Most people in the West think of yoga as a physical practice to mobilize and stretch the body. We think of strength training to strengthen and stabilize the body. For those that desire to make yoga a spiritual practice, most yogis work towards withdrawing from the senses of the body and settling into a place of stillness in the mind. Personally, I gravitate more towards the practices which weave together the physical and the spiritual in the sacredness of my moment-to-moment life experiences. I work towards continually stretching the multiple aspects of my real life experiences towards a perspective that is more about the union of the material world and the spiritual world in the here and now. It is really about having a love affair between my conscious awareness and my creative expression of my physical existence, a love affair between the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine. And, of course, this can be expressed by through the union of real-world loving relationships. It’s about making life a divine experience. It’s about dancing in the music of the moment.
For those of you who know me, you see a medallion around my neck of Sri Yantra, a mystical diagram representing the various aspects of our Divine Masculinity (Shiva), triangles pointing upward, interwoven with the various aspects of our Divine Femininity (Shakti), triangles pointing downward. You’ll also see a tattoo on my back representing this divine love affair. They are reminders for me to always remember to find sacredness in the moment, pure love in my relationships, and great beauty in my presence. In this place of spiritual and physical unity, where my image is not just my face, there is a sense of wholeness where my heartstrings are vibrating in joy and resonance, and there is an aliveness that leaves me stunned in pulsating silence in awe of the sacred union of mind, body and spirit.
For me, the music of Sean Johnson and the Wild Lotus Band can be the resonating sounds upon which I ride. The poetry of Rumi can be about the heart-wrenching love affair with life that grabs at my most intimate parts. And the teachings of Tantra (as conveyed by Lorin Roche and The Radiance Sutras) can be the framework around which I come to understand what I’m experiencing… and what I’m enjoying.
Yes, this is a video of a physical practice of flowing slowly through some postures which flex and extend and rotate the spine, that activate the hamstrings and the glutes and the spinal erectors (the back body, or the back chain), and which activate various core stabilizers. But, of course, it is so much more than that. With these videos and themed music, I hope to help practitioners expand their perspectives and their life experiences, not just their yoga practice. Thanks for being here! I am so very grateful for those of you in my life who have given me the freedom to be me and to allow me to explore the realms of sacred loving relationships together with you.
An 8-Minute Themed Sequence to Wake-Up the Back Body and the Support System which Brings UNITY to Life
Looking downward at the Sri Yantra statue in my home studio.