By all accounts, the Conferences team (which also includes Jenny Andrews and Casey Ruby of Yoga Journal and a number of folks from Horizon Conferences) put on a stellar week-long conference.



Great job you guys!!!

I have also learned that they have a program where they are purchasing wind-power credits through a program at Green-e to offset the pollution generated by the electricity used at retailers who sell their product.

This is an awesome expression of compassion in action... yoga.

Learn more at the PrAna website.

I was grateful this morning to see more than 30 yogis from many different yogic traditions come together with the universal intention to connect with the soul. It served as a good reminder that we may choose different paths, but we're all headed in the same direction.

By the time we finished our meditation, yoga, and chanting, the morning sky was dimly lit as the sun started to creep over the mountains. I walked to breakfast, grateful to have met the most challenging task of the day.

May your day be joyful.

She spoke of imagined disabilities--areas in which we feel inadequate or things we feel we cannot do, based on programming from multiple sources, including our parents and society. We set the intention in class to release anything, conscious or unconcscious, that keeps us from connecting with our highest potential. Or more simply, from being happy. Gurmukh reminded us of Yogi Bhajan's (the father of Kundalini yoga in the West) favorite teaching, "happiness is our birthright."

Throughout the day we completed two challenging yoga sets. Gurmukh encouraged students to push past perceived barriers in the exercises (for instance, holding the arms up for a full three minutes, rather than giving up due to the discomfort) in order to dissolve mental and emotional blocks in the body. We twisted, we laughed, we walked outside, we hugged and we danced. Even for the least touchy-feely member of the class, there was no denying the shift in energy and lightness of being that happened over the course of the day.

The yogini to my right, JoJo Field from Longmont, CO, shared with me at the end of the day. "Her classes are rigorous, both physically and mentally. But I always feel cleaned out and softer on the inside."

Softer on the inside, indeed.

A dysfunctional network connection while trying to produce a blog

OR

A remote, haunted resort hotel with "r E d r U M" written on mirrors, a hedge maze, a room numbered '217' and a mad novelist?

Most of the blog team would choose the former.

However, fellow blogger Kaitlin and I visited the historic Stanley Hotel earlier this week--the site at which Stephen King based his novel, The Shining. You may remember it as The Overlook Hotel.

We headed down the mountain from the conference site into the charming town of Estes Park on Wednesday evening to find an alternate blog spot--a location with wireless. As we were scouting, Kaitlin noticed the Stanley looming in the distance. It beckoned us like Mr. Dark in "Something Wicked This Way Comes." (Does anyone else remember being haunted by this Ray Bradbury story as a child? The film, equally haunting, was brought to us by the Darker Side of Disney. Yet, I digress...)

Even though The Shining was not filmed at the Stanley, King discovered it in 1973 and spent time in it while writing the novel.

My suspension of disbelief was pleased to see the same type of elevator and stairs as depicted in the movie. There was a scary workman on the roof, Kaitlin pointed out. And the hotel staff was kind enough to give us the 15-minute tour of the potentially scariest parts of the hotel. We took a trip to the fourth floor, which is rumored to be haunted, according to (overzealous) bellhop Amiel Yaniv. We paused outside of room 217 and heard noises inside, although Yaniv insisted he thought there were no guests assigned to the room currently.

Take a little time to visit (or stay at) the Stanley the next time you come to the Estes conference--it's actually a historic landmark and quite beautiful! I dare you to stay in room 217. (muahahahaha...)

Through the first part Gary took us through the three key elements of Kriya Yoga: Tapas--the heat which yogis generate to bring about transformation, Svadhyaya--self reflection, and Isvara Pranidhana--which I took to mean the underlying support of one's faith or beliefs. While his explanation seemed at times scholarly and abstract to me as one who struggles with yogic texts, his message was tangible and direct.

"Find out who you are and God will show up" is Gary's translation of Kriya yoga's basic message, which means pursuing elements of practice that embody meaning to each of us. It's an individual search, he emphasized, in which rote and blind dedication have no role. Asana ought not be mechanical, but pursured to find out what each and every posture has to offer. Even chanting, which Gary features in his classes, are best done individually using mantras that have personal meaning and go deep to our own heart. And of course there is meditation, which often plays a perfunctory role in the way yoga is practiced here in the U.S.

One element of Gary's message was very similar to something we've heard a lot from Mr Iyengar this week: "Hurry Up". Mr. Iyengar said that continually to us as he sensed we moved too slowly in class. Gary has a different perspective, as someone who this past year endured a life-threatening brain tumor. Answering the question "Who Am I?" is a prerequisite to transformation, and we really have no idea how long we will be given to answer it.

I look forward to reading Gary's book on this subject: "Yoga for Transformation"