To keep yourself informed about our schedule (and receive free monthly therapeutic recipes!) you can sign up for our email newsletter below.
Prajna Offerings (Our Blog)
News from Cape Cod
Our August immersion on the outer regions of Cape Cod was remarkable. In part due to the fact that Tias always loves teaching back in his home state of Massachusettes and parents live in nearby Wellfleet, but the sangha in this region is so vital thanks to the sheer passion and magnetic generosity of Tricia Duffy.
Tricia is our host here in Orleans and runs Everybodies Yoga. We had devoted students travel to the event from New Hampshire, Boston, Vermont and Providence Rhode Island. The event was made even brighter by the help of our 2 assistants, Kristen Darcy from Boston and Christina Hatgis from Brooklyn (who co-directs the Mala studio ). We love presenting in the local Orleans church, for it has a wood floor and beautiful vaulted timbers on the ceiling. The event is one of our favorites of the entire year. The North Atlantic is just nearby and the salt water air is so purifying and the vast dune beaches just around the corner form the venue.
A quote from Mooji
“Your entire being includes everything.
Your Self is all inclusive.
All this play of existence is appearing within you.”
Ways to guide students in lifting the pelvic floor?
Press inner thighs together with a block to engage inner groin adductor to begin the process of understanding the lift of the pelvic floor. Also, suggest lying on the back and getting them to soften the abdominal organs and begin to get the same actions in the legs, contracting and pulling up from the anal sphincter.
Another way – put students in poses where the heel of the foot is under the perineum/anus region, such as Ardha Matsyendrasana and teaching to lift up off the heel.
Namaste
The Sword That Splits Into One
The topic of Tias’ talk tonight is Manjusri’s ancient symbol of the sword of discriminating wisdom otherwise refered to as “prajna”. According to Tias, one edge of the sword signifies our differentiating mind while the other represents oneness and single-pointed concentration. Tias continues at length explaining the way in which the symbolic power of the sword can be used in yogic and meditative practices to achieve balance between undivided awareness and polarized thinking.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
A monk asked Master Sho of Kokei
A monk asked Master Sho of Kokei, “When things come from the four
directions and eight dimensions, what then?”
Sho said, “Hit the Middle”
The monk immediately bowed.
from “Thousands”, The Dhammapada
Better than a thousand meaningless statements
Is one meaningful word,
Which, having been heard,
Brings peace.
Better than a thousand meaningless verses
Is one meaningful line of verse
Which, having been heard,
Brings peace.
from “Thousands,” The Dhammapada
Track Sampler of “Fire In The Heart: Prajna Yoga Chants”
Historically, the art of Sanskrit chant was the avenue in which the ancient teachings of yoga were passed. Through Fire in the Heart, you may heighten your daily yoga practice and awaken the sacred sounds within. Chant along with Surya and Tias Little and learn the accurate pronunciation and meaning of the devotional chants and mantras of India. Enclosed is a booklet so you may practice the 26 divine chants to incorporate the resounding power of prayer for Shanti.
26 songs, 41 minutes
Please listen to a sampler of our new CD, “Fire In the Heart: Prajna Yoga Chants” by Surya & Tias Little. You may purchase the CD from the Prajna Store here on our website. Enjoy!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Tias writes …..
You can go backward or forward or remain where you are.
From Cologne, Germany
Our final stop on our 5 week Europe tour is Cologne Germany and we are staying in a charming section of the city on Neusserplatz. We are staying on the square of a very large cathedral named St. Agnes and the clock tower of the church is visible from the small kitchen where we take our breakfast. The square is lined with trees and in the park square, various community events are held–the Thursday morning farmer’s market and a Saturday used bicycle sale. Cologne seems to have more bicycle riders than any city we have been in. We have seen toddlers on bikes without peddles, business men commuting to work, women in summer dresses, shoppers coming home from the grocer’s with provisions in their rear basket and families pedaling together. Eno, Surya and I rented bikes on several occasions and toured the bike paths along the Rhine river. The river way was bustling with people both locals and tourists. There were abundant youth hanging out around the railway bridge just below the great Dom Cathedral. In Germany drinking bottled beer in public is fully accepted and it seems to be the local past time. Also so many Germans smoke cigarettes! We saw great barges chugging along the Rhine and we biked a half hour out of the city to riverbank summer spots where local could spend the day on small sand beaches playing football and swimming in the river.
