Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hello! No! Hello and welcome.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I'm so grateful to be here with you on this
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): time for us to explore our pilgrimage in Puja.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and I'm going to play some music for us to practice with. You can
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): get your journal, get a something to write with, and let yourself just rest and relax and be held. This is the Guru mantra by that mixed.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): just take a moment to get presence.
you know.
But it is you.
That's what I
so.
but it the
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to be
good.
That's right.
But have
the sky.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hmm! Welcome. welcome, welcome
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): where you are in all of the places and stages
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and moods that we might be welcoming the entirety of you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Today we are going to focus on creativity, but also the creativity and honoring that comes from honoring our gurus, our teachers.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): so I invite you, if you would like, and for those who just arrived you might want to have a bowl of water. I have a bowl of water with a stone in it. It felt like I have just been feeling the need for some grounding, so you may want a bowl of water.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and you might like a candle and something to like your candle. I have some old school matches from India. But I will use to like the candle in a little while, and if you don't have any of the supplies, it's always okay, because you can visualize and connect energetically
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): one of the
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): teachings from Yoga that I appreciate so much, and it's described in a lot of the Vedic text. If that with any practice, whether it's Asana or Mudra or a mantra. We can participate in that experience in multiple ways, and one is the most gross, like gross as in physical material, like actually holding Omadra.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the other is subtle, visualizing the thing. We're meditating upon it, seeing it in your mind side. And then the final way
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): is experiential to embody the experience of that or mantra, or in this case, candle or water elements.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And so in some ways, when we are somewhere where we or we're just too tired to get up and get the things. It's actually
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): a way to deeply connect with early. You'll get practitioners who said, we don't need the ritual. We don't need the all of the trappings of a connection to the divine, because it's already with us, and we embody it, and we just need to
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): practice and be it without even you know, the the tools are there to remind us what we already always have. So I just want to encourage you to not ever feel bound by the tools and even the shapes, the Asena, the mud. They are really just tools to remind us of of our own connection.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So with that, I'd love to invite folks to share where you're at maybe 2 words. how you're coming to this put together?
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): at this moment. and you can put that in the tat.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hmm.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): oh, nice same. Yes, that's wonderful
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): for me. Take a moment to just feel.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hmm
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): 3 words
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): happy and grounded and excited, not awake properly.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yes.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): hopeful and connected.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hmm!
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And just welcoming you from from wherever you are and all the ways.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and you can drop the space that you're in the physical space, or how you're doing.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Some folks are feeling anxious, frazzled, calm
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): concerned, caring
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): so all of it, all of it, is welcome.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yes, the Bronx, physically or mentally, deep space, energetically. Yes.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): all that, all the places
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): so welcome.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and sometimes I like to just take a moment and kind of call back my energy from all the places that I've been just from traveling, or just feeling the folks who are feeling frazzled and anxious.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): It's bringing your energy back, and then I'll invite the bell, and I would love to guide us on a meditation to honor and reflect on our teachers.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And when I do this I am. I'm going to actually talk a little bit before I do the meditation. because I want to just
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): give you the the kind of foundational perspective that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you're honoring your teachers, known and unknown. There may be teachers back in the lineage before you, and the lineage of you, that who who you can just imagine, and there may be folks in your life who have disqualified themselves from being called a teacher by you, but who at 1 point were your teachers because they didn't
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): comport themselves or live in alignment with Yoga ethics, or they caused you or others harm, and so acknowledging that, and then moving what I do because I have had that experience, although not in a Yogic lineage. in an educational lineage is, I just move to their teachers, and if if that doesn't resonate or you don't want to move to the teachers of that particular person or teachers
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to the quality of education or the quality of teaching. So you do not have to acknowledge teachers who may have caused harm
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): as your teacher, and I just want to check in to see if anyone has any questions about that, because before we do a meditation to honor our teachers. I want to make sure that folks are feeling connected. And like that's something that's accessible to you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And if you have any questions. I'd love to
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to take the time to adjust that and hear from you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hmm!
