Dear Graduates, Teachers and Friends,


It has been an exciting year here at 7 Centers Yoga Arts – from completing 5 yoga teacher trainings and numerous smaller intensives to initiating a local farmers’ market and a spring equinox planting festival. According to Lawrence (Graziose) and the Enneagram work, we have completed a major cycle that began when he started teaching the Enneagram in 2003…the coming year promises new beginnings for all of us.


This year we launched the 500 hour yoga teacher training program with the 30 day Kundalini training in February…a month of deep, internal and intense practices that brought the students into a greater wisdom and spiritual maturity that was impressive. Because of the fast pace and stimulus of a technology-driven culture, it is a challenge to get quiet enough to experience the deeper effects of a yogic practice. – however the ongoing dedication of the faculty and students and the love of yoga is maintains a kind of energy here at the center and in Sedona that allows for deeper work.


Love of nature and the land is perhaps the underlying reason that I have gotten involved in the community garden and local agriculture movement here in Sedona. It brings me into regular contact with farmers, plants, compost, botanical medicines, essential oils. It has been a year to integrate my passion for yoga, nature and community activism. Gardening at Crescent Moon Community garden has now become part of karma yoga in the trainings and I am continuing to find ways to integrate mantra, breathing and the practice of awareness and presence while working with the earth.


For a couple of years now, Rama (Jyoti Vernon) has suggested that I develop a yoga therapy program. Many of the leaders in the yoga community feel that yoga therapy is next on the horizon, as yoga becomes more recognized not only as a practice for releasing stress, but as a true healing modality in conjunction with nutrition and herbal medicine. It is a direction I am now strongly considering and am in deep visioning and exploration as to just what a yoga therapist is and does. If we do a yoga therapy program here I want it to be the best and most comprehensive one and so have invited master teachers, Rama, David Frawley,Shambhavi, David Crow and others to come to lay foundational training for yoga therapy. I am still confirming dates so stay tuned for more information if you are interested!


The conflict resolution work has been a great interest of mine since first meeting Rama at a Yoga for Peace conference in Jerusalem. Our first training went beyond my expectations in the examination of conflict within personal relationships; the arena where we are the most invested in creating harmony and balance. Next year we are offering this 4 day training following the June/July 200 hour training. This training provides an invaluable practical tool for negotiating all kinds of conflict, both external and internal.


Yoga and Camping Retreats! New for next year – “7 Centers Goes Camping“ led by Zac Occhiline! May 9-12th we will drive to Fossil Creek where we will set up base camp. Fossil Creek is known for its clear blue water and waterfalls. The Verde Valley Hot Springs are 20 minutes away. We will do sunrise yoga, learn how to make ayurvedic food on a campfire with Mira, take day hikes from the campsite, have evening fire pujas and visit the hot springs. Space is limited, so if you are at all interested, contact Sydney.


To see the 2010 Training and Intensives schedule for this coming year click here. We always welcome graduates coming back to apprentice with Mira in the kitchen. It can be an opportunity to reconnect with the yogic and ayurvedic lifestyle and if you choose, to participate in the afternoon and evening classes. There is also have an asana apprenticeship for the first two weeks for those who want to go to another level with their teaching. Call Sydney and talk to her if you are interested in either of these programs.


We are in the midst of a website makeover….grateful for what we have had and ready for a change thanks to Jeff Masters…the release will be after the new year and will include an online bazaar for all your reading and cleansing needs! If you have any comments or additions please feel free to reply…as we grow as an extended community connected through writing. We love to hear from you so keep in touch that we can post news of what you are up to in the newsletter.


May this year be a blessed one for you and your families,
Love, Sraddhasagar

Alas, gentle reader, this column has been a long time in coming and I am extremely honored and humbled to be able to write about a subject for which I have great passion – the body.


Wrestling with which topic to start with, I decided to tackle a fundamental question I am sometimes asked: is it really necessary to study anatomy at all?


On the surface the answer seems obvious.  As yoga students or teachers we have to know about the body, how it moves, what we are doing to it when we practice and how to bring about a desired change when needed.  However, when we take a moment, step back, look a little deeper and approach our body not as just a vehicle by which we navigate this world but as a doorway through which we glimpse the great mysteries of the universe, then it puts the question in a whole new light.


The Bridhadaranyaka Upanishad states that the “source of all actions is the body, for it is by the body that all actions are done.  The body is behind all actions, even as Brahman is behind the body.”


