Holiday Doings

Where to begin? I guess I'll start at Christmas. My fiance and I went to the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya at Red Feather Lakes, CO. It was such a beautiful day. I practiced metta (lovingkindness meditation) for my teachers and family as we walked around the Stupa, and then we went inside to sit. Nothing but silence and the sounds of other meditators breathing. And the fragrant scent of incense. My eyes welled up as I got up to leave. Every time I go there, it is so hard to leave. After sitting, we walked up to the Shinto shrine, which I had not visited before. It was so stark in comparison to the Stupa, but similarly eloquent. As you walk through a series of gates approaching the shrine, you must bow to 90 degrees at the hips. When you reach the shrine, you bow twice, clap twice at the level of the solar plexus, and then bow once more. I would love to learn more about this practice.

Last night, I went to a Yin Yoga class taught by my good friend, Amy. It was beautiful, and I experienced something during class that has never happened to me before. My breath so completely sounded and felt like the ocean that I was transported to a beach in my mind. My breath told me a story that enveloped me fully. I was totally there. I could see cliffs behind me and smell the salt air. And not just figuratively. I have often likened the breath to the motion of waves or the rising and falling of the tides, but I have never embodied that metaphor so deeply. It was incredible.

So, friends, let your breath tell you a story today.

Entering (and staying in) the Circle

We have been reading Victoria Castle's The Trance of Scarcity. Castle talks about abiding in the "circle," a space of infinite abundance and acceptance. For Castle (and for us), this space is not contingent upon us being any certain way, but only upon us accepting a gift that the universe offers us every day. So today, I am (again) working on embodying the natural abundance that is within me. I know (and accept) that this will expand and conract within me on the daily, but having the intention of being in the flow has to be good. If you want to check out Castle's book, you can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/Trance-Scarcity-Holding-Breath-Living/dp/1576754391/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229573724&sr=1-1.

At any rate, I hope to make it to Boulder/Denver to practice over the holiday, and if you want to venture up North to Laramie, please let me know.

Hello Tillai Friends!

So, I've decided to set up a blog to share my thoughts about the yoga teacher training in which I am studying currently. I am hoping that by using this public forum, my classmates and fellow yogis and yoginis might share in a dialogue about what we're learning and about the path of Yoga more generally. Spanda means oscillation and refers to the vibrations which we all experience both on and off the mat. Yoga makes us more sensitive to those vibrations, and it is one of the goals of my svadyaya (sacred study) to become a conoisseur of spanda, thus the title of this blog, spanda mama. Plus, I really like the organic, earthy, and dare I say it, hippyish connotations of the word 'mama.'

About the training, the name of the program is Tillai University, and it is being offered by Om Time in Denver, CO. You can read more about it at http://www.omtime.com/. The primary instructors are Shannon Paige Schneider and Chris Muchow, but they are assisted by a group of talented and inspiring mentors. We will also get the benefit of instruction from a number of recognized scholars and practitioners in the fields of Yoga and meditation. Enjoy!