It wasn’t until a few days later, just before my third class with Davidji, that I fully experienced what that meant. My mat was down towards the back of the room, and the scope of how many people were in front of me, how many people were practicing yoga became almost tangible. From there, I started to think of all the people in America who do yoga, and then started to think about the millions of people all over the world that do yoga.

Millions of people every day are doing yoga – and with time zones probably all day.  All of these people working towards cultivating clear seeing of the self, working towards living the yamas, working towards compassion and peace, working towards cultivating flexibility inside and out, working towards being the best they can be in this lifetime, and it is by and large confined to the studio.

Yes, amazing things have transpired “off the mat” because of the efforts of yogis. But I was staggered to think of the true potential, and also how we as yogis are not living up to it. I finally understood – felt – what Michael Stone speaks of when he talks about horizontal transcendence. Because what is the point, of all of that work, of all of the millions of people cultivating yoga, if it only stays in the studio?

Imagine the possibility if everyone in the world who does yoga in the studio, practiced while they were outside the studio, if we had all those millions of people walking around with yoga as the first step they take in each moment, paying attention to the way that they breathe, the way that they speak… if the world were as filled with what people cultivated on the mat – in the world itself.

So here’s to an auspicious year of living into the potential of uniting outside the studio in our practice – the way we do on the mat. Because what we cultivate is too precious, too transformative, too amazing not to be shared.  Not to do so is a waste– because we have the potential to transform, actually transform, what happens outside the studio, if we truly harness what we cultivate within and share it.

atha yoga nusasanam PYS I.1 – now is the practice of yoga

Sharon Gannon & David Life

Jivamukti Tribe Gathering
January 1st-5th

Rodney Yee & Colleen Saidman Yee

Vira Yoga
January 4th
Yogamaya
January 5th

Instead, what I find myself mulling over is the relationship between yoga, being a yoga practitioner and teacher, and the occupy movements, inspired by conversations with my partner Ann Iwashita.  I, like perhaps many of you – or few of you, had mostly dismissed them from my daily life after the initial couple of weeks. They bunkered down for the long haul, and I went back to my regular schedule. My subway rides, my soy lattes, my classes, my expanded investment in the yoga world as not only a teacher but studio manager as well, my family, my soon-to-be niece, my fluctuating bank account, my studio apartment, the dogs I dogsit, my life.

Then I went to Montreal for the weekend, where it was very cold. The cold that makes it difficult to speak properly after walking for about 5 blocks. If one were to walk the right 5 blocks, one would walk by the Occupy Montreal encampment. They have forgone their lattes, apartments, and lives – put all of it on hold – in the cold – for us.  Because what I started to realize was just that – they were out there for me. For a lot of people I care about actually. They believe a lot of things we all believe, that in some way life can be better for us, and have decided to stop the regular schedule of their lives, to sit out in the cold, to take on all manner of risks and potential atrocities– for us.

So I will go see for myself this Saturday night for the meditation at Zuccotti Park. I invite you to see for yourself as well – or rather, experience for yourself. And see if through the experience, an understanding of the relationship emerges. Because in the end that’s where yoga arises – in direct experience and personal integration – yoga is not something that can just be read about.

Dao 53 – Stephen Mitchel Version

The great Way is easy,
yet people prefer the side paths.
Be aware when things are out of balance.
Stay centered within the Tao.

When rich speculators prosper
while farmers lose their land;
when government officials spend money
on weapons instead of cures;
when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible
while the poor have nowhere to turn –
all this is robbery and chaos.
It is not in keeping with the Tao.

Thank you so much to the attendees for their insights and energy, it was a special day.

Keep an eye on the events page for future Jiva Day Yoga Immersions

Yoga asks us to cultivate several different kinds of WHAT (yamas, niyamas, vairagya, isvara, karma yoga etc.), and it is generally best to focus on one or two at a time.  Abhyasa (practice), as defined in Patanjali’s yoga sutras, advises that the HOW be steady, consistent over a long time, in all earnestness, and joyful.

