Here’s a short clip of me interviewing Dylan at Kuan Yin Tea House in Wallingford.
Monthly Archives: February 2010
Nikki Chau’s Teaching Schedule for March and April of 2010
Here’s my teaching schedule for March and April of 2010. I’ll be at Village Green Yoga, Taj Yoga, and Stone Gardens Climbing Gym.
Village Green Yoga
Yoga For Newbies
This series will cover the fundamentals of yoga including alignment, breathing, and relaxation techniques. Perfect for students new to yoga and anyone to establish a personal practice. Gain the confidence and ability to enjoy any yoga class!
Weeknight session: Thursdays 7-8:30pm, March 11 – April 15, 2010
Weekend session: Saturdays from 9:30-11am, March 13 – April 17, 2010
Cost: $75 for the whole 6-week series and 10% discount on mats and mat bags at the Village Green Boutique.
Techniques and Alignment
Yes, that famous, or infamous T&A Yoga class is for refining your yoga poses and linking them in specific sequences. We also dabble into “woo-woo” stuff here too 
Date: Mondays, 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., ongoing
Cost: $18 drop-in, or use your class card.
Taj Yoga
Intro to Yoga
Learn the basics of yoga in a safe, methodical manner. Alignment, use of props and breath awareness will be covered to give the participants confidence to join ongoing beginning yoga classes.
Date: March 3 – April 14, 2010. Wednesday evenings, 6:00 p.m. – 7:15 p.m.
Cost: $85 for one, $150 for two. Discount for current students if you sign up by February 15: $75 for one person and $140 for two.
Yoga Happy Hour
Put the stress of the work week behind, reboot, and get ready for the weekend. This class will feature sequences to re-energize by aligning the body and resting deeply in restorative postures.
Date: Friday afternoons, 5:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m., starts March 5, 2010
Cost: $15 drop-in or $65 for 5 classes.
Stone Gardens Climbing Gym
Yoga for Climbers
Date: March 3 – 24, 2010. Wednesday mornings, 7 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.
Cost: 4-week series for $40, Stone Gardens members only.
The Seed of Yoga
This past weekend during my 500-hour teacher training, Denise Carrico came to talk to us about teaching yoga for people with cancer. Denise is a yoga teacher in the Integral tradition who has been teaching yoga for 20+ years and for people with cancer for 12 years at Seattle Cancer Lifeline in Phinney Ridge and 8 Limbs Yoga in West Seattle. She also leads free retreats for cancer patients at Harmony Hill in Western Washington’s Hood Canal.
Denise stressed the importance of empowering people who have been diagnosed with cancer who may have felt betrayed by their bodies and perhaps even other things, tangible and non-tangible. She then read a poem to us to demonstrate how to use imagery and poetry to do so.
I will not live an unlived life.
I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,to make me less afraid, more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;to live,
so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.
—Dawna Markova
The next morning, on Sunday, our class read the Bhagavad Gita, and in chapter 10 of the translation by Eknath Easwarn, verse 39 read:
“I am the seed that can be found in every creature, Arjuna; for without me nothing can exist, neither animate for inanimate.” BG 10:39
This then reminded me of what Shinzen Young said in the very last minutes of his lectures in The Science of Enlightenment:
“When you let go of the need to know, then you will be able to see how space is produced from the activity of nothingness, and you’ll be able to also see how the activity of the pine tree arises as none other than yourself” – Sasaki Roshi, as quoted by Shinzen Young, chapter 12, the Science of Enlightenment
The image of the seed seems to be coming up a lot everywhere I look recently. How about you? What image do you find consistent in literature, yoga and otherwise?
Patience, grasshoppers, a seed will soon grow into a tree.
Resources for Beginning Meditation
Over the years, I’ve listened to and read a lot of books on meditation (because, um, you know, reading and thinking about something is almost like really doing it 
).
These are my top three books/audiobooks for Meditation for Beginners (and I do think we’re beginners for a very long time).
The beginner’s guide to meditation by Shinzen Young
I consider Shinzen Young my teacher for his clarity in vocabulary and ability to explain abstract concepts in concrete terms.
The beginner's guide to meditation by Shinzen Young
Introduces the listener to the tradition of meditation. Explains how meditation works, what different methods offer, and guides the listener through the practices. Includes a 3-part session for beginners.
Meditation for Beginners by Jack Kornfield
Jack Kornfield is a teacher that makes me smile and soften when I hear the sound of his voice, really gentle and soothing, but packed full of wisdom and authority.
Meditation for Beginners by Jack Kornfield
Introduction to a form of meditation drawing on Buddhist practices. Covers: daily exercises; body postures and breathing; clearing distractions and cultivating awareness; the energy of love as a healing power; how to “make friends” with anger; the importance of forgiveness; how to focus healing attention on the body.
The posture of meditation : a practical manual for meditators of all traditions by Will Johnson
Many guides on meditation do not discuss How To Sit, but the proper posture is the base for any kind of meditative work, so this little book is highly recommended.
The posture of meditation by Will Johnson
“Ordinarily,” Johnson opens his superbly calm little manual, “we think of meditation as an activity involving our minds, but in truth meditation is initiated by assuming a specific gesture with our bodies.” That gesture or posture is the cross-legged sitting familiarly associated with Buddhist meditation and consists of three elements: alignment, relaxation, and resilience.
The objects of these physical practices are to offer gravity the least resistance while in an alert yet resting state and to experience the subtle movements of existence. Johnson explains the functions of each element, offers instruction and advice on achieving each of them, and discusses how they may be carried into everyday life in a prose so limpidly intelligent that this book may become a standard text for beginning meditators. – Ray Olson, Booklist
How about you? What are some meditation resources that you have enjoyed?
Virtual World Yoga Conference 2010
Yoga Conferences are big business. If you’ve had the fortune *and* misfortune of having been to one, you know that the experience can be both awesome and awful.
The Awesome part about Yoga Conferences is you get to check out a whole host of teachers in one location in a short amount of time. The Awful part of Yoga Conferences is you’ve got to book the flight, get the hotel room, pay for the conferences, the meals, the impulse buys, etc. It all adds up. (And we’re not talking about the other unpleasantries of yoga conferences here.)
Well, here comes the 1st annual virtual yoga conference. It’s a 3-day conference happening this month from Friday February 19 to Sunday the 21st.
How Does a Virtual Conference Work?
When your session begins, pick up your phone and dial the number you’ve been given. This will connect you with the teacher, the moderator, the technical team, and your fellow students in that class. It’s best to call and get settled at least five minutes before the session begins.
There will be an opportunity to ask questions in live events during the call, or you can connect on the online forum. If you prefer, you can also use your computer to enter the classroom. – More info on that here.
The Speakers
I’m looking forward to Neil Pearson‘s two workshops: Understanding Pain and Chronic Pain, and Chronic Pain, Modern Science and Therapeutic Yoga, and Nischala Joy Devi on The Secret Power of the Yoga Sutras.
Our Seattle area tech+yoga royalty, Soleil Hepner, the creator of YogaBlaze, will also give a much needed workshop on overcoming technology overload.
You can go here to check out the full list of the speakers.
Well, um, see you on the Internets at the first virtual yoga conference?
Let's all cross our finger for this to *not* happen during the virtual conference.