creating meaning

Each day, at every moment we can create meaning and value. We are always “Poised for Grace”, poised to receive Grace, poised to offer Grace.

12:42 PM Sep 16th from Ping.fm
from Jamie Allison on twitter http://twitter.com/jamieomzone

Katchie Ananda and the UPAs

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/26/EDF41A9U14.DTL In this article a certified anusara teacher relates the UPAs to death of “spiritual warriors” in Arizona.

In the Anusara yoga I teach and practice, the principle is to say “yes” to life, to our goals and aspirations and dreams. But coupled with that “yes” is an immediate “no,” expressed by creating boundaries, for the safety of our physical bodies and our psyches. We literally contract our muscles to protect and stabilize the joints and the core. Then out of that “no,” that stability, can come another “yes,” a physical (and perhaps spiritual) expansion, one that is more grounded, more realistic and has been tested by life’s challenges. It is too late for the people who suffered and died in that sweat lodge. But it’s time for all of us to insist that anyone who presumes to take on the mantle of “spiritual teacher” must honor the importance of “no” – as much as the aspiration of “yes.”

Katchie Ananda is a Bay Area yoga teacher. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/26/EDF41A9U14.DTL#ixzz0WQ7HllKq

donna farhi

 

http://www.commonground.ca/iss/0411160/cg160_Farhi.shtml

For many years teaching and practising was stabbing in the dark. I was trying to find a way back to a natural and loving way of being with the practice and that’s what I’m sharing now, especially with people who want to train as teacher. It’s to teach from the heart, from the essential message, of the tradition, as that is so desperately what people need to hear when they go to a yoga class.
JR: What is that essential heart?
DF: I think first and foremost it is to meet every person who comes into the room with an unconditional accepting presence, and to see them as already whole; to recognize that each of us has some degree of fragmentation. We come in with our problems and our neuroses and our physical conditions and our history. So, to see through that and to be seeing each person as whole – and everyone’s desperately wanting to be seen in this way – is healing, to hold the vision of wholeness in the faith in my own wholeness and the wholeness of the student.

The other message which is perhaps counter to how some would interpret this tradition is that I think we all have an inner teacher and if we’re listening and quiet we’ll be given those answers, whether those answers are how to move or what to say in this moment, what to do or not to do in this moment. We all have that wisdom. I feel my job as a teacher is not so much to share my wisdom but to create a context in which the other person can discover their unlimited access to their own wisdom-nature.
It is like setting up a dinner table for guests. You set flowers on the table, prepare the cutlery just so, prepare the meal and then because there’s this expectation that something special is going to happen, something special does happen. I have that expectation in every class, and I think that sets up a field for people to awaken to the wonderfulness of this moment when we just stop long enough to pay attention.
I have a high expectation of teachers.

