prajna, Author at Integral Yoga San Francisco

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So far prajna has created 97 blog entries.

Teaching of the Month: Taking Refuge in the Light

by Swami Ramananda

As we approach the shortest days of the year in the northern hemisphere, it becomes apparent how reliant we are on light. At the same time that our days are darkening, our world seems to be falling further into a metaphysical darkness. Along with two devastating wars and many other conflicts raging, the global climate and the refugee crisis continue to worsen, and we are witnessing an ever widening gap between political factions, and between the wealthy and poor.

In a spiritual vocabulary, darkness represents an ignorance of our true nature and the illusion of separation and incompleteness that gives rise to human suffering. In this ignorance, this metaphorical darkness, we stumble about, seeking happiness and fulfillment by acquiring and achieving things in an unending, and never fully satisfying, search for security and peace. Right now, we seem to need the spiritual Light of truth more than ever.

Many of Decembers’ holy days use light as a symbol for the spiritual presence within us all. This spiritual light is the real light that can guide us through the darkness of ignorance. For this reason, we choose to focus on taking refuge in the Light within, and as best we can, to live as a presence of that Light in our world.

This focus begins with some form of spiritual practice that can allow us at least a glimpse of light. As we nurture this light within, it can soothe and nourish the heart, diminishing the selfishness, confusion and attachment that veil our true nature.

The teachings and practices of Yoga offer us a step by step approach on this path, and the presence of spiritual masters and their words can inspire us to commit ourselves and persevere. If we are serious seekers, we integrate these teachings into every aspect of our lives. With persistent effort, we inevitably begin to experience for ourselves a natural balance and joy independent of outer circumstances.

We can embody that inner Light out in the world by actively engaging and applying virtues like compassion, contentment, forgiveness and non-violent communication. We bring compassion into conversations when we listen deeply to another person and make a real effort to understand and respect their needs, instead of stubbornly defending our own.

We build bridges instead of barricades by approaching even those with whom we disagree with an open heart and an effort to build on the common ground we share. Each effort to remain peaceful in moments of conflict – be it an argument or a traffic accident – gives expression to our deeper Self.

Actions performed with genuine care for the earth and our fellow beings are healing for our hearts, and we find joy in giving rather than looking for a reward. We will need to touch this inner, spiritual Light again and again, in prayer, meditation or by selfless service, to awaken it fully enough that it shines through us as we move through our days. This is how we give birth to peace in the world, and really bring our Yoga practice to life.

Join Swami Ramananda for Christmas Eve Satsang on Sun. December 24 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm PT and our New Year’s Eve Program on Sun. December 31 @ 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm PT. And don’t miss Ramananda’s next, monthly, Tuesday Tea Time Series on January 16 @ 11:15 am – 11:45 am PT.

Swami Ramananda C-IAYT, E-RYT 500, is the Executive Director of the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco and a greatly respected senior teacher in the Integral Yoga tradition, who has been practicing Yoga for over 45 years. Ramananda offers practical methods of integrating the timeless teachings and practices of Yoga into daily life, and transforming the painful aspects of human experience into steps toward realizing one’s full potential.

He leads all levels of Yoga teacher trainings and programs around the globe. Ramananda co-developed the Stress Management Teacher Training program and has trained many teachers to bring Yoga into corporate, hospital and medical settings. He a founding board member of Yoga Alliance and is a co-founder of The Spiritual Action Initiative which brings together individuals committed to working for social justice for all beings and for the care and healing of our natural world. His warmth, wisdom and sense of humor have endeared him to many.

prajna2023-12-15T16:23:52-08:00December 15th, 2023|

Sound Healing: The Medicine of the Future

by Bettina Neumann

In the last century, Edgar Cayce predicted that the medicine of the future would be sound and music. Sound Healing can be traced back 40,000 years. In ancient times, it was thought to promote relaxation and ward off evil spirits. In modern times, research shows that healing sounds and music are linked to many benefits, such as lowering stress, boosting immune function, reducing digestive issues, and balancing the nervous system—all of which ancient cultures knew instinctively.

Sound healing uses specific frequencies to balance the nervous system, enabling it to counter chronic overwhelm and anxiety. Specific frequencies entrain the brain so that it falls into sync with the sound wave, calming your mind and bringing you back to balance.

