Walking The Path of the Quiet Heart: Teaching Yoga at Maui Yoga Path: October 31. 2021
Calm is higher than ecstacy—Ramana Maharishi
My world feels like it’s speeding up. I teach four studio classes a week, have three weekly private yogis, a book that’s in print, and fresh new 2022 tour dates for that other life — the one I’ve almost forgotten about—rock and roll.
I’m grateful for the work, to be sure. Ecstatic, actually. Happy enough that my joy can lift me clear off my feet. If there’s anything I’ve learned in the past 18th months, it is to ground. To endeavor to be present. “Calm is higher than ecstacy”, said Ramana Maharishi, and how wise this truth is. After all, sutra 1.2 says yoga is a quieting of the mind.
Until recently i’ve always associated this sutra with stillness. And I’ve enjoyed a certain stillness thus far through this pandemic, mas or menos, anyway. What the learning is now is more in line with the Bhagavad Gita, where yoga is defined as “skill in action”.
Can my heart be quiet in the midst of all this new energy coming in? I’m used to two speeds…still and a thousand miles an hour with a pot of coffee and unbridled enthusiasm paving the way. AKA exhaustion.
“The cure for exhaustion isn’t necessarily more sleep, it’s wholeheartedness.”., says Brother David Stendle-Rast. Wholeness is quiet, as I’m discovering. Yoga is relationship with everything, and attachment to none of it.
This week flew by. I had the great boon of teaching 6 classes in the midst of of tour contract negotiations, book proofing, a barrage of emails, and a general waves of energy that sometimes felt overwhelming, but with practice, also had gorgeous moments of c a l m, s p a c e, and p e a c e.
Our practice over the week was all themed around a quiet heart and we did various versions and mixing of these poses, all depending on who showed up.
Swastikasana with gratitude meditation
Marichiasana. open and closed twist
Vastistasana variation
Tabletop strength play
Balasana with blocks
Low lunge with anjayanasana
HIgh lunge twist
Uttanasana
Tadasana with lotus mudra and meditation
Qi gong windmiills
Qi gong side stretches
Utkasanana play
Warrior II
Prasarita padatanasana
Ardha purvotanasana
Setu Bandha play
Viparita Karani
Savasana
Sit
OM
Namaste
