We are so grateful to host an amazing team of healers and yogi’s this Sunday at Be Yoga Palo Alto for our inaugural “Pop-Up Ashram.”
The concept: everything you’d find in an ashram in India right here for you in Palo Alto. Yoga, seva, meditation, satsang…. along with our own interpretation of reiki, feng shui, naturopathy, massage. Don’t forget the chai and daal!
Hopefully by the time you leave you’ve had a little mini trip to India 
A yogi and her Freshman writing teacher come together for a workshop this May
Marjorie and Lisa met at Stanford. Lisa was a student in her first year writing
course, “Dreams and Inward Journeys.” Taking a less traditional approach to
teaching writing, the course focused on the role of the unconscious mind in the
creative process. They met again 12 years later when Marjorie walked into Be
Yoga, Lisa’s innovative popular studio in downtown Palo Alto. This encounter was
significant in both of their lives. For Lisa, it meant the world to have Marjorie’s
support and happiness at her success: Lisa knew Marjorie understood the
challenges and joys of making your dream come true. Marjorie came to Be Yoga
work on her yoga practice as she has been integrating yoga and writing in her
teaching and writing. They bonded realizing that both were exploring the creative
potential of a traditional discipline. This meeting developed into a working
friendship, each valuing one another’s talents. They’ve come together to teach
a unique workshop that presents Marjorie’s deep belief in the value of yoga for
opening up a writer’s heart and mind through the body and Lisa’s experience of
yoga as a tool for self expression and creativity.
They hope you’ll attend the “Yoga, Writing and the Body” workshop on Sunday may
19th at Be Yoga Palo Alto from 4-6.00 pm. This workshop is intended to gather yogis,
writers, and those interested in creative expression and will offer a framework
that shows how in looking inward the mind can find not yet realized ideas. The
workshop will provide tools and practices to help participants experience how yoga
and writing, both artistic processes, compliment each other allowing creativity to
blossom in unexpected ways.
Information on the course is available on the Be Yoga website.
In recent years psychologists have become interested in studying wisdom. Their conceptions of wisdom relate to excellence and high levels of functioning. Included in this list is also reference to compassionate feelings toward others. “Wisdom involves good intentions. It is used for the well-being of oneself and others.”
Wisdom is incomplete without compassion. According to the Dali Lama, compassion is wisdom. – there is no distinction between the two. This implies that how we relate to others is integral to enlightenment. Day-to-day living expresses enlightened wisdom in action. Enlightenment is not a solitary experience; it happens in the middle of relationships. Open yourself in the right way to your relationships and you will find lessons revealed in every interaction, each one helping you develop.
Exercise 1) Opening Yourself to Learning - Sit quietly and allow yourself to reflect on how fortunate you are to be alive as a human being in a position to learn. “Motivational Quotes on Overcoming Adversity – In every situation is potential value. Believe this, then begin looking for it.” (Norman Vincent Peale). If you think you have deficits and disadvantages, consider them in relation to one who has less, or compare them with your dog.. who hasn’t the mental physical emotional abilities you have. Try to understand how you are uniquely endowed with the aptitude to learn. Recognize that, as a human being, you are capable of turning away from the negative and toward the positive.
“I never decide whether it’s time to retire during training camp.” – Bob Christian
What is death? In the western world we think of it as a flat-line.. a shutting down of life processes in our physical bodies. For some, death is being delivered to ultimate and absolute peace. Tibetans, however, think of this as a somewhat shortsighted perspective. Tibetans believe this consciousness continues after death.. enter stories of those who have “died” seeing white light or reviewing life as if in a flash. Tibetans have developed a science of death, exploring inner consciousness just as scientists explore the outer world.
Tibetans view birth, life, and death as an ongoing continuum. Life is a between – the time we spend between birth and death. The cycle continues with another between period lasting from death to rebirth. This continuum is very real to Tibetans and they offer an interesting argument as to why they believe this is so. Few if any (and by science likely none) of us are truly able to remember our birth.. yet we are absolutely certain that we were born. For Tibetans, by the same token we are likely not able to recall our rebirth. So why are we all so certain that we have not been reborn? Just because we don’t remember our time between death and rebirth doesn’t mean these period doesn’t exist.
