What is Karma anyways?

Karma is a concept that you hear frequently among conversations but usually misunderstood.
There is no doubt that in Yoga and other Easter traditions, the concept is pivotal in the understanding of how the world works and the effect that our actions have on it.

Even for some traditions like Jainism, their understanding of the world is intrinsic to their understanding of Karma. In the words of Dr. Christopher Chappel, Professor of Indic and comparative Theology "In Jainism, karma is the basic principle within an overarching psycho-cosmology, in which human moral actions form the basis of the transmigration of the soul (jiva)—constrained within the temporal world (samsara)—until one achieves liberation (moksa) from this cycle, by following a path of purification."

With more than 30 years of studying Yoga, Swami Dasa came to Texas to gives us a more practical, modern and down to Earth understanding of this concept.
In his lecture, Swami Enoch Dasa Giri explained to the audience that the most important concept to understand about Karma is that it is not a law of punishment or retribution, it is not "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" it is simply the law of cause and effect. We need to understand that our actions have repercussions and we are the solely responsible of those actions.
Nevertheless the way we respond to life has a deep root on how we have responded to the events in the past. Swami Dasa said, "It really doesn't matter if you believe in reincarnation or not; if you grasp that who you are now is the result of how you reacted yesterday to events an people, and though some of those actions were valid at some point in the past you need to decide if they fit in your present, otherwise let them go..." "Yoga with the understanding of Karma allows the practitioner to regain control over their life, that to me is liberating."

Swami Dasa used the example of a dog coming into a room where two kids are playing. For one boy, a dog might be a good and fun animal, for the other the dog is a source of fear and threat. We rarely see the dog for what it is. We respond to life based on our experiences, prejudices and emotionality. At some point we need to understand at a deep level that not all dogs mean harm to us. That is the beginning of taking control over the emotional response of our mind and over our universe.

Karma is a mechanism to allow us to see how our mind responds, how we affect the world and how the world can affect us. Swami Dasa mentioned too that in terms of Karma our intent to do or think something will propel responses in our environment that we will have to deal with.

As yoga practitioners we can see the biases in our bodies and it is easier to work with them in hatha yoga. Nevertheless, he reminded us that we have too keep in mind that Asana practice is only 1/8th of the whole system of Yoga. The first two limbs are important practices to be mindful and aware of how we should live our lives. For that we need to understand the Yamas as restrains: Non-violence, Truthfulness, Non-stealing, Moderation and Non-greed)and the Niyamas as observances: Purity, Contentment, Austerity, Self-study, Surrender to the indwelling Reality.

Swami Dasa helped us to understand how the upper limbs like concentration and meditation, allow the mind to be quiet, to turn the consciousness inward to see clearly and without emotional responses what lies there and how to change it for the better.

In other words what get us into trouble in our daily lives is many time our emotional response to the events that come to us. Practicing the eight limbs of Yoga give us the opportunity to regain control over our life and therefore have a positive impact on the universe we exist within.

Yoga Sanga interview with Judith H. Lasater

We would like to share with you the interview that Judith Hanson Lasater gave to Yoga Sanga. In this interview she talks about how she found Yoga, her relation to BKS Iyengar and her new yoga book called "Yoga Body"

Click here to listen to the interview.

Judith Lasater has taught yoga since 1971. She holds a doctorate in East-West psychology and is a physical therapist. Judith is president of the California Yoga Teacher's Association.

Her yoga training includes study with B. K. S. Iyengar in India and the United States. She teaches ongoing yoga classes and trains yoga teachers in kinesiology, yoga therapeutics, and the Yoga Sutra in the San Francisco Bay Area. Judith also gives workshops throughout the United States, and has taught in Canada, England, France, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Peru, and Russia.

Judith H. Lasater is also the author of 8 books. For more information about Mrs. Lasater go to her website at www.judithlasater.com

It is official: watching TV can kill you!

You can blame the Australians for a change this time. On a recent study by Australian researches who traced more than 8000 people for an average of six years found that "those who said they watched TV for more than four hours a day were 46% more likely to die of any cause and 80% more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than people who reported spending less than two hours a day in front of the tube" as reported on the Wall street Journal last Tuesday.

What is shocking is that these results not only affect people that don't exercise, it affects those who exercise too. How come.? Well, the problem is the inactivity that brings to watch TV for long periods of time.
Think about those long football games that many men watch for more than three hours or the long hours you spend in front of the computer (ouch!) and you can have something else to be worry about.

And those results are only in relation to the TV, what about the amount of violence that you can watch in less than two hours. This information goes directly to your subconscious mind without even notice it. No none really knows the effects but I wonder if all those stimuli have anything to do with our moods and ways that we respond to our environment.