Our host studio the Yoga Loft is a serene and spacious, located just two blocks from our flat. Veronique Fleming is our host and her positive and supportive energy has been tremendous for us. Anna Kirby from New Zealand has joined us here to assist in the training. She speaks German and so has been so helpful in and out of the classroom. Anna finished our 200 hour in Santa Fe 2 summers ago. We have has students come to take the course from Antwerp, Stockholm and Abu Dhabi.
This morning Eno and I went across the street to the local “Bakerie” to buy croissants for breakfast. Eno has become an accomplished scooter rider and can weave through foot traffic and stop at the street corners ahead of us. There are numerous cafes along the square and last night we had Italian food with Veronique our host, as the warm June sun set over the plaza. Earlier we had visited the magnificent Dom Cathedral built in the 13th century along the Rihine. Apparently it was spared during the American bombing over Cologne during the WW II. Its massive spires completely dominate the city and can be viewed from miles around. On our recent bike trip we went far down the river Rhine along a long bend in the river and could see the Dom Cathedral stand out as the center piece of the city. Anna and Eno and I walked to the top the day we visited—all 533 steps. The ascent took us above the belltower (Eno and I recalled the story of Quasimodo in the belfry of Notre Dame in Paris) as we surveyed the 7-8 bells grand bells atop the Dom. The view over the Rhine was breath taking and the sheer height of the look out turret was astounding. Eno and I loved the gargoyles hanging from the eaves with dragon wings and pointy ears.
Here in Koln Germany
Travelling through various countries and within various languages (here in Koln Germany, we are in our 5th country on this tour) it is clear the extent to which we see things through our own perspective. Being an outsider, one sees a culture, a community, the faces of the people, the architecture and neighbor-hood street corners in such different light than an ³insider² living within the place. Too, one hears the cadence of the police sirens, the clang of church bells, the volley of children¹s voices from the local school, the sound of the urban trains in commute, with different ears than for those who live and hear and absorb these sounds daily. On this trip I reflect on the sensory education that Eno receives‹not only sounds, sights and smells, but the felt sense of being in living spaces‹climbing the long stair well to our 6th floor apt. in Helsinki, on the balcony overlooking the tightly pressed apartment blocks over Istanbul, in the first class coach car on the train from Brussels to London, and in the compact flat here in Koln, with the kitchen and table and chairs the size of the tea party in Alice¹s journey down the rabbit hole.
By extension, not only do we perceive and filter the world in our own private ways when travelling, but all of experience, is filtered by our perspective. That is, all is “mind” made. Not only all that we experience in the outside environment, but all thoughts, perceptions and dreams that surface in the inner environment of the mind. In the yogic training, we must continually reflect on how we conjure up our experiences. When we are alone and inhabit the familiar landscape of our thoughts, it seems that our time to our selves is “real”, apart from the flux of circumstances that fills our days. Yet we must see our internal monologues as illusory. There is nothing solid or “real” about our time in private thoughts. This time in private seems to be the time when we can really be true to ourselves. Yet in the yogic study, as we perceive that all is ³mind-made², then we see that all thoughts within our inner dialogues are fabrications. The more I practice and reflect on the heart of the yogic path, that is, seeing the individual self as empty and insubstantial, the more I see the vision of the path as totally radical. That there is no solid I or me, that all is but bits and pieces of personal viewpoints, perspectives and interpretations is a radical and frightening realization. At times I feel like Arjuna on the battle-field when Krishna reveals his true being and Arjuna is overwhelmed by the vision. Upon seeing that the “private” is not real, but that thoughts are but projections of various attitudes and view-points conditioned by times and circumstances we find ourselves in, the pervasiveness the totality of the vision is mind-blowing. We realize the extent to which we have invested in our own drama, as the narrator of our own story. When we realize the narrator is a fabrication what is left?
It is critical in “practice” to see again and again the limits of the narrator’s point of view. In as many ways as possible, and through out as much of our experience as possible, it is necessary that we expose our self-centered perspective to be, in the words of the Buddha, “like phantoms, hallucinations and like a dream”.