It is the beginning of class, you sit down on your mat and the teacher says “close your eyes and connect with your breath.”  Ugh.  Torture.  “10 minutes of complete silence watching my breath?”  At that exact moment, your mind takes off!  Your thoughts are racing!  “Watch my breath? Ugh.  I don’t have time for this!”  Or “Did I lock my car…yeah I did, I think I did.  Did I?”  Or “ah there is nothing in the fridge…maybe I’ll swing by Barnaby’s on my way home tonight.” And then the instructor draws your attention back, “bring your attention back to your breath.”  And you think “oh yeah, right my breath, I’m inhaling, I’m exhaling, I’m inhaling, I’m exha—wait! Why do we do this again. Oh right, I’m ‘meditating’.”

Meditation. What the heck is it anyway?  When you think of meditation, you likely conjure up some image of a yogi half naked with a long beard, sitting in lotus pose completely still and you assume that his mind is completely still and he is one with, well, everything.  Um, ok.  Here’s the thing, silencing the mind is nearly impossible.  Many people think you can turn off your mind, like you are flipping a switch and that you ‘can’t meditate’ if you can’t sit still.  Turn off your mind?  Would you really want to do that?  C’mon!  You need your mind, don’t you?  The good Lord gave you a body, a mind, emotions so why the heck are we so focused with amputating the mind?  You need the mind so that you can function in this world.  Think of the ‘mindless.’  Or better yet, think of those who have lost their ability to use their mind--Stroke victims, those who have suffered a brain injury, those who are mentally challenged, the chronically mentally ill—we strive hard in our lives to avoid such situations, so why are we looking to ‘shut off the mind’ in meditation?

Here’s the thing, what the ancient yogis and saints were really saying was to ‘quiet the mind’ not shut off the switch.  Even the greats will tell you they still have thoughts come and go. The difference is that their thoughts are quieter.  Your mind gets absorbed in the day to day of life and we need it to do that, that’s its job.  But what usually happens is the mind takes over.  The mind is set to overdrive.  Imagine your mind is set to shuffle and repeat just like your iPod.  It is untamed.  So untamed that it confuses you and draws you deep into a web of what the yogis call, “maya” or illusion.  If you could just turn the dial down a bit, turn off the shuffle option, you’d discover that there is another frequency, another station there that the mind was blaring out.  Guess what?  That other frequency is just as much a part of you as the mind, as the body.  Is it your soul? Perhaps.  Is it the Universe speaking?  Maybe.  Hard to say exactly, how can one even begin to describe it? Is it consciousness?  I like to think of it as that ‘thing’ that ‘place’ that you are trying to ‘yoke’ your mind to in the practice of Yoga--the place of pure potentiality.  Is being in this connected state meditation?  I like to think so.  

Once we get there, what do we do with it?  And how do we get to the state?  Surely there must be other ways then running off to a mountaintop alone, with your mala in hand, sitting in lotus posture, watching your breathing and silencing the mind. Otherwise, it is darn near impossible for anyone here in the West to do it.  Luckily the ancient sages identified ways to get there and they outlined different yoga paths.  Maybe you get there by taking a down dog.  That’s Hatha Yoga. Maybe you get there by helping others, service. That’s Karma Yoga.  Maybe you find it through devotion, prayer. That’s Bhakti Yoga.  Maybe it is studying the scriptures.  That’s Gyana Yoga.  Maybe you find it when you look into your child’s eyes and feel that unconditional love. That’s Mommy Yoga.   Maybe you find it at the football game when you are in a crowd with a thousand other fans cheering on your team.  That’s Pig Skin Yoga.   Maybe you experience it just after making love.  That’s Sexy Yoga.   There is a multitude of ways to experience this state, this state of connection, of pure potentiality, of meditation, of yoga.  With practice, you’ll notice this feeling more and more and more and it will become part of your daily life, not just when you come to your yoga class and sit down on your mat.  What’s the point of only having that experience for 10-15 minutes a day, a week?

More importantly, what are you suppose to do when you get there?  Just sit a trance and be ‘one with everything?’  You already are one with everything, you just can’t sense it or hear it over the blaring static of your day-to- day thoughts. When you feel that connection, don’t waste it.  Do something with it.  Pray, set an intention, talk to the universe.  You never know what you might receive when you speak and listen.

At Dhanwantari, we offer Vinyasa + Meditation several times per week.  In my humble opinion, this format allows you to experience ‘meditation’ as I just described without too much effort on your part.  In this class, you experience Yoga Nidra, or “Yoga Sleep.” You lie in savasana, aka ‘corpse pose’ for an extended time.  Yes, corpse pose.  This is the exact point. I like to think of it as your “Monkey Mind” leaving so that you can have a real conversation with that other part of you.  During Yoga Nidra, in corpse pose, your mind is given something to gnaw on each step of the journey, so it is nearly impossible for the pesky thoughts of the day to sneak in.  “Right Hand thumb… your whole body, your whole body.”  Most importantly, you set an intention, a prayer, a request at the beginning and the end of the practice.  Ta-da!  Easy meditation. 

The key is practice.  Experience it simply at first perhaps through a few yoga nidra sessions at Dhan.  Then you’ll start to see it more and more ‘off the mat’ and before you know it, you’ll be a Pig Skin Yoga Guru!

The Fourth of July is my absolute favorite holiday! Nothing says holiday more than pruney skin, water logged bathing suits, sunburn, hot dogs, blowing stuff up and family more than the 4th of July! 

