Clearing Space: Teaching 'At Home In Your Own Heart', Part 1 of 3, at Yoga Loka: Reno, Nevada: August 18. 2018

I found I didn't have to make my tiny closet any bigger, I just had to ditch a lot of clothes that I no longer needed This was a whopping step for me in making my new house a home. It is also a practice inspired by the teachings of the kleshas. We don't need more room in our heart, we just need to cleanse that which blocks her from Love.

Gathering for a practice of being At Home In Your Own Heart is an important activity for me. Not because I get to teach, although I sure love to talk about yoga and be with yogis, but also because the teachings come online in my heart. Like any relationship, the more I tune to love and to the lessons in life I want to learn more about, the more becomes revealed. These are the alignments, often so freshly hatched in my awareness, that I can't help but endeavor to share.

We dove right into the alignment of Love. It is the most common teaching, from the hearts of Jesus and Mohamed, from the Buddha and the Beatles and all sages from all paths of spiritual life. It is also the most advanced. It is what I'm most interested to learn about and where I'm most interested to be.

Love is. Everywhere, all the time, in me,  in you, in everyone. The problem is that we don't see it clearly.  The yogis mind mapped this tight spot, asmita. Concentration on the heart, which takes massive amounts of practice, is useful because it reveals the contents of the mind (PYS 3.34 or 3.35 depending on translation). And if our mind isn't in the alignment of love we aren't in the alignment of love. Its really that simple.

The practice today was to gently move the body, but more of interest was beginning to move the mind towards clarity for the purpose of seeing our spiritual heart, the anahata. Translated as unstruck, unbeated, unbroken. Its not that our hearts need to become bigger and more open, its that we need to declutter her. Its not that we need self improvement, its that we need to self study.

Here is our sequence:

Welcome

Windshield wiper
Savasana stretch
Three rhythms meditation

Eye of the Needle
Savasana
Sutra 1.2 to 1.4 meditation

Cat and Cow
Barrel Roll
Child's pose
Child's pose with side stretch

Downdog

Uttansasana
Tadasana
Shoulder rolls
Neck stretch
Shoulder openers with strap

Tadasana with 4 Rhythms meditation

Low lunge

Tadasana
Gratitude meditation
Share your Love meditation

Tadasana
Uttanasana
Malasana

Bridge

Easy spine twist with splat pose

Savasana

Sit
Heart Center meditation
Namaste

After class I went to eat Thai food around the corner with my former next door neighbor Rosie, reminding me clearly that love is love is love and it doesn't matter where you live, its about how you live. When you are in the heart center, life will keep you nourished.

Health. Love, and Rock N Roll