Changes to the Morning Mysore Classes - July 1

Starting July 1, I will be making some changes to the morning Mysore classes. For the Monday-Thursday classes, the studio will open at 5:45 am for students at all levels, including new students, and the studio will close at 8:30 am. I am adding 2 self-practice sessions for Intermediate students on Fridays at 8:00-9:30 am; and Sundays 5:45-7:15 am. Intermediate students are those who are practicing Intermediate series or students practicing Primary series who have my prior permission and need no adjustments. There is no change to the afternoon Mysore class times for now.

Jude Vanderhoff has been assisting me in the mornings and now teaches the Tuesday afternoon Mysore. Jude has been attending Mysore classes on a daily basis for three years, has now completed Primary series, and he will be making his first trip to study in Mysore in October.  Before Jude leaves, I will be looking for someone who can assist me while Jude is away.  From now on, I plan to have a regular assistant in the morning classes. 

I'm delighted that our Mysore program has grown. The morning classes now fill both rooms one or two days a week.  I need assistants.  In the past I've relied on volunteers such as Karen Cairns, Patty Stark and Jude, but we can't continue to run our Mysore program with volunteers. 

The Ashtanga system sets a high bar for teachers.  Ashtanga teachers are expected to maintain a 6-day-a-week practice and teaching schedule, must be proficient in all the postures he or she teaches, and must continue to study in Mysore annually under the supervision of Sharath Jois, the current head of the Ashtanga system.

This is not easy to do, and traveling to Mysore every year is expensive - not that any of us are complaining or consider this to be a tiresome chore. Far from it - we understand the importance of our annual time in Mysore and we value it. 

I hope that our community understands the importance of it and values it, too.  For all of these reasons, I am raising the Mysore tuition beginning in September, which will give everyone enough time to evaluate your practice and determine the level of your commitment to it.

Starting September 1:

Attending up to 12 days per month (3 times a week):
Non-Recurring: $100 (no change from the current fees)
Recurring debit: $85 (no change from the current fees)

Unlimited Attendance (22-24 days per month):
Non-recurring, monthly: $115
Non-recurring, 3 Months:  $310.
Recurring Debit: $100
Recurring debits require a 12 month minimum commitment with a penalty for early cancellation.

This is Yoga East's highest tier of tuition, and Mysore members may attend classes at all other locations, but must still maintain Mysore practice requirements. Remember - if you are not practicing 6 days a week, you are not experiencing Ashtanga Yoga as it is meant to be experienced.

There are special rates for Yoga East (non-Ashtanga) teachers, teacher trainees and work-study students.  You can view these on the website.  I do not want to turn anyone away who is not able to pay the fees, but I do expect a high level of committment from anyone who requests a special rate.

On a slightly different note, one of the reasons I'm making the change is that I find I no longer have time to practice before the morning Mysore class. My practice takes almost 2-1/2 hours now, and it's very hard for me to complete my practice by 6:30 am.  My practice has suffered lately by having to rush through it, skipping poses sometimes so I can finish and start teaching at 6:30 am. Jude and I are going to try to switch off practice and teaching to enable each of us to get our practice done and still both be available to give adjustments during the time when most students need adjustments.

Someday I hope that we will have 3-4 people assisting in class and that we will be able to expand the afternoon Mysore hours into the evening times with assistants, and add more led, beginning and intro Ashtanga classes in the traditional format.  KPJAYI sets the standard for Ashtanga teachers: one must have studied in Mysore at KPJAYI and be Authorized or Certified by KPJAYI.  An Authorized teacher is allowed to have assistant teachers, and those individuals must be dedicated Ashtanga students who have studied with the teacher for a substantial period of time (Sharath prefers 3-4 years), and who are planning to study in Mysore.  Gail Minotti has been practicing with me since 2002; Patty Stark has attended for a long time and has been to Mysore; Erin Cronin has practiced with us for years and is headed to Mysore this Fall.  If you are interested in teaching or assisting in the Mysore class, keep practicing to meet the requirements, and I invite you to talk to me.

After every practice I feel so blessed to have discovered this practice, to have been receptive to it; to have practiced it regularly, to have sought out teachers like David Swenson and Tim Miller, to have been encouraged by them to go to Mysore, to have gone to Mysore, to have met Pattabhi Jois, Saraswathi and Sharath; to have hosted Sharath here; and to have gone to Mysore so many times.  This practice has changed my life, and everyday I thank God and my Guruji that I found it.

Much love is there,
Laura Spaulding

Practice for the Week of June 18-24: Set the Example

This weekend in Ramanand's workshop someone asked how to convince one's spouse to practice yoga.  Ramanand answered, "Give up your agenda for other people.  Change yourself instead of trying to change others.  Set the example."

Practice for the Week of June 4 - June 11

Love and Remembrance

This past weekend I attended my high school reunion. It was not our reunion year, but we gathered to honor Mike De Gruy, a classmate of ours who was killed in a helicopter accident in Australia while scouting locations for a documentary he was filming. Mike was an award-winning cinematographer, oceanographer and environmentalist, and his untimely death was a shock to all of us.  Mike's high school roommate, Lee, was asked to speak of Mike at the Alumni reunion memorial service.  Lee is a writer, a poet and an eloquent person, but he was having trouble.  Mike's wife, mother, brother and son were to be there.  What could Lee say?  Lee had written out reams of sheets of words, and crumpled them away, unsatisfied. 

The night before, we had gathered in Lee's cabin at the hotel.  We were talking about Mike and old times in high school.  So Lee asked us, "What should I say?'  One of us - I don't remember who - said simply, "just say how much we loved him." 

In his talk, Lee spoke of Mike's many accomplishments, but then Lee said, "Before Mike had ever done any of those things, we loved him. That's the kind of person he was." 

