Sept Update - Softening the Selfie - 2026 Retreat - Online begins..
Spirit Camp - July 2-7, 2026 Retreat - Registration is open!!! First come, First Serve!
September Online Yoga begins 9/3 with a monthly offering of over 14 classes on Tues, Wed and Sat Ams + Recordings. Sign up now for auto subscription (50 - One month recordings or 70 for 3 month recordings). Registration opens 9/1for drop-ins (20) or one month participation (60) Details and dates here
Article and FREE meditation below
STOP PRESS: www.maryyoga.com
9/21-26 Catalan Spa Retreat - Space available!
10/26 A Twist Immersion with Richard Rosen, Patricia Sullivan, MP at Nest Yoga/Online
11/1 12-3pm Samhain - Yoga Workshop - in Mendo County - TBC
11/7-9 Nature as Guru - Online Weekend
2026
4/22-26 Outdoor Meditation and Yoga Retreat with Kirsten Rudestam and MP
5/1-8 Gray Bear - The Language of Animacy - Retreat
7/2-7 Summer Retreat
Spirit Camp Retreat June 2025 - Join us in 2026 - We had a good time in 2025
So September is the key month for registration for our Summer Retreat in 2026. Please go to the web page to find details of accommodation, the site, our amazing chef, the schedule and intention for this type of retreat which has been so popular for so long.
“This retreat is a well whose spring feeds my movement into the future and supports what is authentic within me…..” Gia Bedell
“Summer retreat with Mary is a deep reset and recalibration….We’re held in a gorgeous natural setting in a grand redwood forest near the Mendocino coast. We feast upon the most delicious and healing foods I’ve ever had the privilege of eating. I participate year after year to remember who I really am and what’s really important.” KC Wagaman
” 5 Days of Wonder!” Previous participant
Sign up no with your deposit to save your space.
After 9/30, fees go up.
Join us at Summer Retreat 7/2 - 7/7 2026 - TO GROW!
SOFTENING THE SELFIE
One of the terms used in Buddhist meditation “Anatta” feels particularly appropriate in these times of massive egos and blinkered “truths”. It is usually translated as “not - self” and there is much discussion in spiritual worlds as to the existence or non existence of this Self, with a capital S, the conundrums of needing a self to be able to let go of a self etc. The Buddha, being endlessly practical, refused to state one way or the other but there was ample encouragement to investigate where this selfing can lead when un-examined.
Today we don’t just take photos of the world around us but we have to include ourselves; this is very normal these days and can be quite delightful and iluminating. But is it getting harder to leave our own self print on the record of our days? And is it always important to have a voice, a presence, an opinion in the worlds in which we co-mingle with other dear selfies. Ajahn Sumedho used to say that when he noticed he was thinking about himself, he became depressed! Vipassna teacher Gil Fronsdal* asks practitioners to notice the subtle and not so subtle tensions that arise around identifying, possessing, controlling and the joy and relief of letting the “I” voice take a back seat for awhile. I have noticed when I am trying to decide whether to buy a book, I will flick through the pages and if continuous paragraphs begin with “I”, it’s a helpful indication that this book is not going to be of broader interest and tends towards the narcissistic!
The simple practices of questioning and relaxing some of the identifications with our roles, our intense egoic sense of control heightened in times of turbulence and the endless songs of “Me My Mine”, can be deeply relaxing and restorative. Just coming into the present we move from a world of nouns, subject object realities - usually us as the subject! - into a universe of verbs: sensing, breathing, feeling, opening to what is right there. The Buddhist language, along with some indigenous languages, is a language of verbs. We are processes, bumbling our way among many other beings and processes. Becoming absorbed in the activity of living, letting the “doer” drop away, we can become calmer, less goal oriented and more aware of the bigger picture. Probably not great for capitalism and a “Lean-In” mentality, but definitely a more kindly, freer way to be.
Join us at Summer Retreat 7/2 - 7/7 2026 - TO PLAY! - Options and modifications always given!!
If we try and conjure up where the “self” lives, most people would consider the area around the head, behind the eyes, a few possibly the heart, as the centre of our operating systems, our commander-in-chief. As Tuere Sala** points out, this solid notion of self is deconstructed when we consider how many evolutions we have been through and how one form of who we are, dissolves and dies as we move into another stage in our life. The seed has to die to allow the plant to emerge, the flower fades to produce the fruit - so what is the essence of all this, is there a permanent core to our beings?
When we touch into the possibility of not being so defined, so rigid in how we think about ourselves or others, so attached to our various roles and stories, there is a sense of possibility, even perhaps a sweet emptiness. In yoga terms, its sometimes useful to connect the actual eyes to the “I” and explore practice where the eyes are either closed, or are asked to soften, rest back into a larger more inclusive retina of being. We are so focused on our screens, our movements forward, perhaps we can drop into our back bodies, let our eyes roam, experiment with peripheral vision in our poses. And in this way let go of the notion even of “pose” and relish “posing” with less jangly nervous systems. Who knows - we might uncover some blinkers that we were never even aware of. One of the most revelatory chapters in Mark Singleton’s book Yoga Body, was the section that discussed how the photograph has changed the way we practice yoga. The pose itself has become more defined, even copyrighted! How intriguing to speculate how different we would see our practice if we lived in a world without fixed notions of poses, and that was supported by the aural, artistic vehicles of transmission prior to this invention… We wouldn’t need to expose our prana or lululemon yoga pant labels, fight over copyrighted systems, or even just constantly seek the one and only “right” way to do the pose perhaps.
Join us at Summer Retreat 7/2 - 7/7 2026 - TO CENTER and CALM in whatever pose works for you….
The Yoga world is full of self-identified gurus, influencers, coaches, systems and traditions that require a specific type of identification or even cult like following. (Sad stories here***) Yet I would imagine the practice of yoga for many of us is about freedom; the practice of meditation also can be seen as liberation from false or confining identities, opening to the truth of now. The word nirvana comes from a word that describes how rice settles after being cooked; it is resting in its potency! I write this amid sending out a newsletter, advertising a retreat, reminding folks of the online program and other events that are part of my identity…even including Selfie photos! Ironic?! or just part of the conundrum of modern daily life. This is the way we communicate, we create community, we connect and yet it is so easy to get lost in marketing, self aggrandizement, and too much screen time! So thank you dear other being reading this, with your multiple processes, responsibilities, stories and identities, and I bow to all the yous you are and have been and wish you much ease within your selfing. If you want to see yourself more as verb than noun, you could try the meditation below. And now I am taking my “I, Me and Mine” for a little rest…… Enjoy wiser “I”s than moi, below.
*Gil Fronsdal Dharma Talk on Self and Not Self - 40mins
**Tuere Sala Dharma Talk on No Self - 53 mins
*** Breath of Fire - The tragic consequences of selfing gone bananas….- HBO Series
Softening the Selfie - MP - 25 mins Meditation
Join us at Summer Retreat 7/2 - 7/7 2026 - TO REST
I AM NOT I Juan Ramon Jimenez
I am not I
I am this one
Walking beside me whom I do not see,
Whom at times I manage to visit,
And whom at other times I forget;
The one who remains silent when I talk,
The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,
The one who takes a walk where I am not,
The one who will remain standing when I die
