Compassion (Daya)

Setting/Theme: Compassion in Action

Reading/Story:  Compassion is the 7th of 10 restraints or yamas in Yoga Philosophy.  Compassion comes from the 5th chakra, the heart center or the Anahata chakra.  

“Practice compassion, conquering callous, cruel and insensitive feelings toward all beings. See god everywhere. Be kind to people, animals, plants and the Earth itself. Forgive those who apologize and show true remorse. Foster sympathy for others’ needs and suffering. Honor and assist those who are weak, impoverished, aged or in pain. Oppose family abuse and other cruelties).  hinduism.about.com

Pranayama (Kapalabhati for purification) to Mantra/Chant: Om Mani Padme Hum.  Behold to the jewel in the lotus with lotus Mudra

Asana:

Core

Sun A x 5

Sun B x 5 

1-4) Crescent with Humble Warrior & Psoas stretches in the groin & come down to belly in between (baby, half cobra & full cobra) to Danurasana (Floor Bow).
5) Down dog with hip openers, flip your dog & Chatarunga with a side car), Pigeon & runner’s lunge.

Cobbler’s to half lotus with forward bend over free leg, and with leg in on both sides.  Foreward fold over full lotus if you can/cobbler’s

Bridge/Wheel/Scorpion

Plow to spinal twist & fish pose/Matsyasana

Mantra/Chant: Om Mani Padme Hum.  Behold to the jewel in the lotus.

Meditation: Compassion is what makes us human and as we become more & more compassionate towards all living things and the relationship between all living things, we  also become more evolved.  A planet, an ecosystem, a species can become physically evolved but it would be ignorant to ignore that we don’t evolve on a spiritual & conscious level.  What you do, think, feel, say and make habit holds power and a certain energy or vibration.  Like a trail that get frequently used, our easiest path through life can lead towards things that serve us or that don’t.  So how do you decide which way to go?  You take the path of compassion in action.  Practice compassion towards yourself and all life because you see God in all of life.  Forgive and forget to those who show true remorse because holding your past is a heavy burden.  Sympathize with the pain and suffering by doing what you can, but don’t let the burden be heavy, use it to inspire to make good on your actions and words instead of discourage you.  Be a warrior for peace!

Background for Pose Names

Setting the theme/tone: Knowing the symbolism behind our yoga poses and the stories behind them can enhance your yoga practice.  You can put your body into a particular shape and what?  Thats it?  Many yoga poses have a story behind them, like Matsyasana or Hanumanasana, or they resemble our surroundings in order to help us relate to the essential nature of the world around us, such as Tree pose or tortoise.  And thats is really what yoga is all about is feeling joy & as we connect to the world around us.  Tonights theme is really all about the poses, their meanings and why we care about the meaning.

Asana:

Balasana (Childs Pose):

Balasana is about the childhood play of Krishna.  Once he and his brother, Balarama, were playing & Krishna ate some dirt and his brother tried to tell on him to their mother. Krishna denied it, even though he had mud all over his face, and his mother didn’t believe him so he asked him if she could look inside his mouth.  When she did, she saw the whole universe.  The lesson here is that everything is in God & God is in everything.  There is no duality here, just play for the sake of play.   

Sun Salutations:

Sun A x 3 to Parvritta Arda Chandrasana to WII to Star to Horse to WII facing the back of the room to Revolved Warrior to vinyasa, do right leg again to get back around to the front.  Left side.

Core

Sun B x 3

1. & 2) Crescent to WII to Standing split to Arda Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose)....tell the story of Arda Chandrasana....to Parvritta Arda Chandrasana to WII to Star to Horse to WII facing the back of the room to Revolved Warrior to vinyasa, do right leg again to get back around to the front.  Left side.

Arda Chandrasana is about Ganesha and the moon.  Ganesh is the elephant head God who is known for being the remover of obstacles, his generosity & also for his love of eating, especially sweets.  So one day he was out & ate so many sweet cakes that he decided he needed to head home to do some light stretching.  So he hopped on his trusty steed, a mouse, and was ever so graciously balancing on the tiny mouse when a cobra scared the mouse and he fell off.  Unfortunately his belly was so full that it popped open & sweet cakes rained everywhere.  He got mad and began picking up all the sweet cakes and putting them back in his stomach and then grabbed the cobra and tied it around his waist to keep it all in.  To Ganesh’s dismay, the moon, Chandra, began laughing at him.  He broke off one of his tusks and speared the moon and her light went out.  After awhile, love was lost in the world because the moon could not shine at night.  All the gods came to Ganesh to compromise with him over the situation & Ganesh agreed that the moon would have to wax and wane & could only show her magnificence fully once every four weeks....

