Dear Friends,

Have you ever come to class, noticed the lithe young thing easily getting her foot behind her head or pressing into a handstand as if she weighed nothing, and felt a twinge of resentment arise?  Have you ever been unable to access an asana that you could do easily a month prior and experienced shame?   Have you ever held a position 30 seconds longer than your body wanted to because the teacher said to? How many times have you heard someone exclaim, “Oh, there is way too much yoga in Denver”?

These are some of the many ways that we experience, edify, and constantly recreate competition, and beyond that separation.  In a sense, this is how the ego struggles to feel secure about its impermanent place in the cosmos.

Most of us grew up thinking that competition is a good thing; the way that innovation occurs, that things improve, that we experience triumph over someone else.  But maybe it is just one of the only ways we know how to operate when we do not know the truth of reality and our place within it.

When we are ego-identified, we have to be better than others, we have to be better than ourselves, we have to be right.  Oh, and by the way, when we are lost in the small self – there is never enough.  My beloved meditation teacher Thich Nhat Hahn would say, we are at war with ourselves.  In fact, these thought formations are literally the seeds of war between nation states itself.

Whether or not we believe in hell, as an afterlife, one thing is for sure.  When we are lost in the grip of competition and separation, when we are unable to see the other as ourselves, we are already in hell.  And we continue to create hell on earth by dominating nature and each other, by using resources that belong to all species, and by clamoring for social and economic power.  The list goes on.

Thankfully, there is a way out.  The teachings of yoga, and many other great wisdom traditions, give us the opportunity to see that these mechanisms operate within us.  It may sound small but realizing how and why we insist in competition and separation within ourselves and among ourselves is a revolutionary act and it can transform, dare I say, EVERYTHING.

Here is a simple, practical example.  Yoga studios are popping up everywhere, causing some students and owners to lament.  There do not seem to be enough students to go around.  Too many teachers are graduating from YTT programs and the market cannot bear them.  After all, there are only so many young fit people to go around.  My friends, it is time, it is beyond time, to stop thinking in limitation, in competition, in scarcity.

Here is a radical announcement:  MULTIPLE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE DO NOT PRACTICE YOGA OR MEDITATION OR DAILY MINDFULNESS.   MULTIPLE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE DO NOT ACCESS THEIR INNATE DEEP WISDOM IN DAILY LIFE (yet).

Here is another one:  COLLABORATION IS ACTUALLY MORE EFFECTIVE THAN COMPETITION.  Whoa…

I am proud to share that Samadhi is committed to the continual flowering of yoga, far far beyond our beloved young fit demographic.  I am thrilled to be a part, like all of you of a movement, a whole culture where both deep wellness and, dare I say, AWAKENING, are possible for everyone.

To this end, Samadhi supports adaptive yoga for differently abled people through the work of the Chanda Plan Foundation.  Samadhi offers a variety of meditation and healing styles.  We regularly give back to local community based organizations, and you, my friends, have given again and again when disaster has struck in Haiti, in New Orleans, in Thailand, and beyond.

Further, we have launched a whole Yoga Outreach Program.  Mainly, this is happening through a project called Denver Yoga At Work.  Taking yoga into the workplace is not a new idea, but it is a powerful one.  I have personally seen hundreds of people who would never consider going to a studio, transform their bodies and start to transform their minds in as little as 2 months of weekly practice.  This is what happens when we collaborate, when we get creative, when instead of fighting to divvy up the pieces of the pie, we make the pie bigger.  This is what happens when we refuse to play in the small box of competition and separation.

Is your workplace, apartment complex, school, non-profit ready for deep wellness, skillfully and conveniently delivered to your site?  Then reach out and we will be there for you! www.denveryogaatwork.com.

My friends, please keep the revolution going.  Continue unfolding your bodies, unfolding your minds, unfolding your hearts, unfolding new ways of seeing.  Keep thinking in terms of enough.  Water the seeds of collaboration, of insight, of interconnection.

It may or may not be true that after we die we go to heaven.  But what is for sure is that we can create heaven right here and right now in an endless variety of kind, creative, and revolutionary acts, starting with giving up our allegiance to the lies of competition and separation.