Body Soul Bliss Yoga Blog

How Fear Can Wreck Your Fun

2012-01-17T08:07:53Z

The NY Times recently published an article, “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,” (1) which has resulted in a great deal of discussion and controversy. Is yoga dangerous? Well, all activity is potentially dangerous. Life is inherently unsafe. People used to understand that. Forgive me for being skeptical about the modern obsession with safety, which I suspect has more to do with protecting revenue than protecting the public.

As a teacher I do endeavor to make yoga as safe as possible for my students. I practice and teach according to the principles of Krishnamacharya, that the postures exist for the breath and the breath guides the movement. Yoga is adapted to the individual. Each person must listen to their own body and breath. I tell my students that yoga done correctly feels GOOD; if a posture hurts, don’t do it. A big part of my job is teaching them how to listen to their body, both to experience ecstasy and also to avoid injury.

This is NOT what is taught in gymnastics-oriented “yoga” classes where students are encouraged to push their physical limits and forced into inappropriate postures. It could be argued that such a practice is not, in fact, yoga. Historically yoga is a spiritual discipline of which asana is just one part. And for me personally, yoga is a devotional practice. But I am reluctant to impose my own definition on everybody else, considering that approximately 20 million Americans are doing “yoga” just for exercise.

I started doing yoga at age 13 and I am now 48, and yes, in my youth I did go for the more difficult poses like handstand and dropping back into backbend, which were very doable at age 15 but which now I only attempt at the beach or on very soft grass. Has 35 years of serious yoga practice – including headstand and shoulder stand, in that order, as part of my daily routine – wrecked my body? On the contrary, my body is in awesome shape! Thanks mostly to yoga I am flexible and strong, ripped, even, and weigh the same as I did in high school, and I have not incurred any injuries.

I do have a “wonky” knee which can no longer slip easily into full lotus; I have to be careful with it to avoid pain. I don’t know whether this was caused by the many hours spent sitting in lotus over the years. My father also has bad knees, had one replaced recently, and has never done yoga at all, so it might be genetic. I can tell you, though, if this minor occasional knee pain was in fact caused by sitting in lotus all those years, it was well worth it, as I will explain later.

Now as to the question of “danger,” if I seem blasé, it is because compared to all the dangerous activities in my life, yoga is the least of these. I rode my first pony at about age 3. In adolescence my friends and I would gallop our horses across dunes and down the beach, jumping over anything in our path – lawn chairs, driftwood – in our bikinis, the sun on our brown bodies (without sunscreen), laughing, the wind in our hair; we didn’t wear helmets. At times the horses would decide they’d had enough, and bolt for home. Then, you could either hold on for dear life or, depending on how much bucking was involved, pick a relatively soft spot to bail off before being bucked off at high speeds. No big deal; you learn how to fall. In the course of my equine activities I have been bitten, kicked, stepped on, bucked off and even had my horse fall on top of me and knock me out cold, none of which ever resulted in an ER visit and only made me realize how amazingly sturdy our bodies really are.

My other dangerous childhood activities included ballet, which as we know is harmful to the feet and ankles, but we do it for the sheer joy of dance, and gymnastics, with uneven bars and balance beam. If you think postures are dangerous on the floor, try doing them on a 4-inch wide beam several feet off the ground. As a child I also spent plenty of time roller-skating on cement, and ice-skating, and had my share of falls. My parents taught me to swim in the ocean at 18 months and I’ve been swimming and surfing, sometimes in big waves or sharky waters, ever since. As a teenager I had a dirt bike that I consistently crashed. Also in my teens on more than one occasion I hiked off-trail across a mountainside on loose shale in my flip-flops with a thousand-foot drop below. In hindsight that probably was not safe. Nor was racing my horse against cars. But anyway, the point is, yoga pales in comparison with the other dangerous stuff I have been doing.

But, just how dangerous IS yoga, in its popular form? According to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, the number of yoga injuries treated in ER or doctor’s offices was about 5500 in 2007, at which time there were an estimated 15.8 million practitioners, or 0.035 percent of participants. By contrast, weight training injuries were at 0.12-0.15 percent, and golf injuries were 0.39 percent. (2) Note, these are all well below 1% of participants. No doubt the numbers are much higher for activities such as football, soccer, skateboarding, skiing, etc. Running or even walking can result in injuries. Like I said, activity is inherently dangerous.

On the other hand, sitting on your ass is dangerous! I say this humorously but the fact is, there is an epidemic of obesity in the U.S., with about 33% of adults and 17% of children being obese. In association, the incidence of type 2 diabetes is now double what it was 25 years ago and is now striking younger people, as is cardiovascular disease. This is largely due to a lack of physical activity, and therefore it could well be argued that statistically, NOT doing yoga is actually more dangerous than doing yoga, even the poorly taught variety.

But what if, in fact, the classical yoga that I have been doing since childhood really WAS that dangerous - if I had it to do over, would I? Hell yeah, and no regrets. Yoga made big promises and it more than delivered. Being ripped and having great abs and sometimes being carded buying booze at 48 is just a fringe benefit of the practice. All those years doing asana and pranayama and sitting in lotus allowed for meditation, something that is difficult to put into words because of the dualistic nature of language, but which my teacher calls our “natural state.” At first it was only for a moment, brief glimpses of peace and bliss, a fleeting sense of oneness. As the years went by the moments became hours, sitting completely immersed in Bliss, divine Love and Oneness, free from attachment and fear, the chattering of the monkey-mind silenced. Then one day the meditative state suddenly overflowed and became my entire reality, which is way better than anything I could have imagined. Had I been injured in the process it would have been totally worth it.

Of course, this is NOT the type of “yoga” that is resulting in the 0.035 percent of students being injured. Or, is it? I do, after all, include headstand and shoulder stand in my daily practice, which apparently can cause stroke from “arterial dissection,” an extremely rare condition which if a person is predisposed, can also happen from whiplash, head-banging, vigorous coughing or sneezing, orgasm, or even tilting one’s head back for a shampoo at the beauty parlor. I figure if doing headstand was going to kill me, it probably would have by now. It doesn’t feel like my neck is being compressed; it feels like the universe is dangling me by the feet and my head just happens to be touching the ground. It feels good, comfortable, peaceful.

As for my students, I’m not that concerned about yoga wrecking their bodies because most of them have done a bang-up job of it already, thanks to activities like horseback riding, ballet and running, and/or a poor diet, and often with the help of doctors, especially bad drugs and botched surgeries. They come to me to fix the existing wreckage. We rarely do anything that is very exciting or scary. I do have two young, strong, athletic students who practice headstand and backbend, but for the most part we just stretch and move gently, all the while listening to our body and breathing in the Bliss.

So, what is all this fear-mongering about? As we have seen, the incidence of injury from yoga (even badly taught) is statistically quite low, compared to other activities. But if even a few people are injured, then clearly something must be done! More regulation, more stringent certification is needed because, after all, it’s really about protecting the public, isn’t it?!

No, it is not. It is about protecting the income of those who are promoting the regulations. There is indeed an over-abundance of yoga teachers from an economic standpoint. I know this because students used to cheerfully pay me $20 an hour in Berkeley in the 1980s, and now they are telling me $10 is too much and I really ought to charge $7 because it’s cheaper at the gym. The public awareness of yoga injuries (however rare) has suddenly become a big deal because it provides the perfect excuse to enforce new regulations that may or may not make anyone safer but will certainly eliminate a lot of teachers from the field and thereby make others richer.

Those who become certified under the new regulations will not be teachers like myself and my friends, or Glenn Black, those of us who have decades of experience, who specialize in teaching one-on-one, but lack the existing Alliance certification. It will be the people who are already Alliance-certified and/or who can afford to go back to school to get the new certification, who will then be able to charge more due to decreased competition. The government will make money off the licensing fees. And the liability insurance companies will raise their premiums to reflect the newly discovered dangers of yoga, thereby increasing their profits. Everybody wins! Except, of course, for the teachers who will be out of work, and the students who will have to pay more while being subjected to an impersonal, one-size-fits-all approach to yoga under the new rules. Regulation by its very nature seeks to enforce the same standards on everyone, which is exactly the opposite of the individualized approach which is so needed in yoga.

You probably think I am just being cynical, but wait and see.

(1) www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/magazine/how-yoga-can-wreck-your-body.html?pagewanted=all

(2) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eva-norlyk-smith-phd/yoga-health_b_1191479.html

The Babe and the Bathwater

2011-12-22T00:54:53Z

The Holiday season can be an uneasy time if we have had a negative experience with religion. The family get-togethers, decorating, gift giving and festivities are one thing, but when we look at the Babe in the manger, what is that all about? Did the Infinite really come to earth as a human baby? And if so, for what reason? Depending on what religious tradition we were raised in, our next thought might be of sin and redemption, i.e. GUILT, which is why many of us long ago threw out the Babe along with the bathwater. Maybe we want to celebrate Christ but religion has ruined that for us! Anyway, God is in everyone, right? so what’s the big deal about the Avatar myth, the Incarnation, Mithras, Jesus, Krishna, etc.? And for my atheist friends, it’s all a bunch of made-up stuff, sheer fantasy, and therefore moot. Now, at this point we could go into theological arguments about “original sin” and stuff, but let’s not, ok?*

Two of my favorite** yoga students, a mom and her 3-year-old daughter, were at Lothlorien for their private lesson today and afterwards we were talking about Christmas and the whole religious “guilt trip.” She told me her daughter one day recited: “God is good and we are bad.” ?! She apparently picked this up at her religious preschool. A fundamentalist relative, on hearing this, said, “Oh, wisdom from the mouths of babes!” Mom and I agreed, no, NOT wisdom – false and hurtful indoctrination. We need to nip this in the bud! Mom explained to the child, “No, honey, we are good; but sometimes we do bad things.” The child had been just a wee bit rowdy today – very mildly so, based on my limited experience of 3-year-olds – and the little angel, Heaven shining in her innocent blue eyes, turned to me and asked, “Am I bad??” I took her in my arms and said, “No, no, my dear, you are very, very GOOD!!”

What to do?! The best way to protect yourself, and your children, from damaging religious dogma is to have a very deep, solid, intimate relationship with the Divine yourself. When you know in your heart of hearts that you are perfectly loved, perfectly cared for, and you feel secure, rooted and grounded in that Love, then nothing anybody can say is going to hurt or confuse you. Of course, if you are an atheist all you need to do is say it’s just made up stories and not to worry about it, which is much easier. But most of us, like this student, do have some kind of spiritual inclination which has unfortunately been tarnished or totally ruined by the religious indoctrination we received in our childhood. The images, such as the Babe in the manger, have become associated with unhealthy thought patterns like, “God is good and I am bad.” How do we replace those negative patterns?

