RUMI says ; enter the cave of the heart- how the texts put it- and then roam. 

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Yoga is like an inner and energetic bath... clear away what has grown over our hearts. You don't take a shower one day and expect it to keep you clean for the next few days. In the same way we return to our yoga practice to clean out the gunk- that accumulates- the gunk (think that wiegh on your mind, your heart, cloud your clarity of purpose and direction in your life. ) we come here to check in, wash off, leave here feeling like we have a lightness and a clarity of who we are and where we’re going. 

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The Book of Awakening Quotes

“We waste so much energy trying to cover up who we are when beneath every attitude is the want to be loved, and beneath every anger is a wound to be healed and beneath every sadness is the fear that there will not be enough time.

When we hesitate in being direct, we unknowingly slip something on, some added layer of protection that keeps us from feeling the world, and often that thin covering is the beginning of a loneliness which, if not put down, diminishes our chances of joy.

It’s like wearing gloves every time we touch something, and then, forgetting we chose to put them on, we complain that nothing feels quite real. Our challenge each day is not to get dressed to face the world but to unglove ourselves so that the doorknob feels cold and the car handle feels wet and the kiss goodbye feels like the lips of another being, soft and unrepeatable.” 
― Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have

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“The further I wake into this life, the more I realize that God is everywhere and the extraordinary is waiting quietly beneath the skin of all that is ordinary. Light is in both the broken bottle and the diamond, and music is in both the flowing violin and the water dripping from the drainage pipe. Yes, God is under the porch as well as on top of the mountain, and joy is in both the front row and the bleachers, if we are willing to be where we are.” 
― Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have

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OPENING QUOTE

In our yoga practice we invite our attention to come out of the drama of complexity in our lives, out of the already lived past, the uncertain future, and to this moment- the only moment. The moment we are in contact with life AS IT HAPPENS. Feel our breath, know our heart, be aware of sensations sounds and smells. This portal into presence brings us in touch w the non duality nature of all things. That the greatest illusion of ALL is that we are separate.  

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THE SACRED PAUSE 

 let yourself enjoy this sacred pause as if you were a sun warmed rock in the center of a rushing river. The rushing river is the chaos / or not/ some sort of shift or changes happening. Maybe what you find is a reflection of whats going on on the outside. can any rearranging happen there? Incubate in the heart space for the length of your practice.

BREATH OPENING;
"your breath is like a friend in a large crowd. You don't have to shove or push to get to them or keep them in view, you just direct attention with enthusiasm to your firend ' OH theres my friend! just like "oh theres by breath! " 

"You dont need to chase hang on or analyse your thoughts .  We spend so much time multi tasking these days-we used to multitask to make more time to be present with friends family to be doing the things we love, now i feel like a lot of time is spent multitasking by looking at facebook, ecyber chatting, information overload escaping the present. We need to get comfortable here again. "What is in your head determines what is in your hands" "nourish the inner space" When the breath wanders the mind is unsteady. When the breath is calm the mind is calm" -hatha yoga pradapika. Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness. Breath is spirit and the act of breathing is living. Let the breath replace the thinking mind. Could the pains and conflicts we experience externally be a reflection of the chaos and conflict within? 

OPENING; We Forget

Open with the story of the little girl asking her father what he does for a living. I teach art to high school students. "You Mean they forgot? she askes incredulously! It is a good example of how we forget. We forget we are connected to spirit, we forget to breath, we forget we are all united, we forget we have this body. Our bodies are so wize, they know how to live how to die how to breath, how to birth how to make love, how to heal, yet our mind puts us in theis trance of forgetting to trust it, forgetting that we are actually alllowed to trust it. In yoga, they say it is through the body that we discover we are a skaprk of divintiy. Because our bodies know they belong to spirit to life and it is our minds that make us homeless.

Reading; Clay Jug by Kabir at the end of practice

THIS CLAY JUG

by Kabir

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Inside this clay jug there are canyons, and pine mountains, and the maker of canyons and pine mountains! All seven oceans are inside and hundreds of millions of stars. The acid that tests gold is there and the one who judges jewels. And the music from the strings no one touches and the source of all water. If you want the truth i will tel you the truth: the god whom you love is inside. 

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WITHIN THIS BODY YOU ARE WEARING

by Robert Hal

Within the body you are wearing, now
inside the bones and beating in the heart,
lives the one you have been searching for so long.

But you must stop running away and shake hands, the meeting doesn’t happen without your presence . . . your participation.

The same one waiting for you there
is moving in the trees, glistening on the water,
growing in the grasses and lurking in the shadows you create.

You have nowhere to go.
The marriage happened long ago. Behold your mate.

You are loved.

Unconditionally. Irrevocably. Deeply. Profoundly. Passionately. Completely. Unreservedly.

Each morning when you wake, whether it’s sunny or stormy inside your sparkling ruby heart, you are loved.

If your hands shake with anxiety or tremble with waves of panic, you are loved.

If your heart fumes with jealousy or races with insecurity, you are loved.

If you have a sensational day, you are loved.

If you have a shitty day, you are loved.

When you smile, you are loved.

When you scowl, you are loved.

You are loved.

When your flaws seep out, you are loved.

When you’re scared sh*tless, you are loved.

If your soul is beat-up, broken or battered, you are loved.

If your heart leaks an entire ocean of tears, you are loved.

If you scream out angrily at the top of your f*cking lungs, you are loved.

If you hop to the heights of euphoria and bask in sunbeams of happiness, you are loved.

Each morning when you wake, whether it’s sunny or stormy in your sparkling ruby heart, you are loved.

Unquestionably. Compassionately. Fiercely. Enthusiastically. Simply. Purely. Genuinely.

You are loved.

“As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being redirected to something better.” ~ Steve Maraboli

This is the quote of the year.

