Rainbows and Unicorns: Teaching Yoga on the Grassy Knoll: Kihei, HI : August 23, 2021

A beautiful Maui rainbow greeted us after savasana.

I love the song "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and I've been a rainbow thinker most of my life, meaning blue skies, love, peace, abundance, all those things I want are over there. Today, when I saw the rainbow from the point of view of savasana, it occurs to me maybe we are over the rainbow just exactly where we are. The rainbow has two ends, yes? Who says the proverbial pot of gold is over there?

Our minds, that's who.

The teachings of yoga try to help us see exactly where we are is everything. The very first yoga sutra says, "the teachings of yoga are here and now". The rest of the sutras are suggestions on how we might find that mental state, that deep Truth. Rumi says, there are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the earth", and the yoga sutras give us 195 ways (there are 196 sutras in all) to, in our own manner of speaking, kneel and kiss the here and now.

I've never seen the rainbow from this side. I’ve never considered I was sitting smack dab in the middle of the pot of gold. But I did this morning, with the help of the dedicated yogis of the Grassy Knoll, who show up week after week. Each of us bringing our own selves, and offering our warriors, half moons, and lunges into the fire that burns through the illusion that anything over there is better than right here .

Here’s our sequence:

Banana pose

Table top with cat and cow
Single leg pushup's
birddog with arm lifts
gate pose with side bend and half-half moon
half virasana

Downdog

Low lunge
Warrior II dance
Peaceful warrior
Trikonasana
Warrior II with heart opener

Bridge with eka pada dandasana

Twisted root
Star

Savasana with hand to heart and belly meditation
Sit
Heart hug
Namaste

Health, Love, and Rock and Roll