Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hello, and welcome. Welcome! Welcome!
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Creating you all on this beautiful Wednesday.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I am in a classroom at Usc. Which is college campus.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): not far from where I live now, and I just wanna double check. Can you hear me and see me? Okay.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): cool. So I'm taking a workshop that my friend Patrice Colors is putting on. That's all about theater of the oppressed and transformative
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): justice and experience. And it's an all day workshop. And so I was like, yes, Patrice, I can come and I will pop out do office hours and then flow back in. And you're not gonna believe the theme. That was the theme of the workshop. And so I just wanna kind of bring that energy right in, because sometimes
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I mean all the time there are no accidents right like.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So I wanna just invite us to take a moment and reflect on. If there's been any synchronicities or themes that have shown up for you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you can drop them in the chat.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Could be themes that have come up. Maybe a phrase or a sentence, or a teaching that has emerged in your life recently could be something, you know, like an experience like seeing hummingbird it.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): 2 different moments or a pivotal moment could be a phrase or a teaching.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): but in invitation to drop those in in the chat, and we'll just take a moment, and then I'll I'll guide us in so you can
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): place your hands on your heart, or anywhere else you would like your body.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and as you breathe
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): grounding yourself.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and if you find yourself
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): with your mind wandering. We're exploring.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Let me just going with that, not not needing to contain or to control.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): letting your mind wander.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): perhaps be a little wild.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And then
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): feeling into your body? Is there a movement, or a shape.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): or a gesture that your body has been wanting to make? So allowing
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that to happen now might be not a yoga shape, you know. Maybe just kind of a movement or rotation of your head around on the neck.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): stretching one way and the other
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): opening yourself up through movement, through breath.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to the magic of chance
Carly Joelle: to inspiration
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): wherever
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): it might find you, wherever it might take you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and that might look like in this moment. I'm not really sure. I don't know where I'm going, or
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I haven't really felt particularly inspired recently, or it might feel like. Oh, yes, I know exactly where and how I'm gonna connect to inspiration and intuition.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): But one thing that's true and clear for all of it, whether you know or you don't know. the invitation
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to Sabcha to a purity of intention, a cleanliness
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): of intention.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and a paragrapha, and letting go.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): are always welcome
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to bring in that quality of doing every action you must do, wishing every wish.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): experiencing every experience, and then letting go of the attachment to what it looks like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): letting go of control.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): surrendering to
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): let the yoga move through. You teach through you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and feeling into the way that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): not in this like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): punitive way or petty way. But we're so so small, right our little at self.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): little Susanna.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): little Carly, little Michael, little Karen, Jennifer Andrea, whoever all you know your name right, little S.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): In connection with the greater self
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): with everyone, everyone here.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): everyone connected to the heart and the essence and spirit of Yoga, and all beings
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): oneness.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And so our little dreams, our little desires, our wishes.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): How can we not need to just get out of the way? So oneness can move through us, so the needs of
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): all can be served through us.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So maybe for me, it kind of shows up as a little bit of a laugh like a not a mean laugh, or a mocking laugh at myself, but like a sweet laugh like Susanna. You thought you
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you thought you had a plan. You thought you knew what you were doing right? Right? Right?
