Practice Notes - 6/1 + 6/8 2026

June 1 and June 8, 2026 - Holding the World Together

Please forgive my tardiness in writing up these practice notes. I don’t tolerate shifts in my schedule very well, even if they’re supportive in nature. However, this may provide a good segue into what we’ve discussed over the last two weeks of practice.

June 1

We’ve continued exploring sattva in practice. We first introduced it as an expression of the dreaming aspect of consciousness, the higher truth of mental projections as the architecture for our lived experience. In the next class, we worked with how sattva is also thought of as a collecting, coalescing, and gathering force. Think of those mental projections - Visnu’s dreams - as little centers of gravity which serve as blueprints for material reality. Although the materials are imperfect and the dream may never be realized, we witness sattva as a force that through its perfection draws the other threads of reality - rajas and tamas - to it. Think of it like as a charismatic leader who, through clarity of vision, unifies people of different, even oppositional, creeds and viewpoints. It may not be perfect (no shit), but they’re trying to come together.

What is interesting about that, however, is what happens when two opposites come into the same space. My teacher’s teacher, Appa, used to say that “when two opposites are found in the same place, the divine is present.” This is the unique power of sattva: to gather things together that ordinarily wouldn’t be in the same place and in doing so, to create a wholly new, third expression of reality. Balancing the volatile forces of creation (rajas) and the decaying influence of death (tamas), life emerges. Life as a sustaining if unstable equilibrium between birthing and dying.

To that end, we used our own imaginal capacities to craft a deeply energetic movement practice, using pranayama as an essential trail guide to the practice. We:

• Began with an opening “savasana,” bringing attention to the opposing forces present within it - inhale and exhale, spinal flexion and spinal extension.

• We explored inward and outward energy, how breath can create a tidal experience pulling into the core (torso) from the periphery (limbs) and exiting from the core back out the periphery.

• We emphasized subtle ujjayi breath throughout the practice and then dedicated time to nadi shodhana, alternate nostril breathing, to explore the balance of oppositional forces in the energy body.

June 8

This class focused on sattva as an expression of clarity and lucidity, particularly of the mind (which for many is what yoga is all about) For those in the new, most are familiar with this particular conception of sattva because it’s detailed in the Bhagavad Gita as the journey from ignorance (tamas) through activation and agitation (rajas) to clarity of thought (sattva). However, there are other ways to think about this.

Again and again, the yoga tradition stresses the importance of mental cultivation, particularly the faculties of concentration and awareness. Within the gunas, sattva represents the most refined expression of these faculties. The resulting state of sattva, my teacher and I would argue, is best conveyed through the word lucidity. Lucidity means clarity of expression, a state of mind without confusion, and also the awareness of being in a dreaming state (this is Visnu to a T!). If sattva is an aspirational state of mind, then, we aim to develop our ability to concentrate and remain in awareness. Which, given the age, is really hard. However, the fruits of lucidity are great. To be clear in thought and action, in a state without confusion, and to know that so much of what you see and experience is not fixed or necessarily true is a gift. It leads to a great sense of poise, of knowing what to do at the right time in the right moment because there is almost nothing that escapes your attentions. Perception is power, you might say.

We took some steps towards cultivating during class. The best way I know to teach and practice this in yoga is to choose a basic anchor for practice and stick to it. This is in line with our previous discussions about sattva, a force that gathers and holds things together in order to achieve a state of continuity, of sustained preservation. The anchor we chose, unsurprisingly, was breath. Specifically, we used counted breath to create a through-line in the practice, establishing a more precise pace of movement that required us to concentrate continuously. We discovered that this is no easy feat, especially given the age. We:

• Began with another deep, beginning restorative to map the sensation of breath in the body

• Explored more rigorous asana to purposely challenge our ability to maintain an even, counted breath and our concentration

• Focused on counting in seated pranayama to further encourage concentration, but in a more relaxed physical state.

So now we’re all caught up. And that’s all for now.

