The Wow of Now

3rd October 2011

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Through the Yoga Door: Yoga on Bali Part II

Yoga on Bali    Part II

By Tara Khandro

            Yoga is life    Guru Ketut Arsana, Ashram Munivara

            Part I of this article showed the attraction of   Bali for yoga enthusiasts and the evolution of yoga worldwide as a   rapidly growing lucrative business.  Yoga entrepreneurs are   creating   business paradigms with an awareness that   we are ‘One World, One Love” through reciprocity:  Freely giving to the community which supports their yoga ventures.   Due to the increasing   numbers of yoga devotees to Bali,   Desa Seni Eco-Village resort in Canggu and Yoga Barn in Ubud have built additional   yoga studios.  In   2010 the Governor of Bali inaugurated   The   Markandya Yoga City at Gunung, Sari Bali.  Bali seems to be flowering into what one young Singaporean woman identifies as “the real place for yoga.”

Yoga has become a trademark brand.  Mass consumerism generates a gradual loss of meaning. A recent program on a National Public Radio station in the U.S. featured a discourse between a Hindu priest and a yoga instructor in a gym. The title of the program: “Has Yoga Strayed Too Far From Its Hindu Roots?”   Essentially, yoga is a spiritual evolutionary path. Yoga  is, says Anusura Yoga teacher Tara Judelle, “A dialogue of consciousness”.   When Padmasambhava   brought the teachings of Buddha to Tibet,  Yeshe Tsoygal, a renowned Bon shaman, became his teaching consort resulting in Tibetan Buddhism containing elements of Bon shamanism. In this advancing technological age, yoga’s evolutionary growth is taking on elements of materialism.   Guru Ketu Arsana says that “Yoga takes you into your heart” Our heart center is the temple in which the union, the, ‘yoking’ of ourselves back into a conscious dialog with the divine occurs.

Linda Madani of Intuitive Flow Yoga says that “Yoga   isn’t something you can just “get” then teach like auto mechanics.  This   truth is key in understanding for a teacher and a student. Yoga   is an ongoing process of multi-faceted awareness for life.”  The nature of this ‘multi-faceted awareness’ is like a   Zen Koan. This is a Zen Koan:  Nothing evil, nothing good! My Original Face now!  (Those Zen guys always want something now.) On   the surface a Zen Koan seems   simple yet takes years to fully realize.  The ultimate realization happens days, weeks, months or even years later, appearing as if by “accident”. However the accident is created through our devotional intent to discover its ultimate meaning for our life experience. When the accident occurs, this is our now.

Yoga   initiates   a   lively  conversation between body, mind and Spirit.  Bali is an ideal place to begin and deepen this exchange with consciousness. Its lush, sensual nature hugs us into relaxing   into and remembering our divine heritage.  Its Bhakti (devotion) seeps into our pores.  Bali   offers   a smorgasbord of yoga forms and teachers from many perspectives. These differences are vital in developing an understanding that Unity Consciousness is comprised of harmonic diversity.  When I returned to the U.S. from my first trip to a developing country,   I stood stunned facing the plethora of products in the produce section.   Bali can solicit a stunning effect with its many yoga flavors.

 There are many doorways into yoga. It doesn’t matter which door you enter-Patty’s Pregnancy Yoga,   Freddy’s   Flying Yoga or Tantric Toothbrush Yoga. Any form invites us to relax.  When we relax, we begin to feel what is real. Our restless mind rests. Relaxation   simultaneously   introduces us to those rejected parts of ourselves, banished to the dungeon of our hearts.  No matter what door we enter each portal can lead you  towards  the conscious development of  the embodiment of  your  True Nature, Joy.   Guru Ketut Bandiastra of Taman Hati Ashram  provides a simple approach to any door:  “Enter the yoga door through the pure desire to feel yourself in your skin-to breathe… to relax… to feel the body, mind and feelings in a different way. Enter to learn how   to say Namaste and   live its meaning.”

 A student may enter into the yoga dimension to reduce stress, heal an aching back, or as a compliment to rigorous aerobic activity yet at some point the alchemy of combining breath with movement with meditation begins to open a student’s   heart and mind.   Questions compelling a student upon the quest of enlightened consciousness arise: “What are my values? What are my beliefs? What do I feel? What is my mind? Who am I? How am I living in the world?” Guru Made Sumantra feels yoga guides us to understand life and to reveal that we are ‘soul in a body’.

 Yoga is a psycho-spiritual science, a medium which provides us with tools to engage those dungeon dwellers in our heart with detached, loving awareness.   Yoga can be   a sage relationship expert. Ibu Rai Rasti is a warung owner on Jalan Monkey Forest. She   is a 3 year student of Guru Ketut’s Bandiastra.   Ibu Rai says yoga shows her how to respond to life instead of reacting.  “I know how to control my emotions now so that I do not react with anger, or self-pity. For example, if someone around me is talking too much, I just walk away. I do not give them my attention.”   

