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The Work of Byron Katie: Bonding Brahmacharya & Svadhyaya with Satya & Santosha

8/31/2020

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Yama and Niyamas Activism Teagan Patell de Valverde

Yoga & ANti-Racism Series,
Part 4.1 of 8

Now having reconsidered Satya (propagation of comprehensive truth) together with Santosha (multiple truth reconciliation), and reexamined Brahmacharya (active practice and movement toward unity conscious) in the context of Svadhyaya (self-awareness in reflecting on our separateness or duality), it's time to apply embodied practice with these Yamas and Niyamas to solidify our guiding cairn.  

Bonding Brahmacharya & Svadhyaya with Satya & Santosha   Coco Yoga & Wellness
The Work of Byron Katie comes to mind as a champion method to apply these first Yama/Niyama principles, identify and unpack our beliefs, and consider new alternatives.   While several books and online resources are available to investigate The Work in great depth and at great length, the essential practice is quite simple and straightforward, though  it does require a commitment to apply focused process and attention.  While The Work may be applied around myriad subjects and can be an excellent tool in navigating our efforts and investigation into anti-racism, I recommend, as Byron Katie suggests, starting first with a personal situation to experience the potency  of the practice and how our ideas may shift drastically.  
​
Applying Personal Practice as a Foundation for anti-racism
On Byron Katie's website, The Work is outline in four discrete steps: Notice, Write, Question, and Turn it Around. 
​
Notice:  
First we identify a specific situation where we felt angry, hurt, confused, sad, or disappointed with someone.  We take time to meditate on the situation, to sit still and relax, to recall the details of the situation as if we are witnessing it in our mind.  We identify who or what upset us, and notice, name, and feel the emotion that we experienced at the time.  We find the root cause or reason that we were upset.  


Write:
Staying rooted in the memory and feeling of the specific situation, we respond to six prompts to capture our stressful thoughts in short, simple sentences.  
1.  We identify the emotion we feel, with whom, and why.  For example, "I am angry with Paul because he lied to me." 
2.  We identify how we want the person to change and what we want them to do.  For example, "I want Paul to see that he is wrong.   I want him to stop lying to me." 
3.  We write down our advice for the person.  For example, "Paul shouldn't frighten me with his behavior.  He should take a deep breath." 
4.  We write down what we need in order to feel better about the situation.  For example, "I need Paul to stop talking over me.  I need him to listen."  
5.  We list our complaints about the person or the situation.  For example, "Paul is a liar, arrogant, loud, dishonest, and unaware."
6. We write down what it is about the person or situation that we don't ever want to experience again.  For example, "I don't ever want Paul to lie to me again.  I don't ever want to be disrespected again."
As we express our feelings in writing, we should allow ourselves to be as petty, judgemental, or childish as we may feel without censorship; this is our opportunity to discover our true emotions from that moment.  


The Work of Byron Katie Four Questions
Question:
Now, one by one,  we isolate each of our statements in response to the six prompts and take time to meditate on its truth.  For each statement, we repeat the statement we've made, ask four questions, and listen and wait for genuine answers.
1. Is it true?  (yes or no.  If no, skip to question 3)
2. Can we absolutely know that it’s true?  (yes or no)
3. How do we react, what happens, when we believe that thought?
4. Who would we be without that thought?
Whatever answers come are okay; our aim is to get clear about our true beliefs in relation to our emotional reactions.  We may feel that all that we have said is absolutely true, or we may feel that there's space for a different interpretation or further investigation.  It is important to recognize how our beliefs affect our own experience and how our experience might shift if our beliefs were to shift.  

​
​Turn It Around:
Finally, we practice turning around each of our statements to find multiple opposing statements and consider whether they may be as true as or truer than our original thoughts.  A statement often can be turned around to the self, the other, the opposite, and written in contrasting language.  Each statement will be different--some have one or two opposites, some have four or more--don't force any that don't make sense.  Sometimes to find a good turnaround, we can replace the subject with "my thinking."  For example instead of, "My body should be more flexible," we can say, "My thinking should be more flexible."  For turnarounds to the sixth prompt about what we never want to experience again, turnarounds can begin with "I welcome..." or "I look forward to..."