My first personal experience with sound healing was when I was traveling in India. I strained my knee, and walking was painful. After one hour of a one-on-one sound healing session, the pain was almost gone. I was curious and wanted to know more, so I studied it.

The vibrations of sound healing instruments penetrate deep into the tissues and bones, improving blood circulation and metabolism and regulating muscle tension.

The best known instruments in sound healing are the gong, crystal bowls, Tibetan crystal bowls, chimes, the voice, and percussion instruments. Many people expect to lie down on a mat and simply absorb the sounds in a sound healing session, mostly in groups. However, I encourage people to interact with the sounds, movements, and voice, immersing the whole body in the sound waves and frequencies.

One-on-one sound healing sessions are good for working with pain/tension relief, muscle stiffness and balancing the nervous system. Tuning forks and other sound healing instruments can invigorate lost vibrations, which may have made you feel stuck or unbalanced. This frees up what is stuck, so that energy can flow freely.

Bettina Neumann is a licensed physical therapist, a certified CranioSacral Therapist, a certified integrative sound healer, a practitioner of health rhythms, a Tamalpa teacher training graduate, and a teacher in training with the 5Rhythms. She founded Aurras Transformation and Rising Sun Physical Therapy. Her life experience as a mother and cancer survivor led her to her passion for expressive dance, movement, art, and ritual, which she calls her medicine. However, her healing journey and nature’s elements are her most consequential teacher. Thirty-five years as a physical therapist made her firmly believe the body can heal itself. Holistic, intuitive, evidence-based medicine and methods helped thousands of patients recover from cancer, lymphedema, chronic pain, and pelvic floor dysfunctions. She combines her experience, tools, and intuition to guide people through transformative journeys and open up the opportunity to lead a joy-filled life.

She offers experiences online and in-person in the greater Bay Area and San Francisco. She seeks opportunities to expand her lifework into communities nationally and worldwide and build bridges between illness and wellness.

Join Bettina in-person this month for Awakening your Inner Rhythms – A Sound Healing Journey on Saturday, December 16 from 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm PST. Space is limited, please sign up in advance! Thank you.

prajna2023-12-10T11:32:36-08:00December 10th, 2023|

The Three Secrets of Spirituality

by Ekachakra Prana Das

A Personal Journey

All at once, bright lights and tripod cameras turned to face me. A devotee swung the boom mic; it was time to speak. A large group of university students were in attendance, curious about the spiritual tradition practiced in this unassuming building at the edge of campus. As a visiting monk and traveling musician, they wanted to hear my story. I opened with a brief meditation to harmonize everyone.

First, deep breaths and body awareness, simply being. Then, finding the heart, holding a loved one there, feeling. Then focusing on the mind, asking the big questions, “Who am I? What do I really want?” Knowing. Lastly, finding the voice and chanting the mantra AUM, all together in a beautiful vibration. Doing. We exist on all these levels, and more. Yoga and meditation help bring us to a state of wholeness. The consciousness of the room changed drastically in less than three minutes.

Then, I told my story. Raised Catholic, confused by unanswered questions. Studying the world’s religions and philosophies. Building a business, traveling as a musician, teaching yoga, writing. Meeting my mentor at a Kirtan in Nashville, and receiving the Vedic wisdom literatures. Diving deep into this comprehensive, beautiful, scientific exposition of the meaning and goal of life. And now, as part of an international society, traveling to centers across the world teaching, singing, and serving.

Everyone got a Bhagavad Gita, Krishna’s song. I explained how so many great personalities have found inspiration in these pages – Emerson, Thoreau, Gandhi, the Beatles, MLK Jr, Einstein, and many more. I told them how this jewel of wisdom has been translated hundreds of times into English, and how Prabhupada’s version has been most accepted in major universities, as he faithfully delivers the essence of Krishna’s message. We talked about karma, transmigration of the soul, the equality of all living beings, and different types of yoga and meditation. We talked a lot about God.

I shared the three secrets of spirituality I have learned along the way. The first secret? Read Srila Prabhupada’s books. They represent the original Vedic knowledge, preserved in an unbroken chain of self-realized teachers, back to God himself. The second secret? Chant the maha-mantra. All of the Vedic literatures point to the Hare Krishna mantra as the most powerful practice in this age, a transcendental formula to cleanse the heart, calling out intimate names of our original conscious source. Secret number three? Share the process with others. Join the international community, find your teachers, your friends, and your students. Distribute love of God, teach spiritual values, and save the world.

