Surprise!! You are invited. (to read my blog:-)

 After more than five decades of practice, Yoga continues to surprise me. That "surprise" is echoed in a teaching from the Shiva Sutras: "vismaya yoga bhumika" a sanskrit phrase which translates to "Wonder, astonishment and awe are at the heart and essence of Yoga."

For me Yoga began as physical practice but became a lifelong discipline of devotion, and an ongoing conversation with the Sacred Mystery. Yoga is not something I will ever finish learning. Yoga will never be finished with me. It keeps unfolding new insights, revealing new layers of wisdom. The newness and surprise of it haven’t faded with experience. 

I don't think I am unique in terms of Yoga's ongoing pull on me. Seems to me that my yoga students, colleagues and friends feel that same pull to continue, to delve deeper, never simply repeating what we’ve already done.

One of my pathways of study and practice has been through Anusara Yoga Immersions. Over the years, I've been lucky to lead many Immersions, and each one has been unique. The curriculum never becomes stale because the people are never the same.  I am never the same. Yoga – an alive blessing force – is never the same. As my meditation teacher, Paul Muller-Ortega, often says, "There is always more." After all these years of practice—and twenty immersions—I know exactly what he means.

If reading about this pull to deepen into Yoga makes your “antennae” go up, your might consider joining the Immersion beginning this November. Even if you have done an Immersion it before, you are invited. Trust me. It is never the same. There’s always surprise. there's always more. 

An Anusara Immersion is for beginners and experienced alike. It includes not only the postures, but the poetry and timeless teachings of the Yoga tradition, the wisdom of the body, the power of breath, and the deepening magic of meditation all of which help us live our ordinary lives with greater clarity, resilience, and joy.

The word Anusara comes from a sacred text, the Kularnava Tantra, and is often translated as "flowing with grace" or "following the heart." One passage expresses it beautifully: When the seeker steps into a greater flow, that very flow carries them.

Stepping into that greater flow is the essence at the heart of an Anusara Immersion and is the first principle of Anusara: “Set a Foundation (effort) and Open to Grace, which is freely given.

Effort matters. Practice, study, and showing up. but that effort can help open to moments beyond effort, to recognition that something larger is moving through us; that a current of wisdom and grace is ever present, carrying us further than effort alone ever could.

In the Immersion we explore the foundations of Anusara Yoga through practice, study, conversation, and reflection. We fine tune understanding and application of alignment and functional anatomy.  We immerse in yoga philosophy and Tantric teachings, and explore the subtle practices of pranayama, mantra and meditation. And cultivate a greater capacity to bring the Yoga into our ordinary daily life.

And we do it together. Paul, my meditation teacher again, often speaks to the reality that consciousness expands when people gather together with a sincere intention to transform. It is so true. Every immersion becomes its own living community, and every group teaches me as much as I hope I offer them.

 Whether you're a beginner who has fallen in love with Yoga, a long-time dedicated student, or a yoga teacher wishing to deepen your knowledge and refine your skills, I think you'll find this immersion to be both challenging and nourishing. For teachers, it also fulfills the educational requirements for those who wish to continue the path toward Anusara Yoga certification. You can check it out here 

 I am happy and honored to be able to, once again, facilitate a circle of study, practice, good company, friendship, and grace—and discover where it carries us. You are invited :-)

 

 

Moving! (is good)

 Helloooo Garden Street Yoga friends and family!

10,000 thanks for the flowers, food, amazing hugs, and total SURPRISE! at the 25-year Garden Street Celebration. And 10,000 thanks for all of you who keep showing up and keeping Garden Street open and alive with your good company and good Yoga.

I’ve been hearing from several people variations on the question , "You’re moving? When? Where? And how does this affect Garden Street?” Thanks for asking…..

First, about the move. My husband, Chris, and I are moving from our home of 25 years to a beautiful piece of land near Newport, Washington.