3) Flip your dog to knee to forehead, left & right elbows to Half Pigeon to Chatraunga with a  side car to Runner’s Lunge to IT band stretch.

Core

Hip Openers:  Malasana to Prone Frog Wide leg Splits to full tortoise

Backbends: against the wall (Beginner: Camel.  Intermediate: Wheel.  Advanced: Full Camel/Scorpion

Child’s Pose!!!  

Warm-down:

Halasana (Plow Pose):

Haladhara (Hala meaning plow and dhara meaning carrier) was Krishna’s older brother and was drunk off honey one day and wanted to bathe in the Yamuna river.  He was too lazy to walk over to it so he took his plow and carved a route in the earth for the river to come to him.  In yoga philosophy, there is a sutra that says just as a farmer plows his field for irrigation, so do we remove obstacles in our path toward yoga.  Plow pose leads us to liberation of the mind to reveal positive thinking.   

Matsyasana (Fish Pose):

After 10,000 years of intense meditation, Lord Shiva was telling his wife Parvati were sitting by a river & he was telling her about how he had discovered the nature of life, the secret to salvation, the path to ultimate union between the individual self and the Divine source.  Meanwhile Matsya (fish) was swimming by and thought to himself “I better listen!” and he did & became enlightened.  Shiva became the first teacher (guru) and Matsya the first student (chela).  So fish pose or Matsyasana is dedicated to this story & reminds us that nothing is more important than the relationship between teacher & student and that anyone who listens really well can follow the same path of Matsya.

Chant:

Yoga Teacher Student Prayer:

OM saha navavatu
saha nau bhunaktu
saha viryam karavavahai
tejasvi navadhitam astu
ma vidvishavahai
OM shanti, shanti, shanti

May we be protected together.
May we be nourished together.
May we create strength among one another.
May our study be filled with brilliance and light.
May there be no hostility between us.
Om peace, peace, peace.

Meditation:

According to the Bhagavad Gita & the Yoga Sutras, yoga’s purpose is to help us surrender to a higher power & bind to the divine through love.  But, in order to do that we need to let go of the ego, which is the simplest yet hardest thing for us to do.  

Poems to read during Savasana:

“Gentle me, Holy One, into an unclenched moment, a deep breath, a letting go of heavy experiences, of shriveling anxieties,

of dead uncertainties. That softened by the silence, surrounded by the light, and open to the mystery, I may be found by

wholeness, upheld by the unfathomable, entranced by the simple, and filled with the joy that is You.” ~ Ted Lode

“Just give me this: A rinsing out, a cleansing free of all my smaller strivings so I can be the class act God intended. True to my

purpose, all my energy aligned behind my deepest intention. And just this: A quieting down, a clearing away of internal ruckus, so I

can hear the huge stillness in my heart and feel how I pulse with all creation, part and parcel of Your great singing ocean. And this

too: A willingness to notice and forgive the myriad times I fall short, forgetting who I really am, what I really belong to. So I can start

over, fresh and clean like sweet sheets billowing in the summer sun, my heart pierced with gratitude.” ~ Belleruth Naparstek

Truth

Setting the theme/tone: Truth is something that we all search for in one way or another.  Some of us find it through religion, spirituality or experience, but all the many paths lead to one only truth.  The ultimate truth is our relationship in relation to God/Spirit.  Kabir, a great Sufi poet, refers to God as the Guest inside you and says; “When the Guest is being searched for, it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that does all the work.”  So this longing for truth is everything we need to find it.  J. Krishnamurti says; “to truly find out what is truth there must be great love and a deep awareness of  man’s relationship to all things - which means that one is not concerned with one’s own progress and achievement. 

Asana: talk a lot about the breath and how it can tell you whether you are pushing too hard, need to step it up a notch or are just right.

Starting in Supta Badokonasana

Core with Chin Mudra: Index finger folded in under the thumb.

Supine Spinal Twist

3 x Sun A

In last Sun A have them go all the way down to ground from Chatarunga & have them come into Superman and roll forward & back chanting Sat on uplift (rocking back), Nam on Downfall (rocking back).  A mantra is a verse, hymn, chant or phrase that holds a special meaning and can  elevate ones level of consciousness.  SAT NAM (Saht - Nahm) is one of the most widely used mantras for calling upon truth and awakening the soul.

4 x Sun B:

3 xs guided and 3 on their own: Crescent lunge (Anjane Asana), arms flow open to right, left and to airplane 3 xs, open to WII (Virabhadrasana II), Reverse Warrior (Viparita Virabhadrasana) to Extended Side Angle (Utthita Parsvakonasana) to Half Moon (Ardha Chandrasana) to Revolved Half Moon (Parivritta Ardha Chandrasana) to Warrior III (Virabhadrasana III).