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Just remembering like it's okay
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): or Oh, Susannah, you totally don't know what you're doing. I no clue right now. Completely lost like you thought you had it and really don't
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): like, oh, yeah, it's okay. There's interconnection. There's
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): other wishes, other dreams
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to respond, to, to, connect, to, to be
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): nourished and void, and supported by and with and for.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So we'll breathe together few more moments.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): seeing if there's any communication, any message for you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): inspiration for
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): bringing in or letting go.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and remembering, too, with Yoga, as we
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): gently move to reintegrating back into our
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): extra meditative interactive space
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that in Yoga there's no
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): sense of lack. There's no sense of humitive like not enoughness.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): You can start to move and maybe look around the space that you're in
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): so helpful sometimes like these practices we do. And I'm like, right. I'm in a
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): college classroom with.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you know, lockers and sound boards like, I wonder what even happens in here. And
as we're
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): as we're coming back to this space, you know often the the framing that a lot of our in the West
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): from our religious kind of backgrounds and upbringing
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): for some of us. And even if we don't have those kinds of religious backgrounds and upbringing. It's part of the culture that we're in and the air that we breathe through
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Cartesian dualism and kind of mechanistic thinking. This idea
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that we have to earn
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): being good or feeling good, that we have to earn being
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): being saved or being valued rather than from a yolk perspective. We're already inherently good and worthy, and that the things that get in the way we're working through the practice to clear off.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And so, instead of
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): working so hard to like. Do the yoga get on the mat? Do the practice, or teach to the practice so perfectly or so? Well, it's like our students already know, right? Like our if we're teachers, our students are already full and good and perfect, and we just need to kind of get out of the way
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to let the Yoga come through
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): us rather than teach it. so they can have that experience of their own. their own wholeness, and same for us sometimes we.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): as as the teacher student.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): need to get or get to get out of the way, so Yoga can move through us and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and remind us of who we already are.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So coming back to the space, maybe wiggling, doing whatever you need to do. I'm still taking in like it's been a while at school campus and the college campus and I'm also like in a workshop, I was saying to folks who just came on taking a workshop at my friend Patrice invited me to. That's an all day workshop on theater, the oppressed like movement, justice, healing work.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And so I snuck out of the workshop to to
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): come and be with you all, and the themes of the workshop really deeply connect to the things that came up that folks wanted to talk about.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I'm in a classroom space that's just like down the hallway. So you know, there's a little bit of playful unpredictability. What may have someone like come in and have a class. We may have to move to the hallway, so just naming that. And the invitation, too, is to pay attention to
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the synchronicities.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and we played with this a little bit in our pilgrimage in puja earlier this month.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Or what month are we?
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I don't even know what day it is. I'm realizing it was this month is the end of last month. Yeah. So end of last month. Thank you.
And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): in the workshop that I'm in the themes that were coming up for the connection of spirituality and social justice, the interconnectedness of African spirituality, particularly Indian spirituality, the teachings of Vivekananda.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): a Universalist kind of spirituality where we don't, you know, though we may work on material change to change the conditions
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): of our existences or other folks existences. There's also our spirits, and it's here where Yoga starts right? It meets us at that that spiritual place.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and particularly one of the questions that came in was about Soucha and about the idea of such as impurity or cleanliness, and on a material level. It's like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): physical clearing of the space
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): clearing of the schedule.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So you have time and space to practice clearing of clutter clearing away distractions.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): it's not just on a physical level, right? It's also Soucha, internally clearing away or allowing there to be a kind of purity of intention. But we often take purity
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to come with a good, bad.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): a kind of like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): kind of jet, like the Judgment Day, or judgment of ourselves as practitioners or as people.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and from a yogic perspective.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you know, there wasn't that sense of judgment, that sense of like you have done wrong or you have sin. Sin is not a concept that exists
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): in in ancient Vedic top.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): It was like you messed up that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): practice or the action led you away from your focus or your goal of liberation, or of peace or of power. So
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): try again right? Come back. It's a very affirmative
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): frame. It's a frame, a framing and ontology, a way of looking at at the world that looks at us as
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): already whole, already perfect, already complete, and that we make choices and actions away from that. Of course we do. But we're human, and that's we always have. Humans have always done that. And we just get to come back to come back to come back.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So I wanna pause there and just see if there's any other questions or thoughts on since that theme. That was one of the the main themes looking into the office hours, questions to make sure I
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): answered that. And yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): hmm!
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And and the question also asked about resources, I would say again, I think I think Vivekananda, who I mentioned earlier is a great resource for exploring and a lot of those who write about
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the connection between Christianity and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and Vedic thought or Yogic thought.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): because there's a way that you know.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and I'm not a Christian theologian. So I want to be careful here. But II do want to say that I think there's many
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): writers who I've read who say the essence of the teachings of, say Jesus, are
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): of absolute unconditional love, and so they are in many ways in great connection with Yogic philosophy and Yogic thought, and the way that institutions or individuals have interpreted those teachings puts on the judgment or puts on the lack
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): puts on the sin that that the teachings themselves in their essence in many ways connect. And so there's a lot of wonderful teachings about that, and particularly for folks who are maybe coming from a Christian background or Catholic background, who have had a lot of the more
kind of punitive framing.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Think there can be a lot of liberation found in.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): those writings and those teachings of the connection to the essence of we're already whole already. Good. We're already complete and perfect and wonderful. And any of the practices are just reminding us of that or getting us back to that.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I'm gonna stop talking.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): See if anyone wants to share in the chat or out loud.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hi, Katie. Yes.