We replace them with direct experience of the Divine. Throw out the dogma and do your yoga! As my teacher Mark Whitwell says, “Yoga is your direct participation in Source Reality.” When we breathe we are participating in That which is breathing us. If you are religious, the breath is the Holy Spirit filling you. Every one of us can experience that intimate connection, that re-linking with the Divine – the same Love which manifested the universe and called it “good.” The Love that took specific human form and lived among us as Avatar. The same Love that lives in our heart, expressing as you and me. Whatever language you use for It, allow yourself to be embraced by that Love, moved, animated, sustained by It. When you have a consistent daily yoga practice and you live in that relationship of Love your children will feel it, too. Bad theology will naturally be repelled like dirty bathwater off a duck’s back. And then we need not throw out the Babe with the bathwater. Merry Christmas.

* I've already addressed some of the theological arguments in my previous blog posts.

** Am I allowed to have favorites? oh, but I love every one of them so much; I have the best students in the world; I guess they are all my favorites!!

Christmas is a Pagan Holiday - Let's Celebrate!

2011-12-07T22:44:41Z

This was originally published last year and being lazy, I decided to re-publish it.
***

I decided to post this entry from my other blog ("Heresy and Political Incorrectness") because it pertains to spirituality and thus is relevant to yoga. Wishing everyone a very Happy Holiday!
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Once again it’s that time of the year – Chrismahanukwanzakah, or more simply, the Winter Solstice – a time when people of different faiths are brought together by something that we all have in common: whining. “Oh, the humanity!” How unfair it is, and how oppressed we are by people of other faiths not respecting our particular interpretation of the Holiday. Pagans complain that they are being subjected to “Christian” indoctrination by the holiday music and decorations found in malls and other public places, and also that Christians “stole” their Holiday. Many Christians, on the other hand, object to the mere phrase “Happy Holidays” as being anti-Christian (apparently not having noticed that “holiday” = “holy day”) and want to “put Christ back in Christmas.” Meanwhile some other Christians, such as the Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, refuse to celebrate Christmas at all, on the basis that it is a pagan holiday, a view that was also held by many Protestants in the past, including the Pilgrims. They assert, correctly, that the symbolism of the evergreen tree, mistletoe, holly, the star on the tree, the candles, etc., as well as the date itself, are purely pagan in origin. While this is quite true, it is, in my opinion, no reason not to celebrate!

On the contrary, we should cherish our pagan spiritual roots, especially in light of the fact that “Christmas” as it is being promoted in modern society is purely secular and nothing but an unabashed orgy of commercialism, a feeding frenzy of capitalism. Where a nativity scene is still present in public, it is almost certainly not there to commemorate God Incarnate, His Mother, or even, for that matter, the Sun, but rather, the 3 Wise Men bringing – what? – GIFTS, of course!! While it has been argued that “3 wise men” per se might be an oxymoron, they are undeniably bearing gifts, which is after all the secular Reason for the Season. The (alleged) birth of Jesus at the Winter Solstice has become merely an advertising tool to induce people to spend huge amounts of money. Among non-Christians, including atheists and Jews, the religious theme is easily ignored and substituted by “good will towards mankind” which nearly everyone can accept and, of course, results in the same thing: buying lots of gifts. Thus, the modern god Money is served by all, regardless of religion.

But Jesus was not even born in December, since the story involves shepherds being out in the open field with their flocks at night. December in Palestine is quite chilly and the sheep and shepherds, to this day, would be indoors at that time. The flocks were turned out to pasture in March and brought back in the beginning of November.

We don’t know exactly when Jesus was born; some say midsummer or perhaps September, but in any event the early Christians did not celebrate His birthday. “Christmas” did not even exist until about the fourth century A.D., when the Roman emperor Constantine established the celebration of Jesus’ birthday at the Winter Solstice which was on December 25, during the Roman holiday known as “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun” which celebrated the return of light and life after the darkest day of the year. “Coincidentally,” December 25 was also the birthday of the solar deity Horus, son of Isis, the Queen of Heaven, and Mithras, also born of a virgin and also called “the Sun of Righteousness,” a title shared by Jesus. None of this was by mistake. The Emperor Constantine, a convert to Christianity, felt that it was in the best interest of Roman society that everybody could celebrate together. He sought to merge Christianity with the pagan traditions. Since Jesus was obviously an incarnation of the Dying and Reborn God, Sun of Righteousness and son of Mary, the Queen of Heaven, it made perfect sense to celebrate Him along with the other solar deities at the Winter Solstice. While modern pagans may cry that this was a cruel hoax, an attempt to trick the pagans and “steal” their holiday, the pagans in ancient Rome didn’t mind at all. Romans were very cosmopolitan and they were accustomed to learning new names for their gods and/or meeting new gods.

Meanwhile in ancient Europe they were also celebrating the Winter Solstice by bringing indoors holly, ivy, evergreen trees and mistletoe – sacred to Balder, another Dying and Reborn Sun God – and lighting candles and burning the Yule log to encourage the return of the Sun. Later, Santa Claus joined the festivities as the Stag King amidst his reindeer. All of these pagan elements are central to Christmas celebrations today. The red berries of the holly also represent drops of Christ’s blood shed for the world.

While some Christians may find these pagan parallels disturbing, I rejoice in them. A former pagan, I find the modern rivalry between pagans and Christians unnecessary and absurd. According to the faith of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, which I share, paganism is “the elder sister of Christianity.” In their view, the pagan myths inspire us and plant the seeds in our consciousness to be able to understand and appreciate the Dying and Reborn God when He incarnates in human history in Bethlehem. Jesus is not the adversary of the pagan myths – He is their fulfillment. Like Lewis, I can relate to this personally, because as recounted elsewhere in another blog, I rejected Christianity at the age of 12 and it was the pagan myths that many years later as an adult enabled me to appreciate Jesus.

Indeed, from a theological standpoint pagans and Christians have more in common than one might initially realize. Although Christianity has been referred to along with Judaism and Islam as, “the religions of the book,” which share the Old Testament or the “Abrahamic tradition,” the theology of Christianity stands in stark contrast to the other two. According to Judaism and Islam, the Incarnation of God is blasphemy, and the Trinity is polytheism! They assert that God is One and God does not beget children nor come to earth in human form nor, of course, ever die.

It is only in the pagan traditions that we find a God who is born of a woman in order to be here on earth among us – Immanuel, “God With Us,” to teach us, to love us, to play with us, even to die for us, and by rising again to defeat death. He has appeared in the ancient myths as Krishna, Mithras, Apollo, Hercules – born of a woman, half human, half divine. Others, such as Balder and the modern literary character Raiden (of “Mortal Kombat”) have divine parents but are willing to sacrifice their immortality, or at least temporarily set aside their infinite powers, on our behalf. Out of undying love for us, the Divine personally intervenes so that the Sun will return, warmth and light will vanquish the cold darkness, love will conquer hate, nature will bloom again and life will triumph over death. And that is what Christmas is about. It is appropriate that pagans and Christians put aside our pointless bickering and celebrate the deeper meaning of the Holiday together.

Did the Vatican Say Yoga is Satanic?

2011-12-03T09:21:36Z

The other day I saw an article, “Vatican says: The Devil Does Yoga” with a subheading, “The Vatican's chief exorcist says that yoga is the work of the Devil as, it leads to Hinduism and a false belief in reincarnation.” (1) The video featured Father Gabriele Amorth, who stated that not only yoga, but also Harry Potter, are Satanic tools. The video also showed a yoga class in which people were doing asana in the specific style of Heart of Yoga – of which I am a practitioner and teacher!

I supposed I needn’t have taken it personally. After all, I am Episcopalian and therefore don’t have to worry about what the Vatican says. On the other hand, some of my relatives, friends, fellow teachers and potential students are Catholic and I wondered how this might affect them. But I do take it personally. As a Christian this is just one more instance of a sadly misinformed person claiming to speak on behalf of the rest of us, thereby giving non-Christians that much more reason to believe that we are all a bunch of ignorant bigots. Moreover, if Harry Potter is satanic then I would assume Lord of the Rings is now also satanic (both written by Christians, by the way), and my studio is named “Lothlorien.” Finally, the music I use in my Rockin’ Yoga and Pilates class includes Ozzy Osbourne, the alleged “Prince of Darkness,” a title bestowed on him by a fundie preacher which Ozzy affectionately kept, as he found it amusing. So according to the Church, I am satanic on several counts. I can live with that. But, how dare he call yoga – a sacred gift from God, a devotional practice – satanic?!

I debated whether I should even write this blog. “Just let it go, James,” I said to myself. Nobody but me and a handful of other bhakti-crazed, God-intoxicated people even CARE about this – yoga practitioners who are Christian and/or who give a shit what the Vatican says.

Let’s face it, bhakti yoga – devotion to and relationship with a personal God – has become rather passe’ in our sophisticated modern culture. It’s just not hip anymore. As one of my fellow yoga teachers put it, “Screw union with the divine.”(2) Modern people are awfully busy with their jobs, families, mortgages, stock markets, and such, and don’t have time for God anyway. Most people do yoga simply to get in shape, feel better and be able to enjoy their life. Well, as a former monastic, personally I need union with God more than ever now that I am a householder dealing with a relationship, a mortgage, taxes, insurance and all that stuff. But maybe I’m just old fashioned.

Anyway, after reading the article I posted to Facebook, “On my way to Rockin’ Yoga and Pilates Class at City Arts Cooperative. The Vatican can kiss my ass!”

I have no particular grudge against Catholicism. In fact, many years ago, I seriously considered joining the Catholic Church, primarily for the Sacrament and Liturgy, the frequent opportunities for Mass, and its support of vocations, as I felt called to the contemplative life. I did have serious disagreements with the Vatican regarding sexuality, but I would have been willing to overlook that and just agree to disagree, since I was going to be celibate anyway and I figured it didn’t concern me. However, I learned that applicants for conversion to Catholicism (as opposed to cradle Catholics) are required to agree with its doctrinal positions. “But what if I simply don’t agree?” I asked. “I mean, I can’t go against my own conscience and make myself believe something I don’t believe.” I was told that your own conscience cannot be trusted unless it is “formed” – which is to say, you have been brainwashed to agree with the Church. It was this untenable requirement, even more than the particular issues in dispute, which prevented my becoming Catholic. Thankfully, I soon discovered that I could have the same Liturgy and Sacrament, and support for vocations, in the Episcopal Church – without all the strange rules.

