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San Francisco 2006 - Conference Blog
August 29, 2007 by Alan Zucker
January 18, 2006 by Andrea Kowalski
Thank Krishna that Monday's intensive on the Eight Limbs of Yoga began with Shiva Rea giving us permission to relax and catch what is relevant to us. "You will only retain a drop, but a drop that is very potent," she advised. We were relieved— there was a lot to catch in an 8-to-5 day on the yoga mat, in the presence of three awesome teachers: Shiva, Rodney Yee and Gurmukh.
Shiva's job was to elucidate the first two limbs, the yamas and niyamas, which she did beautifully.
She talked extensively on ishvara pranidhana, or offering everything we do back to the Source. She talked about her first year of teaching, 15 years ago. She was so nervous, she said, that she had "Spongebob Knees," and the only thing that saved her was ishvara pranidhana. When she offered her teaching back to the source, it kept her focused and got her through.
She offered the same advice to anyone faced with the challenges—whether it is teaching a roomful of yoga students or negotiating a big contract. When we freak out and think we can't do it—that's the time, she said, to offer it back to the Source.
"Connect back to the moment of inspiration that started you down the path...that pause of memory, of gratitude, is huge." The reflection serves to create space around the neuroses that has you feeling so incompetent. And the practice of offering to the Souce can be done with anything in life: eating, cooking, taxes, and business.
Shiva asked us to reflect internally on our own personal relationship with the some of the yamas and niyamas, then to offer any behaviors we wish not to keep back to the source.
Ahimsa: Not Harming. Think of ways you have been unkind in action. How can you transform violence to benevolence?
Satya: Truth. What are the ways we've been in denial or not relaying 100 percent of the truth? What are the lies we tell ourselves and the lies we tolerate in the world?
Asteya: Not Stealing. What are the ways we're borrowing from future generations? (Can you instead replenish?)
Bramacharya: Right use of sexual energy. What are the ways we neglect or abuse our sexual energy?
Apariraha: Non-greediness. How do we degrade things, instead of blessing them?
Sauca: Purity. How are we creating internal or external toxins?
Santosha: Contentment. Are we content?
After a discussion with a partner on which yama or niyama is most relevant in our lives right now, we wrote a sankalpa, or resolution of awareness, then concluded the class with 18 sun salutations.
Next came Rodney Yee to teach the asana and pranayama portion of the Eight Limbs.
posted by Andrea Kowalski and Kaitlin Quistgaard
January 18, 2006 by Andrea Kowalski
"The beginning of learning is ignorance," Rodney Yee counseled as he began his talk on asana and pranayama, the third and fourth limbs of yoga. "Get used to saying 'I don't know.' How do you come to life as an empty vessel, so that every vibration is penetrating you? We don't want to be anesthetized any more."
The Yamas and Niyamas offer a mirror in which to look at yourself, he said, and asana is a practical way to embody them. Asana is a way of cleansing the body so that 'when the bell rings, it will shake you,' he said. He went on to explain that running or doing 108 sun salutations offers a gross cleansing, while pranayama offers a subtle cleansing.
He led us through a mini-practice, which he said he learned from Ramanand Patel, to enliven the legs and hips.
Dandasana (Staff Pose)
Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose)
Upavishta Konasana (Wide Angle Seated Forward Bend)
Ardha Navasana (Half Boat Pose)
Baddha Konasana
Dandasana
We held each pose for a breath and kept moving.
Later, as we moved into a more traditional asana practice with a number of standing poses, Rodney reminded us to "Practice 'I don't know."
"Why don't we fall over in every pose?" he asked. "If we go to the point where we don't know, we probably will fall over. Children, when they learn yoga, they fall over a lot more than we do. So, get out of your comfort zone and get into the place where you don't know—see what that does for your yoga practice and for you."
We practiced Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose) and Rodney asked us to practice it with a sense of discovery, not fearing or condemning the risk of falling. We then practiced Tadasana (Mountain Pose) with the same inquiry, and tried to play with the risk of falling out of the pose.
The key to pranayama, Rodney told us, is relaxation. "Learn how to do Savasana [Corpse Pose] in every moment of your life. Once you've mastered that—5 or 10 years into your asana practice—you'll be ready to learn the breathing practices." Nevertheless, he did lead us through a gentle breathing practice of long inhales and exhales.
