Our practice area is on the light wood, and our community area is on the dark wood. Our practice area is simple, almost monastic. No mirrors or distractions, just you and your mat. Our community area is decorated, playful. Lots of opportunities to learn. Did you know we have a lending library?

Karma Yoga is a place where east meets west, where thousands of years of eastern traditions and spiritual practices meet you in your every day life, here right outside of Washington, D.C. in the form of a yoga studio.

Our particular flavor, or interpretation, comes from my personal effort to integrate my Confucian and Buddhist background and lineage in Chinese medicine with my American and Christian values in a western business and fitness environment. No small project, and no wonder I have many sleepless nights trying to crack the puzzle!

Yoga is a beautiful space where these two worlds meet. Yoga comes from Vedic cultures in the north Indian Himalayan mountain region between the East Asian and Western worlds. There is an incredible overlap and sharing between the yogic frameworks, the Abrahamic frameworks of the western world, the Daoist frameworks of the eastern world, and the indigenous practices of many peoples of the land.

With my obsession about frameworks, you might not be surprised to learn that I have a civil engineering background! And love studying religious history. If you’d like to get nerdy with us, we host Philosophy Nights on Wednesdays at 7:15pm.

Many of the yoga concepts overlap with daoist concepts. For example, the way we work with prana or breath in a vinyasa class, is similar to the way we work with qi or energy in a flowing tai chi class. Both practices work the mind, body and spirit.

You’ll see that our yoga classes are phrigorous, as are our intellectual discussions during Philosophy Nights. Even our restorative classes are rigorously restorative. As in, we truly honor the intention of the class.

In the Confucian and Buddhist styles, we also deeply honor our teachers by giving our teachers trust and autonomy. Rather than force a studio style onto teachers in order to deliver a consistent branded experience, we allow our studio to evolve with each new teacher that we bring on, and each new volunteer who lends a hand. You’ll often see teachers taking classes, as we are constantly learning and growing from each other. One of my favorite things is to arrive at the studio, and see a new plant or contribution from a teacher or a student. To see that this space is being cultivated.

This Saturday marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year, on the second new moon of the year, when the sky is darkest. It is the first moon cycle moving into spring. Many cultures around the equator, which rely on the ebbs and flows of the tide and monsoons, follow a lunar calendar - while northern cultures tend to follow solar calendars, where agriculture and winters are more impacted by the cycle of the sun.

As human beings, we are both lunar and solar, yin and yang, feminine and masculine, so here at Karma Yoga - in addition to the New Year of the sun, we also celebrate the New Year of the moon.

Speaking of yin and yang, did you know that yoga was primarily practiced by men in India as part of monastic or spiritual lineages? And in the western world it was popularly adopted by women as part of fitness-centered community building?

Bringing it back to our Lunar New Year Celebration this Saturday, we will be learning about the origin of the Chinese Zodiac; the story of the great race across the river to pick the twelve animals to represent the passing of time.

This year is marked by the Dragon, who with all their mystical and powerful abilities, finished fifth, because he stopped to help those in need.

Please join us to learn Lunar New Year and Chinese New Year traditions, to learn more about your Zodiac signs, and share in tasty food and fun. Kids and +1s welcome!

RSVP to Celebrate with Us!

At the beginning of this year, I set the intention to have some stillness and time to deep clean. This project has pushed me to clarify and re-organize my understanding of yoga, but it also came at a time of year when there are many other things going on.

It is such a treat for me to have a reason to study these topics, and I can’t wait to finish the series. I hope to release the remaining 8 episodes within the next couple weeks. I’ll publish here, so keep your eyes peeled!

Lunar New Year at Karma Yoga

In lieu of regular mini-dharma talks and meditation, I would love to to invite you to some of our Lunar New Year events at the studio.

One of the highlights of my week is our weekly Wednesday Philosophy Nights at the studio at 7:15pm. Each session has a new topic led by a volunteer. Philosophy Nights are free to join, and you are welcome to bring food or drink to share.

Weds., Feb. 7th: “Year of the Dragon”

I’ll be leading next Wednesday, February 7th at 7:15pm with the topic of “Year of Dragon”, with a presentation about the history of the Lunar New Year and some yummy vegetarian food. You can RSVP here to join!

Sat., Feb. 10th: “Lunar New Year Celebration”

I’d also love to invite you to join our Lunar New Year Celebration at the studio on Saturday, February 10th at 4pm. We’ll have some more history, opportunity to learn some calligraphy and maybe a special appearance of fan tai qi. You are also welcome to bring food or drink to share. You can RSVP here to join!

Sun., Feb. 25th: “Deep Clean Windows, Organize Stuff!”

