Sacral chakra

Some months ago I wrote (Part 1 and Part 2) about the root chakra at the pelvic floor and specifically how it can be used, or really how the idea of it can be used and manipulated with the mind and intention, to effect shifts in the physical and energy bodies. That practice is ultimately…

Burn Your Yoga Journal

A couple of weeks ago, in what turned out to be a private lesson for the one woman who showed up, (If you need/want smaller classes and lots of personal attention, this is the time of the year for it!  Come on down!) working with her for a few minutes on her seated twist, trying…

Ignorance…or Implementation?

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras II.3: The lack of awareness of Reality, the sense of egoism or “I-am-ness”, attractions and repulsions toward objects and the strong desire for life are the great afflictions or causes of all miseries. (Taimni’s translation) The Sanskrit word translated usually as “ignorance”, but above as Taimni’s more complete translation of “lack of…

I Love You, I Love You, I Love You!

December is the month when in classes I lead the practice of “I Love You, I Love You, I Love You” i.e. saying that silently inside (or outside) to whatever (or whoever) is getting your attention at the moment.  What does that phrase mean?  Here’s an attempt to clarify and offer some possibilities, whether offered…

WAKE UP!

“TIME TO WAKE UP!” -D.O.A., a punk rock band from the 80’s (song starts at 0:18) “It’s very easy to wake a sleeping person.  It’s very hard to wake a person pretending to be asleep.” -Amma “Awake” -movie title, currently on Netflix on the life of Paramahamsa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi (I…

Calm Abiding

Tomorrow is Bodhi Harmony’s birthday (the son who first came to live with us).  The theme of my classes last week and continuing a little longer has been “calm abiding,” taking the concept from Yoga and the Quest for the True Self by Steve Cope, one of my first yoga teachers.  In thinking about writing…

The Essence of Physical Yoga Summarized

What are we doing in the physical practice of yoga and what’s it all about?  Though I’ve said what will follow, I have never written about it and I’ve only said it sporadically, it seemed helpful to those who heard it in class yesterday, so here is my take on the essence of the physical…

Is There Satan?

  Yesterday a wonderful woman student asked me this question.  It was part of a longer conversation, but she was sincerely wondering about this question upon seeing her own sometimes unhealthy choices and actions that were against her own happiness and peace of mind, specifically the ways things that she did and the ways she…

Do Good!

On the retreat with Amma in Detroit this past November, there was a Question and Answer session.  A woman asked her, “What guidance can you give us to stop the violence in the world and to make the world more peaceful?”  She asked because there had recently been some kind of gun violence in her…

More Thoughts on Donation Yoga

I have already written some of my thoughts on donation yoga, which if you haven’t read and you have time and interest, I think you should.  It gives a bigger picture of Loving Kindness Yoga School and where we are coming from since it’s so different from every other business model.  At that time, there…