Seattle Donation Yoga

I am pleased to be hosting one of my favorite classes of the year right here at Studio G. I began leading these classes back at 8 Limbs Yoga Centers and I am happy to continue the tradition of giving to UGM here at my home studio. As you can see, I am using the Settle Donation Yoga logo for this class, as it what Seattle Donation Yoga is all about.  Suggested donation is $20.00, but please give what you can. Space is extremely limited, so contact me soon if you plan on attending. I regret that I will not be able to host as many of you as I have in years past. If you would like to donate but cannot attend, I am happy to collect your offerings in class this week and pass them on. The Mission has been helping Seattleites since 1932 and continues to serve men, women and children in multiple facilities throughout Seattle.

Last January I had the privilege of touring Hope Place, the Mission’s long-term residential facility for women and children in south Seattle’s New Holly neighborhood. I am happy to report that the money we donate is being well-spent. The rooms are private and homey and the support and educational facilities are excellent. Save for the sounds of kids playing in the on-site park, the quiet family atmosphere is a far cry from the hustle and bustle of the Mission’s Men’s Shelter in Pioneer Square (ironically, this building was originally Seattle’s finest brothel). I am proud that our practice can help sustain a long tradition of Seattleites helping Seattleites.

I’m very thankful for the opportunity to practice with everyone who comes to Studio G; that’s why I’m here. I’m especially touched by the number of friends who have sought me out for private yoga sessions, and I’m heartened by the results. The last few weeks have been a turning point in my teaching: I led my first “private” where all we did was sit and talk. No poses, no specific breathing, we simply sat and discussed ways to see ourselves more clearly and tools for embodying an amazing in life. There have been some tears, the facing of fears, as well as heavy emotional breakthroughs. I see people leave the studio completely changed from when they arrived and I get reports that the goodness lasts for weeks and weeks. It’s often a remarkable transformation, and I’m grateful to be involved. Thank you everyone for trusting in me.

Some students have called it mentoring, some have said it’s degrees better than any therapy or counseling they have ever experienced, some just say yoga. Whatever you call it, it’s happening here at Studio G, if and when you are ready. One hour sessions are $75.00/ hour, or $325.00 for 5 sessions. Hour and a half sessions are $100.00.

Many of you may have heard about the Metabolic Type Nutrition Trainings I offer. These trainings have allowed my customers to experience major shifts in their quality of life. We are talking about true success stories, and they are available to everyone, regardless of your situation. Good health begins with good nutrition. You simply need to be ready to stop eating junk and forget some of the major marketing schemes of the last 100 years. Progress is not always a mark of success. Good nutrition is all about whole, healthy, naturally prepared foods. Processed and packaged foods, excessive sweeteners and refined grains all tax the body and lead to sub-optimal enjoyment of living. Of course, all of us are individuals, so one person’s perfect food could be poison to another. It’s all dependent on your Metabolic Type.

Please visit my website to learn more about Metabolic Type Nutrition, or call or write any questions. For many people, it only takes a few days for others to notice we are looking better: It’s that fast. I especially recommend this system for people who never found success with “traditional” forms of nutrition, whether Easter or Western. You have nothing to loose except your unhappiness.

Surya Namaskar, or Sun Salutations, are at the heart of the Raja yoga path. They are not an end in themselves, as some newfangled forms of yoga would have you believe, but rather pathways to a deeper level of practice. They create heat and reverence in the body, and prepare for the later, focused work in the series. This workshop will break down the alignment of the specific poses in the series, as well as the other significant standing poses: Warriors 1 & 2, Triangle and Side Angle. The transitions between the poses are as important as the poses themselves, so we will spend time on the finer points of moving our alignment safely from pose to pose. That’s where the fun begins!

This workshop is open to all levels of practitioner, although not everybody is expected, or encouraged, to do all the poses of the series. Modifications will be offered.

We live in a chaotic and dramatically changing world. As sentient beings it is imperative we navigate this world with our heads held high and our hearts wide open. Amid the technological disasters, the acts of god, the depressing gloom, the horrible mistakes, the heartless greed, the wanton killing and all the hatred in the world we must hold ourselves to the highest standards of ethics and right action. We must never slouch down to a “whatever works” approach or allow the ethical descent of others to serve as our example. When we do stumble, we right ourselves without judgment and get back on the path. We won’t wear the lazy smile of complacency, the superior smile of selfishness nor the false smile of manipulation. As corny as it may sound, we must look for love and goodness in all things and contribute the same back to the world. It’s our job.