I guess I owe the Vatican an apology. OMG, I never in a million years imagined myself saying those words! LOL! But, at the suggestion of a Catholic friend (thank you, Thomas), I looked into this further and discovered to my great surprise and relief that no, Father Amorth was NOT in fact speaking as a representative of the Vatican. He had retired years ago. The article did not make that clear. I decided to go to the source and find out what the Vatican actually had to say about yoga.

There was not a whole lot. I found essentially 2 official documents which address yoga:

“Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life, A Christian Reflection on the New Age” 2003, (3) and
“Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation,” 1989. (4)

The former did not discuss yoga specifically, but only lumped it together with other practices popular with the New Age. Frankly my eyes glazed over reading this document, as I find the New Age rather boring and tedious, and the arguments refuting it equally so. I also feel that yoga, being a most ancient tradition, has little relevance to the (perhaps legitimate) concerns about the New Age. The latter document, however, was a great read and actually covered many technical considerations about spiritual practices which we also address in the yoga tradition such as body postures, breath control, energy phenomena, grace, and keeping one’s focus. There was also some theological discussion reminiscent of the Personalist versus Impersonalist debate in Hinduism, but I will not go into these technical discussions here. The upshot of the document is that such practices as yoga can, indeed, when used wisely and carefully, promote intimacy with God in the context of Christian contemplative prayer! I was pleasantly surprised to find that the tone of the document was, at worst, neutral and cautious about such practices. So, the Vatican does NOT say yoga is satanic. Not at all.

HOWEVER – when I did a Google search on “Catholic Church position on yoga,” the results were overwhelmingly negative and much more consistent with Father Amorth’s view, not only on the part of laypeople, but also, from priests who ought to know better.

For example, an article in Our Sunday Visitor “Is It Too Much of a Stretch?” Nov. 2003, (5) Marianna Bartholomew states: “Like St. Teresa, Catholics seek union with God in each moment, whether paying bills, visiting a neighbor or flexing in an exercise class…”

But, yogis do exactly that! She goes on to say,

“The Church is calling Catholics to firm up their faith and consider whether New Age influences like those in yoga are subtly eroding their intimacy with God.”

Eroding? Yoga IS intimacy with God! Interestingly, Bartholomew refers to the above-mentioned Letter, which does not, in fact, support her position.

Another article, “Are Yoga and Catholicism Compatible?” (6) is by a Catholic mom and yoga practitioner who undertakes the same research that I did, including these same Vatican documents, and likewise finds no problem. Her article was aggressively attacked by many laypeople and priests alike who scolded her for daring to challenge the Church’s wisdom and guidance in this matter and warned her against all manner of dangers including demonic possession.

The most “positive” Catholic commentators said that it was ok to do the physical postures for exercise so long as you do NOT involve the spiritual aspects. Which, of course, kind of defeats the whole purpose, IMO.

The harshest critique of yoga that I found comes from “Most Holy Family Monastery” (6) which equates yoga with idolatry in that it involves union with a god other than the Christian God. Interestingly, this is on the basis that the god in yoga is omnipresent, both in ourselves and in nature, which they state the Christian God is NOT. I found this peculiar since I was sure I remembered in my theology classes that one of the attributes of God is omnipresence – that God is both immanent and transcendent. Not according to the Most Holy Family, in whose opinion God is distant, separate and aloof, having created the world and then left us to our own devices. How sad. On reading further, I also learned that the MHF considers Vatican II an abomination and Pope John Paul II “the antipope” and a “pantheist.” They equate “the omnipresence of God” with “pantheism” and say that John Paul II’s teachings about Christ lifting all of creation into divinity is blasphemy…

I have already addressed this, and related issues, in my previous blog post, “Is Yoga Un-Christian?” (7) which was a response to a fundie preacher whose main objection to yoga – which surprisingly never came up in the Catholic arguments! – was that yoga is “sexual.” But let me again touch on the omnipresence issue, because I think it is important theologically. First of all, “omnipresence” is NOT the same as “pantheism.” We’re not saying that God is one and the same as the physical universe, but merely that God is present throughout the creation; and this is supported by scripture (“where can I go to hide from Thy presence?”... etc.) If anything, the creation is in God and nothing can exist apart from God. But all created things could disappear (be resorbed back into God) and God, the Source Reality, would still exist.

Ok, I hear the yawns, nobody cares about these nit-picky theological distinctions. But here’s how it relates to yoga and the above arguments: The MHF as well as most Christian opponents of yoga argue that you can’t commune with God within yourself because God is not in you. Never mind that “your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.” Let’s look at something very concrete here: the most holy Sacrament of Communion. Catholics believe (as do I and many other Episcopalians) that the bread and wine are in fact the body and blood of Christ. Ok. You have just attended Mass and received the Sacrament – at this moment in time, if at no other point, God is definitely in you. There is no way around it! So if you do yoga and meditation after Mass you most certainly can commune with God in yourself.

What about the other argument – that yoga leads to Hinduism which leads to a false belief in reincarnation and worshipping other gods?

First of all, let’s be clear, yoga does not belong to Hinduism or any other particular religion. Yoga is a physical/spiritual technology, a devotional practice, whole body prayer, which can be used by persons of ANY faith. If you are a Christian your yoga is devotion to Christ. Doing the asana and pranayama is not going to turn you into a Hindu or cause you to be possessed by “other gods,” especially since you are praying to Christ. Do you really think He would let them do that?

By the way, IMO there are no other gods. There is only one God having, perhaps, many manifestations; same God, different costumes. Like when I was a child, my parents left me with a babysitter and went out to a Halloween party. I was awakened late at night by a pirate and a gypsy who came in to kiss me goodnight, but I knew it was my parents. Hindus understand this. All the Hindus I have ever met believe in God and most regard Jesus as avatar.

Secondly, if you really DID believe in the Hindu version of reincarnation it would have you on your knees begging for Jesus to save you, because inexorable karma will bring you back again and again, like Purgatory only millions of times over, to endure the suffering of existence until you become enlightened, i.e. until your desire for God is greater than your desire for worldly things. You cannot pull yourself up by your bootstraps; it is a gift of grace. Only God can liberate you. Fortunately, He has already done so, as Krishna states in the Gita: “The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart and is directing the wanderings of all living entities… Surrender unto Him utterly and by His grace you will achieve transcendental peace and the supreme and eternal abode.”

Finally, I ought to mention that when I began doing yoga 35 years ago I was an atheist, having rejected the church due to my fundie mis-education. Yoga enabled me to experience something “divine.” But I never would have become a Christian were it not for Hinduism. I thought the idea of a personal God was really lame until my Hare Krishna friends helped me to appreciate God in a new light. In fundamentalist Christianity and also in Catholicism we too often get the impression of an angry God ready to smite us for our many sins. And Jesus is sweet but he’s suffering – for our sins. So we feel guilty. He loves us, kind of because he has to. It’s his job. We focus so much on sin and redemption that we forget the beauty of creation; God created us out of love, and took on our human nature and became one of us, and even died, for love. The Hindu scriptures remind us that God enjoys our company. This was a new concept for me and one which totally transformed my relationship with the divine and allowed me to appreciate Christ.

So, yoga is not satanic. Nor is Hinduism. We have nothing to fear from other religions. But, nowadays I’m not that concerned about religion as such. I just love God. And do my yoga.

(1) http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/12/vatican-says-the-devil-does-yoga/

(2) http://www.yogadork.com/yogopinions/screw-union-with-the-divine/
(3)http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/documents/rc_pc_interelg_doc_20030203_new-age_en.html

(4)http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19891015_meditazione-cristiana_en.html

(5) http://www.osv.com/tabid/7621/itemid/7405/Is-it-too-much-of-a-stretch.aspx

(6) http://catholicmom.com/2011/04/13/are-yoga-and-catholicism-compatible/

(7) http://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com/32_Religiousorders.pdf

(8) http://blog.lothlorienyoga.com/2011/05/02/is-yoga-un-christian.aspx

Stairway to Heaven/ Rockin' Yoga Part 2

2011-10-05T00:25:42Z

In my last blog post I promised that by doing yoga (with or without rock music) you can experience heaven here on earth. How is that possible?! Well, I’m going to talk more about it, below. But first, I want to clear something up: Although we are discussing serious matters, I will sometimes employ sarcastic humor, which might not be apparent in this written format. For example, I do not actually lie on the floor, writhe unpleasantly and scream when I hear country music. That was an exaggeration. What I do, when I am at karaoke and I begin to hear Kid Rock’s “Picture” for the umpteenth time – which is not technically “country” but might as well be, as it has all the necessary elements – I take my glass of wine and go outside to enjoy the sea breeze. Or when everybody stands up and begins singing, “I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free…”

Don’t get me wrong, I love my country. I do. But we are NOT “the land of the free.” If we were, people wouldn’t be getting pepper sprayed and arrested for non-violently protesting a system wherein 2% of our population controls roughly half of the wealth. In fact, it’s quite easy to get locked up here; all you have to do is smoke the wrong kind of cigarettes, or commit the crime of not making enough money to be able to support your family and pay your taxes. America now imprisons a larger percentage of her population than any other country, surpassing communist China and South Africa. Of course, as a yogini I am Free even if, God forbid, I were to become imprisoned. But, I do not have to enjoy the whole culture that goes along with the flag-waving type of music, a culture that says that our country’s problem began with the hippies, is perpetuated by the damn liberals who run the universities, foreigners, and most of all, uppity women and gays. The foreigners ought to go the f*ck home, women should stay barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen (well I like the barefoot part), and the gays should stop being gay, marry somebody of the opposite sex and get busy producing offspring like everybody else. And you, young man – you need to get a damn haircut! Our [half]-black President is not a true American and the next President ought to be from Texas. And by the way, yoga is a heathen religion from the devil. Yee haw. Come visit the South/Bible Belt, I will take you to karaoke and you can perhaps begin to appreciate the sociopolitical implications of the music, difficult to understand if you don't live here. But that’s a whole ‘nother subject.

Now, back to yoga. I have expressed my strong personal preferences in music and politics. Gosh, that’s not very enlightened! Shouldn’t I like everything equally? To the yogini, it’s all the same – pleasure and pain, darkness and light, garbage or gourmet food – I am one with all arising conditions and detached from everything and therefore have no preferences, right? No. That is a misconception. I am passionately involved in my personal human experience. Anyway I never said I was “enlightened,” I said I was Free. I am also free to like everything equally if I so choose. I could do that. But why? Well, certainly I would be more popular. But as my mother used to say, “What a boring world this would be if we were all the same!”

