1. Much of contemporary hatha-yoga is lacking the traditional initiation and guru-disciple relationship. Do you feel one can achieve the higher realizations of Yoga outside of this traditional mold? If yes, what makes you think so?/
I do, because our western world and my spiritual community engages in the sangha aspect of yoga, and I feel that when we come together a group to learn and share ideas and love, we create the foundations to achieve these higher spiritual realizations by ourselves and as a community. I feel so blessed to be a part of my sangha and love how they have helped me grow into the woman I've become.
2. In Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, there is a discussion of ishvara, who is said to be the teacher of all yogins. Consider what this means or what might have prompted Patanjali to put forward his particular version of theism?
I am taking the extremely lazy approach to answer this question, and say that Patanjali probably put this forward so that he could get what he felt to be his message about yoga out to the masses. When it's hot, I shouldn't be working on stuff.
3. In traditional societies, a name is considered a source of power and as being imbubed with special significance. Initiates are given a new name in recognition of their spiritual rebirth. Does your name hold any significance for you? How does it relate to your sense of identity?
I was actually jokingly given a name by my teacher, Ted Grand, when I asked him how people got names and if I could get one. However, everyone thought Karina'nanda was so beautiful it stuck, and that is what everyone calls me. It's lovely :) Karina holds significance to me as it was originally my middle name, which I legally changed to my first name when I was 18. I always felt more connected to it than the name given me, and when I made people call me Karina starting at the ripe old age of 12, I felt more empowered and more of my own person.
1. What do you perceive to be the qualification of a guru?/
Someone who is knowledgable, honest, fair, and a good teacher - and all these qualities can be extremely subjective to each and every person who seeks a teacher.
2. What qualities appeal to you in a teacher?/
Someone who is honest, fair, knowledgable, understanding and patient. Also willing to challenge me and push me to be my best.
3. Do you feel the need for a spiritual guide or is it unnecessary for you on your spiritual path?/
I do feel the need to have some sort of guidance on my path, which is why I keep in contact with my teachers and come to them with questions should the need arise. Most of the time, I find the answers were within me the entire time, but it's nice to be able to go to someone and hear them voice what I'm thinking and validate how I feel.
4. Do you think you would benefit from a teacher who maintains a more traditional authoritarian role?/
Hell no! I know this through personal experience based on the voice teachers and music teachers I have gone through. I need someone who is willing to work with what I have and not try to make me into something that I am not. I always think a collaborative partnership is best (it's the social worker in me).
5. The traditional model of studentship in the Vedic system was a rite of passage for young males before they could enter the adult life. This marked a time where they could have a sound religious/spiritual orientation toward life before making practical choices. Whether they decided to continue on in a vocation dedicating their full life to spirituality was partly an individual choice. This type of rite of passage occured in most traditional societies. Do oyu feel it is missing from contemporary life?/
Well, it is definitely not in contemporary life, but as a woman, who wouldn't be able to do these sorts of passages, I say good riddance to it and thank God it is missing! I'd have not been able to study Yoga if it were in contemporary life!
6. Does accepting a guru appeal to you? Why or why not? Have you had any mentors or close personal teachers that have simulated the role of a traditional guru?
It's pretty common place in the music world, so yes. My first voice teacher I studied with for ten years. I didn't live with her or anything but she taught me so much of what I know about music and vocal technique. I would say my teachers/mentors in my life are my gurus, but not necessarily in the traditional sense.
In traditional contexts, the psychological distance between the guru and the disciple is greatly proportioned. Do you feel the traditional relations between guru and disciple applies cross culturally?/
I think it would be a bit of an adjustment to apply these cross culturally but it wouldn't be anything that can't be done. Personally, I wouldn't want a guru that felt he was an expert and I was the village idiot seeking knowledge. I would want someone that would work with me and be a guide, but at the same time allow me to have enough freedom to make mistakes and learn for myself.
