An Alison Miller Blog

A reminder to everyone that Maui Aloha `Aina’a 8th annual Body & Soil Conference will be held this weekend at an organic farm in Olinda.  Please help support MA`A and their mission to spread information about the connections between healthy soil,  foods, and humans, in any way you can. Our yoga for the earth is one of the utmost importance. Living on an island our vulnerability of geographical locale could be our greatest strength, if we so choose.  We could become a beacon for the world demonstrating sustainable practices. Attend this weekends Body and Soil Conference and find out how you can become a part of yoga for the earth!

Bhakti yoga is known as a yoga of devotion.  Karma yoga is a known as a yoga of selfless service.  Put the two together and what do you have?  The two wings that cause the flight of healing for ourselves and the world around us.  It has been said, “To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right.” Come join in a great Maui Yoga event of devotion with Rama Devi to “set your heart right.”  One of Sri Mata Armritanandamayi’s greatest disciples currently visiting the island of Maui. Friday October 10th there will be a puja and Sunday October 12th a homa. For details email Ray Baskerville at ray@lifedivine.net.

Welcome to your resource for yoga classes & retreats on the island of Maui.   An information portal, purposefully, connecting you to the wonderful  people and places, who are dedicated to providing you awe inspiring yoga experiences and life changing retreats.Maui is a Mecca for incredible healers, yogis, and instructors to visit and teach.  Whether you are looking for a way to take your practice to the next level, a retreat to escape to or information on island.  Offering incredible kirtans, musical experiences, satsang events and world renound spiritual leaders and speakers like Ram Dass, Krishan Dass, JaiUttal, John Friend. Eddie and Nicki Modestino teacher trainings. Studying ashtanga with Nancy Gilgoff exceptional opportunities.Follow the links for studio schedules, locations, and contact information for specific class and retreat information.North ShoreMaui Yoga Shala - http://www.maui-yoga.comMaya Yoga – www.yogaonmaui.comThe Studio Maui – www.thestudiomaui.comMakawaoAsthanga Yoga - http://ashtangamaui.comYoga Awareness – http://www.yogawareness.comCentralBikram Yoga - http://www.BikramHawaii.comBody of Light - http://www.bodyoflightyoga.comSouth ShoreMaui Lotus Yoga – http://www.mauilotusyoga.comThe Maui Yoga Path - http://mauiyogapath.maui.netWestsideIsland Spirit - http://www.islandspirityoga.comBikram Lahaina - http://www.bikramyoga.com/Studios/Lahaina.htm

Many people who refer to Maui also refer to Maui as the mother.  Mother Maui.   Seeking a place of refuge, to people from around the globe, Maui offers solace, grace, and love in the expression of her natural beauty.   While the world changes, economies hiccup, environments uproot,  neuroses rise, markets crumble. There is a prayer that I offer:  “Divine mother, teach me to stand unshaken amidst the crashing of breaking of worlds.” The practice of yoga is to live within the solid partnership with the center of your soul . It is here where we can take refuge. When the airline tickets are to costly to travel take an inner journey to connect with your unshakable ground.

Siddhis - a term that is ubiquitous with spiritual power.  A power that ranges from psychic ability all the way to levitation.  There are a few schools of thought on the Siddhis. Some recommend the pursuit of Siddhis as the doorway into Godhead.  Others say this pursuit is simply a distraction. I play with telepathy, precognition and psychic knowing in daily life in little ways. Bringing the heightened sensitivity, that Yoga breeds, into my daily life adds great fun and adventure.  I love to have experiences that transcend “my” planning.  I love to experience synchronicity.  The feeling of direct connection to that which is larger than myself.  The ability to see, feel and experience the world beyond the five senses gives the first hand experience that something beyond the logical, linear mind is at play.

This morning I consciously followed my inner voice to arrive at the laundry-mat. A very unusual experience played out.  Think of an acrobat, a laundry-mat and a pilot.  What do the three of these have in common?  Upon the surface nothing.  Under the surface, in the home of Oneness, lives the connection of all things and people. A matrix that brings us together and apart to serve the greater whole.  A pilot visiting Maui attended yoga yesterday.  This morning while my clothes were being cleaned at the laundry-mat I ran into the pilot.  We took a walk.  Around the corner was an aerial acrobatic class open to the public.  While talking we walked into the class and received an invitation to participate. Aerial acrobatics is an old hobby of mine and the doorway to one of my greatest awakenings. Years ago I had a crushing fall.  I don’t know what hurt more.  The fall or the shattering of my dream.  Today without a plan. The dream that I dreamed years ago dreamed me.  I did not know as I left the house this morning what opportunities would present themselves. What I did know is that I felt compelled to go to the Haiku Center.  The Siddhis allows an inner voice to surface and guide our daily steps. Give yourself one hour, one afternoon, and build up to one day a week or more where you ask for guidance on where to go next.  You may be surprised where your inner voice guides you.  Let the Godhead dance you daily.