We are having three weekends from 12-3pm, dedicated to deep cleaning the studio as part of our getting ready for the new year. We’re serving a light lunch for our volunteers at 2pm. We’d love if you can join! You can RSVP for 2/25 here.

Sun., Mar. 3rd: “Sofa Cleaning and Bookshelf Repair”

Focused primarily on fixing or cleaning broken furniture. You can RSVP for 3/3 here.

Sat., Mar. 9th: “Bring Your Sander & Spackle”

If you’ve noticed spots on the walls at the studio… this is the time to clean them up! You can RSVP for 3/9 here.

Sun., Mar. 10th: “Painting Walls & Window Sills”

This is the day for finishing touches and putting on our studio’s face for the rest of the year. You can RSVP for 3/10 here.

Thank you for being on this 30-day journey with me!

Cheers to the next 8-days coming in their own time :)

Other translations include non-attachment, non-craving or non-coveting.

Yesterday we ended up covering two Yamas in one segment, using a parable to discuss how coveting led to stealing radioactive waste (see corrections).

Aparigraha is one of the most Buddhist of the Yamas. In Buddhism, attachment or craving is the source of suffering in life. So I’m very amused that I mixed this one up with non-stealing or asteya.

Today, we’ll bring our focus back to aparigraha, non-grasping, or non-attachment.

Over the weekend, I had the experience of having dinner in a restaurant, and observing one very loud group nearby. Immediately, the group got a lot of attention, as one of the couples had already had drinks before dinner, and the woman had a very low cut top. Most of the diners nearby had negative responses. Not only were they loud, but the energy was spilling out onto everyone in the small restaurant.

One thing I noticed was the sense of sadness and hunger I felt from the woman. It felt like she was grasping at everything around her. Taking big, loud laughs that pierced the room. There was an edge and a demand to be noticed. Her boyfriend or partner, was also in a state of grasping, as he was scanning around the room. Both of them had very strong, grasping energies. And it was certainly touching others!

In my mind’s eye, I see these energies as tendrils coming out of the chest or body, hungrily waving around, searching for contact. Not unlike an alien movie. The hungrier the bigger and more slimy the tendrils.

Now, I know what it’s like to have tendrils. It’s how I feel when I am stressed and scrolling on social media. I feel a hunger or pain in my belly, looking for something to make it stop hurting, but not quite not knowing what I’m looking for. Each post or piece of news in the feed gives me a little hit, which both stops the pain, and feeds the pain. For one half of a second, the pain is relieved before coming back stronger. Eventually I am scrolling in a daze, and not even really consuming the media anymore.

These tendrils, take a lot of energy. They also keep us attached to this world.

You can imagine that our nerves are like plant roots from the brain into the body. Our nerves keep our spirit attached to our bodies from the brain to our spinal column and out into anywhere that we can feel sensation.

Our desires or attachments, are like the roots or tendrils that bind our spirit to this self. In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, it is stated that when non-attachment is attained, the student gains awareness of past lives, learns the purpose of this life and past lives, gains the understanding of cause and effect, and understands what is remaining to be learned before liberation (Art of Living).

While I haven’t gotten there yet in my own personal practice, I do think it makes sense that once we stop putting tendrils outwards that keep us attached to our selves in this life, that our energy would start to flow more vertically, into the spaces that connect us with past and future.

Now, our aim is not to cut the tendrils away! They are an important part of how we connect with others. For our meditation today, I’d like to focus on gently drawing our tendrils back in, non-grasping.

In the material sense, asteya is also translated as non-stealing. Alongside, aparigraha or non-attachment, these two Yamas parallel two of our Biblical Ten Commandments: “Though shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not covet.”

On the surface level, stealing can cause external harm to the person you’re stealing from and cause chaos within the community. On the internal level, coveting can cause internal harm and chaos within ourselves.

I want to start with one of my favorite stories. In a science fiction future, there is a new train run on a secret energy source. It has almost unlimited energy, and appears to runs cleanly and smoothly without ever stopping. It’s energy source is as well a guarded secret as the recipe for Coca-Cola. A group of rival train companies, secretly gather to infiltrate the train and steal their energy source.

They plan for months, pretending to be employees and customers. Finally under cover of the dark moon they infiltrate the train. On board notice an odd energy of tiredness and sunkennes in the employees. It’s not what they expected from their rivals, but they don’t let the thought distract them from their mission. They covertly bypass the security protocols, overwhelming the guard at the front of the train. There is a door quietly humming with a cold heat, a sense of a glow emanating from inside… as they open the latch, they find what looks like blue coals. They are both hot and cold to the touch. Excitedly they fill their bags grasping every last of the cold, blue coals. The train slowly comes to a stop. Filled with glee, they run off the train.

