The Symbolic Power of the Chakras

According to Caroline Myss:

Eastern religions teach us that the human body contains seven energy centers.  Each of these energy centers contains a universal spiritual life lesson that we must learn as we evolve into higher consciousness.

These seven spiritual life-lessons direct us toward greater consciousness.  If we ignore our responsibility and need to address consciously these seven spiritual lessons, however, their energy can manifest in illness.  Many spiritual Eastern traditions understand illness to be a depletion of one’s internal power or spirit.  The congruencies among major spiritual traditions underscore the universal human experience of the connection between the spirit and body, illness and healing.

Each of the seven levels of power in our biological system contains a single sacred truth.  This truth continually pulsates within us, directing us to live according to the right use of its power.  We are born with an inherent knowledge of these seven truths woven into our energy system.  Violating these truths weakens both our spirit and our physical body, while honoring them enhances the strength of our spirit and our physical body.

Energy is power and our bodies require energy; therefore, our bodies require power.  When we work with the chakras we are interacting with power and gradually we take control of our own power in successively more intense processes.  At the level of the first chakra, we learn to handle having a group identity and the power that comes within the family; at later levels we individualize and mange power as adults.  Gradually we learn to manage our minds, our thoughts and our spirits.  Every choice we make, motivated by either faith or fear, directs our spirit.  If a person’s spirit is impelled by fear, then fear returns to her energy field and to her body.  If she directs her spirit in faith, however, then grace returns to her energy system and her biological system thrives.

The major spiritual traditions hold that releasing one’s spirit into the physical world through fear or negativity is a faithless act of choosing personal will over the will of the heavens.  In Eastern spiritual terms, every action creates karma.  Acts of awareness create good karma; acts of fear or negativity create bad karma, in which case one must “retrieve” one’s spirit from negative places in order to enter heaven “complete”.

We are simultaneously matter and spirit.  In order to understand ourselves and be healthy in both body and spirit, we have to understand how matter and spirit interact, what draws the spirit of life force out of our bodies, and how we can retrieve our spirits from the false gods of fear, anger and attachments to the past.  Every attachment we hold on to out of fear commands a circuit of our spirit to leave our energy field.  What drains your spirit drains your body.  What fuels your spirit fuels your body.  The power that fuels our bodies, minds and hearts does not originate in our DNA.  Rather, it has roots in divinity itself.

Three truths that are common to the major spiritual traditions are:

1. Misdirecting the power of one’s spirit will generate consequences in one’s body and life.

2. Every human being will encounter a series of challenges that test his allegiance to heave. These tests will come in the form of the disintegration of one’s physical power base: the inevitable loss of wealth, family, health or worldly power.  This loss will activate a crisis of faith, forcing one to ask, “What is it, or who is it that I have faith in?”

3. To heal from the misdirection of one’s spirit, one has to be willing to act to release the past, cleanse one’s spirit and return to the present moment.

In the major spiritual traditions, the physical world serves the learning of our spirits, and the “tests’ we encounter there follow a well ordained pattern.  In the chakra system, each energy center warehouses a particular power.  These powers ascend from the densest physical power to the most etheric or spiritual power.  Remarkably, the challenges we face in our lives tend to follow this alignment as well.

The Lessons of the First Chakra

The lessons of the first chakra are related to the material world.  The first chakra is also called your tribal chakra.  The sacred truth at this level is All is One.  We are interconnected with all of life and to one another.  The tribal chakra resonates to our need to honor familial bonds and to have a code of honor within ourselves.  We first encounter this truth within our biological family, learning to respect the bonds of blood.  This connection can spread to others who are like you as members of a church, temple or synagogue.  However, your bond to your biological family is symbolic to everyone and to all that is life.  As Thich Nhat Hanh says we “inter-are”.   Violating this energy bond by considering those wqho are different than us to be less than us creates a conflict within our spirit and therefore within our physical body.   Accepting and acting according to the basic truth All is One is a universal spiritual challenge.

The First Chakra

Location:  Base of the spine at the coccyx.