Reflecting on the traditional models of spiritual development, what is your notion of a spiritually advanced individual? Think of those by whom you have been deeply inspired or who you feel are spiritually mature. What is it about them that makes them spiritual according to your judgment? Is it their loving presence or practicality and stability in difficult circumstanceS? Is it compassion or wisdom, renunciation or charisma?
I think of the people I have been influenced by the most spiritually and I think its has to do with their loving presence. To me, the reason we are here is love, so someone who personifies love to me, such as Mother Theresa, is someone who is spiritually advanced. Someone who has so much love in her heart that she can live where she did and care for the people that no one else would, even when they were dying, is akin to God to me. It is what inspired me to go in to social work, which I feel is more of a labour of love more than anything else. I believe the highest calling anyone can have is to be of service to others, as one who services others services the world, and helps to create a better place to be in.
2. What spiritual goals have you set for yourself and how do you go about realizing them?
My focus in life is to be absolutely present, which I admit is such a hard thing for me to do. I try to go about realizing this by monitoring my mind and being aware of what I am doing and what I can do to change how I think and feel and observing my thoughts and stuff like that. I try to focus on my breath and have bells of mindfulness in my life that I use to remind me to stop for a moment to breathe.
3. In Bhagavad-Gita, Arjuna asks Krishna to describe to him the characteristics of an enlightened or Self-realized adept. What do you think of Krishna's answer?
I'd say it's pretty straight forward and classic... which I guess is why we say this is Classical Yoga no? In reading this I feel as if I have read it before - different texts talking about working towards the same goal of freedom and transcendence.
1. Consider whether Mantra-Yoga is a form, branch, or school of yoga.
Mantra Yoga is generally a repetition of a sacred syllable or phrase given to a student by their teacher to repeat and meditate upon. In Yoga Foundations this is said to be given to the students who are perceived to be weak and ill mannered; etc. Not very positive! I would have to say that Mantra Yoga is a form of yoga.
2. How would you define Yoga? Which of the definitions given above under Additional Source Materials #9 do you most resonate with?
I define yoga for myself as a system of right living. It is a set of moral values to me, which helps me to guide my life and help me make better decisions for myself without the dogma of any sort of organized religion. Yoga is a system that allows me to come to self acceptance. The two quotes I most resonate with: Yoga is said to be the unity of exhalation and inhalation and of blood and semen, as well as the union of sun and moon and of the individual psyche with the transcendental self.; Yoga is the control of the whirls of the mind.
3. If self transcendence lies at the heart of all Yoga, how does this tally with the definition of Yoga as "control"?
One has to practice control in order to transcend, right? Yoga is about learning to control desires, thoughts, habit energy, etc. By being able to control our mind and our thoughts and what we are experiencing we can better transcend to whatever our perceived moksha is.
4. Do you feel that any of Yoga's teachings contradict your own religious beliefs? If so, which? How do you resolve the conflict?
I do not practice sort of any major religion so I am not in conflict with any of my yoga beliefs and religious beliefs. If I were, religions preach acceptance, so any sort of organized religious structure would just have to deal with it :P
5. What do you think of the claim made by some people that Jesus visited Kashmir and that he was inspired by yogic wisdom?
Good for Christ! I think that this claim should be studied as it could carry great messages that Jesus had wanted to share and teach his disciples and spread for generations to come. I believe that it could possible open up a new wave of Christianity for the future and rid Christianity of what it has become with people spreading hate and accusing others unlike them of bigotry and sin.
1. From how many different angles can you view a particular event? Assuming (as we do in this course) that on the deepest level we are all concerned with inner freedom and ultimate happiness, how would you teach spiritual values and practices knowing people are so different? Could there be a single formula for taking all people into account equally?
I usually try to see an event from separate angles and try not to be ignorant to any one particular type of view. I think when trying to teach the masses one particular thing, you just need to allow for them to find freedom through using their own life experiences and to make meaning for themselves. One is bound to be more at peace when their knowledge is self gained and they have been able to make meaning with it. I don't think there is one single formula - I think we all have to do which works best for us, allowing ourselves to teach and be taught on the way.