As it turns out, those cold, blue coals were radioactive waste. What a blessing for this rival company. Since they’d developed a successful venture on the waste, long-suffering they hadn’t the forbearance to remove the waste themselves.

I want to focus our meditation on letting go of our belongings and attachments. Letting go of our nuclear waste, our insecurities that might energize and poison us. Letting go of our possessions that compel us to earn more to buy more, or take what isn't freely offered. Releasing our grasp, our desire to steal.

Have you ever coveted or stolen? Were there consequences later?

Have you ever been stolen from? Were you grateful later?

What would you need, in your heart, to not covet or grasp? What would you need in your heart to not steal, or grasp at things?

Are there times in your life when you feel particularly prone to grasping? Times when you feel very content?

Let’s focus our meditation today on gratitude and abundance.

Aparigraha is often used in reference to material possessions, such as excessive shopping, stealing or hoarding. At a deeper level, it is not just material possessions.

To learn more, let’s break down the word in Sanskrit. “Pari” means ‘everything’; “graha” means ‘to grab’; the prefix “a” means ‘non’, the same way that “atypical” means ‘not typical’. All together, “aparigraha” means ‘not grasping at everything.’

As with most things yoga related, we work outside in. Starting with our actions that relate to grasping – inability to let go, hoarding; insatiable grasping for more, excessive shopping or making money; grasping for what is not for us, stealing.

If we look back to the first moment of grasping, with most of us – it would have been at birth. Immediately we throw our arms open and start opening and closing our hands. We cry out gasping and grasping for air. Usually it’s pretty shocking because we’ve just spent a good amount of time in liquid. As we grow, we hunger for milk and greedily latch on. As children grow, they may reach up and grasp to be held.

Now, there are many theories about child development that I won’t go into here, but as we develop – usually with the help of our parents, families and culture – we usually level out or calibrate our desires with the reality. We learn to tame our more intense cravings or grasping. We slowly learn to stop throwing tantrums or having meltdowns.

But usually, the grasping never quite leaves. It just, evolves. What might have started with a difficult journey down the birth canal, leaving us with a terror of not getting enough air, leaving us with a habit of somewhat shallow exhales and greedy inhales… might evolve into a general feeling of terror that we won’t get enough affirmation, leaving us with a habit of never quite finishing projects and greedily starting new ones.

That’s just one example. The mystery and beauty of our human lives is the sheer complexity of our development. To a certain extent, even the most educated and conscious parent can’t control for the development of their child, and certain aspects of personality development are left up to God, biology, genetics, random chance or karma; depending on how you look at things.

Breath is one of those body functions that is a two-way street between mind and body. So it’s a great way to look at grasping at the deep level where mind meets body.

Until we die, our breath will always continue – whether we choose to breathe or not. Not a single person who is alive, has not breathed for an hour. Yet no one stays awake a decides to breathe through the night, our bodies take over. Not only are there countless breaths being breathed across the world at any given time, there are an infinitude of ways to breathe. And no way is wrong!

If you are a yogi or meditator, you may have moved through phases in your relationship with breath.

First.

One of the first stages in my relationship with breath, was realizing that when instructed to take a deep belly breath, I couldn’t!

I developed quite a complex around it, spinning in all sorts of directions about why I couldn’t breath correctly, etc. With time, I realized that I spent so much time in my youth trying to flatten my stomach, that I literally held my stomach tight and flat for most of my 10 public, waking hours. I had such a grasping to keep a desirable appearance, that after nearly 20 years of this conditioning, I literally could not let go of my belly. It was as if I had spent 20 years in a corset!

Now, as a yoga instructor, one of my favorite cues is, “allow your belly to fall open; what happens when you allow the lowest part of your low belly, to fall open?”

Second.

The next phase in my breath development, was realizing that I actually struggle to take inhales, especially when anxious. My natural breath ceases to flow and becomes uncomfortable. My exhales will continue and continue and continue… until deep in my low belly, a cluster of muscles begins to grasp, stopping the inhale from starting. If I focus very spaciously and quietly on that part of my low belly belly, eventually the cramp will release and the inhale will naturally begin.

When I tune in even deeper, there is an incredible yearning for the possibility of the new breath, and a fear at the same time, resulting in my lower body clenching and curling in, all very subtly with each breath.

You can imagine that entire saga is occurring 20 times a minute. As a functioning adult, I don’t have time for this! So I power through and use my mind to force myself to breathe, even though my body is not quite flowing naturally.

And so, our breath.. is an incredible cue to the state of aparigraha. If we are grasping, we will usually see it in our breath.