Yoga invites us to awaken, anchor and live into the awareness of our   divine   inner authority. Gautama Buddha instructed his disciples not to be sheep.  He did not want his students to follow him simply because he was packed with enlightenment power. Buddha guided his students to take his words into the walk of their unique life experience to test their validity. A   true   teacher is a conscious medium allowing the truth of the teaching to flow. He or she   points the way.   Many students too   often participate in a class, turning their power over to the teacher, a perceived outer authority.  If yoga takes us into our heart, while in a class, metaphorically   hold one hand on your heart, maintaining your own felt experience   while extending the other to receive the teacher’s teaching.  

No matter if one is a novice, a seasoned practitioner or a teacher we are all beginners. The teacher in front of you is also a student.  We are all students of the “Great Cosmic Teacher” Guru Made Sumantra reminds us.  The teacher practices his or her yoga discipline through teaching.  Each teacher imparts his or her understanding   of the evolving panorama that is yoga.

There are many reasons why a person wants to become a teacher.  Tara Judelle    asks prospective students who want to learn how to teach Anusura Yoga:  “What is compelling you to teach? Do you just want a better job? Do you want to feel yourself as an expert, a star and stand in front of people and be seen? Do you want to teach   to be needed? Do you simply want to share your own process regardless if it really helps others?”   If the student answers yes to any of these questions she quickly informs them that these motivations are arising from a wrong perspective.

Ask yourself a few questions upon completion of a yoga class:

  “Do I feel safe with this teacher?  How do I feel after taking the class?   Do I feel uplifted?  How do I respond when this teacher speaks and adjusts my body?”  Inside of your body is the Cosmos. Listen to it. It will tell you exactly what it needs. We can experience a great physical workout; say in a Power Yoga class simultaneously leaving in a state of dynamic peace and grounded Joy.    Patanjali, the person who created the yoga sutras tells us that the practice of asana originated as a means to prepare the mind/body for long hours of meditation.  He said that “Posture is mastered by freeing the body and mind from tension and restlessness and meditating on the infinite.”   When you leave a class, is your mind clear?  Do you feel your heart more open?

Many, many moons ago I attended a class of a yoga teacher who happened to be endorsed by experts in other fields and taught other yoga teachers who were experts in their particular flavor of yoga. In other words, the guy was ‘famous’.  He was from the United States, my country of origin and the class was on Bali.  In these trademark yoga times, it is wise to   be alert to a teacher who wants to impose his or her brand of “Self Help” disguised as a spiritual teaching.

The first words out of this teacher’s mouth were: “When I say the word   “America” what comes to mind?”   What came to my mind:  Fear, greed   domination. Then I felt exclusivity by the question because the class is composed of humans from many different countries. I wondered what this question had to do with a 90 minute asana yoga class.  It seems that while net surfing the night before he came across a website created by a man (an American)  who instead of committing suicide wrote down ‘100 reasons to Live’. This teacher was inspired by this and asked us to consider for our yoga class, our reasons for living.  As I was not suicidal I had absolutely no reason to live other than to partake in this yoga class.   My next thought was: “Does Oprah now have a yoga teacher training school?”  I then looked around to see how I could make an invisible exit. I chose to stay as I was keenly curious on how this teacher put together his brand of yoga.

He then led us through a physically demanding asana class.  I love to sweat, engage in pure physical workouts and I rose to the occasion.   However I did have to wonder:  “Why do I want to live?”  We were so focused on every inch of our body that there was no room for any other level of awareness.  The conclusion of the class brought us back to the initial suicidal prevention intent. How did I feel after class?  I felt exhausted, confused and used.  I felt like mayonnaise spread on bologna between two pieces of white bread. Tara Judelle calls this kind of teaching   a ‘spiritual sandwich”. 

We are all unique individuals at different points of awareness on our yoga pilgrimage into the heart.  I may not resonate with Swami Sunbath yet you might feel he is the most advanced yogi of all time.  This is true: When the student is ready the teacher appears. No matter where we are on our dialog of consciousness spiral, we receive the exact teacher and teaching resonant to bring forward that which is ready to be revealed.  There are many doors, many teachers and many students needed to spread yoga goodness worldwide. What did the Spiritual Sandwich   teacher reveal to me?  I am not mayonnaise.

Too many   yoga students tell me that they attended a class of a teacher who   facilitates a deep psycho-emotional exercise at the end of the class.  The   student leaves ungrounded and emotionally distraught. To my knowledge, the only form of yoga designed to facilitate deep emotional healing is Forest Yoga. Any yoga class can open up locked emotions, yet it is not a context that provides a container and   tools for processing the information.  If you are aware that you are engaging in deep emotional trauma issues call upon a professional with whom you can safely integrate these past experiences.

As a yogini who entered the yoga door labeled: ‘Yoga as Self-Transformation’ at a time when raw food was only for rabbits and a leotard and tights was the only available yoga apparel, I am thrilled at its evolution into mass consciousness.  I enjoy living in a community where I see many people carrying yoga mats under their arms instead of guns. Humanity is in the midst of an unprecedented shift in this dialogue of consciousness. We are moving away from discourses founded in fear into ones arising out of Love. Guru Made Sumantra says that “Without Love we cannot channel our energy. Our life is an offering to the Cosmos. We are not separate.” Yoga provides an opportunity for us to, as Master Yogini Uma Inder says,   ‘Relax   into the intoxication of your Joy.”

Om Swastyastu

Contact the writer at tarakhadro@yahoo.com