And here’s the best part about Tibetan (and all) Buddhism. Deeply woven into their philosophy.. take what feels right, leave the rest. They don’t force their view of rebirth upon you. They don’t need to bother with whether you subscribe. Buddhists simply offer their teachings.
Tibetan Buddhism teaches that people can begin to master cyclical existence by developing the proper attitudes about death. One of the most famous work on this subject, Great Exposition of the States of the Path to Enlightenment (Lam Rim chen mo) was wrtiien by Tsong Kha Pa (1357-1419) explains how to achieve enlightenment. The section on how to face death is an excellent guide for how to live your life today…
We are all certain we will die, yet most of us try not to think about it. Still, increasing our awareness of inevitable death is crucial to helping us to live well. When we remain fully aware that this life is a time-limited endeavor, our attitude changes. We appreciate as it happens and we tend to make better use of the time he have before us. As Tsong Kha Pa said: “Therefore, the prejudice that one will not die is the source of all trouble, and the antidote to that – that mindfulness of death – is the source of all that is marvelous.”
As Easter Sunday and Passover are swirling in the air.. It is satisfying to remember that all we need to do today is value the life that is present and to make the most of it.
“If you constantly contemplate death, your mind will turn toward spiritual practice, your strength to practice will be renewed, and you will see death as uniting yourself with absolute truth.” -Tibetan teaching
In recent months Lady Gaga has come to occupy my attention. The more I’ve come to understand her, the more she inspires me. She’s weird, and independent, funky, and low key, and totally outside of the norm. I kind of secretly love her. I think as a younger version of Madonna.
Gasp.
Before we go any further – let’s together understand the landscape of scantily clad sometimes blonde pop icons. Enter Britney Spears, kind of amazing.. eons away from Madonna in her pop icon status. Madonna actualized her own name, lifestyle, and culture from nothing. Madonna literally created a new way of thinking, and feeling, and experience when everyone was watching the Cosby Show or some such nonsense. Admit it, “Like a Virgin” was a teensy bit surprising when you heard it… or maybe that was “Like a Prayer” or “Justify my Love”… the list goes on. Madonna is a cultural icon because of her ability to impact society in a free thinking, open minded, yet meaningful way. Return to our alternative; Britney. Britney is hot and cute and sexy… she make millions. When the photographer catches her in the right light, we can see first hand how Hollywood manufactures pop. Damn. Still amazingly fun and easy to listen to and sing along… Gimme More. Good Job LA.
My Thesis: There are things that deep within our soul make us come alive, then there’s the commercials.. the static-filler-nonsense.
My Question: If you could be the best version of yourself in your life, what would that be?
…write it down..
keep writing….
Write some more!
This is kind of a big deal.
Awesome.
Now, go and do EVERYTHING in the next 4 weeks of your life informed by your writing and your own vision. Every morning when you wake up, revisit that writing, allow it to influence your decisions and actions in each day.
You are responsible for your own success and sense of fulfillment in life. Dream big and go 200% i the direction of that dream. Creation in itself is the essence of why we are alive.. Your ability to pursue your own dream is going to change your life. Lady Gaga and I promise.
Tantra functions to transform all pleasures into the transcendental experience of deep penetrative awareness. Tantra is unique in that it emphasizes that it is much more effective for human beings to enjoy themselves and channel the energy for their enjoyment into a quick and powerful path to fulfillment and enlightenment. This is the most skillful way toward using our precious human potential.