And we’re NOT the same. Each of us is a unique manifestation of Life. As Mark Whitwell has said, “It's not a spiritual statement, it's just how it is. It's not a poem either. You ARE the beauty of life, the extreme intelligence and the power of life. Just as you ARE, prior to meditation, yoga, philosophy or religion.”

Great! So, everything’s perfect. We’re fine just the way we are. Each of us an expression of Love in the flesh; the same Love that binds the atoms together, Shiva and Shakti in the stars and in our own body. Our essential nature is Being, Consciousness, Bliss. Ok… The only problem is, it doesn’t FEEL like it! And that is why we need yoga and why, when we practice yoga consistently, Shiva and Shakti reconnect, we are able to get back in touch with our true nature, with our Source, and experience Bliss.

Now, my atheist friends are understandably skeptical of this explanation involving Source or Consciousness. You may even be dubious of subtle energies or polarities in the body, which after all are not scientifically proven to exist. Well, don’t worry about it. Think of it this way: The breathing and movement exercises result in a predictable neurobiological response, a function of the nervous system, like orgasm. It is scientific. The experiment has been done successfully by millions of people over thousands of years and if you do the same experiment under the proper conditions you will get the same result. That’s all you need to know. Don’t take my word for it, just DO it. And you can stop reading here because the rest of this post will not be of interest to you.

As for those who consider yourselves spiritual or religious, yoga is the means to realize your ideal, to experience It in your own body. The search is over. As we discussed previously, God does not need to be found; God is right here within us. The Source is not separate from Its manifestation. Yoga allows us to experience That.

Now, when I say this here in the Bible Belt, inevitably somebody will argue that God is NOT in us! They will say that humanity is fallen and we are born “physically alive but spiritually dead.” Never mind the breath/ruach, and all that. Never mind the technical consideration as to how can something be physically alive (or even exist at all) without the presence of God, a proposition which I find dubious. They will tell you with a straight face that although God is technically omnipresent, the one place that Divinity is NOT, is in the human heart – unless we invite Christ in. Ok, well look, if you really believe this particular theology, then obviously the first step in your yogic practice is to invite Him in! Go ahead. Problem solved. I assume this has already happened for you or else we would not be having this theological conversation.

So, God is in your heart. How incredibly f*king cool is that?! If you really believe that the Lord of the universe resides in your own being, your own body and soul, you should be the happiest person on earth! Well, maybe you were for the first few days or weeks or months, until the initial excitement of the concept wore off and meanwhile your earthly life continued to suck.

Which, again, brings us back to yoga. God is in your heart. It is an eternal relationship. So, now what? Are you going to ignore Him or Her? Or maybe talk – telling God in prayer all kinds of things that He/She already knows, like what we think ought to be done for various people in our lives. Or complain, apologize, praise, etc. Yeah, you can just talk. Or chant the Names. But, there’s more. What if you could pray with your whole body? What if your movement and breath was a devotional offering, as well as a direct participation in the actual presence of God? That’s exactly what it is. Your breath is from the Spirit who breathes life into you and your body is the temple of that Spirit. With a regular consistent yoga practice, this becomes no longer an abstraction or a belief, but a real experience. And then after you do asana, which is a form of moving meditation, you can go into sitting meditation or “contemplative prayer” – where there is no need to talk or do anything, just Be in that wonderful loving Presence, resting in your oneness with Life. It is ecstasy.

But isn’t this addictive, like a drug? Well, yes – but it’s better than a drug and without the unpleasant side effects. So, am I recommending that you do yoga as a means to experience Bliss and thereby escape the misery of life? Maybe at first. But as you continue your daily practice and yoga removes obstructions and burns away “dukha,” the constriction around the heart, you will soon find that there is no need to escape from pain. Feeling your oneness with nurturing Source, you can embrace pain and move through it without resistance, and experience healing. As this process continues and the heart opens and unfolds like a flower, more and more Love will pour through you and you realize you are that Love. This is Heaven and you didn’t need to climb any stairway. Just move and breathe.

Rockin' Yoga

2011-09-29T00:04:35Z

It is my great pleasure to teach a “Rockin’ Yoga and Pilates” class at City Arts Cooperative on Thursdays from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. This class is geared towards dancers and offers a bit more of a workout than my usual hatha yoga classes. It includes a segment where we allow the breath to freestyle dance the body around the room, and ends with a brief meditation. This is lots of fun and, best of all, we play classic rock music!! I want to thank Steve Ross for making me realize I could get away with this when, to my delight, he played pop music on his yoga show “Inhale.” Here is our current set list:

Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin

Power of Soul – Jimi Hendrix

It’s Love – King’s X

Free Your Mind – En Vogue

Baba – Alanis Morissette

If I Die Tomorrow – Motley Crue

Back on Earth – Ozzy Osbourne

Carry On Wayward Son – Kansas

Dream On – Aerosmith

Grand Illusion – Styx

High Hopes – Pink Floyd

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun – Pink Floyd

Now, it has been said that rock music is “unspiritual” and/or “inappropriate” for yoga and meditation. (Rolls eyes.) We will discuss the “unspiritual” part in a moment. “Not appropriate”? Who makes up these rules?!

I recall years ago a friend was leading a men’s spirituality group and he had planned to play Metallica including, “The House That Jack Built” and “King Nothing” during their meditation. His wife, a Wiccan High Priestess, insisted that he turn off the Metallica and said, “New Age music would be more appropriate!” Really? Here are some lyrics from those Metallica songs: “The higher you are/ The farther you fall/ The longer the walk/ The farther you crawl/ My body, my temple/ This temple, it tilts/ Yes, this is the house that Jack built” and, “Wish I may wish I might/ Have this I wish tonight/ Are you satisfied? / Dig for gold/ Dig for fame/ You dig to make your name/ Are you pacified? / All the wants you waste/ All the things you've chased/ Then it all crashes down/ And you break your crown...” Sounds like pretty damn appropriate soul-searching music to me!

Truth be told, the Priestess simply hates heavy metal and did not wish to endure Metallica playing in her house. Fair enough. For this very same reason, we will NOT be playing country music during my class, because the effect it has on the teacher is to make me lie down on the floor writhing (but not in a good way) and screaming, “God, please make it stop, aaarrrgghhhh!!!” But let’s be honest; it’s a matter of personal preference, not a divinely ordained rule. If you really want to play country music while doing yoga in the privacy of your own home, far be it from me to stop you. And I myself prefer Iron Maiden, Dio, Dream Theater or Metallica for my private practice, nice and LOUD, but I will not impose this on my students (unless you guys request it, in which case I will be thrilled).

Nearly everyone enjoys classic rock. But, you may ask, won’t it drive away potential students who don’t like rock music? Yes, it will, and I am totally ok with that. They can come to the Friday Hatha Yoga and Meditation class where we play mellow music such as Mark Whitwell’s “Pure Love Project.” Or they can stay at home and listen to country.

Now as to the question of “spirituality.” I’ve been told since I was a child attending fundie “christian” schools (which, by the way, totally turned me off to Christ for many years) that rock music is from the devil. This is clearly bullshit and it gives the devil way too much credit. People especially accuse Ozzy of being the Prince of Darkness but I think this is unfair; you accidentally bite the head off of one bat and it haunts you the rest of your life. Who among us hasn’t done crazy things in our youth? (That’s why “drugs are bad, mkay?!”) Consider the lyrics. Many of our beloved classic rock songs, including those by Ozzy, have deeply spiritual themes, and I have selected the ones above specifically for that reason.* Unfortunately, the songs do tend to express spirituality as a future goal or other-worldly attainment – “she’s buying a stairway to heaven,” or “now your life’s no longer empty/ surely heaven waits for you” – but this is a pervasive element in our culture. I’m not saying that heaven isn’t a place that we hope to go someday after we die. But, why wait?! You can have Heaven here and now and yoga is the means to do that.

What?! Am I serious? Yes, I am dead serious. What is your concept of “Heaven”? For me, it is to experience the intimate presence of God. I don’t know what it is for you; maybe to be at Peace, to feel One with everything, to be Free from limitations. Whatever your ideal is, yoga is the technology to actually experience That using simple effective techniques of body and breath which have been handed down for thousands of years. When I tell you “DO YOUR YOGA! at least 7 minutes every day,” I’m not saying it because I enjoy nagging you or because I want to make you feel guilty for not doing it. I’m telling you because I want you to experience divine ecstasy right here and now, in this body, on this earth, which is not only possible but quite doable. I told my students that Mark had commented at Omega, asana is “like a party.” One student said in a skeptical tone, “Well, not quite!” Oh, yes. Quite. Better than a party, actually. I asked, “Are you doing it every day?” “Um, no…” Well there you go. It’s not going to work if you don’t do it.

So, don’t believe me. Do the experiment yourself. Go for it. And use the music. Feel the drums grounding you to the earth. Feel the bass in your heartbeat and the strength of your muscles. Feel the electric guitar soaring in your spine and nerves. Move and breathe with the music. If you sincerely persist in your practice (with or without rock music) I promise you will experience Bliss, and some day it may even overflow and become your entire waking existence. The piper’s calling you to join Him. Set the controls for the Heart of the Sun.

*Note, I realize “Free Your Mind” is not rock, but it was included because I happened to have it on i-Tunes and my students all love it.

Notes for My Students

2011-07-15T04:47:01Z

Welcome to yoga at Lothlorien! I'm honored that you have decided to study with me. It's great to have you in my class and I hope you get a lot out of it. Yoga has so much to offer and it can really change your life. But, just coming to class once a week is not going to do that. The actual purpose of the class is merely to give you the information you need in order to do your own yoga at home, hopefully on a daily basis. Not because you feel obligated, as if yoga is yet another thing you "should" do, but because it gives you pleasure. Yes, that's right - yoga is supposed to feel good! Yoga is the experience of your intimate connection with Life. So I want you to learn things in class which you enjoy, which you can then do at home, in your own time and in your own way, and go deeper with it and experience the bliss which will inevitably result if you are willing to devote just a few minutes a day (a minimum of 7 minutes is recommended).

Here are the basic principles of classical hatha yoga, which is all about the breath, as taught by the teacher of all the modern teachers, Krishnamacharya, which have been too often overlooked in modern yoga with its emphasis on gymnastics. As Mark Whitwell has so kindly reminded us:

1. The asana (posture) exists for the breath - not the other way around!
2. The breath starts and ends each movement.
3. We inhale from above, receptive, and exhale from below, strength.
4. Asana creates bandha (cooperation of muscle groups) which serves the breath.
5. Asana allows for pranayama from which meditation arises.