In yoga practice, on and off the mat, check in and see WHAT and HOW you are being a vessel.  You might be surprised, as I was, how often the answer is boredom, inertia, criticalness, ambivalence, or of course the “bigger” ones of anger, regret, guilt, joy, love, etc.  Once you spend enough time noticing this, take it even a step further, and set an intention for the WHAT and HOW you want to be a vessel for, in actions, thought, and speech.

This is not a program for changing us into better people, because there is nothing missing in us. We are already holy beings, are already whole, already light, already divine – whatever term you use. The key is to cultivate that as the WHAT that flows through us and the HOW as all the time.

Beings that have achieved that are the ones we call gurus – they are just vessels for the divine. It is that light that draws us towards them, and encourages us on our path. Teachers are beings who are vessels for the teachings. They are just a bit further down our path, and flow to us what they have seen and experienced.  Students are vessels for experience – for the real-life application of what has been passed down by gurus and teachers – whether in writing or spoken transmission.

That being said, it’s not realistic to say “I’m going to have ahimsa flow through me all the time.” One because inevitably we will fail in some small way, and two because external circumstances change. What is ahimsic one day, may not necessarily be the same the next.  The air in NYC flows differently than the air in Hawaii, and will inevitably affect WHAT and HOW flows through you, and your ability to be a vessel.

While we need intention, we also need to keep that intention fully open to the present moment.  This is not to say we become inconstant in our WHAT, but that we don’t become rigid in it either.  There must be a balance, a flow, to our practice as a vessel.

Vinyasa is generally thought of as meaning “flow” – but really it means: well-sequenced indivisible moments of time.  How well are your moments sequenced, how well are they chosen?  The better sequenced and chosen, the more you “flow” in practice – on and off the mat.

$45 for the whole day
$25 for 8am-11am, $35 for 1pm-5pm

Schedule:

8:00-8:30 Meditation
8:30-9:00 Chanting & Intention
9:00-11:00 Asana
11:00-1:00 Lunch Break
1:00-2:30 Dharma: Study of Yogic Text
2:30-4:30 Asana
4:30-5:00 Meditation
5:00 Arati (closing practice)

Register by emailing jen@jwhitneyyoga.com
When you register, include:

*If you are registering for the whole day or half
*Payment can be made in person with cash/credit card – please indicate whether you will be paying the day of or in advance
- Payment must be made in full in order to guarantee a spot

^Hosted in Studio Yada

In asana practice the body is our vessel – the support we depend on- for the practice itself, and most notably for the breath.  Points when your body is acting like a vessel, the breath moves easily, dristhi is steady, the mind is focused, and awareness flows through your whole being. A sensation of the body moving around a center calm place arises. It is as if you remain in a steady state, while your body moves into all sorts of positions around it.   Points when you are not a vessel, the breath is constricted, there is no dristhi as the gaze moves about, the mind is multiple places, and awareness is shadowed and obscured.  Generally in a practice, we move between these two points.  The next time you practice, get to know your vessel. Notice when it acts like a vessel, and when it is not.  At points when it is not, see if you can notice what blocks have arisen.

In off the mat practice, check in and ask “What am I being a vessel for right now?”  Sometimes you’ll be surprised by the answer. As Heather Lilleston mentioned in a post -Wanderlust class, the moon is a vessel for the light of the sun. It receives the light, and immediately shines it back to the earth. The moon doesn’t try to do this, it doesn’t do headstands, meditate, or anything else. Just by being itself, it serves as a vessel. We all, without effort, are vessels for something – teachings, love, laughter, humility, compassion, knowledge, etc.

Can we endeavor to shine a little bit brighter, whatever we have flowing through us? Can we trust that our bodies, our lives, are exactly what we, and everyone around us, needs to move towards enlightenment in this lifetime?

So often this is limited to our human relationships, but as creatures of nature, and as descendants of a practice that was largely performed in nature, it is a continually relevant to ask ourselves: “What is my relationship with nature?”