For the above example, "Paul lied to me," we may find the following four turnarounds, "I lied to me.  I lied to Paul.  Paul didn't lie to me.  Paul told me the truth."  As we consider the truth and validity of the opposing statements, we should stretch ourselves to identify any examples or evidence that could support them.  In this example we can explore how the deception was really our own wanting to believe, our own self-deception.  We can explore how clear and honest we were with Paul in the situation.  We can explore Paul's understanding and intentions, and his own truth in his lived experience. 

The Work of Byron Katie binds Satya, Santosha, Svadhyaya, and Brahmacharya as we examine the validity of our beliefs and look for other possibilities (Satya), we exercise mental inversions and create space for opposing viewpoints (Santosha), we recognize the possible differences and disparities between our interpretation of an event and how it may have been experienced by another (Svadhyaya), and we engage with The Work as an active practice in our aim to approach unity consciousness (Brahmacharya.)  While The Work is challenging, this contemplative yoga bears beautiful fruits, and I encourage you to apply the practice once or twice a week, and to notice how your beliefs and experiences transform and evolve.  Start with whatever experience is most prominent in your awareness, whatever has you most upset in this moment, whatever is most energetically charged, as there you will find the most helpful results.  As we continue with the practice and work through different memories and situations,  we may then begin to apply the practice to specific Anti-Racism work, checking in with our beliefs about what we're hearing in the news and how we interpret "the facts" of any given situation.  

Enjoy the practice, and please let me know how it goes.  Namaste ~ Teagan

Yama and Niyamas Activism Teagan Patell de Valverde
Coco Yoga & Wellness
Yoga & Anti-Racism Series
Part 1: How Yoga & Social Justice Intersect: A Contemplative Practice
..... Part 1.1 A Personal Commitment to Social Justice Practice
Part 2: Setting the Stage for Contemplative Practice:  A Personal Reflection
Part 3: Social Justice & The Purpose of Yoga: Invoking Satya & Santosha
Part 4: Karma Yoga & The Paradox of All-One: Invoking Brahmacharya & Svadhyaya
..... Part 4.1 The Work of Byron Katie: Bonding Brahmacharya & Svadhyaya with Satya & Santosha

Part 5: Dharma, Divisiveness & Sustaining Activism: Invoking Aparigraha & Tapas
..... Part 5.1 Bonding Aparigraha & Tapas with Brahmacharya & Svadhyaya

Part 6: Appropriation & Holding Space: Invoking Asteya & Saucha
..... Part 6.1 Integrity Review

Part 7: Surrender to Activism: Invoking Ahimsa & Ishwara Pranidhana
Part 8: The Yamas & Niyamas Activism Model

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Butterfly: Medicine, Effect, & Meaning

8/26/2020

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Butterfly Medicine  Coco Yoga & Wellness
According to Rainbow Medicine: A Visionary Guide to Native American Shamanism by Wolf Moondance, the Butterfly as a Spirit Helper symbolizes beauty, faith, change, and sacredness.  The butterfly represents the circle or opening, both the beginning and end, and transformation.  Given the distinct life phases of the butterfly, and their limited life-span, butterflies exemplify the constant transient nature or way of things, what in Buddhism we may refer to as impermanence.  It's our grasping to our preferences that causes suffering.  We must learn to welcome whatever may come, and be willing to release whatever may go, for who are we to say what is better or worse for us anyway in the end? 

Ram Dass Butterfly Medicine Coco Yoga & Wellness
Ram Dass often told the story "of a farmer who had a horse that ran away.  His neighbor came by and said, “Oh, that’s terrible.”  The farmer said, “You never know.”  The next day the horse came back, and it was leading two other wild horses. The neighbor said, “That’s wonderful.”  And the farmer said, “You never know.”  Later, his son was training one of the wild horses, and while riding the wild horse, he fell off and broke his leg.  The neighbor came by and said, “That’s terrible.”  The farmer said, “You never know.”  The Cossack army came through recruiting everybody, taking away all the able young men.  They didn’t take the farmer’s son because he had a broken leg.  The neighbor came by and said, “That’s wonderful.”  And the farmer said, “You never know.”  And so it goes."  
​

Butterfly medicine teaches us to avoid clinging too dearly to any one state, and to appreciate the beauty in every cycle--birth of the caterpillar,  cocooning in chrysalis, emergence of the butterfly, butterfly dance and migration, and eventual return to the earth.  There's exquisite elegance in the perpetual dance of impermanence, a richness to each stage and epoch.  

The Butterfly effect:
Causality or Energetic Alignment

The Butterfly Effect Coco Yoga & Wellness
Understanding and applying this Buddhist philosophy can bring the Butterfly Effect to life in our lived experiences.  In chaos theory, the Butterfly Effect refers to a phenomenon in which due to the sensitive dependence on initial conditions, a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in later states.  While the theory and mathematical definition are applied in weather pattern prediction and quantum mechanics, the popular metaphor describes the example of the minor atmospheric perturbations from the flapping of a butterfly's wings influencing the details of a tornado's formation, path, and duration several weeks later.  
​

The idea speaks to our propensity to try to make everything comprehensible, to provide logical and calculable models and explanations, when in truth nature always defies rules and reason.  The essence of the lesson is to relinquish our dependency on our ordered reasoning, our ideas of cause and effect, our evaluations of undesirable and desirable events, and our maps and plans about how to avoid or achieve them.   Instead, when we emphasize aligning our intention, expectations, and vibrations to feelings of peace, joy, and appreciation no matter the circumstance or situation, we generate an energetic field around us for more such experiences to take form and be drawn in.  We create our own energetic field with every thought, every word, every prayer or intentionality in mindful action; our figuratively flapping butterfly wings can quell tornadoes and restore a sense of balance and cohesion.  It's about aligning in a particular heart-space and head-space, about maintaining a particular posture or attitude in our expressions, a rhythm and ritual to our way of being, that may ripple out and environ our peaceful place.  

Butterfly Design, Pattern, & light

We often admire butterflies for their intricate designs, shapes, colors, and plays of light.  For example the Morpho Butterfly, one of Costa Rica's great prides, exhibits a striking contrast in its wings from the top and under sides.  With wings closed together, they show natural hues of browns and yellow, with several round 'eyes,' but when they take flight with wings open, their scales diffract the light and shine with blue bright.  
Morpho Butterfly Coco Yoga & Wellness
White Witch Moth Coco Yoga & Wellness
Butterfly Gynandromorphs Coco Yoga and Wellness
We can appreciate the dichotomy between a butterflies' neutral tones to camouflage and blend in, and their flashiness to scare away predators, which makes them stand out.  

We can appreciate the dichotomy of the butterfly and the moth, diurnal and nocturnal, resting with wings closed or wings open.

We can appreciate as well how butterflies express and often reject the male and female dichotomy, expressing in many different asymmetries and new patternings.  

Sacred SInging CIrcle

Sacred Singing Circle Coco Yoga & Wellness
The first two Sacred Singing Circles with Angel and Adriana have been a pure joy to attend, coming together with like-hearted souls and building positive energy within a charged container, singing in  English, Spanish, Japanese, Sanskrit, Lakota, and Nahuatl.  In our first circle we sang the Mariposa / Butterfly song, appropriate for the new beginning in sacred and transformative circle, and in our second group we developed the felicitous theme with a Nahuatl butterfly song, 'Huey Papalotl.'  Lyrics, translation, and some explanation are outlined below.  Please join in the Sacred Singing Circle every other thursday evening; see the facebook events for up to date details and information.​
Mariposa Song Coco Yoga & Wellness
Huey Papalotl Coco Yoga & Wellness
Huey Papalotl Translation Coco Yoga & Wellness
Huey Papalotl Explanation Coco Yoga & Wellness

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Karma Yoga: Approaching Oneness with Awareness Around Intent and Impact

7/31/2020

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Karma Yoga: Approaching Oneness with Awareness Around Intent and Impact    Coco Yoga & Wellness
Karma Yoga: Approaching Oneness with Awareness Around Intent and Impact     Coco Yoga & Wellness
Derived from the Sanskrit root Yuj, which translates to attach, join, harness, or yoke, Yoga means union or coming to oneness, and speaks to how our personal experience intrinsically intertwines with the  diverse realities of others.  Karma means action, act, work, or deed, but differs from Kriya, which also translates as action, deed, or effort.  Whereas Kriya refers more to an activity, practice, or technique in terms of applying effort and taking steps in action, Karma ecompasses a broader view of an action’s impact, accounting for the actor’s intention, and the action’s effect and result.  Karma Yoga means approaching oneness through how we act with awareness around our intent and our impact.    
 
Ram Dass taught that, “We are complex entities in the fact that part of us is separate from everything else, and part of us is not separate from everything else.  That is, we are both a group of separate entities, and we are an awareness that is manifested as many entities but it is only one.”  Ram Dass said, “One could interpret life as an awakening journey back to unity, not to unity as opposed to diversity, but to the unity where unity and diversity are each contained in the other.”  This understanding requires our practice with Santosha, as we need to entertain in our minds a sense of unity and a sense of diversity, not as poles in opposition, but as elements like yin and yang, each contained within the other.  
 
As we allow for both diversity and unity to coexist within each other, karma yoga asks us to honor our separateness while we invest our attention in our sense of unity-consciousness.  It’s a question of whom we see when we look at others:  Them?  Us?  Me?  There’s a difference in our intention and our impact when we act from a place of separateness than when we act in an attempt to return to the one; both the way in which we perform the act changes, and the way in which the act affects us changes.  We still act from a place of ego, and we still must honor our distinct differences, but when we start from a place of separateness and act in order to return to a unity experience, we begin to apply our actions as an offering.  As Ram Dass said, “I work on myself as an offering to you.  I serve you as a way of working on myself.”
Whereas Kriya refers more to an activity, practice, or technique in terms of applying effort and taking steps in action, Karma ecompasses a broader view of an action’s impact, accounting for the actor’s intention, and the action’s effect and result.  Karma Yoga means approaching oneness through how we act with awareness around our intent and our impact.    

Coco Yoga & Wellness
Ram Dass taught that, “We are complex entities in the fact that part of us is separate from everything else, and part of us is not separate from everything else.  That is, we are both a group of separate entities, and we are an awareness that is manifested as many entities but it is only one.” 

Coco Yoga & Wellness
 Ram Dass said, “One could interpret life as an awakening journey back to unity, not to unity as opposed to diversity, but to the unity where unity and diversity are each contained in the other.”  This understanding requires our practice with Santosha, as we need to entertain in our minds a sense of unity and a sense of diversity, not as poles in opposition, but as elements like yin and yang, each contained within the other.  

Coco Yoga & Wellness
As we allow for both diversity and unity to coexist within each other, karma yoga asks us to honor our separateness while we invest our attention in our sense of unity-consciousness.  It’s a question of whom we see when we look at others:  Them?  Us?  Me?  There’s a difference in our intention and our impact when we act from a place of separateness than when we act in an attempt to return to the one; both the way in which we perform the act changes, and the way in which the act affects us changes.  

Coco Yoga & Wellness
 We still act from a place of ego, and we still must honor our distinct differences, but when we start from a place of separateness and act in order to return to a unity experience, we begin to apply our actions as an offering.  As Ram Dass said, “I work on myself as an offering to you.  I serve you as a way of working on myself.”

Coco Yoga & Wellness
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Karma Yoga Quotes & Questions

7/30/2020

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What responsibility do we have to each other?

Coco Yoga & Wellness
"The yes is yours, the no is yours, the consequences will be yours.  I love you enough – hence I give you total freedom.  If you love yourself enough, you will be aware what NO can do to you and what YES can do to you.  I teach you awareness and the leave you.  It is not that I will punish you, your NO will punish you itself.  YES will bring its own rewards.  It is not that I will reward you, YES brings its own rewards.  Between me and you there is no relationship other than love." ~ Osho Quote

Coco Yoga & Wellness
Will you accept the invitation? 

Coco Yoga & Wellness
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Svadhyaya: Self-Awareness in Reflecting on our Separateness or Duality

7/29/2020

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Svadhyaya: self-awareness in reflecting on our separateness or duality   Coco Yoga & Wellness
Svadhyaya: self-awareness in reflecting on our separateness or duality   Coco Yoga & Wellness
The Niyama Svadhyaya combines Sva, meaning one’s self, one’s own, the Ego, or human soul, with Dhyaya, which means meditating on, from the root Dhyai, to meditate, contemplate, or think of.  Often yogis translate Svadhyaya as the study of self, self-reflection, introspection, or self-observation, but this limits our understanding in the context of our 7.8 billion world-population.  These common translations miss the mark in that Sva means self in a broader sense, accounting for first person myself-ourselves, second person yourself-yourselves, and third person oneself-themselves.  Svadhyaya means much more than self-study; Svadhyaya connotes contemplating the 7.8 billion distinct individual selves who inhabit our planet, building awareness and understanding around our differences in perspectives and experiences.  In essence Svadhyaya means  duality-consciousness, or cultivating self-awareness in reflecting on our separateness or duality.
The Niyama Svadhyaya combines Sva, meaning one’s self, one’s own, the Ego, or human soul, with Dhyaya, which means meditating on, from the root Dhyai, to meditate, contemplate, or think of.  Often yogis translate Svadhyaya as the study of self, self-reflection, introspection, or self-observation, but this limits our understanding in the context of our 7.8 billion world-population.  

Coco Yoga & Wellness
These common translations miss the mark in that Sva means self in a broader sense, accounting for first person myself-ourselves, second person yourself-yourselves, and third person oneself-themselves.  Svadhyaya means much more than self-study; Svadhyaya connotes contemplating the 7.8 billion distinct individual selves who inhabit our planet, building awareness and understanding around our differences in perspectives and experiences. 

Coco Yoga & Wellness
In essence Svadhyaya means  duality-consciousness, or cultivating self-awareness in reflecting on our separateness or duality.

Coco Yoga & Wellness
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Svadhyaya Quotes & Questions

7/28/2020

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Where and how do I experience oppression?

Coco Yoga & Wellness
How do we remedy the race disparity?

Coco Yoga & Wellness
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Brahmacharya: Active Practice and Movement Toward Unity-Consciousness

7/27/2020

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Brahmacharya: Active Practice and movement toward unity-consciousness   Coco Yoga & Wellness
Brahmacharya: Active practice and movement toward unity-consciousness   Coco Yoga & Wellness
The Yama Brahmacharya combines the Sanskrit root Brahman, which means eternal truth, ultimate reality, single binding unity, or universal consciousness, with Carya, which means moving toward, going after, following, engaging in, or occupying oneself with.  Brahmacharya connotes the active practice and movement toward unity-consciousness.  Often yogis equate Brahmacharya with conduct or observances consistent with the path to Brahman, managing energies, extremes, and cravings, especially around sexual abstinence, but we must understand that Brahmacharya entails more than a code of practices or behaviors.  Brahmacharya means to actively and consistently pursue spiritual liberation through a lifestyle dedicated toward achieving unity-consciousness.  
 
We must remember too that unity-consciousness depends upon everyone achieving this enlightened state; unity-consciousness by definition cannot be a solo endeavor.  The mutuality around our efforts helps emphasize that there is no need to be austere in our earnest enterprise; we can maintain a playful attitude.  A favorite teacher of mine likes to imagine that she remains the last person approaching unity-consciousness, and that everyone she encounters each day is actually a Buddha or Guru in disguise, posing lessons for her, and waiting on her to reach realization, that unity-consciousness finally may be achieved. ​
The Yama Brahmacharya combines the Sanskrit root Brahman, which means eternal truth, ultimate reality, single binding unity, or universal consciousness, with Carya, which means moving toward, going after, following, engaging in, or occupying oneself with.  Brahmacharya connotes the active practice and movement toward unity-consciousness.  

Coco Yoga & Wellness
Often yogis equate Brahmacharya with conduct or observances consistent with the path to Brahman, managing energies, extremes, and cravings, especially around sexual abstinence, but we must understand that Brahmacharya entails more than a code of practices or behaviors.  Brahmacharya means to actively and consistently pursue spiritual liberation through a lifestyle dedicated toward achieving unity-consciousness.  

Coco Yoga & Wellness
We must remember too that unity-consciousness depends upon everyone achieving this enlightened state; unity-consciousness by definition cannot be a solo endeavor.  The mutuality around our efforts helps emphasize that there is no need to be austere in our earnest enterprise; we can maintain a playful attitude.  

Coco Yoga & Wellness
A favorite teacher of mine likes to imagine that she remains the last person approaching unity-consciousness, and that everyone she encounters each day is actually a Buddha or Guru in disguise, posing lessons for her, and waiting on her to reach realization, that unity-consciousness finally may be achieved. 

Coco Yoga & Wellness
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Brahmacharya Quotes & Questions

7/26/2020

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One God, many faces. One family, many races. One truth, many paths. One heart, many complexions. One light, many reflections. One world, many imperfections. ONE. We are all one, But many.” ― Suzy Kassem

Coco Yoga & Wellness
Who am I?  Who are you? 

Coco Yoga & Wellness
How can we see ourselves clearly?

Coco Yoga & Wellness
Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche Quote

Coco Yoga & Wellness
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Karma Yoga & The Paradox of All-One: Invoking Brahmacharya & Svadhyaya

7/24/2020

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Yamas and Niyamas Activism Teagan Patell de Valverde

YOGA & ANTI-RACISM SERIES,
​PART 4 OF 8

Building upon a solid base of Satya & Santosha and examining the purpose of Yoga, the next Yama & Niyama pair I'd like to explore in developing this Yamas & Niyamas Activism model is Brahmachary & Svadhyaya, which relate to our practice with Karma Yoga.  

​Brahmacharya

Brahmacharya: active practice and movement toward unity-consciousness   Coco Yoga & Wellness
Light Work by Autumn Skye  Brahmacharya: active practice and movement toward unity-consciousness   Coco Yoga & Wellness
The Yama Brahmacharya combines the Sanskrit root Brahman, which means eternal truth, ultimate reality, single binding unity, or universal consciousness, with Carya, which means moving toward, going after, following, engaging in, or occupying oneself with.  Brahmacharya connotes the active practice and movement toward unity-consciousness.  Often yogis equate Brahmacharya with conduct or observances consistent with the path to Brahman, managing energies, extremes, and cravings, especially around sexual abstinence, but we must understand that Brahmacharya entails more than a code of practices or behaviors.  Brahmacharya means to actively and consistently pursue spiritual liberation through a lifestyle dedicated toward achieving unity-consciousness.  
 
We must remember too that unity-consciousness depends upon everyone achieving this enlightened state; unity-consciousness by definition cannot be a solo endeavor.  The mutuality around our efforts helps emphasize that there is no need to be austere in our earnest enterprise; we can maintain a playful attitude.  A favorite teacher of mine likes to imagine that she remains the last person approaching unity-consciousness, and that everyone she encounters each day is actually a Buddha or Guru in disguise, posing lessons for her, and waiting on her to reach realization, that unity-consciousness finally may be achieved. 
​


Svadhyaya

Svadhyaya: self-awareness in reflecting on our separateness or duality    Coco Yoga & Wellness
Svadhyaya: self-awareness in reflecting on our separateness or duality   Coco Yoga & Wellness

The Niyama Svadhyaya combines Sva, meaning one’s self, one’s own, the Ego, or human soul, with Dhyaya, which means meditating on, from the root Dhyai, to meditate, contemplate, or think of.  Often yogis translate Svadhyaya as the study of self, self-reflection, introspection, or self-observation, but this limits our understanding in the context of our 7.8 billion world-population.  These common translations miss the mark in that Sva means self in a broader sense, accounting for first person myself-ourselves, second person yourself-yourselves, and third person oneself-themselves.  Svadhyaya means much more than self-study; Svadhyaya connotes contemplating the 7.8 billion distinct individual selves who inhabit our planet, building awareness and understanding around our differences in perspectives and experiences.  In essence Svadhyaya means  duality-consciousness, or cultivating self-awareness in reflecting on our separateness or duality.
 

