While last Tuesday was the Solstice, this past Saturday we experienced a partial lunar eclipse. Eclipses are pretty powerful no matter when they occur, and astrologers call them 'portals'. I see them functioning as black holes since they draw energies into intense action for change, deconstruction, and transformation of all kinds.
Astrology to some is a lark, and those who study astrology get labeled bad fortune tellers sometimes. I myself see it as the perfect balanced alignment between science and art. The science of reading the sky is interpreted many different ways, and each astrologer offers something unique. My fav as of late is Divine Harmony, and I always love the humor and insight of Rob Brezney. (I miss his columns in NYC!)
As a portal for change, eclipses can bring quickening energy, so like a black hole which sucks things toward it and gets faster the closer you get to it, the days and months prior to the eclipse can do the same. Perhaps you have felt some kind of transit as far back as January or February of this year? I know I did. For me, I'm into anything that offers insight and empowerment in making more conscious choices that will assist the changes. The yoga of astrology!
While eclipses can be so potent, disorienting even because they move things quickly, what's great to remember is the teaching of purna. Purna is sanskrit for 'fullness' or 'completeness', and refers to the 100 percent-ness of our nature. Whatever our soul or life needs, we are sufficiently suited to serve that change, even if things move at rapid pace. The changes on the outside may seem 'good' or
'bad', but dealing with a your own rebirth or metaphoric death is where yoga steps in. Purna teaches that we have what it takes to assist the flow, and deal with the results. At this time, we're all being asked to step up into the next level. Ushered there by nature, its hard to ignore.
ps - total eclipse of the sun happens on July 11th. A potent day of rebirth for me. More soon.
check out Divine Harmony's blog: inharmonyastrology.blogspot.com
julie dohrman / shaktiyoga new york / life as an urban yogi.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
New York's One Heart
Tuesday nights amazing event on the Great Lawn did everything it set out to do, even though it may have been the shortest largest yoga class in the US! The performers were inspiring, funny and completely represented New York culture while thousands of yogis shuffled into the park. And I mean thousands. My favorite part was being able to see and feel the entire tribe of yoga come together, completely free of all boundaries.
Then Elena rocked it for 10 minutes! The parks department shut the event down, and the skies opened up. Like a perfect cleansing.
Honoring the event this week in class, we'll finish the class.
Until the rain date is set...
Check out this clip from Ch. 11 news
Then Elena rocked it for 10 minutes! The parks department shut the event down, and the skies opened up. Like a perfect cleansing.
Honoring the event this week in class, we'll finish the class.
Until the rain date is set...
Check out this clip from Ch. 11 news
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
momentum
Today will be a day in New York history when 10,000 + align and entrain on the Great Lawn in Central Park for a yoga class and other performances marking the Summer Solstice. Created by Flavorpill, they tell us that the registered number is up to 12,5k already, but knowing new yorkers with busy lives and the forecast predicting thunderstorms, it may shrivel to the original number of 10k. Still... woa! The convergence of that much shakti will surely bring ripples of something through our sultry streets. I'm so excited to be assisting this event, and the buzz has been building for weeks (now, days). Collective consciousness, New York style. Gotta love it.
The Solstice is the middle of the year, the height of light beaming down upon us, and like a birthday of sorts. I treat it as a time to see where I've been placing momentum, and see if its serving me. I do that on birthdays too, since it allows perspective for where I'm going. Since Solstice is primarily when nature is also at its fullest and we experience the longest day of the year, there's a natural pull to move, to be outside, to love! The question is, what's moving? Is it the right thing moving for you at this time?
There is a Buddhist saying "The cart will follow the ox", and it's about momentum. You'll go where your mind is going, and patterns are there because you've put time and energy there. Force fields entrain, and the higher frequency field of thought, word, or action will always lead the weaker one. So on this Solstice, I'm looking at what I've been focusing on, and asking myself, does it still serve?
I'm stoked that Anusara Yoga is headlining this event through Elena Brower's voice, presence and sweet bhavana. I can think of no one better skilled to hold the space for the New York yoga community to align with our highest intentions at this critical time in our global economy, politics, and environmental concerns. Lets do it people - set the tone from here on out and guide your cart in the direction for greater harmony and love. One Om. 10,000 people.
oh, and my parents will be here. Another monumental event!
om namahshivaya
The Solstice is the middle of the year, the height of light beaming down upon us, and like a birthday of sorts. I treat it as a time to see where I've been placing momentum, and see if its serving me. I do that on birthdays too, since it allows perspective for where I'm going. Since Solstice is primarily when nature is also at its fullest and we experience the longest day of the year, there's a natural pull to move, to be outside, to love! The question is, what's moving? Is it the right thing moving for you at this time?
