Yoga Classes

Raja Yoga is an ancient prescription for self-realization put forth in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

The word yoga itself means to yoke, or to become sublimely aware of the intimate nature of the individualized self and that of the world around us.

We begin in the first 2 limbs (yama, niyama) to recognize how our thoughts and actions create separation between us and the world around us.  By renouncing things like: hurting other beings (ahimsa),hoarding, theft, and objectification of others, and falsehood,  the veil of separateness starts to clear, and our consciousness can begin to shine brightly.

These are preliminary steps we practice 'off the mat', so that as we come to an asana practice (the 3rd limb of yoga), we are able to direct our attention most effectively to the task at hand.

Through Asana, we purify the body from the physical effects of acumulated karma.  We move our bodies through a series of poses, sometimes vigorously, while our attention rests in our breath.  

The yoga sutras of patanjali states Yogas Chitta Vritti Nirodham - Yoga is the cessation of the karmic fluctuations of the mind.  While we may bring agitated minds to our practice, the process of immersion in body, breath, and rising awareness will naturally allow these seemingly urgent mental mechanations to slow and cease.  Soon, we are immersed in our focus on the practice.

In asthanga yoga, we practice asanas to the heal the nervous system.  The nervous system receives shocks from sirens, arguments, physical discomfort, and situations out of our control.  We fry our nerves and adrenals through over stimulation.  

But in the asana practice we combine systematic movements of the body with therapeutic calming use of the breath to flush the residual nervous system stimulation.  We tone the sympathetic nervous system, and strengthen the parasympathetic nervous system.  Asanas (poses) are designed to stretch, and strengthen the body and mind, but also to deepen our connection with our spirit - our breath - our life force.  

When asana meets pranayama (energy/breath control) the process enters a personal dimension.  As we move in union with out breath, our devotion, love and dedication start to emerge, perhaps without our mental awareness.  We string together poses into sequesnces which honor the sun, the moon, the earth, water, the sky.  

As we are drawn into our practice, the rest of the world starts to fall away.  We are immersed in this moving meditation.  

The Upper 4 Limbs of Yoga are concerned with these ever deepening levels of immersion.  

Pratyahara - withdrawing ones mind from the flow of the world - begins when we look inward - past the levels of the physical body, our emotional happenstance, our social context, and towards our souls ubiquitous place in the universe.  There is an inner quiet, a peacefulness towards, which we can direct out attention.  In the asana practice we sometimes use sound energies to help us direct our minds here.  Ommmm!  We chant the sound of creation together, with an intention to travel within, towards pratyahara.

With practice, we are able to reach dharana, a state of concentration.  Our energy continuously flows inward.  During asana, our mind is firmly fixed on the asana.  We enter a state of hyper-awareness.  The sweat of our brows tingles, the breath echoes inside of ourselves, the deepening of the stretches feel profound.  Off the mat we can find ourselves engrossed in this same sense of dharana reading a book, engrossed in a conversation, solving a math problem.  Its all the same state!

In Dyana, or Meditation, we are locked in to our process in much the same way we are in dharana.  But the difference is, the thrill dies down.  there is no longer an intense 'I'm doing this" There is simply the process itself without the presence of the external observer.  We forget that we are a yogi doing a pose, and we become the pose itself.  An instantaneous manifestation.  We are embodying the salute of the sun.

Finally, in Samadhi, we reach the ultimate place of self-realization.  Not only are we the perfection of the sun salutstion, but we are the sun itself, as it rises and falls in the couse of a day.  The sun's hydrogen is our hydrogen. There is nothing from which we are separate.  Each being we come into contact with, is also us, seen through different eyes.  When this becomes clear inside of ourselves, we have a profound shift in understanding or, and caring for, others.

Who is it exactly we are trying to insult, get ahead of?  

Ourselves?  

How absurd!

This is the asthanga yoga prescription for healing of the world.  Raising health, love and awareness for others through the process of cleansing the heart, body, mind, spirit.