Let’s experiment by exploring our breath. As usual, let’s clear our mind-body palette with a short body scan. Find a comfortable seat.

It is common in both Buddhist and yogic frameworks to refrain from eating animal meat such as pork or beef; some also refrain from byproducts such as cheese or milk.

In Hinduism, cows are viewed as holy animals, representing the Mother Goddess, offering nourishing milk. In India, cows wander the streets freely and cars move around them in traffic.

In Jainism, which is also based in India, ahimsa or non-harm extends to anything alive including plants. Ten classifications are made to count the number of senses and vitalities that a being has: the five senses of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell; and the five vitalities of having energy, respiration, life-duration, organ of speech and mind.

Root plants such as potatoes or garlic are not eaten because it would kill the entire plant to eat, and would injure insects living near the soil. Leafy plants are eaten, because they can be harvested without injuring the plant. Mosquitoes and ants are not killed, but swept aside. See the attachment for classifications of beings.

In Buddhism, as in Jainism, eating meat is viewed practically. If the goal of yoga or spiritual practice is to attain moksha or enlightenment by cleansing our body of samskars, the knots of craving and aversion that live between our minds and bodies, then according to this understanding, by eating an animal – in addition to causing harm, we are taking their cravings and aversions into our bodies.

In more modern movements, we now have vegan and vegetarian movements centered around not wanting to inflict unnecessary harm or cruelty to animals, especially from modern industrial farming, where animals live in great suffering.

There are three stories about eating meat in the context of spiritual practice that I would like to share here:

1. The Buddha. After Gotama Buddha attained enlightenment around 2,500 years ago, he traveled with a group of disciples, living in the tradition of monks, by asking for alms. Each morning the traveling monks would take their empty bowls, going door to door, asking for food. Some villages only had meat to offer, and in the case of having only meat to eat, the monks were allowed to eat meat rather than to starve. When the Buddha died, he had become ill from eating pork soup that had gone bad. According to some versions of the tale, he knew the soup was bad but decided to eat it because it was what was offered and it was his time.

2. The Ungrounded Student. In some meditation communities where practice is very austere with prolonged periods of meditation and a vegetarian diet with fasting, some students can become ungrounded. A vegetarian diet can tend to make one feel lighter in their bodies, while meditation can stir up a lot of mental and spiritual activity. Sometimes, the mind becomes like a balloon tethered by a thin string on a windy day, unable to remain stable, getting wrapped around. At this point, the equanimity is lost, and the student may become manic. At this point, it is recommended that the student take red meat, to develop heaviness and grounding in the body, before continuing with spiritual practices again.

3. The Skeptical Student. One of my meditation teachers, S.N. Goenka, always recommends that you do what makes sense. If the vegetarian diet doesn’t make sense for you, don’t do it until it does. While you are in yogic or monastic environments, of course following the dietary restrictions. Perhaps you might try a vegan or vegetarian diet out of curiosity. But, if it really doesn’t make sense to you, then don’t do it until it does. In its own time, the understanding and desire not to harm will come naturally as part of a spiritual practice.

With all these different frameworks, what diet makes sense for you? If you do want to refrain from eating meat or animal products, how will you still nourish your body with the necessary vitamins and proteins? How can you engage in ahimsa or non-harm in your eating, while also practicing non-harm towards yourself?

Today, our meditation is going to focus on a contemplation of the experience of other life forms, closing with loving-kindness or metta for all beings.

📎 Attachment: Jain Classification of Beings by Senses

In the yogic framework, it’s not just our actions that matter but our intentions. Our deep intentions, come from the space between our minds and bodies, the same place where samskars are stored. When we practice yoga, our aim is to use our life experiences to work our way in to the deepest level of our intentions.

While there may be times that we want to conceal our true intentions from others, we can easily get into the habit of concealing even our true intentions from ourselves. When our true intentions are hidden from even ourselves, how can we truly know if we are practicing non-harm?

On the most surface level, we can see if anyone was physically injured by our actions. One layer deeper, we look to see if our actions might have caused mental or emotional harm. One layer beyond this, we look to see the outward ripples of our actions. One layer within, we look to see our own intent and the impact on ourselves.

I know that I personally experienced a lot of guilt and shame around simply being alive and being human. I was keenly aware of how much greenhouse gas emissions come from my transportation, and the amount of paper and plastic waste generated to keep me alive, the amount of agriculture and farming to keep me fed. That other people in the world weren’t getting as much food or housing as I was. For a long time, I genuinely felt that humans were parasites, and that the best thing I could do was to choose not to reproduce – or at least, not have too many children. Yikes!

