yoga for a cause: karma weekend nov. 1-2

The Upstate Yoga community has come together for a Karma Yoga weekend: Yoga for a Cause to benefit the Harvest Hope food bank. The fall is normally a time when food bank shelves are thin, and that is even more the case now.

As the economy has worsened, we naturally turn our focus to our own lives and pocket books, and perhaps increase our fear in doing so. Doing something for others takes the perspective off ourselves in a freeing, healthy way and can develop compassion for those around us.

Several yoga studios will be holding classes the weekend of Nov. 1-2 for donations only. All proceeds will benefit those in need in our region.

Visit http://www.northmainyoga.com/ or http://www.upstateyogis.com/ for class schedules.

Thanks to the following studios for participating in the area's first joint yogi cause: North Main Yoga. 90 Degrees Yoga. It's Yoga!. Yoganize. Yoga Place

whatever it is, yoga will help

"yoga is all about renewal. . .
when depressed, yoga enlivens.
when stuck, yoga helps untangle.
when in pain, it softens the blow.
when tired, yoga refreshes.
when tight, it loosens things up.
. . .it's like returning to the void, where all things become possible again."

[patricia gray, yoga gallery]

[guest blog] liz: finding your Teacher

[note from kelly: I second everything Liz says about Max. I hope to follow in his example with my students.]

You may wonder what makes a teacher great. What is a teacher versus an instructor? What makes one teacher different from another? What makes a teacher right for you?

I have often heard when you are ready, the teacher will appear. I have been very fortunate to study with the same person for 9 years. This is something that is fairly unheard of in the West and especially this day and time. People are often seeking, seeking, seeking and find breadth over depth... That is to say they learn a little from a lot of people, rather than a lot from a few select sources.

Here is how I knew my teacher was the right one for me. It is my hope that this will help guide each of you on your path...The first sign was the way I felt after my first yoga class with Max. I had been to yoga classes for 4 years off and on and never found a teacher that I could stick with. Brian took me to Max's class one morning and I felt different, somewhat changed from a one hour and forty-five minute class. I began to go to class more frequently and then Max started to chat with me before or after class.

Eventually, he began to speak to me about how I was feeling or what was happening in both of our worlds. It was at this time that he invited me to take his teacher training. We were in the midst of studying ahimsa (non-violence or pure love) when September 11th happened. I will never forget the yoga class I took on September 12th. I knew at this time, more than any other, Max wasn't an instructor, he was a teacher, teaching us about more than asana. I became kinder, less reactive, and more aware of all of my actions and their effects on others.

When Brian and I left LA, I thought I had left my teacher. I cried about it for two years actually. Every time I went back to LA, I would cry when leaving (Max' s studio a the time) Sacred Movement. Max would ask if Charlotte was really that bad... "Well, yes and no. I have no teacher!"

I must have sounded pretty silly to Max, since he was still my teacher. Lucky for us, we opened North Main Yoga and Max has been our guest here each year. On top of that, Brian and I travel once per year to study with Max somewhere else. Each year we get to take his classes and learn more from him. Each year, his teachings reach me on a new level. When I hit a low, somehow he calls to ask if everything is alright. Whenever I feel I am ready for the next step, Max is there to teach me with something new.

This summer, I got to study with Max and his friend, Pir Zia. When I was there, Max and I spoke of how students can get in a rut practicing with the same teacher. This thought kept going through my head. How do we know if a teacher is right for us? I spoke to Max about this further when he was (in Greenville this September).

Here is what you can ask yourself: Does your teacher serve your purposes? Has your life changed as a result of his or her teachings? After a time studying with this person, are you still angry and resentful? If so, it may be time to move on. As you change, has your teacher been able to grow with you?

If you have studied with the same person for a year or more and you have not shifted, it is time for a new teacher. There is one one thing to consider as honestly as you can before changing teachers--Ask yourself if you are truly listening to your teacher. If you take class consistently, but are unwilling to listen to your teacher (for physical adjustments or emotional ones); then you may need to stay with the same teacher, but expand your mindset to include all of their instructions in your practice.

We seek out teachers with knowledge that we trust. When we don't listen to them, we are shutting ourselves off from potential growth.

