holy cow, its gonna be dark

5:10pm, Sunday.  It's nighttime already.  Dusk is done.  Done at 4:30, maybe, if that.  I've come to appreciate this time of year way more recently, upon beginning a meditation practice almost a year ago.  yes, i said it.  I am a certified yoga teacher and didn't have a regular practice till one year ago.  (Cue yoga police!)   I do now, and I sought one because I was ready to go deeper inside my sadhana, my heart, and my Self.  I was ready to go into the dark.

I remember years ago Amy taught a class around this time, and admitted to not liking the dark days of winter too much.  She then offered her own work of yoga in finding the light in the dark, ie, she got creative with her inward time.  She prompted the students to each come up with something they liked about the darker days and longer nights, and share it out loud.  People said things like baking, reading, watching movies, knitting, cuddling with the kids/pooch/kitty/sweetie, etc.  I'll never forget this because it offered me a chance to actually seek something different out of what i didn't really like, as I've also been a winter-hater.  In a sense, it taught me to do some yoga, and find an expansion where I felt a contraction.

Tuesday marks the Solstice for us, the beginning of winter, when the earth will be at its lowest point below the sun before it begins its upward turn again.  The Solstice is almost like time standing still for a brief moment, and we'll be heralded into the greatest amount of dark for the year.  We'll have the longest night, literally.  Part of the natural cycle, 2010's annual cropped-day will occur on a full moon.  Wait, it gets better- It's also a lunar eclipse!  Holy cow, it's gonna be dark.

This is a rare alignment, and one that hasn't happened in over 400 years.  Full Moon's bring additional energetic alignments that enhance whatever is going on at that time. Astrologers call eclipses 'portals', and often describe them paradoxically being about absorbing what you're ready to shed, and renewing your sense of purpose.  So everything this week is being pushed a little bit...more.  This alignment is a perfect Tantric paradox, and it's a chance to align to both creation and dissolution, to renewal and letting go. 

Our extra darkness can be a gateway, and I plan on using it as one.  Over the next week I encourage asana, to move any of the stuck energy in your body and jostle up what you are longing to shed.  And I encourage meditation, to open that inner portal for dissolution to happen, and expand in the dark.
After all, everything germinates and grows in the dark.  In the days that follow the Solstice/full moon/eclipse, it will be super dark.  Little bits of light will slowly and progressively increase and reappear, but there's no rush.  I like the dark now. 



fyi, many of you ask about my favorite astrologers, and my current fav is on maternity leave!  Happy New Motherhood Divine Harmony.  

(that picture is what our eclipse would look like, were we standing on the moon's surface.  our view, if lucky enough to catch it, will be of a the moon as a red glowing ball.  Not bad.)

kula as core

My search for the meaning of ‘core’ in yoga continues.  Amidst the holiday rush, i’m managing to stay pretty grounded.  Asana certainly helps, as does meditation, and I’ll dive more into that in my next blog.

This week I celebrated my birthday, and as usual for a full time yoga teacher living and working in the hustle of NYC, I took a yoga class to celebrate.  How perfect!  Maybe that’s not so typical for some teachers out there, but when I take a yoga class its more than just moving my body, so it feels like a party. Plus, it’s a chance to connect to a community I think of as home.  In sanskrit, the word is ‘kula’.

Kula though is more than just community.  Its a gathering of ideas and hearts, as well as people who center around a common belief, practice or idea.  In some sense, each kula has a bindu (sometimes defined as “the point or center of something that opens again into an expansion”, or “where the unity becomes the many”)  in the form of its values, a core central belief that is a common thread that each great soul has a link to.  Or the teacher or guru is the core.  When I think of the core of my practice, i often think of my kula.  The people that I choose to practice yoga with, share conversation with, my ‘kalyana mitra’, or those I’m engaged in ‘spiritual friendship’ with, matter deeply in the practice.  When I practice on my own without the kula, they are invoked.   The kula as core of yoga is significant if you are like me, and value living fully in the world as a householder rather than a renunciant.  

Sorta like my other great experience from my birthday, which happened because of Facebook.  Hundreds of people wrote on my wall sending wishes and love, and it dawned on me, that on that day, I was the core too.

when did yoga turn into an abs class?

I have lost count of how many times I’ve taught bakasana (crow pose) in a yoga class, and a student who is having difficulty says to me “My core isn’t strong enough, right?” I often get befuddled before answering because there are so many things involved in learning challenging poses.

My answer is always governed by looking at the students’ general alignment, actions in the pose, and even their attitude.  Students often mean their abdominal area when they say ‘core,’ and this probably comes from many teachers and styles of yoga emphasizing ab strength as the meaning of core strength.  But what  about the spine?  Isn’t the spine the central channel and true middle of the body too?  If you look at yoga as a spiritual practice (which it is), why wouldn’t we think then of the heart as the core?  Or the mind, since its also a meditative practice?

And when did the yoga practice turn into an abdominal exercise class?

The dictionary defines of the word ‘core’ as “the central part of a fleshy fruit, containing the seeds.”  Secondly, “the innermost or most essential part  of anything”.  From these definitions I can see the assumption of the core to be the abdominal area. But I guess it’s about your perspective, and where you sit that will lead you to determine the most essential part of who you are and what you are.

As a spiritual practice, I’d define the core as ‘heart’ in my Anusara practice. Like a work-in-progress since the moment of birth, this life is an offering for us into an awakening of heart, if we choose.  Our bodies, hearts and minds are none other than embodied forms of Spirit, and when we breathe and move at the same time in asana, we are creating a relationship with Spirit and an awakening can happen.

“Core” is the word I am hearing all over these days and it has come to mean just one thing. I see it shifting, as often and as quickly as the asanas do in class, depending on where you sit in yourself that day.  Maybe you need the core of your practice to be more inward to settle your mind.  Or, maybe you’re working with an injury and you need to focus on particular actions to  clear it  These too could be interpreted as core power.  Over the next few weeks, I’ll be examining different aspects of core power, from many perspectives. Travel with me.

(from www.yogacitynyc.com - 12/11/10)