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says:

“Mature in yoga, impartial
Everywhere that he looks
He sees himself in all beings
And all beings in himself …
When he sees all beings as equal
In suffering or in joy
Because they are like himself,
That man has grown perfect in yoga”
(Stephen Mitchell’s translation)

If this is the type of relationship we were to cultivate with nature – with trees, rocks, blades of grass, birds, cows, caterpillars and pigeons – how could we go about it?

1) Give it time

Spend some time – minutes, hours, days, and longer – getting to know a tree, the pigeon who likes to hang around outside your window, the clouds passing over a particular patch in the sky (sometimes we have can have flings with nature as well). Observe the nuances, idiosyncrasies, and moods. Observe how your own senses relate to it. Observe. All good relationships take time.

2) Yoga tools

Choose one of the yoga tools you know, and cultivate a perspective of the flavor it takes on when applied not just to human beings, but to all beings. What qualities does ahimsa take on or discard when applied to a tree? Satya when applied to water? Aparigraha to cows? Raga/dvesa? Karma? Intention? Breath? Choose one, and practice.

3) Vidya (seeing clearly)

Intrinsic to our perception of the world, beings, and nature around us, is the function they serve in our life. There is a dominating perspective cultivated and woven into the texture of our culture. We see an apple, and think of its name, the crispness of it, how it grows on trees, the last one we ate, etc. It is rare to see an apple without naming it, understanding its function, or relating it to how it serves us. Could we, instead, be with another being, and go beyond the name, the purpose, to the very essence of the being. See clearly right down to the very essence past all its “appleness”, until we get to the point where we and the apple are the same? It won’t work to approach the apple and immediately think “We’re the same.” You must pass through the experience of “appleness” first.

4) Meditate

So often when we spend time walking in nature, we’re thinking about where we’re going (point A to point B type stuff), we’re trying to clear our heads or work out some problem, or we’re daydreaming. Use walking meditation as a way to cultivate a true presence with nature.

“When you feel blissful and peaceful, then you have peaceful coexistence with all of nature, not only with this planet, but also with the sun, moon, planets and galaxies, with all of existence. The whole house of nature becomes your own home. Such a man or a woman is the incarnation of heaven moving on this earth. He or she is the image of Mother Nature.” Shri Brahmananada Sarasvati – The Universal Search for Peace

“i thank You God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes…” e.e. cummings – from Xaipe

My first thoughts on talking about the festival were about being in the moment. It started at 9:50am, Friday, on my first day of yoga there. I was on my mat waiting for Rodney and Colleen’s class on the feet, and the woman on the mat next to me got on line to speak to them.  For those of you who haven’t yet made it to a conference/retreat/festival/teacher training, at the end students line up to talk to the teachers, take pictures, smile, thank them, give an offering, share a story or insight, etc. It’s like the end of a regular yoga class, but a bit more formal, and a bit more rock star. Traditionally, one waits until the end of his/her class to approach the teachers… but not this yogi. She was going to start the experience off by getting in line for the class that was finishing before ours. Returning to the mat next to mine, holding her smartphone, she suddenly exclaimed to me that she could not yet Facebook the picture, as she had wanted to, because she was supposed to be at work! I was not quite sure how to respond (not using Facebook myself, I figured there was probably some sort of common response I could make, but was completely unsure what), so I smiled, nodded, and went back into my own space.

Later that night, at the Andrew Bird concert, people had their phones up from start to finish. Same thing the next night at Michael Franti’s (wow!) show.  They watched the entire show through their phones. At Michael Franti’s concert in particular, when he moved out into the crowd, people were so excited about his nearness, that they instantly held up their phones to document. The very act distanced them as clearly as if he were again back up on stage.

It reminded me of the quote by Chief Seattle on travelling: “Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints.”  Can we take memories, without taking documentation of them? Or perhaps even more importantly, can we take pictures; can we make memories, without needing to immediately share them? What happens to “memory” through the distance of a recording device? How much of a memory is it really, when it’s turned around so quickly to others?