Imagine thinking about yourself and your loved ones as parasites! I eventually developed an experiential and financial anorexia of sorts. Even though I was a devout atheist, I still viewed everything in terms of penance. Every paper I recycled, every good environmental deed I accomplished, was penance for being a human.

So. Were my deeds harmful – or not harmful? Arguably, both. On the surface level, I was recycling and doing small and consistent actions to help other beings on our shared earth. On a deeper level, each act came with a little bit of self-loathing and self-punishment. Each time I acted with this intention, it was like a tiny strike against the fabric of my mind and body. Over time, I developed both anxiety and existential despair, which led in part, to a spiritual path.

Each person walks their own path inward. For some, my path would have been glaringly obvious. I’m sure some people I met felt like they were eating popcorn and watching the very predictable movie of my eventual burnout. But, for me, and for you – there will be parts of your path that you simply need to walk your way.

Eventually my path turned towards nourishing that same human experience which I’d rejected so early on. I realized that while religion didn’t make sense to me at the time, it was something that undeniably felt very nice. I don’t know why or if I truly exist, I don’t know why we’re all here.

But as long as I’m here in this shape and form, I think it’s more than okay to include myself in the equation of universal happiness. After all, isn’t it a bit self-centered to wish that the whole universe is happy except for me?

And with that, I’d like to focus our meditation today on loving-kindness meditation. A practice to cultivate the intention of deep compassion.

In Sanskrit, “a” means “non-” in the same way that “atypical” means “not typical”. “Himsa” means harm. We can understanding “ahimsa” as non-harm, perhaps even non-violence, and on the opposite side, as acting in harmony or kindness.

The Yamas are typically viewed as restraints, duties to others, social obligations or moral conduct outwards. While the Niyamas, “ni” meaning inward, are your duties or obligations to yourself, as a yoga student.

In the Patanjali Sutras, ahimsa is understood first as non-harm to others. It is commonly also understood as non-harm to self as well. Primarily, ahimsa is related to diet, not eating animals, not engaging in harmful speech, and not engaging in harmful actions towards others.

When we examine the root causes of harmful speech or harmful actions, it comes down to ignorance or confusion. If we were fully aware to our deepest level of being, in union with the divine, we would see and feel that harm to others is a harm to ourselves, and harm to ourselves is a harm to others.

Ignorance is lack of awareness, not seeing or knowing something. Confusion is a bit more complicated. At the deepest level, the concept of ego or self is viewed as a confusion, a veil of ‘maya’ or delusion. If the supreme reality is that we are all connected, and self is the illusion, then outward harm and inward harm are the same.

One of my meditation teachers S. N. Goenka, shared a story of what do you do when you witness a man in a rage, striking and beating another man. First, recognize that both men are victims. The aggressor is the first victim of harmful thoughts, leading to harmful actions against the second man. With the understanding that both men are victims, how do you intervene? Likely, first using your voice, “Hey! Stop!” - if that doesn’t work, and it’s not harmful to yourself, possibly physically intervening.

If the man who is in a rage is so confused, continuing to strike and attack, you might even need to strike him until he stops! This is where martial arts comes in. How do you skillfully defend yourself in such a way that does not harm the other? How do you strike in the way that delivers the least damage? Maybe you know some pressure points, and are skilled enough to be able to strike in such a way that knocks the man out, without harming him. Or maybe you don’t and there’s some collateral damage in our effort to stop him from harming someone else.

It takes skill to learn how not to harm people in a martial art. In the same way, it takes great skill to learn how to not harm people with our thoughts, words and actions.

This is the practice of ahimsa.

Here is a quote so popular, that the true origins are unknown. Variations of this quote are often ascribed to Gandhi and Lao Zi, writer of the Dao De Jing.

In the same way we’ve been gently following lines of sensation in our bodies, let’s take some time here to follow the lines of our action. When we decide to act, what thought comes first, what body sensation, what emotions? And how does this shape our character, the momentum and direction of our lives, our destiny?

We’re going to explore one of our recent actions, that was a little bit harmful. Not too harmful, but a little bit. One where we knew it would be harmful beforehand, and chose to do it anyway. Take a couple moments to find your moment. (pause)

Before we explore our moment, let’s first slow things down and get settled with a gentle body scan.

Today, we’ll talk about building a path for brahmacharya. The daily rituals, placing one cobblestone at a time, cultivating the habits and behaviors to build a path that leads out of suffering, or to connection with the divine.

These are behaviors that cultivate both presence and equanimity. We are not aiming to disengage with life, but to experience life with the ‘right energy’. When are fully present with a sense of equanimity, we can experience non-suffering or divine connection. If we are distracted, or locked in a cycle of seeking or avoiding sensation, we might be stuck in our own loops and not able to experience a divine connection even if it were there tapping us on the shoulder!

