Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti

“Let there be Peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.” – Jill Jackson, 1955

Heavy snow covers Spokane, beautifully muffling external distractions and encouraging inward reflection. It is a perfect complement to the holiday season and its universal supplication for Peace on Earth.

But, what is this Peace we summon? A life without conflict? The cessation of hostilities between nations? Mutual harmony? Freedom from strife? Complete stillness?

In the yoga shala mantras are often followed with the ancient Vedic call for Peace, ‘Aum, Shanti … Shanti … Shanti … .” .

But what does it mean? A literal translation is ‘Om, Peace, Peace, Peace’.

So why is ‘Shanti’ repeated three times? To emphasize the importance of ‘Peace’ in everyone’s lives would be an obvious guess, yet according to the Vedas there are obstacles that prevent our realization of true Peace and they fall into three distinct categories. The repetition of ‘Shanti’ is meant to draw our awareness to these obstacles.

The following is a Vedic interpretation of ‘Aum, Shanti … Shanti … Shanti …’:

May we be protected from and enjoy the Peace that follows the removal of obstacles beyond our control (natural disasters – record snowfall, earthquakes, etc).

May we be protected from and enjoy the Peace that follows the removal of obstacles coming from the earth; anything outside ourselves – people, animals and our surroundings (noisy neighbors, barking dogs, ringing cell phones, mosquitoes).

May we be protected from and enjoy the Peace that follows the removal of obstacles coming from within our body, and our mind (anger, envy, greed, jealousy, lust).

And, finally, when correctly chanted, there is the short silent pause ( … ) that follows each repetition of ‘Shanti’. This silent pause, this moment of Peace, reminds the seeker of the desired goal. Ultimately, ego is the only obstacle to inner Peace, so the third Shanti is considered the most important one. Even if we are free of outside distractions, if we are not calm on the inside we will never know true Peace. But, once we have found inner Peace, external obstacles can ever disturb us.

Enjoy the snow (and its obstacles), the festivities of the season and as you extend holiday greetings and wishes of Peace to friends and family consider the words of Gandhi, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” and of Albert Einstein, “Nothing that I can do will change the structure of the universe. But maybe, by raising my voice I can help the greatest of all causes – goodwill among men and Peace on Earth.”

Best wishes for Happy and Peace-filled Holidays !

Aum, Shanti … Shanti … Shanti … .

With Sincere Gratitude to His Holiness Sri Jayendra Puri Maha Swami-ji,

Sri Kailash Ashram, Bangalore, India

Six Days a Week...

Trepidation. That’s what I felt when I began to contemplate the journey of 6 days a week of practice. Could I do it? And at what cost to my family? Will this affect my boys? Will it take time away from them? Immediately, thoughts of guilt set in. It’s amazing how good I am at feeling guilty since I became a mother. At the end of this internal argument I came up with the following…Yoga has taught me patience, self respect, and strength (physical and emotional). If those characteristics can make me a better mother, providing a strong example to my boys, a committed practice was worth a shot. My hope is that with a dedicated practice I will continue my journey not only in developing strength and flexibility in the asanas, but more importantly continue to celebrate my spirit, encouraging self love and self respect.

In order to commit to this challenge, I had enlist the support of my husband, kids and friends. I knew I couldn’t do it alone and I am pleased to say all have stepped up and provided me with support. Attempting to schedule practices in my week has already been difficult. My good intentions have been interrupted by LIFE. I have, however, made it to the mat 5 days this week. In addition to 2 led classes I have introduced 2 EARLY morning practices and one home practice.

How do I feel? Tired. But invigorated at the same time. I am also proud of myself. I have successfully completed my first week without taking time away from my family and without feeling (much) guilt for what I sometime perceive as selfishness. I think that is going to take a while for me to get over.

Early morning practices are different than the afternoons. I takes me longer to warm up and I find that my hamstrings and hips take longer to open up. This morning I attempted to stand up from urdhva dhanurasana and it just wasn’t going to happen. I initially felt frustration and some anger. “Why the heck is this hard today?” but then I forced myself to step back and appreciate that fact that I had made it to the mat. Be happy with that! Practicing by myself has also forced me to be self motivating and accepting to the fact I may not always have an energized practice.