Saprema, Joey

XO

Practice Notes - 5/25/2026

May 26, 2026 - Ocean Waves

It’s said that under the waves of the cosmic ocean, at the very bottom of the world, the supreme god Visnu (pronounced vish-noo) sleeps upon a massive serpent of infinite coils. In his slumber Visnu dreams the world into being, his mental visions becoming the blueprint, the inner cause, upon which all of creation is then built. Creation, the manifested reality we experience with our senses, is secondary to those mental visions because it’s built out of imperfect and perishable materials. All those fleshly materials can do is aspire to accurately creating the Visnu’s grand blueprint. Of course, they will fail in the end. But Visnu’s dreams will not, always providing a perfect ideal that, like a locus of gravity, creation will try to gather around and give form to. That, some say, is the true reality.

It’s no coincidence then, that Visnu is the god associated with sattva, the final guna we have to explore. Sattva is also associated with the dream state, where mental visions arise to reveal the true nature of our consciousness and thus the world. Where tamas is about the dark and the silent and rajas is about transformation and creation, sattva is about unity. Sattva is the force that brings things together, that collects and coalesces, that agglomerates and integrates. By doing so, it becomes the guna that sustains our reality, that holds things together. Like Visnu’s dreams, it gathers the other apsects of creation to it in order to realize that perfect creative blueprint. Whether or not it succeeds, well… that’s not really the point.

So what does all this myth and metaphysic mean for us? It suggests that beyond our lived experience, there’s a deeper, truer reality at the heart of our existence. And sattva is the force that can help unite the many disparate parts of our experience and begin to take us inward towards the core of that reality. The root of the root, so to say. Sattva is charcterized by subtlety and by light, so we use subtler practices. Movement of energy in the body, refined breathwork, imaginal work. These help us to amplify our own sattva, bringing our focus to the deeper elements of our being.

We began our practice with an opening savasana (corpse pose) with a bolster under the knees and a blanket on top of the belly to help identify how the breath moves the body, but also as a tool to help us begin with sama vrtti, the equal breath, establishing an even count between inhale and exhale.

From there, we:

• Did some supine hip, knee, and ankle mobilizations, as well as some hip and hamstring stretches.

• Moved to table top, practing cat and cow pose and then flowing between child’s pose and cow pose over a bolster.

• Laid down for a bhujangasana (cobra pose) series, extending long and up through the mid back.

• From here, we moved into an adho mukha svanasana series - down dog. Here, we began to explore imaginal, energetic work in asana. On the inhale, we visualed energy drawing from the periphery into the core of the body, and then energy dispersing from the core outwards on the exhale. Students described it like feeling an ocean wave moving through the body. For our purposes, we can call this inward energy and outward energy (a modification of a principle from my former yoga school - Anusara).

After that, we moved through:

• Shalabhasana (locust pose) over the bolster

• Uttanasana (forward fold) and utkatasana (chair pose) with hands on blocks

• A low lunge series including the lunge itself, a twisted variation, and a variation straightening the front leg with the hands on blocks (sometimes called runner’s stretch)

• A prasarita padottanasana series (wide-legged forward fold). We brought new emphasis to inward and outward energy, adding in twists and malasana (garland pose, or yogic squat).

• Thigh stretches at the wall

• And hindolasana (baby’s cradle pose), a seated hip mobilizer.

We went into an extended pranayama practice, starting with sama vrtti. Emphasizing the even, precise count of the breath, we breathed in and out with a very delicate flow of air, barely disturbing the rims of the nostrils. After about 10 minutes, we transitioned into sama vrtti with kumbhaka, meaning retention. We added a more subtle form of bandha (energetic seal) work to this, engaging the pelvic floor, diaphragm, and throat. We inhaled, held the breath with the three bandhas, and exhaled, all for the same amount of time.

We followed with savasana. Students reported feelings of deep quietude and energetic movement. Ocean waves, baby :)

Saprema, y’all. See you soon!