Organs:  Spinal column and physical body support, legs, bones, feet, rectum and immune system

Emotional and mental issues: Emotional and mental health, physical family, group safety and security, ability to provide for life’s necessities, ability to stand up for one’s self, feeling at home, social and familial law and order.

Physical dysfunctions: Chronic lower back pain, sciatica, varicose veins, rectal tumors/cancer, depression, immune related disorders.

Questions to ask yourself in regard to the health of the first chakra:

1. What beliefs and values do you share with your family?

2. What beliefs and values do you not share with your family?

3. What beliefs and values, when shared with your family, create anger, guilt, anxiety, or depression?

4. What beliefs and values, when shared with your family, create joy and acceptance?

5. Identify and list any superstitions that you hold.

   1. Which of these superstitions create fear?

   2. Which of these superstitions create pleasure?

6. Can you define your personal code of honor?

7. List situations where you did not live up to your code of honor.

   1. List situations where you have resolved the issues listed in the previous question.

8. List unfinished business (anger, guilt, anxiety, depression) with:

   1. Your mother

   2. Your father

   3. One or more of your siblings

   4. Other family members

   5. What are you willing to do to heal any of these relationships?

9. List all the blessings you received from:

   1. Your mother

   2. Your father

   3. One or more of your siblings

   4. Other family members

10. What are the major values you would wish to instill in your children if you had/have any?

11. What tribal rituals/traditions do you wish to honor and continue?

12. List tribal values you wish or need to strengthen.

On a scale of 0 to 10—in which 10 means absolute health with no deficit whatsoever and no lack of full expression of this chakra—how healthy and how well-balanced is your first chakra?

Continuing Education for Yoga Teachers - Assisting

ASSISTING - PRECISION & COMPASSION - STANDING POSES

Assisting your students is one of the benefits of being in a live class. Often a compassionate and skillful assist can help a student immediately understand something that might take a long time to learn on their own. However, an aggressive assist can be harmful to a student.  This course will help you help your students understand postures better through manual adjustments while honoring where they are.  Topics will include:

• Asking permission

• Students who have experienced trauma

• Verbal versus manual cues

• The difference between adjusting and assisting

• Understanding alignment

• The precision of touch

  • Approach

  • Direction

  • Duration

  • Releasing

• Foundation and stability

  • Where to stand and where not to stand

• The importance of breath

• Neutral energy

• The use of props

Continuing Education for Teachers - Sequencing

SEQUENCING - ORDER MATTERS

As a yoga teacher, you direct energy.  When you are clear and precise with where you are going, you can lead your students through an energetic experience that takes them inward while opening their bodies, hearts and minds.  Building sequences is a skill with many parts that once learned can be used to take your students deep. In this course, we will study:

• The energy of the poses

• The energy of a class

• Langhana and Brahmana - How to create a smooth arc of energy and why that is important

• Posture progressions

• How to breakdown postures into their component parts

• How to use neutral and counter poses

• The difference between sequencing for beginners, intermediate and advanced students

• How to create different outlines for different poses

• Pacing and timing

Thursdays from 1:00 to 4:00 pm, May 4th and May 11th
Attend one or both days.
Registered Yoga Instructors receive CEU's

The Benefits of Astavakrasana

Why should we do this pose and what should you do if you can't do it?

If you look in Light on Yoga, Mr. Iyengar says that this pose strengthens the wrists, arms and tones the abdomen.  Surely there are other easier exercises that we can do to get those same results.  But, there is something empowering about the ability to support your body weight on your hands.  You don’t have to do Astavakrasana at all.  Ever.  But, take a look at the poses under each of the individual skills that build up to making this pose and see what you can work on.  Who knows, one day you may surprise yourself!

There are no poses that are absolutely mandatory to do.  But a lot of poses are just progressions of what is possible in strength and flexibility.  Yoga tests our limits, the edges of our comfort zones and where we are stuck.  One of my teachers always says, "In an ever expanding universe, there is always more."  For some that can be overwhelming, but it is not meant to be.  Can you just take a peak around the next bend?  Can you take the next step towards something?  We all know the concept that a business has to grow in order to continue.  How about ourselves?  What happens to us if we don’t continue to grow?  The Bhagavad Gita teaches us to take the actions for the sake of being alive but to let go of the fruits of our actions. There is no pressure to perform, you just show up and do the next thing.

