Fall greetings friends!

New moon blessings to you. This is a Scorpio new moon, deeply symbolic of Death. Shadow. Ancestors. Merging. Transformation. Rebirth. Emergence.

And synchronistically, this aligns with Autumn. We are in the death season. From autumn to winter, Mother Nature releases all that no longer sustains her. She lets go of the unproductive parts of herself to wither away and decompose; to be composted into richly fertilized soil for new seeds to grow in the future.

The Universe is asking us to let something die away so we can make room for new growth.

Of course. Glad to oblige. Who wants to carry around all their old, dead-stuff all the time anyway? It’s heavy. It weighs us down. It holds us back. It brings on a sense of malcontent.

The problem is, often times we don’t recognize what is dead or unproductive within ourselves. This very Ignorance, called avidya in Sanskrit, is what the Yoga Sutras identifies as the first of 5 main obstacles in our path toward happiness, joy, and ultimately contentment.

Avidya literally means “without knowing”, or “without vision”. One yogic philosopher named Michael Stone wrote in his book, The Inner Tradition of Yoga, that avidya could be translated as “not seeing the reality of your life”. How many of us fall into this category?

The irony is we can see how everyone else is screwing up their lives to what seems obvious to us… but when it comes to seeing the errors of our own ways, it’s not so crystal clear. We all know that person, who if they would just quit drinking, or smoking, or spending, or eating or gossiping, or complaining or whatever they do too much of, they would be happy. And we shake our head at how unfortunate it is because we know they will never see that they need to shift that gear.

You know that old saying, when you point your finger at someone, you have three pointing back at yourself. It’s hard to see our own schizzle when we are wearing goggles of ignorance.

In The Yoga Sutras, Patanjali gives us some guidance on how to live a life of pure awareness, that ultimately leads us to contentment, joy, and happiness. This is a timely offering to contemplate at this season of releasing old energy, and at this season of remembering to cultivate an attitude of gratitude. As we let old energy die away, we can fill that space with appreciation and gratitude.

The Yoga Sutras never use a word for gratitude directly, but the sutra that carries its spirit is II.42, on santosha (contentment), the second of the niyamas:

Santosha is gratitude in practice: receiving what is here as enough, rather than measuring life against what’s missing. It is the inner attitude that makes every other practice sweet. You can’t be grateful and grasping in the same breath.

So as we step into the holiday season, kicking off with Thanksgiving, perhaps we can use the practice of Santosha to help us see the reality of things. Take a deep look at what you have in your life at current time. Appreciate the little things and see how much you already have. Receive this as enough, and let go of the longing for more, and other, and what’s beyond your reach. Find Contentment in this now moment of life. Be Grateful for this incredible opportunity to get to know your Self and all of the beauty and splendor of Creation, including the puddles on the path. We can learn to be content even within the storms of life.

I want to close off with a little gratitude of my own. There is a beautiful 92 year old French woman who occasionally comes to the studio for kirtan. Her name is Jacquie. She recently dropped off several of her books from her personal library as she is beginning to let go of the things she can’t take with her to the beyond realm. Jacquie spent her life studying all the wisdom traditions and ancient philosophies and is a well versed yogini. A goddess herself. She has one of the purest hearts I have ever met. I have no doubt that when she dies, Ma’at, the Egyptian goddess of death, will weigh her heart against the white feather on the scales of the Afterlife, and her heart will be lighter than the feather. She will go to the Beyond as a liberated soul. She will not need to come back to learn more life lessons. She achieved a contented heart in this cycle of her life. I am so grateful to receive her book collection. The volumes of wisdom she gave to Michael and I to pour through, don’t hold a candle to the volumes of wisdom that she herself carries within her heart. I will forever cherish our friendship, as well as the additions to our library.

I have pulled some more quotes on contentment from some of her books to share with you all in closing. I am grateful for our community, thank you all for your kindness, friendship, and support. Michael and I count you all as blessings in our life. Have a beautiful day of Giving Thanks. May you dwell in contentment and release what no longer serves you.

We are so excited to share this. Our new livestream is ready, and its home is the Online Sanctuary: more than 35 live classes a week streamed from our studio on Broadway, including Flow, Qi Gong, Restorative and Sunrise Yoga, plus a class library where every class stays available for four weeks. Practice on your phone, tablet, computer or TV. Signing in is simple: enter your email and we send you a code. No password to remember.

Online Membership ~ $27 a month. Every livestream class and the full library, from anywhere in the world.

$108, $126 and $153 members: your access is already active. There is nothing to buy. Just sign in with the email on your membership.

Our Website Has a New Look

KarmaYogaCenter.com has been revamped and redone from top to bottom, and we are excited to show it off. Come see the new class schedule, the Soma Spa, retreats, teacher trainings, astrology and a photo tour of our home at 1760 S. Broadway.

Our recent gatherings each brought 60 to 70 of you together, and our hearts are full. Thank you for showing up, for the food and music you shared, and for making this a true community.