JR: To set up the context. Could you talk a bit about the difference between teaching teachers rather than students?
DF: Teaching teachers challenges me probably more than any other kind of teaching I do in that I have to break down what may be intuitive or unconscious for me as a teacher. It may be information that I arrived at intuitively or unconsciously and now I have to make that process conscious within myself, stratify and codify it. Deconstruct the steps to this process and help the teachers I’m training become cognizant of those steps. It’s important that they’re cognizant because they have to know where in this series of steps is the student. Where do I meet this person right now, how can I most effectively work with the person who is before me?
I think what is also very challenging about the model that I’m working from is that it’s not formulaic. It’s not paint by numbers. It’s a model that demands a deductive awareness on the part of the teacher to listen and respond to the students. The other part of the model which I think is terribly missing in most teaching that goes on in our culture is that every technique a teacher uses needs to be assessed in terms of whether it’s moving a student towards independence and freedom or whether it’s moving them in the direction of dependence.
That totally alters every word that comes out of your mouth, because you’re guiding a process of inquiry rather than telling the person what it is they should feel or how they should feel it. It’s a very different model for teaching, but I’ve worked from different ones and it does bring the student in direct contact with that force which is animating them. That’s the main thing I think that’s missing at the moment in the popularization of yoga.
The public is being misled in a sense that yoga equals asana, all these wondrous and crazy looking postures. In its essence, yoga has nothing to do with the posture or gymnastic physical feats. It has to do with using the body to connect to that animating force. So, if I’m practising asana it’s to connect myself to that which animates me: to the universe, to life and to nature. If I’m doing meditation or a breathing practice or karma yoga the goal is not to get your foot on the back of your head.
In the last decade yoga has very much gone in the direction of objectification and a complete 180 degrees from the original purpose of the tradition, which is to recognize its paradoxical nature. It’s got a strong somatic base and the purpose of that is to use the body to directly experience that we are more than our body.
JR: Could you describe a direct somatic experience?
DF: Well, somatic is any practice that’s embodied, anything that brings you into the sensation of the physical body.
JR: So it’s a presence that comes with that?
DF: Not necessarily. It is what makes yoga such an extraordinary tradition in that it has this strong basis of embodied spirituality. But there’s a paradox and this is where I think those of us in the West have tripped up.
We have this strong embodied portion to the practice but the purpose of those embodiment practices is to directly experience, not as something intellectual or that “I think,” but directly in-body knowing that while my body is a lovely thing to have, I am more than that. The direction yoga has gone in the last decade in the West is to use the practices to build up the body as our exclusive identity. So, now we have yoga for abs and for keeping you forever young and yoga that’s going to make the body more beautiful and perfect.
Now, it can generally make the body more beautiful and healthy, but that’s not the ultimate purpose of the practise. We call this losing the plot. What is the real storyline here and where did we lose the plot?
On the upside I would say there is a groundswell internationally now. Everywhere I travel to teach there’s a groundswell of people who have done these physical practices to the nth degree. They’ve done their 30-minute headstand. They’ve practised and practised the physical poses, have taken it to the limit and are now asking the question “Is this all there is?” in the same way that someone who collects houses, cars, beautiful women and money in the bank might pause and ask that question.
People who’ve been doing these practices are now asking that question and I see my role as a bridge for people who’ve been working with a very physical practise of asana and are now looking to use it within the context of the whole tradition, rather than as a practise unto itself. It was never meant to be done just by itself. It was meant to be done in relationship to the whole tradition.
JR: What’s closest to your own heart now?
DF: In the last year I’ve noticed a profound shift in my spiritual life – my whole life – it’s all the same to me. I feel an immense comfort in just being and a faith in life that wasn’t there so much before. I always saw the universe as an essentially hostile place and I don’t any more, I don’t experience it that way any more.
I feel it very strongly in working with people now because when I walk into the room there may be a little anxiety before I show up to teach 50 teachers, but after a few minutes I just feel so at ease. I feel such a trust in just being, that I don’t have to know the answers. I can be, as I tell my trainees, in an intelligent unknowing state, and to be teaching from and to be with everyone from that place. There’s a great joy in that and it sets up a joyousness in the room, too.
So, I’m taking immense satisfaction from teaching and practising and being at the moment.
The other thing is that I have a huge passion for horses and studying natural horsemanship. I’m taking my yoga into my relationship with my horses at home. I think that’s going to be my next big yoga, the study of horsemanship.
JR: I have a daughter who’d love to help you with that.
DF: I have two horses at home. I have an Arabian warmblood waiting there for me that has only been ridden a few times, so I have a very exciting project to go home to.
JR: I don’t know much about horses, but I remember the first time one started galloping I had no control.
DF: They’re strong teachers. There are many metaphors between the practice of yoga and the practice of being in partnership with horses. It takes a great deal of training, skill and patience not to control the horse, but all of that work is to be able to ride and allow the spirit of the horse to come through without fear.
I’ve learned more from my horses in the last seven years than I have from any formal yoga teachers, because they put me right up against whatever is stuck in me. If I’m working through a problem with my horse it’s because there’s something stuck in me and the horse has found it and we’re not going to progress until I figure out what that is in me that needs to be resolved, be that unresolved violence or impatience or a lack of acceptance, whatever the issue is.
They’re masters at it, and they’re thousand pound masters. You need to pay attention.
JR: I guess this could be said about all relationships.
DF: The big one with horses is you have to overcome your fear of death, because they’re so immensely powerful that if you’re going to be in partnership with that immense power and not contain, distort or constrict it, you have to have a kind of fearlessness. And you can’t pretend, they know.

Donna Farhi has been practising yoga for 28 years and teaching since 1982. She leads intensives and teacher training programs internationally. Donna has been the asana columnist for both Yoga Journal and Yoga International Magazine, and is the author of the contemporary classics, The Breathing Book, and Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit: A Return to Wholeness. Her third book Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living (Harper SanFrancisco) is an exploration of yoga as a life-long apprenticeship. Born in the US, Donna now resides in Christchurch, New Zealand. To access Donna’s teaching schedule please visit her website at: www.donnafarhi.co.nz.

