The Quest (March 2021 Newsletter)

Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash

In our lives we are always searching for something else, something more and something meaningful.

This is the foundation of the philosophy of yoga. Philosophy is the attempt to clarify the connection between the inner and outer worlds. All sentient beings, those that are alive in any shape or form, have a soul according to yoga philosophy. The soul, whose nature is true existence, consciousness, and bliss (Sat, Chitta, Ananda) has largely been the focus of the many schools of Indian thought.

Regardless of which philosophical tradition appeals most, the search is always for immortality, whether it’s called Moksha, Nirvana or Kaivalya (aloneness).

Knowledge is not just an intellectual exercise, but it is what is actually experienced. Constantly experiencing! To understand the difference between the particular and general aspects of knowledge (jnana or khyati) one has to recognize the difference between cognition and consciousness. But to start this clarification process one has to have discrimination (viveka khyati), and for this we need yoga. Cognition has three attributes to its awareness; it is discriminating in that there is always a knower (the self), a means of knowing and an object that is being experienced or observed. Consciousness is not specific. It is just simply awareness, it is non-specific and underlies all cognition and thought.

Discriminating knowledge where the soul is considered distinct from the mind is the starting point. From there it grows into experiencing it, sifting the Real from the transitional. This requires persistent and enduring practice of yoga. Through the ways the body and brain and nerves and body systems all work together, yoga has the subtle power to move one into this region of quiet awareness. SIMPLY AWARENESS. SIMPLE AWARENESS.

Namaste,

sipra

Love, Love, LOVE (February 2021 Newsletter)

Did you know Rosa Parks practiced yoga? This Black History Month check out this Yoga Journal article, The Story Behind Rosa Parks and Yoga.

Photo: Library of Congress

This month we celebrate love. When the article is titled ‘love’, and it’s February, we think of Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is an important day, and it comes once a year just like birthdays. Celebrate it! And celebrate it with a wide group of people of family, friends and acquaintances.

This article is not about Valentine’s Day, however.

Consider today these three loves: Love for oneself, love towards whom that emotion doesn’t come so easily and Love Divine. Each of these is our way of staying healthy and happy.

Love yourself. If you are filled with guilt, a sense of failure, or negativity, you are not alone. Often these feelings have been with us since childhood and hard to shake off. Look at yourself and reassign the ‘F for Fail’ to ‘A for Acknowledge’. We cannot deal with emotions buried in the subconscious. A regular practice of Yoga will raise these to the surface of your consciousness allowing for them to emerge in dreams and nightmares and so to heal you. Self-worth is worth it!

Love others. Those who are not so lovable in your mind. Forgiveness is the only way to get out of constantly ruminating on the wrong or wrongs done to you. Do something about it. Send a card, perform an act of kindness. It may not resolve the issue, and they may not respond but you will find you no longer care. Holding onto negativity eats you up inside. Literally. Immunity declines and the toxins in your mind metastasize into sickness and disease. Healing becomes slow and uncertain.

Love Divine. This has nothing to do with one’s faith or religion or culture. It is a deep feeling of connectedness that a regular practice of yoga and meditation with a focus on awareness, acceptance, love and compassion will ultimately and without exception bring you. It’s as simple as that. In the words of Godfrey Devereux, “(Practice) is a way of experiencing life that brings great joy, peace and complete fulfillment. It is an experience beyond the power of external forces. It draws up sources of vitality and strength that ordinarily lie hidden from our perception but that underlie all religious and spiritual endeavor. Some call it knowledge of God; others call it enlightenment.”

It is not enough to practice now and again. Especially now when life is so topsy turvy and things are not as they seem, yoga/meditation should be one certain activity you take time to do as often as possible. You don’t even have to go anywhere. Where you are is where you need to be.

Namaste,

sipra

Death and Life (January 2021 Newsletter)

From sipra's collection of local leaves gathered during walks.

Entering into a new year, our newsletter should be full of promise, hope and reassurance. And it is! It deals with death.

Recently my friend of many years, Stephanie, suddenly and unexpectedly received a diagnosis of stage 4 terminal cancer. The developing signs were there, but in our busy lives we tend to ignore what we can and focus on things that must be done immediately, and that list never shrinks.

We never know when we will die or how. That is a good thing. But it keeps us from preparing for it. Since the diagnosis, Stephanie has spent her time systematically settling every last detail of her affairs with careful consideration. She has done this with a sense of detachment. (We all need to cultivate this attitude: Asanga as it is called in Sanskrit, means non-attachment. Asango aham meaning “Nonattached am I”) “But I am young, and I am getting ready for the new year with grand resolutions”, you say. As this year has shown us, life can quickly change, and death hovers close by.

