Day 13: October 27

Acceptance -The practice of embracing yourself and accepting your practice as it is today.

When we first start this practice of Sthira and Suka it can be challenging to find the balance of sweetness if we feel the tightness or constraint of a pose. Our minds can get stuck in the sensation. Our self-limiting beliefs can be so deep that we sometimes don’t get on the mat. Meaning if you feel that you are good at some poses or bad at some it can stop you from trying. It can also raise your spirits or lower them based on what you think about how you are doing in the poses. 

To begin finding the flow and ease of the asana practice, begin to embrace yourself and accept where your practice is at today. It’s easy to compare our practice to everyone else’s in the room and that could either inspire or deflate us based on our beliefs. What is most important to know is that where you are at is where you are at. As Ryan Leier says “if you can touch your toes, big deal, if you can’t touch your toes, big deal”. There is no winning in yoga! What’s present is embracing, accepting, learning, understanding and showing up. Let’s start right where you’re at and go forward from there. 

“If we want to make this practice of asana a reality we first have to accept ourselves as we are”

— T.K.V. Desikachar from 'The Heart of Yoga'

With love, 

Cecily 

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Day 12: October 26

Falling in Love with Yoga

In 2001, I fell in love with yoga while studying dance technique in New York at the Merce Cunningham studio. I was longing for something new and different which had me searching for the Jivamukti Yoga Studio. I got out my map and miraculously, I had arrived at my destination. Up the elevator I went and as the doors opened, I felt a rush of aliveness -- this felt like the beginning of something magical. The class rocked my world with loud pumping music, mat to mat people sweating on each other and the teacher's voice pounding in my head to wake me up (to wake us all up!). 

This hour on the mat was a practice of Sthira and Sukha- Strength and Flexibility, Strong and Grounded that got me. It just got me so deeply that my path was changed forever. 

Falling hard for yoga led me on such a beautiful path of owning my life and all the sweet and also unhealthy choices I have been making. The flexibility to own my choices, accept myself and the strength to cut ties to people and life choices that were not serving me. 

On the mat, I have been practicing the balance in each pose between being flexible and strong mentally and physically. Some days I want to be lazy and lean into my open hips, and what’s missing if I do this is the integrity of the pose and the willingness to do the work. What happens on the mat, happens off the mat. Therefore, my practice is to bring in this yoga sutra Sthira Sukham Asanam in each of my postures. 

There’s a reason we keep getting drawn back to the mat. The way we feel after our practice can be interpreted as our highest selves. We return home to ourselves after cultivating this sweet mix of flexibility and strength. Our stress and tension falls away and nothing seems to matter. The practice is a remembering of who we are -- perfect, whole and complete -- no fixing required. 

May you fall in love with our practice of yoga today. 

With love, 

Cecily 

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Day 11: October 25

Yoga Sutra 2.46 – “sthira-sukham asanam”.

Postures are to be strong and flexible.

T.K.V Desikachar, the son of Krishnamacharya, says about Asana: 

“Patanjali's yoga sutra describes an asana (posture) as having two important qualities: Sthira and Sukha. Both of these need to be present to the same degree when practicing any posture.”   T.K.V Desikachar

Yoga Sutra 2.46 “Sthira Sukham Asanam.” Loosely defined, we should strive to practice yoga with strength and in a relaxed manner. Sthira translates as strong, steady, and stable or another interpretation is steadiness to be established and grounded.Sukha means comfortable, sweet, and relaxed. Asanam refers to the physical practice of yoga.

To embody sthira, the pose must be strong and active. To express sukha, the pose must be joyful and soft. 

As you practice this week, experience being strong and active with the balance of relaxed and sweet. 

- Cecily

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Day 10: October 24

Kriya Yoga / Yoga of Action

God grant me the courage to accept the things I cannot change (Ishvara Pranidhana);

courage to change the things I can (Tapas);

and wisdom to know the difference (Svadyaya).