Next came Gurmukh, to teach Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi.
posted by Kaitlin Quistgaard and Andrea Kowalski
photo credit: Todd Semo
January 18, 2006 by Andrea Kowalski
Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa's class at the end of the day was kind of like an Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, minus the acid. As we shook our legs at a 60-degree angle to some wildly tropical rhythm, Gurmukh whispered, "Just three more minutes. Go! Go! Go!" My classmates whooped and giggled under the sparkling faux crystals and mirrors of the hotel ballroom's mega chandeliers, my mind finally stopped trying to lower my aching legs, and I felt a sense of otherworldliness and presence and community, all at once. Maybe it was the euphoria that comes from an unrelenting physical activity, or maybe it had to do with the group energy. It was fun, and it did quiet my mind!
Gurmukh spoke of the yogic habits recommended to achieve the remaining four limbs of yoga: pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditative absorption) and eventually samadhi (oneness, integration). She stressed the necessity of rising early in the morning, before sunrise, taking a cold shower, then doing sadhana, or morning meditation. She also reminded us of the importance of being a vegetarian (not taking the energy and adrenaline of an animal's death into our bodies) and the importance of service.
"Serve and you will be served,": she advised. "Your happiness lies in serving. I don't care who you are—it's the law!"
I particularly loved the final meditation, during which we all moved to the periphery of the room—a couple hundred yogis sitting knee to knee, holding hands. Listening to a Sanskrit mantra, chanted over and over, we moved our hands up and down, "riding the waves of the Ganges" so that we became almost like one living, breathing organism. My own body felt as if it was rowing a boat, one side tilting forward, then the other, as I moved with the disparate rhythms of my neighbors. So many hands, clasped together, moving up and down, back and forth: We became one. This was the experience of Samadhi (the eighth limb) that Gurmukh had wanted us to find.
posted by Kaitlin Quistgaard and Andrea Kowalski
January 18, 2006 by Andrea Kowalski
Yoga scholar Carlos Pomeda demystified the Bhagavad Gita for us on Sunday, translating the profound and sometimes-cryptic teachings into practical wisdom.
Most useful was Pomeda's discussion of Karma Yoga as described in the Gita.
Karma Yoga is the yoga of action. "Everything you do can be a form of yoga," he reminded us. "From the moment we wake up, every intention, every thought, every word and every action generates karma."
A good reminder, I thought, but eek— that's huge! What about when karma piles up—what to do?
Pomeda read my mind. One solution, he said, is to renounce the world to avoid creating more karma. (Incidentally, Pomeda was a monk for 18 years). Uhhh...I would consider the monastery, but I have another 10 years of grad school loans to pay off first, I rationalized to myself.
Thankfully, though, the Gita says renunciation isn't necessary if you can be skillful in your actions. (phew!)
So what exactly does 'skillful' mean?
According to Pomeda's translation of the Gita, it means you can learn to act in a way as not to generate additional karma. In a nutshell:
Karma Escape Tips
1) Focus on your actions, not the results: don't act as if there is any guarantee that what you do will generate a specific result.
2) Evenness is yoga: become centered, then act
3) Practice detachment: not indifference, but unattachment
4) Act from your Higher Self
5) Perform acts of service to become freed from selfishness
As a bonus, here are some other yogic nuggets of goodness I gathered from the talk:
You are not the activity you do, you are the Knower.
Meditate for at least one hour at a time to give your mind time to unwind.
To see divinity is to see god in everything: Affirm the presence of the Divine wherever you see it.
For more wisdom from Pomeda, check out "The Wisdom of Yoga," his new lecture series on DVD. For a review of the series, see Richard Rosen's review in the February issue of Yoga Journal.
January 17, 2006 by Alan Zucker
 Now that the conference has ended and attendees are moving back into their daily lives, it seems like a good time to recap Rodney Yee's "Home Practice" workshop.
My teacher, Jason Crandell, has consistently reminded me that the benefits of yoga asana practice are maximized through coming to the mat on a daily basis. 
Yet, in our lives, full of activity and distraction, many of us fall into avoidance. We begin to view our daily practice as yet another chore that we must drag ourselves to do.
Rodney spoke to this, encouraging us to change our perspective by crafting a practice that is not prescribed from any outside authority, but is informed by that which our inner-selves are driven towards. He said that many of us who have difficulty with getting to the mat are probably stuck because we feel that there is a certain sequence of poses that must be done in order to be able to check "do daily practice" off our daunting to-do lists.
Continue reading "Arriving to your Home Practice" »
January 16, 2006 by Alan Zucker
In an earlier post, Senior Editor Kaitlin Quistgaard described how Gary Kraftsow had been teaching svadhyaya (self study). "Figure out who you are," Gary said, "then decide for yourself where to put your attention." 