Like any large task that is overwhelming, you can break it down into its smaller components.  Let’s take Astavakrasana  apart and look at each piece.  Work on each component without any thought of the next step until you get there.

Hip flexibility: Getting your leg over your shoulder.

If you can do Side Angle Pose, can you do Bound Side Angle Pose?  If you can't do Bound Side Angle Pose, try Lizard Lunge.  After Lizard Lunge, can you now approach Bound Side Angle Pose better?  What would happen if you were to try Lizard Lunge every time you practiced?  In Lizard Lunge we are working the hip flexibility to be able to get the shoulder under the thigh; this is the flexibility you need to bind in Side Angle Pose.  The ability to bind in Side Angle Pose is the same flexibility to get the leg over the shoulder in Astavakrasana.  Notice in this picture that you can see my right knee above my back.

Shoulder Flexibility: The ability to bind the arms.

One of the poses I like to do in almost every class is a forward fold with the hands clasped behind the back.  Because everything is our lives is usually oriented in front of us, we tend to constantly be reaching forward.  This and poor posture causes our shoulders to round forward.  Stretching the arms behind the back stretches the front of the shoulder.   This is the first step in the flexibility to bind.  Practicing Marichyasana I is a good pose to work on your bind.

Twisting: the ability to connect your opposite elbow and knee together.

A twist is defined as the hips and shoulders rotating 90 degrees from each other.  Usually one part of the body stays still while the other part rotates.  One of the aspects of a lot of twists in yoga is the ability to connect your knee with your opposite elbow.   Think of the ab exercise we call bicycling, where you are lying on your back and your curl your head and shoulders of the ground with your fingers interlaced behind your head and you try to touch your elbow to your opposite knee: your hips stay stationary and your upper body curls and rotates your shoulders.  You will see this same action in Revolved Side Angle Pose, Side Crow and Seated Twists.

Upper body strength: the ability to do a Low Push Up.

In Vinyasa classes, this is a pose appears a lot, but very few students do it correctly.  It forms the foundation of most arm balances.  I think most yoga students look for the flexibility in their yoga poses and are not as interested in the strength part.  Strength without flexibility is rigidity.  Flexibility without strength is instability. In yoga, as in life, we need both.  As we work on a Low Push up, we will also work on a High Push up, Side Planks and Reverse Planks.  Reverse Plank works on both shoulder strength and flexibility

Core strength: The ability to lift your lower body of the ground.

As I teach my students in anatomy training: Our arms connect us to each other and our legs connect us to the earth.  Our core integrates the upper body and lower body together.  If  we are lacking a strong core, we risk injuring ourselves.  Boat pose is a great core strengthening posture.  If you add a twist to Boat Pose, you basically have the seated version of Astavakrasana.

The strength of the inner thighs; the ability to squeeze your legs to the midline.

Drawing into yourself is a challenging thing to do.  Ask most people if they meditate.  While they want to, it is not easy to do.  We are so outwardly directed.  Hugging to the midline is the physical action of drawing inward, of trusting our own instincts.  Being able to draw your legs in towards the midline is the key to balancing your legs on your bent elbow in Astavakrasana.  When things get difficult in a yoga pose, rather than turning inward to their own strength, they let go and move outward away from their core.  This is the same reason why it is difficult to sit in meditation, the lure of the outer world seems more important and better than the inner world.  Being able to hug your legs together  as you tip your head and torso forward in this pose is scary.

Your legs should hug towards the midline in almost every yoga pose that you do.  Try doing Warrior II with your front foot on a sticky mat and your back foot on a blanket.  Start with your feet together, front foot turned out 90 degrees and back foot perpendicular to the front foot.  Let your back foot slide back a few inches and then draw it in.  Don’t go too far at first, or you may strain yourself.  Go progressively further as you get stronger making sure that your back toes don’t turn out.  If your back toes turn out you will use your glutes and in this case you want to use your inner thigh muscles.