There is a Buddhist saying "The cart will follow the ox", and it's about momentum. You'll go where your mind is going, and patterns are there because you've put time and energy there. Force fields entrain, and the higher frequency field of thought, word, or action will always lead the weaker one. So on this Solstice, I'm looking at what I've been focusing on, and asking myself, does it still serve?
I'm stoked that Anusara Yoga is headlining this event through Elena Brower's voice, presence and sweet bhavana. I can think of no one better skilled to hold the space for the New York yoga community to align with our highest intentions at this critical time in our global economy, politics, and environmental concerns. Lets do it people - set the tone from here on out and guide your cart in the direction for greater harmony and love. One Om. 10,000 people.
oh, and my parents will be here. Another monumental event!
om namahshivaya
Sunday, June 06, 2010
The subtext
Alright, i'm on board.
After many requests for me to start a blog, here it is. Like my initial foray into Facebook, i see this as an experiment in how to fuel remembrance of connection - to the kula, to our family, to friends we thought long gone, and to the wisdom in our hearts. And it feels like it will be a good outlet to expand upon my oft times wildly deep themes in class. I've got to keep those intros brief you know, we've got asana to do.
I'm fascinated by mythology. It's actually what initially drew me to Anusara® Yoga, primarily through the story of Nataraja. Amy Ippoliti was my first Anusara teacher at Crunch gym on Broadway, and I'll never forget the day she animated the tale of the great lord Shiva as the dancer in the forest of the Tillai trees. The myth spoke to the wanderings of my own heart, and what it was for me a decade ago or more to be seeking an ecstatic experience of joy. I'm still seeking the ecstatic experience, daily! Now I've been taught by great teachers and masters of many traditions how to find it. Look inside the heart, and underneath the mist. Look for the subtext of the story.
Mythology is everywhere, especially on TV. I will happily admit to being a "Lostie". I friggin' loved the show, and anyone in my classes last week heard me speak of why. Mostly its a fantastic premise of the possibilities in life. What would happen if... you had to form a society with people you don't know and didn't choose to be with. So un-like our modern lives where we live more in the paradigm of choice. So the show presented challenges of simply how to get along.
In Hindu myths, often the scenes of gods, demons, heroines and sages are battling, and battling the same things. Their stories take place on battlefields, in dense forests, in the vastness of the sky, or the wild churnings of the oceans. The Island in Lost had all of these elements. Wandering through the jungle is roaming the inner landscape of your emotions, and things always got heated on those long walks, day or night, for the characters. The oceans in Hindu myth are mirrors of the great flow of consciousness itself, and when it stirs or even churns wildly, it's the call of the great Light to awaken inside your own very heart. How could you not wander into your own reflection when staring out at the beauty of the wild sea?
My conclusion of the show Lost was as obvious as everyone else's (even before Jacob actually said this); these were people we knew, (or even some of us) who were so disconnected from their heart, they felt 'lost'; purposeless, skeptical of life's goodness, ignorant to the laws of life, and simply had lack of faith.
The great sage Paramahansa Yogananda teaches 3 paths to healing the Being through yoga, and gaining freedom from a variety of suffering. He first teaches to heal the physical body. Many traditions and cultures teach this. When the body is well fed and taken care of, physiological functioning returns on all levels (Hello, Jack Shepard was an MD). The second thing Yogananda teaches to heal is the mental constructs that make disease, like fear and anger. But deeper, the psychological bad habits that we all fall into like failure consciousness, feeling a lack of initiative, and lack of confidence (In my opinion? John Locke). The third thing he offers is the healing of Spiritual diseases like indifference, and spiritual blindness. 'Lost' was a great myth of the 3 Paths of Life, and each character went through some kind of awakening as a yogi (and I won't say more in case any of you are going to catch it on Netflix).