Read it. Read it again.

Let it sink in.

We are never rejected. There are no mistakes. No could haves. No should haves.

Everything that happens comes along because it simply needs to.

Fallbacks are crucial parts of the puzzle.

Not getting what we want can be a huge step towards reaching a bigger dream.

So relax. Release control. Let’s learn from our mistakes and see the bigger picture.

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We’re not rejected. We’re redirected.

Redirected to something better and bigger.

Something marvelous.

Accepting rejection is part of embracing the uncertainty of life.

Uncertainty keeps us on our toes.

It keeps us alert and awake.

Not knowing is beautiful.

Appreciate it!

Why spend time worrying, judging, fighting, regretting?

All we have to do is believe.

Use the mantra:

I am ready to receive my highest good, I am ready for it to be easy-3x

So many of us are brought into the idea that the best things, the most valuable things, the most meaningful things, require harndness- that we toil, grind, fight, force our way to the finish line- and its true, some things do require this at times, but not all the time. it doesn’t always have to be that way. I bet there is something that you want that could come to you far more easily, it could flow to you with grace. what have you bene making hard, but you are not ready to make easy.

The constant state of flux… it seems that we strive to figure one thing out and upon discovering the solution or answer to it, another questions or challenge arises. 

You have the answer, you just have to become quiet enough to hear it. 

ACCEPTANCE

Be patient towards all the unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like lovcked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. do noto now seek the answers because you may not be ready to live them. And the point is to live everything- to live the questions. Perhaps you will find them gradually wihtout even noticing it and live along some distant day into the answer. 

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THE JOURNEY

Love, Gratitude, and abundance is what we were born with. Fear, doubt, and uncertainty is what we have learned here. The spiritual journey is the relinguishment- unlearning- of fear self doubt and the acceptance of love back into our hearts.

At the center of your being you are full of, produced by, encompassed by, and made of love. And through this practice we will relinquish and empty of antyhing keeping us from experiencing full love. Energetically we will set the conscious intention to release what no longer serves us into motion- what we may have been carrying for a long period of time or perhaps something we've jut recently picked up. As we move towards love we will , as a side effect, become cleansed also physically- emptying of toxins and enviornmental stressors resulting in the overall bettering and balancing of our entire being. 

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YOGA PRAYER

We give thanks for the air we breathe, for the bodies, so capable and strong, and to all life that sustains , nourishes, and nurtures us. May we reamain present in our body and mind and continue to grow and learn and expand our consciousness so as to know our highest self. May we commit to observing our reactivity, and breath more fully and completely in times of conflict. May we stay grounded so that the choices we make be influenced by our mindfulness and compassion. May we see beyond reason, heal beyond belief, love beyond bariers, surrender to this deep work, commit to the beauty of our awakeneing souls and celebrate the bond of breathe that connects us all. You, me, spirit, this planet as one. Namaste.

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OPENING; The Breath

Begin by tuning into your breath, observing the inhales and the exhales. Use the breath as a mantra - as a concentration tool - to release the thinking mind. Less thinking, more breathing. Connect deeply with your breath – your internal metronome – to set the rhythm for your day or your practice like a drum player would set the rhythm for a band. Slow down the rhythm. Lengthen out the beats. Connect the beats seamlessly and effortlessly. Establish a sweet, flowing breath.

The breath weaves together the practice. It is a mental vehicle, transporting the mind from stress, anger, tension, frustration, thoughts, and distractions into a realm a peace. Without conscious breathing, yoga is just a bunch of silly, disconnected shapes. With it, the asana practice flows like a dance – like a moving meditation. Think about that drum player setting the rhythm for a band. Without a rhythm section, the instruments would struggle to synchronize. The music would sound broken. The breath is your drum player. The asanas are the musicians. You need the breath to realize harmony and wholeness not only in the yoga practice, but also in life.

Lets open our practice by honoring our yoga as not something that we do and then leave behind, but at something that we allow to move us. Move us beyond our limited beliefs, doubt and fear, obsessions with past and future, and small ego self and into a better grasp of who we are in relation to it all. We've been blessed to be doing yoga at this time- in thep ast you would have to first convince your family you were going to dedicate your life to yoga, then you would have to seek out your guru and then convince your guru you were worthy! And only then the practice begins.... atha yoga anushasanam. 

OPENING ; Remove what covers the Light

As we come to center on our mats - look at this inspirational 2x6 piece of rubber you sit on/ this magic ccarpet that brings us to life. I love a small portion in the yoga sutras where patanjali says omething along the lines of "yoga asana and pranayama, removes what is covering the light." Informing us that, even in your darkest state- when you're feeling ill, dull, disoriented, fearful, doubtful, sad- that light shines its brightest within. Its like the clouds in the sky- we see them, but we don't kneed someone to tell us that above them the sky is expansive and bright. 

This mat can fly is into the sky, but we have to do the work. We feel fearful, judgmenetal, betrayed, personally sabotaged, like a victim, discouraged, dissapointed....  and this is ok. But when we come on the mat, this is where we hvae to sieze the opportunity to cleans the lens by which we view our conditions.  We are ALIVE today... we live in Hawaii, we have fresh air to breath, and our basic needs are mostly met. And maybe we are coming to the mat sometimes feeling defeated... then recognize that... bring your hands together, and ask for courage to face whats challenging you, acceptance to be with whats real and to aknowledge the impermanence of it all.  

The yoga sutras point ot impermanence as the ultimate human condition... and  goes on to explain that the human condition is to know this in our minds, but resist this in our hearts.  The tibetan monks and the sand mandala. Celebration of impermanence. 

