success

In his book,  7 Spiritual Laws of Success (or Life) Deepak Chopra defines "success" as the ability to fulfill your desires with effortless ease. He defines "affluence" as the abundant flow of all good things to you. Additional to material abundance Success includes:

-good health
-energy & enthusiasm for life
-fulfilling relationships
-creative freedom
-emotional & psychological stability 
-a sense of well-being & peace of mind

We will remain unfulfilled unless we nurture the seeds of Divinity inside us. True Success is the unfolding of the Divinity within us. When we begin to experience our life as the miraculous expression of Divinity, then we will know the true meaning of success.

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classes | see schedule
private sessions | contact yogakatbend@mac.com
upcoming special classes | workshops | events
>for details or to register 
VasuDeva | Friday Jan 8 | 6-8pm @MYC
VasuDeva | Saturday Jan 9 |  4-6pm @Studio Sabia in LaPine
VasuDeva Shivaratri Celebration | Friday Feb 12 | 6-late @MYC
Yoga in Action: Experiencing Interconnection 
with Aleta Raphel-Brock, Lucius Wheeler & Kat Seltzer
Saturday Feb 13 | 10am-12pm @Bend Yoga 
Living Yoga Teacher Training - 200hr Yoga Alliance Certification
April - Sept 2010
Rhythm of Life Nicaragua Retreat with Kat Seltzer & friends
May 21-27, 2011 

the art of loving

"According to The Art of Loving, Eric Fromm says that love is the only satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence. Loving is an art, and we must master not only the theory of love but also the practice of love. I (the author) learned that our deepest need is to overcome our aloneness and our separateness (which is, what I have recently discovered to be my current life's purpose - not to "overcome" separateness, but to feel the connection that is and to live from there.) We seek to escape from separateness in various ways. We seek conformity, mistaking it for union. This is a soul-crushing way to exist. Or we seek union through orgiastic states - drugs, alcohol, overwork, sport - or through (this ones hit me) creative activities. But the ultimate escape from separateness in through interpersonal union. 

Fromm writes that mature love is union under the condition of preserving one's integrity and individuality. The paradox: two beings become one and yet remain two. Giving is the highest expression of potency. Fromm sets forth the elements of love:

care: which is active for the life and growth of the one or those that we love responsibility: which is caring for one's physical needs as well as one's higher needs respect: which is allowing others to grow as they needs to one their own terms. 

-from Synchronicity - The Inner Path of Leadership - Joseph Jaworski 

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classes | see schedule private sessions | contact yogakatbend@mac.com upcoming special classes | workshops | events Friday Dec 11 | 6-8pm | VasuDeva (during Cross Culture) details/register Sunday Dec 13 | 7am-1pm | Morning of Silence details/register Sunday Dec 20 | 6-9pm | Candle-light Bhakti Flow & Community Dinnerdetails/register

touch

"One aspect of our fragmentation is the gaps between sectors of our cities and neighborhoods: business, schools, social service organizations, churches, government operate mostly in their own worlds each piece is working hard on its own purpose, but parallel effort added together does not make a community. Our communities are separated into silos; they are a collection of institutions and programs operating near one another but not over lapping or touching. This is important to understand because it is this divided-ness that makes it so difficult to create a more positive or alternative future - especially in a culture that is more interested in individuality and independence than in interdependence - the work is to overcome this fragmentation. -Peter Block, from Community the Structure of Belonging In my search for union, I am looking for ways in which I can truly find oneness, not sameness, and most definitely not separateness. I am looking for ways to touch others so that connection can flow through all of us. I would love to hear about ways that you have touches others or way others have touched you. Please .. share with me.

In Joy, Kat

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classes | see schedule private sessions | contact yogakatbend@mac.com upcoming special classes | workshops | events Friday Dec 11 | 6-8pm | VasuDeva (during Cross Culture) details/register Sunday Dec 13 | 7am-1pm | Morning of Silence details/register Sunday Dec 20 | 6-9pm | Candle-light Bhakti Flow & Community Dinnerdetails/register

sacred texts

In my search for a deeper understanding of the lineage of the tradition of yoga, I've come across a website that contains the scared texts of ... everything (www.sacred-texts.com). Man, I love the internet, what a fortune it to be born in a time where technology like this exists. Being one who is voracious for information to fuel my own transformation, knowing that I can find (almost) everything that I am looking for and share that information with others so easily through, say a blog for example ... awesome!! To start: The Vedas | are among the most ancient religious text still in existence, composted about 1500BC, codified about 600BC, committed to writing some point after 300BC. There are four Vedas: the Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda.

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classes | see schedule private sessions | contact yogakatbend@mac.com upcoming special classes | workshops | events Friday Nov 13 | 6-8:30pm | VasuDeva details/register Friday Dec 11 | 6-8pm | VasuDeva (during Cross Culture) details/register Sunday Dec 13 | 7am-1pm | Morning of Silence details/register Sunday Dec 20 | 6-9pm | Candle-light Bhakti Flow & Community Dinner details/register

the snow leopard

"Just as a white summer cloud, in harmony with heaven and earth freely floats in the blue sky from horizon to horizon following the breath of the atmosphere - in the same way the pilgrim abandons himself to the breath of the greater life that ... leads him beyond the farthest horizons to an aim which is already present within him, though yet hidden from his sight." -Lama Govinda (quote from The Snow Leopard, by Peter Matthiessen) Each day, I wake up and am immediately met with thoughts and questions surrounding a subject that has become my life - yoga. How can I live this practice more authentically? How can I get over myself long enough to feel the presence of the Divine more fully? How can I get past my fears, my insecurities, how can I just be? and allow and open? How can I love more fully? How can I completely accept what is .. right now? Then I take a deep breath ... and watch as the answers to these questions come - I watch with awe the beauty of life unfolding. Today, it is my choice to abandon myself to the breath of the greater life that leads me beyond the farthest horizon .. to an aim which is already within me but yet hidden from my sight (sometimes). 

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classes | see schedule private sessions | contact yogakatbend@mac.com upcoming special classes | workshops | events Friday Nov 13 | 6-8:30pm | VasuDeva details/register Friday Dec 11 | 6-8pm | VasuDeva (during Cross Culture) details/register Sunday Dec 13 | 7am-1pm | Morning of Silence details/register Sunday Dec 20 | 6-9pm | Candle-light Bhakti Flow & Community Dinner details/register