Eating is a wonderful example of striking the balance with ‘right energy’. You might have heard of the Japanese recommendation to only eat to 80% full. Chinese Confucian culture recommends “吃飯七分飽、三分寒” - “only eat 70 percent full, and wear 30 percent less”; while Indian Ayurvedic medicine believes “you should fill one third of the stomach with liquid, another third with food, and leave the rest empty.”

While caloric restriction might be beneficial for our bodies, what about the spiritual side? How does mindfully moderating how we eat, lead to divine connection?

When we can live all aspects of our life, presently and with equanimity, this is the recipe for moksha or enlightenment; non-suffering; divine connection.

Eating is such a universal, primal need. Only breathing is more necessary. When we can work with our urges which reside at the deepest level of mind and body, such as eating, our cultivation of ‘right energy’ flows out to our outermost experiences.

It is not about the food, it's about the energy of eating. It’s not about each cobblestone, it’s about walking the path.

So let’s take some time to contemplate areas in your life where you some limits or restraints might be useful.

Yesterday, we reflected on our relationship with the divine. Today, we’re going to focus on tending our hindrances. Our habits or actions that tend to lead us away from connection to the divine or towards suffering.

Hindrances that we can’t seem to stop doing, like addictions, tend to be both comforting and painful at the same time. Like eating a chocolate covered ghost pepper, you may continue to feel the pain long after you’ve enjoyed the chocolate.

I want to bring this back to a practical, felt sense. I know that for people who don’t consider themselves religious or spiritual, the concept of a divine connection seems abstract or unreal. Another metric you can use is the felt sense. If my body at a deep level is feeling expansive, connected, in flow and grounded – to me, that’s the felt sense of a divine connection. If my body at a deep level is feeling tense, lonely, stuck and inflamed – that’s the felt sense of deep suffering, moving away from the divine.

Whether we are spiritual or not, we can all probably agree that we don’t want to feel tense, lonely, stuck or inflamed!

So let’s take a couple moments to tend to a hindrance that you struggle with. (pause)

Let’s start by slowing things down and getting settled in our bodies with a body scan.

“Brahma” is the Sanskrit word for the Creator, one of the major gods of Creation in the Hindu and Vedic pantheon, referenced as early as 3,000 years ago (or 1,000 years BCE) and as late as 2,000 years ago around the start of the Common Era.

As my friend taught us, Hinduism is a form of polymorphic monotheism. You can understand that all the deities are different faces or forms of the ultimate divine; so we can understand “Brahma” as the divine.

“Charya” is the Sanskrit word for behavior. “Brahmacharya” can be understood as ‘behaviors that lead to the divine’. It is most commonly connected with sexual restraint; for the unmarried to practice celibacy, and the married to practice fidelity.

More recently, it has been expanded to ‘right energy’ - not just in sexual restraint, but also in regards to eating, alcohol use or television consumption. When we get caught in the cycle of gratification and seeking for these things, we dissipate our energies and and are not able to focus on spiritual teachings, practice or investigation.

So, let’s take a couple moments to reflect on your connection with the divine. Do you believe there is a divine source? A universal power or energy? (pause)

If you can conceive of a divine or universal source, how or when do you experience connection to the divine? Is it during prayer, in nature, during mass, over your morning cup of tea or coffee, during kirtan, playing with your children, in your garden, at night, in the morning, in meditation or during yoga class? Is it all the time, or just sometimes? Some moments louder than others? (pause)

It can be lovely to think about having a relationship with the divine. What is your relationship with the divine? Is it generally positive, a bit iffy, is there some resentment, do you feel some anxious or avoidant tendencies? (pause)

One story resonated with me, which I’ll share here.

A woman went into the forest, passionately seeking to connect with Krishna, her personification of the divine. She found a quiet spot and wept and prayed, calling out for Krishna. Krishna arrived, and tapped her on the shoulder. With her eyes closed, she shrugged him away, “Don’t disturb me!” she barked, “can’t you see I’m waiting for Krishna?” In this story, Krishna tapped her a couple more times on the shoulder before leaving.

What behaviors do you think would bring you closer to the divine? Are there some times when maybe, the divine connection is there - but you’re distracted? How could you make more space to notice or be present with the divine?

Let’s get into our felt sense with the divine a bit more through meditation. We’ll get started with a body scan, to cleanse the palette of our mind and body.

It is the burning desire for our meditation practice, our reason for showing up, for listening to the challenge today, and for sitting down on our meditation cushion.