But remembering the eternal in daily conversations, tasks, and actions is really the key to transforming our lives. Unless we are able to return to the “big picture” of our lives, we will be caught up in the minutiae of being late for an appointment or losing a favorite earring. What gives life its juice is the ability to mourn the lost earring fully and simultaneously know it doesn’t ultimately matter. In other words, we can live to the fullest when we recognize that our suffering is based not on the fact of impermanence but rather on our reaction to that impermanence.

“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.” Rabindranath Tagore - See more at: http://yogaforthenewworld.com/impermanence/#sthash.F1lMZRbT.dpuf

OPENING; Today you SEEK

Welcome back to your mat. How was your day? 

Whether or not your relaize it or not, today you are seeking. You being here on your mat, for the practice of YOGA, is the indication that you followed something within your heart, that said, "maybe you'll find it here" . Whetehr its Clarity, Love, Courage, Joy, Health..... they aultimately all lead us back to JOY. See that we come up with solutions to our small or big problems, but ultimately - the soltuions loop us all back to the same place. To experience what we all want, Joy. And you here on your mat, in some way, you believe that this practice will realign you with joy. This can be a visceral level, a gut feeling, a heart center knowing, an intuition- but you are at least curious about a missing piece. 

Luckily, Rumi says, " What you seek, also seeks you" - the divine plan, the design, our passion, our calling, just as we yearn to connet wit hit, it waits for us to seek. 

theres a word in Ancient Greek; Eudaimonia; meaning, a state of complete bliss aided by spirit. the highest human emotion, eudaimonia, happiness with receptivity to spirit, universe, shakti, mana, prana, love

INSPIRE- has latin roots meaning to be ful of spirit. And the word Spriit- BREATH SOUL COURAGE

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” 
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

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OPENING; A pose is comfortable and steady 

“Sthirasukhamasanam’’ (II Sūtra 46)sthira = steady; sukham = comfortable; asanam = posture.“That posture which is steady and comfortable is āsana.” What is āsana? Sthira sukham āsanam. That which is steady and which is comfortable is āsana. When we are comfortable are we also steady? When we are truly defining comfortable doesn’t it look more like, feet up on the coffee table, sitting in a cozy couch by the fireplace sipping tea? We are not sitting erect or stable, are we comfortable? .Not usually for any length of time… So a yoga pose is a place where you are erect and comfortable at the same time… Sthira sukham āsanam.Now- what is comfortable? Is what is comfortable for you the same as what is comfortable for me? This is a delicate issue- what is comfortable varies from person to person. Shorter comfort zone = more miserable. This is because life is vast = but you are comfortable only in a limited sphere. Your happiness depends on the extent of your comfort zone. So asana is something that depends on your comfort zone. and your comfort zone has a lot to do with the messages your brain is telling you. Asana is not just doing an exercise then- it is a practice of finding equinamity in your mind, and your body on the mat- When your thighs are burning in chair pose- is the discomfort coming from the burning or is it a repetitive cycle of “I hate this pose, this pose feels awful, I can’t do this pose, this pose is awful, I hate the teacher, how much longer?!” There is a moment before you react mentally to a scenario that you can start to really pay attention to. When I decided I wasn’t going to allow my neuroticness to decide my fate for that class - I relaxed into the flow and nearly forgot about the music going in and out."Sukha: look for space - always."

In practicing asana, we create a ritual of entering and holding the posture without interruption for a period of time, being fully present with all the details, sensations, and experiences that occur in the body/mind. We compliment the qualities of engagement with letting go. We find a balance between tension and relaxation, a balance between effort and ease that feels delicious and challenging at the same time. Sthira and sukha form a state of equilibrium (satva) that is without agitation (rajas) or inertia (tamas). T.K.V. Desikachar says, "It is attention without tension, loosening-up without slackness"

Most students will need to emphasize one or another of these qualities, depending their personality type. Over-achievers need reminders to relax and be enjoy the experience. Those who tend to be lethargic or half-hearted need encouragement to work at their edge. Those who lack focus need reminders to stay present. Students with limitations need support in creating modifications and working at a gentle level that's still challenging.For some students the most challenging asana is the posture of letting go.

Asana is not just an externally codified position. It is a subjective experience that allows us to explore and discover the nuances of body, mind and spirit, bringing all parts of our self into harmonious balance. Yoga does not impose a form upon us, but allows us to discover our Self through a form. In life, asana firmly settles us because of these two complementary qualities: firmness in directing our actions and softness in expressing them.

Sukha, meaning easy or happy,
refers to our ability to stay confortable in a pose without tension or strain

Sthira, meaning firm or alert,
refers to our ability to stay present.

These qualities bring a level of conscious awareness
which integrates breath and mind,
and differentiates yoga from physical exercise.
When present we learn to accept our limitations
and proceed from where we are in a balance way.

OPENING; Yoga is Union

We all come to our yoga mats for different reasons. ...  Remember YOga  means union. The root of the word is YUG, which creates a few words that mean the same- union / junction join--- this is why when Jesus said, My Yoke is Easy, he meant my Yoga is easy. Sakaya Dristi is the feeling of separateness, feeling cut off. Myopic attn focused on their own boundaries and what lies within those boundaries.  We dont realize that we cannot have an inside without the existance of an outside. it is elementary logic.

We cannot have a personal identity of self, without the existance of everythig that is not self- and thus the whole needs to exist. The ego reinfoces the idea of a separate self. But in our yoga practice we work to be completely present which is from where the dimension of union and unity can arise.  even the briefest glimpse of presence in to that dimension of awareness can shift our whole experience in life. So regularly returning ot that union eventuallu transforms us into enlightneed beings. The masters have spent much time in this dimension .

Buddha had said we suffer because we forget the whole, or we forget who we are relative to all else. We forget who we are. Pause and feel within you is the consciousness of an enlightned being, buddha christ, bodisattva of compassions, the vast presence.