To do yoga at home, you don't have to memorize what we did in class. Just pick a few asanas which you especially enjoy. If you can't remember the sequence, don't worry. All you have to do is keep this principle in mind: Balancing of opposites. Extension (backward bend) is balanced by flexion (forward bend). Right is balanced by left, so do both sides of asymmetrical poses. You can put together your own sequence of asanas that works for you. If you can't think of any asanas, go to this website which shows hundreds of them: www.yogacards.com You can experiment with these. Some of them are quite advanced and tricky, so be very careful and always listen to your body and remember, the postures exist for the breath! Yoga is not a gymnastics competition. It's not about trying to look good, it's about how the posture makes you feel as you experience the intimate union of body and breath.

Practice the ujjayi breath I showed you in class. It will make your yoga much deeper and more effective. If you need a review of how to do this, go to:
www.heartofyoga.com/podcasts-and-videos and click on "Principles of Personal Practice Part 1." You can also see the asanas in this and other instructional videos on this site.

In the public classes at City Arts Cooperative we won't really address bandha and pranayama very much. If you want to explore these on a deeper level, please make an appointment for a private session at Lothlorien.

Now, enjoy your yoga! Namaste.

Introduction to Hatha Yoga

2011-07-13T02:56:03Z

In the previous blog I discussed what "yoga" is, now let's go over some basic principles of hatha yoga, what to do and what to expect.

I greet you with hands folded before my heart in prayer position (anjala mudra) saying, "Namaste'." Like "aloha" in Hawaiian, "namaste" is used both in greeting and farewell. "Namaste" literally means, "I bow to you," but the implication is that I greet you with respect as one divine soul to another; I greet you from that place where we are one. Or as Ram Dass, one of my teachers, put it: "I honor the place in you where the entire Universe resides. I honor the place of love, of light, of truth, of peace. I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us.” The hands join at the heart chakra because this is the focus of yoga, the place where everything becomes one - above meets below, left meets right, inhale meets exhale. The palms and fingertips touch and the hands remain soft with space in between, a mirror of the place in the heart where divinity resides.

Hatha yoga is all about the breath. The word for breath is "prana" which also signifies "vital life energy." This is similar to "chi" or "qi" in martial arts, and is a concept that is common throughout various spiritual traditions. E.g., in Judaism the breath, "ruach" is also "spirit," which is why the Bible says that God breathed the breath of life into Adam's nostrils and "he became a living soul." There are different breathing exercises which are used in more advanced yogic practices, but we will begin by simply taking deep breaths. We receive the inhalation by first lifting the chest, then expanding the rib cage, then finally dropping the diaphragm as if filling the belly with air. We will let the breath rest for a moment at the end of inhalation and then exhale, squeezing out the air from the belly up to the top of the lungs, pause for a moment, and then begin the next breath.

Each posture or "asana" has a breathing sequence that goes with it. In fact, the asana exists for the breath! The basic pattern is: Inhale (expand) with extension, exhale (contract) with flexion. So for example when we are looking up, reaching up with our arms, arching our back and opening our chest, we inhale. When we are bending forward, reaching down and contracting our chest and stomach, we exhale. This is fairly intuitive and with a little practice it will become easy and natural.

Another important aspect of hatha yoga is balancing of opposites, above and below, right and left, front and back. We will follow extension postures (e.g., cobra) with flexion postures (e.g., downward dog); backward bends are followed by forward bends. Likewise, whatever we do on one side of the body, we also do on the other side. If we stretch the right leg, we will then stretch the left leg. Ideally we want to express symmetry, but in reality this is rare; nearly everyone will find one side easier than the other. This is why we are right- or left-handed; very few people are born ambidextrous. If you find one side more difficult than the other, don't worry, this is normal. Just keep consistently practicing on both sides.

Yoga is not about making difficult poses look good, it is about how asana makes you feel. Yoga is supposed to be pleasurable! It should not hurt. A key element of yoga which is absolutely necessary is listening to your body and learning to distinguish between "actual pain" versus the minor discomfort we may feel when stretching to our limit. In some athletic traditions we hear the motto, "No pain, no gain!" but this does not apply to yoga. If you feel real pain then you are probably pushing yourself too far too fast and may even incur an injury. Pain is the body's way of saying something is not right, slow down, be careful! This is especially true in the beginning when you are unfamiliar with the postures. As you become more experienced you will develop more attunement to your body and will learn exactly how far you can go without inflicting actual pain or injuring yourself.

One of the neat things about yoga is that it is adaptable to every person's abilities. We each approach yoga from where we are today. Yoga is not a competition! It doesn't matter if the person next to you in class can wrap their legs behind their head while you might be happy just to touch your head to your knees. It is not even necessary to compete with yourself. Challenge yourself, perhaps, but do not stress out. Yoga is supposed to be pleasant and relaxing, not stressful. If you find a pose too difficult, simply modify it. Maybe you cannot bend forward and put your hands flat on the floor or grab your ankles; maybe you can only reach your knees. That is fine. Or maybe you can reach the floor if you bend your knees. That is ok, too. Reach as far as you comfortably can, and remember to keep breathing! Whenever you have a particularly tight muscle, visualize that you are actually breathing prana into that area. Feel the breath flowing through your body, especially that part. With each breath you may be amazed to find that you can reach further as your body relaxes more. Over time, you will be able to exceed your previous limitations and reach new levels of flexibility, balance and strength that you never thought possible at first!

As you practice the asanas, remembering to breathe deeply, you may at times feel a strange tingling sensation or even find yourself trembling as the prana flows through your body and blockages of physical and/or emotional energy are released. This is normal and is actually a good sign of progress. In more advanced forms of yoga practice you will learn to do this consciously. For now, just keep breathing, relax and observe.

By the end of the class your body should feel warm and energized. The final pose is savasana, or "corpse pose," where we lie on our back and basically feel ourselves melt into the floor. In this pose you will feel total relaxation and will probably be able to feel the prana flowing through your entire body. Now that the body is completely relaxed, you are in a very good situation to practice pranayama with sitting meditation, which will be addressed in a future blog entry. Namaste.

Why I Could Give a Rat's Ass About Enlightenment

2011-07-03T20:27:00Z

I recently participated in a discussion on Mark Whitwell’s Heart of Yoga Facebook page where he posed:

“The Yoga Question: Yoga is not a process of enlightenment or insight - it's a process of relationship. It's through relationship that change happens in the direction of a fuller life. Discuss.”

My first reaction was, “yes, but what’s the question?” (this was, after all, the premise of his book Yoga of Heart where he explains the theme at great length).

After a couple of other people offered their contributions to the discussion I said, “Ok, if the question is, What is your experience of this?, then I would answer: I always wanted the Relationship but was taught that I had to become enlightened before that would happen. As Mark has kindly pointed out, the Relationship already exists and now I am free to experience it. Frankly, I could give a rat's ass about enlightenment anymore.”

People then went on to discuss the topic and many of them (notably the men, for the most part) insisted that enlightenment was indeed an important part of the yogic process. Needless to say, my rat’s ass comment did not get many “likes.”

Until relatively recently I would not have ventured to offer my humble opinion about a matter so weighty as enlightenment since, after all, who am I to say?! But now at 48 years old, I have lived nearly half a century on this planet, and for most of that time I have practiced and taught yoga while seriously and earnestly pursuing enlightenment. Over the years I have had the privilege of studying with many wonderful organizations and teachers, some very well-known and others I am sure you have never heard of, who shall remain nameless for the purposes of this blog lest I piss somebody off.

It began in childhood when I tried, along with my Trekkie friends, to become a Vulcan, logical, impassive, the master of one’s emotions, with limited success. At 12 or 13 I began an intensive study of the mystical traditions of the East and West including hatha yoga and various forms of meditation, and read lots and lots of books. I wanted to know my Oneness with the universe.

In college at 17 I began teaching hatha yoga to my fellow students and also delved deeper into metaphysics, including White Magick and the Qabalah. I continued my study of yoga and learned tantra and kundalini yoga from an older graduate student with whom I fell in love and got a broken heart, because he said “relationships involve attachment and are therefore bad,” but it was all well worth it. I received initiations in kriya yoga. I chanted with the bhaktas. I ended up getting my B.A. in Philosophy, a completely useless degree although my professors assured me I would be a successful writer (which turned out to be true, if by “successful” you mean “published but never paid”). I went on to get my M.A. in Psychology and wrote my Master’s thesis on “The Psychology of Nonattachment in the Bhagavad Gita” in which I discussed that what the scripture intended as “freedom” was all too often misinterpreted as a cold detachment from life and love.

As part of my search for enlightenment I had hoped to find a suitable tantric partner, but all the men to whom I was really attracted unfortunately were celibate yogis (a waste of a good yogi), and in my desire for Relationship, being unable to find a volunteer to go there with me, I eventually became a Sister in the Community of Francis and Clare. Continuing my yogic practice and living a simple life, I was reasonably happy in my “celibate” vocation for most of 14 years, but still hoped and longed for enlightenment so as to fully realize that Relationship, to know beyond a shadow of a doubt my Oneness with Everything and to finally be at peace. My partner and I found each other about 6 years ago when I wasn’t looking. However, even with our combined efforts enlightenment remained elusive and in fact, began to seem more and more unlikely amidst the trials and complexities of life, although tantra and kriya were supposed to speed up the process, and I had been doing both for a very long time. My partner had actually given up on enlightenment years ago and while I had worked on myself a great deal, I was apparently incorrigible.

So I think I am, after all, rather qualified to discuss yoga and enlightenment, having been a yogini and having studied and pursued enlightenment, unsuccessfully, for most of my life.

In regard to Mark’s non-question/discussion, I did later give it a great deal of thought because it occurred to me that my life had changed dramatically after hearing him speak. Couldn’t that be considered a “process of enlightenment”? Well no, not really, because while I agreed with everything he said, having reached many of the same conclusions myself over the years and very happy to hear somebody else saying them, merely hearing the words did not change anything; e.g., yes, we know God does not have to be found because God is already right here. Duh, everybody knows this. I’d been reading about it since I was a child, but until now had not experienced it with my whole body and soul, at least not consistently, as my everyday Reality. It’s quite a different thing to “know” something intellectually, versus experientially. It was not while I was listening to Mark state the obvious, that my life changed. No, it was later, when he led us in asana and pranayama. A few breaths into the movement my reality was suddenly and profoundly transformed, merely as a result of doing the pranayama correctly along with the asana – which is to say, as a result of relationship with body and breath.