One week down, many, many, many to go. Goals for this journey….lifting up and jumping back without using blocks, binding in supta kurmasana, generally improving my strength. More importantly I want to live yoga. Not only asana but incorporating the philosophy of yoga into my life. Lofty? Yes. Attainable? Hopefully.

Lindsay will be posting her practice journal over the next four months. She has been practicing at City Yoga since the early days in the Steamplant, works and has two little children. When she expressed some frustration to me about her progress in her practice which was pretty consistently 3-4 days a week, I suggested that she try for a period of time to practice six days a week, taking off moon days and the first three days of her menstrual cycle. She was up for the idea and started right at the beginning of May. Not a small task to bring add on to an already busy life, she has to fit practice some mornings, and some evening but she is making it work! Lindsay, thank you for sharing this with all of us.

The Opening Mantra...

We posted the article written by San Francisco Ashtanga teacher John Berlinsky last June and a lot of people really liked it so we are posting it again. Now you can also hear David Garrigues doing the opening mantra.


Ashtanga practice is traditionally begun with the recitation of the mantra. What we call the Ashtanga Mantra is really two shlokas from different sources. The first is a verse from the "Yoga Taravalli" by Sri Shankaracharya and the second verse is from a longer prayer to Patanjali.

The Ashtanga mantra has been translated a number of times with various interpretations of the individual words. Instead of looking at the mantra as a literal translation of the Sanskrit, I see the mantra as an invocation and living part of our yoga practice.

Read more...

I could never do that...

We've all done this: watched someone effortlessly perform an amazing, seemingly impossible asana, and thought to ourselves any number of judgemental, self-degrading, negative thoughts along the lines of: "I'll never be able to do that, I've been doing this so much longer than him and why can he do that and I can't, I suck, why am I even trying to do this, ____(insert your favorite judgemental thought)_____." Or maybe you take the self limiting tack of "why would I ever want to do that to myself!"

It is a natural function of being human; we have this brain that is capable of many layers of thought. We can be editing, monitoring and judging what we are doing, and then editing, monitoring and judging what we are thinking about what we are doing and so on and so on. Of course we all know by now that the goal of yoga is to some how take respite from this "ability". Patanjali's yoga sutras focus on the aim of learning to control the wanderings of the mind; yogas citta-vritt-nirodhah. Learning to somehow for a moment see past the veil or maya of the conditioning of our lives - so that we can see things as they are, be present.

So here we are getting on our mat either at home in our living rooms, or coming to a class. We look around and compare ourselves to the people around us and we begin to have these thoughts (see above), so we question the value of practice, we look for a new teacher, a new studio, a new thing, but inevitably, eventually those same thoughts come back. Before we know it five years later we're in the same confused place, as Richard Freeman says with a lot of shallow wells all around us.

Consider this: Practicing with total attention within the body is advanced yoga, no matter how easy the posture: practicing with your attention scattered is the practice of a beginner, no matter how difficult the posture. (David Coulter, The Anatomy of Hatha Yoga) Let yourself be inspired by the people joining you on their mats and then go back inside, listen to your breath, do your best and try to learn from what you are feeling. Keep coming back to your mat, dig a deeper well, the effortless beauty of asana will sneak up on you one day when you least expect it.

More from Charleston...

Here is another picture - this is Jennifer, my dear friend from Charlottesvile. She hosts Tim there once a year and David as well. And that is Tim - below is a link to an article that Tim wrote - good reading.

http://ashtangayogacenter.com/alchemy.html

On to the green mats...

The new eco mats that are coming out are pretty much made out of rubber - Mary sent me some great information about them. Thanks Mary!

Rubber, being tapped from trees (as is maple syrup) is a natural material that turns to dust in the landfill. I just got my new one, a Harmony mat, from matsmatsmats.com http://www.matsmatsmats.com/yoga/yoga-mat-fusion.html

Their Fusion mat is 5/16" thick and 8 pounds. I bought the Pro mat which is only 3/16" thick and about 5 pounds. I may regret it in the long run...don't know yet. They both come in 68" or 74" lengths.

We both remember the "carpet pad" mats and how they ate up your feet. This commercial rubber mat does NOT--at least not to my experience so far. It feels much much cushier than the carpet padding too.

