Unfolding...Bhakti Yoga Series

Join me Tuesday nights
​6-7:30pm
for a Free Yoga Class.
Zoom link:
https://zoom.us/j/284954703
​

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Dear Friends,

​Today’s practice will be the 5nd practice of 9 in honor of George Floyd and our exploration of Bhakti Yoga for peace. Peace begins within and yoga has many tools to help us cultivate our own inner peace. The energy of that inner peace then radiates out to others and to our world.

This week’s theme is Krama.  Krama, in simple terms means sequence.  A predictable, sequential unfolding.  A great way to think of this is the life cycle of a plant.  Let’s use a sunflower as an example.  First there is the seed, then the first leaves, then more, more still as the sunflower begins to take shape.  Then the bud of a flower and then gradually the opening of the flower.  After a few days though the flower begins to fade, as its nutrients get transferred to its seed, the next generation of sunflowers.  The bloom is completed dried up and the plant begins to decay, but what is left are the seeds to begin the cycle again.  There is a natural, predictability of the growth process and all the wisdom that the sunflower needs to grow is contained within its seed. It doesn’t need to know what shape its flower will be or how tall it will grow because it is already contained within.  What is not contained within is whether it will be successful in its process, that is largely due to its growing environment. Is it in good soil, will it get enough light and water?  If any of these factors fail then the seed cannot mature to its fullest extent.

So I bring this up, because last week we discussed Shraddha, which is about having faith that things will work out as they need to.  Inevitably, then someone will say, well, then why bother doing anything if it is already going to ‘work itself out’.  That is where we can use the wisdom of krama.  Yes, there is a divine natural unfolding process contained within and we should trust that process, however, that process also needs nurturing. We need to nurture and support that process. Give it rich soil, good light, enough nutrition so that seed can full express its truest most brilliant self.

You are that seed. You have contained within you all that you need to know.  Trust in your own process of growth, nourish yourself, give yourself fertile soil to grow in and enough light.  It’s a combination of trust, faith (shraddha) AND krama, sequence and nurturance.

Tonight, bring your krama to class. Where are you in your unfolding?  Are you at the beginning a seed snugged deep in the dark, warm soil? Or are you ending, drying up and in a decay process, so that a new seed can begin to grow. We are constantly moving through these sequences, these kramas, these cycles. There are cycles within cycles. Your life is one krama, but within that there are several other kramas. An example would be the krama of education, or the cycle of raising children.  Within those kramas are still others, the sequential unfolding of the seasons or a day.  Within that even still smaller kramas, such as deciding what to cook for dinner, preparing, enjoying and cleaning up the dishes.  There is a wisdom to these sequences and if we nurture them well, then they can unfold and fully manifest in their most complete form.  But it’s not just nurturance it is also the shraddha, trusting that it will, given the right support, unfold as it should.

Bring your prayers.  During our centering meditation, we will have a moment at the beginning of class to share these gratitude and prayers if you’d like.  In class we will continue to chant the mantra: Lokah Samastah Suknino Bhavantu which translates as “May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.”  At the end of our asana (posture practice) I will chant this chant 108 times.  You are welcome to join me or to simply find a restorative posture and allow the vibration of the mantra to wash over you, like a sonic bath.  You can read more about chanting and this chant here. 

Dive Deep to Ascend,
Andrea