HAPPY SWEAT

Exposure to “happy sweat” made them smile and feel happier themselves. The researchers credit chemosignals, odors produced by the body that can transfer emotions to others. Makes a strong case for squeezing your mat into a crowded studio more often

ONE LINERS

Body:

• “Feel your feet grounded to your mat. Lift your toes off of the mat and feel your weight shift back, slowly lower your toes and soften your knees… Imagine you have a large prehistoric tail behind you. Gently push this tail down as you draw your pelvis up… Bring your awareness to your ribcage, stacking it directly over your pelvis and directly under your shoulders. Roll your shoulders up, back and down. Feel your shoulder blades down and flat with your heart lightly lifted. Your arms are open and receptive with the palms of your hands facing outward… The crown of your head is pointing directly up toward the ceiling, bring your chin slightly down elongating the back of the neck. Feel and see your skeleton standing effortlessly, bones perfectly stacked and aligned…”

• “See your muscles draped over your skeleton… Visualize your heart beating, blood flowing, your diaphragm and lungs expanding and contracting with breath… your brain sits quietly in your skull, your central nervous system is calm…”

• “Physically you are aligned and fully present in your body at this precise moment…”

Breath:

• “Observe your breath…”

• “Begin to deepen the breath. On your next natural exhalation follow the breath out until you feel comfortably empty, then smoothly flow into your inhalation gathering prana until your comfortably full…As you repeat this cycle at the bottom of the exhale lightly pull up the pelvic floor and squeeze the belly toward the spine. Allow the belly to fill like a balloon on the inhalation bringing the breath deep into the diaphragm… Begin to visualize your breath as colored light. See it flow deep into the diaphragm, allow it to gently rise into the ribcage and circulate around your heart…”

• “The body fills with breath, receiving nourishment, life force prana…”

• “The body and breath are one…”

Mind:

• Soften your senses, connect to your sense of hearing. You are aware of the various sounds in the room allow them to gently enter in… draw you attention to the sound of your breath… Allow sound to gently flow into your awareness relaxing your sense of hearing… Become aware of your sense of touch, feel your breath entering and exiting your body… Notice your face, melt your features into relaxation…allow your hands to grow soft and receptive, receiving energy with each inhalation you take… Turn your vision inward as you sit and observe yourself breathing… Relax your eyes allowing them to soften in the sockets…

• Allow your mind to grow silent by connecting to your senses and withdrawing from the outside world as you ground to your mat floating on your own island of quiet…

• Your body, breath and mind are united …

• Less thinking ; more breathing

Spirit:

• Imagine an energy thread high above your head, it enters through your crown and gentle  flows down your spine and into the earth… inhale your life force through this thread deepening your connection to spirit… Each inhalation brings aligning, transforming energy… each exhalation is grounding, like the spirit of a mountain…

• As you inhale through this thread allow the energy to flow down and around your heart… as you exhale send the energy down your legs into the earth…

• Each breath connects and fills you with spirit…

• your body, breath, mind and spirit are united in the processes of connection, absorption and transformation of energy…

• This is the energy of “Samasthihi” which we cultivate each time we step into Tadasana or Mountain Pose… 

Conclude with:

“Within your practice as you maintain Tadasana connect to the power of “Samasthihi” the energy of connection, absorption and transformation. The conscious cultivation of body, breath, mind and spirit within your practice leads to personal transformation as you ground like the spirit of mountain and create alignment and transformation of your energetic layers. Let Tadasana be your reminder of “Samasthihi,” the transforming energy of yoga.”

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 Some of my FAVORITE sayings

*Recognize that not much else in our lives asks us to tap into such presence and aliveness. 

*Let this be the ultimate reset button

*How are you meeting this challenge?

*Step into the conscious state of inquiry

 .*You don't have to wait until the situations, challenges, obstacles in your life shift to be happy & to be free... fly above it

*Happiness is looking for you but you miss it because you have a different expectation of what happiness looks like.

*Go to the breath behind the breath... the voice is quieter there/ your god voice your divine voice

*Let the sun come out inside... I do have everything I need., I do have all that i could ever ask for

*Belief is refusing or erasing doubt but Faith is continuing on in the face of doubt

*Allow the body to become a doorway so to speak into a deeper sense of aliveness beneath the fluctuating emotions and underneath your thinking

* Release tension you've accumulated throughout the day. 

*Our Bodies know they belong--- to life, to spirit, it is our MINDS that make us HOMELESS.

*The Head has the Penthouse, but it doesnt 

*Become quiet enough to hear the stirrings of the heart.

*Breathe into your clarity.

*The Wobbles mean you are alive. In constant growth and transformation

*Soften your body around the breath.

*Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are in fact princesses who are waiting  just once to see us act w beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightnes us in its depeest essence is something helpless that wants our love. <<<respond to vulnerability with love. how can we relate to our humanness the obstacles/ the challenges wit ha wise heart>>> (((What are your dragons and how do you meet them?)))

*Know that you are inhaling, and whene you exhale, know that you are exhaling.

*You will face your biggest opposition when you are closest to your biggest miracle" 

*Nourish the inner space.

*Calm the fluctuations of the mind

*Life is the hyphen between matter and spirit. The practice of yoga brings us face to face with the hyphen.

*Yoga has a special way of short circuiting mental patterns of worry and anxiety. 

*Yoga is a practice for the soul thru the medium of the body.

*Asana attunes the body for meditation just as a guitar is tuned before a preformance.

*Yoga is not about self improvement/ its about self realization

*While we are doing yoga we are more of ourselves and more than ourselves. 

*The words I am are potent- be careful of the things your claming as they havea way of reaching back and claiming all of you."

*You have all the answers, you just must get quiet enough to hear them

*Realign breath w the body and mind w the heart. 