Through its methods of transformation tantra demonstrates that, as human beings, we have the capacity to enjoy 
limitless, blissful happiness while at the same time remaining free of the delusions that normally contaminate our pursuit of pleasure. In Tibetan Buddhist philosophy -contrary to what some might believe- there is nothing wrong with having pleasures and enjoyments. What is misplaced is the confused way we we grasp onto these pleasures, turning them from a source of happiness into a source of pain and dissatisfaction. The problem arises from grasping and attachment, not the pleasures themselves… deep breath …if we can free ourselves from our habitual grasping, we could enjoy ourselves as much as we want without any of the hang-ups that usually arise in our mundane search for pleasure.
Meditation and yoga practice can lead us to a more complete understanding of transformation, whatever we do, every second of every day has the potential to bring us closer to our goal of totality and self-fulfillment. All of our actions – breathing, yogaing, eating, sleeping.. yada yada… can be brought into our path of self- development. Even our sleep, which is usually spent in unconsciousness or chaos of dreams, can be turned into the clear light experience of subtle, penetrating wisdom.
Sound impossible? Not at all:) Other more graduated spiritual approaches, including those of the Sutra path of Buddhism, stress that desire, jealousy and the other delusions of our daily life are always impure and should be treated as such. The super cool thing about tantra, it takes a different approach- Although it also insists that delusions such as desirous attachment are the source of our dissatisfaction and suffering and therefore must be overcome, it teaches skillful ways skillful ways of using the energy of these delusions to deepen our awareness speed our spiritual progress. Just as those who are trained to take poisonous plants and turn them into powerful medicine, so too can the skillful and well trained tantric practitioner harness and transform energy or anger and desire toward progress. This is absolutely possible.
“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision.” -Ayn Rand, was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter.
In many regards the spiritual path is described as a path towards one’s own fulfillment. Yes. As we come to understand that our usual way of relating to desirable objects has been keeping us in a circle of perpetual dissatisfaction, we also become more and more motivated to access some other part of our existence. For some, we seek to activate a deep level of understanding of our BE-ing.
We arrive for our yoga practice to experience a type of peace and happiness that is stable and reliable, unruffled by changing circumstances and unchanged by passage of time. But even this is not the end goal.. Why? We are primarily concerned with our own welfare. Concern for our own happiness, while essential, is narrow. It makes it impossible for us to realize the vast potential of our human mind and heart.
Question: Why are you drawn to practice yoga? If the answer has anything to do with the welfare of just one being– yourself — your body, your mind, your sense of purpose… Then, even though these are essential and noble causes, the challenge is clear: you must dig deeper. If your yoga practice is only driven by a need to self realization, self discovery, and self actualization, this extremely restricted view opens our bodies but causes our hearts to close. Even if we do not say so consciously, it is as if we feel, ‘I am the most important person in the world. The problems that others have are of no concern to me; it is only my happiness that counts.’
As long as we remain so tightly focused on our own happiness, whether temporal or ultimate, we are stuck in an ‘Us vs. Them’ game of not having enough money, resources, time or love to go around… Its a bummer to get stuck in this space for too long. Especially if you’ve gotten so far as to arrive on your mat for a consciously dedicated practice towards personal growth and evolution. Deep down we all know life is a big, full, awesome space where there is more than enough for all of us… if we choose to accept it.
Panchen Lama says in his tantric text: “Self cherishing is the cause of all misery and dissatisfaction, while holding other sentient beings dearer than oneself is the foundation of all realizations and knowledge.” Hmm. Self-cherishing.. To check-in with whether our own self worship is the cause of all confusion and frustration all we need to do is look at our own life’s experiences. Check-in carefully.. the ‘Me.. Me.. ME’ focus makes it clear that narrow selfishness always leads to disappointment. From there it becomes powerfully clear that open-hearted dedication to others brings about happiness and a sense of well-being.
Today’s task: Do one thing that is for its own sake ‘Good’ and beyond You. Step back, take a deep breath.
Notice how that feels. Take a few moments out of your day to soak it in.
Yes… Out of your head and beyond your ego. Into your body. Then deeper down into your soul.
“You get rewarded in public for what you practice intensely in private.” – Tony Robbins