2. How free are you? How free do you think are the people around you? Do you feel free enough to consider anything whatsoever in the privacy of your own mind? How free is our so-called free society really? How do habit patterns infringe on your freedom? How does your inner sense of freedom - or its absence - affect your perception and understanding of the world?
What a loaded question just in time for the G20. Hahahaha. It's a question I really don't know how to answer. I guess I am free to a point where I place my own limitations on myself, and where society limits me as well. Like, I don't post every thought and feeling I have online into the real world, but I do feel free enough in my mind that I can allow every thought I have to pass through it. Habit patterns infringe a lot on my freedom if I let them. I find that on days when I feel more free and my mind feels more free, I can absorb information like a sponge and my perception and understanding of the world is more fluid and flowing. On days when my mind is not free it is the polar opposite - stormy, scary, and definitely not good!
3. Make a list of your ten most cherished beliefs and consider how you aquired them and whether they are absolute truths or models. Also observe how these beliefs operate openly or secretly in your daily life.
I've also established that I do not believe anything can be absolute truth, as that is something that is so beyond our comprehension! So I feel that because of this that everything I believe in is a model. The one exception to this is probably love, as I feel that love is so abstract and so huge that no one will ever be able to fully begin to understand it.
Do you agree with Rudyard Kipling that there is no common ground between East and West? How, if at all, can you integrate the two distinct cultural styles in your own life? How can we overcome cultural stereotypes that are in the way of our understanding and appreciation of Eastern teachings?
I think I took the first step integrating the two when I decided to study eastern philosophy and practice yoga. The common ground between East and West are the people who make a commitment in their daily lives to research and study their cultures and seek to come to a mutual understanding. That is how we can work to break down stereotypes and learn to understand and appreciate teachings from both communities.
1. What is your model of reality? What are your answers to the Big Questions: Who am I? Whence do I come? Whither do I go? What must I do? How well developed is your philosophy(we all have one!)? What are the main sources for your philosophical understanding of the world? What place does Yoga have in your model?
It's so funny for me to approach these questions as I keep thinking there is this right or wrong answer and I should know by now there isn't, and yet here I sit, wondering who will read this and whether or not they'll approve. Mind is such a silly little thing.
My model of reality is presence. I believe that if one stays in the present moment and operates from this perspective, one can attain Nirvana and find God. My spiritual peace and my nirvana hasn't even come from meditation. It's come through singing, through playing the french horn, and through playing the piano.
In answering who am I, I can chose to socially locate myself or I can chose to be esoteric. Not only am I a young girl who wears many hats and holds lots of different interests and has a great family and some pretty kick ass friends, I'm also a spiritual being who has some extremely human experiences. I am part of All That Is, and everything I say and do has an effect on the Universe and everything around me, whether or not I know it. This is why I try to be a good person and live with love and speak from my heart and engage in right speech and right action. I don't do this all the time. That's why I say I'm a spiritual being having a human experience.
Quite literally, I came from my mama's loins :P, but I believe soooo many things had to come before me in order to set the stage for me to even exist. If you wanted to get really technical, we could start with the Big Bang.
I don't know where I am going, to be honest. Some days I feel like I'm going to hell in a handbasket. Other days I feel like I've bought myself a one day ticket to Samadhiland. Either way, I make it my life's goal to be as present as possible and to try to find love and beauty in every person I encounter, every situation I find myself in, and every moment I experience breath. I feel that in this life I must love, love, love and love, and teach others to love as well. I feel that the main purpose in anyone's life, the entire reason we exist on this Earth, is because of love, and I want to show the world that it's what we need from each other and to give to each other.
I feel like my life philosophy is pretty well developed, but obviously, I'm open and willing to learn more about other systems of right living, obviously, as I wouldn't be taking this course. Most of my philosophy I've developed from studying yoga and Buddhism and Dharma and meditating. I haven't really studied any of the "classic" Greek and Roman philosophers; I think I failed intro philosophy when I was in university because my brain wasn't in a headspace where it was willing to absorb that sort of information when I took that course. Yoga was my introduction to all of this, and it's helped me build a firm, significant foundation and opened up the door to so many other modes and theories of life. I love it.