How is it possible to find the good in the midst of all this world’s suffering? For many of us it seems like an overwhelming task, unless we simply ignore others and focus solely on our own needs. This approach is little better, as we literally allow the world to fall apart around us and are left standing in garbage. No, it is our job not only to uphold the greatness of life, but to encourage and foster it. This task is nearly impossible without an ethical practice, such as the philosophical tenets of yoga and meditation.

The physical practice of yoga is a dependent part of a greater whole. The yamas and niyamas are the first two limbs of the classical yoga system. They supply the ethical foundation for the poses, the breathing and the mental developments that follow. Yama literally means death. We must allow our old, childish habits to pass away before we can become wise and radiant. To practice yoga without first engaging in ethical responsibility is merely exercise. The yamas and niyamas foster clarity in our actions and conscience. Without them in place, we constantly second guess ourselves and our deeds. These “observances” make us solid individuals.

Ahimsa is the first of 5 yamas, commonly translated as non-violence. Himsa really means harm, and the negative prefix “a” means to do the opposite. Instead of taking the passive path and vowing “to do no harm”, what if instead we actively do the opposite of harm? Instead of not doing something harmful, we would instead be doing good, such as helping or caring. We think and act with love and kindness. We acknowledge that suffering and cruelty exist and appreciate how powerfully they turn us back to our practice. We hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards and do what we can to raise them for others. This is the path of the engaged yogi, and I encourage you all to follow it.

The Sanskrit word yoga means to yoke, or create a union. Traditionally this was described as the union of the individual with the infinite. Yoga can also describe the union of body and breath, action and intention, or any number of poetic allegories. Asana means seat, such as in a chair or cushion for meditation. Besides naming the thing that one sits on, asana refers to the physical postures of Hatha yoga. The idea is that all the shapes of yoga are at their core seats for meditative inquiry.

The first yoga asana were the seats of meditation and ritual prostration employed during religious ceremonies and pujas around the sacred fire. A sacred space, or yantra, was created on the earth and a fire was then built according to specifically prescribed instructions. Various substances were offered into the flames, such as ghee, or clarified butter, while those performing the ceremony sat in one or more asana that related to the specific puja. At it’s core, asana is linked to ritual and ceremony.

After many millennium yoga began to incorporate other shapes into the pantheon of asana. One branch of the practice comes from martial arts, specifically the warrior poses. While ascetics and holy people lead a highly meditative life, they were still susceptible to all the ravages or war, thievery and violence that everyone else was. They needed to protect themselves in the forest and while traveling and were often masters of martial arts. As asana practice became an end in itself, the stimulating and empowering poses from martial arts were used to create heat in the body and self confidence. At this time yoga was limited to men only, so many of the shapes and poses were incorporated into dance as well. There is a great commonality to yoga, martial arts and classical dance and nowadays practitioners tend to bounce back and forth between the three disciplines.

Finally, many of the exotic poses that we see today in yoga magazines come not from the East, but from western gymnastics. As the Indian sub-continent was ruled by colonizing western countries for centuries, they left their mark in the form of popular forms of exercise. Many of the arm balancing poses and jumping transitions from Ashtanga yoga have their source in the sorts of gymnastics that ones sees in the Olympics, whether on the floor, the horse, the uneven parallel bars or the rings. Mythically descriptive names were added to these new poses after the fact. Along with the shapes themselves, the competitive aspect of gymnastics was adopted by some yoga practitioners, so that now there are numerous yoga competitions in India and many people are pushing to make yoga part of the summer Olympics.

Whether you practice yoga for spiritual or physical reasons is up to you, but to get the most out of your practice is is important to approach asana with ritual intention and an openness to meditative inquiry. Once you immerse yourself in the physical practice of yoga asana, they other aspects of yoga tend to start to creep into your life and become more important. Of course, all these poses are best learned from a qualified teacher, so that you can get the most out of your practice and learn safely.

1. The first visual records of the practice of Yoga Asana come from the Indus Valley Civilization (ca. 3,300-1,700 BCE), which is associated with the Vedic Period. At one of the excavation sites, Mohenjo-Dharo, clay seals were found depicting people seated in Padmasana, or Lotus posture. These seals are thought to depict humans trying to leave worldly concerns behind and achieve oneness with the spirit.