As you know, the ultimate goal of yoga is to reawaken the awareness of our intrinsic union with Brahman or the source of all.  According to the passage above, one of the simplest ways for us to begin to experience this connection is to first know our body.  It is all too common for people to move through life on autopilot without the knowledge (jñāna) or awareness (citi) of their body, how it feels or what messages are being relayed from their deeper consciousness.  Unfortunately, this lack of awareness pervades our culture and society and leads to the disconnected life experience we see all around us.


One of the most effective ways to begin to know the body is to study it.  This is where anatomy comes in.  Through awareness and knowledge of the physical structures and metabolic functions of the body we begin to sense something greater, an intelligence and organization to things.  We become aware of a deeper undercurrent or force animating that which we study.  The deeper we explore, the more our awareness of universal principles existing within our body increases.


Through the lens of this awareness we begin to view the body in a sacred, reverent way.  What was once the rote study of gross physical structures and mechanical functions becomes a spiritual journey, a quest where our own experience of physical existence is no longer mundane or on “autopilot” but takes on a mystical hue.


In his note at the beginning of Dr. David Frawley’s book, Inner Tantric Yoga, professor Lokesh Chandra quotes the Amrita-ratnavali saying that “[t]he essence of all things resides in our bodies.”  This is why the study of anatomy is so important. It is a keystone in the foundation of understanding our physical being and connecting to not only our inner dimensions but also our planet and the cosmos at large.


For me, this is the true study of anatomy and the perspective from which I hope to present future columns for your enjoyment.


== COMING UP NEXT MONTH ==

“Yoga Therapy: What’s On The Horizon”


Jeff Masters LMT, CYT, MPCT, MSc. (Hon.) is the founder and directory of Thunder Mountain Wellness Center in Sedona.  He can be reached at (928) 600-2609 or visit http://www.tmwc.org for appointments or consultations.

Dear Friends,  Students and Teachers,

I have been wanting to start a dialogue on yoga and all of life’s related issues.  I hope to reconnect with you that have spent some time at 7 Centers, done a training (or several) or whose paths have crossed with mine through travels.

Little did I know that my first letter would be about Satyananda, a great spiritual teacher, who took his Maha Sammadhi December 5th.

Many of you know the importance this man has played in the spiritual direction of this yoga center. For those who don’t, the yoga teacher trainings here are based on the teachings that Paramahansa Swami Satyananda Saraswati has given and we have received guidance and inspiration from him while learning what it means to really Live.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati
1923 – 2009

“It has been said that Paramahamsaji called Swami Satsangi
at 11:30 PM and told her that it was time to go.  He was sitting in padmasana (lotus pose) doing  japa (mantra chanting) and left his body at midnight with a smile on his face. This great yoga master and Guru will be missed in his physical form, but his light will continue to shine, inspiring his disciples and followers with the many teachings he has so generously bestowed upon us.”

Anandasagar and I took jignasu initiation with Swami Niranjanananda in 1994 and had an unexpected darshan with Swami Satyandananda at that time. We took our initiation seriously and regarded our sojourn to Bihar as a great blessing. In 2001, after we went to the Maha Kumba Mela, we traveled to Mungyr, Bihar where took our second initiation and received the same names and mantra. When we created the first teacher training, it was and still is based upon the manual The Ancient Tantric Techniques of Yoga and Kriya by Satyananda. It was during the first training that I connected with Satyananda as the guru on the inner planes for the first time. It is a story we have told often at our teacher training orientations. We found ourselves in an ongoing drama that first training – learning to navigate within the intensity of emotions and purifications that started happening with our students as a result of the yoga practices we were leading.

After a third crisis this particular day – I was prompted by Anandasagar go into meditation and ask Satyananda for assistance since he was our inspiration and this was His training.


So I sat down, closed my eyes and requested his help.  He appeared.


His first, rather wry comment was,  “It looks like you have a sinking ship…”.


His second comment was that since we didn’t have an ashram facility, that we needed to create the “invisible” ashram –which meant that the students would need to agree to the same protocols expected in ashrams…vows of celibacy, no intoxicants, no gossiping… so that there was a strong container for the transformation of personal fixed patterns.

We all made it through the first training – students and teachers and then began incorporating the understanding of a container that Satyananda had given.

And so, the “Invisible Ashram” was born…At first it was a short booklet explaining the concept. Then it became a letter to prospective students to understand what they were embarking on and the reasons for rules and disciplines during training.  We have found it to be the key in the success of a transformational process that creates a strong foundation for great yoga practitioners and teachers.

There is always a sense of loss when the physical presence of a loved one is gone, however in the truest sense of reality, there is no such thing as death.

We honor this great being that served with such dedication in bringing the deepest teachings of yoga to those that were hungry and didn’t know it.

I speak for all his students, we are ever grateful…. Sraddhasagar