Let your new year resolution be to prepare materially and mentally for death - Yours and of and for those you love. Primary to this preparation is the awareness of being aware. Life comes and goes, as the autumn leaves drift gently to the ground in all their fullness of rich fall colors or are driven off by strong winds. The way death happens matters not at all. The tree remains. New leaves will return and they are part of that same tree.

Life remains so long as the breath remains. The slower the breath and the deeper it is, with a constant returning to an awareness that I am breathing keeps me alive and extends my life. BREATHE! And WATCH YOUR BREATH. SLOW IT DOWN AND LENGTHEN EACH BREATH. Try a simple and profound mantra, OM, as you breathe whenever you think of it. It has power profound.

Asango aham, asango aham, asango aham, punah, punah. Unattached, unattached, unattached am I, again and again; of the nature eternal. Satchitananda-rupoham avamevam abhyaya. Truth-Existence-Knowledge-Bliss am I; I am That. That am I, which is the irreducible, immortal, infinite.

Namaste,

sipra

Renew Anew (December 2020 Newsletter)

Winter Solstice Lantern Festival in Vancouver, BC

Photo Credit: Visible Hand via Flickr (CC-BY-2.0)

The world this season is suddenly different from the usual bustle we see around the holidays. There appears to be a blanket of silence, and the world is required to passively watch and wait instead of participating in this prayerful, joyous and hopeful season.

We all feel fear and anxiety. Understandably so. The virus flares, creating uncertainty.

Fear, anxiety and uncertainty about what? While we are obviously concerned about work, finances, caregivers and caretakers, there is a deeper concern. If we do a little soul-searching we find it is our fear of death.

In Sanskrit this is known as Abhinivesha, or the fear of death. Refer to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 2.9 (Chapter 2, Sutra 9). According to Indian/Hindu/Buddhist philosophy, the fear of death lies deep in all living creatures. Be it a worm or a child, no one wants to die. Perhaps you will say that it’s instinctive. But where does instinct get its information? it is always based on past experiences. If we haven’t experienced death before, how can this unreasonable fear be instinctive? It would indicate that we have been through this process before. Known as reincarnation, the philosophy rationalizes how we have experienced it before, perhaps many times, in many forms.

What can we do about it? Death is inevitable, so preparation would be appropriate. Whether it is your own death or that of loved ones, focus on what you can do internally to fortify yourself.

FOCUS on silence and meditation each day. How do we do this? Firstly, set aside a time for it. It doesn’t need to be long. 10 minutes is a good start.

Here are some simple steps:

• Find a quiet place, inside or outside. Use it consistently.

• Sit comfortably with upright back, hands resting in your lap. Palms up, one hand on top of the other, dominant hand under. Close your eyes partly and keep them focused.

• Breathe! The goal is to make it slower, deeper, longer and more rhythmic. Pay attention to the breath. Breathe only through the nose. Keep your mouth closed the entire time.

• Thoughts will arise. But they are drifting and imaginary. Let them go, saying, ‘Not now’. This is the whole point of yoga - to control the wandering mind.

• Sound internally, and breathe ‘Aham Sa’ = ‘I am That’. (‘That’ refers to Universal Reality.)

• After a good 5 minutes, switch it to ‘Sa Aham’ = 'That I am.' Pay attention to how you just reversed the flow of energy. Stay with the sound, focusing on what is stable and infinite within you.

• When done, rest for a few minutes folded forward in Child Pose, or lie flat on your back in Shavasana.

Enjoy a rest filled, happy and calm holiday season. All is well.

Namaste,

sipra

THAT I AM. I Am. I. There is No Other (November 2020 Newsletter)

Photo: Tai Pimputkar, Bhutan in 2015

Sa Aham: That I am

The source of energy that gives rise to the visible world is itself without shape or form but has always been there and always will be. This indefinable, unchanging supreme energy is called the Absolute Reality. Everything that we can experience through our senses is Relative Reality. This is so, because you and I are projecting our own perceptions based on what we’ve been taught, what we have experienced and what we know intuitively onto what we see before us.

In our universe of relative reality, we constantly distinguish between you and me. I might want to be like you, or be indifferent to you, or despise who are and what you represent. Someone else will probably have different feelings and emotions. The object hasn’t changed. We don’t need to change them or ourselves but just the way we see them.

In yoga this false perception is known as maya or illusion. If we did not focus so much on how they look, or what they wear, or what they own, but rather see them as an extension of ourselves, we might be more compassionate and closer to the truth. Then relative reality suddenly starts to become the Ultimate Reality/Absolute Reality and there is less and less of a difference between others and ourselves. When the two come together, there is no subject and no object; it’s all an extension of who I Am. I am at one with my spirit/soul or Atman (aat-mah). We are compassionate, loving and kind.