The cons of rubber are listed on the website:

This mat should not be left outside in the sun, since natural rubber is very sensitive to direct sunlight - the material can dry out, harden and lose its grip.

Natural rubber always has a "rubber" odor that will diminish over time [never completely in my experience-you have to get used to it]

People with latex allergies should avoid natural rubber.

I can attest to the first caveat -- the summer of "108 days of yoga" when I came to class virtually every day, I left my mat in my car much of the time. And yes, it started to slide all over the floor at practice. I deep-sixed it out of frustration! With my new one I must remember NOT to do that. But I loved the deep red color (Sedona red) of my new one and bought it as much for that as the "green" aspect. We'll see...

Yoga From the Inside Out

"The hatha yoga practitioner uses the body as the vehicle of consciousness, as the terrain for practice, exploration and ovservation. To practice self-observation in hatha yoga we use the asanas to witness the sensations of the body, the thoughts of the mind, the feelings of the heart, and the majestic simpliciy of the spirit. Paying attention to people is one of the best ways to show them that we love and care for them. In the practice of hatha yoga we can hone our ability to pay attention to the physical alignment of the body in space, our attitudinal alignment with our heart's desire and the spiritual alignment we have with the Divine. By paying attention to ourselves through self observation in our yoga practice we show ourselves that we are worthy of our own attention, making our practice into an act of love. In this spirit of love, yoga can become an offering of peace."

An excerpt from Christina Sell's book "Yoga From the Inside Out". Christina will be at Garden Street Yoga in Coeur d'Alene, April 18-20, 2008.

On to the black mats...

In my memory black mats started coming out around 2000 - or that is when I started seeing people using them. At first I thought they were too thick, too big and WAY too expensive. There was no way I was going to pay $70 or $80 for a yoga mat. But as I said in the previous mat blog, a friend of mine decided it was time that I had one and gave me one! She is a good friend. So the story with the black mat is that they are thick but not squishy, for people who tend to slip on other mats, often they don't slip on the black mat, they are also a little wider than most of the other mats so you have a little more mat underneath you which I like. From what I can tell most of them are 98%pvc and 2% recycled polyester - and because of the fact that you will probably only have to buy one in your life, there is a lower probability that it will end up in a landfill. I've always purchased my black mat from either Barefoot Yoga or Bheka - they both have a shorter and a tall version, their prices are about the same. The other company is Manduka - which I've never used - but a lot of people have the Manduka. Also, Manduka makes another mat called the PurpleLite Travel Mat that runs for more like $60 and that a lot of people seem to like just as well as the black mat. When I was doing research for this blog it looks like Barefoot and Bheka offer a similar purple mat as well.

Next on the discussion list is the new green mats.... if anyone has anything to offer about these let me know.

The Key Muscles of Hatha Yoga

So far this is one of the best anatomy books I've found. We have a copy at the studio if you want to check it out or you can go to the Bandha Yoga website and order a copy for yourself. The website has a ton of information - when you have a minute go to the "scientific keys" tab and check out the section on the biomechanics of breathing. Enjoy!

Mats, mats, mats...

Okay - so trying to figure out what kind of mat to buy for your practice. Either you've been using the loaner mats we have at the studio and have noticed that best case scenario they smell like bleach, worse case scenario they smell like sweaty feet (yuck!). And you've decided to get your own mat or you are having one of the following problems with the mat you already own:

• slipping, your hands and feet slipping during the opening sun salutations and the standing poses
• slipping, later on in the practice when there is sweat flying everywhere
• slipping, the mat is actually slipping on the floor
• not enough padding
  
• pieces of mat left all over your body after practice

In this blog and over the next week I'll try to address the above issues and point you in the right mat direction. I'd love it if anyone has anything to add to any of this! The first yoga mat I had was the "standard long life" mat by Bheka and which go for about $26. We have a bunch of these mats at the studio - they are the ones that have sort of a terry cloth feel to them when they get worn out. Prana mats are the exact same mat, except theirs come in different colors, and in the manufactuing process of the coloring they've come out with a somewhat different texture that seems to wear better - but feels a little stiffer. They are both pretty thin though, so after wearing through a couple of those I switched to the "deluxe long life" mat also made by Bheka and which run for $35. Both of these mats, as most mats do, come in a standard length but can also be bought in a longer size. I really like these mats, and find that for the sweaty hands and feet people, sometimes these are the best solution - but not always.

