Chants and Invocations

Resources for learning the invocations & their meanings

Invocation to Patanjali

Geeta Iyengar explanation

BKS Iyengar chanting the invocation (audio)

Invocation to the Guru

Audio

Words and translation of both invocations

Video file with space for you to practice repeating the chant

Comments

One Year Later...

For three weeks I’ve been trying to write something about the anniversary of DJT’s election. Trying and failing. As is always the case when something is hard to write, the problem is that I don’t know what I want to say. One thing I know I want to do is note, mark, recount how I felt a year ago. It was a kind of despair that I haven’t experienced before. I don't say that lightly - I have had a lifelong struggle with depression, I have experienced deep disappointment and challenges in life. But this past year has been different. A year ago, I felt deeply fearful for myself, personally – for the safety of any people who engage in systematic dissent when an authoritarian is in power. I felt deeply fearful for the progressive movement. I felt personal concern for the immigrant and people of color communities that I knew would be targeted. I felt very concerned for people who relied on Obamacare for lifesaving health care, with so many pledges for immediate repeal floati...

A Meditation For Calming, Soothing (6 min exhalation)

As one of my contributions to our collective effort to survive this time, I am periodically offering a free 10 minute guided meditation on my blog. 10 minutes because everyone can find 10 minutes in their day to do something that sustains you and increases your positive impact on the people around you. And because research shows that even 10 minutes of meditation can improve your brain functioning - and make you feel better. There are dozens of meditation apps and sources out there. I don't claim mine is anything better than what you find could elsewhere. But two things might make your experience of these guided meditations unique. First, if you have attended any of the leadership retreats where I offer a mindfulness practice, you may find that listening to these guided meditations connects you to the retreat experience and allows you to renew the feelings of connectedness and power you had there. Second, many of my guided meditations will have a social justice element that connec...

Certainty, Curiosity And Stepping Into This Moment

There’s a lot in the philosophy of yoga about not being disturbed by dualities. It’s an important result of a good practice, and it is one we’re going to need more of in the coming weeks/months/years. It feels to me like a time when we need to hold certainty and curiosity both at once. Certainty – because Donald Trump is not only violating the basic standards of democracy but trying to tell us he’s not. Because authoritarianism can creep up on you when you adjust to incremental moves that limit our democracy. Because we might start believing in “alternate facts” if we don’t hold tightly to the certainty that what we know, what we saw, what we heard is reality. And then there’s the need for curiosity, which assumes maybe we aren’t certain, maybe we don’t know everything. I’ve been thinking about curiosity a lot ever since the election. I had huge flashes of anger and resentment at the people who voted for Trump right after, but pretty quickly that dissipated and instead...

Practicing Yoga and Social Justice

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