Teach To Learn; From Love, For Love, With Love
Towards the end of 2014, my husband Matthew and I bought Yoga Center Amherst from Patty Townsend. While I was 100% sure that yoga was my life’s aspiration, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to own a yoga studio because of the commercialism and cultural appropriation inherent to Western yoga studio culture. But when I prayed about it, I received a clear message from the Divine Mother to say yes to taking this on.
As we were moving through the purchase agreements, it became clear that owning/directing the studio also meant that I would take on the lead teacher role of the teacher training that Patty had been previously doing and I had been assisting. I witnessed myself shrinking back, feeling the energies that try to keep me small, and I thought “these are very big shoes to fill, how could I possibly fill them”.
Over time I realized it wasn’t about filling in anyone else’s shoes. It was about filling out my own shoes. It was about trusting my heart, inner guidance and my profound reverence and love for the practices, teachings and path of yoga…
I Love Yoga
I love yoga and I love the spiritual and material soil in which yoga was planted and cultivated. India nurtured yoga and has feasted on its fruits for millennia.
The word yoga generally refers to the indigenous wisdom traditions of India. My approach to studying or teaching about these traditions is rooted in reverence.
The stream of yoga has flowed through the teachings and lives of countless gurus. Some wrote their teachings down, or were written about by their disciples; some just lived and embodied yoga and nourished the aspiring hearts of those who came to learn and grow. Texts have recorded some of these teachings and lives, snapshots of yoga’s course through time. These texts hold more than words: they hold vibration, energy, concentrated wisdom in which we can wrap ourselves, immerse and bathe.
An Awakened Heart Births Expansive Love
A love letter and prayer for all of humanity.
May our hearts expand and an embodied divine love become a flowing river.
❤️
Photo cred: Piotr Redlinski, Tiruvannamalai, South India
Fear, Faith and Embodying Shraddhā
This writing is a personal sharing from Corinne about some of her experiences with fear, faith and embodying shraddhā.
This photo was taken in Tiruvannamalai during a moment of rest while participating in girivalam around Holy Arunachala.
Photo cred thx to Piotr Redlinski
Honoring the Souls of Nations
On February 24th, Matthew was invited to be a panelist for a conversation about the souls of nations. His talk on the topic begins with the premise that a soul, whether of a person or a nation, cannot be understood by thinking about it. It has to be touched directly. It has to be felt.
Suprasensible
The very fact that the horizon recedes demonstrates that just because something is suprasensible does not mean that it is unreal. As our technology extends the reaches of our senses, we discover new things all the time that were previously suprasensible. What is the great discovery of tomorrow that, like black holes, or quarks, will upend our current understanding of reality? What realization is hiding just beyond the reach of our senses, awaiting our breakthrough?
Honoring The Origins of Yoga
Thousands of years ago, a movement of seekers emerged in the land that we now call India. Amid nascent cities, and in the midst of an increasingly rigid, stratified society, these rebels defied conventional norms. They walked away from their families and friends, out of the cities and into the forests and fields. Soaked by the monsoon rains and baked by the relentless sun, unprotected from venomous snakes, wild dogs and mountain cats, they gave themselves to a timeless quest for self-understanding. They traded comfort and safety for the adventure of hunting unadulterated truth.
Purification: an Essential Aspect of Yoga
Many of us in the modern world use self hatred as a vehicle for change. We judge ourselves and find ourselves lacking, and use this dissatisfaction as momentum to work out or study so we can be stronger and smarter and more beautiful. But self hatred is not the only motivator. We can desire to be more loving, more truthful, more sincere, and more humble. We can be changed by love, hope, and aspiration. These changes are purification, and they happen naturally to anyone who commits to the path of yoga, if by yoga we mean a realization of the inherent unity of all.