In the afternoon portion of today's all-day intensive, Seane Corn expanded on the same theme. Using the Chakra system as a map to self study, she demonstrated how to identify where we might find blockages, resistance and judgement impeding our self-actualization and hampering our actions in the world.
In this video Seane beautifully concludes her "Spiritual Activism: Cultivating Awareness through Intuition, Mysticism, and Yoga" workshop. Click to watch video.
The yoga of action, or Karma Yoga, will be one of topics covered in our ongoing Yoga Journal blogs. Be sure to check this space, or subscribe to our newsletter, to stay abreast of the dialog. If you have a topic that you would like to see covered or have any comments, please feel free to send me an email.
Photo Credit: Todd Semo
January 16, 2006 by Erica Rodefer
I had a breakthrough today. For the first time in three years of yoga practice my feet lifted up when I tried to go into Bakasana (Crane Pose). Granted they only stayed up for a brief five seconds, but it's the small progressions that drive me to keep trying. As I've heard so many times this weekend: that's why they call it practice.
This was my first Anusara class, and it really opened my eyes to the mechanics of a lot of different poses. I really had no idea what a huge difference opening through of the chest and the could make in almost every pose. I've had teachers who have preached moving the shoulder blades back onto the back, but I think I needed a whole day of practice with this to get a sense of how dramatically it can improve not only the way poses look, but also how they feel. No wonder I've had such problems with my shoulders and neck throbbing at the end of a stressful day. Even though yoga has improved that area, I think that this one, simple act of opening my heart throughout my practice could finally put an end to my troubles--or at least help me deal with them more efficiently.
The idea of opening the heart is a nice thought taken figuratively, too. Life is a lot easier if we open our hearts to new experiences, new people, new places, and even new styles of yoga. When we open our hearts during asana, it makes our bodies more flexible. We can arch our backs more in Cobra and Wheel. When we open our hearts in life, it could help us be more flexible, and better at living. The more you put yourself in situations that make you feel a little uneasy, the better you'll get at dealing with those situations.
I'm hoping that will be my experience with Bakasana (Crane Pose), too. As cliche as it sounds, you never know what you're capable of if you don't try. I've avoided trying it for three years, but when I opened my heart, my feet floated away from the floor. And if I hadn't gone to Sianna Sherman's all-day intensive today, I would've missed out on a lot more than that.
January 16, 2006 by todd jones
Hatha yoga could be defined as 'the yoga of the will,'" Manouso Manos tells us near the beginning of our afternoon pranayama session. "In asana practice, as you saw this morning, you exercise your willpower strongly."
Pranayama is also usually considered part of hatha yoga, says Manouso, but the use of will in pranayama practice is almost the opposite of the way we exercise it in asana. In pranayama, we learn how to back away from the forceful application of our will and instead surrender to our internal experience.
"Pranayama is not so much a doing as an observing," Manouso continues. "It's much more like receiving than like giving."
In keeping with this insight, Manouso's instructions in this pranayama lesson focus much more on the architecture of our reclining and sitting pranayama postures than on the mechanics of the breathing. In fact, Manouso says, "The act of sitting properly will teach you the breath." The instructions he does give us about the method of breathing consist almost entirely of demonstrating how to remain within the easy, full movement of the breath, rather than overdoing either the inhalation or the exhalation.
"When you do pranayama properly," Manouso insists, "you should feel that all the nerves of your body are being soothed."
Photo credit: Todd Semo
January 16, 2006 by todd jones
How many yogis and yoginis does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
I don't yet have a punchline for that joke—let me know if you come up with a good one—but after the Saturday night trance dance at Yoga Journal's San Francisco conference, I can tell you it only takes a few hundred of us to rock the foundations of a sturdy high-rise downtown hotel.
We started with an hour of the tight, soaring vocal harmonies and radiant devotion of Suzanne Sterling's group of kirtan singers, and then moved on through Shiva Rea's brief prana yoga invocation of the infinite forms of the god/goddess through breath, sound, and movement.
By then we were ready to tear up the dance floor for another two sweaty hours, whirling and writhing and leaping to the beats of DJ Dragonfly.
In India, the transcendent, liberating practices of yoga are often contrasted with the entrapping worldy experiences of sensual pleasure, collectively called bhoga. But in some Tantric traditions, it's understood that all experience is sacred; yoga is present at the core of everything, including bhoga. We can strive to touch liberation in and through all our experiences, including sensual bliss and ecstasy.
And on Saturday night several hundred of us tried our best to do just that!