Yoga, yoga, yoga and more yoga!  Do you feel like your caught up in a craze of people talking about yoga everywhere you turn?  Spreading like an international wildfire, lighting up millions of people around the globe this ancient tradition proves to build bridges beyond just the body, mind and soul.  Looking for a new job, a date or a new favorite hangout?   Yoga studios just might have what you are looking for.  I have just returned to teaching at Maui’s premier movement arts and yoga studio:  The Studio Maui.  A center filled with magic, mindfulness and mastery. If you are new to yoga and visiting the island of Maui attending class at The Studio Maui is a must!  The staff is an eclectic mix of dedicated and wise yogi’s who share the serious study of yoga in a playful, inviting and warm way.  Go to www.thestudiomaui.com for more information and class schedules.

Aparigraha - non-grasping - release neediness and attachment, trust the flow of life, celebrate the success of others and offer compassion when others suffer.  Simply put.  Simple to practice?  Often, but often not.  Yoga, when practiced, on and off the mat, becomes a lifestyle.  I have been dreaming of a style of life where I am living with friends on a piece of land in Maui, working together, growing food, planting dreams, healing the earth, healing our hearts, healing the heart of the earth as our united dream.  As I step closer into this dream, the cradle of Aparigraha is the rocker to ease the nettles of personalities, ego fires and rigid expectations.  The Universe continues to provide with amazing benevolence all the while my mind plays it’s games.  So I remember - let go, celebrate the success of others and offer compassion when others suffer.

Can we remember when stepping towards and into our dreams to trust the flow of life?  To know that we are held is a divine gift. One that takes patience. Said well in the Tao Te Ching:  “Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear?  Can you remain unmoving til the right action arises by itself?”.  This is the heart of the eight fold yoga path and Aparigraha.  Next time a situation arises, that is unexpected and frustrating, put to practice your off the mat flow and let go. Have patience.  Let the proper action present itself to you.

The sun is rising. The sky is awake. Colors of crimson and orange paint the morning.  I breath in the tranquil Maui dawn sounds.  My eyes open. My heart is alive. I relish the hours before the bustle of daily life begins.  Yoga crawled into my bed and woke this lumbering body.  Whispering of sweet nectar to be shared.  A beautiful book named Yoga Gems leaped off the shelf as I enter my yoga room.  Authored by Georg Feuerstein.  A book of philosophical quotations illuminating yoga concepts. A particular quote struck me this morning.  A passage on devotion by, Shankara.  “Like a cloud drifting in the sky, devotion pours down showers of bliss. He whose mind gets filled like a reservoir reaps the entire fruit of his birth, none other.” Can you see the clouds in the sky and imagine your dedication spanning the heavens?  Can you move in you daily life, like the clouds of the sky, showering down what comprises your Self?  Does this mean that the body is filled with bliss and it is through our devotion we experience the the essence of what is true within us?

The waning moon over Maui is shining bright tonight.  A tropical breeze blows gently and misty clouds are dancing in the sky.  After leaving this evenings kirtan, devotional singing, event I caught a glimpse of the moon framed by the rocking frawns of the resident palm trees.  Doing a yoga of their own, balancing and breathing, I stopped in my tracks and asked my friend, “how blessed are we?”.  In all honesty I really had to ask.  Because sometimes the mind can forget to connect the miraculousness of daily nature.  Through our regular yoga practice we begin to become more sensitized to our environment and then remember we too are a part of nature.  Yoga draws us back to a place of living from our own true nature.  In some odd, magical and scientific way all the twisting, turning and pretzel like manuveurs we do, land us back onto the powerful strip of knowing which exsists beyond all time and embodies all beings into Oneness. Who would have thought a sequence of postures could excavate our ego’s so pointedly. Leaving behind the world of should’s, the drive for external validation, and the misplaced value system of a materially driven society to birth a new world, a new paradigm where we understand our purpose in life is to shine like the beams of a moon.  As naturally as this light falls to the earth is as naturally as we are designed to move through the world in our daily life.  What a thought you were born to be as the beam of light is to the moon?  Hmmm, things to ponder on this moonlit Maui yogi night.