March 2022 week 1

“When nonviolence in speech, thought, and action is established, one’s aggressive nature is relinquished and others abandon hostility in one’s presence.” Yoga Sutra

This month we are moving back to the 8 limb path of yoga and we will be exploring the Yamas. The Yamas and Niyamas are yoga's ethical guidelines laid out in the first two limbs of Patanjali's eightfold path. They are basically a moral code of conduct, similar to the 10 commandments in Christianity and the 12 steps of various recovery programs. Think of them as yoga’s spiritual foundation. The Yamas are things not to do, or restraints, self-regulating behaviors involving our interactions with other people and the world at large.
The Niyamas, which we went through earlier in the year, are things to do, or observances. personal practices that relate to our inner world,

The five Yamas are:
Ahimsa: nonviolence
Satya: truthfulness
Asteya: non-stealing
Brahmacharya: non-excess (often interpreted as celibacy)
Aparigraha: non-possessiveness, non-greed.

This month we will study Ahimsa - non violence. At its most basic level, this Niyama refers to not killing or hurting people. It is about non-harming or non-violence, both towards oneself and towards others. (This is the origination of plant based vegan diet for many yogis.)

Ahimsa isn’t simply the practice of refraining from violent words or actions, it’s also about abstaining from violent thoughts - the internal harmful words. Ahimsa is the total and complete absence of violence from one’s mind, body, and spirit. Compassion toward oneself and others.

Mantras are a powerful way to transform our patterns of thinking on a neurological level, thereby also transforming our words, actions, reactions, and entire world. In my class to first address the mind and spirit - I have names for poses to be used as mantras for the short time we are together to help reprogram our brains and we have an intention that we can go back to again and again. I try to keep you in a safe and sacred place. This month our intention is a simple mantra - Ahem Prema or I am Divine Love. We will use this in our weekly meditation as well as during class. This week I inserted Ahem Prema intermitently while holding poses which is a beautiful practice of yoga called - Japa yoga. (It is believed that practicing Japa yoga removes the impurities of the mind, destroys sins and ultimately results in samadhi, or communion with God, when practiced regularly.)

Our practice to be non violent depends on our proactive practice of courage, balance, love of self, and compassion for others.

The opposite of courage is fear, and fear often creates violence in some form. Courage is facing our fears. Balance creates harmony which is not easy, but it comes over time from listening to the guidance and wisdom of the inner voice. How are you doing in relation to balance? Are you spreading yourself too thin, doing too much or playing too small in your life?
Non violence asks us to deal with feelings of powerlessness - When you feel like you are running out of options in a situation, do you get angry, frustrated, withdrawn? While practicing Ahimsa we question feelings of powerlessness rather than accepting it. We have a choice to take an action and to change the story through gratitude, trust in the moment/faith and thinking about others. When we pause and get curious we are in the light and are able to see options.

A big part of non violence is our relationship to ourselves and our level of self love - how we treat ourselves is how we treat others! Are you a taskmaster, critical? or light hearted and forgiving with yourself?, can you laugh at yourself?
We can have hearts that are full of love for others, and intentions to love that are pure. But the truth is, we will express that love for others by treating them the same way we treat ourselves. Love lies at the core of non violence and begins with our love of self. Our inability to love and accept all the pieces of ourselves creates ripples - tiny acts of violence - that have huge and lasting impacts on others. Attempts to change self, rather than love self keep us trapped in vicious cycles that we can’t crawl out of.
This is amazing, and as I always say, way too coincidental in my life - which means its not a coincidence, its another God instance! Earlier today I had a call with Kanan Kapila who led some of us in a guided visualization meditation during the last cleanse. This morning she prompted me to try and embrace the shadow parts of myself. Well I have said different versions of this to myself and to all of you: “the crack is where the light enters” is one of my favorite Rumi quotes, what we resists persists I often say and many other versions of the same thing. I know my shadow self very, very well - I am living in awareness for sure and maybe sometimes too much! So for some reason her prompts this morning just turned on a light bulb. I am judging myself and my shadow patterns harshly (to put it mildly). However it became very, very clear that those shadow parts helped me to survive and thrive in my life! I know them, I accept them but I still label them as “bad” which in turn produces harmful thoughts against myself and sometimes others - this is NOT Ahimsa! So very timely for me to sit and meditate in this place. Can you give yourself 2 minutes of quiet to connect with non judgemental awareness of your shadow self? Now can you see how these parts of you have served you in some way? Let’s end there and just sit with the hope and the possibility of this awareness, acceptance and forgiveness.

Yoga as a philosophy and a tradition has these 8 limbs which are a kind of spiritual map, but in yoga as in life, the journey is more important than the destination. We must simply remain open to our own spiritual potential and be willing to take action on our own behalf. Willingness is the key!