Practice Notes - 5/18/2026

May 18, 2026 - Choreography

Last week, we talked about the transition between a rajasic state and a sattvic state, examining what it looks like when sattva, consciousness, descends into existence, rajas. This week, we looked at the inverse: the ascent of of existence into consciousness.

Unlike Descartes and much of the Western tradition that informs him, Hinduism takes the position not that we think ourselves into being, but that thinking is a part of being. Consciousness is a subtle aspect of existence, but it does exist. We can’t restrict ourselves to the idea that consciousness is confined to brain tissue. If consciousness is integral to beingness, as the Hindu yogis argue it is, then it stands to reason that all of material reality is pervaded by consciousness. What happens, then, when rajas makes it’s way into the subtle realm of consciousness (sattva)?

This combination manifests, some believe, as an aspect of reality called isvara (ish-vuh-ruh). Isvara is a kind of supraconsciousness, a higher consciouness that participates in material existence. The role of isvara is to direct and organize the gunas such that the process of creation, existence, and destruction continues on and on. It helps me to think of isvara as a choreographer. The three gunas are its dancers, and isvara directs them all in such a way as to ensure that they move harmoniously to the appropriate rhythm and time and that the cycle of reality continues to spin.

Where does this show up for us in our particular microcosm of reality? Our lived experience? We approached this practice from an energetic and embodied perspective rather than a psychological one. Yoga works on the premise of an energetic body that’s inseperable from both mentality and physicality. This is what we’re working with when we practice pranayama - the pranic body (prana meaning energy). The central energy channel, sushumna nadi, runs from the level of our tailbone up to the top of the head. All other energy channels flow from this channel. Sushumna sets the tone for both quality and quantity of energy in the body. It choreographs the energy flow. The more attentive we are to maintaining this energetic axis and the physical structures around it (the spine), the more harmoniously the energy will move, leading to a more graceful and coordinated existence.

In that sense, I see a similarity between isvara and sushumna. Sushumna choreographs the prana within the body, which seeks to create harmony among the various aspects of our material existence: physical, mental, spiritual, and of course energetic. To that end, we had a rich practice focused on spinal movement and pranayama. We began with:

• An opening savasana, practicing sama vrtti (equal breath) to feel the flexion and extension of the spine against the mat.

• Supine warm-ups including happy baby, hamstring stretches, twists, and hip mobilizations.

We transitioned to our hands and knees for some:

• Cat and cow (marjaryasana and bitilasana) along with a child’s pose (balasana) with a rotation to open up the ribs and sides of the spine.

• Vajrasana (thunderbolt pose) with arms raises to stretch the bottoms of the feet

We then:

• Went through a bhujangasana (cobra pose) series into down dog, through table top and forward folds, feeling the effect of the breath in flexion and extension in a different position.

• Articulated through our feet by raising and lowering the heels in down dog.

• Went through a series of kneeling lunges to open the sides of the spine and feel the spine in rotation, which is an experience of both compressing and decompressing the spine evenly.

• Grabbed a bolster for a supported cobra pose, placing the prop under our sternum to gain height and assist in opening the front of the chest and strengthening the back.

• Explored side bending in parighasana (gate keeper pose), along with lengthening the spine.

From there, we entered into an extended pranayama practice. Seated, we practiced sama vrtti before transitioning into nadi shodhana, alternate nostril breathing. This breathing practice combines with a mudra (hand gesture) and has made its way into popular culture, and is well-loved for its balancing effects. We practiced a particularly subtle form (taught to an Indian master by his student, Yehudi Menuhin!) of the breath with an emphasis on calming the nervous the system.

Afterwards, we went into a restorative twist over the bolster before a long savasana. And good times were had by all.

Thank you to everyone who came. See you on the mat next time.