In The Yoga Sutras compiled by the Sage Patanjali, we have a great gift. Patanjali, who is a relatively unknown, and much speculated-about figure, drew on ancient and sacred wisdom to put together a perfect guide to Yoga. Split into four Padas or books, we have a treatise on what yoga is, how to practice it, what the results will be, and finally, what it is like on the other side. In the second book, Patanjali outlines the path of practice with a look at the immediate effects. We have been, as we usually do when referring to practice structure from Patanjali, working with his Ashtanga Yoga instructions or the Eight Limbed Path. We have the Yamas and Niyamas (which I have been presenting all week) followed by Asana and Pranayama (the main focus of our modern approach) followed by Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi (which is a yogis stated goal).

While this is a perfect vehicle for our yoga within which we still have plenty of work to do, it is not the first format that Patanjali presents. To start and as a foundation and launching pad for our journey to Oneness, we are prescribed Kriya Yoga.

Yoga Sutra 2.1 / tapah svadhyaya ishvara-pranidhana kriya-yogah

Kriya Yoga has three parts: Tapas (training and purifying the senses), Svadyaya (self-study of a wisdom tradition), and Ishvara Pranidhana (devotion and letting go into the creative source from which we emerged).

Here we see an earlier mention of the last 3 Niyamas we covered this week; Tapas, Svadyaya, and Ishvara Pranidhana. Patanjali’s work is pretty terse and he does not repeat himself very often. So to see these guidances more than once highlights their importance. This is where he recommends we begin and he highlights the importance of the effects of Kriya Yoga.

Yoga Sutra 2.2 / samadhi bhavana arthah klesha tanu karanarthah cha

Kriya Yoga is practiced to bring about samadhi and to minimize the colored thought patterns (kleshas)

This is where he says the work towards Samadhi (Oneness) begins and he states that the work is to minimize or diminish the obstacles on the way. He calls these obstacles ‘Kleshas’ and he points to thought patterns in the mind as their source. Through Kriya Yoga, we begin to see and understand a way through these obstacles and we become well established on our way.

Quickly, these Kleshas or obstacles are:

Avidya / spiritual forgetting, ignorance, wrong understanding 

Asmita / Egoism or attachment to I-ness

Raga / attraction or drawing to, addiction

Dvesha / aversion or pushing away, hatred 

Abhinivesha / resistance to loss, fear of death of identity, desire for continuity, clinging to life

A glance at this list is enough to see that this work is big, and making even a small shift within any of it would have a profound effect on our way of being. This is the work, and the field of enquiry we will be in during our Sunday Session. I hope you can join and together we can walk each other home.

“All the powers in the Universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.”

— Swami Vivekananda

Peace, friends.

Peter

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Day 9: October 23

“God is not a being that sits on a high pedestal beyond the sun, moon, and stars; God is actually the state of Ultimate Reality. But due to the lack of direct experience, God has been personified and given various names and forms by religions throughout the ages. When one expands one's individual consciousness to the Universal Consciousness, it is called Self-realization, for the individual self has realized the unity of diversity, the very underlying principle, or Universal Self, beneath all forms and names.”

Swami Rama

Ishvara Pranidhana / Surrender to the Highest

Ishvara is the concept of a Higher Power and the field of unity or Oneness. While I would not attempt to speak definitively on the subject, and you will come across differences in translations and teachings, Ishvara is often synonymous with Brahman (or Absolute Reality), but can also refer to the Supreme Consciousness or to a personal god. 

When we add Pranidhana we get the practice of being in the presence of that Highest and the dedication, devotion, and surrender of the fruits of our practice to That.

Through our Svadyaya, and if we are lucky throughout our lives, we have been led to, and hopefully had experiences of the Highest, Absolute Reality or Truth. Even just higher will do; the practice of acting for the good of community or any collective that is greater than its individual parts can be where our surrender is. The surrender of the individual, separate ego-self is a key step to Samadhi, as Patanjali points out more than once. We can also look at the Bodhisattva Vow here; the resolve to attain freedom only to come back to guide others to theirs, to achieve full Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. What a wonderful example of Ishvara Pranidhana.

Here are a couple of questions I will bring with me for this Sunday's Session ‘Do you have an expressed relationship with something higher? and ‘Have you been in That presence?’  

See you soon, yogis!