2. What, in your view, is truth or reality? How does it differ from a model?
Any teachings are never 100% truth, but are based on what we feel to be true (which is there biases come in as well). Reality is a concept so vast that no one will ever be able to grasp what it actually is and means. We created models based on articulations of truth to help us become deeper, more spiritual beings, as they allow us to face ourselves in the right direction so that we can come to deeper meaning of life and all that exists.
So I am three weeks into my study course with Georg Feuerstein. I find I have the same release valves with this as I do with regular school - resistance to studying, the urge to skim paragraphs, and having to retrain my brain to read actual paragraphs and not the 140+ info blips I see and read on facebook and twitter day in and day out.
Here is me reflecting. I have a cold and don't want to. But I'd also like to complete this course in under three years. Kinda feeling overwhelmed.
1. How do you relate to knowledge? Do you collect information like some people or collect knickknacks? Do you regard knowledge as an avenue to wisdom? Or do you consider wisdom something radically different from knowledge?
I love knowledge. I love learning. I definitely love "collecting" knowledge whether it is something I need to learn for school, for work, or if I just want to learn something to impress people. I feel that the more knowledge I gain through outside sources, the more I can come to understand myself better. Because of this, then yes, I would regard knowledge as an avenue to wisdom. Without learning the things I have learned, whether it be through a book or from the School of Hard Knocks, I think the insight and knowledge and life lessons gained through those experience has allowed me to gain more wisdom and insight into myself and how I tick. I wouldn't yet consider myself wise, as knowledge needs to ferment and grow and solidify into my every day life, but I am definitely on that path to wisdom!
2. What knowledge has had the most transformative effect on your and how did it shape you?
The insight and knowledge I gained doing my mindfulness meditation teacher training dramatically shaped my life for the better. While I wouldnt' necessarily say I live my life in mindfulness 100% of the time, this training has allowed me to incorporate the proper tools into my life so that I can be a more mindful person and strive to live that way. In my personal life, I'm much calmer, less judgmental, and am slowly learning to let go and/or not take things personally. In my professional life I've been able to incorporate mindfulness intervention based practices with my clients. It has shaped me into more of the person that I want to be in this life- kind, insightful, objective, and peaceful.
3. Do you think there is such a think as "objective" knowledge? Can we ever step out of our skin to know things as they really are?
This question reminds me so much of school! I don't think that any sort of knowledge can be 100% objective, no. Every piece of research, whether it is scientific or not, carries some bias. This bias can be shown by who is conducting the study and their motivation for doing it, what corporation or person or funders provide the money for to foot the bill for the study, and even the subject matter being studied can all promote some sort of bias or non-objectivity. The scientific method seeks to break down these barriers and gives us some sort of structured, linear way of gaining knowledge and provides accountability to those involved in the research, however even this is not fail proof. But using that, we have to know that the scientific method is very western based in its approach to research methodology and doesn't take into account the vast cultures and resources and people who also span the earth and might gain and develop knowledge through different levels of methodology. An example of this would be the story telling our Aboriginal ancestors used to pass along information to generations of Aboriginal children - that, of course, coming with its own biases and non-objectivity itself.
Knowing we are a part of All That Is and that everything is interconnected and we all inter are with everything that exists in the universe is a way of being able to be objective - when you know that we all inter-are, then we can be all and see things as they really are. So perhaps yes, eventually we can obtain knowledge objectively through understanding that concept, but how many people can really, truly, understand that? That's enlightenment.
4. Alexander Pope wrote that the proper object of study should be humankind itself. What would be your response to him?
Why not study humankind? Perhaps if we learned more about ourselves we'd be more respectful of everything else.
5. What is the difference between knowledge and information? People speak of "information overload" and the "knowledge explosion". How do you relate to both?