*The mind is a tool- 65,000 thoughts a day. Lots of clutter and noise to shift through. What is the noise that is proccupying you? 

*Clear the inner space.

*Success come from taking only what you need from a pose, nothing more. 

*Sync up w/ the energetics of this practice

*Deepen the breath, clear the clutter.

*Downward Dog is an old faithful friend. It calls you to listen and can offer you sage advice or insight into your state of being... what is it telling you about your mind, body, and state today? 

*The words "I AM" are potent- be careful of the things you are claiming as they have a way of reaching back and claiming all of you

*You have the answer, you just have to become quiet enough to hear it.

Turn the gaze towards the heart. The seat of the inner teacher.

*Connect to intentions. Where would you like to direct the benefits of this practice? 

*We become so fixated on doing, we forget about the 'being'

*Atha Yoga Anushasanam, Now, the yoga, begins.

Reminding us that Yoga is HERE and Now.

How do we realign ourselves with our aspirations? We start again, Now. 

*Listen to the soundtrack of breath around you- you may have come alone, but now you are practicing together.

*Starve the Ego- Feed the Soul

EGO - three letters that will hold you back from saying three words your heart is dying to say- I LOVE YOU, I AM SORRY, I WAS WRONG

*REMEMBER THAT IN YOGA...

It matters less WHAT we  do in yoga and more HOW and WHY?

Each breath is an opportunity to reconnect to the present moment... again and again, reconnect to presence. 

*Practice on releasing tension that doesn't belong in each pose.

*What may feel like an incomplete pose is infact a perfect pose.

*Be free of past and future and be full of breath.

*"In Yoga... PERFECTION is full presence."

*Create the space within to experience your body as a temple. Let your body become this sanctuary, sacred space where you can come into your own divinity. 

*You can tie yourself into pretzels but it wont free you

*Enter a state of body centered restful awareness that awakens grace, restores a sense of balance, and wholeness. 

*Listen to the soundtrack around you of breath. you might have come alone but now you're practicing together. 

*The goal is not to tie ourselves in knots, we are already tied in knots. The aim is to untie the knots in our hearts and to unite with ultimate loving peaceful power of the universe. 

*“Now that all your worry has proved such an unlucrative business, why not find a better job.”~Hafiz

*Connect your consciousness to the breath and follow the breath inward"

*“Now that all your worry has proved such an unlucrative business, why not find a better job.”~Hafiz

"*The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive." ~Einstein

*

You Are What You Yoga

Don’t be fast. You have the rest of your day to ride in the fast lane. Why not let the time you spend practicing yoga be all about decelerating? Slow down; take your time on your mat. The slower your breath, the deeper your practice. Don’t be in a rush to get into the poses. Instead, take the time to set up proper alignment first. Try stopping after each sun salutation to take a few breaths and savor it rather than rushing off to the next one.

Don’t be cheap. Be generous. Be generous with your breath and your energy, sharing it with the other people you practice with if you go to a yoga class. If you are practicing at home, don’t skip the time for savasana. Don’t cheat yourself out of a minute on your yoga mat by letting your thoughts drift to your to-do list. Stay present and grounded. Don’t be cheap in rewarding yourself; give yourself the gift of the time to reconnect with your spirit, fully present.

Don’t be easy. B.K.S. Iyengar would say that once you think you know everything there is to know about a yoga pose, that is when you stop practicing yoga. I think what he was trying to teach is don’t take the easy road. Always find new ways to challenge yourself on the yoga mat, new ways to explore the pose, to notice your body and your breath, to quiet your mind. I have done thousands of downward dogs, to the point where this pose should be easy, or even boring, but I’ll never get tired of the thrill of getting my heels a little closer to the floor, marveling at how far I’ve come on my yoga journey.

Do not aim low; you will miss the mark. Aim high, and you will be on a threshold of bliss.”

―B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Life

Don’t be fake. Your yoga practice should belong to you, not the person next to you. Stop trying to stack up to some picture you have in your mind of what a flexible yogi should look like. Don’t worry if you can’t touch your toes, and please don’t try to force yourself into doing so! Honor yourself. Stand tall in your truth. And be ok with modifying a pose to fit your body, or taking a resting pose when you need to take a break.

You are what you yoga, so slow down, be generous, keep growing on your journey, and be true to yourself.

CONSCIOUSNESS

At some point in your growth, it starts to become quieter inside. This happens quite naturally as you take a deeper seat within yourself. You then come to realize that though you have always been in there, you have been completely overwhelmed by the constant barrage of thoughts emotions and sensory inputs that draw on your consciousness. As you see this it begins to dawn on you that you might actually be able to go beyond all these disturbances. The more you sit in the seat of witness consciousness the more you realize that since you are completely independent of what you are watching there must be a way to break free of the magical hold that the psyche has on your awareness. 

SAMSCARA

Unconscious (i.e., “normal) living creates deep grooves of conditioning and habits in the layers of our being, called samskara. The practice of yoga brings light to our conditioning and makes it possible to transform these grooves, but that doesn’t stop samskara from creeping into yoga practice. Tools to create awareness and stay present are needed for every aspect of life.

FEAR

Fear is becoming rampant on the planet. We can see it every day in the news. Fear is a lack of trust in ourselves, and because of this, we don’t trust Life. We don’t trust that we’re being taken care of on a higher level, so we feel we must control everything from the physical level. Obviously, we’re going to feel fear because we can’t control everything in our lives.

Trust is what we learn when we want to overcome our fears. It’s called “taking a leap of faith” and trusting in the Power within that’s connected to Universal Intelligence. Remember, the Power that supplies our breath is the same Power that created the Universe.