Katie she/her: Can you hear me?
Katie she/her: Yes, I can. Okay, sorry my video is not working. I mostly am saying, thank you for talking more about that. I'm really grateful. Also that you
Katie she/her: kind of started talking about the implications, because when you pointed it out, it was one of those things that I was raised in a in a Christian background. And so I was thinking about it in the binary way, without even realizing I was doing that.
Katie she/her: And I to me the implications like, I'm just kind of like making all these connections. I feel like. So thank you again for allowing that to happen, because what I'm thinking about is how.
Katie she/her: even if you are thinking about it in the binary way without realizing it. Or if your students are.
Katie she/her: then it's such a. It can be such a tool of control.
Katie she/her: because then the arbiter of what is good. You know the one who's setting the standard and defining it. You're just constantly wearing yourself out working for that. And it is same based. So it's a totally different motivation and starting place, so that I feel like it changes everything.
Katie she/her: and that feels really exciting to me to be more conscious of. And also
Katie she/her: again, it's cool, because in throughout the your class Curator, you have, I feel, like, been teaching us that without necessarily explicitly naming it because you talk a lot about how you can just return. You know you get off track. You can just make a step to return to that. And so it's like that practice of even
Katie she/her: practicing it differently has been really helpful to me.
Katie she/her: So I don't know that I have another question necessarily, but just wanted to share that. I've been thinking about that concept a lot.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Thank you so much, Katie, and and I think one of the things that you made me think about when you were speaking. Is many of our students come into our classrooms right for those who teach again, formally or informally, or into our spaces.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and they're bringing that shame. And I think, particularly Yoga, that can be a place of a lot of shame, right? A source of body shame, a source of what our bodies can or cannot do, what they look like flexibility. All of these things are nothing to do with what Yoga is, and we might know this.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): but we also may need reminding ourselves, and our students will likely need reminding, and they may be coming in with like, oh, I haven't practice yoga for a month, you know, or a year, or whatever, and we might to be in front of the class, or, you know, in the community and having that feeling of like, I'm an imposter. I'm an imposter, and and I think a lot of these things that undermine our sovereignty
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): come from these binary good, bad, right, wrong. You know I did it. I didn't do it when the truth is, it's so much more nuanced, and it's so much more gray, you know. And and even when I think about the teachers who I've learned from who
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I, you know, like certain of them, I would say they're pretty. They're on their way, you know, half baked to fully break baked like realized masters. For example, Techno Han Shankaji.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): they're so flawed. They're so human, you know, and they're and and there's ways that they're teaching, certainly by their actions and by who they are, and also by understanding and recognizing their flaws by naming them by not pretending that they're they're perfect. So they always make the right choice and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and so I think that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): humility that we can bring to like part of Sacha is also unpacking a perfectionism of purity, right like of the right way, or the only way to do things.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and part of our practice can be unpacking that perfectionism for ourselves and for our students. So thank you so much, Katie, for for bringing that. Yeah. And Karen. Punitive religious impact feels like one more element of trauma brought to Yoga practice breathing. Yes.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): also. Just name, you know, being raised Hindu. It's not just Christianity. It's it's also there, in different Hindu
practices, different ways in lineages
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that Yoga's practice, this more kind of religious.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): rigorous or rigid, or one right way of doing things.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and part of what I think is a little bit radical and revolutionary. And what we're doing is
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): we're aiming to return to that. The essence on the heart of what Yoga is through yogic values which sometimes rubs up against these institutions, including Yogic ones, right? Like there are schools of thought today there always have been these different perspectives
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that say there is one right way, and that you should be doing your Saturday. Xyz. These things, you know, a certain number of hours whatever. And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then there always have been practitioners that said, No, there's that's not how this works. It's about embodying it. It's about living it. And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): actually, let's internalize the experience of all of that. Sad enough.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So we can be it right? So it's not
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): it's not just Christianity. II don't wanna
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): What's the word? Like? Point finger at only one particular religion. I think a lot of the time, only coalesce as human beings around a particular doctrinal way of practicing it can lead to that, whatever the name that we give it, you know and within all the different religions. There's there's those who practice more
