spanda – Generous Wisdom

Yoga Comes to You

Yoga comes to you when you need it. It’s like a fine fuel, my teacher said;
it can last for months, getting you through the hardest moments.

The Yoga exists in service to you, my next next teacher said;
We do not live in service to yoga, configuring ourselves into shapes.

No, the shapes come to us, the way fog seems to drop down out of the sky,
the way it comes together, level with the earth,
the way it pillows on the blades.

It is a way we move like babies in the womb and outside the womb,
the ways we pandiculate upon waking.
It is a way we notice we’re breathing and unbreathing.

Writing is like this, coming to us the ways leaves come,
budding out of branches, soft and bright,
falling off the trees, hard and true.

They are connected, this moving and writing;
they are expressive of our natural ways of being –
attentive, expansive, budding out of ourselves
the prana flowing upward and downward, toward and away from, in and out,

a fine fuel pulsing soft and bright, hard and true, inside, outside,
expanding and contracting, the spanda, the life.

Don’t you feel you would die if you didn’t write,
my teacher asked me,
like you can’t breathe?

What is it to feel full, to feel empty?

I woke this morning and realized I haven’t felt like my true self for months.
Has my yoga not lasted long this time, this phase of circling the sun?

Is it only in contraction, my yoga, my writing, getting ready to burst from the world into the world? Can I not breathe? Am I not breathing? Am I unbreathing? Is this what it is to die and to be dying? An unknowing? An arresting of the pulse, a cessation of the turnings of the mind stuff? Is Yoga the end of this iteration of me?

Do my words fall hard and true, having lived their time insulated deep in the cortex of my life, swaddled and fed by the sensations of opening and closing, stretching and squeezing, the spanda coming to me, in service to me, rising like sap ascending from my roots to the tips of my tree?

___

I feel the July fog around my skin this morning while the pillows of dew break against my toes.

All of life falling and rising, coalescing and dissolving, expanding and contracting, and me, noticing, playing yoga the way we cover and uncover our eyes, peek-a-boo-ing with oneness.

Bird Wings, Rumi, and Spanda Yoga

Dear Yoga Friends,

Important concepts and qualities of many contemplative paths are often described through the metaphor of bird wings. I have received the teaching of wisdom & compassion as two practices that lift a student out of suffering. They are both necessary, and the practitioner cannot fly without access to both.

A few days ago I was reading a translation of Rumi’s poetry by Maryam Mafi and Azima Melita Kolin, and I found this gem:

Seeker, when you feel your soul contracting
know it is for your own good
allow not your heart to burn with grief.
In times of expansion you spend
and this expenditure requires
an income of painful soul searching.
If it was always summer, the roots would burn
and the gardens would never become green.
Winter seems bitter but it is also kind.
When contraction comes, my friend,
behold the expansion within
be cheerful, do not complain.
The eyes of a child are fixed on the wants of now
while the eyes of the wise see to the end.
When you close your mouth
another one will open, seeking nourishment
in the mysteries of Spirit.
The sugar of sensual joy
is the fruit of the garden of sorrow
this joy is the wound, the sorrow is the plaster.
Learn to embrace sorrow
look straight at its face and joy will reappear.
All action sways between contraction and expansion
both as important as the opening and closing
of the wings of a bird in flight.

I’d read this collection before, and so I found my own annotations and underscores. This one touched me deeply:

“All action sways between contraction and expansion, both as important as the opening and closing of the wings of a bird in flight.”

My brain sparkled with connections, synthesizing everything I’ve read, heard, absorbed, and experienced throughout my yoga journey over the last 27 years – breath – movement – and spanda reverberated in my mind: Spanda – the divine vibration – the life force – the song of the sacred tremor of creation – the pulse of existence. Yes – All of THAT.

This made me feel like it’s time I pass some things along: the experiences I know of Tandava and the joys of courageous freedom. And, as Rumi says, “While still in the cage of your being behold the spirit bird before it flies away.”

I hope you’ll join me on the journey with wisdom and compassion as our guides:

Spanda Yoga Exploration

(There WILL be a playlist!)

Beginning Tomorrow! Spanda Yoga Exploration Inspired by Rumi

In ancient yoga tradition, Spanda is the pulse of life, the sacred tremor of consciousness. This four week series will explore the miracle of the breath and the flow of circular, unfolding movement as the foundation and manifestation of the pulse of our life experience. The intention of our practice is to cultivate a playful, enlivened spirit, unafraid of freedom.

Each class will explore a spectrum of subtle to large movement, miraculous breathing, tandava (yoga dance), and deep rest. There will be time for reflection, questions, and a discussion of how to allow our practices to manifest “in real life.” Chairs will be available to adapt movements to suit your needs. No prior yoga experience is necessary. Everyone is welcome.

4 Week Series
Sept. 9 – Sept. 30
7:00 -8:30pm

For more information and to register, please visit the class offerings page by clicking the button below: