“What is Yoga?” is the theme for February 2014

VIDEO

What is the role of devotion and worship in life today? How do we develop and sustain our desire for the Divine? Swami Radha engages us in questions about yoga, devotion, awareness and desire.

AUDIO

Swami Radha uses the Divine Mother mantra to show us how we can transform our everyday life into a practice of awareness, the essence of yoga.

TEACHING & REFLECTION IDEAS

  1. What is your “yoga” right now? What does “yoga” mean to you?
  2. Choose a text, such as Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras or Swami Radha’s Kundalini Yoga for the West or Woodroffe’s Shiva and Shakti and explore, What is yoga? from this perspective. Choose a sutra or the kundalini mantras and make your own commentary. Or create your own yoga sutras, stringing the pearls of your knowledge into a guiding text.
  3. Consider your life in terms of “Yoga is Dance. Dance is Yoga.” How is your life a dance? How is yoga a dance? Use a dance practice to help you explore. Review your diaries… can you see the flow of movement in your life?
  4. In Light and Vibration Swami Radha says the universe is an open question. How do you stay open to continuous learning? What are you doing at home and at work (personal and professional development) that sharpens your awareness? How does self-inquiry and questioning keep your mind open?
  5. “Tapas” in Sanskrit refers to a burning away, a purification. Choose a tapas and see what you learn. Renounce a habit or start a particular practice. Set a length of time and follow through. Examples are giving up coffee or sugar for a month, creating an extra waking hour and devoting it to a spiritual practice, or consciously restraining speech. Follow up by writing your observations. What happens to the mind when you direct your will in this way? What is self-will?
  6. “Yoga” translated means to “yoke.” What is separate in your life that needs to be joined together? How does acceptance come in? What about uplift and transcendence?
  7. Yoga is sometimes defined as a path of Liberation, a path of Light, a path to Higher Consciousness, a path of Self-Realization. What does “path” mean? What do any of these expressions commonly used to define yoga actually mean to you? Can you approach “beyond mind” through the mind? Through devotion? Through work? What is your way?
  8. Start where you are and build your foundation. One example would be going back to the basics of the Divine Light Invocation, renewing and revitalizing your practice.
  9. Focus on living the Divine Mother mantra. Choose a line every day and bring attention to it. Or choose one line for a month and observe what happens. What is yoga from this understanding?

YTN ONLINE DISCUSSION

As part of this month’s theme, we invite you to log into the Yasodhara Teachers Network (YTN), navigate to the Teaching & Learning forum, and join the discussion.

LIVE BHAJAN BLAST & DANCE OFFERING

Generate positive vibrations through sacred song and dance. In 2014 we will be offering four live-streaming Bhajan Blasts. Our first is planned for Sunday, March 16, 7-8:30 Pacific Time. Stay tuned! Watch last year’s Bhajan Blasts here.

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