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): more kind of like with a looser grip and a more spiritual
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): way rather than a tight kind of controlling way.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yes, political impact on spiritual practices also brings trauma and threats to sovereignty. One of the many reasons I appreciate your decolonize your good teaching, Susanna. Thank you. Ken.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yes, anyone else
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): on this theme
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): we had 1, 2 other questions, so I'll get into, but also just saying, Have some spaciousness, or if let's have other things you want to bring in, or like the beginning, for folks who just came in and sorry for is a little
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): creaky, and I'm I'm a
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): body talker, so I move. Let me see if I can move
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): creaky spots. Yes, it's better.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the beginning. We were talking about those.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the theme of
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): interconnections, and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that truth of spiritual.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): like spiritual existence and energy that sometimes shows up through
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): through coincidences or through themes that arise. And so one of the themes that arose in the workshop I was in is
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): is surrender is aparthe and practicing
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): spiritually right, like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Sometimes there can be in certain movement spaces, or social justice spaces this idea. That
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): kind of spirituality, or or saying things are complicated or complex.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): is the cop out like we have to be down for the cause we have to be like, really clear and solid. And and that is, there's ways that it. It is both true, right. Both both are part of the way that change gets made.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So just bringing in coincidences and chance encounters. And Nana said, the word pilgrimage has kept emerging for me. I feel this is very true to where I'm at in my life right now, and I love that the other thing I really hope you get from Yoga class curator
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): is that we can pilgrimage. And Jeremy, it seems like this. Come right to you. We can pilgrimage by taking a major, you know action or moving to going somewhere physically, like the Santi, you know, Communal des Santiago is a pilgrimage right? Like going to the Himalayas is can be a pilgrimage.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): The pilgrimage can also happen.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Our home in our backyards, in our minds, in our lives we can take every action as a sacred step, and we can relate to the mountains, the rivers, the lakes around us, as places of sanctity, of sacredness, and we
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): we have access to that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): through our choices. And so I love that that word is is resonating for you. It is for me, too. I just took a pilgrimage to somewhere that to me feel like the
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Himalias of the West, which is Yosemite. And I was very, very
moved.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): just so transported by being in nature there.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Jeremy!
Jeremy: Hi!
Jeremy: And Hi, everybody! I had a few comments on the things you've been bringing up here regarding
Jeremy: interconnectivity and various religious practice, and how it intersects with Yoga, and also just sort of overlaps with and
inhabits Yoga really, in some ways.
Jeremy: So I was raised in a various religious background. But I do. Have. I have done some study of metaphysical Christianity, and
Jeremy: there's a little bit of a difference there, because, you know, Christianity can really run the gamut from like images of hellfire. And what you're doing wrong. And all this right, what you could be doing right to in metaphysical Christianity. One talks about being in one's Christ self, which is a Co. Creation with God. Right? So this has a lot of intersection with Yoga
Jeremy: and one thing I wanted to say is that for me, when I fall off the the mark and the definition of sin I've heard many times in Christianity, and otherwise being missing the mark, you know, just missing the mark.
Jeremy: And so what you were saying about how you know Yoga, from the Vedic times has approached. It's like, Well, okay, you messed up, you know, like, Get back on right. And I find Yoga to be so ever present and soft and accepting when I'm coming back to it, and it could be that I'm in a yoga practice. But you know, maybe I haven't done any mudra lately, or something, you know, or maybe my Java practice has fallen off, and I go back to it, and it
Jeremy: envelops me each time in a way which is very yeah. You're here. You're here again. You recognize this, you know. And so I just wanted to say that that
Jeremy: I think anyone from anywhere it could be, you know, a death row inmate who decides to, you know, turn to meditation or to breathwork or something. It could be someone in a hospital bed. It could be a nurse at a hospital, you know, who who decides to incorporate Yoga in their life. And the thing is that there's always gonna be more yoga right behind that right next to it. But also yoga's always there, you know, just it's like.
