Darshan

Vermont is so beautiful, regardless of rain, sun or snow. The trees hover so gracefully over the earth in this part of the world, like there’s simply no rush to do anything but just be, which is what I was so excited to do this past week for Anusara’s Grand Circle and Wanderlust.  Just. Be.

I love teaching yoga, but I also love being a student. A fully attentive, tell-me-what-to-do student of asana where I don’t have to think about sequencing, themes, weaving, assisting, room lighting or temperature, or anything. I just simply get to be taught, guided, inspired, intrigued, challenged and absorbed fully into the teachings as they emerge through my body-breath connection. Glorious.

So off I went, car load of yogis blasting Bruce Springsteen on satellite radio (heaven!!) for our 4+ day adventure. I dub these events “Anusara Love-Fests” cause they are exactly that – a chance to reconnect to the very essence of what surges through each of us as our sap: Love. That’s all it is. That’s what we all go for, and even lust after; its love love and more love.

So Anu-Lust (credit to the ever witty Aimee B for that one) began with a 3 hour practice with
John Friend, subsequent classes each morning, and additional classes each afternoon with a variety of great certified teachers, many I’ve been on the path with for nearly 10 years. We gathered this year at a special time as well, to celebrate the suns path in the sky and its peak at the Solstice. Yes, there was clearly magnetic power in the air and we were gathering to it, through John, the music (Todd Boston among others), the teachings, and each other.

What clears each and every time I gather with John and the kula is my darshan, or vision. It shifts to become less skewed, and more clear. This always informs my practice as a spiritual one, as I’m able to see through the top layer of the world into its essence with greater ease. Its like an experience you get when you come out of a great practice or deep meditation and your mind has become rearranged to such a degree that whatever was there a short time prior pulling you, nagging at you, worrying you, is gone. What clears is then the experience you receive as darshan, a vision or view of the Divine. It’s always there you see, it’s never not been there for you to see, only now, after practice it opens. What swells inside from this opening is exactly what we lust after, the undeniable experience of our hearts expanding with a feeling of love, gratitude, ease, and joy.

John has mastered his ability to be a magic wand for this experience to happen – he’s not magic per se, but he’s become quite the expert in becoming a lightening rod for the shakti. He channels it, and he doesn’t bring it to us, he brings us up to it.  Every person in the room rearranges in an energetic way to such a degree that it is so palpable. Then you look over to the person next to you, behind you, in front of you and they look a little more defined, yet softer.  Blood and circulation flow, breath is clear, anticipation and excitement partner with a subtle sense of everything-is-okay. The shakti rises. If we were to define this shakti with one word, one quality, it would be Love. The default in the absence of all other emotions or qualities that could define an experience of being opened and having dust cleared off your eyes, we could simply say Love rises.

And that’s what I feel today. Home, with my kitties, the faces in class this morning were a bit more vivid, the light in their eyes more defined, the trees look extra green. I feel love.