As one of my teachers in art school used to quote Mies van der Rohe all the time:  "Develop an infallible technique and put yourself at the mercy of Inspiration."   Keep practicing.  I'll see you in class!

Karin

The Gayatri Mantra

This month we will be chanting the Gayatri Mantra in class:

Om bhur bhuvah suvaha

Tat savitur vareniyam

bhargo devasya dhimahi

Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat

-Rig Veda 3.62

Translation:

Om, we meditate on the glory of that being who has produced this universe, may he/she enlighten our minds.

Listen here to a classical version of the chant.  Listen here to a Deva Premal version.

The Gayatri mantra is a beautiful and ancient chant from the the Rig Veda, an ancient Indian collection of Sacred Sanskrit hymns.  This mantra is dedicated to the Savitur, the sun deity.  "Om bhur bhuva suvah" is the opening incantation of the Gayatri Mantra to pay homage to the interconnectedness of the earth (bhur), the atmosphere (bhuvah) and the heavens (suvah).

Some people are uncomfortable when I bring up the spiritual aspects of yoga.  Especially when there is an indication of a deity as mentioned in the translation of the Gayatri mantra above:  "We meditate on the glory of that being, who has produced the universe, may he/she enlighten our minds."    I often talk about surrendering our will to a Divine Will or to a higher power.  Who or what produced the universe?  I don't really think that there is a he or a she that can enlighten our minds.  But what is that power?

It is how Krishna describes himself to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita:

I am the taste in water,

the light in the moon and sun

The sacred syllable Om

in the Vedas, the sound in air.

I am the fragrance in the earth,

the manliness in men, the brilliance

in fire, the life in the living,

and the abstinence in ascetics.

I am the primal seed

within all beings, Arjuna.  -BG 7. 8 - 10

These don't describe a god as a he or a she, but the forces, wonders and beauty of the natural world and the mysteries that surround us. There is a wonderful description of the idea of a higher power  in the book of Job, when Job is crumbling under all of the bad things that have happened to him and he questions Divine Will.  God's response to Job is, "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations?  Have you ever given orders to the morning or sent the dawn to its post?"

To me, this is what chanting the Gayatri means: celebrating whatever force it is that causes flowers to bloom, the sun to rise an for me to be alive.

March Pose of the Month - Astavakrasana

Astavakra is the name of a sage.  While still in his mother’s womb, he heard his father make several mistakes while reciting the sacred Vedas.  Hearing these, the unborn sage laughed.  The father became enraged and cursed his son to be born deformed, or crooked in eight places – Asta means eight and vakra means a crook, or a kink - literally eight crooks.  Astavakra’s father had been defeated in a philosophical debate by a scholar named Vandi.  When Astavakra became a sage and a great scholar he defeated Vandi avenging his father’s defeat.  Astavakra’s father then blessed him and he lost his deformity.

Astavakrasana was the first arm balance I learned, after Headstand, Handstand, Shoulderstand and Forearm Balance.  Perhaps that is the correct order of poses to learn before trying this arm balance.  I could do Astavakrasana way before I could do Crow.  I found it easy.  I wasn’t afraid of it the way I was of Crow, where I could fall on my face.  If I fell in Astavakrasana it seemed I just crumpled to the floor.  I was more confident in Astavakrasana.  This makes me think of what other qualities you need to bring to your poses besides strength and flexibility.  To do this pose of the month you do need the strength of a good, solid Caturanga, you also need the flexibility to twist – so you will see a lot of that in classes this month.  But, in order to attempt a posture like Astavakrasana you need courage to try.  You need the fearlessness of not being afraid to fall – and of putting a blanket down as a crash pad to help you overcome that fear.  You also need the confidence in yourself.   Those are the yang, or masculine qualities you need for this arm balance.  You also need some yin, or feminine qualities such as enthusiasm, playfulness and yielding.  While you need to bring these qualities to your practice of  Astavakrasana, this arm balance will also bring out these qualities in you.  Are you ready for a month of working playfully?  I’ll see you in class!    Karin

The Guru Mantra

Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheswara. Guru Sak Shat.  Param Brahma.  Tasmai Shri Guravey, Namaha.