Donna’s next visit to Vancouver will be next year. The five-day retreat runs from September 30 to October 5, 2005. Call Leila Stuart for details 604-536-7894 or contact leila-yoga@shaw.ca

yoga stats

how many people practice yoga?

Fifteen million Americans include some form of yoga in their fitness regimen — twice as many as did five years ago; 75% of all U.S. health clubs offer yoga classes. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,106356,00.html

Sunday, Apr. 15, 2001

http://www.namasta.com/news.php#16

What is the number of people who practice Yoga in America?

In the 9/5/2003 edition of the Wall Street Journal, an article on high-end yoga mats quotes a Harris Interactive poll that estimates that the number of people who “practiced” yoga in the United States last year is 15 Million.

This poll was actually released by the Yoga Journal in June and is the latest in a series of statistics that have pegged yoga practitioners anywhere from a few million to 28 million (sociologist Paul Ray).

Trends for the practice of yoga are viewed differently by yoga observers. The Yoga Research and Education Council for instance has reported that internet keyword searches for “yoga” had significantly dropped. Real estate agents on the other hand see yoga studios as one of the hottest sectors for their business.

The YJ poll may be self-serving: the magazine thrives on advertising and the June publication for the survey results comes right before the high-circulation issues of the fall.

The issue so far with yoga statistics has been that methodologies were not consistent so no comparison was possible. The Yoga Journal initiative should be hailed by all yoga professionals as it may correct that lack of consistency:

- it contained some forward-looking numbers such as the number of people “very” or “extremely interested” in the practice of yoga (more than 12% of the U.S. population, or 25.5 million people), the number of those who “intend to try yoga within the next 12 months” (16% or 35.3 million people) and the number of those who have at least a “casual interest in the practice of yoga” (over half, or 109.7 million people).

- the Yoga Journal claims it plans to conduct the survey every year.

CBC article:

Last Updated Oct. 24, 2007

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/exercise_fitness/yoga.html

talks about popularity of yoga and explains styles. no numbers though..

“

Form of yoga

• Hatha yoga: The most widely practiced form of yoga, hatha yoga uses bodily postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama), and meditation (dyana) with the goal of bringing about a sound, healthy body and a clear, peaceful mind.
• Ashtanga yoga: Made popular by Pattabhi Jois, this method involves synchronizing the breath with a progressive series of postures. The process is supposed to produce intense internal heat and a profuse, purifying sweat that detoxifies muscles and organs.
• Iyengar yoga: Created by B.K.S. Iyengar, this style is characterized by great attention to detail and precise focus on body alignment. Iyengar pioneered the use of “props” such as cushions, benches, blocks, straps and even sand bags, which function as aids.
• Anusara yoga: Started by John Friend in 1997, this is a modern school of yoga with a Tantric philosophy. Attainable bliss and joy in practice and everyday life are an important aspect of the underlying philosophy of this school. Many western students with a modernist bent find this school attractive.
• Power yoga: A general term used to describe a vigorous fitness-based approach to yoga. Most power yoga is modeled on ashtanga yoga, but does not follow a set series of poses. This form is said to have brought yoga into the gyms of America.
• Vinyasa yoga: This term covers a broad range of yoga classes. The word Vinyasa means “breath-synchronized movement.” In other words, the teacher will instruct you to move from one pose to the next on an inhale or an exhale. This technique is sometimes also called Vinyasa Flow or just Flow.
• Bikram Yoga: Also known as hot yoga and developed by yoga guru to the stars Bikram Choudhury, this style is ideally practiced in a room heated to 105°F (40.5°C) with a humidity of 50 per cent. The philosophy is that extreme temperature allows for deeper relaxation and stretching. Each class follows an unchanging pattern: A series of 26 poses done twice over 90 minutes.
• Mysore yoga: Students are invited to practise whatever postures they please.
• Jivamukti yoga: A physically challenging form that combines Sanskrit chanting and spiritual discussions – all performed to music.
• Kundalini yoga: This style concentrates on psychic centres or chakras in the body in order to generate a spiritual power, which is known as kundalini energy.

http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/281

Roughly five millennia after Indian mystics, intoxicated on the sacred drink soma, soared into the ecstatic trances that inspired the earliest yogic teachings, a new incarnation of this ancient spiritual technology has taken up permanent residence in the United States. And you don’t need me to tell you that yoga has made it big. You’ve already heard it from Oprah.