In yoga, every experience creates a samskara – a groove – a psychic record of our very own. In neuroscience, I believe they have a similar idea of how nerve connections function in the brain, creating patterns based on our actions (thought, said, and performed). Unlike actual records, our samkaras are changeable, given enough intention and time.  I wonder if by immediately documenting and sharing every noteworthy (and even not-so-noteworthy) event, we’re cheating ourselves of the chance to set a deep groove, or to switch an old one to a new track.  We miss the opportunity to allow the experience, the moment, to settle in and be just ours for awhile – and all that can come out of that kind of incubation.

Realistically, and honestly (I did take a few snapshots of my own, and have been checking out some videos posted on line- if you watch this one, you can catch a brief glimpse of me in tie-dyed pants in the acro yoga class), smartphones, tablets, facebook, twitter and everything else we have that has encouraged this new shift in experiencing is not going anywhere, and nor would most of us ask it to.  Could we, instead, start on the trek towards creating the guidelines that will keep us in control of our technology? Could we consider yoga as an inspiration?

I suggest that every time you mentally reach out to document and share, pause. Consider: How much will this take me out of the present moment (including being present with the people I’m with)? How necessary is it that it happen now? And then opt, as often as possible, to give the experience time to settle in and be yours, before it becomes everyone else’s.

In my teacher training, I remember David and Sharon, or perhaps it was the mentors, give us the advice not to be so concerned with writing down in our manuals everything that was said.  They advised that we receive the teachings, and trust that they would be there, in us, when we needed/were ready for them later.  That’s a lot of trust.

I think we’re in danger of losing this trust in ourselves – to just receive the moment, just hear, just feel, just see, just taste, just laugh, just be, and trust that it will all be there later, when we need it, when we’re ready for it.

Krishna says:

The man who sees me in everything
And everything within me
Will not be lost to me, nor
Will I ever be lost to him
BG 6.29

This is not actually referring to seeing Krishna running around everywhere (although some people marvelously do), but that you cultivate the ability to see everything as holy – every person, every moment, every being, every place.

There is a similar sentiment in yoga sutras where Patanjali asks us to cultivate vidya – the shift in perception to seeing things as they actually are, which is what lies beyond all the “stuff” of life (prakriti), to that spark within (purusa).

When you shift your perception in such a way, you are never not in a holy place. The division between your yoga studio, the room you’re in now, the bathroom, the elevator, or the subway car is seen as false – as avidya – and falls away.

Next time you come to your yoga mat, try it out. Let every placement of the hands be holy, every breath, every pose, every transition, every movement of the props- holy.

 When he sees that the myriad
Beings emanate from the One
And have their source in the One
That man gains absolute freedom.
BG 13.30

This is the practice of coming into relationship with all beings: human, plant, animal, water, etc, and moving past the layer of form,  the layer of personality, the layer of personal history, to the place where its all holy, all the spark within.

Lately I’ve been trying this when out in the world. I will look at one specific person, and notice how in just that moment of noticing, a thousand layers of “stuff” has come up – labels, judgments, predictions, etc. Once I notice, I let it all go, and since he or she is a stranger, and I have no entrenched attachments to that stuff, it’s easier to let go.  Then, softening enough to actively see his or her spark, that person becomes beautiful and amazing. I am actually amazed and fascinated by how that spark has manifested.  I fall a little bit more in love the whole world.

Then you move into a space where you are a spark, a holy being, in the presence of another holy being. Then you interact in whatever roles, games, or structures have been set up and are needed for that situation. Yet, at the same time, you are just two sparks.  Then you see how all the other times you are just running through those roles, identifying as those roles. When really you are a holy being playing. The more you see others as holy beings, the more connected you are to yourself as one.

Then yoga practice, daily life, every moment is an opportunity to practice in a very unique way – not just to see everything as your teacher, but to see beyond ideas of teachers – and to see the holy moments and beings everywhere, every time.

When you’re on your mat, practice not as all your stuff, but as a holy being. As a spark relishing the play of a body in motion in asana.

“When the direction of our attention is fixed on divinity, we  will arrive there eventually, but inevitably.” Sharon Gannon