Saprema <3

Practice Notes - 5/11/2026

May 11, 2026 - The Descent of Consciousness

We continued to wade in the wondrous waters of the gunas this week. Reflecting on our previous classes, it occurred to me that while it’s helpful to know the nature of each guna, it may be equally important to know what it feels and looks like when we begin to transition between one quality and another. That is, how do we know when the nature of our being is shifting? So rather than shifting right into talking about the third guna, sattva, we explored the state between rajas and sattva.

For answers, we turned to Alain Daniélou’s The Myths and Gods of India. He defines rajas as the guna of existence, that is, rajas is the primary energy of the material world constantly creating and recreating itself - an ever-transforming reality. Sattva he defines as world consciousness, the intelligence balancing the qualities of transformation (rajas) and destruction (tamas) so that the world can sustain itself. Using his wording, we returned to the question of what marks the shift from rajas (existence) to sattva (consciousness).

Daniélou describes this as “consciousness within existence,” or sattva within rajas. I like to think of it as the descent of consciousness into existence, where the greater forms of intelligence guiding our material world slowly start to trickle in to encourage a state of greater harmony and clear-sightedness. This happens, the yogis argued, within the four structures of the mind, the mind being the most subtle part of our material existence and the seat of our consciousness (not to be confused with Consciousness - that comes later!). These four structures are as follows:

1. Manas - The sensing aspect of the mind involved in deliberation and discussion
2. Buddhi - The intellect. It decides and chooses. This is the most subtle, elevated part of the mind.
3. Citta - The “mind stuff,” where memories and patterns are laid down.
4. Ahamkara - The ego or “I-ness” which projects a reality of separate existence

We could argue that within the context of a modern yoga practice, it’s when we start to pay attention to these subtler structures of the mind and notice their presence within our existence that indicates a descent of sattva into rajas. Becoming aware of these mental structures, noticing how we interpret information, how we make choices, the ways in which our patterned thoughts influence us, and how we separate ourselves from others - all of these serve to make consciousness the main focus of our lives rather than the concerns of our physical existence. To that end, we explored a focused practice attuning to the presence of these four mental structures during asana, pranayama, and savasana, emphasizing disciplined breathing throughout.

We began with:

• Sama Vrtti pranayama - softly inhaling and exhaling through the nose for the same amount of time. We

• Warming up the spine and limbs low to the mat, including: cat and cow, side stretch and strengthen, and gentle rotation, as well as weight bearing and mobilizing in the shoulders and hips in adho mukha svanasana (downward dog), planks, modified bhujangasana (cobra pose), and small squats and forward folds.

• We again focused on pada and hasta bandha, the hand and foot seals for a strong foundation, maintaining equal contact and strong arches in the hands and feet.

From there, we continued on with sama vrtti guiding the practice, moving through a straightforward sequence of poses.

• A lunging series beginning with anjaneyasana (low lunge) to high lunge or crescent pose with a twist.

• A warrior series moving through parsvakonasana (side angle pose), virabhadrasana II (warrior II pose), and trikonasana (triangle pose).

• After this series, we came into down dog at the wall for lengthening and strengthening.

Afterwards, we sat for a dedicated breathing practice in either sama vrtti or ujjayi pranayama. We focused on maintaing an even count in the breath as well as adding the soft hissing sound, like fogging up a mirror, while nasal breathing. Sama vrtti is the foundation of pranayama and is a wonderful asana practice breath. Ujjayi has been favored as a practice breath in modern yoga due to its lightly heating, stimulating nature. However, it isn’t necessary.

Following that, we went into a series of hip mobilizations and twists both over and off of the bolster under the hips. We concluded with a long savasana.

Through the practice, we continually brought awareness to the four aspects of the mind that make themselves known in practice. We talked about manas; how it’s constantly negotiating all the sensory information in the body and the teacher’s instruction. We talked about buddhi, how we make decisions over and over in the practice not only about how to incorporate the teaching, but also personal choices about whether to push or pull back, to do the thing we know is challenging or to return to our patterns. And in that vein, we encountered citta, our patterns of thought and behavior, and how they shape our practice. We all have our tendencies and working against them can in turn present a challenge to ahamkara, our ego. It may contradict the way we see ourselves, it may frustrate us and bring up a variety of emotions.

