A life's dream. A dreaming life. Living by the Caribbean Sea practicing, teaching, living yoga. I invite you to join me and we breathe, we move, we chant, we play. We love, we serve, we dive deeper into ourselves, observing the practices, the Royal way of yoga.
Taking time from the hectic pace of everyday life we both de-mystify and embrace the many ways that yoga can be a practice.
Hatha yoga, postures and breathing, will serve daily as a foundation for practicing pathways to the True Self.
Do you love? Bhakti is the yoga of love and devotion.
Do you help others? Karma is the yoga of service.
Do you seek to learn more about yourself and transformational practices? Jnana is the yoga of study/self-study.
Do you have ethics and practices to live kindly, compassionately physically and spiritually? Raj, is the eight-limbed path of Classical yoga.
Far in the depths of time, ancient peoples around the planet began to tell stories to help make sense of their world. From mouth to mouth, tribe to tribe, and then across continents the stories are embellished, they coalesce. Gods and goddesses, mythical creatures, wise ones, prophets, elements, planets, named and attributed with human qualities. And guess what? They are wild and crazy, full of shadow, full of light.
Yoga is steeped in these myths and stories that apply to universal human conditions. Even the most exalted of the gods and goddesses make love, make war, make mischief! They are contradictory and inconsistent, magnificent and magical, powerful and petty. Just like us. They teach us how to be wise, to slay the demons of our negativities, to soar over seeming obstacles, to be humble, to be devoted.
From the cosmic soup, creation stories emerge. Turtles and serpents, demi-gods and demons, love stories and war become creative expressions of art, music, dance, poetry. In practice, yoga postures are a way to embody these traits, trying them on to feel the power. Named for characters ancient yet still relevant to contemporary times, we can slip into our own mythic selves. The hand gestures of the mudras also help us invoke the divine. And there is nothing like a mantra to clear the mind of gobbly gook. These rituals of yoga are aids in a process of transformation, of awakening into higher consciousness.
Take your hatha practice a little deeper. Infuse some bhakti to add grace into daily life. Play with stories and look at yourself through some different lenses: wise, ferocious, compassionate, prosperous, creator, destroyer, dancer. Join me Sunday 4:00-6:00pm at Yoga en Akumal (above Las Casitas reception at the white ark) for Myths & Stories. Maybe you create your own story!
These moments, I watch the early morning sun creating a shadow play of palms trees on my wall. Fronds shifting with wind creates a lacy, moving, gobo effect. Negative space of the shadows weighting to the left, balanced by the positive space of light on the right. The shape of the window frames the picture. Creator creating another stellar piece of art. A moment of beauty that will never look just like this again. Like dance. Watching the light is one of my favorite things to do and it plays so beautifully in this space as it makes its journey down the wall and across the floor.
The score is sea surging and bird calls. Wind shifts air to sound through the various trees in the park-like grounds that surround the casita. Contrapuntal rhythms like the life of this body, beating heart, breathing lungs.
We are back to our extensive class offerings at Yoga en Akumal. 6 days a week, 2 and 3 classes a day. Also, stay tuned for special workshops that we plan to offer regularly. Next weekend November 27th & 28th, Anusara master Ann Moxey will be with us!
THE LAB, An Investigation of Embodiment in a Bhakti Hatha Yoga Practice
Context
Within the systems and science, philosophy and faith of Yoga, the mystical, the alchemical, the practical, all of creation is embodied in the human experience. I dance in this container now, from the culture of the East, blessed by Ma Ganga. Seeking for the West reclamation of sacred body, sacred Mother, blessing her/us in every way. In the place called Home of the Turtles, on top of limestone, caverns and underground rivers meeting at the Caribbean shore, we share a daily practice of an ancient Way.
Carl G. Jung has recently crossed my path again reminding me that my work is still influenced mightily by his. Shiva and Shakti, in their riotous variety of manifested characters are the archetypal energies of the divine, coloring my bhakti hatha yoga practice, and what I teach. Hindu faith meets modern psychology.