The land is 40 acres of fantastic variety: wetlands; meadow; a promontory to hike up, from which you can see for miles; many amazing old-growth trees, including endangered species that are thriving. The whole place is verdant and alive and wild.

We are remodeling and reconstructing a house that came with the land. (“We” means Chris and Leo doing most of the work. Eli when his schedule allows). I am working at clearing and packing. So “heavy lifting” - physically and emotionally - is happening on both ends – constructing a new home and deconstructing our current home.  

I don’t foresee any changes at Garden Street except positive ones. I am dedicated to keeping the doors open, the lights on at Garden Street and supporting all the great teachers and the good Yoga offered week to week. It's an easy commute for me, so I will keep teaching my classes. And at our new place we have great internet, so my online teaching will continue and perhaps expand.

In terms of the energy at Garden Street, I feel a renewal beginning. Fresh growth. A kind of refreshment and revitalization. New offerings and teachers are in the works. (Stay tuned). Garden Street seems to me to be as beautiful and flourishing as ever.

At our new place, Garden Street will also be able to flourish. We are designing and finishing a light-filled, hardwood floor, open room for things like Yoga retreats. We have a secluded tiny house which we will make available for solo meditation retreats. Maybe we'll even offer retreats like device-detox and forest-bathing.

All of that is me casting lines possibility and imagination into the future. And then “we’ll see” what Grace has in store.

Effort and Grace. Moving is mostly the Effort side of that Yoga two-step. But thanks to Yoga I know how to  – and try to remember to - put my arms up in the air in a capital Y and say “Yes” to Grace, ever present, which rains down like water freely given. And say a big Yoga YES.  Thanks for reading and thank you for Everything.

With Infinite Love and a big Namaste…..Karin

What’s Yoga Got to Do with It?

 

Note: Everything I write here is deeply informed by my long study and embodied practice of Taoism, Shakta–Shaiva Tantra, Anusara Yoga, and Katonah Yoga.

Form
Form, by its very nature, is not perfect. By “form” I mean bodies, plants, and all of creation. And even the form of my daily schedule.

 Purna

Great Nature—God, the Universal—is said to have the nature of Pūrṇa, a Sanskrit word meaning “fullness of perfection; wholeness; undivided love.” This pūrṇa takes form and becomes you, me, cats, trees, frogs, and so on. But to do so, it must become partial. As Leonard Cohen writes, “We are one in the higher eye. But down here where we live, we are two.”

Individual nature is part of Great Nature, yet also apart from it. Knowing this—and learning to live well with it—is what my teacher Lee called enlightened duality.

So—what’s yoga got to do with all of this?
Personal, individual form tends to be deformed, malformed, misinformed, leaky, diminished in potential and efficiency.

But because we are part of Great Nature, form also has potential. It can be re-formed and transformed toward greater capacity to hold information, to receive and transmit currents of intelligence and grace.

The practice of “good” yoga is formal precisely so it can transform and reform us. The intelligent principles of alignment in yoga—both physical and esoteric—are formal in nature.

The big goal of postural yoga is to use physical techniques, alignment principles, shapes, and movement patterns to cultivate:

• Strength
• Stamina
• Stability
• Fluency
• Mobility

I think of these qualities as ways of praise: the individual form emulating, performing, and gradually—perhaps inevitably—re-forming, drawing nearer to union (yoga), to remembering we are made in the image of God/dess.

Living “down here where we live”
In daily life, good mental, emotional, and relational health means cultivating options and “workarounds” (much like epigenetic theory) for my less well-formed aspects. This consolidation of center allows me to radiate more fully and evenly, becoming more efficient, refined, reliable, and capable of participating in the well-being of both my inner and outer worlds—family, community, planet, and cosmos.

With this, I am better able to “stay with the trouble” (Donna Haraway) as well as with the ineffable gift of being embodied here on Earth, in this "mess-in-the-muddled-middle" time of history.