2. The Upanishads (ca. 1,000-500 BCE), literally “to sit near” a teacher, are a series of philosophical texts considered to be the foundation of Hinduism. They are written records of a previously oral tradition, passed from teacher to student and contain the first references to the philosophical concepts of yoga.

3. The Mahabharata (ca. 400 BCE) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. It contains the major philosophical text of yoga, the Bhagavad Gita, or “Song of God”. The story takes place on a battlefield and recounts the conversation between prince Arjuna and his “charioteer” Krishna. Krishna schools Arjuna on doing his duty, or dharma, and describes the practice of devotional yoga. It is the standard reference for the philosophical practice of yoga.

4. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (ca. 200 BCE) are the foundational text of Raja Yoga, or the yoga of action. These short aphorisms (sutra means “to stitch”, like suture) are the first written compendiums of a previously oral tradition of ascetics and sadhus, or holy men. Patanjali is credited with condensing these diverse and esoteric teachings into a manageable book.

In it he distills the practice of yoga into 8 limbs or branches of practice (Ashtanga):
Yama – the 5 abstentions: non-violence, truth, non-covetousness, sexual restraint, non-possessiveness
Niyama – the 5 observances: cleanliness, contentment, austerity, the study of the Vedas and holy texts for self-reflection, surrender to god
Asana – physical postures
Pranayama – breath control
Pratyahara – withdrawal of the senses
Dharana – concentration
Dhyana – meditation
Samadhi – the union, or oneness, of the meditator and the object of meditation

5. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika (ca. 1,500 CE) is the oldest text describing Hatha Yoga. It is the first written record of specific yoga asana and pranayama techniques and attributes various techniques to different teachers. Whereas the Sutras suggest a practitioner focus on the mind, the Pradipika suggests it is easier to first address the body, as the mind is difficult to tame.

6. The 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago was the first time an Indian yoga master traveled to the West and began the trend which has made yoga so poplar today. Swami Vivekanada reached an enthusiastic audience with his description of yoga and universality of religion.

7. In 1924 T. Krishnamacharya opened the first Hatha Yoga school in Mysore, India.

8. In 1947 Russian born Indra Devi opened the first American yoga studio in Hollywood. She was the first female yoga teacher.

As we have been working steadily on inversions this last month, many students have told me how challenging they are, and how they could use extra help in mastering these thrilling poses. This workshop at Westside Yoga will teach practitioners of all levels the basic physical forces necessary to support the body upside down. We will use the wall, props and each other so that everyone may experience the transformational feeling of experiencing the world inverted. Shoulder-stand, handstand, headstand and variations on forearm balance will be explored, as well as all the preparatory poses required to build a stable foundation. This will be fun!

Open to all levels with a class limit of 18. If you’ve had a recent shoulder injury, I suggest you wait till next time to participate. Please respond to confirm your spot.

Most people know that yoga was developed in India, but by whom? What do the names of the poses mean? Where did the familiar sequences of poses come from? Most importantly, why was yoga invented? These questions and many more will be answered at our next workshop at Westside Yoga Doga. While we cannot cover the whole 5,000 years of yoga in just two hours, this workshop will give practitioners empowering information on the history of yoga and the stories behind some of it’s poses. Come expecting to hear stories, practice asana and imagine another place and time.

Open to all levels with a class limit of 18. Please respond to confirm your spot.

Thank you for supporting Seattle Donation Yoga. After much contemplation I
have decided to shut down daily operations at the end of March. Simply put,
class sizes are not large enough to keep the business viable. As I mentioned
in the February Newsletter, I have been evaluating my current business and
deciding on changes. Instead of trying to modify what I have I will start
from scratch in another place and time. When I resume teaching group classes
again, rest assured that I will not change my charitable focus or
encouraging message. I will continue to be available for private
instruction.

If you enjoy taking class with me, then please come to class these next 6
weeks, often. I want everyone to have the opportunity to use their class
cards up. You are welcome to drop in to classes or buy another card if you
like, but I cannot honor them after March 31st. It would be great to see as
many of you as possible. Many people have told me how much they value what
I am doing and I am continually touched by the humanity of our sangha. It
has been my honor to pass on the teachings to you these last 4 ½ months, and
for almost 7 years before that.