Karma Yoga

Karma Yoga: Approaching Oneness with Awareness Around  Intent and  Impact     Coco Yoga & Wellness
Karma Yoga: Approaching Oneness with Awareness Around Intent and Impact   Coco Yoga & Wellness

Derived from the Sanskrit root Yuj, which translates to attach, join, harness, or yoke, Yoga means union or coming to oneness, and speaks to how our personal experience intrinsically intertwines with the  diverse realities of others.  Karma means action, act, work, or deed, but differs from Kriya, which also translates as action, deed, or effort.  Whereas Kriya refers more to an activity, practice, or technique in terms of applying effort and taking steps in action, Karma ecompasses a broader view of an action’s impact, accounting for the actor’s intention, and the action’s effect and result.  Karma Yoga means approaching oneness through how we act with awareness around our intent and our impact.    
 
Ram Dass taught that, “We are complex entities in the fact that part of us is separate from everything else, and part of us is not separate from everything else.  That is, we are both a group of separate entities, and we are an awareness that is manifested as many entities but it is only one.”  Ram Dass said, “One could interpret life as an awakening journey back to unity, not to unity as opposed to diversity, but to the unity where unity and diversity are each contained in the other.”  This understanding requires our practice with Santosha, as we need to entertain in our minds a sense of unity and a sense of diversity, not as poles in opposition, but as elements like yin and yang, each contained within the other.  
 
As we allow for both diversity and unity to coexist within each other, karma yoga asks us to honor our separateness while we invest our attention in our sense of unity-consciousness.  It’s a question of whom we see when we look at others:  Them?  Us?  Me?  There’s a difference in our intention and our impact when we act from a place of separateness than when we act in an attempt to return to the one; both the way in which we perform the act changes, and the way in which the act affects us changes.  We still act from a place of ego, and we still must honor our distinct differences, but when we start from a place of separateness and act in order to return to a unity experience, we begin to apply our actions as an offering.  As Ram Dass said, “I work on myself as an offering to you.  I serve you as a way of working on myself.”  I will be exploring more around loosening our grip on personal identity in relation to dharma and service in terms of sustainability and divisiveness in my next article invoking Aparigraha and Tapas.  



Karma Yoga in Practice with ANti-Racism

As we practice anti-racism in an effort to relieve the suffering of BIPOC communities, let us remember Ram Dass’ sage wisdom:
 
“I am working to help them and that, and at the same moment, I am working as a way to work on myself, realizing that until I am free of my identifications to my own attitudes, opinions, and separateness, my acts of necessity will be perpetuating some degree of divisiveness in the world.  Even as I'm doing good, I will be also creating suffering.  And in knowing that, I've got to work on myself and I can't stop until I’m enlightened because the dance goes on, and you can’t stop acting because you're in an incarnation, and the acting just keeps happening.  So then, the only conclusion is, I will use my actions to work on myself as an offering back into the system.  I work on myself as an offering to you.  I serve you as a way of working on myself.  And that double whammy, or that double investment, or that double process, means that the more you serve, the emptier of identification you get when you’re doing karma yoga properly.  And the freer of identification with your own separateness you get, the more you're being fed.  And the more you're being fed, the more you can do, and the more you want to do, and the more joy you're having from it.”
 
In practicing Brahmacharya, Svadhyaya, and Karma Yoga, we can address some common Spiritual Bypasses: denying diversity, discounting disparities, and avoiding accountability.  

Denying Diversity
We may hear people say, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” or “we are all one human race.”  In these cases we need to practice Svadhyaya and remember that we need to honor and respect the diversity of our unique experiences.  We should understand that what feels comfortable and safe to us, may not feel comfortable or safe to others.  Often yogis get hung up on the fact that Yoga means Union, and forget that while our aim is achieving union, there are necessary steps to take to get there.  Yes, we are all one human race, but the reality is that some of us enjoy privileges at the expense of the oppression of others.  We need to be aware and sensitive to that.  Let’s practice Satya with Svadhyaya and get honest about the reality of our current state of affairs and the reality of the experience of others, and practice Brahmacharya and Karma Yoga to move toward achieving equality and unity.  
 