Peace

Peter

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Day 8: October 22

“Study thyself, discover the divine”

Svadyaya / Self-Study

Yoga Sutra 2.44: svādhyāyād iṣṭadevatā saṃprayogaḥ

“From self-study and reflection on sacred words, one attains contact, communion, and concert with that underlying natural reality or force.”

We turn towards lineage to access the wisdom that it started with and has been built on. These ancient teachings (and in yoga, we are talking about the Vedas, Upanishads, and Puranas) are what we are being directed to study; the teachings and the experiences our ancestors had with them. The teachings of Svadyaya come from before the written word; so we are talking about sitting around the fire and listening to the stories of the Elders and Wise Ones. This looked like the memorization and recitation of mantras, scriptures, and songs. It was an active involvement in a living tradition and this way is powerful. 

Now in our modern predicament, there is a good chance that you did not inherit a sacred scripture or were cut off from lineage and tradition. As with most indigenous cultures, yoga has and still struggles with appropriation and colonization. There are many factors that cut us off from our ancestry. Personally, coming from a broken family, I missed out on the rich Muslim tradition when my father left and I was pulled from my Christian heritage when my mother felt the need to protect us from local priests. So for many of us, Svadyaya could mean doing the work of tracing our recent family lines and reconnecting with traditions lost. This, for many of us, means revealing and working to heal generations of trauma. Not easy or simple, and I can not think of more important work to understand who we are, where we come from, and where we are going. I would also hope that this work would not be taken lightly; if you embark on this path, ensure you have the support and love from community. This is one of the reasons why my buy-in to One Yoga is complete. Here I have found unwavering and uncompromising support on my own journey. 

Through my study of the yoga tradition, and the clear vision it has given me, I can now swim in any wisdom ocean and see the Divine in all of creation. When we can find our way to these ancient and sacred scriptures and traditions, what we encounter is Truth. Eternal, divine truth. Once we can connect to this through study, and we can feel and embody its magic, we have our inspiration and guidance. It walks with us everywhere we go until the day that we realise that we, and all things, are That.

As the yogis say ' Tat Tvam Asi / You Are That '

I look forward to hearing your stories, friends.

Peace

Peter

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Day 7: October 21

Tapas / Discipline

From my notes studying with our dear teacher Ramaswami Srivatsa …

‘Purification thru discipline; thru discipline we burn away impurities and ignite the divinity within ourselves, and by example, that of others’

We most often hear Tapas translated and described as different combinations of Discipline, Commitment, Effort and Heat. This hopefully leads us to the understanding that we have some work to do and that the results we are working for will not happen overnight. This is one of the main reasons we call it a practice.

Coming up as an athlete, I practiced a lot. I used to hear ‘Practice makes perfect’ a lot, which always sounded good until it was elevated to ‘Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect’ (thanks Vince Lombardi) Now that sounds better but still leaves us hanging with a question; What does ‘Perfect Practice’ look like? 

It could be as simple as taking One Yoga Teacher Cecily’s advice ‘Just do what works’. I love this as it puts us into an enquiry around what works for us and what does not work. When we look back at the long, ancient tradition of Yoga we see many opportunities to suit our practice to who and when we are; different paths for different personality types and shifts in practice depending on factors like age, station in life and worldly responsibilities. 

And if we really dig into the recent history of this Path we see that our teacher’s teachers were committed to tailoring the practice to their individual students' needs which can be summed up in TKV Desikachar’s instruction to make the practice ‘personal and personalized’. 

While sweaty group Yoga Parties are fun, create community and support us on the way, at some point we need to discover what works for us and do more of that. What works for you? When does it work for you? And how can we get more of that? All great enquiries while remembering that what works for us is what we need, not always what we want. Hence, the need for disciplined, committed effort.

Another important enquiry here is why we are doing this work? When the Sage Patanjali refers to Tapas, he talks about cleaning or purifying the sense organs; the senses of perception and the organs of action. He instructs that this will start us on the path to Samadhi by diminishing the Kleshas or obstacles. 

But why are you practicing? I believe having purpose is important and encourage a practice of showing up on purpose with purpose. 

And this is where we get to set intention and consider motivation. 

What’s your ‘Top of the Mountain’ intention, the big goal? Maybe Samadhi? Maybe beyond that? 

Also, let’s get a little more practical or present about it; what’s true for you right now? What do you need from your practice in this moment?