Love and remembrance... what I was thinking of during the weekend with my old high school friends. Love and remembrance make this human life special and worthwhile.

"And even if we are occupied with most important things, if we attain to honour or fall into great misfortune—still let us remember how good it was once here, when we were all together, united by a good and a kind feeling which made us…better perhaps than we are.”

--Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Practice for the Week of May 28-June 3

For the past two weeks, we have been practicing bhavana, the cultivation of positive and uplifting attitudes.

Through yoga we learn to cultivate positive feelings, even when we feel downhearted, discouraged, or frustrated.

Doug Keller writes:

"Hatha yoga poses call forth feeling: they give voice to noble feelings through movement, disposition of muscle, breath and bone. Backbends evoke exuberance; standing poses express strength and daring; forward bends counsel quietude and patience. Each pose is like a gesture of a yogic attitude; each pose reaches deeply into the heart and pulls up greatness, leaving you feeling cleansed and uplifted - not just physically but on a deeper, more emotional level than you would think physical exercise could reach. Each posture brings forth an experience of an inner yogic feeling and restores you from the wear and tear of life."

Douglas Keller, “Like Breath and Heartbeat,” Darshan Magazine 127-128 (1997): 15.

Our practice for this week is to develop awareness of the ways in which yoga asanas and breathing cultivate our feelings.

Doug Keller teaches yoga classes and trainings in the Washington, D.C. area at the Health Advantage Yoga Center in Herndon, Virginia and at Willow Street Yoga in Takoma Park, Maryland, as well as at other locations in the U.S. and Europe. Doug will be teaching a weekend workshop at the Holiday Manor studio August 10-11.

Click here for more information and how to register.

Practice for the Week of May 21-27

Last week we introduced "bhav", a Sanskrit word meaning the "state of being", and "bhavana" meaning the conscious cultivation of a positive attitude as a yoga practice. Sometimes it's difficult to cultivate a positive attitude, particularly during times in which we are stressed out, frustrated, or downhearted.  In these circumstances, it becomes even more important to practice bhavana.  Swami Anantananda, a teacher in the Siddha Yoga tradition, defined bhavana is the practice of "pretending the truth"... kind of like "faking it until you make it".  Bhavana is the cultivation of attitudes of compassion, grace, serenity, etc, even if we don't feel that way in the present moment.

One of my favorite ways of "pretending the truth" is to pretend that I am already enlightened, and that everyone else is, too! It helps me to see the world in a new way.

Many affirmations from the yoga tradition, quotes from our teachers and traditional mantras are bhavanas. 

"Practice... all is coming." Shri K. Pattabhi Jois
"The heart if the hub of all sacred places; go there and roam." Bhagavan Nityananda
"Wake up to your inner courage and live the life of your dreams." Swami Chidvilasananda
"Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace."  St. Francis of Assisi
"In yoga, no effort is ever lost or wasted." Bhagavad Gita
"I Am That" Traditional mantra
"Open the window in the center of your heart and let the spirit flow in and out." Rumi

Practice for the Week of May 14-20: Bhavana

Bhav is a Sanskrit word which means (among many other meanings): coming into existence, state of being, or becoming.  In the practice of yoga, bhav is one's attitude or state.  Sometimes we informally refer to the "bhav" of a yoga teacher, student, or studio, as the "state of being" of that place or person in terms of whether the state is perceived to be peaceful, non-peaceful, devotional, worldly, etc...
Bhavana means "cultivation"... to "cultivate, assume or practice an attitude". 
Some examples from the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali:

2.33  Vitarkabhadane pratipaksabhavanam ||

Thoughts contrary to the yamas and niyamas are to be countered by taking the attitude of the opposing point of view in a debate.

1.33 Maitrikarunamuditopeksanam sukhaduhkhapunyapunya
vishayanambhavanatascittanirodhah ||

Undisturbed stillness of mind is cultivated by practicing an attitude of friendliness toward those who are happy, compassion toward those who are unhappy, delight in those who are virtuous and dispassion toward those who are wicked.

Our bhav (attitude) gives meaning to our experiences.  If we cultivate an attitude of sarcasm, dismissiveness and negativity, then our mind becomes colored by those negative feelings and our experiences become trivial and unworthy.  If we cultivate an attitude of reverence, devotion, compassion, and deep feeling, then our experiences become meaningful and uplifting. 

The practice for the week is to become aware of your bhav and practice bhavana - cultivating positive and uplifting attitudes.

Practice for the Week of April 30-May 13: Dharana: the First Step to Meditation

In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, one of the first texts about yoga written about 2500 years ago, dharana is defined as "a flow of awareness toward an object".  The "object" can be a real, physical object, or it can be something that has no physical existence, such as a mantra or a chakra. 
About twenty years ago I was in my meditation room practicing a form of concentration called Tratak, and I had a profound first experience of the feeling of meditation. I was focusing on a crystal pendant, allowing my gaze to rest on the pendant. After a few moments I was aware of being in a state of unusual clarity, still hearing everyday sounds like the voices of people downstairs and the sounds from outside, but my attention was completely absorbed in the crystal. I experienced a state of extraordinary clarity, stillness and easefulness.  After about 30 minutes, my awareness gradually returned to "normal", but its effects have remained with me for over twenty years. 

      

The practice for this week is Tratak.
Gaze steadily at an object. You will notice that the eyes tend to move around. This is a natural movement of the eyes. Keep bringing the gaze back to the object. Allow the eyes to rest on the object or image with minimal  movement. Notice how the mind becomes still as the gaze becomes still.
Traditional objects for Tratak: unwavering candle flame, crystal, clouds, flower, sand patterns.
Om Shanti!