Beyond the Monastery

  • By onthemat
  • 29 Apr, 2016
  We left the Monastery at 4:30 am to make a 6 pm flight to Bagan, a mecca of temples and spiritual energy with an indescribable number of Buddhas. As we departed, Marni posted on Facebook, “Exhausted but blissful yogis heading to Bagan for some R & R after a week of intense yoga and […]
We left the Monastery at 4:30 am to make a 6 pm flight to Bagan, a mecca of temples and spiritual energy with an indescribable number of Buddhas.
As we departed, Marni posted on Facebook, “Exhausted but blissful yogis heading to Bagan for some R & R after a week of intense yoga and meditation…. We are so happy!”
It was funny when a friend of hers replied, “OMG! A week without kids, and yoga and meditation would have left me the opposite of exhausted.” Little did she know that we’d just been with 300 “kids,” and we didn’t practice the yoga as much as taught it, over 4 hours a day.
So, yes. We were exhausted, blissful yogis, in amazement at the week we’d just shared, brimming with ideas on “What next?” The next day as we drove an hour or so to Mt. Popa, an ancient volcano housing the mythic temple of the Nans, ancient spirits, we brainstormed. Actually, Carly needed to focus on her thesis presentation just a week away. She will be receiving her Masters in Yoga Studies in a few short weeks! We all have so much gratitude and thanks to Marni for organizing her first “Om and Roam” Seva Project that far exceeded expectations. This is just the beginning of “Om and Roam”. Wendy, was headed back to Red Dragon Yoga, to create a curriculum for her first teacher training, but what would that be like given this experience. Is there a way to combine a 300 hour with training for Seva projects such as these?
And me. I’ve searched for years to find this. I thought I would find it in South Africa, when I went in 2012, but it wasn’t time. I did learn that I wanted to find some type of service, or Seva, that is replicable with a ripple effect? The initial thoughts about creating a model for yoga teachers to take their yoga off the mat to girls and young women in countries where they are at risk: Poverty. Child labor trafficking. Sex trafficking. Yoga empowers, and we saw that in a few short days with the nuns.
So each of us has our own path, but more importantly we see ourselves as spokes in a wheel, with our common goal in the center. Bringing yoga and Seva together in a new and progressive way. We may find resistance bringing yoga into more nunneries, in a traditional Buddhist country like Myanmar, but it doesn’t mean we won’t try.
In the meantime, “Saya’s Nunnery” is our heart. First and foremost, we plan to support the girls and young women in a multitude of ways. A scholarship fund, a plan to provide visuals with the sequences so they can practice on their own, some Asian Elephant pants, in their red skirt color, to be worn during yoga class (Yes! We have permission), and a promised return trip later this year.
I can’t wait to bring you all along as our plans continue to unfold… Stay Tuned!

On The Mat Yoga Blog

By Linda Malcomb 03 May, 2020

“There is a light in the core of our being that calls us home—one that can only be seen with closed eyes; We can feel it as a radiance in the center of our chest. This light of loving awareness is always here, regardless of our conditioning. It does not matter how many dark paths we have traveled or how many wounds we have inflicted or sustained as we have unknowingly stumbled toward this inner radiance. It does not matter how long we have sleepwalked, seduced by our desires and fears. This call persists until it is answered, until we surrender to who we really are. When we do, we feel ourselves at home wherever we are. A hidden beauty reveals itself in our ordinary life. As the true nature of our Deep Hear is unveiled, we feel increasingly grateful for no reason—grateful to simply be.”

—John J. Prendergast, PHD, The Deep Heart  

By Linda Malcomb 02 May, 2020

Seems like it’s been rainy, windy, dreary for eons. Which may have helped us shelter inside a bit more. I remember reading years and years ago in a Seth book that weather can be influenced, and even created by mass human emotion. Why not? We are far more powerful than we currently acknowledge, and science is beginning to validate many phenomena that had seemed inconceivable before. Those seemingly endless days of “bad” weather seemed congruent with the emotional tone of covid her in New England. And now SUN! Glorious, warming, invigorating, hope-filled Sun! Today I will be outside basking and gardening and thanking. And I’m sure the whole neighborhood, and most of New England will go outside, stand with our faces to the sun and breathe a huge healing breath of joy. And maybe the collective energy of that will resonate out across the word as a promise of brighter days to come.     


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