Satya

Satya
By Nikki Jaya Prock

Satya, or truthfulness, is the second Yama in the Eight Limbed Path. The Yoga Sutras state, “When the practitioner is firmly established in the practice of truth, his words become so potent that whatever he says comes to realization.” In studying satya in my life I have found there are three stages of awareness. The first stage is external, observing speech and actions. The second stage is the internal awareness, looking at thoughts and defining truth. The last stage of satya is when action, speech, and thought align and our truth becomes all there is.

At first the practice of truthfulness feels almost elementary. It starts by observing and evaluating external actions. We can begin to look at speech on a surface level. Am I purposefully lying to someone? Am I making something up? Do my words match my actions? These questions may serve as reminders in our daily lives of the power of our words to create our reality and how we may use them to manipulate others. Sometimes it is best to stay silent to really observe how the words you speak actually affect the situation.

The second stage of satya is when we look into what is going on under the obvious outer layers. By examining our thoughts we can see where there are inconsistencies between what we are thinking and what we believe to be true. In this stage it is important to consider what our underling truth is. What do we want to create in our life? What would that look like? After establishing and visualizing our ideal truth, we move into training the thoughts to align. The thoughts are the root points to how we are living and creating our lives. Establishment of truth only comes with an absolutely honest mind.

Moving from gross awareness into more a more subtle stage, our actions, speech, and thoughts can join together to create the truth in our reality. Every common activity can propose a pause for reflection. Are we thinking, acting, and speaking in a way that supports our ideal truth? In this stage our words and actions become so powerful that we can actually manifest certain results. When this happens, there is no more separation between our self and our truth, we embody our truth and act as a vessel for its light. Rolf Gates says, “Our truth becomes all there is. Truth becomes our essence and our reality, our deepest desire, and the air we breathe.”

Introducing awareness of truth in our life is a huge step toward discovering our innate nature of bliss. First observing how we communicate externally, then noticing our internal dialogue, and finally threading our truth throughout our life and presenting that truth to others. Old habits and thought patterns dissipate when seen in the eyes of truth. A state of confidence and fearlessness comes with establishment of satya. There is a confidence that surrounds truthfulness. People are drawn towards the safety and honesty that truth casts. We will find that the more we practice living in satya, the more good will come into our life, and the easier it will be to continue the practice. Truth helps us live and interact peacefully in the world around us.Satyam bruyat priyam bruyat. Speak what is truth, speak what is pleasant. (Vedic II-1)


Gates, Rolf and Katrina Kenison. Meditations from the Mat. Anchor Books, 2002.
Shri Swami Satchidananda. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Yogaville, 1990.

Burn, baby, burn

My thoughts for you:

I fear if you move too slowly you'll get so caught up in the details of your mindless existence that you will never have a chance to experience the substantial, spontaneous, and raw emotion that rests at your feet. Moving so slow you will miss out on the reality of your innate human potential and your light will never fully shine, my dear.

I know I would rather shine bright and burn out, than to slowly fade away.

I ask you to take a chance with me. Place yourself outside of your comfort zone. Stay here with me, fall into me, live for this breath that we share, and do what it is that scares you with grace and simplicity. Go out into the world and live with passion and zest. This is it. This is all we will ever be, and this is all we will ever have. Everything lies within this moment. Let the past go.


“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” Jack London

With eternal love,

My Teacher

Lately I have been asked and have found myself talking about "my teacher" a lot. When I refer to "my teacher" I am imagining all of those people it took to get me to grasp a concept or lesson. So, maybe it's not one concrete person but a collection of helping words, open hearts, and interactions all streaming from the same source.

I find my teachers in everything I do and everything I am, equally. It could be in the traditional sense of a student/guru relationship, a parent/child, a friend/enemy, or even a source deep within myself.

"There is a light in our heart that is beyond all sorrow" I believe that it is when we can notice this light that is innate in all of us that we may become open enough to receive the teachings of the eternal source. Therefore: We are all teachers, and we are all students. All is that, and that is us.

