“At the heart of you, me, every single person, and all other creatures great and small, is an inner radiance that reflects our essential nature, which is always utterly positive. Tibetans refer to this inner light as pure radiance or innate luminosity….this luminosity is birthless and deathless. It is a luminescent emptiness, called “clear light” and it is endowed with the heart of unconditional compassion and love.”
–Lama Surya Das, Awakening the Buddha Within

My first visit to DC was in 1976. It was the Bicentennial year – very exciting! (That’s me on the left with my little sister. These days she’s the taller one.) I loved seeing the interior of the White House and admired President Lincoln’s asana on a rainy day at the Lincoln Memorial.

So, I’m excited to be back and teaching in DC this weekend with my dear friend, Monja Mani. We love teaching together.

Here’s our teaching schedule:
Midnight Jivamukti Yoga Flow. Fri, 5/17, 9:30pm-11:30pm. Flow Yoga
Jivamukti Chakra Tuning Workshop. Sat 5/18, 3-5pm. Flow Yoga
Jivamukti Yoga: Back to the Future. Sun 5/19, 10:30am-12:30pm. Buddha B Yoga

flowyogacenter.com
buddhabyoga.com

We hope to see you there!

My father was ill for some years until his death in 2009, and during that time I found the Medicine Buddha’s image, particularly his blue color, very calming. I chanted the Medicine Buddha mantra often, and gazed at his image to calm myself and to wish well-being for my dad.

“The practice of Medicine Buddha, the Supreme Healer, is not only a very powerful method for healing and increasing healing powers both for oneself and others, but also for overcoming the inner sickness of attachment, hatred, and ignorance. To meditate on the Medicine Buddha can help decrease physical and mental illness and suffering. The Medicine Buddha mantra is held to be extremely powerful for healing of physical illnesses and purification of negative karma.

Re 49 by Yves Klein

The Medicine Buddha

(i can have one free guest in each class.
if you ever want a free pass for yourself or a friend, let me know. :)

My friend April Dechagas is multi-talented. She bakes the best cookies in NYC (seriously!), she teaches kids yoga, she studies Sanskrit intensely, she works at the Jivamuktea Cafe 5 days a week, and she does it all with passion and cheerfulness.

April has been a steady Jivamukti Yoga practitioner for 5 years, and has dedicated many hours to serve Jivamukti Yoga School’s teachers and students. She has become an indispensable member of the Jivamukti NYC community, known and loved by all.

April is going to attend the Jivamukti Teacher Training in April 2013. I support April’s plans and know she will be a wonderful and inspiring Jivamukti teacher! I have seen her in action, engaging and empowering students to communicate and express themselves. Her work experience as a high school counselor and as a senior HR manager infuse her natural capacity for leadership.

I’ll be co-teaching a fundraiser workshop for April in January, along with Jivamukti teachers Narayani and Jeffrey Villanueva, with live music by Matt Lombardo and Christian Montegut. Please join us for a fun night! Sunday, January 27, 6-8pm at Jivamukti. Pay what you wish.

To learn more about April, visit AprilDechagas.com.

To help April with her current fundraising efforts, go to her fundraiser page.

Another way to support April is to buy some of her delicious cookies as a holiday (or everyday) gift for friends and family. I’ve already bought 3 boxes for family and friends.

I don’t know if you remember the first time we met, but I do. It was the summer of 2007. I was a newly certified Jivamukti teacher. One Friday in August I took the bus to Woodstock to take class with Sharon and David. After a sweaty, inspiring class, I was standing by the side of the road waiting for the bus back to the city, and I found myself chatting with a few Jivamukti teachers that I vaguely knew, and one that I didn’t; a tall woman, in a tall hat, sharing a bag of blue tortilla chips with everyone, talking animatedly. You were a striking figure.

A few months later, while I was finishing up my apprenticeship at Jivamukti, you approached me about covering your early morning Spiritual Warrior classes, while you went to Italy for a few weeks on a “conjugal visit”. I hesitated. I was a new teacher, I didn’t know the class sequence, and it seemed like a high stakes situation I wasn’t ready to take on. I said I was afraid to do it, and you said: “maybe that’s why you should!” You knew how to spur me on to take the challenge and I did. It was my first opportunity to teach regularly at Jivamukti. I was so grateful and still am – I learned so much from that experience.

Still, we didn’t really know each other except to say hello in passing. In 2010, that changed when we were both studying for the Advanced Certification Exam.

Jessica and I will always be grateful that you invited the two of us to study with you and initiated our study group of 3. Even though it was a stressful time, all I remember is a lot of laughing, as we rehearsed teaching each other, tripping each other up on purpose, doing our best to fluster each other, and to give each other feedback. Since that time of intense study, and the relief at passing the exam, an irrevocable bond of friendship was formed. I always feel that I passed that exam due to that study group you created.

After the exam, our friendship and mutual support continued. We decided to mentor each other and give each other feedback every week on dharma talks, teaching initiatives, and to plan workshops together. You attended the first retreat I taught in Amagansett as an enthusiastic student – what an honor! You helped me so much to develop as a teacher. My iCal still reminds that we have a standing lunch date every Wednesday at 12.

Liz, I keep thinking of that April weekend this year, when I came to see you in Chicago, when you were receiving treatment at the Block Center. You sent me an email titled “The Rendezvous at O’Hare” with an itinerary for the weekend, maps of Chicago, and an airport plan. You proceeded to pick me up at the airport, show me around town, to take me out to dinner, and to see a play. Who was the patient here? I wondered. You seemed to have much more energy than I did. You were so excited about your writing projects and the progress you were making. Always more interested in life and optimism, never dwelling on difficulty or pain.

I’ll never forget the day when we walked by the lake on the Northwestern campus. It was such a bright, brilliant day and the view of the water and Chicago was breathtaking. We’d walked a lot, but you weren’t tired. When I told you about the new turn of events in my life, about my new love, you were so authentically delighted for me and so supportive. You always were and are for me the epitome of someone who is truly “happy for those who are happy”.

Your last few weeks and days in this body were deeply inspiring. You were teaching us all how to live and how to die; how to care for each other; and how to know what’s really important. I want to live and die as gracefully as you with the Heart Sutra on my lips and a peaceful smile on my face.

Gate gate paragate parasangate bodhi swaha.
Gone, gone, real gone, beyond even the most gone.
Ultimate wisdom remains when everything has dropped away.
(from the Heart Sutra)

I miss you so much, my dear friend.
And I’m happy that you’re not in pain anymore.
I think that by now you’ve transmigrated into the body of a butterfly, or a body of light.

Thank you so much for being in my life, for your constant support, your enthusiasm and your friendship.
Love,
Tamar

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high,
There’s a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.

Someday I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That’s where you’ll find me.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow.
Why then, oh why can’t I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can’t I?

Join me for the Jivamukti tribe Gathering this January in New York!
I’m honored to be one of the presenters in an amazing roster of spiritual teachers & leaders including: Sharon Gannon, David Life, HH Radhanath Swami, Julia Butterfly Hill, Joshua M. Greene, Chef Kevin Archer and many more!
Check out the full list of presenters here and the full event schedule here.

Join the tribe!