The standard "sticky mats" can also work well for people who don't have the sweaty hands and feet issue. These are the mats that you can usually find at Huckleberry's or Target etc. Sometimes you have to throw these mats in the wash with a minescule amount of detergent get rid of the sheen they come with, if slipping is a problem. I also recommend that when you get a new mat if wearing it in through your practice doesn't work lay it out on the floor between your bed and your bathroom or some other well traveled place in your house.

So after wearing through a couple of the Bheka deluxe long life mats (which are nice and thick), and by wearing through I mean, holes and after practice being covered with little blue pills of mat, my friend gave me one of the "black mats". Since this is a whole other topic I will save for tomorrow. Even more to come... mysore rugs....

New Mat Bag

We are asked all the time about mats and other yoga practice support items. So I'm going to try to get information for all from what i've learned over the years. This is a new mat bag made by my friends at Saka Yoga in Burlington , VT. I've had one of the first generations of their cargo bag for years, and I love it. This new Pinda backback is awesome for travel when you want to take your mat, and for riding your bike to the studio, or if you are just tired of the horizontal mat bag. More soon on mats...

The Antidote to Holiday Stress

Restorative Yoga - Sunday 12.23 at 5:15pm

Feedback from a student after our last restorative class: "Sunday, after the class, I felt “lighter, softer”. This seldom is the type of feeling I have. Generally, I hold everything tightly and with control, putting large amounts of effort into activities. So, soft and light felt very good. Also, my mind and body were working together, I had time to feel a pose, be that pose. Generally, I can be “distracted” for any number of reasons.

< The next night >Monday’s class was very “full” (of distractions…), but somehow, it was easier to stay within myself, to let my mind and body work, lighter and softer again."

For more information on the ways that Restorative Yoga works click here.

Happy Solstice!

From Wikipedia:

The winter solstice occurs the instant when the Sun's position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane as the observer. Depending on the shift of the calendar, the event of the Winter solstice occurs sometime between December 20 and 23 each year in the Northern hemisphere, and between June 20 and 23 in the Southern Hemisphere, and the winter solstice occurs during either the shortest day or the longest night of the year. Though the Winter Solstice lasts an instant, the term is also used to refer to the full day and night (24hrs) within which the event occurs. Worldwide, interpretation of the event varies from culture to culture, but most hold a recognition of rebirth, involving festivals, gatherings, rituals or other celebrations. Many cultures celebrate or celebrated a holiday near the winter solstice; examples of these include Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Years, Pongal, Yalda and many other festivals of light.^[1]

Eating to Support Your Yoga Practice

This is an excerpt from an article written by Guy Donahaye from the Ashtanga Yoga Shala in NYC. To read the full article click here.