So I remain perpetually interested in the techniques and practices of body, breath, and mind that help me measure up—to be useful first, and then beautiful—infused with mind and spirit, a container for universal spirit, a spirited containment of joy.

50 Years

 This spring is my 50-year anniversary of starting Yoga. Happy Yoga Birthday, to me!

When I was 16, the sisters at my Highschool – Marycliff – brought in Yoga. Wow! We could sign up for Yoga instead of P.E. I was first in line. Not because I knew what Yoga was but because I didn’t like P.E.

I loved Yoga immediately. I didn’t have words for it then, but I think I fell in love with how the physical was knitted together with the spiritual and that a conscious movement form could be like a prayer.

Yoga continued from then to now, as a zig-zagging tessellating ever-present thread in my life. And by Yoga, I mean the Whole of Yoga –including meditation, study, and breathwork.

And now I can say this for sure: just like good health does not mean you don’t get sick, and a good life does not mean you don’t have trouble, good yoga practice does not guarantee you’ll be fit and happy all the time. (Sorry! All those magazine covers have been very misleading!) But Yoga does reduce and gradually eliminate the mental and emotional suffering that life on planet earth inevitably brings. And it brings happiness for no reason. (mudita” - unreasonable happiness….happiness for no reason….sympathetic joy).

Opening happiness and neutralizing suffering do not require 50 years of Yoga. Believe me, I wasted a lot of time doing my 20s! And I have seen newcomers to Yoga – even when starting at an older age – do a fast lane into its benefits. You do not have to be young and flexible and proud to wear tights. (oh those magazine covers!) Any age, and any ability, is the perfect place to start. Just start. You will not be disappointed.

Here's one of my favorite poems to help me say the way it is for me vis-à-vis Yoga and celebrate 50 years of this practice, that has been a thread I've followed. I've held on to it and it has graciously and reliably never let go of me. 

The Way It Is by William Stafford

 There’s a thread you follow. It goes among

things that change. But it doesn’t change.

People wonder about what you are pursuing.

You have to explain about the thread.

But it is hard for others to see.

While you hold it you can’t get lost.

Tragedies happen; people get hurt

or die; and you suffer and get old.

Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.

You don’t ever let go of the thread.

Goal of Yoga

 

 If someone asked you "what is the goal of Yoga"? what would you say?  It might be a brain-stopper of a question, right? Read on..............

The deeper tradition of Yoga in the lineage of tantra says that to practice yoga is to gradually but inevitably gain a greater Recognition of the Light within, the Light in all things and all beings. Or - in different words, to learn to see God in all things, as all things. 

For yoga / spiritual practice to be effective, three things have to come into alignment

1. VIEW. Our Vision of Reality; The View we are cultivating.
2. AIM. Motivation for Practice (Pure Aim)
3. MEANS. The Practices Themselves

VIEW

View: The vision of Reality we are aligning with

“The light is One and cannot be divided.” Sri Abhinavagupta

“There is a light that shines beyond all things on earth, beyond us all, beyond the heavens, beyond the highest, the very highest heavens. This is the light that shines in our heart.” -Chandogya Upanishad

There is ONE LIGHT. You are It. It is you.

 MOTIVATION FOR PRACTICE

Align with Pure Motive (Pure Aim) by asking for it, with a Prayer:

Almost everyone begins yoga with a motivation that is unclear or  that does not align with the View. These are referred to as "wrong" motivations" or "impure motives" not in a moralistic ways but simply because they do not line up with the chosen View. 

The 3 main "wrong aims" are: 

1. practicing to fix something wrong with your self; 
2. practicing to feel a certain way - like "great" or blissful
3. practicing to get "power over" for example to be stronger and more powerful than the average "ordinary" person; or to look really good, sexy, which gives one sexual power. 

To cultivate a motivation for practice that aligns with the View that there is "One Light" and you are not separate, begin your practice (whether it is asana, pranayama, meditation, etc.) with a prayer for Pure Aim. Here are 2 examples – but best to make your own prayer. Make sure your prayer lines up with the view and to do so it should have all 3 parts: self, god and others.