You’ve watched Sun Salutations on Rosie O’Donnell and Good Morning America. You’ve read the statistics everywhere from the New York Times to the Tulsa World: According to a 1994 Roper poll, 6 million Americans do yoga. (One estimate places the current number at 12 million.) It’s the most popular new feature at health and fitness clubs around the country, with close to 40 percent of them now offering classes. The Los Angeles Times estimates that there are more than 70 yoga studios in Southern California alone, with some of the bigger ones pulling in as much as $30,000 a week.

The popular Jivamukti Yoga Center in Manhattan offers at least 108 classes a week, with an average of 60 students packed into every class. The Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts—the country’s largest residential yoga retreat center—draws close to 20,000 guests a year, for an annual gross of about $10 million. A search on Amazon.com pulls up more than 1,350 yoga book titles, ranging in erudition from A Reinterpretation of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras in the Light of Buddha Dharma to Yoga for Cats. I’ve done my share of mocking the way yoga shows up in our capitalist culture. (My new favorite automobile ad: an image of a man meditating in front of an immense mound of outdoor gear and a brand new pickup truck. “To be one witheverything, he says, you’ve gotta have one of everything,” the copy reads. “That’s why he also has the new Ford Ranger. So he can seek wisdom on a mountain top. Take off in hot pursuit of enlightenment….”) But in my more serious moments, I believe that when future scholars write the cultural history of the twentieth century, one of the most momentous social trends they will describe is the transplantation into Western culture of Eastern contemplative practices such as yoga and meditation.

Thich Nhat Hanh- Mindfulness and Pain

“When mindfulness embraces pain, it begins to penetrate and transform it, like sunshine penetrating a flower bud and helping it to blossom. When mindfulness touches something beautiful, it reveals its beauty. When it touches something painful, it transforms and heals it.”

“We do not have to be afraid of our pain if our mindfulness is there to embrace and transform it.”

From Seeds of Compassion, by Thich Nhat Hanh

Title ideas?

“Embodiment and Transformative Processes of Yoga”

“Yoga and Embodiment: Processes of Transformation”

“Yoga as a Transformative Practice”

??????

UPAs and road map to the heart

on Jamie Allyson’s (certified Anusara teacher) bio:

http://www.omzoneyoga.com/About_Jamie.html

“The Universal Principles of Alignment of Anusara Yoga truly are a road map to the heart, a road map for skillful living, and a way to embrace and maximize one’s potential. When we make changes in the tangible outer form of the body we make huge shifts in the heart and mind as well.”

Also: http://www.omzoneyoga.com/Live_Deeply.html- really great explanation of the UPAs. “These principles are not an arduous task to memorize but a beautiful template to embody with every breath, a way of being that can be owned at a deep visceral level.” Also she goes through each principle and illustrates how it manifests mentally and physically.

douglas brooks article

Applied Yoga

The ancient sages believed that thinking was at least as important as Downward-Facing Dog in reaching our full human potential.

By Douglas Brooks

http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/847?page=2

talks about manas- both mind and heart

note from JT

Investigate spiritual writings on North American First Nations specifically Ojib and Cree as this is how hunters are taught to “see with their body not just the eyes” as well to “see” to  “live” across all planes of existence. There will be some interesting parallels between your embodiment and Native spirituality. I use to hunt with a gentleman who was deaf – he “felt” nature he could tell when a deer was behind him and out of visual sight. He is one of the most successful deer hunters I know. Again embodiment.

Emotional pain hmm this is interesting what’s your definition and what is the translation mechanism that you are using to go from emotional to physical?

articles to download

The cultural diversity of healing: meaning, metaphor and mechanism

Laurence J Kirmayer

http://bmb.oxfordjournals.org.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/cgi/reprint/69/1/33

http://bmb.oxfordjournals.org.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/cgi/content/full/69/1/33

Csordas – Embodiment and Cultural Phenomenology (142 in Weiss)

Csordas – Embodiment and Cultural Phenomenology (142 in Weiss)

phenomenology |fiˌnäməˈnäləjē|noun Philosophy the science of phenomena as distinct from that of the nature of being.• an approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience.

-Csordas cites Leenhardt, anth who studied the Canaques- one informant believed that the europeans brought the concept of the body to them. Prior to Euro dominance the body was neither subject or object (144)

Important basic questions Csordas asks (144):

- is the body a determinant object, or must it somehow be considered a subject as well?

-is biology itself determinant, or does it somehow change along with out knowledge of it?

- if we object to the idea that the body is a tabula rasa upon which culture inscribes its meaning, should we base that objection on the argument that biology gives us disposition and temperament prior to culture, or on the argument that the body is never a tabula rasa because it is always already cultural as well as biological in the first place?

Leenhardt’s work suggests- “the person as a cultural category depends on the way people inhabit their bodies, perhaps other domains of culture are grounded in bodiliness.” (144)

“the body, then, as a biological, material entity and embodiment as an indeterminant methodological field defined by perceptual experience and by mode of presence and engagement in the world” (145)

- text metaphor- body as text, inscription of culture on the body, reading the body (146)

-Csordas describes Merleau-Ponty- “perception is basic bodily experience, where the body is not an object but a subject, and where embodiment is the condition for us to have any objects- that is, to objectify reality-in the first place” (147). “Culture does not reside only in objects and representations, but also in bodily processes of perception by which those representations come into being. These creative processes are closely bound up with intentionality….  ”semiotics gives us textuality in order to understand representation, phenomenology gives us embodiment in order to understand being-in-the-world.”

studying culture and self in terms of embodiment, just as we can study culture and self in terms of texuality – “paradigm of embodiment” see Csordas 1990

Research direction from Csordas:

How to study embodiment- “there is no special kind of data or method for eliciting such data, but a methodological attitude that demands attention to bodiliness even in purely verbal data such as written text or oral interview.” “Embodiment is neither about behavior nor essence per se, but about experience and subjectivity, and understanding these is a function of interpreting action in different modes and expression in different idioms” (148).

-studying embodiment isn’t limited to disease- teaches about broader issues of self, emotion, religion, meaning, transformation, social interaction, institutional control of experience, and the human interface with technology (149)

-cites Michael Jackson 1989- his “analysis of initiation rituals and bodily metaphors illustrates the theme ‘that ideas have to be tested against the whole of our experience-sense perceptions as well as moral values, scientific aims as well as communal goals”‘(1989:14)

-”reflexive- author figures into the text in a self conscious way and teh text includes a dialogue with the voice of the indigene”

embodiment = shift from representation > being-in-the-world

-perhaps best elaborated in the cultural study of health

TOWARD A CULTURAL PHENOMENOLOGY- to flesh out a methodological standpoint to analyze culture and self from the standpoint of embodiment.

- somatic modes of attention: “culturally elaborated ways of attending to and with one’s body in surroundings that include the embodied presence of others. examples: ritual healing where healers come to know about health of patients through direct inspiration not being told. Healer may feel heat, see things, or hear things. (151)

-embodied imagery- can be visual, kinesthetic, proprioceptive, aditory, olfactory imagery. often linked. gives example of catholic healer who laid hands on man’s head with brain tumor and felt the tumor shrinking under his hands and also had an image of it shrinking (i’ve heard similar stories with reiki). “this example highlights the intimate connection between touch and sight in a way that appeals directly to the notion of embodiment as the existential ground of culture and self” (154).

- “deployment of senses and sensibility, not only their content, is emphatically cultural” (155)

- 155 – embodied metaphor

- 155 – cites Kirmayer (1992: 380) “bodily metaphors are often enactive rather than representational, and that embodied meaning is to be found primarily in “modes of action or ways of life”

questions and thoughts:

- talk to Jasmin about phenomenology, still a bit confused about the concept.

- definitely need to look at Csordas’ book Embodiment and Experience

- look more into concept of “embodied metaphor”- Jenkins and Valiente 1994 (“Bodily Transactions of the Passions” in Csordas Embodiment and Experience) describe women experience of intense heat somewhere between physical burning and emotional anger/fear. This reminds me of the physical discomforts that are linked to emotional descriptions by yoga practitioners. Could this become the major point of focus of my research? I have experienced this back pain, i can talk to GV about her should pain, AH has experienced this in backbends with chest pains. GPen has talked about this in her chest. Probably many others have stories.