If you look at the ancient texts on yoga they recommend a minimal diet of a little rice, a few vegetables, some mung dal (lentils) and ghee (clarified butter). The assumption here is that the practitioner is spending most of the time sitting in meditation or study and otherwise minimalising activity. However, a diet like this may not be sufficient for someone who has a stressful job or is physically very active.
What is perhaps most important to note is that food and eating are there for the purpose of nourishing the body which has an inate healthy apetite for what is beneficial. Unfortunately, in our modern society, divorced from the rythms and influences of nature, our apetite has become completeley disturbed and confused and all kinds of unhealthy eating habits have resulted.
We no longer know what is healthy to eat, how much to eat or when to eat. We use food for the sake of pleasure instead of nourishment, we eat excessive amounts and we eat all the time. The foods we choose are produced in all kinds of artifcial ways and many kinds of chemicals to stimulate the taste buds and encourage us to eat to excess.
Apart from the influence of food on the body, we find that food influences our mental state to a very high degree and we can thus divide food types into three broad categories:Food which promotes a healthy, calm, focused state of mind.Food which stimulates and disturbs the mind.Food which makes the mind dull.
The right kind of food is called sattvic food, when eaten in appropriate amounts and at the right time of day, this kind of food generates the ideal state of mind for practicing yoga and a healthy body. Characteristics of this kind of food: natural, fresh, organic, easy to digest.
Food we find stimulating may contain caffeine, chillies, refined sugars etc. Although in appropriately small quantities these substances may have beneficial effects for producing certain results, when used in excess they have extremely negative consequences for our system.
Other types of food we use for "relaxation". These foods, full of preservatives and other mind-dulling influences are taken to give a certain "comfort", but also result in very negative consequences for the human system.
In adiition to the types of food consumed, negative consequences result from excessive eating and eating at the wrong times.It is impossible to give a general diet which will suit all individuals. Students will need to develop a sensitivity to what foods are beneficial and which ones harmful. A student who also has a job which involves a lot of physical work will need a more protein rich diet than one who's work is sedentary. One who's work requires great mental effort, or who is exposed to great stress may also require more food.It is a general reccommendation for yoga students that they follow a vegetarian diet, however, for those who have a long history of meat eating, changing to this way of eating overnight may not be possible or advisable. If you are a habitual red meat eater and are wishing to transition to a healthier way of eating, you may start by first substituting white meat or fish and gradually reducing the frequency of meat eating. Equally, if you eat white meat you may transition first to fish and so on.As you start practicing yoga, you will notice that your eating desires slowly change. If you listen to your body, the transition will be healthy and happy.

AYRI in the USA

Even though I had been practicing Ashtanga Yoga for three years in the fall of 2001, I was kind of clueless about what was going on.. or maybe I just wasn't ready. But I was living in Virginia and could have easily gone up to NY to do one of those weeks with Guruji. But like I said I was apparently kind of clueless - and pretty much didn't even know it was going on. By the next summer it seems I sort of had caught on with the system, and upon moving to Spokane July '02 registered myself to attend the five day workshop in Seattle put on by David and Satya. (At that time I did not know them at all.) A friend of mine who I had rowed with (and hadn't seen since the "96 Olympic trials)and whose husband was the rowing coach at UW was going to let me stay at their house. So I had a place to stay and a yoga class each morning for a week, and didn't have a job... so off I went. My first day was less than stellar - I have to admit that upon seeing my two friends from the glory days of rowing and consuming a glass or two of wine I was LATE arriving to the venue where our beloved guru of Ashtanga Yoga was going to be teaching for five days. When I finally found the place, there were seemingly hundreds of pairs of shoes filling the anteroom of a community college gymnasium. The owners of those hundreds of shoes were already partaking in surya namaskaras as I sneaked into the very, very, very back row. After I was finished berating myself for being such an idiot - is seems out of all those 250 people, I was the only one who couldn't make it there on time - practice went along as usual. Because I was in the back row, Saraswathi was walking around and helping us bind etc.. Sharath was in the middle, and Guruji was in the very front. After we finished, as we were laying in Savasana, I noticed that people were starting to get up and go stand in this line, that ended at the three of them sitting up in the front of the gym. As clueless as I was I apparently had enough sense to go join the line and wait for my turn to meet this great teacher face to face. I wasn't sure about the kneeling at someones feet, or kissing their feet or whatever it was that everyone was confidently doing, but I continued to wait. When it was my turn I went over to him and sort of semi prostated myself at his feet, too shy to actually touch them, and then just went the easy way and gave him a hug. His smiling eyes, and his bear hug made me forget all my self-consciousness, and then he looked at me and said "you're here?". He must have thought I was someone else, but then of all things, then he thanked me! Wow, meeting him face to face is such a gift.

Well anyways, as the week wore on I was able to make it there on time. I slowly started to make my way toward the front of the room. One day I unrolled my mat right next to a woman named Fiona Stang who I went to high school and college with back East - which was really remarkable. I became more comfortable with the line, the kneeling thing, and began to look forward to that big hug. Since that time I've gone to see our teacher two other times and now (besides going to India) you all can too! He will be in the AYRI center they have built in the US - this March! I highly encourage you to take this opportunity!

Interview with Saraswathi from Namarupa

NE: What advice can you give to Ashtanga Yoga teachers who want to teach this method over a long period of time, as you have done?