One aspect of tapas which I’ve alluded to, is the purifying aspect of fire. In the Patanjali sutras, it is referred to as a cleansing fire or internal heat, developed through vigorous yoga or meditation practice, that burns away our samskars - or our knots of craving and aversion that live in the space between our mind and body.

I am careful to use the word tapas with the concept of purity, because it can create quite the intense drive to cleanse oneself! That drive itself is not entirely a bad thing, it’s nice to take a shower once in a while after all, but taken too far, it can be harmful to yourself and others.

For this reason, I like to imagine tapas with both cleansing and energizing qualities.

So how do we develop a sustainable, clean-burning fuel of desire for our meditation practice? Let’s investigate the source of our fires.

We’ll do an exercise, which if you have toddlers - you may know this as the why game - which can be equally lovely and frustrating! As an add-on to the game, we’re also going to include what we’re feeling in our bodies.

By playing the “why, where and how” game, we can trace to the source of our desire.

The game is simple, listen to what you want - and ask why you want it.

Notice where and how the desire feels in your body.

As we discussed yesterday, just as with cooking - if the flame is too high, the food gets burned; if the flame is too low, the food doesn’t cook.

Switching metaphors now, to seeds. You can imagine that certain parts of your spiritual development are like seeds. We nurture the soil, till the fields and plant the seeds of our spiritual development. But, some seeds - need fire to crack open. Some seeds, need soft and tender soil with gentle, warm sun. Some fruits ripen to full sweetness only after a drought.

It is up to you, to explore and see which areas of your spiritual development could use more tapas or fire, discipline; and which areas could use more softness. What may look like discipline to another, may be easy and enjoyable for you. What may seem easy or enjoyable to you, may look challenging to another. There may be layers, such as where your default may to be to push and challenge - so ease, will be your challenge. Or where your default is to stay in the comfort zone - so getting into your edge is the challenge. It is your garden to grow.

What is it that gets you onto the meditation cushion or yoga mat? What is the thought, or burning desire – that drives you to carve out time to meditate?

“Tapas” can be a double-edged sword, it can be what gets you onto the cushion – but it can also drive such fervor and intensity that the equanimity of practice gets lost. It is up to each of us, to develop and refine our own tapas: to develop the skill to turn the fire up or down, and to develop a sustainable, clean-burning fuel of desire.

I’ll share a little of my own experience with tapas, which is a story that is not unique.

Nearly 10 years ago, in 2015, I was in my mid-20s and burning with desire for success and self-mastery. I’d struggled with burning out, and heard that meditation would give me better focus and endurance. So I did my first 10-day meditation retreat – which was more like a meditation bootcamp. As prescribed, I came away doing an hour of meditation each morning and evening, hoping to burn away my impurities and become a more lean, efficient and successful version of myself.

Several years earlier, I had developed a burning desire for hot yoga and power yoga. I would jog 3 miles to the local studio, do hot power yoga, and jog back. I had a lot of energy and expectations, and wanted to make something of myself.

As I experienced large disappointments in my late-20s, I doubled down in my fervor for self-improvement and self-mastery – and ended up getting cooked.

None of this is a surprise. When I was young, and to this day, I struggle with using too much fire to cook. I like the immediate, intensity of a large flame – and usually end up burning my food and have the extra work of cleaning a charred pan.

As I turned up the fervor of both my ambition and my meditation practice, the disappointments became greater. The frying pan of my body was getting charred, there was an acrid smoke of burnt oils – and I had become like a crazed and unskilled surgeon, wildly cutting this and that.

Luckily, even though I was flailing in the deep end – on some level I was still practicing. Slowly, but surely, I gained clarity and insight – and began to discover how much sorrow, and the resulting self-hatred, were actually driving my practice.

Oh boy. Not fun when you realize that is what is driving your practice. I thought I was going to become a Michaelangela or the youngest enlightened female Buddha.

So, I took off my surgeon’s robes, put down the scalpels, turned off the fire – and took a break from practice to process my sorrow and grief – before returning to my practice, with a little more skill and experience.

I share this story – because, like I said, it is not unique. We see yoga-related injuries in the studios often, usually repeated stress injuries in the wrists or shoulders. In football, we see concussions. In cross country running, we see stress fractures in the shins. In meditation, we see young men (or women like me) – striving for self-mastery and developing meditation-induced dissociation, mania or psychosis.

So. Use your fire, wisely.

How do we do that? Let’s get started with noticing how and where we feel our tapas. Tomorrow we will cover practical methods for how you can turn the fire up or down.

Today, our focus will be on truthfulness of community. In Buddhist, we have the concept of the Triple Gem that will keep you on the spiritual path. The Triple Gem consists of the Buddha, the Dharma and Sangha.

