Sat Nam, and Welcome In,
Goodness, it’s February already! I don’t know about your experience, but the times are just CRUSHING it around here these days!
Yes, everywhere we look, hearts are being crushed, minds are being crushed, careers are being crushed, all manner of people and things and ideas are being crushed into what appears to be an uncomfortable and unfortunate mess.
Perhaps. Maybe.
I realize everyones news feed is different from my own, because we are all caught in algorithms based on our past clicks and searches. It seems like our own bubble is reinforced so expertly that we forget that, in many ways, we are no longer having a shared experience with our neighbors and friends. Even when we can identify ourselves as belonging to a particular group—we are yoga enthusiasts, an ethnicity, a religion, a salesperson; we are human resource directors, students at uni, nurses, blue-collar workers, engineers, retirees, spiritual warriors, caregivers, tradespeople, managers, CEOs— we have to realize that we are not sharing the same TRUTHS anymore. We are not having a shared experience based on our identifications.
Some of you may be familiar with the Taoist/Buddhist perspective of “perhaps,” where, especially within the moment, the objective judgement of an event is not attainable. It is entirely dependent on a perspective from a space and a time, and, depending, it’s good, bad, or indifferent. It’s always all three--from someone's perspective. And I know that ultimately my identity from my perspective (ego) is a false identity.
So perhaps I should get to my point.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
And rightdoing there is a field
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other” doesn’t make any sense.
—Rumi
This is the place we invite you to, a few times a week, here at our house.
Mike and I have made the 900-sq. foot studio into a comfortable, cozy, come-as-you-are place, where you can disconnect from right doing and wrong doing. Disconnect from the false identity.
The whole practice is about dropping out of our mind and into our body.
Getting grounded, it’s often called. We get grounded by uplifting our consciousness to the higher chakras, which seems contradictory, but, well, you have to try it to see what I’m talking about.
Here at the house, you will be Listening. Listening deeply and without judgement to what our body is feeling. We call this body-talk, "Sensations." From before we tune in, to between exercises, to while we meditate, to during shavasana, we pay attention to our sensations by listening to our body. With a little luck, Mike plays the gongs while you rest; sometimes Andrea has to do it, and it's adequate.
The postures are simple and within your grasp. They can be done at your own pace, for as short or as long as you wish. We have all manner of props; I promise you can do this practice if you can climb the three flights of stairs to get up to the studio. You might be winded, that’s okay :)
You learn to listen to your breath as it moves you, not your mind as it complains.
You learn to listen to the music, not your mind as it tries to lead you into judgements which are irrelevant.
You learn to stick with it, for one minute, two minutes, three minutes, seven minutes!; you learn how long you can last before fatigue or hopelessness sets in. You learn discernment—what is your body saying vs. what is your mind saying?
Hint: the body doesn’t lie to you, the mind—all the time they lie.
You learn to pay attention to your perceptions as well.
You use your eyes to see how to do a posture, perfecting it as you go
You use your ears to listen to cues from me about the posture
You use your ears to listen to mantra, to uplifting music
You use your voice to chant and sing
You use your sense perceptions, and recognize how changing and impermanent they are
With practice, noticing the sensations in the body and the perceptions of your sense organs, noticing the mind and its varied reactions to the physical practice, to what’s being noticed, to the fullness of the experience, you learn What You Are Not.
The effect is peace.
With practice, the effect is peace.
We are not going to find this precious resource “out there.”
We learn how to find it within ourselves or we never find it at all.
This is yoga practice at KYD.
Privates available on Monday; I’ll tailor a session to your needs. $40 for 90 minutes plus tea/snack
Classes are recurring each week and are $25 for 90 minutes plus tea/snack
Tuesday 11 am
Wednesday 4:00 pm
Saturday 11 am
Gong immersions on demand and scheduled weekly; $40 for 60 minutes plus tea/snack
Thursday 7 pm
Friday 12 pm
Sunday 7 pm
Naad Yoga, where we practice chanting mediation for a while, is by any donation with weekly classes
Friday 6:30 pm
Sunday 6:30 pm
If you would like to start a practice here and the cost is too high for your wellness budget, just talk to me; we will work something out. People able to pay full price subsidize those who cannot at this time; it all works out in the end.
Our simple prayer for us all:
May we be in right relationship with the present moment, and with the love that brought us to it.
Sat nam, and thanks for watching,
Mike and Andrea
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