You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘contemporary spirituality’ category.
The ashram sits on the edge of Kootenay Lake (image via Yasodhara Ashram Facebook page)
Sustainability is a big deal at Yasodhara Ashram. The community has made great efforts to be sustainable: recycling programs, building upgrades, solar power and geothermal heating, as well as making a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2013. As the ashram leadership ages and the swamis are approaching retirement age, the community is also looking at how it will sustain itself. Where do swamis go to retire? What does a retired swami do?
I had a visit with the ashram’s spiritual director, Swami Radhananda, in her lovely dining room overlooking the lake. We talked about the questions that the ashram is asking and the changes in the air.
What is happening at the ashram right now? It’s in a place of transition, what’s happening?
Well, all of a sudden we realized we’re getting old. We wanted the ashram to consciously go through the transition of us knowing that we can’t keep doing the same thing forever. For me, the turning point really was the release of my book [Carried By A Promise, timeless books, 2011].
You’re realizing that the leadership here is aging, so the question is “What next? Who will lead next?”
We want to do the best we can to have things moving, and at the same time, the core stable and the foundation really solid. I am 70 years old, I know there’s only a certain amount of time. How am I going to use that time? But we’re all in our 60s and 70s now, so something has to form. It may be different but the same. Read the rest of this entry »
Swami Sivananda, contemplating the future (image via lightwaves.cc)
While visiting Yasodhara Ashram, a spiritual community on 120 acres of woodland resting on the shores of Kootenay Lake in southeastern BC, I had the opportunity to sit down with some of the leaders in the community and talk about transition, sustainability and renewal. What I’ve learned from my own yoga practice (on the mat, off the mat and through this blog) is that it’s a constant inquiry. At the root of my practice is the question, Who am I? The desire to find the answer to this question is what keeps me going, especially during times when I feel disconnected and alone.
So what does it mean when a whole community based on yogic principles and practices engages in a process of inquiry? I explored this with Swami Sivananda, a long-time ashram resident and teacher.
Let’s start with the basics. What happens in this community?
Our main idea is to provide a safe environment for people to get their foundation back under them, so they can start looking at things more deeply. There’s no dogma here. There’s an emphasis on spiritual values but not in a dogmatic way. But even if you don’t have that tradition within yourself, there has to be that respect for other people.
People come here and get themselves sorted out emotionally, drop emotional burdens from the past, memories, that kind of patterning that frustrates us. Then they just bloom on their own.
Yet we’re not a social service agency; we’re a spiritual community. We have a tradition, a body of teachings, and those teachings came from our guru. But we’ve broken the mold on the old guru-based community. It doesn’t need to be that stuffy and stiff as a lot of people think. Or as blindly surrendering. Surrender is a very important thing to learn, but it isn’t what most people think. The thing is, it requires super highly developed discrimination. Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to part two of my conversation with Frank Jude Boccio – the dharma teacher who is so punk rock, he doesn’t even need to call himself punk rock! In the second half of our chat, Frank Jude graciously answered my pesky questions about some of my pet interests, including personal branding and making a living. This is stuff I’m trying to figure out for myself, so I find it fascinating and refreshing that Frank Jude is able to get his work out to the world without feeling the need to trademark his ideas or even have a functional website.
What does it mean to be independent and yet connected? How does personal branding contradict the “radical identity politics” of buddhadharma? How does trademarking and branding foster a “cult of personality” among some yoga and dharma teachers? Do business models and corporate structures takes away the intimacy of practice? And what about the environmental impact of the travel schedules of high profile teachers?
All this and more, in the second half of this feature conversation! And if you haven’t already, be sure to read part one of the conversation with Frank Jude Boccio.
Welcome to a new experiment on it’s all yoga, baby: feature video conversations with awesome figures in the yoga community! And first up is one of my favourite dharma and yoga teachers, Frank Jude Boccio, who graciously accepted my invitation for a Skype call. Basically, he was my guinea pig as I figure out how to ask questions, be on camera and edit video.
Frank Jude Boccio lives with his wife and baby daughter in Tucson, Arizona, where he teaches yoga, works on building sangha and is writing his next book. He is an ordained Zen Buddhist teacher, Interfaith Minister and a lay brother in the Tiep Hien Order established by Thich Nhat Hanh. While rooted in the Tucson community, he also teaches retreats and workshops around North America and is faculty on the Moksha Yoga teacher training program. His first book, Mindfulness Yoga, is considered essential reading for aspiring yoga practitioners.
I appreciate Frank Jude’s integrity, breadth of knowledge and ability to keep it real. Also, he’s so punk rock that he doesn’t even need to call himself punk rock. In this two-part conversation, we discussed the trials and joys of building community, the unifying threads in his eclectic background, a secular approach to zen practice, resisting the uniform of personal branding and making conscious choices.
The whole interview is almost half an hour long, so here is part one. The second part will be up on Monday!
image via hubspot.com
Why are you here? This was the lead question in Carol Horton’s post Why Yoga Blogging Matters on elephant journal a couple of weeks ago. It generated a some interesting responses here, here and here, and of course, got me thinking about why I’ve re-entered the yoga blogosphere and what I’m doing here. In preparation for it’s all yoga, baby: the next generation (my pet name for this new phase of being) and next month’s Yogging Heads panel discussion at the Yoga Festival Toronto, here are top 5 reasons I nurture this little corner of the internets.
1) Community – This has been the most exciting thing about blogging. I’ve loved connecting with practitioners and teachers from all over North America, and from other places (such as Emmanuelle from Belgium while she was in Montreal last fall!). This little blog has been my tool for connecting to not just the yoga community, but my local community as well and I’ve ended up getting involved with the Montreal Girl Geeks and WordPress communities.
2) This is what I know – through years of practice, living in an ashram, editing a yoga magazine, being involved in online conversations, dialoguing, debating, and then more practice, I’ve managed to build a body of knowledge about yoga, and I continue to be fascinated by how it fits within North American culture. My inner cultural studies geek likes to observe and analyze, and I’ve come to see the world through a yogic framework. This is my place to comment on what I see. Read the rest of this entry »
it's all yoga, baby 
Recent Comments