You’re one with all of Life. The more you know how to love yourself and trust Life, the more that Life will love you, support you, and guide you. You can trust in that which is invisible, instead of trusting only in the physical, material world. I’m not saying that we do nothing, yet if we have trust, we can go through life much easier. We need to trust that we’re being taken care of, even though we’re not physically in control of everything that’s happening around us.

Fear limits our minds. People have so much fear about getting sick or becoming homeless or so many other things. Anger is fear that has become a defense mechanism. It protects us, yet it would be so much more powerful if we stop reevaluating fearful situations in our minds and love ourselves through the fear. We’re at the center of everything that happens in our lives. Every experience, every relationship, is the mirror of a mental pattern that we have inside us.

One of my favorite writers, Susan Jeffers, has a marvelous CD called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. In it, she states: “If everybody feels fear when approaching something totally new in life—yet so many are out there doing itdespite the fear—then we must conclude that fear is not the problem.” She goes on to say that the real issue is not the fear, but how we hold the fear.

At any moment you have the opportunity of choosing love or fear. In moments of fear, I remember the sun. It’s always shining even though clouds may obscure it for a while. Like the sun, the One Infinite Power is eternally shining its light upon me, even though clouds of negative thinking may temporarily obscure it. I choose to remember the Light. And you can, too. Feel secure in the Light. When the fears come, choose to see them as passing clouds in the sky, and let them go on their way.

Affirm: I am not my fears. It is safe for me to live without guarding and defending myself all the time. When I feel afraid, I open my heart and let the love dissolve the fear.

Love is the opposite of fear. The more we’re willing to love and trust who we are, the more we attract those qualities to ourselves. When we’re on a streak of really being frightened or upset or worried or not liking ourselves, isn’t it amazing how everything goes wrong in our lives? It’s the same when we really love ourselves. Everything starts to go on a winning streak, and we get the green lights and the parking spaces. We get up in the morning and the day flows beautifully.

We need to love ourselves so that we can take care of ourselves. We have to do everything we can to strengthen our hearts, our bodies, and our minds. We must turn to the Power within, find a good spiritual connection, and really work on maintaining it.

Here are some of my favorite affirmations for releasing fears. Give them a try:

• I am willing to release my fears.

• I live and move in a safe and secure world.

• I free myself from all destructive fears and doubts.

• I accept myself and create peace in my mind and heart.

• I rise above thoughts that attempt to make me angry or afraid.

• I release the past with ease and trust the process of life.

• I am willing to release the need for this protection.

• I am now willing to see only my magnificence.

• I have the power to make changes. 

• I am always divinely protected.

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• SHAKTI

• Yoga is mythic. It is a reflection of the cosmic forces that are timeless and universal in nature—creation, continuity, and dissolution—which are embodied in yoga as asanas.

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• Shakti, or Prana, is the universal stuff from which it all comes. Everything here is shakti; it’s all just shakti, patterns of shakti. It’s the stuff of the universe, finer than quanta of energy in the physical, scientific realm. We can ignore it if our method does not involve focusing on energy, or we can work with it, draw it in, mobilize it, direct it, and use it as a force. We can use it in the same way we might use electricity – we can collect it in the same way. It feels the same, except it is much finer. We can draw it in and draw it in and draw it in, and we will experience new realms of perception and new powers.

• You don't need to travel to India to feel the coiled power of a cobra, Bhujangasana, in your body, or the rooted power of a tree in Vrksasana.

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• The yogic sages anticipated quantum physics by pointing out that a subtle vibratory energy is the substratum of everything we know.

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• Unlike physicists, however, yogic seers experienced this energy not simply as an abstract vibration but as the expression of the divine feminine power, called Shakti. The word shakti means "power." Shakti, the innate power in reality, has five "faces." It manifests as the power to be conscious, the power to feel ecstasy, the power of will or desire, the power to know, and the power to act...

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• Shakti derives from the Sanskrit verbal root shak, which means "to have potential" or "to be able"/ . Shakti is thie unparalled powerful aspect of the divine feminine - or mahadevi. 

• She herself is the power/energy/force that permeates all creation including the animate, inanimate, manifest and, unmanifest. 

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  This sequence is designed to awaken the fluid creativity and the  energetic qualities of Shakti w/ in yourself, the feminine expression of divine consciousness

   

  In the West, we often think of the masculine principle as active and creative, while the feminine is passive and receptive. But in hatha yoga, these are reversed: The goddess Shakti (literally “power”) creates and nourishes the world, while her spouse, the god Shiva (the “auspicious one”) is her silent audience.

   

  Shakti and Shiva are the stars of an old parable that epitomizes the practice and goal of hatha yoga. Briefly it goes: In a cave at the foot of mythic Mount Meru the goddess Shakti rests after creating the world. She’s pictured as a slumbering serpent wound three-and-a-half (sometimes eight) times around herself, and therefore called kundalini, or “coiled one.” When the time is right, she awakens and laboriously ascends to Meru’s summit, where she’s reunited with the waiting Shiva.

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  What do serpents, mountains, and unhelpful husbands have to do with yoga? Each of us is a composite of Shiva/Shakti energies. While we refer to them as distinct, they are actually inseparable complements, like the north and south poles of a magnet. When they are in balance, our lives are harmonious and joyful; but when they are not in balance, we suffer.

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  Shakti’s climb and ultimate reunion with Shiva represents, in the context of our practice, the gradual awakening to and realization of our authentic Self.

  Richard Rosen, who teaches in Oakland and Berkeley, California, has been writing for Yoga Journalsince the 1970s.