I would love it if you brought some of your answers and questions around those enquiries to our Sunday Session this weekend.

See you soon, yogis!

Peter 

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Day 6: October 20

Santosha / Contentment

When I think of contentment I am led to ideas like equanimity and inner peace. What also comes to mind here is an interesting definition of intelligence that I heard recently,“ the ability to observe without judgment”. All these qualities are essential if we are to understand and realise the true nature of our existence, and if we are to find even a small measure of freedom from our suffering. While we live in a society and are wrapped in a culture that encourages, even needs, us to be discontent - achieve more, make more, consume more - Santosha or contentment can become an act of rebellion and is possibly a key ingredient to our healing. 

Here is a wonderful Zen story that shows what contentment, inner peace, and equanimity can look like in the world…

There was a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields.

One day, the horse escaped into the hills. When the farmer’s neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, “Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?”

A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills. This time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was “Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?”

Then when the farmer’s son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this was very bad luck. The farmer’s reaction: “Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?”

Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer’s son with his broken leg, they let him off.

By now we know the farmer’s response “Good luck or Bad luck? Who knows!”

Where in your life could you fall back, observe and withhold judgment? Often a slower, more mindful approach helps us to see the path more clearly. This is the way of the yogi.

Slowly and surely, friends.

Peace.

Peter

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Day 5: October 19

Saucha / Cleanliness

When we talk about cleanliness, we are considering several different angles; first the physical body, inside and out, then the subtler layers of Heart and Mind, and we also include our relationships to others and the world.

Yogis have a long history of taking care of the physical body. Our asana and pranayama practices are ideal to purify the body, physically and energetically. Also, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, a classical manual on yoga practices, presents several Kriyas, or cleansing techniques, to help clean the inner, physical environment. So, we bathe, caring for our skin and hair, but we also scrape our tongues, clean our nostrils, sinuses, eyes, throat, lungs and stomach (and someday you can ask me about the green coffee enemas that were encouraged during a yoga retreat!). These internal cleansing techniques are essential to achieve a clear, strong and healthy body; which sounds like the goal that most of us have for our yoga practice. AND, as a word of caution, please learn and practice these techniques under expert guidance. 

A clean and clear physical body is only the start of our Saucha practice. Another important aim for a yogi is to keep our relationships clean as well. When our relationships with others and the world are messy or heavy, our journey inward becomes extremely difficult. We will be pulled back out again and again by the mental strain of managing and worrying about what is coming our way. It may even be that we do not feel safe enough to turn our attention inward for fear of letting our guard down. The first half of the Yogi Code, Yama, can be considered part of our Saucha practice as it helps to clean up our relationships through practices like non-harming, truthfulness and non-stealing. 

We are also looking for cleanliness and clarity at the subtler levels of heart and mind. For the heart, we consider the path and practices of the Bhakti and Karma yogis. Developing deep, love and affection for all of Nature, whether embodied as a Divine being or simply what you see around you, is an ancient and powerful way to heal, open and clear the heart. In most yoga teachings, including the Bhagavad Gita, you will hear advice to offer the fruits of your efforts to something greater or higher than your own personal goals. This is another effective way to work with your heart space. For the mind, we engage in a wide range of concentration and meditation techniques. Over time and with diligent practice, these practices will create a clear, quiet and spacious quality in the mind. 

While all these considerations will make us smell, look and feel good, what we are really achieving is a clear lens through which the Light that we are can shine clearly and inspire those around us to do the same. This effort might be the best way for us to contribute to a better world, not just for ourselves but for others as well. 

Let’s keep going, yogis!

Peace.

Peter

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Day 4 : October 18

As modern yogis, we generally jump the gun and start before we understand the nature of the task at hand and before we have laid a solid, reliable foundation on which we can undertake that task. That foundation is often and most successfully formed by adhering to an ethical code of restraints and observances known as Yama and Niyama or the Yogis Code. 