We see students all the time that come from other places. They tell us how "advanced" they are, but they are the first ones to cuss when falling out of a balance pose. My favorite was a student visiting from the west coast who told us she was a fourth level ashtanga student. One day we got a voice mail with a barrage of profanity... Then another one. The third voice mail was sweet as pie, "Hi, I want to come to yoga today." It was the same woman on all three messages. I am not sure she was with the right teacher.

Take some time to reflect on why you come to yoga. Do you get what you want? Or what you need? Do you feel a shift in yourself that you take with you when you leave the yoga room? Are you a kinder person due to your yoga class? Or do you leave more arrogant then when you arrived? Does your ego take over and tell you how great you are? Do you have more humility? After thinking about these things honestly, you will know if your teacher is right for you.

[to read more of liz's writing, visit the namaste greenville site. link to the right.]

[guest blog] anna: coming home to power: manipura chakra

[note from kelly: thanks to anna ferguson for this focus. the manipura chakra is connected to many key functions, on many levels of our exisitence.]

This month, I have been focusing a great deal in my classes on the manipura chakra. Our digestion is so fundamental to our well-being and focusing on this chakra and energy in the body can help us increase our health, energy and vitality.

The Manipura Chakra. . . .Element: Fire. Color: Yellow. Verb: I can. Attributes: Power, will, energy, transformation.

Our third chakra, a yellow lotus of ten petals, is located at the solar plexus—the place where we get those butterfly feelings when we feel scared or powerless. Its element is fire—that radiates and transforms matter into energy, giving light and warmth. This chakra represents our "get up and go," our action, our will, our vitality, and our sense of personal power. Its name, Manipura, means "lustrous gem."

We can think of it as a glowing yellow Sun, radiating through the center of our body. On the physical plane, the third chakra rules metabolism, the process whereby we turn food (matter) into energy and action. Digestion troubles, stomach troubles, hypoglycemia, diabetes, ulcers, or addictions to stimulants (such as caffeine) are all related to malfunctioning of the third chakra. Weight problems may also be an indication that the body is not properly turning its matter into energy.

[To read the rest of this article, please go to: http://www.llewellynencyclopedia.com/article/254]

the only scenario in which caffeine and meditation do mix

announcing: Meditation Coffee Talk and Q&A with American Buddhist Nun, Kelsang Nyema.

when: sunday, Oct. 26, 3:30 p.m.
where: Coffee Underground [corner of Coffee and Main Street, downtown Greenville]
price: donations are welcomed to cover Nyema’s travel expenses.

more: Join American Kadampa Buddhist nun, Kelsang Nyema, for coffee and informal discussion about Buddhism, meditation, and spiritual practice. She is happy to answer any questions you have on these topics, so be sure to come with lots of questions!

even more: visit http://meditateinsouthcarolina.org/

[thanks to craig for this announcement. craig is hosting meditation sessions at NMY this fall. see the events for more information]

[guest blog] max: freedom from fear

[note from kelly: this was copied with thanks from Max's Oct. 12 newsletter. to subscribe visit Max's page to the right. the title is my own.]

"Freedom From Fear"
Warm greetings from Beijing. What a time. There have been so many world changes in only two weeks, and the extraordinary recent events in our global economy have many of us extremely frustrated and frightened. Contraction is happening quickly, even here in Beijing, the heart of the most robust economic engine in the world, factories are already closing due to a sudden decrease in demand.

When world events such as these, events outside of our control, shift suddenly and challenge our livelihood and sense of survival, we naturally feel anger, fear, and discouragement. It is situations like these that put to the test our beliefs in ourselves, our spiritual vision, and our moral fiber. Events such as these reveal who we are and what we are capable of.

As we watch our leaders fail us, anger and fear are natural responses but we must not dwell in them too long. Our anger will dissipate only when we channel that energy and begin to take action to repair and renew our circumstances. Action with a clear and ethical path replaces anger with strength, and empowers us to make the changes we need for a life richer in substance.

Fear: We tend to fear change, especially imposed change from exterior forces. In fact it could be said we most of us spend a lot of time and money creating the illusion of permanence and safety. Times like these remind us that life is more mutable than what we like to believe it is. This material life, including our very body is ever changing and impermanent.

