Sarvabhauma Yog 2013
The regional conference for Sarvabhauma Yog 2013 was in San Diego. I attended with a yogi friend in May. It was my first formal introduction to Iyenga yoga, which is recognized as "text book yoga" as it emphasizes on accuracy of postures, and it was one of the earliest form of yoga been introduced to the west.
The age group of conference participants were definitely older than the typical studio crowd in the hipster town. There were many great instructors, and I would definitely attend their classes if given more chances. One of the well known teacher was Birju Mehta, who came all the way from India. His session was very much treasured. He spent a great deal of time to show participants how to recognize consciousness plays out in postures. My friend had a good interpretations which I will quote here:
Our bodies are laboratories, and the asnas allow us to experiment with the body on how we can distribute the consciousness evenly thoughout the body, the more advanced the asana, the more challenging it is to distribute the consciousness evenly ... as we experiment and learn to distribute the consciousness evenly in asana, it translates into exercising this awareness when we are not practicing asana.It's a great take-away. I find a parallel idea in meditation practice where we tune into our body with finer awareness. The awareness brought about a level of evenness emotionally, mentally, and physically. As we practice more, the awareness stretches into other part of our lives. Come to think of it, asana is often called moving meditation for a reason.
Pujya Swamiji @ Seaside Center for Spiritual Living
On July 16th, Seaside Center for Spiritual Living in Encinitas invited Pujya Swamiji for a public talk. I attended the talk, and following is my thoughts of the event:
I left feeling inspired by Swamiji's talk and grateful to have been in his brief presence.
It sounded like a sermon at the beginning, but I sensed a deeper level of connection with the talking points, probably because of pre-acquainted knowledge of yoga and meditation.
Here's some brief pointers that left a deeper impression on me:
- The intention is to build the loving relation with God. Building that love requires certain amount of faith, as faith gets stronger, so is love.
- Faith is the believe that we're supported by Divine, We look for clues in our daily lives to seek the existence of Divine presence. Finding those clues strengthens faith.
- Prayers and meditations are the key to develop clarity in our senses. So we can discern the noise from true clues. We would be able to feel it in our heart.
There were a few good Q&As. One was particularly interesting: How do we prevent been dragged down by negativity or turmoils in the surrounding?
Answer: Maybe it's not about blocking out or getting away from the unpleasant moments. There would be case that one should get away physically. However, realize that ocean has unstable times too, but it's only the surface. Majority of the ocean body is stable, and unwavering. Seek the deeper part during those moments. Take breath deep into lower abdomen as slowly and steadily as possible, and feel the stability of being.
Bernie Glassman Workshop @ Sweetwater Zen Center
The co-founder of Zen Peacemakers, Bernie Glassman was invited to Sweetwater Zen center for public workshops. I attend one of his public talks on July 26th. I first learned about Bernie from a book he co-authored "The Dude and the Zen Master", which I enjoyed. The talk was a very interesting format where he gathered questions from the attendees at the beginning, then chose to answer the ones that he felt the answers for. He used the analogy of making a meal with the ingredients at the present. It felt very much like the conversations in the book, where he expressed the idea of jamming with what comes up.
There were a lot of questions, and Bernie's objective was definitely not trying to answer them all, but to discuss the ones that he had immediate answers. Some of the questions were definitely challenging, and serious. His answers were not always what the requester was expecting, but I felt that while answering the questions, he gave a great introduction to the philosophy of zen practice. From his angle, there's no "solution" for everything, but to carry out what is necessary from the position of compassion and love.
I was a little surprised to learn that his philosophy can be summed up into 3 simple tenets:
- Not-knowing, thereby giving up fixed ideas about ourselves and the universe
- Bearing witness to the joy and suffering of the world
- Loving actions towards ourselves and others
That is so great! I had asked a question at the beginning of the session, which was probably very "off beat" in comparison to some of the serious questions. Bernie didn't answer my question at the session, but I felt that the answer was given after learning about the three tenets.
Namaste!
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