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I think one of the other pieces I've been reflecting a lot about. This is
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): in part of creating changing cultures from harm to healing or from vicious cycles to virtuous cycles. Some of that begins with like individuals
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): standing up or speaking up.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Some of that continues with changing culture. And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): a lot of it is like cultures of harm, instead, changing that to cultures of transparency where we don't just honor our teachers without addressing right these things. And we are in a community like this exploring Yoga ethics and the values that we might think we share. But perhaps we practice differently from one another. So we get to kind of wrestle with that and tussle with that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Do you acknowledge
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that you're skipping over those individuals, or just skip without mentioning them? You know I think that's a personal choice
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): for me. I skip, and I mentioned in my mind, like the teachers from this institution, again from an educational institution who beneficially influenced me. Right? So I'll just kind of address it generally without naming the specific teachers. I don't want to think about them. It's not helpful to me, and I don't actually feel like they were. They were good role models or supportive. And so I just don't
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): don't name them. That's my choice. so it I think it's
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): it's for you to to decide. And then also it can change, you know. Maybe you're in a place where you want to just not address or for some of us we may be wishing compassion, for you know the harm that they caused, or the people who who they cost harm to and for others. You're not in a place where you want to do that.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yeah. it's going. There's no no one can tell you
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the right way for you, particularly when there's been a breach in ethical, you know.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I I would say it's like a
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): a breach in that kind of spiritual contract to uphold
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the values you get values and values of kindness of non harm. no one gets to tell you how you relate to that. You decide for yourself.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): in part, because often when there is that reach part of the harm is the removing of autonomy from the folks who are impacted. And so part of the healing. This has been my experience, and also from the you know, folks in the field that I've studied with around healing is
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): reconnecting survivors or folks who are, even if one doesn't, to give themselves a survivor like peripherally impacted by institutions that are that have or teachers who've cost harm
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): is reconnecting them to their own autonomy and their sense of connection to the divine into spirit.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yeah, can I speak a sentence or 2 about holding on to practices that are beneficial while also letting go of harmful teachers that presented the practice.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yes, that that's going to be very
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): individual. And how you you, how much of that you choose to do for me? It's knowing that the practices themselves, you know, Yoga is, is considered, and Vedic wisdom is considered divinely transmitted.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): meaning. It came from from the divine from source
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): into humankind.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And it it's us humans that translate and transmit this through our.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you know, the best ways that we have, whether it's orally or in writing or in practice, in how live our lives? But sometimes that transmission is
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): is not given. It's it's full
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): flower. And so then I connect to the practice itself, and I seek out perhaps other teachers who I do feel are in that kind of ethical practice, or feel aligned in their teaching, and I learn that same practice from them. So it's knowing that the practices themselves
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): are there to support all beings, and that it's it's kind of like human error and human
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): hurt and suffering that sometimes transmits it and translates it in a way that's that's not helpful. And then also just holding space for for some people there may be particular practices that came. And you don't want to do those practices. And that's okay, too. so
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): again, coming back to
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to agency for you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I've been thinking a lot about this, because for you or I,
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): as teachers today, right, we'll just kind of close this loop and then go into our practice
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to really do our best to share Yoga, you know. And again, you don't have to be a teacher. You can be a practitioner of these principles, or your version, and your different spirituality or religion of of these principles of care, of non harm. And we're human. And so we may cause harm, because, remembering that their ideals.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): not practices, that we can do with perfection right we may not we not going to do it perfectly. And so what are the kind of guard rails or like? You know what bowling with like kiddo the other day? And they put at first these bumpers so you couldn't make a gutter wall right like, can we put bumpers that just help us kind of bowl towards the the pins of
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): liberation
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): with more care. And I think we can actually put those bumpers on. And it's not cheating. It's actually supportive right to have these guardrails like the ethical practices themselves like community one another, maybe a spiritual friend, like a Kalanametra person who who is there for you on your path, and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): has a spiritual practice also that you tech in with or mentors.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): You know there, there are guardrails that that we can put in that support us, and this is part of in body and yoga, and and practicing and teaching in ways that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that lead to help in healing rather than than harm. And then also, what do we do when there is hard? Right is, take