At some point, we begin to encounter stories and tales of the wise, knowledgeable, and mystical beings that have come before us in this ancient conversation. Sooner rather than later we will be introduced to the Sage Patanjali and we will start hearing whispers of his Yoga Sutras. It will not take too much enquiry and study to realize that most of what we do these days in the name of Yoga has sprung from his work of compiling, organizing, and presenting these old ways into something we can work through clearly and systematically. Patanjali outlines the yogis' path to success when he gives us Ashtanga Yoga or Yoga’s Eight Limbs. The poses or the work with the physical body begins with the third limb or Asana; the first 2 limbs are what comprise his version of the Yogis Code; Yama and Niyama. Here we get our moral and ethical vehicle for the journey and the lines on the road we are to follow.

My task this week will be to take this step back with you and journey through the second limb; Niyama, often translated as observances or ethically, disciplined attitudes towards ourselves. Together we will continue to lay the foundation for the deep, important work that we are endeavouring. 

Here is a quick overview of the Niyamas:

Saucha / Cleanliness 

When the lenses are clean we develop the ability to see clearly.

Santosha / Contentment 

Be Here Now.

Tapas / Committed Effort

Purification through discipline.

Svadyaya / Self-Study

Know Thyself.

Ishvara Pranidhana / Surrender to the Highest

Surrender to your most High and let That run the show.

Next, I will be sharing my experience, understanding, and questions around the first Niyama, Saucha. We will work through the whole list this week and on Sunday we will seal these learnings in with the workshop ‘Kriya Yoga; Discipline. Study. Surrender’

Let’s go, Lions!

Peace.

Peter

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Day 3 : October 17

The second Yama is Satya (Truthfullness / Honesty).  
Ram Dass Sums up the first two yamas below!

“LOVE EVERYONE AND TELL THE TRUTH”
~ Ram Dass / Neem Karoli Baba

Check out this 3:22 song on YouTube:

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love Everyone - Lessons in Compassion 

By: Ram Dass - Yoga International 

In 1967, I met my guru, Neem Karoli Baba. (I refer to him as Maharajji, a common name of honor given to an elder or spiritual being in India.) Within an hour of our first meeting, he had taken me beyond my mind and opened my heart. It was clear that I had found the guide I was looking for.

The truth was that I didn’t really like any of the people around me, for one righteous reason or another.

There was a period of several weeks in 1972 when Maharajji would summon me many times a day. Each time I would hasten to him, sit down in front of him, and wait. Then he would either say, “Ram Dass, always tell the truth,” or “Ram Dass, love everyone!” I’d usually answer something lame, such as, “I’ll try,” and then he would send me away. Day after day this went on, and I was getting more and more agitated because, the truth was, I didn’t love everybody. Which should I do? Make believe I love everyone or tell the truth? I acknowledged that in the past I was more likely to make believe that I loved everybody than I was to tell the truth. So, for a change, why not tell the truth? For the next week I lived out the truth. And the truth was that I didn’t really like any of the people around me, for one righteous reason or another.

At that time, as an experiment, I was not carrying money. So when I went on the bus, one of my friends would serve as my “bagman” and pay for me. But once I was mad at everybody, there went my bagman. When everybody else got on the bus to go the eight miles to the temple to be with Maharajji, I walked. It took hours to get there by a mountain path. When I finally arrived, everyone was eating lunch, and they obviously had had much time with Maharajji. This made me all the more angry. When one of the people, whom I particularly despised, offered me a plate of food, I threw the food in his face.

The next thing I heard was Maharajji calling, “Ram Dass!” I realized that he had seen my act, and I went to him feeling really miserable. When I was settled before him, he asked, “Something troubling you?” It was all I needed. I broke into sobs. Maharajji patted me on the head and pulled my beard, and he was crying too. He sent for milk and fed it to me. When I was finally able to speak, I blurted out, “I hate all those people,” pointing at the Westerners across the yard, “and I hate myself, too.”

“I thought I told you to love everyone.”

“You told me to tell the truth. The truth is, I don’t love everyone.”

Then Maharajji drew close, nose-to-nose, looked very coolly at me, and said, “Love everyone and tell the truth.”

At that moment I saw before me a coffin in which lay the person I thought I was. I heard Maharajji as if he was telling me exactly who I would be when I finished being who I thought I was. Whether he was goading me, giving me a boon, or creating a new reality, whatever he was doing, it worked. Now, nearly twenty years later, I hardly recognize myself, because my truth is coming to be that I love everyone. Well, not quite everyone. But I am working on it.