Ashtanga Yoga Inspiration

The Impossible Becomes Possible
by Kino MacGregor

The promise of inner peace does not come at a cheap price. You cannot beg, borrow or cheat your way along the inner journey. Whenever you strive to create a new way of being it is simply not a matter of flipping a switch. Instead you stand at the mountain of new desire and look ahead to a long and sometimes arduous road to the top. But with years of work, patience and diligence anything is possible. Yet when faced with such adversity most people quit or take the easy, known route to average results. While there is nothing wrong with this method of interacting with life, there is a much more powerful way to actually live your life to its maximum potential. Yoga leads the way through disbelief into an accomplished life.

Within the parameters of a sticky mat yoga practitioners are asked repeatedly to perform challenging movements while uniting their breathe, posture and gaze. Sri T. Krishnamacharya described yoga as the process where the impossible becomes possible and the possible over a long period of time becomes easy. The place where many practitioners fall off the path is when they try for easy straight from impossible. If you experience a movement as impossible and want it to be easy immediately, you will certainly fail because change does not happen so quickly. Instead start with the impossible and allow its difficulty to teach you. Stay in those ugly places where learning happens and soon the impossible starts to show you how it one day might be possible. Almost no one gets it gracefully on the first try. Held within the outward form of every light, free and easy posture is years of difficulty, failure and even pain. When you embark on the inner quest of yoga it is the very process of starting at the bottom of a seemingly impossible mountain and then with slow, steady perseverance climbing the mammoth against insurmountable odds that holds the power of transformation. By facing the unfaceable, conquering the unconquerable and confronting the absolutely terrifying places within you necessarily gain access to an experience of yourself that is beyond the struggle itself. It is the experience of a place within yourself as eternally peaceful, powerful and loving that yoga is actually about. The light, free and easy asana is just a matter of seduction. Yoga teaches that only by transcending the illusory world of limitations can you actually move past these false boundaries in your practice and in your life. Every posture, every movement and every breathe you take along the way redefines the very essence of your being. In a sense yoga is the most basic path of self-empowerment.

When you practice a particularly challenging series of postures you have the opportunity to face and move past numerous obstacles along the inner journey including doubt, fear, pain, hatred, boredom, frustration and egotism. These difficult states of mind often evoke deeply ingrained reactionary patterns such as panic, denial and escapism. Some people even pray for a savior to literally do it for them. But yoga is a path of humility where you only gain the results if you put in the work yourself. There is no salvific deity that will do your postures or your practice for you. There are teachers for guidance and inspiration but they can only help you to the extent that you are willing to unroll your mat and help yourself.

Ashtanga yoga is a dynamic form of hatha yoga that asks you to unroll your mat a staggering six days a week. Sometimes Ashtanga yoga is so demanding that it can be intimidating. When I started practicing Ashtanga Yoga I, like most people, was sore all over and not particularly good at it. Many people assume that because they cannot easily bend their bodies into the pretzel-like positions of the Ashtanga Yoga Primary Series that Ashtanga Yoga is not for them. When I started I also did not have the superhuman strength it asks for nor the Gumbi-limberness that Ashtanga Yoga requires. But I learned it through years of sincere practice. The sole qualification for the practice of Ashtanga Yoga is your love of the practice and your ability to show up on your mat as much as possible. It does not matter what level of posture you perform because the inner work of yoga is fueled by the authentic search for inner peace.

Sometimes one of the first things you experience along the quest of yoga is just how far away you are from your stated intention. Whether it is a peaceful life or a challenging posture yoga works from the inside out and helps you develop the confidence and faith in yourself necessary to accomplish your goals. The postures are hard not because the harder the posture, the deeper the yoga but instead because you grow exponentially when you challenge your borders. The depth of yoga happens in the heart and is irrelevant to physical form. The real yoga always happens on the internal level and it is through devotion and dedication to spiritual practice that the transformation of yoga happens. Ashtanga yoga asks tightness to bend and softness to be strong. It challenges the limits of the mind and the body beyond popular medical notions of safety, possibility and comfort. In doing so practitioners literally expand their consciousness and learn that they can do whatever they set their minds to. But yoga is no magic pill for it is through your own effort that you purify your body and expand your mind. Yoga is as strong as you make it and takes you as deep as you are willing to go.