Jeremy: I don't know. That's that's kind of what I have to say. One of the practices I've been doing lately is reading from sacred text. I've been reading from the Rig Veda, and I decided to just flip through and find all the references to Don or U.S.A. in the in the Rig Veda. And the reason I'm doing this is to it's a morning practice for me to read it out loud. And it's similar to my Java practice. When I am chanting, or a reading, or singing or humming.
Jeremy: I find that
Jeremy: it's like my higher power. My, you know, conception of God is there, and filling up my chest cavity and my nasal cavity, and makes me feel like I'm getting a hug from the inside. So to have this, I've been having a bit of a challenging time lately, and so adding this reading to my practice has really helped me to open up to, you know, some of the oldest conceptions of dawn and the moving from.
Jeremy: if they call it darkness to light. But it's night today, you know, and and it really talks about how there've been so many dawns before, you know and how it does it. It genders Dawn as a goddess right? Which
Jeremy: to me it doesn't feel, you know, as a gender queer person that doesn't feel wrong because each of us has our own conception of our self and our own identity with things. So
Jeremy: you know, whereas I don't have to decide to gender the moon every time I talk about it. If I'm reading from the Rigveda, and it's gendering something as a goddess I can identify with this goddess, you know. If I choose. And so, or if I'm able, or you know, in my own able being in, if it's within my own conception of myself to identify with, that's what I mean.
Jeremy: There is a little bit of problematic language in there, though, and so II am currently looking to find new definitions of words so that I can replace some of the problematic ones as I recite this.
Jeremy: So that's that's what I got today.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Thank you so much, Jeremy, for reminding us to of. I feel like it's is for Pani Donna. And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you know that deep inquiry into text and study, and also
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): into remembering that the text are written down, and the translations are given through human experience and and limited human experience. And so I really appreciate you looking into like other translations and other words, and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): once that resonate is more laboratory. I do feel like a lot of the text, for one thing.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): A lot of the texts on Yoga aren't translated yet
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): into English. You know they're they're on
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): actual like leaves or on paper. Bark, and in languages like Maggie. Or you know de different regional languages, some of which there are people who live in still speak and can potentially translate, and some of which there are no one who speaks those languages. So we only have
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): a very small portion of your text that we're working from.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): those texts themselves. And the translations are are problematic. And so it's almost like we need a revision.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And this to me goes back. Someone asked a question. And I wanna just read it because it's connected so much to what we're saying. I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences around connecting to a particular Yogic lineage or Guru Guru teacher.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Until recently, I've lived in remote places and not had easy face-to-face training.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Easy access to that. So a lot of my training has been online. I've studied Yoga, with a number of different teachers, become more aware of making sure acknowledgement of lineage is clear.