I heard Maharajji as if he was telling me exactly who I would be when I finished being who I thought I was.

There was a time when my aggravation with the system focused on Caspar Weinberger, secretary of defense. I’m sure he was no worse than many others, but there was something about his cold arrogance and apparent lack of wisdom that infuriated me. So I got a picture of Caspar and placed it on my puja (prayer) table with all my spiritual heroes. Then, each morning when I lit my incense and honored the beings represented on the puja table, I’d feel waves of love and appreciation toward my guru, Buddha, Christ, Anandamayi Ma, Ramana Maharshi, and Hanuman. I’d wish them each good morning with such tenderness. Then I’d come to Caspar’s picture, and I’d feel my heart constrict, and I’d hear the coldness in my voice as I said, “Good morning, Caspar.” Each morning I’d see what a long way I still had to go.

But wasn’t Caspar just another face of God? Couldn’t I oppose his actions and still keep my heart open to him? Wouldn’t it be harder for him to become free from the role he was obviously trapped in if I, with my mind, just kept reinforcing the traps by identifying him with his acts? I could see my guru rushing about in the wardrobe room at Central Casting, putting on one mask after another, shouting at me, “Bet you can’t find me behind this one! Bet this one will really fool you!” Not the Caspar mask, Maharajji, no! Oh, no!

The Indian poet Kabir said, and Maharajji often repeated, “Do what you do to another person, but never put them out of your heart.” It’s a tall order. But what else is there to do? Sometimes there is really nothing to do. We can only work on ourselves to keep another person in our heart: to be there, open, waiting, loving, spacious, nonjudging, appreciating,…and listening….

Now, I am freed by being in love with people. There is no possessiveness in it. It isn’t really romantic. It’s as though we are sharing one space, we have merged in love. It’s the space that more and more I share with Maharajji, as the years go by. Even to be away from it in forgetfulness for a moment is very painful.

When I am searching for the ways to stay in love, I hear Maharajji saying, “Feed people, serve people, love everybody, tell the truth.” So I serve more…and I find myself more in love. What is wonderful is that the love lies not outside as a reward, like a gold star for being a good helper, but within the act itself. For when you offer yourself in service, it opens your own heart so that you may once again taste the sweetness of your own heart’s innate compassion.

When I am searching for the ways to stay in love, I hear Maharajji saying, “Feed people, serve people, love everybody, tell the truth.”

Rabindranath Tagore, the great Indian poet, said, “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was duty (dharma). I acted, and behold, duty was joy!” And Gandhi said, “When you surrender completely to God, as the only Truth worth having, you find yourself in the service of all that exists. It becomes your joy and recreation. You never tire of serving others.”

We are all part of a huge family. Within the family our acts of caring, insignificant as they may seem, are nevertheless an integral part of a vast network of compassionate acts that are occurring throughout the universe at each moment. Just as billions of tiny acts of ignorance, greed, violence, and exploitation have created most of the suffering and breakdown that now exist, so the billions of tiny actions of compassion—which include wisdom and skillful means and joy—preserve and heal the situation.

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Sunday Session: The Yamas + Niyamas with Ryan Leier
October 17, 8-10am PT

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Day 2 : October 16

As many of you may or may not know, the roots of yoga practice and philosophy are a code of ethics or ways of being called the Yamas and the Niyamas.

The Yamas

Yoga Sutra 2-30 अहिंसासत्यास्तेयब्रह्मचर्यापरिग्रहा यमाः I

ahiṁsā-satya-asteya-brahmacarya-aparigrahāḥ yamāḥ

The five yamas or controls are: non-violence; truthfulness; non-stealing,sexual restraint; non-accumulation of possessions.

The sage Patanjali teaches:

Yoga Sutra 2 - 31. जातिदेशकालसमयानवच्छिन्नाः सार्वभौमा महाव्रतम् I

jāti-deśa-kāla-samaya-anavacchinnāḥ sārva-bhaumāḥ mahā-vratam

These five (ahimsa and the other four yamas, should be practiced (all the time and toward everything) without exception to species, please, time, occasion and at all levels.

