Beautiful ally, beautiful soul.
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You SO have it
5 Sep
As Sri Chodron says the challenges in our lives and our inner flame polish the gems that already exist inside of us. When looking for peace and generosity, we don’t have to look any further than the luminous potential in our own hearts. And, you can use your shining heart to make our world more equitable for all.
Please join us for a Yoga and Social Justice Workshop with Dia Penning at Leela Yoga in Alameda, September 28, 2013
1:30-5:00 pm
1708 Lincoln Ave, Alameda, CA, 94501
https://leelayogaalameda.com to register
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Heal the World, One Word at a Time
14 Jun
“and there we were, the same human beings. It was just that he was wearing that skin and I was wearing this skin. And it was no more or less than that.”
-Baba Ram Dass
Even in 2013 we have so much work to do. Children in schools bullied by teachers and other students for not falling into line or looking different. Odd conversations on planes that leave us all feeling as if the air has been let out of our tires. Explaining to our young children of color why they see so many people people that look like them going to jail on TV and not so many people that look like them as their doctors or teachers.
Cracking the Codes is an amazing film by World Trust and Shakti Butler that goes further than your typical diversity seminar and is held in so much love that it is truly accessible, even to those that believe that racism no longer exists in the world.
Through her and her teams skillful facilitation people are encouraged to examine places where they have been othered, bringing your experience directly into the body. And once you feel an experience from your own perspective, you can not pretend that it does not exist.
I love this film for the ways it made me open my own eyes, for the window it gave me on the shared experience of wanting to belong that we all have. And, how exclusion and systematic reinforcement of exclusion continue to harm the whole world and make use sicker and sicker.
We can use words to heal the world. With one sentence at a time we can start to break down paradigms that we accept as the norm.
We all have to start somewhere, on the mat, with a piece of art or in collaborative dialogue with another. How do you want to start the conversation?
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Yogis, Artists, Radicals: Demonstrate in Solidarity with Turkey
14 Jun
Saturday, June 15, 10 – 11am
Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland
Bring your mat and your heart for an hour of peaceful yoga practice in Oakland’s Frank Ogawa Plaza.
Meditate, lay in savasana, do multiple sun salutations, or extend your daily ritual.
We will dedicate one hour of communal self led practice to demonstrate solidarity with protesters in Turkey.
On May 27 people peacefully gathered in Istanbul to protest the development of Gezi Park, the last remaining green public space in their district. Within days, protests expanded out to a dozen other cities and have continued for more than two weeks. The protests have all been met with violent government opposition: more than 5,000 people have been injured by tear gas, water cannons and brute force. On June 5, protesters organized a massive yoga demonstration in Gezi Park in this ongoing effort to protect public space.
Come return the love, OAK > TURKEY.
Extra mats available. Signage encouraged.
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Question Bridge
11 JunThis is an amazing project by Hank Willis Thomas delves deep into the norms of race in our society and seeks to explode our assumptions about people.
It gives you the opportunity to see yourself where you are and at the same time transform your ideas about the community that you live in.
prana project 