January 16, 2006 by todd jones
"Yoga is about the now," said Manouso Manos, one of the most senior teachers in the lineage of renowned master B.K.S. Iyengar. Of course, Manouso said, there are lots of more immediate reasons we practice—to clear our minds and to recover from injuries, for instance. But underneath all these is the attempt to still what the Indians call the "monkey mind," our tendency to skp ahead to the future or look back into the past—indeed, to do anything but remain simply absorbed in the present.
Like Mr. Iyengar himself in his recent teachings, Manouso consistently reminded us to look through the lens of physical practice toward this larger, deeper perspective. Skillful action in asana, he said, is attained when we accomplish this absorption into the present. In a way, our task in yoga practice is to allow the pose instructions, whether they come from our teachers or our memories of past classes, to bypass the brain and go straight into the body, creating this absorption.
Yet, paradoxically, it is the minutiae of instruction which helps us do that, as Manouso's class so amply demonstrated. When we successfully implement the details of alignment and action which Iyengar has spent decades exploring and articulating, our bodies attain an ease even in the midst of work; they're no longer clamoring for attention. At the same time, the mind is completely engaged, unwaveringly absorbed into creating the form of the pose.
Continue reading "Come Into the NOW" »
January 15, 2006 by Alan Zucker
 Today, conferernce faculty member and widely beloved yoga teacher Ana Forrest demonstrated to a packed house a wonderfully choreographed sequence of asana poses.
Ana is working on creating a DVD of this demonstration. In the meantime, you can check out this video clip from today's demo. (if the video demo is not working, you may need to download the latest version of Macromedia Flash.)
For more about Ana, visit www.forrestyoga.com.
Photo Credit: Todd Semo
Video Credit: Alan Zucker
January 15, 2006 by Alan Zucker
 Lisa Maria, a local writer who writes about yoga for Common Ground magazine, describes the inspiration that many felt after watching Ana Forrest's Asana Demonstration by saying that Ana is "a walking miracle."
Watch the clip here.
Video Credit: Alan Zucker
January 15, 2006 by Erica Rodefer
Until today I thought my hobbies--crocheting, cross stitching, sewing (I've mastered sewing in a straight line), and knitting (even though I just learned how over Christmas)--made me seem kind of like a grandmother trapped in the body of a 22-year-old. But now that I've heard the infamous Cyndi Lee and dozens of other yogis talk about their love for knitting, I'm going to be more open when people ask me what I like to do on the weekends.
Anything as meticulous and time-consuming as knitting can be a form of therapy. At least it is for me, and a lot of other yogis seem to agree. After a short, restorative yoga class, a group of ladies of all shapes, sizes, and ages circled to either learn how to knit or share their expertise.
"It's not zen. It's not yoga. It's knitting." Cyndi said. "Of course if you do yoga, yoga is a part of everything you do."
That was one of the most profound statements I've heard all weekend and certainly something that I related to. Everyday I'm learning how to incorporate the practice of yoga into my day-to-day life. That means when I do something that I find difficult--like trying to learn to knit two weeks ago from a how-to book--I stop and take a few deep breaths. I'm learning that struggling with anything only makes things harder whether it's knitting, yoga, or a recipe my mom sent me for one of my favorite dishes. Life is one project after another so you might as well enjoy the process.
January 15, 2006 by Andrea Kowalski
 If Neo and Trinity were yogis, their slow-motion fight scenes would look much like what Seane Corn demonstrated in class yesterday.
The room was silent, save for the sound of Seane's breath. Full of fluidity and control, Seane was oblivious to the laws of gravity as her body seemed to float from pose to pose. The time it took for her to move from Uttanasana to Plank was beyond amazing.
The scores of yogis sitting in front of her were still in awe as she finished the flawless routine, then took a seat and a gulp of Starbucks. A unique blend of grace and irreverance, The Jersey girl's preamble to the demonstration involved a confession that she had just woken up 10 minutes prior to class, and 'does anyone have a hair thingie?'
Seane proceded to outine both the virtue and the dangers of vinyassa flow. She likes the style for the flexibility it lends to her practice and to her teaching. "There's no dogma, no teacher, and no leader—as long as I'm teaching breath, I can pretty much do anything I want," she said.
She's also drawn to vinyassa for the innate beauty of the breath. "Vinyassa practice with intention and breath can become a journey that opens your heart to the world around you," she said. "When you use your body to pray, the world changes."
However, the potential for injury is an issue in vinyassa flow, Seane said. Teachers have trouble sacrificing the pace of the class to correct students' incorrect poses. So correct alginment is the responsibility of each stduent. A tip for students to remember? Stability over flexibility is the key. "Don't exploit areas of flexibility," she advised, "and honor your lung capacity."
Photo Credit: Todd Semo
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