thing you can practice immediately, which I guarantee will improve your love life, is a G-rated practice involving your breath.

Try this: (turn down the Barry White a tich)

Sit down on the floor or on the couch in front of your partner. Set a timer for 5 minutes and agree to stare deeply into each others eyes THE WHOLE TIME and breathe together. Keep your eyes locked! Breathe when your partner breathes. Visualize breathing into your heart and expanding your heart outward. Practice feeling the heart of your partner as you breathe in and out. Sexy! You might be amazed at the level of connection you will feel toward your partner. Do this a few times a week.

Now write this on your calendar: On Valentines weekend, Feb 13 or 14, Seneca and I are going to offer a couples retreat at Snowbird and explore several simple ways of connecting with your partner that involve positive communication, fun couple’s yoga poses, and some great breath and meditation practices to begin to share energy with your partner.

Of course, in yoga we focus on our breath as well. There are several breathing exercises called Pranayama (working with prana) which, done independently from poses, will harness the power of our breath to do anything from reduce our anxiety, to raising our energy, or like other athletes, give us the power and calm we need when performing anything challenging. Combine deliberate breathing techniques with yoga postures and you become an unstoppable machine of power, grace, and energy. Yoga teaches us that when we meet something challenging, to greet it with a long breath in and out. The effect of combining breath and movement is one of the not-so-secret secret weapons of yoga. It’s what differentiates yoga from merely exercise into a transformational body/mind/spirit experience.

Lastly, there is something really magical that happens sometimes in yoga class with a room full of people who are all breathing at the same time. As the teacher, I feel privy to something incredible: the collective body, mind, and spirit. Truly, it’s the magic of breathing and is similar, I imagine, only to the conducting of a symphony orchestra. Come and lend YOUR breath!

Like I said, the Latin word for breath is Spritus. To conspire, therefore, means literally to breathe together. Let’s conspire together this week at yoga.