I was already poised on the edge, having done yoga my whole life. But like most modern yogis I had not quite been taught correctly! In many ways my practice was consistent with the classical hatha yoga from Krishnamacharya as taught by Desikachar, but there were certain discrepancies. E.g., significantly, I had been taught to visualize prana rising up the spine on the inhale, whereas in fact it is received from above, and rises on the exhale! I had always felt this was backwards and was quite relieved when Mark corrected it. Along with this, I had been taught to inhale from the abdomen first and fill the top of the chest last, while the correct classical method the air fills the chest from the top down. Also, the ujjayi breath was slightly different from what I had been taught and I had previously only used it during sitting meditation (kriya) and not during asana. These few adjustments caused everything to fall perfectly into place as I simply moved and breathed. God was here, right here, as close as my own heart. All was well with the universe and I One with it. The monkey-mind ceased its annoying chatter and there was utter Peace and Bliss and Love.

Certainly, this wasn’t the first time I had experienced such a phenomenon. I had known an intensely beautiful state of awareness transiently thanks to the input of great teachers, but when this inevitably wore off my life returned to normal, which is to say, yearning for something beyond. Of course, I had been meditating for many years, and had frequent and exquisite experiences of Oneness, but these were fleeting and unreliable, the techniques to “get there” were a bit awkward, and the temporary samadhi did not translate into real change in my life once I got up from meditation. I had hoped enlightenment would one day fix that. Instead, this simple relationship of body and breath now gave me everything that elusive enlightenment had promised, and much more!

The lifelong pursuit of enlightenment - all that reading, studying, discussing, thinking and not-thinking, pondering and meditating, turning the mind on and off, never did jack shit in terms of changing my life. It did not reduce my level of existential misery one bit. It did not make me a better, more compassionate person; it made me wish I was and regret that I was not. It did not give me abiding peace, love or bliss.

As I continued to do my daily yoga practice with the adjustments learned from Mark, I soon discovered to my wonder and delight that this was no transitory siddhi, but my own natural state. I was completely free, connected with everything, utterly in Love. All my doubts and fears disappeared and I felt totally comfortable in my own skin. I tangibly felt the Bliss in my heart of hearts, where compassion for all beings arose spontaneously. This did not come from “a process of insight,” it came from movement of body and breath, my relationship as an embodied being with Life itself, through the actual yoga practice. This is what yoga is all about, how it was supposed to be all along. I truly now have Everything that I always wanted. And that is why I could give a rat’s ass about enlightenment.

Of course, I can only speak from my own experience and I respect that everybody is different. To those who believe that enlightenment is indeed the goal, go for it, have a great time. I hope it works out for you.

The Sun

2011-06-22T06:04:00Z

Hatha yoga – sun and moon. The summer solstice is an appropriate time to talk about the sun, something I have been reluctant to do because as much as I love the sun, I don’t want to be condemned for heresy, a serious offense in America today which could result in imprisonment. Oh, I’m already a heretic, of course, for various theological reasons, depending on whom you ask. But we don’t lock people up anymore for heresies regarding God and the nature of existence. The Church no longer runs the Inquisition. That function now belongs to the new Priesthood – the Mainstream Medical Establishment. So, before I talk about how wonderful the sun is, I need to make this disclaimer: “The information provided in this blog is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The opinions expressed are for philosophical purposes only and not presented as medical advice.”

The disclaimer is necessary because it is illegal in America to give medical advice which could be construed as “practicing medicine without a license.” Additionally, even if you are a licensed M.D., you are not allowed to give medical advice that contradicts the established dogma. (But that’s a whole ‘nother topic – don’t get me started!) What on earth does this have to do with the sun and yoga?!

The mainstream medical High Priests have been telling us for years that the sun is bad and dangerous, specifically that it causes cancer, and that we must completely avoid exposure to sunlight by slathering toxic chemicals all over our skin and/or covering up with clothing or best of all, staying indoors. Nature is not to be trusted, and the sun is essentially the devil.

By contrast, in the ancient Vedic culture of India everybody knew that the sun was good, the source of all life on the planet. Just imagine for a moment where we would be without the sun. Plants would not grow and therefore life would not exist on the planet. No food, no flowers. No oxygen. No warmth. The ancient yogis appreciated the sun as a manifestation of God in and through nature. When we do the Sun Salutation (which, by the way, was intended to be done outdoors – in the sunshine!), we are receiving and participating in and honoring the Source of all life. The same Life that makes the stars shine, pulses through our own body. The sun is a source of healing and regeneration.

Our body was designed by God, or “naturally evolved,” if you’re an atheist, to produce vitamin D3 by means of the sunlight falling on our skin and interacting with cholesterol (also an evil substance according to modern medicine).

The medical High Priests have only just recently and reluctantly begun to acknowledge the importance of vitamin D3 not only for bone health, but also for immunity, including prevention and healing of cancer. Recent statistical data has demonstrated that people who live in sunny climates have significantly fewer deaths from cancer than people in dreary climates, according to the National Academy of Sciences. (1) In addition, the incidence of skin cancer has risen proportionally with the increased use of sunscreens. (2) There is also some question as to whether sun avoidance may be contributing to the growing epidemic of osteoporosis (3). The data which supports the health benefits of sunlight is problematic because it plainly contradicts the established dogma that the sun is evil. Not wanting to publicly admit that they were wrong, the medical priesthood has continued to advise sun avoidance, and the few doctors who bravely dispute this have been denounced as heretics. Instead, the priesthood is promoting oral synthetic vitamin D3 supplements which are conveniently provided by the same chemical industry that manufactures sunscreen.

I am skeptical that oral synthetic D3 can be adequately utilized by the body without sunlight, based on my experience over many years raising pet reptiles including Day Geckos. When these animals are kept indoors during the winter, even under artificial UV lights and on high doses of calcium and vitamin D supplementation their bones become frail, their egg-laying is impaired, their skin quality suffers and they develop metabolic abnormalities. We are not geckos but our bodies require vitamin D3 the same as they do.

So, I am a heretic. I do not believe the High Priests who insist that sunlight is bad because radiation causes cancer, while at the same time they tell me with a straight face that mammograms, chest x-rays and CT scans, which inflict much higher levels of radiation, are perfectly safe. I’m just not buying it. Since childhood, sunshine has healed me or at least made me feel much better when I was sick, more consistently than the Priests have. I am not afraid of the sun. I love the sun. I trust Nature of which I am a part. I trust God who created and manifests through Nature, my body and my senses.

I won’t tell you what to believe. I would, however, encourage you to go outside in the sunshine at least a few minutes every day and do some asana and pranayama. Allow the warmth to caress your skin, breathe deeply the energy of Life, and see how you feel.

(1) http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/1775/fighting-cancer-with-sunshine

(2) http://graemethomasonline.com/blinded-by-the-light/

(3) http://www.nof.org/aboutosteoporosis/prevention/vitamind

Is Yoga Un-Christian?

2011-05-03T05:17:00Z

I didn’t really expect to be writing about this issue today. Sure, when I began studying yoga back in 1976 it was still considered by many Americans to be alien, strange, occult, possibly evil or at the very least, suspicious. I do remember hearing some folks, mainly fundamentalists, suggest that doing yoga was “dangerous” in that it would invite evil spirits to take over your body. Merely doing certain poses such as “the tree” amounted to worshipping idols (the druid gods?). Equally important, the deep breathing exercises in harmony with the postures could, if you were lucky, still the mind, which was bad because an empty mind was the devil’s playground. If you succeeded in stopping the perpetually churning thought factory for even a moment, demons would rush in to fill your head with all manner of evil ideas. And God would, for some reason, allow them to do this. Those of us who were blonde would probably be at an even higher risk of such demonic takeover.

At that time I, however, was not concerned about this because I was an atheist, having abandoned my childhood faith in God as a result of my fundie private school education. My understanding of “Christianity” could essentially be summarized as: “everything that is fun is bad,” and God was ready to send us to hell for the slightest infraction despite the fact that He had already killed His own son on our behalf to appease His righteous wrath on account of the predictable sins of creatures which He, being omniscient, had endowed with free will. Moreover, He was going to send little children in Africa to hell for the sin of not converting to Christianity, since they had not heard the gospel, and it was our parents’ fault for not giving more money to the church’s missionary projects. They told us that listening to rock & roll was a sure highway to hell, especially Elton John, for reasons which were unclear to me at that tender age, but I knew in my heart of hearts that it couldn’t be true, rock & roll could not possibly be evil. So I threw out the Baby with the bathwater. If yoga was indeed occult and unchristian, all the more reason I would have liked it back in 1976, in my rebellion against the church!

But times have certainly changed, I have meanwhile become a Christian years ago, Elton John is now Sir Elton, having been knighted by the Queen, and today yoga has become so mainstream that it is offered in every gym across the country and promoted by the First Lady to children on the Whitehouse lawn. Therefore I would assume that everyone is by now vaguely familiar enough with yoga, at least in theory, that we are no longer afraid of this alien, heathen and possibly demonic practice.

Apparently, this is not the case, as I discovered recently while reading, "Kissing Fish: Christianity for People Who Don’t Like Christianity” by Roger Wolsey.* I ran across a footnote regarding an article by Southern Baptist leader Dr. Albert Mohler in 2010 stating that yoga is incompatible with Christianity: http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/09/20/the-subtle-body-should-christians-practice-yoga/

Dr. Mohler discusses the “occult” nature of yoga, an objection I had heard about back in 1976, based on the premise that any form of working with energy, i.e. “prana” (or as it is called in martial arts, “chi” or “ki,” or “ruach” in the Hebrew or Essene tradition) is automatically “occult” or even “demonic.” I disagree with that premise and it is unclear on what basis the energy flowing through our body should be considered “occult.” Mohler’s primary concern seems to be that, “virtually all forms of yoga involve an emphasis on channeling sexual energy throughout the body as a means of spiritual enlightenment,” and he objects to “the role of sexual energy in virtually all forms of yoga and of ritualized sex in some yoga traditions.”

