Bittersweet Memories........

The new Teacher training program is rolling out at Yoga Life and I have to admit...there are some sparks of jeolousy that I cannot hide. I will take it as a growth spurt and move on....because as I entered the shala today...my Jyotees' welcomed me with open arms and hearts. I see the place they are today and I know the place they are traveling through,,,,I hope to be light through the path.

My practice today felt so light and lovely...I am dedicating every practice from here on out to the Supreme,,,,the One, the Almighty~

Guruji in a WEEK! Oh my goodness, am I really a piece of this history? I think I AM!!

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA!

New Yoga Pics

Who me?

Ever since the finale of the teacher training...life has gotten busier, it has slowed down....life has continued. There has been an undeniable shift in my place in the universe. Blessings are popping up everyday. Little reminders that I have chosen the correct life path. I have to admit that sometimes I have to check myself and my ego at the door, but that is definitely what takes me back to the mat. Everytime I practice I settle in to that familiar place within myself that is getting easier and easier to be friends with...to be one with. I'm finding that as a teacher you have to stay inspired to be an inspiration. This rang true for me today when I received a phone call from a student that moved to Seattle. He asked me for a recommendation letter for a Yoga Teacher Training program. He told me I inspired him to become a yoga teacher.

(gasp!)

Let me just sit down! I had to take a seat. I was at work and I had to relish that moment. As a new teacher, I had no idea that in the short time I had been teaching, I had affected someone's life so profoundly. This inspires me to keep practicing. It inspires me to always check my ego at the door and to be humble in this journey. I don't ever want the "new car smell" to go away in my yoga practice and my teaching. What a lesson I've learned. Thank you William.
namaste.

Graduation memories....

I met some beautiful friends along this journey and it is a part of my life that I will always cherish. These moments, all of them, are passing....you only experience each moment one time...be present. We all had doors opened, closets cleaned out and windows smashed into a thousand pieces. It seems now that all the raw interior is exposed...it's time to minimize the external, organize what is needed and move forward to the next spiritual hurdle. Our circle was so tight that to let go of the ring feels like I'm abandoning something....but, I feel it tightening. I feel the threads of friendship weaving together, the colors bleeding like that of the red towel in the white wash, forming an inseparable pink bond of trust. Goddess Energy is powerful. I feel it here in this group of yoginis. I send my love to each of you on your spiritual quest and know that I am your faithful devotee...

om shanti shanti shantihi
Radha

Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name.......

it's Radha. The divine, transcendental love of Krishna. Yesterday I graduated from the teacher training program at Yoga Life and my teacher and friend, Sati, blessed us all with Sanskrit names. This is the story of Radha...

"Radha is recognized as the loveliest of all the cowgirls. Theirs was a love hidden from society, given Radha's status of a married woman. The word Radha means the greatest worshiper of Krishna. 'Krishna enchants the whole world, but Srimati Radha enchants even Him. Therefore, Radha is the Supreme Goddess.' Radha's love for Krishna is all consuming and compels her to ignore her family honor and disregard her husband. Their relationship develops on Krishna's captivating charm and aura of passion as Radha falls into a state of desire for this God. Radha is the soul; Krishna is the God. Krishna is the shaktiman - possessor of energy - and Radha is His shakti - energy. She is the female counterpart of the Godhead. She is the personification of the highest love of God, and by her mercy the soul is connected with the service and love of Krishna.

Radha is married or involved with someone else, and still cannot resist Krishna's musical call. In being with Him she risks social censure, alienation and humiliation. Riddled with shame and inappropriateness, this is hardly a relationship that purportedly embodies the highest union of pure love. Music becomes the voice of their illicit love which is too passionate, and secretive. Krishna is the cosmic musician who woos the gopi's (cowherd girls) with his tunes. Krishna's flute sounds so powerful that they embodied the energy of the cosmos. His beauty, charm and musical skill impassion women everywhere. In the embrace of Krishna, the gopis, maddened with desire, found refuge; in their love dalliance with him who was the master in all the sixty-four arts of love, the gopis felt a thrill indescribable; and in making love with him in that climatic moment of release, in that one binding moment, they felt that joy and fulfillment which could not but be an aspect of the divine.

Krishna represents the private life of the Absolute. His relationship with Radha, His Divine consort, actually constitutes the private life of Krishna. In this relationship, Love reigns supreme as Krishna surrenders to Radha. Krishna is lovestruck while Radha has taken over control. He has surrendered to the Power of Love. Very few people really understand this relationship and the message it contains. The supreme object of devotion, Krishna, worships the highest devotion, Radha. The zenith of Radha and Krishna's love affair is the Raas-Leela, the circular dance of love. The Raas-Leela points to the highest potential of the soul. It is within this context of the circular dance that the highest is couched in apparent selfishness.