Translating this into a yogic framework, we can understand this as the Guru, the 8 Limbs of Yoga and Satsang. You might notice the sound “sang” in both Sangha and Satsang. They come from the same Sanskrit roots, of “sang” or “sangha” meaning “association, company or community.”

If you’re like me, you might be wondering: Why do we need a community in our spiritual path? Why do we need a Guru? Can’t we just do the 8 Limbs or follow the Dharma ourselves?

The spiritual path can be challenging. As humans we all have blindspots, as one member of our Satsang shared yesterday. We have blindspots literally in our eyes, and also in regard to ourselves. There are parts of our soul or spirit that we cannot see. In our development, we benefit from the sight and wisdom of a Guru or teacher such as Buddha. We also benefit from a group or Satsang where we can share ideas and lean on for support when we face difficulties or need another perspective.

I encourage you to continue with our 30-Day Meditation Challenge, which is tracking through the same themes and concepts. You’ll get a deeper sweep of both yoga and meditation concepts via the Yamas and Niyamas.

For those of you who’ve been participating, to keep the practice momentum high - I encourage you to continue developing your self-practice by completing at least 3 Sun As each day, and one or two other poses that will twist and rinse your spine.

You are also welcome to come practice in person!

You are welcome to attend my classes online or in-person at Karma Yoga for no cost for the remainder of the challenge until February 9th. The online classes are listed as free, and for the in-person classes, please sign yourself in on the paper sign in sheet and write “30 Days” for the Payment Method. (see my classes here)

Thank you for practicing, happy new year - and hope to see you on the airwaves with the Meditation Challenge or on the mat!

Today, our focus will be on truthfulness of our breath. How do we practice our asanas - our poses - in ways that are in integrity with the truth of our breath? What does our breath mean during practice?

Breath is one of the only functions in the body that is a two-way street. We can both control breath, through pranayama or such as by holding your breath while swimming, etc. - and our breath continues in our most unconscious states, in our deepest sleep.

Few other body systems operate this way. We cannot make our skin grow, we cannot stop our stomachs, we cannot will our hearts to stop beating. On the other end, our muscles need input to act. Other systems have some two-way elements, that through yoga or other deep mind-body practice, can be mastered with practice - but breath is the major one that most everyone masters, otherwise you wouldn’t be listening!

Our lungs are innervated by the vagus nerve, connecting our deepest most reptilian brain, the brain stem - with our most vital organs: heart, lungs, stomach and others.

Unless you’re James Bond or a monk in deep meditation training, the breath is the only two-way street in the vagus system. For all of us, the natural breath is a mirror to our state of mind. When we notice natural breath at the beginning of class, we are tuning in to watch the “State of the Union” of Mind and Body.

The natural breath does not always feel good. If you’re having a panic attack, or even mildly stressed, you may notice that the breath becomes constricted or shallow in certain areas. You may feel headaches or tight shoulders. Sometimes, we don’t even notice - such as the classic case of someone shouting, “I’m not angry!”

During yoga practice, our breath is both an anchor and a first line cue to the state of our nervous system. During challenging poses, we return to the breath. We also notice the breath, as a cue that it is time to amplify or dial down a pose.

Today, our focus will be on truthfulness of sight. Vipassana means to “see things as they really are” - rather than how we want them to be. It is an ancient technique discovered by Gotama Buddha about 2,500 years ago in Northern India.

At this time in India, there were many sages and teachers, practicing many kinds of meditation and spiritual practices. Several hundred years later, by the the 2nd century BCE, a sage by the name of Patanjali compiled yogic texts into the 8 Limbs of Yoga and the Yamas and Niyamas that we are discussing today.

When we practice body scan, we are practicing a form of Vipassana. Learning how to be spiritual scientists, observers of our own mind and body. Our body sensation is one channel which we can observe. Such as, what happens when you sit and notice the skin of your hands? (pause)

We have other channels to notice as well, such as sight sensation, taste sensation, smell sensation and hearing sensation. In the Buddhist framework of understanding mind and body, the brain is a receiving organ for thought and emotion sensation - in the same way that the eyes are a receiving organ for light waves, the nose for scent molecules, the tongue for taste and the eardrums for sound waves.

In Western philosophy, we have René Descartes’ quote “I think therefore I am” - the Buddhist philosophy would be slightly different, something along the lines of “I receive thought and through delusion believe that I am.”

What I love about Vipassana as a technique, is that only you can know this for yourself by direct observation. What René Descartes, Buddha, Socrates or Rumi says - is quite likely well-thought out advice and very wise - but only you can know for yourself, by the direct observation, of sitting and observing for yourself, your own mind and body.