Today I practiced at the Hilton on 7th Ave in NYC, site of the first-ever New York Yoga Journal Conference. Day 1:
Shiva Rea, The Yoga of Liberating Love: Open level vinyasa + live kirtan band. Shiva started with a little dharma talk about rasa, the “liquid love” of divine energy. Her bakhti (devotion) is so cogent, so palpable, that the room took on an entirely new quality after this brief introduction; what followed were two of the most moving hours of yoga I’ve ever experienced. We began with “heart salutations,” modified sun salutations with step-back, knee-down lunges & some fairly deep backbends. Shiva directed several rounds with unique additions — knee-bent virabhadrasana III (warrior III) with an optional bind — and then suddenly, BAM. The band started jamming, warm bodies were buzzing, and Shiva initiated a spontaneous “twisting kriya” that lasted a good 10 minutes and made me believe that there might just be something to kundalini after all. It was a yoga dance party, everyone free and uninhibited, feeling different parts of the kirtan rhythm, ululating & clapping, an overall expression of the true joy of yoga. When the kriya dissolved (as organically as it arose) we continued with more vinyasa, moving toward a brief backbending set (with forward-folding counterpose) and finishing with a mini-kirtan & savasana. I should note that Shiva’s assistants gave phenomenal adjustments (I got 3-4, which is really impressive considering there were 200 people in class), and Shiva herself stayed around after class to take pictures with students and answer questions. All in all, a phenomenal way to start the conference and an inspiring encounter with a true yoga great — it’s easy to see why Shiva has such a strong following.
Cyndi Lee, How to Teach Any Pose to Any Body: Anyone who knows me knows my love for OM, so it was a real no-brainer to sign up for one of Cyndi’s workshops. This is outside of the “Yoga Body Buddha Mind” canon, so I was particularly intrigued. For those of you who haven’t experienced or studied the OM methodology, Cyndi really brings a great deal of subtlety to the practice and has an uncanny ability to challenge the fundamental movements that result in asana. The gist of the workshop was that we really can teach any pose to any body/anybody by breaking postures down into their most essential movements: flexion & extension, internal & external rotation, rooting & lifting, contraction & expansion, inhale & exhale, etc. The concept is deceptively simple and utterly fascinating.
Since this was a “continuing education” seminar, we didn’t do too much Cyndi Lee-directed asana practice, but we did break into groups to choreograph warm-up vinyasas geared toward a specific “goal pose.” If you happen to stalk Cyndi’s blog, you would have known that this exercise is a key component in this particular workshop, and I was glad we had time for it even though the class was a mere 2 hrs.
Gary Kraftsow, An Emotional Journey Through the Cakras: Another CE-credited class, this was 1/2 lecture and 1/2 asana — both parts were pretty kick-ass. The lecture focused on a brief review of the origins of the modern cakra model: Vedas, sankhya cosmology, purusa & prakriti, and the 5 elements. Gary is an incredible lecturer — truly breathed new life into a topic I’ve heard discussed a million times. His Sanskrit is music to the ear, he presents his vast knowledge without any trace of pretention, and even fielded the question “is there a relationship between prana and asana?” without letting his eyes bug out of his head. My favorite thing about Gary’s lecture was his bluntness about the nature of “cakra”: “Here’s a secret. They don’t exist.” I’ve secretly been freaking out about not really feeling a deep connection to cakras, though I feel strongly about energy, visualization, and the immense power of prana. So it was really comforting and amazing to hear an expert talk about the necessity to view cakras as metaphorical sites in the body.
Yoga Journal conference: $400.00. Starbucks to keep me awake during the 2.5 hour break between 2nd and 3rd sessions: $5.00. Not feeling like a freak because I don’t feel magical energy vortices inside my body: priceless.
The asana was vini-style with interspersed sitting meditation & pranayama (breath work), and focused on bringing prana to the 2nd and 4th cakras. It was mellow, really interesting, and Gary has a subtle style of teaching that somehow manages to stay infused with energy despite his chillaxed ‘tude. L.O.V.E.
~Stay tuned for my review of Day 2: Seane Corn & Aadil Palkhivala~