Is there a solution? Yes! do a little bit of exercise if you are in front of the TV for a long period of time, fold clothes, put the elliptical in front of it and actually use it!, move around, take the dishes out of the dishwasher, and stretch every so often.
Not only watching TV can affect you, long commutes, long flights, and any activity that requires you to be seated for hours should be a concern.
Dr. Dunstan, a researcher at Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, in Melbourne mentions that the "research shows the important role of muscle movement in how the body processes blood sugar and blood fats. the absence of movement can slow down or metabolic processes"

Here are simple yoga exercises that can help you move your muscles after a long time in front of the TV or computer. Take breaks every hour or so and stretch!

a) Shoulder rolls. Sit on the edge of your chair. Keep your back straight, breath. On your next inhale start rolling your shoulders towards the back. After 3-5 times, stop check that your back is straight and change the direction of the movement.

b) Twists. Sit again on the edge of your chair, put your left hand on the table in front of your right shoulder, right hand towards the back of the chair or in a place that is comfortable for you. Turn your whole back towards the right, be gentle with your neck. Take 3-4 breaths, release and go to the other side.

c) Neck turns. Same position as before, keep your chin level with the floor and slowly turn your head towards the right, then center it and turn towards the left and center again. Alternate the sides. Inhaling turn to the right, exhaling turn to the center and do the same to the other side.

d) Arm stretch. Bring your arms up to the sides of your head, release your shoulders and if you can interlace your fingers and bring palms up to the ceiling. Stretch your arms up and to the sides, breath.

e) Stretch your legs. From siting , bring your hands under your right knee and lift the leg closer to your belly. With the leg on the air, extend the leg completely towards the front level to the floor, keep alternating bending and stretching for 4-5 times and then do the same with your left leg.

f) Bound angle pose. This is a great way to work out and watch TV. Sit on the floor or on top of a blanket, extend your legs forward, bring your right hand towards the back of your right knee and gently bend the knee and bring the sole of your foot towards the side of your left leg. Any part of the side or your tight is fine or close to your pubic bone. Do the same with your left leg and bring the soles of your feet together, keep your back straight and take 5-6 breaths. Relax.

Caution:
As with any workout, please ask your doctor if you have any health concerns before starting any of these exercises.



The results of family surveys reflect that lately people living in the US practice what is known as serial monogamy, a movement from marriage to divorce to marriage again and again. 
As for religious practices there has been some information on the subject from the beginning of the year and the latest is from last week.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that in general the US population changes their religious affiliation more than once in their life.

Not only a third of those who attend services usually go to a different church but nearly a quarter attend services held by another religion. Besides practicing an organized religion they also affirm beliefs that could have lifted eyebrows 100 years ago: 23% of those who consider themselves Christians believe in astrology, 22% in reincarnation, 26% find spiritual energy in physical things, and 21% believe yoga is a spiritual practice. 



Mr. Prothero wrote for The Wall Street Journal on Friday that "religious promiscuity is nothing new; many early Christians were also practicing Jews. And in China the "Three Teachings" of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism have co-existed for centuries, with many believers turning to Confucianism for etiquette, Taoism for freedom and Buddhism for enlightenment"
For Mr. Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University this might be a sign that people are loosing the sense of the sacred. 



There is not doubt that many times people change religion just because their favorite movie star is doing so, others get bored without even studying the basics of the religion they practice. 
Nevertheless, I don't see this trend as a problem; I like to think that there is something deeper happening, a search for meaning.

People might change their affiliation because they are looking for something more meaningful and less threatening; they want to have a personal experience that can bring them closer to the divine regardless of name or affiliation. 

Let me ad another interesting piece of data reported by the American Religious Identification Survey last March, "the percentage of people who call themselves Christians has dropped more than 11% in a generation, and so many people declined any religious label that the "nones", now 15% of the USA, are the third largest "religious group" after Catholics and Baptist” 

According to the Pew's 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape survey 92% or the population believe in a God 70% said many religions can lead to eternal life, and 68% said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of my religion. 



Could all these changes affect society or how our kids develop a sense of goodness and even morality? Is this tendency making them confused and have a cynic relation to God? Maybe.
The other side of the coin is that questioning the belief system we grew up with can become a search for truth and understanding, a way to trust our own experience and relation with the Divine without dogma. 



It seems to me that all this data represent a new take on religion. People are being more open and willing to understand the others point of view, recognizing that Truth does not belong to anyone though there are ways to approach it. 

This is the foundation of a mystical or spiritual way of understanding, and yoga has been one of those paths for more than 5000 years old. Sages of all times have said it: Yoga gives a series of techniques. If you want to have an experience, you should try them and see where they can take you. 



As for me as a yoga practitioner, I am glad the perception of Yoga has gone beyond the stretches and pretzel-like poses, little by little Yoga is taking its right place as a spiritual practice though not the only one. I truly believe that any search, devoting time and a desire to learn, will transform your life forever.