Reflections

“Why do I practice yoga?” For a long time, I let that question marinate. Of course, I could find a hundred reasons why I was practicing the limbs of yoga—but I was inquiring about the heart of practice. After years of daily practice, it dawned on me that purification of our “five bodies” is the purpose of the right-handed path of yoga.

According to yogic philosophy, we are in fact composed of five bodies. We have a physical body, which the yoga tradition calls the “food body.” We have an energy b…

Among the five elements—earth, water, fire, air, and space—water is the only one that can transform into all others. When waters contracts it becomes the earth element. When water expands and speeds up it becomes air. Fire is the element that bridges water and air. (Indeed fire expresses watery and airy qualities in its undulations.) The element of air spreads continuously eventually turning into space. So water we might conclude (not earth) is the ground element, the one from which all others d…

There is an amazing story related the statue of Lord Buddha, pictured above! He sits in Bangkok’s Wat Traimit temple. This is a large and amazing statue. At almost 13 feet (3.9 meters) tall and 10 feet (3 meters) wide, this statue is made from 11,000 pounds of solid gold. It is the world’s largest solid gold object. The current value of the statue’s raw materials alone is about $250 million. The story is priceless!

The Golden Buddha’s story is an amazing, almost unbelievable one. It was created s…

Google defines a “hairy situation” as one that is “stressful or unnerving.” A hairy thought is a similar kind of thing. It is a thought, or sequence of thoughts, that puts your mind in a stressful or unnerving state.

What’s an example of a hairy thought? Prime examples are thoughts that involve or presage what Buddhists call afflictions: jealousy, anger, lust, greed, pride, or confusion. These primary afflictions are often accompanied by related mind-states, such as distrust, doubt, suspicion, en…

I’ve been gifted with three mothers: my birth mother, my mother-in-law, and my adoptive Indian mother, Sarla Sharma. How Sarla and I met is a long story, but she is a precious gift in my and Eileen’s lives, and she embodies devotion to the divine, to the divinity. We learn so much from her - mantras, prayers, stories about the gods. One of her stories is about Krishna. Sarla always tells us ancient stories, but gives them a modern spin.

At the time when Krishna had taken a body and walked on Eart…

Okay, so what's different about what we do that isn't already covered by the thousands or tens of thousands of others teaching yoga in person and/or online?  A few things.

We'll start with what you will immediately experience. Our live Hatha classes are 90 - 95 minutes long. Try to find classes over 60 minutes nowadays! There are some 75 minute classes around but almost no 90 minute classes. Great, long class. That's nice, you say, so what? Well, that gives us time to offer a complete asana pract…

Life is like a river. Sometimes the river carries us smoothly and uneventfully along. Sometimes we experience the rapids. Sometimes we find ourselves getting slammed against rocks or drawn under by the current.

What runs through the river of life? Spiritual practice runs through it. We commit to practice whatever is happening in our lives: The practice runs through the good, the bad, and the ugly. We practice through the good times and through the challenging times. The practice runs through the …

Okay! Today is, more or less (mostly less since we are launching ahead of schedule!) June 04, 2022. The target date of launch for this website. Eileen and I have been talking about going out on our own to teach yoga and mediation since the beginning of covid, and honestly, even before that. In the fall of 2021, we decided we really wanted to do it. It took us until January to commit, and honestly, we had no idea what we had signed up for!

Covid made online yoga and meditation a reality, and we pe…