and I've found that what I've learned is from a few different languages.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and through her or their own meeting and study.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I've enjoyed learning from these different lineages, but I worry sometimes whether it's problematic to be drawing from different ones, and that I worry about causing confusion or misappropriation.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I do try, wherever possible, when I'm sharing Yoga with others, to point out for particular practice comes from particular teaching or lineage, but I'm not sure if that is an adequate way to manage this.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So I really appreciate this question, and I think it connects to some of the complication and the complexity that you're describing, Jeremy, because
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): there there is this very dogmatic kind of like you. There is a framing, and it is quite prevalent in many contemporary Yoga spaces in India, and has been, I would say, for maybe a couple of 100 years of
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): have one lineage. Have one teacher completely
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): kind of
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): subsume your own will to that one teacher, and that one lineage, and put aside critical thinking. Put aside, you know, questioning and just follow the teachings of that lineage, and that teacher, and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): one that rubs up against a few things. One is the actual practices and teachings of Yoga, the tenants right of sovereignty of, but also in many ways like a Western kind of view of critical thinking.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): also, I would say, in Indian view of critical thinking, which has always been there too, and trauma informed practice. And so
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): it's complex. Because while we're saying, acknowledge the lineage right, acknowledge the root
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and the source of these practices. There may
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): it may not be one, it may not be one just one teacher, it may be that you're drawing from different teachers and teachings. I think that's that is one of the kind
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): conditions that we find ourselves in is those of us who perhaps have had one singular teacher have gotten disillusioned with that teacher with that lineage because of abuse in the lineage, and maybe because of lack of transparency around that within our lineages, because that has been so common.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And then.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): if we're taking and connecting from these different
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): teachings and different teachers. It's like, how do we know what's right? Especially when you know you got verdant and advice of Adonta? It's like dual and non dual. What? What's the answer right like, what is it? Is it one, or is it? Is it one, or is it 2? And and there whole, like schools and practices and teachings. And you know, teachers
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that will build everything based upon
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): whatever their answer is to that question. And one of my teachers to take that on being
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the most recent that I learned from. And Chunker G. Says, this as well, is like this question isn't the most relevant question.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): The question we can spend a lot of time like kind of prevaricating on. Is it one, or is it 2? Is itself another? Or is it just one? But maybe the more important question is like, How do I live?
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): The embodiment of oneness?
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Or, if I believe in you know self and other, how do I live the embodiment of a relationship between or clarity about self and other.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And for me. That's what.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): in terms of answering this question, because the question was, what has my experience been with lineage? Is
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I really wanted?
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Because I think, in part because of being raised in an Indian family and Bengali, and and ask me his family. I wanted to find my one teacher, and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and I never really did. I never really did I? And when I did, that teacher, Shanker dude was like. Don't listen to what I say. Like you need to question. You need to to see and check. If this he he was a very
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): is a very
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): radical teacher who says, Don't just trust. But I say, try it out, test it out for yourself, check it against all the other things like, find the divinity, the sovereignty within. And so my answer is, of course.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): shaded by my teachers and the experiences that I had, and being, you know, Indian and British and living in the United States. So I wanna kind of qualify that, because, of course, you may get a different answer from a different teacher.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): But I deeply believe that we can honor. We can
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): trace where we learn things from, and then name the teachers. Right? So I've named to God. I've named Shaker to 2 of my main teachers.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): The other person who I learned from who's contemporaneous to us is Dr. Sham Ranganathan, who I appreciate because he brings a kind of philosophical analysis to say the Yoga Sutras.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and so naming those teachers or those teachings and the lineages.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): while also acknowledging that you have sovereignty, and you yourself are distilling and kind of
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and pulling the essence of what Yoga is into your being, and then transmitting it? Not in a way, I think there is a very big difference between saying I thought of this or my brand of Yoga. Is this right not doing that. And so I think that's where we
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): avoid the misappropriation is if we say, Oh, I've pulled together advice of Adonta and this and this and this. And now my brand is, you know, I don't know like sunkier. Yoga, let's call it right like that would be appropriation if you're branding it. But if you're just saying, here's what I understand based on you know these teachings from these teachers.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I think that's just good scholarship, and that's practice, and many of us, most of us are doing it that way.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): right now.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): At this time it may look different in 50 years, 20 years, or 100 years right. But right now that that is sort of the
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the. There's not one kind of dominant lineage which I actually think is good because it brings us into that self sovereignty of of learning.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): any questions on that? I've got some more.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): okay, cool. There's 2 other questions. One was about
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Fabiana.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): which is oil massage or self massage?