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): care and have compassion for ourselves, and then and then for do our best to repair that with others.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Okay, yes, wonderful. So let's practice. And I will invite the bell and once again, if you would like, you can have a whole of water. You don't need to and a candle. But again, you don't have to have those things because we can practice to visualization as well and also hold mine for you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Okay. to find an easy way to be sitting, maybe leaning against the back of your chair. line down. resting on your sofa whatever you would like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): me that in deep breath out.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): continuing to focus on your breath.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): letting your breath support you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): This month
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): was the earlier, this month, this the
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): holiday of Guru. time to offer prayers and blessings. acknowledging
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): your teachers wisdom and their impact on your lives.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So I invite you to visualize and reflect back on some of your first teachers.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and for many of us, particularly in Indian or other
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Asian cultural traditions, our first teachers are often said to be our parents.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So once again, if that feels appropriate for you could be chosen family.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): spiritual family. blood family
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): acknowledging your early teachers.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and I'm calling to mind your
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): spiritual teachers. This might be a pundit or priest, or
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): could have been a high school or elementary school teacher
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): could have been a
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): he'll get us in a teacher. Anyone along the path who guided you supported you
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): taught you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Maybe they didn't even realize that they were your teacher.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and for some of us. There's many, many people.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and so you might think all those who have taught me. If you don't.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I have the her presence of mind to name each one, and it's also okay
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to name and call to mind
a face or a name
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): of some. and then
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): generally acknowledged those
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): who you don't remember right now.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): now, this is your visualization. So you can
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): visualize offering to these folks who have been mentors and guides
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): any kind of gift or offering. Traditionally.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): we would offer flowers or sweets fruit.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): You'd be a beautiful tool gold.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): You can visualize anything that you find valuable for yourself, so it could be a journal or a book.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and visualize yourself offering this gift to these gifts
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to your teachers. and they warmly receive your gift. your gifts.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): No, I invite you to let go a little bit of the
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): for that these teachers took, and take and hold on to the qualities
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that they embody. So for me, some of those qualities are grace. humor. kindness.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): a real anchored, solid spiritual practice.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Curiosity here is maybe similar or different. might like to
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): reflect and name those qualities in your mind's eye
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): can keep practicing like this, while you also acknowledge that your teachers had teachers and those teachers had teachers, and particularly in the lineage. We're back, probably, if not your teachers, but you know, and maybe 2, 3, 4, probably at most 5 generations on the subcontinent of India.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): with practitioners who would have been practicing
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): under colonial rule, and then back before them
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): couple of 100 years, a few generations of teachers in the classical
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): period, pre-classical
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): even back around the time where.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): potentially for being codified
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): all these generations of teachers.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And what a gift it is that these teachers and practitioners. not in one unbroken line, but in various lineage, lineages and various forms
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): practiced and taught.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So this wisdom tradition could come to us today.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So, giving gratitude and thanks to this early practitioners of Yoga Vedic practices, the way that you wish to connect again, maybe offering
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): a gift. or about our mantra
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): a gesture of thanks.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I'm deep reference. an appreciation.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I'm imagining this light coming from this early practitioners down through time and space.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I passed down from teacher to students and students
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to teacher, and on and on. So this light comes to you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and you can visualize the light of knowledge, the light of wisdom.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): appreciation for the teachings and teachers
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): so begin to reflect on
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): as this, like fills you and maybe spills over from you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Perhaps it's a light at your heart.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): What might you intend to do with this beautiful gift that your teachers and those teachers of your teaches and on back.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): have given you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Are there any new intentions that you would like to set for for the progress or growth, or learning.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Doing this with the full trust. I have these wisdom ancestors at your back in your side. your comments, your friends
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): not really needing to strive, but just feeling is, are there any intentions, any direction that I would like to go?
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hmm!
