What does it mean to you to be a yoga teacher?

As I went through older files this week I came upon a response I submitted to a website that publishes current thinking and questions about yoga - It's All YOga Baby.  Here is what I found  --

What does it mean to you to be a yoga teacher?

At the beginning of April 2014 on the “its all yoga baby” web site (iayb) there was a request by the site manager for readers, meaning yoga teachers, to respond to the question of “what does it mean to you to be a yoga teacher”.

Here was my posted response:

Being a yoga teacher means to dwell in G.R.A.C.E.

G - Gratitude for what has been given me that I might serve others.

R - Real and raw, authentic being from the marrow of one's bone.

A - Awareness of what is arising, what is here, what is dissolving.

C - Centeredness and compassion.

E - Energy, the cultivation of which is aligned movement in all the Koshas (bodies).

- it is showing up as best you can, again, and again, ….....

~~~

Apparently the manger liked it enough to send me a prize – a copy of

Teaching Yoga: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship - by Donna Farhi.

~~~

May we all bloom and blossom into the fullness of our expression as

a teacher and student of yoga, and lover of life.

May we remember that our students are our teachers.

May we honor all paths and traditions.

May our dharma path be made ever clear

as we partner with love and joy

to shine our light more brightly

to bless all beings.

Courage and Clarity

I have been taking an online course through the Shift Network titled The Enneagram of the Virtues with Russ Hudson. We are in week 9 and the subject is Type 6 of the 9 types, which is head centered (5, 6, and 7s). Type 6 is seen as Questioners. 

I have been posting on their fb group for this series one of my poems for the type under discussion.  Here is the one for today  -

Courage and Clarity

There is the courage to go in

to see what is really there,

both light and dark.

And there is the courage to go out,

to expand, open, receive the unknown.

There is the courage to hold onto

when so many things scream for release,

and the courage to let go,

to live beyond the old, familiar.

The courage to stay.

The courage to leave.

The courage to speak up.

The courage to remain silent.

The courage to release the riddle

in the making or the solving of it.

It takes courage to ask for help.

It takes courage to see a better way

for your one amazing life.

Take this moment to say yes

to the you that is showing up

to ask yourself this question -

What is the next step forward for

what my heart is asking for?

Clarity comes with asking

the right questions.

What is the right question to be

asked in the moment?

What is the version of you,

2.0 or perhaps 8.0, that is

seeking voice or to be seen?

richard hammer

   3-6-18

A Right Time

A Right Time

There's a right time

  for everything.

For being in the flow

  and stepping out of it.

For saying hello, good-bye

  or wondering about doing it.

For helping another or

  letting them find their own way.

For speaking or remaining silent

For opening a book or closing it.

What is speaking -

  head, heart, or habitual patterning?

Is it a voice, urge, or energy

  that compels, promotes, propels?

Do you know your tendencies

  and when to follow one or turn away?

There is a matrix within uniquely you

  and is changing with each thought, word, act.

What does yours look like -

   in lines, columns, spheres, orbs, quadrants,

   geometric spirals, abstract forms

The pulse of being – prana, chi, life force

  is flowing in this matrix.

It is being body, mind, heart unity, 

   with wisdom, integrity, grace

                        and

You are the Master Designer.

               richard hammer

            1-2-18  / Cape Coral

Yoga Is

Yoga Is

Yoga is the opportunity

    to use form to go beyond form,

    to take action in and from stillness,

    to awaken to ever existing wholeness.

Yoga is the experience of being

   centered, serene, unhindered Shakti,

   dynamic tensegrity and integrity,

   the dance of life.

Yoga is the art and craft

   of your unique identity,

...of applying wisdom,

.. of serving what is here with love.

It is remembering you are already home,

with nowhere to go, and nothing to do,

and all to be.

richard hammer

     1-1-18

The 2018 Shift

The 2018 Shift

If you were a flat lander, had only 2 dimensional referencing, you would have no idea of the 3D perspective. Map vs on the ground terrain experiencing. It is the same with contents vs context, wave vs ocean, and as Martin Buber cites, I-Thou.

We have a tendency to float in our current habituated perspective until something jars us free or beckons on. It could be a challenging event, serendipitous encounter, or the continued inner quest. The question arises of what am I missing, or what is to be understood here now?

Yoga gives us tools for this inner inquiry but we have to apply them. Then after consistent practice and strong inclination to be free of shackles of misunderstanding and ignorance we begin to see from a higher level. It is like looking out from a tall building at the bottom floor into a park. You see kids playing there. Then you take an elevator the to 86^th floor and look down at the park where the children are still playing. Both views are valuable. One is more centric and the other more expansive. When both are considered the viewer's awareness of balance, unity and wholeness becomes more greatly appreciated.

So, the opportunity of 2018 is to shift and bring a new perspective to what is arising in you, for you, and as you. It could be considered a mountain top view, higher up vs low down. Low down is necessary but so is higher up. Can you live as comfortably in the known as well as the unknown.

Can you find individual sanctuary and stillness time as part of the shift?

What are some of the important practices that you might bring to bear? They might be learning to ask the right questions, some of which might be universal and some uniquely individual to you. They might be asking for help, admitting at long last that you need a higher up view.

The opportunity is to hold the yin-yang perspective and energy, uniting with it and being it. The work before us is to be creative, contributory, adventuresome, and satisfying. It is to reveal what is wanting to be seen and witnessed. It is us showing up, cherishing the journey, and doing the work.

Writer, poet, thinker, activist Joanna Macy sees us being in the potential of three epochs:

  Business as usual

  The Great Unraveling (breakdown)

  The Great Turning (turning to love, wisdom vs on each other)

Author of World as Lover, World as Self, she writes “It is my experience that the world itself has a role to play in our liberation. Its very pressures, pains, and risks can wake us up -- release us from the bonds of ego and guide us home to our vast, true nature.”

“The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.”

― Joanna Macy

~~~~

How might you open you today?

You can listen to her talk with Krista Tippett in 2016, or read the transcript, at

https://onbeing.org/programs/joanna-macy-a-wild-love-for-the-world/

Richard Hammer, Present Wholeness Yoga, 1-1-18

Christmas 2017

Christmas 2017

May joy come to you as easily as the next breath.

May peace and love abide in the

abode of your every thought.

May the causes of happiness

grow in the coming year.

                                                       -  Richard

The Path Ahead

“ …the long pilgrimage of spiritual work demands a commitment to wander

into a life of authenticity and truth.”  - Mark Nepo

    The Path Ahead

What happens when

  the impossible becomes possible

  the closed door opens

  the constriction becomes flow

We each have agency, authority

  to make change happen

  to see things differently

  to uproot stagnation

When change happens

  there is insight and evolution

  there is beginning again but differently

  there is a welcoming joy and light

This shift is an acknowledgment

  that all is well

  that wonder exists

  and that grace is operating.

       richard hammer

            12-5-17

      Cape Coral, FL