Equinox Newsletter - Yoga is Dead!….Really?
Free classes, Early Bird Retreat Registration and Rosen/MP Workshop
Fall - The Bestest of Times for Yoga! - See article below for reasons why a recent article suggesting the death knell of yoga may be a little premature…..
Online Yoga continues…
For a sample of free classes see below
Join us for Tues ams (Strength workout with Michelle) and MP classes on 3 Wed ams and 4 Sat ams + a Restorative/Gentle session per month. Auto subscribe for one free month! Drop-ins/Per month available. October Info for Classes
11/7 Online Sarvangasana Forum - $50/Free to Auto Subscribers
In Person:
10/25, 12-3pm - Richard Rosen and MP explore their favorite asanas! at Nest Yoga, Oakland: Online / Inperson
2027:
4/21 - 25 Outdoor Meditation and Yoga at Pomo Tierra, CA - Early Bird Registration 10/1-10/31
5/11 - 17 Gray Bear TN, Presence in Yoga
Summer Retreat July 1- 6 at Rivers Bend, Philo, CA - Early Bird Registration ends 10/1 - Spaces running out!
FREEBIES
- A Little Chair Yoga - 15 mins
Whether you are off your pegs for awhile or desk bound, refresh your upper body with this practice along with MP and Mimi, the cat. Available til 10/1 or for eternity for online subscribers! Link
- Simple Breath and Standing pose practice typical of our Saturday Am Online classes and a grounding practice amid transitions that I needed at the time!! Practice begins 1 minute in (til 10/1)
See below for Equinox Pranayama….
Summer Retreat 7/1-6, 2027
at Rivers Bend, Philo, CA
“Five Days of Wonder!”
Join us for 5 days of deep practice with a wonderful group of yogis close to Hendy Woods Redwoods and by the river.
DEPOSITS DUE NOW - EARLY BIRD ENDS 10/1
Yoga is Dead! Really?
These words were spoken by an actual yoga teacher that the author, of a recent Atlantic article called What Happened to Yoga?, met at a pilates class that was well attended. This author commented that she hadn’t seen a yoga class that packed for awhile. The yoga teacher (or former yoga teacher?) responded with a hyperbolic “Yoga is Dead” and a shrug. The article continues by tracing the current demise of yoga studios and practitioners amid the popularity of other forms of wellness such as body sculpting, pilates, strength building and the ubiquitous bio-hacking.
It is true that, as the article continues to state, yoga in the mainstream is no more a “defining symbol of holistic health in America that it used to be” Many of us older dinosaur teachers might say "Thank Goodness!” Although we have seen many of our smaller yoga studios disappear with covid and with commercialization and now diminishing incomes, perhaps we can recover the less mainstream deeper practice that yoga has offered over eons, the glitz and glamor fading away. The rise of pilates and strength building has been indubitably helpful to many of us and supplemented yoga practices, yoga has never just been about “holistic health” or at least, it always could promise so much more. As much as I delight in a well crafted pilates class, value the power of using weights in exercise, love some great music and movement blends, there is something utterly unique in the wholeness of a complete and ongoing hatha yoga practice, and all the multiple other aspects that can be brought into that practice in terms of pranayama, meditation, imagery and poetry and a path that can direct one’s life and relationship to our planetary communities.
Article continues below…
“Our Favorite Asanas!” 10/25
with Richard Van Dyke Rosen + Mary Poppins Paffard
at Nest Studio, Oakland
What keeps yoga alive? Well, there are so many examples of great modern yoga teachers, scholars and centers that are existing below the more mainstream glare. Retreat centers like Gray Bear in Tennessee - where I will be exploring the question What is a Beautiful Life? in May 2027 - have protected the intimacy and profundity of practice amid well stewarded natural beauty and avoided the limelight and potential collapse of bigger more commercial centers. Their retreat center is are a way of life and we go there with respect and awe at the magic that can arise in this kind of space, where yoga is in the air!
In the city, we see studios like Nest Yoga, Oakland Ca that were once part of a tapestry of studios in the area, now almost alone on this particular high street. More than just keeping the doors open, Nest is engaging a wide variety of teachers and inspirations, and still keeping old dinosaurs like Richard and myself employed!
And then there are the online communities. Many of us survived covid and the disappearance of smaller studios and evolved yoga communities online that have become sacred sanghas that support practitioners and teachers alike. Where would I be without my online regulars and their inspirations and chats about life, love and politics post class? - then there are the podcast forums and discussions that range from scholarly to simply engaging and fun.
Recently, Richard, Rodney Yee and Daniel Simpson were part of a discussion regarding Embodiment and Awareness in Yoga on Adam Keen’s podcast platform - it was a meandering and pleasant chat and one among many that is possible with the internet. Check out also Daniel’s podcasts on Ancient Futures The work of scholars, like Richard and Daniel, has been invaluable to help us modern day yogis understand the context in which our practice arose and its potential for evolution. There is a lot going on here to keep us motivated and enquiring, beyond simply seeing ourselves as an arising and passing fad!
As Rheana Murray, the Atlantic article author, says it seems as if the latest health fashion for monitoring every step of our wellness is missing out on some essentials and is in essence another stressor! “Yoga tends to be about letting go of ego and striving, and about surrender—principles that don’t quite fit into a culture obsessed with optimization” At the very end of her article, she hints that what these wellness seekers are craving now, may easily be more restorative and whole, like Yoga!
We may need our yoga to simply help us bang our heads a little more lightly (see above!) at the chaos and corruption of the world around us. But If our horizons are narrowed down to optimization 24/7 and the next version of Goat Yoga, we may be missing the richness of deep practice and the potential for yoga to open our eyes to the well being of all around us. The recent debacle over musician Sheeran’s bowing down to billionaire interests has shown us that we cannot anymore be apolitical. That the ethical considerations of practice are what keeps the path alive, gives meaning to all those downward dogs!
In the Insight meditation world, the ethical considerations of practice and our more cosmic roles, can sometimes be obscured by over emphasis on just sitting or as Victor van der Hyde mentions in a recent article, when we allow the complexity of the world to overwhelm us rather than inspire engagement, we “eclipse our sense of moral responsibility”. In another talk, Victor mentions that in the Insight worlds, equanimity can sometimes be over done! and that anger itself can be valuable…referring to Aristotle - “Complete incapacity to feel wrath is a moral defect” and Mother Theresa who said (paraphrasing) that the problem with the world is that we draw the line of family too small”.
Interesting Political Links:
Re Cuba - An Interview with a Cuban government official
Re Midterms - See https://votesaveamerica.com or https://commonpower.org
Coming Home to the Breath
Fall Equinox Nadi Shodana Practice - 26mins - Audio
MY MOTHER IS A GARDEN
BY RUBEN QUESADA
https://theadroitjournal.org/issue-forty-one/ruben-quesada/
In the backyard, my mother plants strands of razzleberry
fringe flowers. Next door the chartreuse golden feather
fare well. Before I am born, my mother is acquired
by the United States—coerced by some American
zodiac dream she fled to Los Angeles and decades later
she still withholds from speaking English, and only fertile
names of flowers have taken root. She is luminous. Her hair,
a blackish grey against the philodendron, long and parted
in the center. I lose her in the shade of overgrown impatiens
hanging onto the hillside behind the house. The horizon waves
in lines of barberry and nettles, silver waves of wild deer grass.
I have not spoken to my mother in years. Today I surprise her
with a visit and in the window’s glow I watch her work.
I have taken the shape of her hips.
Happy Fall Equinox! Happy Returning and Coming Home to the Mat!
M