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Acknowledging that. And if you're not sure that's okay, trusting it will come to you
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): for me. The words deep listening.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): a roads, listening deeply to
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): others needs and supporting them.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): if you're not sure, and you would really like to anchor in an intention, perhaps connecting to one of the
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and allowing that to be your anchor.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): infusing that quality or that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): ethical principle with the light that is passed down. It's always already connected, but feeling it and seeing it filled with light.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then anchoring that into your heart, letting it go.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And in a moment we're going to open our eyes, and if they're closed and light our candles
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and gaze into the flame of this light, and so you can continue to visualize, if you prefer to practice that way, or I invite you to open your eyes and gaze light in case at your candle.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): We can do that now.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Well, my candle also to
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you all. So, if you like.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you can case
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): into the flame. And this is a practice called.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): It's a Prettihara practice of Yoga, a practice of focusing your senses.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And there are 2 main ways that I know to practice this.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and one is to gaze at the candle flame and allow yourself to blink, you know, as you normally would.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then the other transforms the practice into a cleansing Korea.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So you would gaze at the candle without blinking.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and if you do that cleansing Korea, your eyes may begin to water.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and that's okay It might feel uncomfortable. And you can continue as long as you would like, or you can
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): begin to blink. It's a little practice for a few minutes noticing what you notice as you get into the flame.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): visualize the flame
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): our way thinking and acknowledging this light
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): plate of knowledge. of wisdom.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): perhaps bowing to the light.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then you can place it and it. My eyes are watering out of it. You can place it near
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): your water, keeping it lit.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I'm part of why
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I invite you to have water is so we can also honor the balance of the water energy.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and also for safety in case you need water for your candle at any time. So if you would like to do this, you can whisper your intentions or that quality of your ethics into your water.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and we can imagine the water just like the fire connecting us to early Yoga practitioners who are practicing by streams. Rivers.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): This water just like this flame. Is it the same? Or it's a different. There are molecules in this water that we're likely present.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): even at that early forest, when I see a time. and you can connect to that quality a presence in practice. whispering your intentions into your water.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I feel complete.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): You can take your ring finger of your right hand if you would like, and take the water and give yourself a a self connection, self blessing, by placing the water on your forehead or on the crown of your head.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): thinking the water elements, and then you can place it on your altar when later, if you would like court into a sacred plant or plant friend, you know, or a place around you, that you would like to share your intentions.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): We'll invite the bell to close our practice
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): in the moment, as I invite the bell.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): allow yourself to connect back to those qualities of your teachers.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then, when you stop hearing the sound, the invitation is to turn to your journal notebook the chat, if you prefer, and start to write the qualities that your teachers embodied
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): returning to our channels.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): finding a space to write down some of those qualities.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and if you don't have any.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): You know that you can recollect. You can make up some holidays you envision a teacher would have.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I'll take a couple of minutes
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): about a minute to right those qualities out.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): How the next reflection for your journal is to reflect on. You know there is
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): a seed of each of those qualities within you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and if there wasn't, you wouldn't recognize it in your teacher and or teachers, and for some of us this can be really hard to recognize. It's like, oh, nothing like that amazing teacher. But you are. And so the invitation is to
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): gently.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): softly, if it needs to be, you know, and firmly, if it needs to be. But. caringly, reflect on how? How do you embody
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): already some of these qualities? Maybe not to the same extent, maybe not in the same way. But you already do have these qualities within you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So we'll just take another minute or 2 to reflect on that in our own