To me, information is something you process but not necessarily file away and keep for the long term. If someone informs me of the weather today, it will matter to me when I make my decisions on what to wear or bring along with me in my backpack. But the weather today isn't going to matter to me tomorrow, when there will be a new forecast and I will need to adjust what I'm wearing and what I take to work with me. Knowledge is something you obtain and process and file away and keep for the long term. For example, while I might not think back year after year how the weather was on Sunday, June 13th, I know from living in a temperate climate my entire life that summer in Toronto can mean rain, heat, or mild temperatures. Without obtaining any specific information (the forecast) I can use my knowledge of Canadian summers to think about what I might wear outside - most likely jeans, a tank top, and maybe bring along a light jacket or hoodie with me if I'm going to be out late. That would make me comfortable. I could also bundle up and risk heat stroke too. We need to have both knowledge and information in our lives, and what we do with them is up to us.
6. When we say "I know", we sometimes really mean "I assume". Consider some of your basic "knowledges" and determine whether you truly know or are merely making assumptions. Where, in your case, is the dividing line between knowledge and faith?
I think my answer to the previous question was an excellent segue to this one. OK. So I don't know for sure what Toronto summers are like. But I assume how their weather is based on growing up in places like Chicago and Berlin, which tend to have all four seasons. They're also located in the central part of the Northern Hemisphere, allowing me to assume that they'll have similar weather and heat and cold patterns to each other as well. So that is how I can build my assumption on what the weather will be like on any given day. I also make assumptions for things like dinner choices, what my cat is trying to tell me, and even when working with clients. Faith, to quote Miracle on 34th Street, is the ability to believe in something when common sense tells you not to. Faith is being able to hold beliefs in things that might not be tangible, such as ideas and hopes and apirations and dreams. One can use their knowledge to attain these, I believe, which to me makes faith and knowledge one and the same.
7. What role do you assign to knowledge in religio-spiritual matters? Is it all right to take things on faith or should we always gain absolute certainty?
I don't think I could ever be 100% certain about anything, as life tends to be pretty unpredictable. I can form assumptions and ideas based on casual relationships, and I can take knowledge gained and chose to further deconstruct and pursue it more academically, or I can sit on it and let it ferment in my own mind without the aid of textbooks and periodical articles. When it comes to knowledge gained on religio-spiritual matters I like to learn what I can and apply it to my life how it works best for me. Some people criticize this spiritual buffet table sort of approach to religion, but to me, if the entire point of religion and spirituality are about attaining absolute freedom in yourself (nirvana) then why tie yourself up to religious constraints? What worked for others might not necessarily work for you.
8. Many, if not most, Western Yoga practitioners have very little interest in studying Yoga, feeling that it is more important to practice. Do you believe it is possible to practice Yoga authentically without also studying it?
This question kind of made me laugh. I don't see how this is possible. One of my teachers, Frank Jude Boccio, once told me that yoga is a system of right living. Even those who use yoga as a rigorous form of exercise also report the mental health benefits it also provides. I believe as a teacher, I need to not only engage in physical asana but also need to live my life in a way that is yogic and try to adhere to the yamas and the niyamas (for those of you who have no idea what this is, think of it as the yogic Ten Commandments) so that I may practice what I preach and try to engage my students. This is my bias talking, but why wouldn't anyone want to actively study it as well? And what is practice? Practice could be physical asana, however, practicing yoga might also be taking a deep breath and counting to ten before you get angry at your children, or observing and enjoying and being in the present moment in any given situation.
9. Studying Yoga will certainly give us valuable information, but do you feel that it also can inspire, uplift, and motivate us. What are your reasons for studying?
I am hoping to be inspired, uplifted and motivated! That's basically why I wanted to study. I also feel that it can further help me be a better social worker and better yoga instructor. I'd also eventually like to be invited to teach yoga history and philosophy at Moksha teacher training courses so that's a big motivator for undertaking this course!
10. Do you tend to think you "don't know anything"? Or do you take pride in your knowledge? Do you think knowledge is power?
I do take pride that I know things, but I also am humbled with respect that I do not necessarily know everything (as much as I like to think I do, at times). Knowledge might not necessarily be power, but knowledge does lead to change. I believe that change, positive or negative, is power.