Discounting Disparities
We may hear people say “I don’t see color,” “All lives matter,” or, “We’re all in the same boat.”  If we don’t see color, we are choosing to ignore that our systems demonstrate a pattern of benefiting some skin tones while prejudicing against other skin tones.  While we may all be weathering the same strom, we certainly are not all in the same boat.  While some of us relax in comfort in sturdy luxury yachts, others of us are struggling in the water, scrambling to keep afloat on whatever debris is within reach.   If you have ever criticised Rose for her famous declaration “I’ll never let go,” as she allowed Jack to slip into the cold abyss in the wake of the Titanic when there was clearly room for two on that door, it’s time to take a look at our own vessels and get real about our capacity to accommodate.  It’s time to recognize who has access to safe harbors and to identify who has been systematically left out at sea in dangerous open waters, made to battle to secure a solid place of safety.  
 
Avoiding Accountability
We may hear people say “Good vibes only.”  Yoga is a practice, and nobody ever promised that it would be easy.  Yoga is not about blissing out on love and light; it’s about dedicating ourselves to our practice, showing up consistently, leaning in to discomforts, and sticking with our goals and commitments.  The lightness, the bliss, comes only as a result of our earnest dedication and moving beyond blocks and obstacles.  If we are committed to practicing yoga, we can’t pick and choose what’s comfortable and convenient; the Yamas and Niyamas encompass an important part of a complete practice; Brahmacharya & Svadhyaya are important elements in practicing Yoga and Karma Yoga.  We must be willing to recognize the suffering, oppression, difficulty, violence, and tragedy happening all around us.  We first must be willing to see, acknowledge, and  process the reality of what's happening that we may come to a place of awareness and understanding.   Then our practice becomes an invitation to build our capacity to hold space for these extreme polarities in lived experience, to apply our efforts to achieve remedies and resolutions, and to participate in actively supporting justice and healing.

 

​More Anti-Racism Resources

Although I will continue to share resources that I am finding helpful personally as a white American woman new to the Anti-Racism movement, ultimately this is a personal practice.  Practice mindfulness in engaging in conversations.  Listen for what resonates, and for where you sense dissonance.  Apply a critical eye to facts, statements, and the source of information.  Watch out for bias and agendas, identify emotions and interests, and follow your instinct around what's inviting further investigation.   
  • Another easy step to take is following Austin Channing Brown on Instagram or Facebook, and making sure to watch her Instagram IGTV video from June 11: Lunch Break with Austin and Brene Brown.  
  • When you have more time, check out Austin’s online video series The Next Question.  I especially loved the two interviews with Andre Henry.
  • To go further, read or listen to Austin’s book I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness.

Yamas and Niyamas Activism Coco Yoga & Wellness
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Yoga & Anti-Racism Series
Part 1: How Yoga & Social Justice Intersect: A Contemplative Practice
..... Part 1.1 A Personal Commitment to Social Justice Practice
Part 2: Setting the Stage for Contemplative Practice:  A Personal Reflection
Part 3: Social Justice & The Purpose of Yoga: Invoking Satya & Santosha
Part 4: Karma Yoga & The Paradox of All-One: Invoking Brahmacharya & Svadhyaya
..... Part 4.1 The Work of Byron Katie: Bonding Brahmacharya & Svadhyaya with Satya & Santosha

Part 5: Dharma, Divisiveness & Sustaining Activism: Invoking Aparigraha & Tapas
..... Part 5.1 Bonding Aparigraha & Tapas with Brahmacharya & Svadhyaya

Part 6: Appropriation & Holding Space: Invoking Asteya & Saucha
..... Part 6.1 Integrity Review

Part 7: Surrender to Activism: Invoking Ahimsa & Ishwara Pranidhana
Part 8: The Yamas & Niyamas Activism Model
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Love Everyone & Tell The Truth

7/22/2020

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Neem Karoli Baba by Emily Garces Art
Love Everyone & Tell the Truth Coco Yoga & Wellness
Wisdom from Neem Karoli Baba. ❤️💙 Beautiful Art by Emily Garcés Art
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