Category Archives: Classes & Offerings

Information on classes, workshops and other teaching offerings

Dance your heart out

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Today felt like the inner dance process properly, finally landed in Osaka as four Sprit Yoga Studio students joined the session. It was time to turn things inside for a moment, to experience what is deep within through the body.

With little explanation, a matter of necessity due to my lack of Japanese, we went straight into experience. First, an exercise of feeling the energy moving our hands. Then with a demonstration with Fusako-san, a student from the Mysore program, who attended the first ID session.  As Fusako-san explained her experience, the lightness and the lack of thought in the movement, I looked around. Participants looked calm but a little baffled.

Nothing left to explain, we decided to go ahead and dive in. And dive in we did. I prepared an all Shiva-inspired sound track to help us into the process. Shiva, who is Nataraja, the dancer, would lead us into it. And he did not fail.

ImageThere was dancing. Small, quiet movements. Full, all-out movements. There was some emotion. And a lot of peace.

There is no formula for the dance. But when it works, we simply know it. We feel its power, we feel the opening in the body.

 As we shared afterwards, one participant asked what was the purpose of the dance? The dance is a healing modality. It can move energy, emotion stuck in the body. We are able to observe it and then in the observing, release it. But I added that my own purpose was to help people see who they really are beyond all the constructs, to simply remember, if only for a moment, their truest of natures.

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The empty room

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The empty room

An empty place is a space of great potential. It waits for filling. It has room for it. When we empty out, when we create space in our bodies, in our minds, in our lives, we invite the remarkable new. It inevitably comes. And fills the room until it is time to be emptied out once again.

Spirit Yoga Studio on September 19, Harvest Full Moon Day. The satsang circle waits for students to arrive for today’s Yogic Warrior lecture class.

Photo by Akemi Hakuto

Harvest Full Moon

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Harvest Full Moon

Happy moon day! Grateful for those who came to the lecture class today on the yogic warrior. I also want to applaud the students who decided to honor moon day as a day of rest.

So today’s full moon is closest to the fall equinox and was used by farmers as a light to harvest their crops during this time of the year.

With that in mind, I want to ask this question: what have you been growing and cultivating that now needs harvesting? What is now ripe for the picking?

Practice Rain or Shine

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Practice Rain or Shine

“If you want to see the sunshine, you have to weather the storm” –Frank Lane

Early Monday morning, a typhoon blustered through Osaka. I cycled in the rain to the studio and wondered if anyone else would make it. 6:30 rolled around, nada. 6:45. Then Yuki arrived. Later Yukako. Then Naoko and Ricki. A small room, but steady energy. With flood waters up and some train routes stalled, It was understandable that many were absent. By the time mysore practice was done, so was the storm. The sun had come out, all bright and shiny.

Photograph: Yuki in purvottanasana.

Osaka Workshops: Ashtanga Foundations & Flow / Inner Dance: Doing, Being, Seeing

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It’s been an amazing month and a half here in Osaka. I would like to think I have given my lion’s share, but I know the truth is I have, once again, received more than I have been able to give. The blessings abound. So the next three weeks is a sort of no-holds barred kind of sharing. In the mysore room at least, it feels like we’re past the getting-to-know-you phase. And it’s all about getting into the nooks and crannies of practice. Getting into the details. Refining.

I’m also really excited to be able to share in a workshop setting the two processes which I hold dear, and which I think compliment each other so seamlessly. It will be an opportunity to dive into the rich experience of ashtanga and inner dance. They can be taken separately or as a pair. The lessons will weave nicely between the foundations of yoga and the fluidity of surrender more easily accessed through inner dance.

① Ashtanga Foundations & Flow

Ttristana, the 3-principles of breath, posture and drishti, create a steady foundation in practice and allow us to flow with power and grace.

With the support of yoga masters Patanjali and Krishna, we will look in to the philosophy behind these principles. And we will explore these principles in both basic and some more intermediate postures, discovering how stability creates flow in practice.

② Inner dance ~ A process of Doing, Seeing, Being ~

Moving meditation, connecting with one’s highest purpose, removing energetic blockages in the body.

As we playfully explore this healing modality from the Philippines, we will experience the magic and mystery of shakti or energy in the body, and how we all have the intuitive ability to dance with this energy and use it to feel free and fluid in our lives.

● ScheduleDate:
① September 28th Sat. 10:00 ~ 12:30 @ Spirit Yoga 5F
② October 5th Sat. 15:00 ~ 17:30 @ Spirit Yoga 6F

● Reservation:Please reserve before the dates below.
Ashtanga:. Sep 22nd Sun.
Inner Dance: Sep 29th Sun.

● Cost:For 1 class JPY4, 500 (Drop-in JPY5, 500)
For 2 classes JPY8, 000 (Spirit Yoga Members Only)

http://spirityogastudio.com/event/workshop/ashtanga-ws-kaz.html

Sunday sadhana

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Sunday sadhana

“The power of a movement lies in the fact that it can indeed change the habits of people. This change is not the result of force but of dedication, of moral persuasion.”

-Stephen Biko
South African Political Leader

Storm signals were up this morning, yet students still filled the room. Practice is always best when performed with love and dedication. So grateful to be in such dedicated company.

Inner Dance Aum Exploration

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A couple of hours after the inner dance at Spirit Yoga, I found myself looking up at this “OMM” building. Perfection.

 
Today’s inner dance key vibratory statement was “Aum,” wholeness, that which is complete. We started with Aum and ended with Aum–and the dance was everything in between.

It’s true what they say about how teaching is a co-creation between the teacher and the student, that lessons flow according to need and readiness of those receiving it, of those willing enough to surrender to the mystery of it. As I continue to offer the ID (Inner Dance) process to yoga practitioners, the process reveals itself more and more in the language of yoga. And in Japan, it takes on a subtle energy, soft waves of healing energy and light. There is a lightness to the dance I’ve been witnessing here. A willingness that encourages energy to move. The experience is there, if not entirely the highest observation of it. 

One returning student described attending ID as her “therapy”, which tells me that the dance is working its magic. 

I will continue to offer ID every Saturday at 2:30pm at Spirit Yoga Osaka until the end of September. October 5, we will have a special ID workshop, where students will experience how to co-facilitate with each other. 

For workshop details, click here. 

The importance of taking rest

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The importance of taking rest

“Take rest; a field that has rested gives bountiful crop” –Ovid

Do we not sleep after a day of activity? Resting after practice is vital to finding balance for the rest of the day. Always give yourself a good rest after yogasana practice. Students here in Osaka take a well-deserved rest, allowing for the body to fully integrate after Friday morning led class.