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  Adi Shakti, Adi Shakti, Adi Shakti, Namo Namo

  (I bow to the Primal Power)

  Sarb Shakti, Sarb Shakti, Sarb Shakti, Namo Namo

  (I bow to the all encompassing Power and Energy)

  Pritham Bhagvati, Pritham Bhagvati, Pritham Bhagvati, Namo Namo

  (I bow to that which God creates)

  Kundalini Mata Shakti, Mata Shakti, Namo Namo

  (I bow to the creative power of the Kundalini, the Divine Mother Power)

   

  IMAGINATION

 Imagination always precedes transformation. Every important change you’ve made in your life, inner or outer, started with an act of imagination. And there has been significant studies on how imagination has immediate effects on our mind-body. For example, close your eyes and imagine biting into a sour lemon. Without delay you feel your lips pucker and the salivary glands become active. imagination can help us begin to replace our internal patterns, especially the ones that keep us limited and stuck. If we can reimagine our sense of who we are, we can change our experience of life. Yoga is all about what happens when we recognize this truth. If you can imagine yourself, say, free of suffering, you’ve taken the first step toward that freedom.

Imagine Yourself as an Enlightened Sage

Set aside half an hour.

Begin by calling to mind a sage or saint, or another human being you deeply admire. It should be someone you have a feeling for and whose teachings you understand—Jesus, or Buddha, Gandhi, St. Teresa of Avila, the Baal Shem Tov, or your own teacher, if that teacher has been a reliable example of enlightenment.

If no one comes to mind, choose one of the qualities of enlightened consciousness—such as compassion or love.
Now, think deeply about that person or the quality you want to embody. Consider how it might be to look through that person’s eyes. If it’s a quality, ask yourself, “How would it be at this moment to look through the eyes of love?” Ask yourself, “How did this being treat others?” How might he or she behave while living your life? (Yes, what would Jesus do?) Imagine facing a challenge, a big conflict, the desertion of someone close. How would that person handle it?

Now, close your eyes and imagine that the spirit of that person (or that quality) inhabits your body. Inhale, thinking to yourself, “Christ’s love lives within me, as my love,” or “Buddha’s state of enlightenment is my enlightenment,” or “The courage of Gandhi is my courage.” Exhale, thinking, “That inner state fills my body.”

Do this for a few moments. Then ask yourself, “How would I move through the world if I truly embodied the qualities of this being? How would I treat myself? How would I be with my partner? my kids? my parents? the people on the bus? What would it be like to interact with others?”

Let your imagination completely open to this practice, imagining yourself enlightened, saturated with love. For the remainder of the half hour, act out of that experience. Be the great being you’re imagining yourself to be. Act out the quality you want to imbibe. Do this for half an hour a day for a week and see if you notice the effect.

Sally Kempton is an internationally recognized teacher of meditation and yogic philosophy and the author of The Heart of Meditation.

THIS IS WHAT I HAVE TO SAY TO YOU by donna faulds

This is what I have to say to you. Throw off the bonds of your conditioning and fear and celebrate the wonder of being here. Experience this moment as it is, connected by breath and essence to the whole. You couldn't be separate if you tried.

Live this day as if the earth exhales blessings in your direction, as if trees speak their deepest secrets in your ear, as if bird songs can lift you outside your ordinary state of mind and bring you into truth.

Be the creative juice flowing through the universe. Be compassion in action and wholeness in motion. Be silence and stillness, the ocean of love so palpable that not one cell of you disputes the truth that you are that. Be so open to your destiny that it unfurls like a banner in the sky, a sign saying "Live until you die with gratitude, generosity, and grace."

~From Limitless by Danna Faulds

THE UNEXERCISED HEART

Under stress an unexercised heart will explore in frustration or fury. If the situation is especially tense, that exploding heart may be hurled like a fragment grenade toward the source of its pain. But a heart that has been consistently exercised through conscious engagement with suffering is more likely to break open instead of apart. Such a heart has learned how to flex to hold tension in a way that expandsits capacity for both suffering and joy. 

Krishnamurti Quote 

One said that observation without judgement is the highest form of spiritual practice. Thoughts and emotions will come and go. Releasing evaluation or attachemnt, allow them to pass over you like clouds drifiting across a mountain.

"Understand what cannot be unsterstood! Hear from the heart wordless mysteries!In our stone dark hearts there burns a fire that burns al teh veils to their root and foundation. When the veils have been burned away then the heart will understand completely. Ancient love will unfold ever fresh forms in the heart of the spirit, in the core of the heart ~Rumi

Awake, my dear

Be kind to your sleeping Heart

Take it out into the vast fields of Light

And let it breathe...

~Hafiz

From Donna Farhi

Each day as you step onto your mat, make a decision to enjoy just where you are right now. Take a few moments to contemplate how fortunate you are to be practicing this wonderful art. 

Ram Das, an icon in the spiritual scene,

has said that in the beginning....

of his practices he was filled with judgement, anger, rage, craving, impatience.... and now, decades later- years of meditation and devotion, he is... STILL filled with judgement, anger, rage, craving, impatience, but the difference is that it doesn't cause him suffering. 

So its a kind of Good News/ Bad News moment, where you realize your humanness stays and that you will experience full ranges of emotion, but that you will no longer be defined by that. You will develop a sense of presence that allows you to be with whatever emotions or feeling is dominent with a sort of peace and acceptance. 

Sutra 2.1 Tapah Svadyaya Isvara Prandihana Kriya Yoga- Choose to do the difficult work- maybe the work that is against your internal impulse, the work that will get you to a better place. Introspection/ the pause before the knee jerk reaction/ chosing love and compassion in the face of difficulty/ letting go of the need to control/ sitting down to medtate when you don't have time. 

The MIND is The Watering Hole

The mind is the watering hole. Many strang creatures will come to drink- all the interesting beautiful animals and creatures. If you are still, and you observe they will come for you to witness. If you are noisy and mock and judge some creatures that you could learn from don't come.

Repeatedly We are Asked

Repeatedly we are asked to embody or to consume; to be in kinship with everything larger or to order and manage everything smaller.

