Weekly Letter: Discovering Samkhya Philosophy in an unlikely place

 *Weekly Letter is the letter I include in my weekly yoga studio newsletter.*

Sunday, I read Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. Quite a few people I know have read it and when I was in the bookstore I flipped through the first few pages to get a sense of his cadence to see if it’s a voice I can read.

Have you read this yet? His first few pages are about Charles Bukowski! A book on personal growth and we just dive into the deep end of a questionable figure who could care less, right on page one!

I mean, the f-word is on the cover so I guess I’m the idiot, right?

As I’m reading, I’m starting to pick up on his points and cant help but to see how they overlap yoga philosophy. We just had a workshop on sankalpa, and this entire book is essentially walking you though the process of how to examine your own. Instead of saying sankalpa, he was saying values.

Manson told the story of the Buddha and how he came to be.

Manson talked a lot about the risk of expelling energy on too many things and things that are not good for you (brahmacharya).

Manson highlighted pieces of Samkhya philosophy (this predates the word yoga).

It was pretty amazing to be reading this book and seeing the parallels of Eastern practices speckled with the f-word and occasional poop joke. What he is doing is making it palatable for householders and people who might bypass yoga and meditation as a viable option for themselves but find credibility with the guy who swears on the cover of his book.

To me this says that society is pivoting, but not away from yoga, away from things that are fake. Exhausting are the days of photoshop and the ‘perfect’ yoga body. Of being ‘Zen’ or ‘blissed out’ and pretending to know what that means. The tide is turning away from the fake yoga that is only happy, peaceful and for the young. The interesting things happen when we allow our humanity in. That’s when the conversation really gets rolling and where the real work is!

Let’s keep this going,

~Carmen

Weekly Letter: Swami Kripalu living his truth

*Weekly Letter is the letter I include in my weekly yoga studio newsletter.*

I recently attended a lecture about Pranakriya and how it links back to Shiva. I’ve heard this lecture before, but its been a few years and I had never heard it from this director. As I’m listening, I’m noticing new stories and details I hadn’t picked up on before.

I posed a question to the lecturer, when I realized there was a 10-year span between when Swami Kripalu’s teacher left and him taking his renunciate vows. The lecturer had mentioned he became famous quickly after taking his vows (within a couple years) I asked, ‘how did he get famous so quickly?’ This was a time (the 1930’s-40’s) before social media and most monks used their two feet to get from village to village. Word spreading quickly, was much harder to come by.

During those 10 years, Swami Kripalu had an incredibly dedicated spiritual practice. So much so, he became known for it among those he was around. A dedicated practice like his wasn’t a standard practice, this was deeper, more involved and people noticed. He wasn’t living the life of a renunciate monk during this time, he was living his life like you and I, as a householder. His occupation was writing for a traveling theatre group in the 30’s, but still, he continued to practice, to learn and to be devout to something beyond his occupation.

After Swami Kripalu took his renunciate vows, much of the rest of his life is documented with people paying very close attention to him-as his fame lent him more watchful eyes, but I’m curious about those 10 years where he defied all odds and followed a force that was clearly awake deep inside of him.

To be on this newsletter, something about yoga or the practice piqued your interest. Maybe you have yet to take a class, but you wanted to find something out about MSY that would help you decide to try a class. In my opinion, being here, reading this, your practice of yoga has already begun. The moment you realize there could be something out there for you to experience from this life, something that might answer a question or fill a void you have begun a new level of inquiry.

I invite you to sit with that inquiry and maybe write about it. Don’t worry about where the story takes you, but allow yourself some space to process it. Asking yourself questions can create new conversations that may have not been possible without dedicated attention. And maybe, these questions will guide you to your mat.

Keep asking questions,

~Carmen

Whatta December, What December?

It was a hell of a month. Which is too bad because Christmas is my very favorite time of the year. I would like to formally ask for a redo.

Some of the things that occurred I’m open to talking about and some I’m not ready to yet. Please be assured my health and relationship are healthy and intact. In fact, Levi has been a wonderful source of support.

I lost one of my best friends unexpectedly in the middle of December. And I say that with some hesitation, because for about seven years we were best friends, but that was 10 years ago. His loss asked me to take a look at our friendship and how it came into a quiet place and how friendships can do that.

In yoga, we call channels ‘nadis.’ Nadis can be vessels, arteries, our elimination system. They can be hallways or routes. They can also manifest themselves into the form of relationships. Relationships with people or experiences (i.e., trauma). Some of these channels stay open and some of them close. Maybe a person you only knew a short time and didn’t leave a big impact on you, could be an example of a nadi that closed. Whereas a person who had a profound impact on you might be a nadi that stays open or reopens.

I’ve been blessed with more friends than I ever expected to have. Walking into the hospital during his last few days and then later for the services, I was flooded with the feeling of being home again as I reacquainted with people who I knew so well for a long stretch of time. As we sat around and shared stories, I think we were all reminded of the power our friendship had and how its still alive. It was also nice to see so many people in a different phase of their lives and how they’ve changed and who they have chosen to love.

Best friends are an interesting thing that I’m sure everyone has had to reexamine at different points of their lives. How do you define your best friend? Are they always your best friend or do they get demoted? Just because you’re not as close, does that change their role? Some people come into your life and never leave, some people are only apart of your story for a short time. And others are present, but only play a big role for a few seasons and then have a reoccurring role periodically later on, like Rob Lowe in The West Wing.

Any of those descriptions are not meant to diminish the power of that friendship and in some cases, highlight the depth of its character. By opening the nadi of the relationship, you can become flooded with everything else that time or person encapsulated. The stories you shared, the names of ‘that person from the thing’ and all the other quirks and antidotes that go with them. The reason death hurts so badly, is because we are genuinely losing a part of ourselves by losing the other.

This idea is best expressed in John Donne’s poem, For Whom the Bell Tolls:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

 

If you or someone you know is struggling with alcohol abuse, SAMHSA’s National Helpline is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service (in English and Spanish) for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders. 1-800-662-HELP (4357).