- look for Kirmayer 1989 “Mind and Body as Metaphors” in Lock Biomedicine Examined. or 1992 “The Body’s Insistence on Meaning: Metaphor as Presentation and Representation in Illness Experience” Med Anth Quart 6:323-46

references for embodiment

Embodiment and cognitive science. [0-521-01049-7] Gibbs yr:2006

Csordas, T. (2002). Body/meaning/healing. New York: Palgrave. – UW LIBRARY
Gibbs, R. W. (2006). Embodiment and cognitive science. New- UW LIBRARY
York: Cambridge University Press.

Gibbs, R. W., & Franks, H. (2002). Embodied metaphor in
women?s narratives about their experiences with cancer.

Health Communication, 14(2), 139-165. – HAVE ACCESS BUT TROUBLE DOWNLOADING, TRY AT LIB
http://www.informaworld.com.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/smpp/content~content=a785835424~db=all

Good, B. (1994). Medicine, rationality, and experience: An anthro-
pological perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.- IN LIB

Johnson, M. (1987). The body in the mind. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press. – ON LOAN, MADE REQUEST

Rappaport, J. (1993). Narrative studies, personal stories, and
identity transformation in the mutual help context. Journal of
Applied Behavioral Science, 29(2), 239-256.

http://jab.sagepub.com.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/cgi/reprint/29/2/239

http://pdfserve.informaworld.com.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/672467_770885140_785835424.pdf

Scheper-Hughes, N., & Lock, M. (1987). The mindful body: A
prolegomenon to future work in medical anthropology.
Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 1(1), 6-41.

http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/stable/pdfplus/648769.pdf

http://ft.csa.com.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/ids70/resolver.php?sessid=649f134e228fa998d01bf3534f4d9d1f&server=search2.scholarsportal.info&check=2df82b0d031de4a7d4891265b8fe7ac8&db=sagenurs-set-c&key=1049-7323%2F10.1177_1049732308328162&mode=pdf

http://www.cynthiaclarke.com/anth255/Body_politic.pdf

Use of term embodiment in yoga advertising

ad for workshop with douglas brooks at yogaphoria:

http://www.yogaphoria.com/workshops.html

Unveiling Yoga Philosophy
with
Dr. Douglas Brooks

Goddess Within:
Tales of the Inner World of Transformation & Recognition

Inside each of us are the stories of the Self as it has traversed time and place and identity and inside those stories lie the lessons of life, instructions for living, and the secrets of awakened Consciousness.

In the Tantric tradition, the great goddess, Mahadevi approaches her eremite lover Shiva to ask for the secrets of the universe. Shiva replies that She is what She seeks, that those secrets are nothing but her forms, her stories, her experience. He then explains that He too is that Shakti, that power who manifests as Consciousness and who provides the gifts of embodiment and awareness. The Great Goddess is a current of grace taking the form of images, stories, sounds in sequence, and subtle architectures of mantra and yantra embedded in the experience of the yogi.

There are myths and images, sounds and shapes that create this narrative of embodied Self and it is the Tantric’s aspiration to participate fully in these stories and to see oneself as that process by which Shiva reveals to the Great Goddess that all this is Her.

In this seminar we will learn the essentials of that Great Goddess known as Auspicious Wisdom, Shrividya, and we will learn how to weave as the Tantra does Her image, mantra, and yantra into a fabric of our own deepening self-awareness.

Also, a yogi and therapists blogs and sites:

http://www.embodymentalhealth.com/

http://myembodiment.wordpress.com/

Quotes from Desirée and John

When we do a pose with just technical instruction, it makes an impressions on our body-mind. But if there’s an intention, it makes an impression on the soul.”- Desirée Rumbaugh quoted in Yoga Journal Feb 2008 Issue 208 Contributors pg 12

“This body is not only a vessel for spirit; it is also the Supreme itself. Each pose celebrates the embodied spirit.” – John Friend quoted in Yoga Journal, June 2007: issue 203. pg 99 Master Class- Let it Shine by Rachel Brahinsky

“Move into Vasisthasana remembering the intention that fuel this practice: reverence for your teachers. Align your body and spirit with this higher purpose as carefully as you align your limbs, joints and muscles for the physical expression of the pose.” – John Friend quoted in Yoga Journal, June 2007: issue 203. pg 101 Master Class- Let it Shine by Rachel Brahinsky