Skillful Means Podcast

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In #4, we discuss what it means to advance in a yoga practice. Through the lens of the koshas--concentric layers of a human’s identity described in the Upanishads--you can view advancement as moving from the gross to the subtle, from the physical to the mental.

We unpack the koshas and their related practice methods from the outside in, from asana for anamaya kosha (the physical or “food” body), to pranayama for the pranic body, and so forth. 

From her perspective as a private teacher, Sarah Jane shares the qualities that arise as harbingers of an advancing practice, and reveals her guiding principles for establishing a self-led practice. Throughout the show, Jen offers some nuggets for yoga teachers on how to bring a wider variety of teachings into the yoga room. This discussion would not be complete without noting how crucial it is to resist external pressures to focus too closely on asana.

As yoga teachers, we are concerned with the integrity and depth of the methods available to us and our students. And as Buddhist practitioners we cannot help but bring up wise effort and muse how anandamaya kosha, the innermost sheath seems akin to buddhanature. We finish with resources for people who want to move beyond asana and pranayama.

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Sources and Further Reading:

• Athorough article-length overview of “The Koshas: 5 Layers of Being” by Linda Johnsen. 
• Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, speaks about disembodiment, yoga, resilience, and more in On Being “How Trauma Lodges in the Body.” 
• “Meditation in Motion,” a quick description of Kripalu’s integrated approach to practice. 

Training Beyond Asana:

• Kripalu School of Yoga 
• Sarah Powers’ Insight Yoga Institute Primary Level Teacher Training for teachers and long-time practitioners. 
• The Himalayan Institute’s Mission Programs
• Kaya Mindlin’s Supreme Release Yoga online programs integrate the full spectrum of Vedic wisdom.
• Tricycle Magazine, Shambala Publications, and Sounds True offer online courses ranging from meditation to subtle-body yoga to deep dives into the Buddhist Canon.
• Through Sati Yoga, Jen offers the online course “Taoism & Yin Yoga: Ancient Wisdom for Contemporary Practice.” 
• Sarah Jane offers

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SMP welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

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Breath awareness is the heart of a mindfulness practice, a gift that brings the mind and body together in the present moment. This simple, yet profound, meditation will help you relax while also boosting concentration and focus.

You can practice with this meditation by itself. The short format also makes it ideal for meditating before a yoga practice to help you settle the mind and cultivate a state of inner listening.

Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey.

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SMP welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

In Episode 2, we unpack “skillful means”: teachings and methods that support a practitioner’s journey on the path toward enlightenment. Serious yoga practitioners and teachers know this both includes and goes beyond asana and pranayama. So, what other means can we take up to wake up?

According to the Buddha, there is no one prescription. In Buddhism, skillful means (Pali: upaya) are whatever is expedient to continuing along the path, and appropriate to the circumstances (and discarded when no longer so). They are accelerative and adaptive, but may not lead to the ultimate truth...and that is okay. Examples from our practices include enhancement methods such as yin yoga, compassion meditation, and self-inquiry. 

While the concept of upaya is used in some Buddhist contexts to classify teachings in a hierarchy, we use the concept to discern what is and what is not skillful when it comes to trends in contemporary western yoga (enter: goat and beer yoga).

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Sources and Further Reading:

• An overview of Skillful Means from the online wiki Encyclopedia of Buddhism 
  
  
• The Parable of the Burning House from the Lotus Sutra, translated by Gene Reeves and published online by the Montreal Institute of Applied Mindfulness  
  
  
• The Tricycle.com article “When to Let Go of the Dharma, Too,” includes the Raft Parable, and teacher Stephen Batchelor discusses letting go of means to a particular end, and the empowering approach of secular dharma
  
  
• In contrast to Batchelor’s secular lens, in the Tricylce.com article “Entering the Lotus,” Zen priest Michael Wenger shares the role the vast and iconic Lotus Sutra plays in Buddhist practice
  
  
• The Aimee Mann song, That’s Just What You Are  

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SMP welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

In Episode 1, we start at the beginning, with the phenomenon that gave rise to the shared project that is Skillful Means Podcast: spiritual friendship. 

In Buddhism, spiritual friends (Pali: Kalyāṇa-mitta, Sanskrit: -mitra) provide support and encouragement along the path. They may be monastic, lay peers, or teacher/student pairs. These relationships are fertile ground for better understanding the nature of the mind while also being protective in a world where contemplative practice is counter-cultural. 

We use stories from the Buddhist Canon as well examples from our own lives to illustrate the purpose of spiritual friendship (supportive of practice), how it operates (encouraging the wholesome), and what a spiritual friendship is not (concerned with fixing). We also talk about whether and how it shows up in parts of the yoga world.

Our hope is to inspire you to identify and foreground spiritual friends or potential spiritual friends in your life. We end with resources that will help in this endeavor.

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Sources and Further Reading:

• “Spiritual Friendship,” excerpted from a lecture by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi and published by Bodhi Monastery.
  
  
• A big part of creating the conditions necessary for true happiness, according to Thanissaro Bikkho in his talk “Skillful Shelter” published on Tricycle.com, is choosing admirable friends.
  
  
• In “The Whole of the Spiritual Life,” American Buddhist nuns Thubten Chodron and Ayya Tathaaloka discuss friendship in an interview with Sarah Conover on Tricycle.com.
  
  
• “Making Friends on the Buddhist Path,” by Norman Fischer on Lionsroar.com opens with Ananda’s incomplete insight into the role of friendship in spiritual life and the Buddha’s teaching to Meghiya on the “five things [that] induce release of heart and lasting peace.”
   
• In “Good Friendship is the Entire Spiritual Life,” published by the Garrison Institute, Josh Korda reflects on social connection in spiritual community.
  
  
• In Beginning Anew: Four Steps for Restoring Communication, Sister Chan Khong, long-time friend of Thich Nhat Hanh and nun in the Plum Village monastic community, describes the conflict resolution process developed among the Plum Village monastics. 

Resources for developing spiritual friendship and sangha:

• Spirit Rock’s Kalyana Mitta (Spiritual Friends) network “Guidelines” and “

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SMP welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.

Welcome to Skillful Means Podcast.

Through the lens of Insight Yoga, hosts Sarah Jane Shangraw and Jennifer O'Sullivan will offer conversations on a variety of topics including:

• an emphasis on the quieter, yin aspects of practice
• nourishing the energy body
• weaving in meditation with asana, and
• inquiry methods, particularly Internal Family Systems

Launching: Late September 2019

Future episodes will drop every other week on Thursdays.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or drop us a note at [email protected]

~ ~ ~

SMP welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga

Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form

To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.