I woke up this morning and realized that no, that was not it for me. However, I think what happened is that whenever I see someone be so passionate about what they do; whenever I see someone following their bliss, as Joseph Campbell said, then I want to do what they do.  When, in fact, what I want to do is simply follow my own bliss, my own heart, my own dharma.

The word dharma is quite a complex word to describe. It is in a way like the word yoga. We know what the root of the word means but yet it has all these different meanings. Yoga of course means union, coming from the Sanskrit verb root yuj which means "to yoke, to unite." However, from there on the word gets complicated. Patanjali defines it as "the stopping of the fluctuations of the mind" or samadhi. Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita says that  "yoga is skill in action." My teacher John Friend says that yoga is "the scientific art of remembering your true nature."

Likewise the word dharma depends on the context being used. It comes from the verb root dhr which means "to uphold, to establish, to support." From then on it has a wide variety of interpretations. My trusty and handy dictionary (A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English by John Grimes) has 13 different definitions for the word. The first definition and the literal one is that dharma means "what holds together." 

Whenever I'm in doubt about a definition of a word or concept, I go to the aforementioned dictionary, to my notes with John or Carlos Pomeda or to Sally Kempton's articles, book or website. In one of her glorious Yoga Journal articles entitled "Do the Right Thing" Sally Kempton writes that classically dharma  means "right action" or in her own words, dharma refers to asking not only:  "What is the morally and ethically correct choice? But also, 'Given my nature, my skills and talents, and my personal preferences, what is the best way for me to support the greater good now?'" 

So, dharma refers to duty, to doing the right thing. Kind of like how we all in a yoga class have to align our bodies in a specific way so that we won't be in pain or hurt. For instance, everyone needs to have the top of their femur bones inside the hip socket as well as the head of the armbones back. And yet even if we are all doing that, and all the other alignment points, our poses would still look differently because of our own way of approaching them and doing them. So we follow the right universal actions and we also follow our own individual heart: dharma and svadharma (meaning: "one's own natural duty.")

So class today was about honoring the universal and the individual. About how we all have to align using the same principles of alignment, hence they are called "Universal" Principles of Alignment. And, keeping that, add our own individual flair to the poses. Therefore our poses are simultaneously universal and individual!

Dharma and Svadharma

Highlights:

*Started in cat/cow and when they were in cat pose I had them breathe into their back body, the universal. Keeping that, add the front body, melt the heart, add the individual to your pose. Dharma meets Svadharma.

*Did several poses the classical way, meaning more traditional, no crazy variations or backbends. And then in the latter part of the class had them do those same poses and keeping the Universal Principles of Alignment, add their own uniqueness to the pose. So for instance first time they did Trikonasana, it was the classical way. Second time we did it later in class, I had the students keep the UPA's and add some personal flair to their poses. So some people added a back bend to it, some stretched their top arm over their head, some took a bound triangle pose. I also did this with Warrior 1 also and Side Plank. It went well.

*Read Krishna's line from the BG III-35: "Better your own dharma- your personal duty- even if unsuccessful, than the dharma of another done perfectly."

Some things to work on:

*Noticed that I had my basic skeleton for the class but was not completely attached to it. Which was good because during the handstand part of the class, I was going to do a variation on handstand and one of my students asked about another variation so I just did hers. Sometimes I notice that I get too attached to my plan, to my program, that I don't allow spontaneity to happen. So it's important to come with a plan and still be willing to let it go.

*Class today at Black Dog yoga was a lot of fun. I really do think that coming with a strong theme helps. A theme which is personal and universal really grounds me as a teacher and calms me from any nerves. Yes, after all these years I still get nervous when I teach!