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): being in our own lives.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So I'll give a a concrete example.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): just in case it's not clear. But I was thinking about one of my teachers has a really great sense of humor.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and it's really funny and kind of sharp wooded, and I am not quick with it, like I'm not the person that thinks that there's already come back right away. But I have this quality of humor about me like I like to laugh, and so I'm kind of that like in. Stand up. I'm like that. I don't know what they call them the fall guy. That's not the right word, but like the the partner that helps people laugh because they're kind of like, oh, that's really funny. And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and so I do have a quality of humor, a sense of humor. And and that is one of the tools that helps me develop my spiritual kind of toolkit, because even in the hardest moments like, you know, right in there, when things are not going, how I want them to go, or really challenging.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I can sometimes access that sense of humor, of like, okay, well, at least it's not this, or you know something that gives me sol. This, and also enables me to like, go from really bound up to a bit more space, and thinking clearly and solving problems.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): It's such a weird analogy, I just want to say, because the names for that character are probably all just off. But I'm like the comedic
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): partner, the comedic assistant, and a really good at that role, you know.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and so that that is a way that that quality that I recognize.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and one of my teachers, although differently, it shows up in me as a spiritual tool, part of my spiritual toolkit. So that's an example. Hopefully. That's helpful.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to start thinking about
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the qualities that you see in yourself, and let's take a little time to write, and then we'll talk in a moment, and please feel free to write in the chat in your journal, or anywhere that you would like, or just reflect.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): taking a minute or so more to finish up your thoughts, and you can always come back around.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And you know, if you're like, well, I really don't see how I have this quality. Yet you can think about how you might want to grow in that quality, since it's important to you, because it's a quality that you noticed, and in a teacher of yours.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): like one of the things I wrote was Greece. and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I'm still contemplating on that what I embody it. And then And then
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): it's also something that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): yeah. And then reflection on on how how I might continue to cultivate it.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And I'd love to invite folks now into the community right like sometimes, by sharing
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): one. There's something that you have been reflecting on, where it might be kind of chewing on or thinking about, that someone else needs to hear. And also, when we share these things out loud, it's really impactful
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): kind of speaks it into being even more. And so invitation to put your reflections in the chat or unmute, and I'd love to invite him
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): some community conversation. Sarah says
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I'm struck by how the list of qualities are so personal to me and my journey. it might be totally different from the qualities that are meaningful or important to someone else. Yes, yeah. And I'm curious if you have like an example, you know, of a quality or of of something that feels like a quality that feels really unique to you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): it is. It's so amazing, right? Like what
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): encompasses spiritual growth in teaching to sadness is going to be really different from others, and then invitation for anyone who would like to share in the chat or out loud.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yes, Amanda, love to hear from you.
Amanda Halls: Hello!
Amanda Halls: So one of the things that I've really kind of struggled with recently. was the fact that I was a teacher.
Amanda Halls: like, physically, I worked at a college and academics and I'm also instructor. And when I became sick
Amanda Halls: my ability to teach was taken away from me because I became physically disabled, and I ended up having to leave my job. And so I struggled with how
Amanda Halls: and who I am now that my audience to say, to teach was gone, and my ability to transport that wisdom, and I often had meditation, and Tyron used to come to me. The the boatman on the river sticks the transporter.
Amanda Halls: Yes, and so It kind of. When we were talking just now. I always used to say that I'm like, Chiron. I'm on the boat. I'm traveling right. I'm traveling back and forth, back and forth. And what I realized
Amanda Halls: through this practice we just did is that I am a a transporter of wisdom
Amanda Halls: it doesn't necessarily need. It's not like I need to teach a subject in particularly. It's that all the people and all of the teachers I've had.
Amanda Halls: I transport their wisdom through my own personal experience. So it's not something unique to me. I if you, if I'm having a hard time thinking Grace, like you were just saying it. Not graceful.
Amanda Halls: but it's more. Can you transport Grace through your own personal experience?
Amanda Halls: So on your end it might not come out as race, but it started as grace the influence. So if you imagine the teaching coming through your back
Amanda Halls: and getting colored by your own experience, and when it comes out of you, it might not come out as race, it might come out as peace.
Amanda Halls: But how it started
Amanda Halls: and how it ends is how you color the experience for someone else.
Amanda Halls: So we're all just sort of transporting the wisdom through our own personal filter.
Amanda Halls: That's how I thought of it. It's beautiful. Thank you so much for that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): as well, I also just want to reflect that I was on a retreat recently.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and it was a retreat for families.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and there were some space holders, not myself. I was there with my kiddo. So I was a parent, this faceholder. I wasn't working the retreat directly, you know, just working as a parent, and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): one of the space holders had something happen. Health wise where, you know they really couldn't like. Do all the things run around, get all the logistics.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And what was reflected to them by the parents, the kids, and the other
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): facilitators was, your practice. Is your gift right? Your practice is your holding space. And it was so beautiful to see the community receive and then give, and then also really continue to feel this, this facilitator leading in how they were taking care of themselves. So just.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): reminded me of
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): how we can also be that person or being that gives others permission to transmit these leadership qualities in the ways that are appropriate for us in in that time or season of our lives or moments, and and it changes
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And so I'm not being attached to, you know, to exactly what I can really, as a teacher, a a former, you know, high school, elementary school teacher as well. I don't know what kind of teaching you were doing, but I was very attached to my title and my role.
Yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): thank you. Amanda.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yes, Collie.
kahlialspaugh: Hi, everyone I'm sitting in my first space and like months, and it's so exciting. And I just pull the card while we were speaking on this, and I wanted to share it with you all, because it is the shaman card which is about teachers. And this is what it looks like, and just the one sentence I think I want to share most.
kahlialspaugh: is that this card reminds us that the force of healing is ultimately not our own. We must shape it and share it with the world, which is so much like what you just said, which is, you know, your teaching is colored by your own experience and brought forth in its own way. So that's just so beautiful. How it's all connected, and it feels like it.
kahlialspaugh: bridge to the gap. So thank you for all of that.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Thank you so much, Kelly. And wow! What a card! Yes.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that! It's really beautiful. Megan. I see you wrote a major quality that is sticking out about many of my teachers is in a tum it to the moment, and what it calls for.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yes, a willingness to move with the energy of the space of a space, and the people gathered together.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): It's such a skill. It's a skill that I feel like we can learn over and over and over, and be in deeper and deeper practice of like that, a tuning, and one of the kind of piece
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): like tools in my tool belt I feel like, for that is
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that of a pot, and sometimes the pause is like, have a plan, especially as a facilitator and a teacher.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to just take a breath and say, Is there something in the
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): space in the circle that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that's there that needs to be talked about? Kind of like I did at the beginning before going into the meditation. because it's possible that we would have had
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): a 45 min conversation around Yoga ethics and a much shorter practice, and that would have been beautiful, and what was needed, and that this feels for me like an example where I was like. I think I did that relatively. There's some grace gracefully.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And there's moments where I've totally not been graceful. You know, where someone else had to say, hey, something just happen. Can we pause, you know, and and my hope as a facilitator is that I'm aware enough to try to bring that pause to the group.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): But I don't always get it right. And sometimes
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): we, as participants are the ones or are are when we're leading our participants, either. Once you say, Oh, wait. You know something happened. I I want us to pause on this and and talk about this.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): being the kind of teacher that can, and spaceholder and leader that can turn into that rather than like, put up a wall and act like I know everything, or like I have all under control whatever that even means right has been one of the greatest learnings for me that I feel like I'm still really in that learning. so thank you, Megan, that's just kind of what your share made me reflect on
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): anyone else. Probably have space for one more share in the chat or out loud in the chat as many as you would like.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I'd love to
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): invite us to just like tune in, because sometimes, again, I'm thinking of that pause and the space.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Is there a nugget of Aha, or wisdom that came from the meditation that came from your teachers that came from something a participant shared, or I shared, or that is in the chat that you can, that you're going to anchor in and take with you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Maybe, if not, you know, it could be a quality again, an invitation to.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): as you reflect on that, to make sure that you either take your flame, your candle, and place it somewhere safe, like on your altar, or if it's time to close together
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): blow out the candle flame, knowing that the light continues. And so there's a few ways you could do this, you can blow it, or you can swipe your hands, bringing the energy in the essence
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): of the flame towards you
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and so you might use your hand, or you might use a book or something, just to bring that energy towards you, and I just did it towards myself.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to. You can do that for yourselves. And I'm gonna send it to you as well
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Andrea, i'm coming home to myself and making space for others to
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): my daily practice isn't the same every day, but I do have a strong devotional practice. Yes, Susan
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): done. My teachers have guided me to more, more wisdom, more subtle movement, more awareness, more just being here. Yes.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): thank you so much, and you can continue to drop your eyes in the tat.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and in a moment we can unmute and say goodbye to one another and to so much gratitude for this community and for practicing together.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): yeah, for for your commitment to these values to living and embodying, you know, G values. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you much gratitude. You could send me and say goodbye if you would like.
Robin Duke: Goodbye.
Estela Domingo Torres-ella/she/her: Thank you.
Amanda Halls: See you later.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I think this is the last session for many of us. We have an extra month
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): getting a bonus. Actually, I thought about that. I think I didn't see that. Okay, perfect. Yeah, I'll make sure to send that out. Yes, you all have another month. Well, we're we. Yes, so we will be together one more time. Wonderful. So, thanks. Yeah. Bye, bye.