May I practice out of love for myself, to help me to see, more and more often, god in all things, in all beings; and to be in service to all beings (or to extend kindness, genrost8y and compassion to others). .

Beloved Who I do not yet know (do not yet recognize) I welcome That which you would have me serve; I welcome that which you would have serve me…. all obstacles removed – no resistance remains.

Gradually but inevitably, Pure Aim will become your default motive, which deeply increases the impact of your practice.

 

MEANS – THE PRACTICES - SADHANA

"Means" are the practices themselves and the ways of practicing that make one more prone to Recognition or One Light, God in All Things. .

Whether your practice is asana, pranayama, meditation, etc. do it in a way that aligns with your view. Practice with love for yourself as an expression of One Light. Practice in devotion to that One Light, in you7rself and all beings. 

The Anusara alignment principles are exceptionally reliable in the way they help align Practice with Aim and View:

1. Open to grace.  Beginner’s Mind is necessary. Sukumara: fresh, open, ready, and childlike; This is first principle.

2. Draw in (be here now; fully present; intimate). Muscular Energy.

3. Having drawn in, you connect with your very essence, the light at the center of you and all beings. It will shine out. “You” will shine it out in full participation with the light you have connected with. Organic Energy.   

Repeat.

Lineage

 

A long-time student - one of my "yoga-kids" - (she started studying with me at 16) recently wrote to me and asked me "what is my Yoga lineage".

Here is my reply.

"I do not know if it  is relevant to your inquiry – but before I answer I will tell you that I used to long for a tidy answer to the question “what is your lineage” ….as if it could help me locate myself in the wild swell of the universe and give me a feeling of legitimacy in the weird, hijacked pop-culture that sometimes goes by the name of Yoga.

But now I do not feel that longing. I think I finally trust my patchwork integration of a variety of lineages and with having a transdisciplinary approach to Yoga and to the Sacred.

So – That is my disclaimer before writing my not very comforting response :-)

I grew up in a Catholic family that had a deep devotion to the path of the Sacred Heart. I still feel that the Christ spirit is a planetary Guru. And I have a great devotion to the Mother which I originally knew by the name of Mary. But now that Sacred Feminine goes by a variety of names (Magdalene, Quan Yin, Shakti) or by no name. I do not really worry about it because whatever name She goes by, She is the Goddess or the MA, in my homemade lineage of the Heart.  -

My early Yoga life was based on Iyengar and the lineage classical Yoga of Patanjali.

I studied and practiced deeply in the ways of Taoism including Chinese Medicine and Qigong.

Iyengar and Taoism were not – for me – pathways of the heart – but were incredibly valuable parts of my journey and still are.

I found Anusara and recognized it as a kind of homecoming for me – Home to the Heart. And also, there is the lineage that gave rise to Anusara: Nityananda, Baba Muktananda and Guru Mayi. (All of which I honor to but do not feel to be my “my lineage”.

I have studied – and continue to study - long and deep with Paul Muller Ortega and Blue Throat Yoga and the lineage of Kashmir Shaivism – which now goes by teh name of Shaiva-Shakta tantra.

And of course, there is Lee Lozowick – the ultimate Patchwork master for me). There is a lineage that goes with Lee too - Swami Papa Ramdas – to – Yogiramsuratkumar  - to Lee. But I mostly resonate with Lee and his teachings.

I respect and am grateful for – feel blessed by - all the lineages I mentioned here – but do not really feel I can say any one is “my lineage”.

My sadhana is a patchwork. But I know without a doubt that at the center of my sadhana is the Heart.

 “The Way It Is” by William Stafford

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among

things that change. But it doesn’t change.

People wonder about what you are pursuing.

You have to explain about the thread.

But it is hard for others to see.

While you hold it you can’t get lost.

Tragedies happen; people get hurt

or die; and you suffer and get old.

Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.

You don’t ever let go of the thread.

SUNDI The Place Between

 

 The Sanskrit word sundi refers to the space between two actions. Or between "this thing and the next" - like a doorway.  A familiar sundi is the space between preparing food and eating it. Maybe we pause and honor that sundi, perhaps by saying grace. Other examples are dawn and dusk, significant sundis in the daily cycle. And there’s Sunday, the sundi between the weeks. A profound sundi, recognized by women who have given birth consciously, is “transition”, a potent quiet place between labor and birth, that is so powerful and filled with Shakti, that it feels like the eye of a storm of Grace.

In the sundi there exists possibility, a potential for an opening to Grace, to something new.

 In Yoga practice - asana, pranayama, and meditation - there are many sundis. In fact, these practices are well-designed to help us recognize and expand the magic of the sundi - of then "place in the middle”. For example:

·         The centering at the beginning of a Yoga class is a sundi between the busy world of 10,000 things, and the focused time of practice.

·         In asana, we learn in very physical ways to recognize the quality of a sundi. For example, we pause and connect to foundation and breath to make a skillful transition between poses. And we practice Tadasana as a pose which honors the place between poses.

·         Pranayama offers a wonderful awareness of sundi as it cultivates the pause between breaths, whether a gentle pause or a retention of the breath.

·         Meditation pivots awareness deeply within to a vibrating silence; at the end of a meditation, it is good practice to pause and honor the sundi, a liminal or transitional place, before your awareness moves fully outward to life.  In that way the energy of the meditation can follow you back out into your life.

·         Savasana can be a way to practice the Sundi between life and death (well OK - maybe just between yoga class and the rest of your day).

·         There is sundi just after a Yoga or meditation practice when you can consciously offer the fruits of the practice outward.

Whether on the mat or off the mat, sundis ask us to pause in recognition, and in that pause to expand the middle space between inward introversive awareness and outward manifesting awareness. We naturally and gradually learn to honor this pause between things rather than rushing forward to the next task or the next thought or the next …. [fill in the gap] …(Pun intended.) One benefit of all this is that we do not lose or drain off the energy that was cultivated in the practices but instead it builds and gives a good reserve of energy to use for our day.

Sundis offer us opportunities to enter a relationship with the Divine which lives in the “space between”.  To begin our day by dwelling in the sundi a bit is to begin our day with “the Beloved” – or with the Sacred Mystery” if you prefer, gathering Itself more firmly to us so It can follow us back out into our lives.

Once the day begins, we are almost always moving in an entrainment with a multitude of schedules and logistics and demands on our time and energy, doing the dance of outward moving awareness and manifestation. Often, we roll out of bed and into the world without even an awareness of the blessing of the sundi between sleep and waking, and then we march lockstep through our day all the way to sleep and miss that important sundi as well. While our busy day truly is the blessing of embodied life, it is more possible to awaken to that blessing if we learn to pause in the sundis – the between spaces. David Whyte expresses it beautifully in his poem “What to Remember When Waking.”  

 

~~~~

What to Remember When Waking  

In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,

coming back to this life from the other

more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world

where everything began,

there is a small opening into the new day

which closes the moment you begin your plans.

 

What you can plan is too small for you to live.

What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough

for the vitality hidden in your sleep.

 

To be human is to become visible

while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.

To remember the other world in this world

is to live in your true inheritance.

 

You are not a troubled guest on this earth,

you are not an accident amidst other accidents

you were invited from another and greater night

than the one from which you have just emerged.

 

Now, looking through the slanting light of the morning window

toward the mountain presence of everything that can be

what urgency calls you to your one love?

What shape waits in the seed of you

to grow and spread its branches

against a future sky?

 

Is it waiting in the fertile sea?

In the trees beyond the house?

In the life you can imagine for yourself?

In the open and lovely white page on the writing desk?

 

from The House of Belonging, Many Rivers Press