After the talk, they asked me to lead kirtan. I grabbed the harmonium, and sang a simple, classic, heartfelt minor melody: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. With Bhakta Hari Ramesh on mridanga, the karatalas ringing in perfect time, and 20 voices rising and falling like an ocean of love, we reached tearful states of transcendental ecstasy before the temple’s glorious deities, Sri Sri Radha Natabara. Building slowly yet surely, exaggerating dynamics, and mustering as much flavor as I could, we built it up, and then blasted off.

After the class and kirtan, I felt everyone was in a rarefied state of bliss, all smiles and friends. We honored heaping plates of prasadam and laughed together in a circle on the floor. Nitai Chand Prabhu asked me to stay permanently, but I plan to continue down the road tomorrow. Leave on a high note!

Ekachakra Prana was a touring musician and yoga teacher searching for God when he met Indradyumna Swami, who invited him to travel the world in his Kirtan band. Over the next several years he wrote books about his experiences living in bhakti yoga ashrams and traveling to Kirtan festivals around the world. He recently settled in Silicon Valley at the request of his spiritual teacher, Vaisesika Dasa.

Join us for Kirtan with Ekachakra Prana & The Bhakti Band on Saturday, December 9 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm PST

prajna2023-12-04T12:11:06-08:00December 4th, 2023|

We Are All Part of a Whole

by Nalanie Chellaram

In the last ten years my work has been made much easier by the progress made in the fields of Neuroscience and Epigenetics. Following a great deal of scientific experimentation, significant evidence has materialized to show how the brain works and how meditation practices can help rewire our thinking process. MRIs taken before meditation and after meditation have clearly shown how the areas of the brain that deal with emotions have become relaxed, and literally light up. The concept of changing thoughts this way is not new. It has always been taught in the Yogic scriptures, which date back more than 3,000 years! Yet the nature of Homo sapiens is to doubt unless empirically proven. The surge forward in science is finally connecting the dots to spirit, and both are joining at the same point.

I have learnt that to be spiritual is to know that we are all part of a whole. That all things are sacred, and when we live in harmony with mankind, nature and especially ourselves, we start to know we truly are ‘a divine spark’ and so is everything else. We just vibrate at different frequencies depending on the way we think and live. When we experience this oneness we feel bathed in peace. We realize that truly all life is a stage and we are but actors on it. Once we know that, we can determine how we want to live in the circumstances we are given. We can be bitter and angry if we choose, but what does that do for anyone, especially ourselves? Or, we can decide to accept the situation and make the most of it. Then, not only do we benefit ourselves, but also everyone else. A win/win situation! And where is God in all of this? The ancient Yogic scriptures, called The Vedas, put it this way:

‘Ekam sat vipraa bahuda vadanti.’

This means, ‘Truth is one, the wise call it by different names’.

Please join Nalanie Chellaram, C-IAYT, BSYth & Swami Ramananda, C-IAYT E-RYT 500 online for Satsang: Recovering Our Natural Wisdom & Joy on Sunday, December 10 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am PST | Free.

Nalanie Chellaram, C-IAYT, BSYth, has been surrounded by spirituality for her whole life. She was raised by Hindu parents, educated at a Catholic school and studied philosophy in college. Nalanie began practicing the teaching of her Guru, Sri Swami Satchidananda in 1986 and continued to study the science of Yoga. She has been accredited by the Council of Teachers of the Satchidananda Ashram in Virginia, USA to teach Asanas, Pranayama and Meditation. She is also an accredited Teacher Trainer for Integral Yoga and a therapist under the British School of Yoga. She is the Chairwoman of the Integral Yoga Center in Gibraltar where she runs regular weekly satsangs, teacher training and counseling sessions. This Center is a registered Charity serving the community. Nalanie, who now lives in Spain, frequently lectures on the Science of Yoga, in Portugal, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, the USA and the Far East. She is the first of a new generation of spiritual teachers. Her particular upbringing and education has given her a special insight into both Hinduism and Christianity, inspired by her Beloved Guru.

prajna2023-11-25T11:46:23-08:00November 25th, 2023|

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