Happy New Year! New Schedule, more classes, and my morning ramblings...

Good morning and Happy New Year! We're very excited to have added new classes to our 2017 winter schedule.  We are still offering the $65 unlimited monthly passes for all regularly scheduled classes. 

As B. K. S. Iyengar said - “Penetration of our mind is our goal, but in the beginning to set things in motion, there is no substitute for sweat.”  We want you all to be able to practice as much as you can and get a good sweat on.  Maybe we'll even penetrate the mind at some point ;)  No expectations though... 

One quick little thought I wanted to bring up - One must not confuse living in the present moment or the "Now" with shear selfishness.  With all the YOLO, "living in the now", seizing the opportunity, and being in the present moment stuff that comes up around this time of year, we must remember that's not an excuse to just be greedy and out for oneself.   Yes, we should be present, seize opportunities, "live in the now", whatever we want to call it, but it should never harm someone else.  When we make a decision to do something, we should look at how it effects others.  This can be done on a worldly level or a smaller, local level - maybe your work associates, friends, kids, family, partner...   If we're not proud of the decision and wouldn't want every one to know about it, chances are, it's a bad one.  If we need to contemplate whether it's the right thing to do, it may very well not be.  If it benefits us or feeds our desires but could very well hurt others, do we still consider this being present and "living in the now"?  Maybe so, but what kind of "now" is it?   And furthermore, if we're not telling everyone the whole story, then that story is a lie. 

Those are my quick ramblings for the morning.  Thoughts anyone? Who's excited to make some good for everyone decisions this year?!? 

Noah

Ram Dass lecture I just started listening to this morning!

Just started listening to this Ram Dass lecture this morning.  He gave it in 1974 after he had returned to America from India.  So far, really good.  I love listening to his experiences.  He says to read the Bhagavad Gita and put yourself in Arjuna, Krishna, Sanjaya, and Dhritarashta's shoes each time that you read it.  Good advice.  I've listened to the Gita quite a few times but haven't ever thought of doing that.  So it looks like I've got to read it another 4 times at minimal, haha.   I'll bet that adds some new understanding.  

Have any of you read or listened to any Ram Dass? What are you reading now? I attached a quick video for you to check out too.  Thoughts? Have an awesome morning!  

Also, it was suggested that we start doing a Sukha Yoga book club.  I'm down for that and would love to listen to everyone's thoughts.  I say we wait until summer and do it outside somewhere. Sound good?  

Very thankful for youtube and the internet and water and heat and...

Hey everyone!  Hope you're all having a great end of the year! Blog post #2!  For those that don't know me, I get up fairly early in the morning daily.  Doesn't matter if it's a weekend or vacation, I'm up.  Generally speaking, I'm up and alone... Something that I like to do during this quiet time is  listen to some sort of audio book, lecture, or interview that will set my tone for the day.  I've attached a short interview / talk with BKS Iyengar that I listened to this morning.  He covers a lot of different subjects.  He starts with talking about yoga and exercise, and at what point, one's exercise (asana, posture) becomes yoga.  He speaks of getting your mind to introduce the intelligence to various parts of the body.  "I'm missing the message, please go and guide" This is how he describes the intelligence reaching the different pores on the skin of the body.  As this intelligence reaches these pores, this is the meditative posture. He says until then, it is not Yoga.  I find this humbling and inspiring.   BKS Iyengar continues to answer questions for the next 28 minutes of this clip.  He covers all types of different subjects from Bhakti Yoga to art to performing the asana in a way that will interest those you are presenting to.  It's all amazing.  Take a listen / watch and tell me what you think.  

I find that listening to this type of stuff in the morning has really helped to grow my yoga practice or should I say life?  How are we bringing our yoga practice into our life?  How are we living yoga off the mat?   Feel free to comment and get some discussion going here :)

I'm not proof reading this so disregard grammar or spelling errors.  I want to get some discussion going here and I know if I wait to post, it won't happen so I write when I have the time.   This is almost like a public journal which is very interesting to me because I don't even keep a private journal or write anything for that matter, haha. 

Noah