How do we get there? Start today.

• Don’t constantly act and react to everything around you.

Heart and soul. Unconditional love.

• Be still. Be silent. Listen instead. Find yourself turning inward, paying attention to what your gut reacts. The gut is closely connected to intuition dictating to you what is right. Remember Mom telling you to go with your gut? She was right. (Check out VIP, Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide in the gut that directly connect with the brain, neuropeptide that functions as a neuromodulator and neurotransmitter.)

• Start a simple meditation practice. It’s a powerful way of maintaining homeostasis, your internal balance while the world outside is in turmoil. Just 5 to 10 minutes each day, sit quietly, breathe slowly and repeat without opening your mouth: “That I am! Sa aham.”

• Slow down your breathing while breathing only through your nose. Practice the Ujjayi breathing, an aspirant sounded breath produced by constricting the base of your throat.

Namaste,

sipra

Truth: Discipline of finding stillness through silence (October 2020 Newsletter)

Om symbol at the Kanaka Durga Temple in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

Image credit: Krishna Chaitanya Velaga (CC BY-SA) via Wikimedia Commons

In the yoga philosophy, Truth or Satya is the second of the 5 restraints/disciplines for proper living known as Yama according to Patanjali's Yoga Sutra.

• Non-harming  

• Truthfulness (Patanjali, Sutra 2.36)

• Non-stealing  

• Remembering the higher reality

• Non-possessiveness

This month we focus on Truth.

What is truth? It is the stable foundation on which rests one's reference for right and wrong. It is that upon which one tends to base one’s actions and thoughts. A lifetime of learning, experiences and culture make for the perception of what is (or exists), and what is true. In India, baby elephants are tied to sapling trees to train and restrain them. The young creature is strong enough to walk away with the tree, but it wouldn’t know that unless it were to test it. Yet none of them do. A grown elephant when tied to a big mature tree may uproot it and simply walk away with it if tied to one. But tie it to a young tree, and it would never even think to test its strength against it. This is conditioned truth. In each of our lives we know and practice many truths that are conditioned behaviors and responses and are not the true at all. 

Conditioned truths keep us in a comfortable place and we rarely think to test the truth as we see it. ‘Seeing' the truth through my eyes, is not the same truth that another person may see. Literally, a bird’s eye view is different from that of the bee. See today’s article on the Daily Mail.

Not only do we not test the ‘truth’ as we know it but we expect everyone else to accept my way of thinking since it is the truth. In Facebook, for example, the truth as I see it is also the truth as my ‘friends’ see it, and we continue to build and reinforce these perceptions as our like-minded friends on Facebook grow. But it is the truths that I already believe, so I never get to know or test their veracity, nor check out what others believe is true.

It is a good time now to start looking at the truths that others believe, and understanding their way of thinking. Learn about them, even if it makes you uncomfortable. How else can you grow to find the real truth that we all share, the only truth there is? Also like the untested sapling, let's start to test those accepted 'truths' in our lives, and in those of others with whom I might not agree. Let's see if we can't go above and beyond them.

Beyond all these conditional truths based on our senses is the real TRUTH. Truth is the silence of the quiet mind. It is a vast stillness that links us to each other, to all sentient beings and to Absolute Reality or 'Godness'. 

It is a discipline just like the other Yamas. It's a constant practice; a constant endeavor, but not so difficult.

Namaste,

sipra

Let It Be (September 2020 Newsletter)

From the Beatles came the famous lyrics of ‘Let it Be’:

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

And when the broken-hearted people living in the world agree

There will be an answer, let it be

For though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will see

There will be an answer, let it be

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be

There will be an answer, let it be

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

And when the night is cloudy there is still a light that shines on me

Shine until tomorrow, let it be

I wake up to the sound of music, Mother Mary comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

Let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be

There will be an answer, let it be

Let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

Yoga in India has developed over thousands of years, and one of the oldest concepts in the ancient Advaita tradition is that of Ishta devata. You might describe this as your preferred deity. Advaita philosophy is the concept of non-dualism describing a spiritual pathway for our way forward towards liberation from suffering, death and rebirth without isolating ourselves as ‘I and you,’ ‘me and God’, ‘the self and other’. Everything is one stream of consciousness, be it clear or muddy. It expects no belief system from you.