It could be argued that this is a bit of an exaggeration, in that “sexual energy” is just one expression of the “prana” or “vital breath” which pervades the universe and manifests as heat, light, magnetism, gravity, etc., and the vitality in all living things, which is not “sexual” unless you want to say that all energy in the universe is sexual. In our basic hatha yoga classes we merely visualize prana as sunlight flowing into the body with the breath. Directly channeling sexual energy per se, tantric yoga (what Mohler refers to as “ritualized sex”) is a specific technique which is much more advanced and, as he acknowledges, not widely practiced. Like hatha yoga, tantra has been enthusiastically embraced by some Americans, but usually not for its original intended purpose (but that is a whole ‘nother topic for a separate blog entry http://blog.lothlorienyoga.com/2011/04/30/thoughts-on-tantric-yoga.aspx). But perhaps this is mere semantics; let’s say for the sake of the argument that the energy channeled in yoga is sexual. If so, why would this be a problem?

Well, certainly it is a problem from the Southern Baptist standpoint since, as I learned in my fundamentalist education, sex is bad except possibly within marriage and for the purpose of procreation (not pleasure) and even then it is something to be ashamed of and best gotten over with quickly. Presumably it would be a sin for a married couple to practice tantric yoga because they would be using their sexual energy for a purpose other than procreation while enjoying a prolonged state of ecstasy, which understandably cannot be tolerated by a religion in which even dancing is forbidden.

But lest we blame Hinduism for promoting some kind of occult heathen orgy of sensuality, in fact the fundamentalist Hindu tradition is at least as uncomfortable with sex as its western counterpart. Historically most yoga traditions have enforced strict celibacy outside of marriage, and sex within marriage for procreation only, and orthodox Hindus generally regard tantra as “occult” and rather scandalous, not something to be discussed in polite company. Given that the majority of yogis adhere to the tradition of celibacy (which also forbids masturbation) and indeed, “channel” their sexual energy inwardly, one would think that yogic chastity would win brownie points from the Southern Baptist perspective! After all, what else is the celibate person to do with their sexual energy, if not sublimate it? Or perhaps one would best stuff it away deep down inside and ignore it – but, as we know from modern psychiatry, repression can have unhealthy consequences.

In any case, Dr. Mohler correctly states that people who are doing “yoga” only as a form of physical exercise and ignoring the energy/spiritual aspect (“sexual” or otherwise) are not really doing yoga. This is quite true, as I have pointed out in my blog, “What is yoga?” http://blog.lothlorienyoga.com/2010/06/30/what-is-yoga.aspxhttp://blog. Yoga traditionally is a way of life wherein one offers everything up to God: our heart, our mind, our body and our activities. Yoga is sometimes referred to as “body prayer.” It is a spiritual practice intended to promote consciousness of the Divine in and through our experience as embodied souls. Mohler acknowledges this: “The bare fact is that yoga is a spiritual discipline by which the adherent is trained to use the body as a vehicle for achieving consciousness of the divine.” Curiously, though, he says that this is a bad thing and we ought not to be doing it! “Christians are not called to… see the human body as a means of connecting to and coming to know the divine.”

Really? If our body is not a means of connecting to and knowing the Divine, then why are we here as physical beings on this earth? Weren’t we created to know, love and glorify God? We are told in I Corinthians Ch. 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?... Therefore honor God with your body.” And in Romans Ch. 12:1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” It is through our physical senses that we learn the word of God – reading with our eyes and hearing with our ears. With our lungs, vocal cords and lips we praise God in speech and song. With our hands we do the work of God in this world.

Mohler goes on to say, “We are not called to escape the consciousness of this world by achieving an elevated state of consciousness, but to follow Christ in the way of faithfulness.” However, according to Romans 12:2, we are indeed to elevate our consciousness in order to better follow Christ: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

He further states, “Christians are called to look to Christ for all that we need and to obey Christ through obeying his Word.” Christ himself incarnated in a human body, the Word made flesh. Moreover, he gave us his own body and blood to be consumed in the physical ritual of Communion: Luke 22:19-20 “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’” Christ commanded us to celebrate this ritual in which we commune with him intimately in our bodies, and it is central to our Christian worship.**

Whence, then, comes this disdain for the body? I believe that this attitude reflects the insidious influence of ascetic gnosticism in the church, an influence which has been present to some degree from the very beginning, as we can see in some of St. Paul’s writings, and which is considered heretical according to the Creeds. The gnostics believed that spirit is good and matter is evil; this world was created by an evil demi-god who seduced our souls to become trapped here in matter, and Jesus came from the world of the Spirit to free us from the evil material world. Gnostics did not believe that Jesus was literally God incarnate because (agreeing with Judaism and Islam), it would be blasphemy for the infinite Spirit to be clothed with a corrupt human body. They had to deny the humanity of Christ because the flesh is evil. Orthodox theology, on the contrary, states that God created the material world including our bodies and our sexuality and called it good. God created us as physical beings and breathed the spirit (ruach) into us. Jesus is both true God and true man, and by his incarnation he has reaffirmed the blessedness of our humanity. Therefore, objections against yoga based on its use of the body as a vehicle for, or an expression of, spirituality arise from gnostic dualism and are inconsistent with orthodox Christianity. For Christians, the practice of yoga can serve as a means to overcome this gnostic divorce of the flesh and spirt, to reclaim our body and our sexuality for God.

As for me, thankfully, what began as an atheist’s experiment with mere physical and mental exercises eventually enabled me to believe in God again, as a result of my experience of the Divine in yoga and meditation which I could not continue to ignore or explain away. And thanks to my friends of the Hindu faith, which proclaimed the Incarnation of God a thousand years B.C., I was finally able to get over my fundie childhood mis-education and appreciate Jesus Christ. They helped me to get a fresh perspective on God – not a vengeful old man on a throne in the sky poised ready to strike me with lightning for dancing ballet naked to rock music or some other forbidden activity, but the nearest, the dearest, in whom we live and move and have our being, Who became man to live among us, to teach us, to love us, to play with us, even to die for us. My yoga practice is an offering to Him.

The Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Hindu text, describes the essence of yoga thus:
“The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart and is directing the wanderings of all living entities. Surrender unto Him utterly and by His grace you will attain transcendental peace and the supreme and eternal abode.” Surrender to God – unchristian? I don’t think so.

* A wonderful book which I wish had been written back in the day when I left the fundie church, not knowing that any other type of “Christianity” existed! www.progressivechristianitybook.com>http://www.progressivechristianitybook.com/ttp

** In many fundamentalist churches the Communion ritual which Christ instituted is observed only infrequently and, unlike other parts of scripture, is not taken literally.

Thoughts on Tantric Yoga

2011-04-30T07:38:00Z

This is not a subject I expected to blog about. When I became a yogini many years ago, tantra was an esoteric practice which was not discussed with the uninitiated. Like Kriya (a form of kundalini yoga), tantra was considered sacred and was only revealed to students sufficiently advanced in their yoga practice and devout enough to appreciate it properly.

However, now that tantra has been discussed on television, in popular women’s magazines and even by Southern Baptist ministers, clearly the cat is out of the bag, so I might as well say a few words about it. I am not going to go into great detail here, because a simple Google search will yield plenty of results including many different and sometimes conflicting explanations of what it is, and even step-by-step instructions on how to do it. But, from my perspective -

First, what is tantric yoga? It is commonly thought of as “sexual yoga” but that is only one aspect. Tantra in general is the use of the body and the senses in a spiritual practice and includes such things as the contemplation of sacred artwork, chanting of sacred words and listening to music. Because tantra does involve sexuality, however, it is generally viewed by orthodox Hindus as scandalous or even obscene, whereas mainstream yoga classically has had a strong emphasis on celibacy.

The popular western understanding of tantra is a sexual technique to improve one’s lovemaking skills and/or enhance one’s marriage. While tantra can certainly achieve this goal, that is not its original purpose. Some people want to learn tantra purely for sensual pleasure, which is part of the reason that the discipline was (until recently!) kept a closely guarded secret. But, no longer. Nowadays any casual thrill-seeker can read about tantra and attempt to learn the technique and use it for whatever profane purpose they wish, e.g. picking up girls at a bar.

Tantric yoga, however, is ultimately not just a technique; it is an attitude, an intention. The practice is not an end in itself. Like all forms of yoga, its purpose is consciousness of the divine. All aspects of our life are integrated as part of our spiritual path. In yoga everything is offered up to God – everything. In tantra our sexuality is offered up as a form of prayer. Therefore, in my opinion, tantra is incomplete without bhakti (devotion). That is pretty much all I have to say about it.

No More Comments

2011-02-18T06:30:00Z

Hey, everyone. I hope you have been enjoying my blog.
Unfortunately, I am going to have to disable the Comments section because I have been getting a ton of spam, including links to porn sites, advertising for various products or services unrelated to yoga, money making schemes and just random stuff that I have no idea what it is and could be viral. So no more comments can be posted. I would like to thank those of you who did actually have something positive to contribute. Namaste, Jamie

Hot Yoga

2010-07-24T04:37:00Z

I have received a few inquiries in the past few months regarding Bikram or "Hot" yoga. Do we offer Bikram yoga at Lothlorien? At the present time we do not.

For one thing, "Bikram yoga" is, as far as I know, the only form of yoga that is patented. This means that in order to use the name "Bikram" or offer classes as such, one must pay a fee and become licensed as "Bikram yoga" instructor. Otherwise it is a violation of copyright to use the term "Bikram yoga" and is therefore illegal. This does strike me as a little bit odd, since yoga is after all at least 4000 years old and copyrights and such things did not exist back then. So clearly this is one of many modern variations on the practice of "yoga." And that's okay, but we at Lothlorien are not licensed to teach it or use the terminology.

Now, we could simply use the term "Hot Yoga" and teach it anyway. Per Bikram (ahem, cannot use that name) or Hot Yoga specifications, this would require heating the yoga studio to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. This raises a couple of concerns. First, the thermostat for the heater in our studio only goes up to 90 degrees. I suppose I could use a marker and write in "105" ala Spinal Tap ("Dude, this amp goes to 11!"), but the heater is still only built to put out 90 degrees of heat. However, this limitation could probably be overcome, at least during the summer, when the outside temperature is close to 100, and by putting the heater on maximum we might be able to achieve the requisite 105 degree temperature inside the studio. This raises other questions (see below). Of course, since the thermostat only goes to 90 we would not be able to know when we had achieved the 105 degree point.

Assuming we were in fact able to get the studio to 105 degrees, and put people in that room doing yoga, we would then have several extremely sweaty people sweating all over their mats, the floors, and maybe each other. Unfortunately, this would ruin our nice wood laminate floors which were installed for us last year by Fabulous Floors, LLC, who advised us that the temperature of the room must be maintained within "reasonable parameters" to prevent warping of the wood. "Reasonable parameters" would not include 105 degrees; under 85 was recommended.