SR: You don't want to change the method. What you learn in Mysore with us is what you should teach in your place. Guruji has told us so many things; you can't go changing it. If you follow Guruji's method, definitely everything is coming spiritual. It will change minds; everything will change. People like it the way it is - that's why it is spreading everywhere. For forty years nobody has taught like hiim. But in old age - seventy years, eighty years - you keep a few asanas and make them your regular practice. Just do primary, that's enough, but don't stop. You look at the people and see what is suitablele for them. You can choose what their practice should be. Even a very big man can do Surya Namaskara with the correct breathing - you can make him try. Soon it will be much easier for him. If you can't do Surya Namaskara, you can do simple asanas, with breathing and mula bandha and drsthi. Even sick people can do the breathing. Eventually they will feel happy ad their bodies will become light. So many people tell us Guruji has changed their lives with Ashtanga Yoga.

Westerners are very strong people - when they start, they keep going.

From the Fall 2007 issue of Namarupa, excerpt from an interview of Saraswathi Rangaswamy, the daughter of Sri K.Pattabhi Jois by Nick Evans.

Neti Pot How To

Come see David...

This past weekend I went to see our friends in Missoula and took a couple of videos of David. The sound is kind of low, so you may need to turn your speakers up and be in a quiet room. It is just a short clip about bandhas. David will be here a week from Wednesday. The workshop is filling up but there is still room for you!

Second Series Class Sunday Night - Why?

It is turning out there that there is a lot going on on Sunday nights at the studio. This Sunday is the first Second Series class that we've ever offered. Learning Second Series in the traditional mysore way is very different than coming to a led class where modifications are taught. Both can be very valuable methods. When we are considering that yoga poses are tools that over time and with practice we learn how to use. Tools that we can become skilled in, just as pranayama, bandha and dristhti are also tools. That the skilled use of these tools presents us with the ability to transform ourselves on all levels, it makes sense that learning and practicing new asanas is a beneficial endeavor. Plus it will also be fun!

Ashtanga Yoga: Practice and Philosophy

Ashtanga Yoga: Practice and Philosphy by Gregor Maehle is one of our favorite yoga books. Lars wrote Gregor an email asking for more information on the trikonasana section, as he felt it was somewhat incomplete. Gregor wrote back that yes there was "a section dropped out of Trikonasana during the lenghty editing process. Sorry about that and it is attached as a Word document". So below is the complete instructions for trikonasana. Thank you Gregor and thank you Lars!


With the feet correctly positioned, let the right hip drop down (lateral tilt) as far as possible, bringing the pelvis towards being vertical to the floor. If the pelvis is left in a horizontal position, the spine has to flex laterally (sideways), which is not intended in this posture. The left hip swings up and out to the left to allow the right hip to drop.

Reach out to the side and then down, imagining staying between two panes of glass that prevent any leaning of the torso out in front. The left shoulder remains on one plane above the right leg. The right hand eventually clasps the right big toe. If you are not able to reach the toe without compromising the posture (laterally flexing the spine), place your hand on the foot or shin. Do not lean into this leg, but keep both sides of the torso and neck lengthening and supported away from the floor. If it is comfortable, turn the head to gaze up to the thumb of the left hand, which hovers above the left shoulder. Keep the neck in a straight line with the rest of your spine without performing an unnecessary backbend in your neck. Otherwise gaze out to the side. Five breaths.

Getting into Utthita Trikonasana we externally rotated the right femur to turn the foot out. Once in the posture, we inwardly rotate the femur until we reach the neutral position. The left thigh, which was medially (inwardly) rotated to take us into the posture, is laterally rotated once in the posture until the leg is again in the neutral position, with the four corners of the foot equally grounded. Check especially that both the outside of the left foot and the base of the right big toe are grounded. There needs to be a subtle balance between grounding the inner and outer arches of the front foot. This will lead to a subtle balance of inward and outward rotation of the thigh of the front leg, which is necessary for the hamstrings to lengthen evenly. Many beginners have a tendency to roll out the thigh to escape the stretching of the inner hamstrings – a tendency, also common in Padangushtasana and Pashimottanasana, that needs to be counteracted if present. Keep the left hip lifted back over the right one as the right groin moves forward.

The underneath side of the torso reaches forward so that the right waist gets the same stretch as the left. Stay in the state of Trikonasana for five breaths.