It is too difficult with our limited experience and perception to actually connect with the Spirit and God. What is That? The concept of Ishta Devata is one that is helpful in our daily attempts to make this connection with this Unknown. It is our chosen deity, to which we can ascribe a shape, a form, a face that we then daily brings to mind; not only daily but even moment to moment. It is a simple idea that since we have no idea what this Universal Energy we call God looks like, we choose a shape and form such as ‘Mother Mary’, or in the Indian pantheon some deity whose qualities especially serve our needs. Constantly, or as often as possible, lovingly and with deference reach out to this Istha devata, visualize His/Her shape starting from toe to top. Create a clear picture and focus on this image that you have created in your mind. Invite your devata into your presence. Will your devata into your presence. Simply that. No thoughts. Simply holding on to that form and inviting it into your presence.

John Lennon/Paul McCartney and the Beatles had it right!

Namaste,

sipra

You are August! Speak up, Be Heard, VOTE (August 2020 Newsletter)

The YWB (Yoga-Well-Being) community is about the best life. It is about morality, ethics, and living each day so that each successive day is better than the day before in all respects. It is about caring, about love and sharing, about empathy and compassion. It is about being free to develop your fully rounded personality. It is about living soulfully where truth is paramount. ‘Satya' or truth is the only thing that is real. Truth is always true.

There is just one truth, and while I may interpret it any way I like, it remains true because it is the truth. In Chapter 17.23 of the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna explains that Om (the primal sound) denotes Brahman, Tat (that) also refers to Brahman, and Sat (that which is true) is also the same Brahman. In other words they are all synonyms for Brahman, the Absolute Truth. ‘Om Tat Sat’ is a mantra often used at the start and end of Hindu ceremonies and rituals.

While YWB never makes any political comments, this is one time we make an exception. We are inviting you to use your right to speak up and be heard so that all our lives can prosper in peace and freedom starting on January 20, 2021. 

Register now and vote in the general elections. It is vital that we do so if we would like our lives to be free. All our lives, bar none! Speak to and help others register and vote.

The deadline for registering to vote or updating your address is October 5, 2020. Make sure your information is on file and up to date.

You can vote in person or absentee. To vote absentee, you'll need an absentee ballot application form. You can get one here and print it out or pick them up from your county's board of elections.

When you receive your absentee ballot, you may return it by mail. (Remember to use sufficient postage and mail it as early as possible.) However, to avoid any postal service delays or mishaps, the best way to guarantee its delivery is to complete it and drop it off at your county board of elections. In Franklin County, that is at 1700 Morse Rd. There is a secure silver colored 'ballot' box outside the Board of Elections building. It is under 24 hour surveillance. Given the challenges faced by the postal system in these times, dropping off your ballot is highly recommended.

YWB can procure some forms. If you would like to pick them up at the studio please let us know.

Let truth prevail! Let freedom expand and not diminish. Truth has been tampered with and freedoms already affected. Neither may be safe if you don’t speak up. It may be yours and my last chance to have a real voice in our freedoms and in our government.

Namaste,

sipra

Up and Up (July 2020 Newsletter)

Stand up Paddler in the Ocean in Sri Lanka. Photo by Aditya Siva.

Using Michelle Obama's words,"When they go low, we go high". Appropriate for all of us in our lives, in all we think and do.

Stay above the fray. If you are motivated by your own beliefs and ideals, you will not fail in accomplishing what you want to achieve - if not now, it will be then.

Stay on your cause(s). Use them to transform yourself into your true, genuine self with a calm mind, an energized body, well nourished and rested - living daily with a regular schedule.

Get beyond your humdrum life, if it has become so. Lend yourself to good causes, but sustain your soul. Violence in thought and word, even for a good cause is sinking low. It's not who you truly are.

Let's find calmness and strength together at YWB and its varied and rich classes. Check out Ayurveda classes to bring balance to your life. It's all included in our special for the month at $55 for unlimited classes. Start Monday, June 29, when we reopen our studio at 296 W.4th Ave. You can be present for live classes, or attend virtually.

Please wear your mask although you will not use it during practice.

Namaste,

sipra

Well-Spent (June 2020 Newsletter)

Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love. –Rumi

It has been a struggle to live with social distancing because we are gregarious creatures. We need to love, to hold and support each other. All these can be successfully accomplished virtually, but we need to participate with our senses.

It has also been a good time to learn to live with ourselves and examine who we really are. Find yourself through awareness, just being present every moment. Fully taking part in every moment. Love yourself and what you are doing. Do more of the things that make you feel content. Sometimes do absolutely nothing at all. Sit, walk or stand still. Breathe slowly and bathe yourself in the light and energy of a deep breath. It will restore calm to your being.

It has been a chance to try something new that we might have considered interesting but never really tried out. Here's another quote from Rumi that truly brings this thought home. Living in the 13th century, this mystic's wisdom and joy never fails to inspire us even today: ‘Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.’

Namaste,

sipra