More importantly, heating the room to that level would present health and safety hazards. Our building has an old-fashioned heater which dries out the air and generates positive ions in the process. Positive ions are the ones you don't want, as opposed to negative ions, which are the healthy ones created by the crashing of waves at the seashore and the ones which charge the air during thunderstorms. Positive ions are irritating. The hot, dry air from our heater will be filled with positive ions clinging to the dust kicked out of the ventilation ducts. This may be a secondary concern, since many people claim they cannot notice ions one way or the other. Of more immediate concern is what will happen when all that sweat pours onto those mats: they become extremely slippery!! So now we have the potential for people to slip and fall onto the (soon to be ruined) wood floors, which is a serious liability concern..

So am I opposed to Hot Yoga? Absolutely not! I agree with some of the claims made by Bikram. Sweating is, in fact, very healthy and removes toxins from your body (provided that you stay well hydrated - VERY important! And if you are using chlorinated water, and/or plastic water bottles in the hot environment, they likely contain carcinogens, which defeats the purpose of your healthy intent.) People have been using saunas to detoxify throughout history. Also, practicing yoga in a very warm environment helps loosen up the muscles. In addition, some health practitioners including Dr. Max Gerson, [this statement is not approved by the AMA], have stated that cancer cells cannot survive at high temperatures, and therefore recommend hot baths to raise the body temperature in order to stimulate the immune system to flush out toxins and kill cancer cells. Which is great.

Here's the thing: People are calling me to inquire if Lothlorien offers Bikram [cannot use the term!] Hot Yoga. I look at the weather indicator on my computer and the current temperature is 95 degrees, with a heat index of "feels like 110"! Let me get this straight: You want to pay money to go to a studio where they will turn the heat up to 105 degrees (hopefully having the special modern heaters that do not dry out the air and do not produce positive ions) and you will be packed into a room with a bunch of people you barely know, much less, are intimate enough to sweat on each other??

OK - you live in FLORIDA! From about May to September, the outside temperatures are often in the 90s, with a heat index well over 100 - perfect for Bikram [excuse me, Hot] yoga, along with the lovely humidity which makes our climate so much like a sauna that people are constantly complaining "it's like a frickin sauna out here!" and rushing indoors to enjoy the air conditioning. And you want me to use precious energy to heat my yoga studio to 105 degrees so you can stretch and sweat indoors, which will, of course, contribute to global warming?

For goodness sake, GO OUTSIDE! Get some fresh air and sunshine! [see my blog re: sunshine] This is, after all, how the Sun Salutation was meant to be done - in the sun! Put a sheet or blanket on the grass and do yoga on your lawn! It's perfect!

But, you object, I'm embarrassed to do yoga on my lawn where people might see me!

You are embarrassed to exercise on your own lawn, but you are okay with paying money to sweat like a pig packed into a room with a bunch of people you don't even know?? Frankly, if I am going to be sweating like a pig with a bunch of people, I would prefer to be outside where there is plenty of ventilation.

In my opinion, you can't do better than a sheet or blanket on top of a well-manicured suburban lawn in the sunshine. If anything, your neighbors will be envious and wonder how you can do all those poses. Or, go to the beach!! But if you really can't bring yourself to do it on your own and you insist on paying for classes -

I suppose we could offer Hot Yoga here at Lothlorien outside during the summer. I myself very much enjoy doing yoga and sweating like a pig in the sunshine on my front porch. But, Lothlorien is out in the boondocks and we do not have a nicely manicured lawn; much of our so called "lawn" has stickers and fire ants. There is a sandy area in the pasture where the horses sleep, which seems fairly free of ants and thorns, which perhaps we could use. If you guys are really into it and are willing to bring sheets or blankets, we could probably do it. Just let me know.

What Is Yoga?

2010-07-01T05:06:00Z

When I began studying yoga back in 1976, it was considered a rather bizarre and esoteric interest which was not shared by many. Nowadays, yoga has become very popular, and it seems "yoga" classes are offered at every gym. But, what exactly is "yoga"? Most often people in the west think of yoga as the postures or "asanas" which are done in a typical gym class, a series of stretching and balancing exercises. This, however, is just one aspect of yoga known as "hatha" yoga and pertains specifically to the asanas, the physical exercises. There are many different forms and variations of these exercises including Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Kripalu, Iyengar, and others which you will find advertised in yoga magazines. But all of these together are still only one aspect of "yoga," that which is approached primarily in terms of postures and breathing exercises.

Recently there has been some dispute as to whether or not yoga instructors should be licensed by the government, specifically, whether it is appropriate for the government to intervene in "religious" matters. Is yoga a religion? No. However, yoga is a spiritual practice! But, how can exercise be "spiritual"?!

The fact that we may ask this question demonstrates the mind-body dualism that pervades our western culture. We divide our experience into categories of "sacred" and "profane," so that the spirit is sacred and church is sacred, and pretty much everything else is profane: our body, our work, our studies, our everyday activities. We don't think of exercise as "spiritual" because we do not treat our body as if it is sacred. But yoga takes a completely different approach.

The traditional meaning of "yoga" is "union," as in union of body, mind and soul, and ultimately, union with the Divine. Our body is the physical manifestation of our soul on this earth, or as we say in Christianity, "your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit." The asanas we do in hatha yoga are a spiritual practice because taking care of our body and our health is therefore a spiritual duty. Also, the asanas help prepare us physically for spending long periods of time in meditation and tuning in to the energy that we will experience in more advanced or esoteric yoga practices such as kundalini or kriya yoga, which involve working with the subtle energies that move through our nervous system and spine.

Yoga, however, is not limited to these esoteric meditative practices, but rather encompasses all aspects of life! The Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Indian text, describes several different yogic paths whereby enlightenment may be realized including bhakti yoga (devotion), jnana yoga (knowledge/realization), and karma yoga (action), among others. In yoga everything we do is offered up to the Divine: our heart, our mind, our body and our activities. Therefore not only prayer or religious ceremonies are sacred, but also physical exercise, intellectual studies, and our work, everything that we do, is sacred when it is done with the right attitude and intention. Digging a ditch, pulling up weeds in the garden, cooking, cleaning, all can be a form of yoga.

While the yogic approach to life is most definitely "spiritual," it is not a "religion" per se because it does not belong to any one particular denomination. It is a spiritual practice that is used by Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, and people of all different faiths. Now the question might arise, with regard to the Divine, does one have to believe in God to practice yoga? Not necessarily. If you are agnostic, or not a particularly religious person, you can think of the "Divine" in whatever meaning it has for you, for example, your "Higher Power" as they say in AA. If you are an atheist and do not believe in any form of divinity whatsoever, then you can practice yoga in terms of living your life to be the best person that you can be. If you seriously practice the asanas and meditations with an open mind and take this practice to an advanced level, however, it is likely that you may indeed experience something Divine.

So, if you take the "yoga" class at the gym, will you achieve enlightenment and oneness with the universe? Perhaps, if you approach it with the right intent. And what if you are totally uninterested in the spiritual aspects of yoga, will the physical exercise of the asanas still be beneficial? Yes, in the sense that any exercise is beneficial. However, you will not get nearly as much out of it.

As for the question of whether or not yoga should be licensed and controlled by the government, in my opinion absolutely nothing good can come of this, and it is both impossible and inappropriate. But that is a subject for a different blog.

Yoga Proven Effective in Complementary Cancer Care

2009-12-03T12:46:00Z

This article was sent to me by Brian Turner from Mesiothelioma.com, "a leading web resource for those affected by mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer that occurs in the lining of the lungs and abdomen. Recently, more and more studies have been highlighting the great therapeutic benefits that yoga has to offer for those battling various forms of cancer such as mesothelioma." Brian has invited Yoga at Lothlorien to be involved in providing yoga instruction to patients, which we are happy to do! In addition to being a yoga instructor, I also happen to work as a medical transcriptionist currently specializing in oncology, and I am very interested in promoting alternative/complementary therapies. I will write more about this in a future blog. Meanwhile, please see the article below from mesothelioma.com:

***

Yoga Proven Effective in Complementary Cancer Care

By Jack Bleeker

The 21st Century has brought with it tremendous strides in cancer survival and the efficacy of therapies. Among the more important aspects of this progress is the implementation of integrative oncology as an effective model for cancer treatment. Integrative oncology emphasizes not only the use of traditional cancer treatments, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and surgery, but also complementary, non-curative therapies designed to ease the process of cancer treatment for the patient. These therapies can range from acupuncture to meditation, but have proven more often than not to be effective in assisting patients through the discomforts commonly associated with traditional cancer treatment. One therapy being incorporated into cancer care in recent years is Yoga.

The primary goals of integrative oncology are to achieve effective cancer treatment while maintaining patient comfort and relief of stress. Just as Yoga has been used for hundreds of years as an effective stress release mechanism for many people, so too is it now being utilized by cancer patients.

While further research is ongoing, preliminary studies examining the effects of Yoga among cancer patients and survivors support the efficacy of Yoga within cancer treatment regimens, including the combating of symptoms caused by chemotherapy drugs. Yoga has shown to dramatically reduce sleeplessness, cancer-related distress, nausea, and excessive fatigue.

Some aggressive cancers are difficult to treat with curative therapies. Many patients of malignancies such as mesothelioma choose to incorporate alternative therapies such as Yoga, not to supplant traditional therapies, but to improve quality of life and reduce anxiety associated with terminal disease. Therapies which can reduce stress levels and alleviate symptoms associated with aggressive chemotherapy cocktails and radiation treatments can be extremely beneficial not only to patients but also to family members and loved ones of patients.

This is not to say however, that Yoga and other alternative therapies are appropriate for all patients. Patients of mesothelioma cancer, for instance, should speak with an oncologist from one of the various mesothelioma clinics as well as their regular physician to ensure that they are in good enough health to pursue any therapy which could induce mild stress on the body. However, support for Yoga and other well-being-based therapies is growing among the oncology establishment and many cancer centers are introducing sessions designed for patients and family members. If the ultimate goals of complementary cancer care are to introduce therapies which improve comfort levels and reduce stress experienced by patients and loved ones, Yoga will be at the forefront of integrative oncology now and in the future.

Reference

Bower, Julienne E., Woolery, Alison, Sternlieb, Beth, and Garet, Deborah. “Yoga for Cancer Patients and Survivors.” Cancer Control 12 (2005): 165-71

Welcome

2009-11-19T04:53:47Z

Welcome to my blog. Please check back soon for new entries.