Real love exists between Radha and Krishna. Real love is transcendental and spiritual. We have to become attracted to spiritual love and give up false love and beauty, which are only skin-deep. Krishna consciousness means to be serious and determined to transcend the material attraction between man and woman in order to become attracted to the lotus feet of Radha and Krishna. Srila Prabhupada said, "The sum and substance of material life is attraction for woman. And the sum and substance of spiritual life is attraction for Radha-Krishna".


Wow. That is pretty hot! I have to admit that when I first heard my name at the graduation ceremony, it didn't immediately click with me. Maybe I felt that the namesake was so powerful that I wouldn't be able to fulfill it. But, the more I read this story...the more I am dissolving myself into it...intertwining myself and irreveocably surrendering to the Radha-Krishna story. I love that Radha was a cowgirl...I'm a western, cowgirl....rough-and-tumble, not-gonna-give-up, gonna wear my cowgirl boots and belt buckle kinda girl...so that definitely appeals to me. I have to say that Radha's devotion to Krishna is breathtaking. I have much to learn of their love and hope with my biggest heart-filled joy that I can love like her and be a lover like her!

This time of my life is a time of death, birth, and rebirth...

Dedication to the teachers....

.


Preparation for the Final Exam is underway for the Teacher Training, and I will be graduating in just under two weeks. Wow. I've grown. I feel I've been uprooted, a little bit raw and exposed, but where the sun can shine on my face. Every aspect of my life has changed. I have a new outlook and that makes me hopeful. I have inspirations to meet and dreams to ponder. I feel that my knowledge of Yogic science and philosophy is just surfacing and I need to delve more deeply now. The journey has begun and its definitely not ending with graduation.

It is amazing how many emotions bubbled up from deep down inside me. Confrontation to these things that have been with me through this life, that I have carried along as baggage when all they are "things." They are not who I am. Letting go of the blame for why something makes me the way I react to life is transformational. I am not this, I am not that. I am a part of the present moment....extended in all directions simultaneously. I am a part of you as you are a part of me.

I don't doubt that it will often be difficult to be disciplined with myself. Such is the journey of life....a collection of unending choices to govern all our future karma. Dealing with what has already been dealt to us is the surprise. I feel graced to have a support system of beautiful teachers all around me....even You as you're reading this. You inspire me to stay on the path of yoga. I learn from you that life is for loving and giving and sharing and growing. Thank you, Oh teacher!

Om
Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu
Guru Devo Maheshwara
Guru Sak Shat
Param Brahma
Tash Mayi Shri
Guruvey Namah

(Our creation is the teacher
Our present life is the teacher
Our trials, hardships, difficulties and death is the teacher
The Guru nearby is the teacher
The Guru indescribable beyond all form
I offer all my efforts to the teacher...)

Hello 2008....(shake hands)...

Sati and I having fun at the Casbah...

This year is turning into an adventure already. I have taken on this role as Yoga Teacher/Manager of a Yoga Studio Lady and I tell you...it is amazing. This is what my life was made for. I feel as if I'm walking in someone else's shoes and then I realize their mine! I can only give love and gratitude to my teachers, Sara and Sati, and that they have prepared me for this moment.

My mind seems to be turning inside out right now. I feel like I'm shaking out my brain like a you shake out a rug trying to get out all the dirt, dust, and "stuff" that sticks to it. The stuff that not even a vacuum will pick up. For the first time, in a long time, I feel that things are starting to click and tick. Things are starting to make sense. I have to say that reading the Yoga Sutras has opened my eyes to the entirety of the Ashtanga System: an Eight-Limbed Practice. Asana only representing one of the limbs...I now know that I want to encourage my future students to study the Sutras and yogic philosophy and to practice the other seven limbs.

The Eight-Limbs of Ashtanga Yoga:
1) Yamas (Restraints)
2) Niyamas (Observances)
3) Asana (Posture)
4) Pranayama (Breath Control)
5) Pratyhara (Sense Control)
6) Dharana (Concentration)
7) Dhyana (Meditation)
8) Samadhi (Enlightenment)

Understanding how the limbs work together needs to be studied and contemplated at length. I am merely a humble student to be blessed with this tradition and lineage of greatness.

And now I must return to my studies.....