“Every decision you make - every decision - is not a decision about what to do. It's a decision about Who You Are. When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes. You begin to see life in a new way. All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities to do what you came here to do."
~Neale Donald Walsch

www.miamilifecenter.com
http://www.myyogaonline.com/blog/

Dharma Mittra YTT

Just sharing the essay I had to write for my application into the Dharma Yoga Teacher Training in April:

Write a 100 word minimum answer per question below and email them to info@dharmayogacenter.com
1. How has practicing Yoga affected you and your relationship to the world around you?
When I began practicing yoga my life was hectic, stressful, and unhealthy. It was dedicated to pleasing others and being “successful”. On a physical level, Yoga has healed my body from years of athletic abuse. Taking on Yoga as a lifestyle has made me conscious of the way I move throughout my life. I use the yamas and niyamas as guidelines to promote a healthiness and happiness. By improving myself I can then extend that to those around me. My goal is to be able to help people as much as possible. I am currently a Volunteer at Kripalu doing my Karma Yoga. Realizing the divinity in all things and appreciating this unity has made me more awake to my surroundings.

2. Who has influenced you on your Yoga path, and why have you chosen this training?
My 200hr/500hr Kripalu teachers, Deva Parnell and Christopher Baxter at Discovery Yoga have been great influences. As a teacher, Kripalu Yoga resonated with me because of its stress on mindfulness and the holistic system of Yoga. Coming from an athletic background I found myself to be in touch with my body, but had a hard time connecting to students who had difficulties. Kripalu was a way that I could interact with those who needed special assistance and allowed a safer way to practice. My personal practice is Ashtanga based, influenced by Pattabhi Jois. I find Dharma Yoga a great way to connect my physical asana practice with the philosophy and mindfulness trainings. I took Dharma’s Maha Sadhana course and was inspired by his teachings. I believe this is the next step on my path and Dharma will bring a devotional and spiritual aspect to my Yoga.

3. In brief tell us your life history and your profession.
I grew up the competitive gymnastics world. After thirteen years of pounding my body I decided it was enough. I tried my first yoga class at the age of fifteen. I loved moving my body through the postures at my own pace and creating healing energy instead of pain. I then moved on to playing competitive volleyball. My whole family plays and I wanted so badly to fit in. I played Division I volleyball in Florida and was still maintaining my yoga practice. I began working at lululemon athletica (yoga clothing store) where I had met and interacted with the Jacksonville Yoga community. I went through my 200hr Yoga Teacher Training in 2008 and have been working on my 500hr ever since. I graduated college with a BFA December 11th, 2010. I wanted to complete my 500hr at the “Mother Land” (aka the Kripalu Center). So I decided to pack up and Volunteer at Kripalu starting January 4th, 2010. I only have my elective credits left for my 500hr and the Dharma Yoga Training will be the final piece to completing that puzzle.


4. What would you like to improve in your life?
I am working with the niyama, Santosha (contentment). I am pretty emotional and suffer from the ups and downs of life. I don’t think that it is a goal of mine right now to completely eliminate that, but I believe it is important to find balance and not give in to such extreme highs and lows. Just graduating college and being in such a stimulating environment at Kripalu it is easy to be looking ahead into the future or daydreaming about the past. Finding contentment with my self and with where I am at in this moment is necessary to my development and will help facilitate healthy relationships. Being able to find acceptance and harmony within my self will begin to shine light onto others. Contemplating and inviting this phrase into my life: I am exactly where I need to be, and I am already everything I need.

Om Namah Shivaya

"I embrace change."

This weekend is a chance to celebrate change. Maha Shivaratri is usually celebrated the night before and the day of the new moon. This new moon happens to fall on Valentine's Day. Maha Shivaratri is a festival dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva. Shiva symbolizes destruction. He destroys ideas and concepts in our lives that do not serve us anymore (whether we are willing or not). Thus, Shiva is said to be the Father of Yoga. Yoga is about transformation. We must learn to embrace these changes in our lives. Gandhi is famously quoted "Be the change you wish to see in the world." We think, how nice...I can find something to change, then stand by that single focus and follow in Gandhi's footsteps. However, in order to "be the change" we have to realize that "the change" is forever evolving. It won't look the same tomorrow as it did today.

A great opportunity to practice placing comfort around change is in time of the new moon. In Vedic philosophy there are many cycles in nature to which we are subtly attuned. The moon ("candra" in Sanskrit) is one of these. The new moon is a time to start new projects. There is a fresh new energy that helps us to accelerate our progress as the moon grows (Lissa Coffey).