THIS IS THE GREAT VOW.

First and Foremost is Ahimsa अहिंसा (Non Harmfullness / Reverence for Life)

Here is a story of what is important in life to a yogi:

Stemming from nonharmfulness are the great virtues of charity and compassion. In 1977, on the day of Guru Purnima (a celebration of the birth of the sage Vyasa, considered one of the foremost gurus in the Vedic tradition), Krishnamacharya delivered a lecture on the day’s significance. He narrated a well-known story:

‘One day when Vyasa was returning from the Ganges after bathing, his disciples gathered around him and asked, “Master, please tell us, in brief, what is most important in life?” Vyasa smiled and replied, “Da, da, da,” and then moved on to his meditation. Puzzled, the disciples mulled over Vyasa’s response. Every student had a different idea of what each da meant. Finally, the group returned to ask him again, respectfully, “Master, we are unable to understand the secret of your words. Please enlighten us further.” Vyasa replied, “Daya, dana, dama” -compassion, charity, control over the senses.’ (AG Mohan; Krishnamacharya His Life and Teachings)

Those interested in more info on Ahimsa please check out Ryan’s previous blog posts: 

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SAVE YOUR SPOT :

Sunday Session: The Yamas + Niyamas with Ryan Leier
October 17, 8-10am PT

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don’t forget to Book Your Daily Practice:

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Looking for your other 40 Day Resources?

Check out the 40 Days of Practice Homepage:

Day 1 : October 15

Welcome to The 40 Days of Practice : Fall 2021

Peace Prayer:

Shanti Mantra (Saha navavatu) - Śanti Patham – Peace Lessons

ॐ सह नाववतु ।
सह नौ भुनक्तु ।
सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।
तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

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Om

Saha Navavatu
Saha Nau Bhunaktu
Saha Viryam Karavavahai
Tejasvi Navadhitamatsu
Ma Vidvisavahai

Om Shantih Shantih Shantih

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May we together be protected
May we together be nourished
May we work together with great courage and energy
May our work fill us with light, and be bright and effective, dispelling all darkness or misunderstandings between us
May there be no dispute or animosity between us,

Om Peace, Peace, Peace

(May it bring Peace to our thoughts, words and actions – body, speech, and mind
May this Peace free us from our own negative actions (adhatmikam),
those of others (adhibautikam),
and any natural disasters (adhidaivikam).)

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SAVE YOUR SPOT IN THESE Upcoming Classes:

TODAY!

Kick-Off Celebration with Ryan Leier
October 15, 4pm PT

Sunday Session: The Yamas + Niyamas with Ryan Leier
October 17, 8-10am PT

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don’t forget to Book Your Daily Practice:

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Looking for your other 40 Day Resources?

Check out the 40 Days of Practice Homepage:

Welcome to the 40 Days of Practice: Fall 2021!

Welcome to The 40 Days of Practice : Fall 2021

LET’S DO THIS!

We’re so thrilled that you are here with us.

Over the next 40 days, you will have unlimited access to the One Yoga Digital Studio (and in-person classes for those of you who chose that option), including special classes with Ryan each Friday, Mindful Movement & Reflection sessions with Cecily Elmas and 6 exclusive Sunday Session workshops featuring Ryan Leier, Peter Elmas, Cecily Elmas, Malina Dawn, Carolyn Budgell and Mara Branscombe. 

Throughout the 40 Days, you can head to the 40 Days of Practice Homepage for full details on how to access and register for classes and Sunday Sessions, read the daily teachings on our blog, download exclusive resources (including the 40 Day Workbook), access recorded classes and so much more.

We encourage you to make the next 40 days exactly what you need in order to establish a daily practice that most supports you right now. While your registration does include unlimited membership to our virtual classes, there is absolutely no requirement for you to practice asana with us each day - if you would prefer, please meditate, or practice on your own in your own way.

Please make this your own.

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PRACTICE THIS WEEK:

TOMORROW!

Kick-Off Celebration with Ryan Leier
October 15, 4pm PT

Sunday Session: The Yamas + Niyamas with Ryan Leier
October 17, 8-10am PT

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HAVE QUESTIONS?

Check out our FAQ page.