Today we celebrate freedom and independence! Hey, isn’t that the goal of Yoga? The 8th limb of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras is Samadhi. Yoga = Samadhi. Samadhi is freedom. Samadhi is the state of undifferentiated ONENESS. Maybe that’s why it is my favorite holiday…

Coincidentally (or maybe not), the Fourth of July is the Maha (Great) Samadhi Day for a very important Yogi. Maha Samadhi, the ultimate liberation, is when a realized being consciously chooses to leave one’s body.  The culmination of an enlightened being’s meditation practice is Maha Samadhi. Sweet Freedom! The realized Swami Vivekananda chose to depart this earthly plane on July 4, 1902. If it wasn’t for Swami Vivekananda… well, history would be very different both for India and for Spirituality in the West.

On September 11, 1893, Swami Vivekananda, chief student of the Great Ramakrishna, addressed the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago. His speech began, “Sisters and Brothers of America…” and continued …

“I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: "As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.”  

He became an instant sensation in the United States and a hero in his native India. Vivekananda developed a love affair with the West and spent the next few years traveling and teaching Vedanta Philosophy in the United States and England.

It is because of the Great Swami Vivekananda that we practice yoga in the West --Yoga as a path to TRUE Liberation, Freedom and Independence! Today, on this 4th of July, one hundred and nine years after his death, I offer tribute to this amazing being!   Jai Vivekananda!   Enjoy this poem written by Swami Vivekananda in 1898.

(photo: circa 1900, Vivekananda on picnic with students in California)

To the Fourth of July

Behold, the dark clouds melt away,
That gathered thick at night, and hung
So like a gloomy pall above the earth!

Before thy magic touch, the world
Awakes. The birds in chorus sing.
The flowers raise their star-like crowns-
Dew-set, and wave thee welcome fair.

The lakes are opening wide in love
Their hundred thousand lotus-eyes
To welcome thee, with all their depth.

All hail to thee, thou Lord of Light!
A welcome new to thee, today,
O sun! today thou sheddest LIBERTY!
Bethink thee how the world did wait,
And search for thee, through time and clime.

Some gave up home and love of friends,
And went in quest of thee, self banished,
Through dreary oceans, through primeval forests,
Each step a struggle for their life or death;

Then came the day when work bore fruit,
And worship, love, and sacrifice,
Fulfilled, accepted, and complete.
Then thou, propitious, rose to shed
The light of FREEDOM on mankind.

Move on, O Lord, on thy resistless path!
Till thy high noon o'erspreads the world.
Till every land reflects thy light,
Till men and women, with uplifted head,
Behold their shackles broken, and
Know, in springing joy, their life renewed!

”Take up an idea, devote yourself to it, struggle on in patience, and the sun will rise for you.”

                                                                 -- Swami Vivekananda

Dhanwantari is my little unplanned ‘pregnancy’. I never desired to be a business owner. It wasn’t a dream to open a yoga studio. It just happened. I never took one business class (unless you count Ag Econ ) and I wasn’t even a yoga teacher. I was simply a yoga student who felt a deep connection with the practice. Maybe it is some cosmic, past life connection. Who knows. But, I literally had no idea what the hell I was doing or what I was getting myself into. The 5 month gestation period was wonderful. It all sprang from a simple idea that South Bend was in dire need of a space dedicated strictly for yoga and for some reason, I felt called to do it. During planning, development and loan approvals, all went so smoothly. Yet, just like so many parents to be, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. I had no clue how much it would change my life.  I was completely naïve. There were a few birthing pains, some tears were shed both of joy and of utter frustration. The day before Dhan’s  ‘birthday’ was my own 30th and let’s just say, I’ve had better birthdays. Like 30 isn’t already hard enough! Yet, when Dhanwantari opened its doors on June 25, 2007, I just knew that it was as it was meant to be.

There were many growing pains. Dhan went through the terrible twos. I struggled with Dhanwantari’s identity, just like any toddler, Dhanwantari wanted independence.  I struggled with the practice of yoga in the Midwest and what other people thought the culture of South Bend would and would not accept. “You can’t chant OM.”   “Don’t put the altar where other people can see it!”  “You can’t call it spiritual.”   “You are going to put a yantra on the wall??”  And my absolute favorite… “You can’t name it Dhanwantari! Here? In Indiana??”  But, I really don’t like being told what to do.  I have a little bit of a rebellious, iconoclastic spirit. You tell me no, I’m just going to do it anyway and more boldly than I originally intended. But, I’ll admit that I felt the conflict.   

Was I completely crazy? My accountant definitely thought I was.

I had complete faith and wonderful loving support. And for awhile, the first 3 or so years, I walked the line between what was culturally ‘safe’ for a mid-sized, Midwestern town and what I believed to be the TRUE practice of yoga. The practice that occasionally speaks Sanskrit, chants, meditates and sometimes uses words like “spirituality” and “Divine” and “God.”  It was as if I was continually dipping my toe into this deep lake of yogic possibility to test the waters and see if it was time to jump in.

This past spring, I JUMPED IN!

Just like a toddler becoming a child, Dhanwantari has its own identity, the personality is nearly completely formed and it is an entity onto itself! Dhanwantari isn’t a gym.  Dhanwantari isn’t a yoga studio. Dhanwantari isn’t a business. Dhanwantari is a community of transformation! And I am the proud guardian of this amazing embodiment of Yoga!

In this spirit, Dhanwantari now has a new look—website, logo. The logo is representative of the Kali Yantra. In India, Kali is the fierce form of the Divine Mother. Kali has become very dear to me for several reasons but primarily for her power of TRANSFORMATION. She is the force that wipes it all away, cuts through the negativity and the B.S. to destroy what is no longer needed so that NEW creativity and life can flow through you and in you. After four years of development, this is the energy that personifies Dhanwantari Center for Yoga & Well-Being… so stick around, wait til you see Dhan as a teenager!

Dhan's Logos though the years (L to R: 2007, 2009 and 2011)