Remember we define 'yoga' in Anusara not as 'union', referring to a prior separateness, but as engagement. From the Shiva Shakti Tantric perspective, the body, heart and mind are already in union with the Divine. Shiva, the great Absolute, the Supreme is simply manifest as You, as Shakti, and the two remain in communion in you as you for as long as she'll breathe you. The terms of our Island, our life, are a given. Deal with when you don't have choice, and must accept. Our yoga is simply to awaken to this experience of communing with the Divine and engage it fully, in the shadows of the forest, and the clarity of the sea. Each character rediscovered or renewed their sense of purpose, their dharma, from the interaction with the Dharma Initiative. And man, it's a long, very challenging journey, but so worth while.
This is going to be fun.
After many requests for me to start a blog, here it is. Like my initial foray into Facebook, i see this as an experiment in how to fuel remembrance of connection - to the kula, to our family, to friends we thought long gone, and to the wisdom in our hearts. And it feels like it will be a good outlet to expand upon my oft times wildly deep themes in class. I've got to keep those intros brief you know, we've got asana to do.
I'm fascinated by mythology. It's actually what initially drew me to Anusara® Yoga, primarily through the story of Nataraja. Amy Ippoliti was my first Anusara teacher at Crunch gym on Broadway, and I'll never forget the day she animated the tale of the great lord Shiva as the dancer in the forest of the Tillai trees. The myth spoke to the wanderings of my own heart, and what it was for me a decade ago or more to be seeking an ecstatic experience of joy. I'm still seeking the ecstatic experience, daily! Now I've been taught by great teachers and masters of many traditions how to find it. Look inside the heart, and underneath the mist. Look for the subtext of the story.
Mythology is everywhere, especially on TV. I will happily admit to being a "Lostie". I friggin' loved the show, and anyone in my classes last week heard me speak of why. Mostly its a fantastic premise of the possibilities in life. What would happen if... you had to form a society with people you don't know and didn't choose to be with. So un-like our modern lives where we live more in the paradigm of choice. So the show presented challenges of simply how to get along.
In Hindu myths, often the scenes of gods, demons, heroines and sages are battling, and battling the same things. Their stories take place on battlefields, in dense forests, in the vastness of the sky, or the wild churnings of the oceans. The Island in Lost had all of these elements. Wandering through the jungle is roaming the inner landscape of your emotions, and things always got heated on those long walks, day or night, for the characters. The oceans in Hindu myth are mirrors of the great flow of consciousness itself, and when it stirs or even churns wildly, it's the call of the great Light to awaken inside your own very heart. How could you not wander into your own reflection when staring out at the beauty of the wild sea?
My conclusion of the show Lost was as obvious as everyone else's (even before Jacob actually said this); these were people we knew, (or even some of us) who were so disconnected from their heart, they felt 'lost'; purposeless, skeptical of life's goodness, ignorant to the laws of life, and simply had lack of faith.
The great sage Paramahansa Yogananda teaches 3 paths to healing the Being through yoga, and gaining freedom from a variety of suffering. He first teaches to heal the physical body. Many traditions and cultures teach this. When the body is well fed and taken care of, physiological functioning returns on all levels (Hello, Jack Shepard was an MD). The second thing Yogananda teaches to heal is the mental constructs that make disease, like fear and anger. But deeper, the psychological bad habits that we all fall into like failure consciousness, feeling a lack of initiative, and lack of confidence (In my opinion? John Locke). The third thing he offers is the healing of Spiritual diseases like indifference, and spiritual blindness. 'Lost' was a great myth of the 3 Paths of Life, and each character went through some kind of awakening as a yogi (and I won't say more in case any of you are going to catch it on Netflix).
Remember we define 'yoga' in Anusara not as 'union', referring to a prior separateness, but as engagement. From the Shiva Shakti Tantric perspective, the body, heart and mind are already in union with the Divine. Shiva, the great Absolute, the Supreme is simply manifest as You, as Shakti, and the two remain in communion in you as you for as long as she'll breathe you. The terms of our Island, our life, are a given. Deal with when you don't have choice, and must accept. Our yoga is simply to awaken to this experience of communing with the Divine and engage it fully, in the shadows of the forest, and the clarity of the sea. Each character rediscovered or renewed their sense of purpose, their dharma, from the interaction with the Dharma Initiative. And man, it's a long, very challenging journey, but so worth while.
This is going to be fun.
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