The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  On the eve of winter solstice we explored the theme of darkness and light. We’re living through dark times that challenge us to keep our inner lights shining.  We explored ways of feeling nature’s rhythm in our bodies with the yoga practices of Prana Vidya, imagination, and Pranayama, yogic breathing.  We also used mythic teaching and poetry to inspire us to use our innate caring and creativity to bring healing and repair into the world.

We begin with U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s poem, Remember.  You can listen to Joy read Remember.   As poet laureate Joy has created some wonderful tools and resources to make poetry education more accessible.  You can check out the interactive Map of First Peoples Poetry she co-careated for the Library of Congress.

We drew on mythologist and teacher Michael Meade’s essay Light in the Darkness.  Michael’s teachings spring from ancestral sources of wisdom.  His way of storytelling makes them speak to our contemporary hearts.  His essay urges us to awaken our soul’s light in order to help bring healing and repair into the world.

Contemporary Sufi teacher, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee invites us to listen more deeply to the world around us in his essay, A Ghost’s Life.  His writing moved me to tears over the ghost-like place we’ve found ourselves in today.  He counsels the solace of nature and a deep sense of caring about the world.  He urges us to leave our screens and enter direct experience of wild places.

We ended with part Sufi poet Rumi’s poem A Great Wagon.  You can listen to Houman Pourmehdi’s reading of the whole poem.

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The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We practiced with the Earth and as the Earth today.  We explored the themes of deep time, earth stories and our bodies as earth bodies.

We began with Gregory Orr’s beautiful poem, This Is What Was Bequeathed Us.

Take a moment to watch Taian Lu’s beautiful animated film version of the poem.

We practiced Earth Breathing meditation inspired by Reggie Ray’s Tricycle Magazine article Touching Enlightenment: Digging Deep.

We drew inspiration from Geologist Marcia Bjornerud’s interview with Center for Humans and Nature journalist Anja Katina, Marcia describes us as temporal creatures. Marcia is the author of, Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World.  You can check out her book from the library or listen to her Seattle Town Hall talk for more inspiration.

We also heard from The Inner Landscape of Beauty, On Being’s last interview with poet philosopher John O’Donohue.  He died in January of 2008.  This is a wonderful discussion of the human spirit and how we come to know our essence by slowing down enough to allow our souls to be revealed.

We ended with Valerie Hope Cherrin’s poem Earth Dream Body.  Valerie guides mindful movement to help client’s find “ease in your body . . . joy in your heart . . . peace in your mind and  beauty in your soul.”

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The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.   We practiced ways of deepening body awareness.  We used imagination, sensory experience and deep relaxation to allow life to move through us.

We contemplated Brooke McNamara’s poem Vessel.  Brooke is a poet, dance-theater artist, teacher, and Zen dharma holder.  Her beautiful poem creates a meeting place in our living vessel – our body – in which we can be together in a space of forgiveness.

We practiced an adaptation of the “Flowering Hand” meditation to attune to the life force energy flowing through all of nature.  This practice was introduced to me by one of my teachers, Nate Summers. Nate is a Chinese medicine practitioner. He teaches many forms of movement including Qigong, ancestral movement and survival skills. He is author of Primal: Why We Long to Be Free and Wild among other books exploring our relationship with nature.

We practiced a Budding & Blossoming Hand Meditation adapted from Margaret Rinaldi’s Flower Hand guided meditation.  As a somatic educator Meg offers Body Centered Inquiry to enable practitioners to cultivate awareness of their inner resources.

We heard part of Tibetan Buddhist teacher and writer, Reggie Ray’s Tricycle Magazine Essay, Touching Enlightenment.  Reggie has written a book of the same name.  Reggie teaches somatically based meditation and encourages us to allow our bodies to be our most intimate teachers.

We ended with poet philosopher John O’Donohue’s Blessings for the Senses.

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