A Living Tradition

By returning to familiar practices, seeing them differently, listening more closely, we discover that there is always another layer. 

At the end of August we enjoyed a Summer Series of practice together.  Across five days we explored different approaches, perspectives, and ways of practicing, while coming back to something timeless: yoga as a living tradition. 

From Lisa Petersen’s ‘Practicing Self-Inquiry’

“What somatic inquiry does then is that is helps us to access our somatic felt sense, our inner felt sense, which is an incredibly vast resource of embodied understanding.  Any any yoga student, any teacher, who has been practicing for some time knows that accessing our felt sense is really key to maturing a yoga practice towards what in this course we have been calling the ‘state’ of yoga.  

This is the essence of yoga that arises through a committed and diligent yoga practice.  This idea of inquiring somatically then into our experience can really be cultivated by curiosity, a spirit of exploration, where we are ‘somanauts’ inquiring into and exploring the wilderness of the body.  And somatic inquiry is one part of what we in yoga call self-inquiry or svadhyaya.  

We know that without self-inquiry, there is no yoga, there is no knowledge, there is no refinement.  Unless we choose to enquire into what is real and authentic in ourselves, and then by default, in the world….

So shared enquiry - this is a quote from my [Lisa’s] teacher Donna [Farhi] ‘shared inquiry paves the way for evolution of information, methods, techniques, and even spiritual understanding.’ So that is part of the idea that yoga has evolved, is growing, will continue to grow, and needs to if it is to serve the contemporary human.” 

From Leila Stuart’s ‘Embodying the Koshas in Practice’

“How do we embody the koshas in our practice?  Well, you’re already doing it, but you may not be so cognisant of it.  You many not have that awareness.  But after today’s session, I’m hoping that you will be able to see ‘Well, I already do this.  I already know this.’… “

“I like to think of [koshas] as dimensions.  They’re dimensions of our human experience.  And so just like a diamond has different facets and you can see something reflected in each facet, that’s kind of what the koshas are. When we open a particular aperture or cast our focus into a particular arena, then we have one kind of experience…So in this practice we’ll be shifting our perspective so that you can have a deeper understanding of what you’re already doing, embodying the koshas.”

From Doug Keller’s ‘The Science of Breath: Nitric Oxide and Cellular Renewal’

“One of my projects, along with making pranayama accessible to students, is to link the language of yoga to modern understanding and discoveries about the benefits of the breath and what comes with the breath.  I think there’s a very important linkage between the two.  The language of yoga is very evocative and experiential.  The words are meant to bring forth or evoke the experience within you…particularly this idea of the movement of prana or the different sensations that come with the movement of prana in the body, as a vehicle to not only the health of the body, but also as a vehicle to meditation.

Whereas modern language, scientific language, is more objective in the sense that precise terms are presented in a way that somebody else can actually test and verify its truth.  And yoga language being evocative and poetic and metaphorical…

But I think if we translate back and forth between yoga terms and more scientific terms, it really establishes an even more solid foundation of trust in the yoga techniques, and a willingness to engage in them and explore the experience of pranayama more deeply.”

Yoga isn’t something we learn once and keep. Wherever you are in your practice, there is always something to return to — and something new to notice.

Thank you to these wonderful teachers, and to everyone who joined us for the Summer Series.

We are pleased to be on this path with you and returning to our practice, together.