And then a summary view of quantum world quips by, reminding me how I go to the inner frontiers where the mass of my matter dissolves. The space in between smallest particles separated by the distance of continents, or planets. The place of pure potential, where a story can get re-woven to create Heaven on Earth.
The Project
Manifesting our own reality is a creative act. A new project, The Lab, is another long-held dream taking fruition. Launched on August 28, 2010 some yoginis at Yoga en Akumal are asking from the body, through embodiment, THE BIG QUESTIONS about the nature of Reality. These are spurred by my desire to “prove god” and are mined from cross-disciplinary studies in art, comparative religions, new science (including quantum physics and molecular biology), Jungian psychology, and of course, YOGA!
For the next six weeks we sadhakas have committed to creating the ripple effect of change in the world through the raising of our own consciousness and vibration. Within our bhakti hatha practice we are the investigators of our own experience, each and every practice, documenting our discoveries.
These three questions related to manifesting intention anchor the project:
Creating space: Where are the reaches of my inner frontier?
How do I allow intention to create manifestation?
How do I know my personal practice is an act of catalyzing
collective transformation?
After each practice, whether in class together, in personal practices, or on the road, we are simply taking some time to write. To document in prose or poetry, picture or colors how the body is responding to these questions. At the end of the 6 weeks we’ll edit the material to see what sort of answers occurred.
Join us if you’d like. Here are some more Big Questions:
What if there is no matter?
What is ‘my body’?
Who/What/Where is your inner witness today?
What’s happening?
What happens in the stillness?
What happens in the moving?
What happens in the observation of the Breath cycle?
What does energy moving feel like?
Divine: That great big unifying principle
What is union?
What happens when we invoke the divine/ the specific deities/stories/energies/archetypes?
If yoga is about resemblances, then what are the mirrors: Shiva/Shakti
What happens when we practice presence?
Intention: Creating our Reality
Creating space: Where are the reaches of my inner frontier?
How do I allow intention to create manifestation?
What is my capacity to effect change through INTENTION?
How do I know my personal practice an act of catalyzing collective transformation?
Is it magic? Alchemical?
Transformation
What does transforming consciousness feel like?
What is asking to be transformed?
What is healing?
For a current schedule of classes at Yoga en Akumal go to www.akumalyoga.com
Today a group of young students from Akumal Pueblo came to Yoga en Akumal to play a little yoga! Mountains, dogs, cats, cows, trees, eagles, warriors! They are in summer school at Hekab Be library. Am hoping to see them back again next week.
Yoga, a practice that reaches back possibly 5,000 years, when once upon a time individuals needed to escape the confines of their society and headed for the hills. Historians indicate that perhaps they were shamans, seeking healing for themselves as a vehicle for healing in their communities, mediating with the gods. They sat in caves and made inquiries, exploring inner universes, seeking ways to free themselves from suffering, from the ego.
Yoga. To yoke, or to join; bringing all aspects of self, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, into balance, into harmony. This union is a coming home to the truest self. It is a process of transformation created by intention and attention to a practice. As it has evolved, yoga can be a number of different pathways including devotion, or bahkti; study, or jnana; meditation, or dyhana; selfless service or karma yoga. Today, the popularization of yoga is the pathway of hatha yoga. Hatha is defined as the joining of opposites. A hatha practice is one where breath supports the rhythm of the postures, where attention to the body in motion stills the mind into focus. The asanas are distilled from thousands of years of practice into the basics postures of many contemporary yoga styles.
