YOU'RE INVITED TO JOIN US AT COMMUNITY YOGA CENTER FOR SUMMER SOLSTICE SUN SALUTATIONS WITH INGA, BETH, AND KRISTIN!

On Thursday, June 20th we’ll be honoring the Summer Solstice with sun salutations at Community Yoga Center and we hope you’ll consider practicing with us. This practice will begin at 4:00pm!

Practicing cycles of sun salutes with mantra is a beautiful yogic practice of offering gratitude for the light-giving force of the sun and recognizing the gift of life itself. It’s a practice of reverence and commitment, and a special opportunity to connect in community.

It can also be a practice of tapas. The Sanskrit word “tapas” can be translated to English to mean “heat causing change.” Practicing tapas involves purposely staying in the crucible of intense experience until the flames die to embers - embers that carry the potential to spark real transfiguration. Tapas recognizes the reality of suffering and asks us to willingly bear adversity in order to open up to greater insight. It knows that sometimes we are unaware of our own capacity unless we’re challenged and discover within ourselves a force that matches the adversity we face. Practicing sun salutations in this way can be a kind of challenge that asks us to meet it with enough inspired passion, fortitude, and patience to willingly (and even enthusiastically) endure intense experience. If you’re interested in welcoming intense experience in this way - as part of the whole of our human experience, please consider practicing sun salutes with us on the Summer Solstice. It holds the potential to connect us to a fierce kind of grace.

108 VINYASAS · 108 CYCLES

Some of us will be practicing A LOT  of sun salutations - like 108 sun salute cycles! You are welcome to practice as many as you’d like and do not have to complete 108 to be part of this practice. You can do one - or none - or however many sun salutes you’re up for! If you want to try 108 sun salutes - expect a challenge that usually lasts about an hour.

Completing 108 at once or at all IS NOT A REQUIREMENT - it's just an idea and it may not be a good idea for any one of us for a variety of reasons. It's important that we are all aware and connected to our bodies, taking rest and water breaks as desired, and remembering that any rest pose is always available. So if you want to come out and join us for whatever asana practice feels appropriate to you, we welcome you as you are and your practice as it is. If you're feeling like you want to try a lot of sun salutes - great - if you're feeling like you want to try a few sun salutes - great - if you're feeling like other poses or a single resting pose is best - great. We welcome it all and hope to practice with you in whatever way we all show up together on Thursday!!!

The number 108 has many auspicious and symbolic meanings in diverse disciplines. The ancient rishis regarded the number 108 as a representative of consciousness itself.  Consciousness exists a one thing (1), nothing (0), and everything (8). 1 represents consciousness manifested, 0 represents latent consciousness as no-thing – emptiness – the void, and 8 represents conscious as every-thing – infinitely interconnected. 

WE ARE BUILT ON GIVING

This practice opportunity is provided solely through voluntary giving. The giving of many is what allows the practice opportunities to be offered so freely. Anyone who’s experienced benefit from our offerings is invited to give for the benefit of others. There are many ways to give beyond financial contributions. Giving includes all types of altruistic service, inside or outside our yoga community. Giving also includes generously sharing yoga and consistently practicing yoga with honesty and love. This kind of perpetual giving makes living yoga possible.

In giving, we expand our hearts in a way that recognizes we are not actually separate from others. Giving is a letting go of a sense of separateness that’s based in ignorance. When we practice giving, we feel into how we all depend on one another - how we are all part of the whole. In this way, giving is the natural response of the awakened heart.

You’re invited to give according to your volition and means - in whatever ways resonate with you. You might like to make monetary donations, contribute to our collective resources, or dedicate your time and skill to assist the community.