The new moon energy corresponds to the end of exhalation when the force of apana is greatest. Apana is a contracting, downward moving force that makes us feel calm and grounded, but dense and disinclined towards physical exertion.
The Farmers Almanac recommends planting seeds at the new moon when the rooting force is strongest(The Ashtanga Yoga Center).

Feeling that grounding, rooting energy, and the gentle momentum of the natural world we can feel confident in exploring change. We can set new goals and trust that it is time to manifest these new ideas.

by the light of the moon
I call onto you
holding my hands out to the world
sending forth my dreams
placing my toes in the sand
my fingers graze the water
my breath is steady and hopeful
new landscapes
new eyes
walking into the unknown
following the light from my dreams
the moon reflects
my life is but a mirror
the space between
my heart rests in the stillness
a slight flutter
with sparks off virgin lips
creating a new path
with beauty and love in every breath

Bear Attack!!

Today was the first day the cold seemed unbearable. It wasn't even like it was the coldest day, but my sense of awe was lost and replaced with the bitter chill of the morning air. Saturdays I wake up at 5:15am, roll out of bed in the same clothes from the night before, make a cup of coffee, and trek up to the "mother ship". Usually, I mentally prepare for this ordeal, but this morning was different. I was so warm in my bed. It was like someone picked me up from my fluffy mattress (this of course is in my dreams, because in reality I sleep with no blankets, a dead beat pillow, and an inch thick mattress on the top bunk) and threw me in a tub of ice water...in the dark.

Then as I'm walking I hear this rustling sound coming from the dumpsters and my imagination ran wild. In that moment I decided that I was a goner. The bear would surely attack and I would then freeze to death on the payment. I debated if I should run, but then glanced down at my coffee in my hand and decided I'd rather save the coffee. That's love.

Fun note: It's apparently hunting season here in the Berkshires, so we are encouraged to wear bright clothing so we don't get hunted....I have a black jacket.

Mother May I?
I watch the sunrise on these proverbial eyes
My tears are no match for the solemn rain
Grey skies of a simple winter morning
Let's rejoice in that I am alive she says
Let's cry because I am alive I say
Let us pray so we don't go through this again

"It is the darkest hour, the hour before the dawn". This is when something immense happens. You can't go back, and you can't go forward in the same way. I have been having these epic dreams about death, specifically my death. At first, I was sad and a little frightened. Once I could step back from these emotional ties I had placed around the idea of death, it hasn't seemed so scary. I feel more at peace with it, thinking of death as only room to breath new life. I have some baggage I am still carrying around with me, and I am starting to feel comfortable unpacking it little by little. Using the witness consciousness I can began to notice the difference between reality and stories, light heartily.

Dharma Mittra spoke a lot on the idea of death and reincarnation. His teacher told him, if you truly love someone they will be born with you again, and if you still need to learn a specific lesson from someone, they too will be with you again. I have been contemplating my relationships with people and what I have to learn from each. Certain characteristics in my dating partners have always been present. Now, I find myself completing avoiding people with those traits, because I have been hurt so bad. I have been trying to step back, and evaluate what attracts and repulses me from certain people. There is much to learn there.

"I don't have the answers to those questions anymore. only love can be both heaven and hell." Self-inquiry is not easy and is sometimes a painful process. It is only through this that we can get out of the patterns that takes us down the dreaded spiral. Maybe next time these patterns arise, I may treat them like greeting an old friend. I am trying to get to a place of simplicity and clarity, so as to transform my life to help others.



Hmmm...such a serious post!
On a lighter note: there has been much hula hooping, tons of dancing!, handstands, drumming, singing, vegan chocolate cake, laughing, Capoeira, ridiculous photo shoots, nature hikes, and just plain holding space for friends to be themselves.

Thinking of all of my friends and family... sending much love XXXOOO
Here is my mailing address: feel free to send birthday cookies ;0)
Nikki Prock
Kripalu Center c/o Path
PO box 309
57 Interlaken Rd.
Stockbridge, MA 01262

Special shout-out to Mema for the singing birthday card, Joyce for the inspirational card/note, Jay and Christina for being pirates and making me giggle like a little school girl, and mom/pops for the classy hula hoop! Yal rock :0)