The form of a hatha practice is rich. Building heat, creating fire: Ha/Sun. Drawing inward, cooling: Tha/Moon. The asanas that may be part of a class include standing, sitting, forward, back and side bending, twisting, inverting, lying on the belly, lying on the back. T.V.K. Desikachar calls it “a program for the spine at every level—physical, respiratory, mental, and spiritual”. Opening energy channels, or nadi’s, are affected by this attention to the spine and alignment. There are anywhere between 75,000 and 300,000 of these channels in the body! The primary 3 are the shushuma or the spinal cord, and the ida and pingala spiraling up either side of the shushuma. Locks, or bandhas, affect the flow of energy in the shushuma, retaining and releasing the flow of energy. Mudras, or gestures, may be incorporated. This ancient use of the hands can be as simple as a prayer hands. Look at a picture or statue of the Buddha, his hands are in a mudra. Add on top of these, the breath, pranayama: heat building, cooling, energy raising, relaxing, slow breath, sharp breath, all serve different purposes, but can be seen as another way to keep the mind present. Want a natural high? Start bringing these pieces together.
Yoga is a way of presence, of bringing all of oneself into the present moment; the body, the mind, and, in its full expression, the heart or spirit. Presence is an invitation to balance and peace of mind. Prana, our life force, asks us to be here, now. However, it is a two way street which first involves showing up on the mat! Waking up, self-awakening, requires making the intention to do so. A hatha practice creates the opportunity to pay attention to what the body is doing, how it is doing it, what sensations arise out of the actions. The opportunity is there to focus the mind on the body, on the breath; watching the breath: the inhale, the exhale, the spaces in between. It is also an opportunity for the spirit to dance between the two, allowing for the practice to be a creative expression. Best of all, it is a window through which we can learn to observe ourselves with a lens of non-judgment.
A hatha practice is not mutually exclusive to the other pathways. Add a bit of attention to bahkti and soar. With bahkti the divine is manifested in all things, it is LOVE. The Bhagavad Gita, one of the sacred scriptures of this tradition, says “the perfection of yoga is to meditate on the supreme personality of godhead within one’s heart and make him the ultimate goal of life.” In that epic, Krishna has the staring god role. Very much alive are the many deities of the Hindu pantheon, Shiva, Master of Yoga, Lord of the Dance; Shakti the Divine Feminine, Kali the Destroyer, Ganesha, Remover of Obstacles. These archetypes, with all of the wild vastness of their personalities, can support and inform us in fun and fantastic ways. A number of asanas are named for them. Simply to chant the universal sound of AUM is an invocation to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.
The great news here is this: How old or young, big or small, flexible or tight does not matter in order to have an enriching experience of this ancient way. The only thing to do in order to begin a practice is to show up. Maybe it is to a class, maybe it is with a DVD, maybe it is out of a book. In today’s world, the points of entry are everywhere. The first step in any journey is possibly the most difficult, but once momentum has begun, simply put, how good it feels will keep you coming back for more. From the personal to the collective, as we heal ourselves, freeing our own sufferings, we become a vehicle for healing on larger scales. It is said, ‘Let peace begin with me”. Welcome home to your Self.
published online by Sac-Be http://67.222.169.121/being_present.shtml
Yoga is an ancient pathway that has something for everyone in our contemporary world. Through private sessions and open classes I share a hatha and bhakti practice opening the physical, and the heart, with the aim of stilling the mind. Breath supports the rhythm of the postures, attention to the body in motion brings the mind into focus. Vinyasa flow, restorative and centering practices provide various points of entry to Your Body, Your Self.
Marti Johnston, MFA, Mills College, Oakland, California, received her yoga teaching certificate from the Nosara Institute in Costa Rica in 2005. With 30 years working in the field of dance, including advanced studies in dance therapy, in yoga she finds the system and science to further expand investigations of embodiment.
Teaching daily classes at Yoga en Akumal for the past two years, an interdisciplinary approach of yoga as an inquiry to our True Self uses the mat as lab time. With a community of practitioners, and with visitors, inquiries within Hatha practices explore yoga as a pathway facilitating the transformative process of self-knowledge and self-acceptance, total compassion, free of judgment.
Bhakti tradition infuses the teaching with deep, devotional love and joy in our Paradise on Earth set between jungle and Caribbean Sea. Through vinyasa and flow, asanas, pranayama and centering practices, the depths of yoga are explored. Together we are creating a living metaphor for new paradigms of wholeness and interconnection.