This is all to say, our consciousness is deeply involved in the practice. Yoga is an artful form of living, but it’s also a form of mental cultivation. There is no yoga practice without the mind, as it’s part of our lived reality.

Thank you, all. See you next week :)
Saprema

Practice Notes - 5/4/2026

May 4, 2026 - When Passion Becomes Creation

While moving through our conversations and practices around the gunas, I’ve been looking into some alternative sources for further clarity. One such sources has been The Puranas, a collection of myths and cosmologies that inform a great deal of Hindu narrative. This text, along with additional commentaries, jogged my memory that while the gunas are often presented as a hierarchy, from least (tamas) to most (sattva) desirable, there are different conceptions about their role in the cosmos.

In their mythic descriptions, the gunas are portrayed less as a hierarchy and more as a cycle, one leading into the next as essential engines in the repeating loop of creation, preservation, and dissolution. Interestingly, rajas kicks off the process - creation. Like we’ve discussed, rajas here still reflects agitation, volatility, and heat. Rajas is the beater that whips egg whites into meringue, that kicks off spring cleaning, that carries us from a stuck position into something steady and flowing.

One of our classmates shared at the start of practice that she’s in a moment of transition. She’s not exactly sure what of she wants but knows it’s time for a change. As with so many of us, initiating that change is often confounding. The more mythic, cyclical rajas may offer some insights. Here, rajas is also deeply connected with passion and desire. As my teacher Douglas used to say, the universe is made of desire. We’re all here because somebody wanted something, right? And while many mystical traditions tend to frown on desire (it’s the root of all suffering, right?!), it’s also powerfully motivating. Passion and desire beget change, and if we’re skillful and moral in following our creative wants, they made lead us somewhere we didn’t know we could go.

So, we worked towards a little known pose that reflects this - vakra tundasana. This is translated as “Ganesha’s gently twisting trunk.” Ganesha is god of many things but is perhaps best known as the remover of obstacles. In classic representations, the elephant-headed god holds sweets or ladoo in his bottom left hand. His trunk snakes across his big belly, symbolizing the universe itself, and wends its way toward the ladoo. This gesture suggests that with dexterity and effort, one may always find the sweetness in life.

So, we began practice with:

• Standing centering, organizing ourselves over the four points of the feet

• A series of warm ups in standing and in table top, including the five spinal movements (flexion, extension, side bending, rotation, and spinal lengthening)

• Shoulder opening warm ups with the strap.

• Explored familiar poses like uttanasana (forward fold), adho mukha svanasana (downward dog), and bhujangasana (cobra pose) with special attention to our foundational foot and hand placement, referred to as pada and hasta bandha (literally meaning “seal” or “gate”).

From there, we moved on to a series of poses involving rotation of the spine, hip opening, and lengthening the back of the leg. These included:

• Anjaneyasana - low lunge with a twist and shoulder opening.

• Ardha hanumanasana - half splits pose, placing our hands on blocks for added support and length

• Utthita parsvakonasana - side angle pose. We first pulsed in and out of this stance to warm the legs and glutes and then went into the classic side-leaning position.

• Parsvottanasana - pyramid pose, a forward folding standing pose with a shorter, wider stance. A strong stretch for the back of the leg.

• Parivrtta trikonasana - revolved triangle pose. Pyramid pose in the lower half of the body, a big twist in the upper body.

We took a breather after this strong progression, resettling with breathing and some gentle hip and shoulder mobilizations. From there, we came to our final pose, vakra tundasana. This is uttanasana with a spinal rotation and a strap diagonally threaded between the legs to allow for shoulder opening. The torso mimics Ganesha’s trunk snaking around for some treats :)

After that, the usual cool and savasana.

Thank you all. So much. It’s a delight to be with you each week.

Saprema,

Joey