Concealment and Revelation
It had to happen. Two weeks after my Maui retreat I'm finally arriving. I'm coming back to the city. to the challenges and responsibilities of my life, and I'm coming back to traffic. I arrived from Maui in such a sweetly blissful state. And now two weeks later, well, it happened: I was driving to a private, on a 45 minute traffic from the Dodger game. The car in front of me was driving mindlessly and I flipped my middle finger at them. Me! The yoga teacher! My hand went into said mudra and I couldn't believe it. I'm afraid that my peaceful place has been lost and it has been replaced by stress.
And yet one of the many rich lessons of yoga, and in particular, of tantra is that our true nature is peace. So even in times when we don't feel it, when we forget, it's simply because we are experiencing concealment. Concealment is one of the main energies of Siva or the One energy. So the next time we feel like we are going to forget something or we are afraid of losing something, we are probably experiencing the dance of concealment, which is simply one of the main dances. And it partners really nicely with revelation, another of the five main acts of Siva (the other three are: creation, sustenance and dissolution). For instance, have you ever forgotten that you put $20 in your jean pocket and weeks later you find it? And your joy couldn't be more palpable? So today's class was about forgetting and remembering.
Theme:
Concealment and Revelation
I focused on Shoulder Loop.
Highlights:
*Different parts of the body have to hide so that others can be more present: head of the armbones go back, heart becomes more open.
*"Some poses will appear unattainable today but keep showing up, keep practicing, and the breakthrough will come one day.
*Tons of urdhva with one minute break in between: "Plug the armbones into the shoulder socket, and then reveal the heart!"
*Drop backs! Talk about going into the unknown!
*It was a great class. Nice big group. Many did poses for the first time.
One student , Cathy, said the nicest compliment. She said that normally she always takes child's pose in every class but with me (this was her first time with me) she found that because I was soft in the way we approached the poses, she didn't feel like she needed to formally take a break. She felt that I was challenging and yet giving time to rest. Love it!
Something to work on:
I just wrote a compliment a student gave me today. And I actually thought about erasing it since it sounded like I was showing off.
And yet I have no problem writing about when I have small classes, or when I did something wrong or about my struggles.
Why is it so hard to write something good about me?
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