Ultimately in this life, every one of us will lose the material form of everything - but we never lose what is truly ours. What is ours we keep eternally.

As I have journeyed through my own life, I have realized that the most wonderful and meaningful moments are connected to my heart, and not the circumstances of the day. I have had some of my most fulfilling days when I owned only a suitcase full of possessions, and have had considerable distress while living in material comfort. The external circumstances usually did not make a lot of difference on my scale of happiness.

As I look back though the past, all of my most powerful memories are all connected to either spiritual epiphanies or to love, the people I was interconnected with. The big "goals" that I set for myself as a young man fade from my memory like they were mirages, meaning less and less. True quality of life has always been determined, whether I knew it or not, by the degree of my own inner peace and my ability to love and accept love.

Once I began a daily yoga practice that cultivated these aspects, I became less interested in “self-determined circumstances of pleasure,” and more engaged and integrated with what was in and all around me. In other words, I began to let go of demanding happiness in a certain form, and began to let Providence determine the form, believing its vision of what is best for me is far superior to my own, by comparison, very narrow view.

The writer/teacher Viktor Frankle, a concentration camp survivor said a fascinating passage in his writings after World War II: “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

Today we cannot pretend to know the outcome of these global financial events. Catastrophes create new opportunities. Often when things explode in our face, they also blow open new doors. We can reinterpret this negative situation into A Wakeup Call for Action and Wisdom.
To have our courage stripped away by others is something we cannot afford to let happen. Money and property can be taken away by others, but our strength of spirit and human good is ours alone to keep or give away.

With love and brotherhood--Max

[guest blog] max strom: peace not war, unity not division

[note: this is copied from Max's latest e-mail newsletter. I find he expresses better how I am feeling lately with the unsettling current events. I trust he will not mind me borrowing.]

"Here at home all eyes are on Wall Street and the Capitol as we wait to see if our leaders will steer the course straight once again. Economically we are in a uniquely unstable time, but the roots of this instability stem from the realm of ethics, or lack thereof. I believe that the economy is ultimately ethic-driven as much as business-driven.

The Iroquois had a profound axiom they used in their governing of a nation nearly one-third the size of the USA: "In every deliberation we must consider the impact on the seventh generation... even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine."

This future-sighted wisdom resulted in a period of 500 years of prosperity and peace. In our present day government, all sense of distant vision seems to have eroded to the nearsightedness of a ninety-year old person resulting in the current economic dilemma.

The gift of living in a democracy is we have the tools as a people to quickly and deeply affect the course of the future, as we are, after all the fourth branch of the government. I encourage you to vote this November, but not only for President but for congressmen and women who are authentic. And more than that, I encourage us all to use the many options available to us to lift up leaders who are not only educated, but wise, not only speak of greatness, but like our forefathers and mothers, leaders who are so invested in their beliefs they are willing to pledge their fortunes, honor, and their very lives to see them through.

In the Presidential race tempers are flaring all around. Many people are investing themselves in dividing our nation into two camps- two kinds of people. But the practice of yoga is a practice of unity. “If it isn't unifying, it isn't yoga.”

Our challenge as yogis during this polarizing time is to resist the temptation of the “us and them” mindset, and to resist anger toward perceived enemies. This is always the case, every single day, but it is more evident during times like these. The essence of most spiritual teachings includes loving our neighbor, and also our enemies.

As practitioners of peace and unity we will vote in this election but we will not hate or demean others. We will forgive the candidate we oppose as we vote against him or her. We will vote, but not condemn.

Peace is not only the absence of war, but also a way of seeing the world, and making choices is how we express and manifest that vision of the world. In dark times, like the night sky, stars become visible and more evident. Become one. Life is full and ever amazing."
--max strom

[for more information on max, visit his page on the right under people and places. max will return to Greenville in January.]

all my classes now $5; financial assistance available if needed

My schedule has changed slightly: my saturday morning class at NMY is no longer $10. All my classes are now community yoga=$5.

Please see my schedule in detail on the right.

The North Main studio owners have said, and I just wanted to pass it on, that no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Those who need assistance will be given it. Those who can and would like to help, may contribute on behalf of those in need.

For more information or to contribute, call 241-0870.