This month in class we have been chanting the guru mantra.  This is a chant done at the beginnings of teachings, whether it is a yoga class, a meditation or a satsang.  It is a beautiful chant.  One of my teachers does it at the beginning of our weekly meditation group.  She always asks people to join in but I find that I am the only one joining her. I didn't know if the other students didn't like to chant or if they just didn't know the words, so I thought I would share this beautiful chant and tradition by teaching it in classes this month.

This is a chant to the guru, your guru and all gurus.  A guru is a teacher. The word has two parts, "gu" which means darkness and "ru" which means light. The guru is said to be one who leads you from darkness to light.  There are official gurus or teachers.  But almost anyone or anything can be a guru.  You can have an official guru or teacher, a swami perhaps, someone who dresses in orange robes and lives in an ashram.  Your best friend can be a guru when they have to tell you something that might be difficult for you to hear.  Your dog can be a guru when they teach you about unconditional love.

Let's go through the chant.

There are three main gods in the Hindu tradition:  Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.  The first part of the chant recognizes the principles these deities represent.

Guru Brahma.  Brahma is the god of is-ness or being.  The principle of Brahma is that of unmanifested consciousness; the universe before the big bang.

Guru Vishnu.  Vishnu is the god of creation. This principle brings all of our world into being

Guru Devo Maheswara.  This refers to Shiva, although it does not use his name.  The word "devo" refers to god.  The word "maheswara" is really two words: "maha" meaning great and "Ishwara" meaning god.  So this line refers to "the teacher, the god, the great God".  You have to know that this means Shiva.  Shiva is the god of death and destruction.  He is often depicted dancing on the burial grounds.  His dance does bring about death and destruction, but because of the idea of reincarnation, his dance also brings about re-birth.  These three lines tell us to remember that the only constant in the world is change and that change can be one of our greatest teachers.

Guru Sak Shat.  This refers to the guru nearby, the anyone who could be a teacher in the moment.  There is a song by Joan Osborne called "One of Us".  (Joan is a real spiritual seeker.)  She sings, "What if god were one of us, just a slob like one of us, just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home?"  Since we are all said to be made of a piece of divine consciousness, then any one of us can be a deity and could be standing right next to you right now.

Param Brahma.  This refers to the guru that is beyond comprehension, the guru that is beyond the beyond.  We just have to open to the present moment to receive a teaching or enlightenment.

Tas Mai Shri Guravey.  The "ey" ending to the word guru changes it to be refelxive.  This refers to the guru inside of you.  The wisdom of your own heart.

Namaha means I bow to.

I hope you enjoy this chant and will join me as we chant it at the beginning of classes.

How do I do this posture correctly?

I was a guest teacher in a Yoga Teacher Training Program this past weekend. I had a lot of fun and I met a great group of people.  I love teaching yoga and teaching yoga students about anatomy.  The students are always so enthusiastic and earnest and want to learn all they can.  And in particular, they want to learn how to do the poses correctly.

As if there is such a thing!

Sure, I can look in Light on Yoga, Yoga Journal, Dharma Mittra's book or  Darren Rhodes's Yoga Resource and see a very accomplished person performing the epitome of a posture. But that is not the average yoga student.

Most people are looking to move, stretch, breathe and find a deeper connection in their lives. They are not looking to put their foot behind their head.

And it depends on the pose.  Some poses are easier, more basic and are accessible to most students.  Other poses are very complex and take a long time to train your body to do.

One group of my teacher trainees used to complain that my favorite answer to any question was, "Well, it depends."  And that is the answer I always give when I am asked how to do a particular pose correctly.

It depends on the person doing it.  How old are they?  How strong or flexible are they? It depends on if they have any experience doing this kind of movement.  Were they a gymnast or a dancer previously?   Are they new to yoga, or this pose?  Would they have to compromise any part of their body to do the pose?  If so, then they should probably modify.  It also depends on if they are feeling strong and invincible, weak and tired or if they have any injuries or other health conditions.

Students who are newer to yoga are often overwhelmed by too many subtle directions as to what they should be doing with their bodies.  Often the most important thing to focus on in the beginning is the foundation and general form of the pose. They may not be in the prettiest poses, but they are doing yoga.  And in that moment, the pose they are doing correct for their bodies and capabilities.

Often when one of my yoga students brings a non-yoga friend or partner to class, they try to correct their form.  I usually ask them to let their friend be and concentrate on their own practice.  They don't realize that their friend is doing the best that they can. If that person is interested in coming back to yoga, how they do their poses will improve over time.

I once taught a month long Yoga Teacher Training Intensive.  One student in the training who was pretty new to yoga was demonstrating Downward Facing Dog. I was giving her alignment instructions and she was trying to do her best.  Her pose looked very much like a beginner's pose.  At the end of the month, the same student was doing Down Dog again.  This time, some alignment points brought her into a beautiful posture.  One of the other students looked at me and asked why I didn't tell her to do that in the beginning.  As if she could have! It was pretty amazing the effect that  30 days of doing yoga had on her body.

While I enjoy teaching yoga from an alignment perspective, it is important to point out that if we focus too intently on just how to do the pose correctly we lose sight of  what happens to us when we do the pose.     If we are too busy focusing on what we should be doing, we might not be present to feel what is happening.  And that is where the magic is in yoga.

2017 Postures for the Year

The following is a list of the Postures of the Month for 2017.

January - Plank poses and all of their variations:  High Plank, Low Plank, Side Plank, Reverse Plank, Handstand and Headstand.

Karin in Vasisthasana

February - Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana or Kapotasana - Wheel on your forearms or Full Pigeon

Cailen in Kapotasana

March - Astavakrasana - Eight crooked places pose

Karin in Astavakrasana

April - Eka Hasta Adho Mukha Vrksasana - One arm Handstand

(Pic Coming Soon)

May - Padmasana - Lotus

Karin in Padmasana

June - Natarajasana - Dancer's Pose

(Pic Coming Soon)

July - Visvamitrasana or Hanumanasana -  Side Plank, bottom leg lifted or Split

Karin in Visvamitrasana

August - Prasarita Padottanasana to Sirsasana II -  Wide-Leg Forward Fold to Headstand

Karin in Sirsasana II from Prasarita Padottanasana

September - Salabhasana/Locust

(Pic coming soon)

October - Eka Pada Koundinyasana I

Karin in Eka Pada Koundinyasana I

November - Dancing Warrior Series

(Pic coming soon)

December - Choice of Restorative Pose

Karin in Supta Virasana

Pose of the Month – Kapotasana

Kapotasana by Cailen Ascher

In Light on Yoga, Mr. Iyengar rates Kapotasana, or Full Pigeon a  21/60.  He rates One-Legged Pigeon pose as a 28/60.  Yet, you tend to see One-Legged Pigeon pose more frequently than you do the full pose.  Why is that?

There are versions of One-Legged Pigeon pose that are available to most people.  While we might do One-Legged Pigeon with a thigh stretch, most students don’t do the full pose, where you grab your back foot with your arms overhead and rest your head on your foot.  The versions where you don’t hold the back foot are easier.

But there is something to the ordering of the postures.  Full Pigeon is not an easy posture, but since it is symmetrical, it is easier on the body than its asymmetrical relative.  If you can do full pigeon, it is easier and safer to work on that rather than One-Legged Pigeon.  The difficulty with asymmetrical postures such as One-Legged Pigeon is that one leg is in a forward bend, the other leg is in a back bend and the pelvis takes all the stress if the hips cannot be maintained in a square and neutral position.  In order to be able to protect our spines we want to move from the big joints first.  That means that the hips and shoulders need to be open before we move the spine.

As we work on Kapotasana this month, let’s focus less on the end result of a particular pose, but rather we can work on opening the body in preparation for any back bend.

Let me suggest the following progression, not as a sequence but as an order of accomplishment:  Cobra, Locust, Bow, Camel, Wheel, Full Pigeon, One-Legged Pigeon.

Backbends are considered heart opening postures because of the lift in the chest.  Kind of appropriate for February, don’t you think?   I’ll see you in class!   Karin