1 x Sun A to Pranayama: Lions Breath in Sphinx pose staring up through third eye with eyes focused or even crossed.  Back to down dog.  Half Pidgeon (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana).  While they are in half pidgeon talk about first two noble truths on right side, second two noble truths on left side: “The four noble truths, the first teachings of Siddhartha Buddha, deal with suffering.  The first noble truth is that suffering is part of being human and the second is that we suffer when we resist change.  The third is that suffering ends when you let go of resistance and the fourth is that we can use everything we do, from the moment we are born to our last breath, as a tool to realize our oneness with all living things.” then Runner’s Lunge after 1/2 pidgeon on both sides, after both sides step up into Garland’s Pose (Malasana)

Backbends: 5 rounds (options: bridge, wheel, scorpion or scorpion to wheel)

Plow to fish ending

Meditation:

Start seated & have them connect index fingers and curl in other fingers.  Have right palm facing out and left palm facing in & bring fingers in front of the third eye.  Two strokes in through mouth and two strokes out through nose.  Gaze at fingers through the third eye.  Go for one long song, preferably one that has sat nam or wahe guru chanted throughout it.

“The search for truth gives an explosion of creativeness to the mind, which is true revolution, because in this search the mind is uncontaminated by the edicts and sanctions of society.” - J. Krishnamurti

“There is a single truth but the wise call it by many names.” (Rig Veda 3000+BC)

Perspective

Setting the theme/tone:

Reading:

The theme for tonight’s class is perspective, which is related to happiness/ joy.  Something we are all after.  When Krishna was young he would sneak into neighbors houses and eat their butter, curd & yogurt & in defense the mas would string it up high.  But Krishna was smart & enlisted all his buddies to pile on top of each other so he could climb up on them & get to the good stuff.  So tonight’s theme is all about finding the butter in life & really the butter is already there & you already are perfect, you just have to peel away the layers of maya, illusion, that you are not.  All the negative thoughts & judgements, and voices in your head that are destructive to your and the whole are illusion

Pranayama:  Churn the butter (sufi grinds) & incorporate breath in with going to the right & left. (first chakra)

Mudra: Kapitthaka/Smiling Buddha Mudra in Malasana/Garland Pose

Mantra: “There is a drop of butter in every moment of my life, my perceptions create my own reality.”

Asana:

Down dog to pidgeon & then create a flow with the arm, milking the movement of the hips a little more here

Sun A x 5

1. Down Dog to Plank to Chatarunga to Up Dog to Down Dog x 5
2. Right Hand Hasta Banda (do vinyasa on your right fingertips, a bit cadiwompus)
3. Left Hand Hasta Banda (same but on left fingertips)
4. Both Hands Hasta Banda (on both fingertips)
5. Running Chatarunga

Sun B x 4

1. Crescent to Prayer Twist to Side Crow to Navasana 

1. Build up a Sun B: spend 5 breaths in each pose: down dog with hip opener to wild thing, WIII to Arda Chandrasana, leg out to side, Revolved Half Moon, Standing Splits & Shiva Squats
2. Spend one breath in previous sequence and spend 5 breaths in the following sequence: from Shiva Squats...Seated Spinal Twist, Half Pigeon, King Pigeon, Runner’s Lunge, Runner’s Lunge with a twist
3. Spend one breath in previous sequence and spend 5 breaths in the following sequence: from Runner’s Lunge with a twist... turn to face the side with one knee bent and take a bind, Prasaritta, Option for funky tripod head stand, Prasaritta C & Star Pose.

1. Move to face a wall with a flow from Down Dog to Hand Stand to Wheel & back.

QUads, wheel/full camel & Inversions (aid in digestion, circulation, heart & lungs & stimulate pituitary, pineal & thyroid glands) against the wall

Pranayama: Balanced/Alternating Breath

Meditation:  Prayers for Healing - Thich Nhat Hahn

“May I be peaceful, happy and light in body, and in mind.

May I be safe and free from accidents.

May I be free from anger, unwholesomeness states of mind, fear & worries.

May I know how to look at myself with the eyes of understanding & love.

May I be able to recognize & touch the seeds of joy and happiness in myself. 

May I learn how to nourish myself with joy each day.

May I be able to live fresh, solid & free.

May I not fall into the state of indifference or be caught in the extremes of attachment & aversion.”

Prayers for Healing - John Wesley

Do all the good you can,

by all the means you can,

in all the ways you can, 

in all the places you can,

to all the people you  an,

as long as you ever can.