07/02/10 by Vibhuti Jaya | blog | No Comments »
There is something truly transporting about giving myself over to the rhythm of some favored musical pulse. It seems to be even better when the sound is loud enough to fill the room, for then, the music possesses The Power. An enveloping sound scape can crowd out the worries that threaten to claim my tender thoughts. (This is why I recommend headphones for 20/20, so the students can connect to the interior of the shared experience). Breath connects to movement, music fuels the practice and can incite its grand crescendo.
Move! Groove! Dance to protect your thoughts! For as they say, “thoughts become things”, and we are certainly inviting and co-creating our own experiences to a large degree, aren’t we? Gabrielle Roth, with her 5 Rhythms, tells us we can sweat our prayers, and I believe her! Rolando Toro, with his Biodanza, taught us the poetry of human encounter through healing movement.
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05/12/10 by Vibhuti Jaya | chronicle | No Comments »
Herstory – Part 4
The year was 2004, and it was a time of powerful shifts and deep study. I trekked off to The Windy City (Chicago, IL) in the middle of a nineteen degree winter for yet another yoga teacher training. I ate raw broccoli, walked the streets and bathed in Aveeno to soothe my wind-chapped, oversized thighs.
I read Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, and wondered if I would die of shame"a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety" in those crowded classes, completely surrounded by perfect"being entirely without fault or defect, flawelss", glistening, head-standing, urban yogis. I was out manned, and feeling out classed, as I studied how to teach Fluid Power Vinyasa yoga. The flaxen haired goddess of the commercial yoga scene, Shiva Rea was my guide. (Undulate!)
There, I fell in love with what she called “The Bhairava”. We read from it in the afternoons and I was just seduced by its beauty and passion. Coincidentally, I am actually re-reading it now, and I’m tweeting about its contents on twitter these days. More formally, it is known as the Sri Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, (by Swami Satyasangananda Saraswati) and it is now my very favorite translation of one of India’s ancient texts.
Six (6) days and thousands of Surya Namaskars later, I went astoundingly deep, feeling my first spontaneous posture flow and seeing startling images in my mind’s eye during savasana. I had a completely transpersonal"is concerned with the study of consciousness, phenomenon, peak human potential, and bridging the spiritual with modern psychological theory" / transcendent, exceptional human experience [EHE] on the floor of Moksha Yoga’s Riverwest studio that would later motivate me to 1). Question my grasp of reality and 2). Embark upon a spiritual quest for answers.
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