We are asked every day to align or to separate. To coordinate our will with everything living or to impose our will on everything we meet.

all this leaves us needint to know; whether to better the song through practice or to better ourselves through singing. 

~Mark Nepo

Re; the Above: In our smallest choices we practice inhabiting or consuming life- living in kinship or controlling. Start to notice those choices in your day to day life.

Embodying the Shakti - a little background about what is Shakti. You might have heard of it- it means power. Or creative power. and it is the creative power inside each of us that is literally vibration. So the yogis said that 80% made of star matter- science is proving this. So science and mystery yoga schools understood that there is this vibrating pulsation at the heart of each of us, that literally does this- inhales and exhales. and the carrier of this vibrational source energy is our breath. So we say that prana is carried on the breath. so another name of shakti could be used as life force or prana. essentially what we are doing in a practice is merging the physical which is also made of star matter- star matter pulsing essence, merging that thickened vibration with the litghet vibration of our center or source. if you close your eyes for a moment you’ll notice that you can’t get complete still. theres an essence, a virbation, a pulsation, we are never fully still. We think we are matter and only matter but what the yoggis say is we are bigger than that. we are made of this vibration- shakti. Think of your body as the ocean and then the vibrations as the waves. the movement that continues. 

When we do a big strong practice we can bring our solidness, our matter, our stagnancy to a more vibrational place. We can connect to the energy of our being and that energy, shakti, prana, life force, is healing. 

Start by closing the eyes feeling the hearts rhythm. 

Feel your breaths flow. The in breath, the out breath. 

Feel the energy of your eyes, your heart, the rush of your blood. We’re not ding anything, the breath is rising and falling on its own. the diaphram is contracting and expanding. the lungs are filing and emptying out. the brain doesnt have to do anything. the force behind your breath, your hearts beat, the blinking of your eyes, the twitch of a muscle is the Shakti. The power within you.

That creative power when we harness it will change your life. literally heal you from the inside out. Settle the breath down in to the roots of the pelvis and allow the inhalation to rise up into the heart and the crown. Just like this room is vibrating and puslating even though it seems to be still. you are also vibrating and pulsating even this you seem to be still. 

The mantra of OM is said to be constant in the universe. And when we chant we are just aligning with the vibration of the universe. 

OM OM OM 

honor the pulsation within

Breath is connecting you to the vibration. From the physical dense body to the more vibratory light body. 

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through practice of pranayama with movenent- vinyasa. we enliven that creative power inside.

Supine. Great pose to rather than fall asleep, but to wake up. with every exhalation you let the body rest deep into the earth, and yet as the body rests and the mind becomes more spacious we wake up to pulsation or vibration. this is what prepares us for meditation. we become acutely aware of vibration inside and that everything is pulsing. 

HUMILITY AND ASTEYA

Humility has two sides. Most of us have been told at one time or another, "Don't get too big for your breeches," and we know exactly what that means...But there is another aspect to humility , and that is about not playing small. Just as we may strive on the mat for more than our bodies are ready for, we may also take the opposite tack, and play small. We back off and stay in the comfort zone, all our excuses at the ready: I'm not built like that; that's great for them but not for me; I have bad balance, bad knees, bad eye-sight, the wrong kind of mat...We sell ourselves short. Humility...is the the aspect of satya that bring us into balance... Our postures become the embodiment of this exquisite balance between holding on and letting go, action and nonaction, ambition and restraint. What is required to achieve that balance is a commitment to humility, a commitment to the truth. – Rolf Gates,Meditations from the Mat © 2002 p 33

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

The Mind

5 Seed Mantras

Let’s begin with basic mantras called bija mantras, or seed mantras, that have been universally used in meditative practice to harmonize one’s energy.

• OM:  The most well known and universal of the bija mantras it is the sound of creation and causes energy to gather and flow upward and outward. OM is the mantra of acceptance and assent. It helps you to accept your higher self and allow energy to flow openly and freely through you. It also serves as a gathering mantra, gathering your inward energy and preparing your energy for movement.

• KRIM (pronunciation “kreem”):  Chanting this mantra stimulates your lower chakras to awaken and begin purifying your body.

• SHRIM (pronunciation “shreem”):  Its associations lie with the head and third eye. It promotes bodily and spiritual health but can also be used to bring beauty and happiness to one’s senses.

• HRIM (pronunciation “hreem”):  This holds powers of healing and creativity.Chanting this mantra awakens compassion and purifies the heart.

• HUM (pronunciation “hoom”):  This evokes the breakdown of negative feelings and spreads positivity and vitality through the body.

• This literally ‘sets the tone’ for your meditation;then, you can incorporate the healing energies of the cleansing mantras below. Each of the  cleansing mantras correspond to one of the 7 chakras in your body.

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THE BODY AND THE MIND are inseparable. the body directly interacts w the mind when emotions arise. we see it in the circulatory system, immune system, musculoskeletal system, endocrine system, and nervoussystem. The Body also affects the mind and the mind affects the body.

Patanjali's instrution in postures are teaching us to BE. Osho says, if you can remain in one posture, the body will become a servant and that once the body becomes the servant the mind will follow. And that all discipline of yoga is an effort to make you a master of yourself. 

BEING PRESENT

Being present in the moment does not just mean taking part fully in the external situation that may be happening, whether it be a crisis, a conversation, or a life-event that evokes feelings. It means bringing one's whole self to that moment, including all the threads of love, wisdom, and relationship that are part of the self.

To be present in the moment is to exist in it with the full integrity of one's being. Here, all relationships are honored, all love is intact, and respect for life is integrated with the totality of what may be happening on the outer level. Being present means being present to what is inside as well as to what is outside. This is a way of existing in the fullness of who one is. It is a great learning and a great task of consciousness. Blessings.