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And the question I love this question, was, I wanna read it? Exactly. Aviana, expensive straps, Spa treatment or easy self care we could use as an pilgrimage practice.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And II would say yes, both. And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): so Avianga is a practice that is done in a lot of Ayurvedic
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): context. You know everybody. It's a practice meaning a nourishing practice.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Also can be used as a cleansing practice.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and it's done by taking a natural oil. So a tri-dosic oil might be one like coconut or
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): or olive oil.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then rubbing the oil on one's body if you're doing it for yourself, and long strokes, and then circling on joints.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and it is very much a grounding, you know. You can even try it right now, with no oil just taking your for Kapa dosa. So of the doses, Cupidosa, you can brush just, you know, firmly with your hand, or for a little more soothing, maybe, round your hand.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then circling on your joint site to anywhere where
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): shoulders, elbows, and it's whole body right? So you can do your head, face, ears.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): neck, chest.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): belly, back.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): hips, legs, right? And so you're covering your whole body either with strokes, with oil, and it is very grounding, very nourishing
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): if you don't have a lot of time. This were quick and dirty up. Young Guy learned from my teachers is top of the head like the Marma Point and Marma points are large. They're they're not like acupuncture points that are very specific, like a Marma point might be almost an inch
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): around on your
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): say, on your forehead or on the crown of your head, so massage on the crown of your head.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Here's pinching from the top. and then down.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): maybe rubbing up and down the ears.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then bottoms of your feet. massaging the bottom, scissors, feet. So this was my foot. rubbing
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): up and down side to side each of the toes.
And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): It's a very, very grounding practice.
The oil
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): is considered to be something that the scan your body is eating. So you're taking in that oil.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and is penetrating through the different layers the dots of the body. DHTS.
And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): so then, Ayurveda, you don't put anything on your skin that you wouldn't also put in your mouth. So not using, I mean, of course, if that's what you have, and that's around. Then it's wonderful to do it, but
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): ayurvedically would would want to use a natural oil.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and one that you would consume by mouth as well.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And then it also is a practice that you can get at at a Spa, you know, and traditionally, in a lot of clinics in India, and there are some here that do this.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): You can get Abianga with 2 practitioners working on you. putting oil on on the skin
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): also which, where oil is poured on your third eye, point with your head back, and then massage through your hair. So it's beauty treatment, because it does, you know, make everything kind of glow a little bit.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): makes your hair healthier and shine.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and also reduces stress.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and it can be in the West. And and I think in India, too, it can be a very expensive treatment spot treatment, but it has a therapeutic benefit. It's always intended to have a therapeutic benefit.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): at least in its original form.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and so yes, I think it's both. And for us have been using. But you might create themselves just one source. Wow! That's so wonderful to hear.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And if
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you have the opportunity, I definitely recommend.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): if if you can, you know there are, there are places you can go in India where you can do practices
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): meaning cleansing
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): or nourishing practices. And then there's also ayurvedic practices that are more cleansing which aren't usually done so much in the West so fully, but are done in India that include other things, herbs.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): certain things that we do to cleanse and purify. So you're talking about cleansing. That's like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): getting things out of the different orify different orifices in the body. So to those can be less
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): like Spot day kind of experiences. and can be very, very powerful and very transformative.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): vidiogram is one of them where
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I can recommend. I think they still. I haven't been there in a very long time, but folks I know have, and they they do. They're like an Ayurvedic training school in in the South of India. So this is like, Oh, this is really interesting. I want to explore more. That's the place you could go.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And then the last question was, please explain more about the yoke yoke Yoga collective that you're creating. Who can join as a practitioner teacher? How much does it cost. I would like to talk more about this. Thank you very much. Yes. So
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): one of the things that I
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I'm really clear about is that for Yoga in the West. To change.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): we need to see and practice like we need to be able to practice with each other right right now. We meet every so often. We're all doing our work in our various communities. And there's not like a central place where I can go to find and practice with you all. And so I was like, we need that, and I would love to be able to have a place where I can find
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): say a South Asian. Queer?
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): probably I'm a teacher who can help me when I'm feeling stressed or when I'm experiencing, you know, having trouble getting to sleep right. And I want to be able to look that person up and practice with them right then and there.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And so what you'll give it is is that space, the intention to create that space which right now it's taking the form of an app right? It may change, but it it's an app that will be a resource where teachers can put themselves in their practices there
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then practitioners can come and practice. And so the truth is, it's information, right? It's getting created.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): My wish, and I hope, is that so? Right now it's being self funded. We've gotten other than folks donations which I'm so grateful for. I know some of you have donated we're self funding it, but I'm hoping to get funding from outside.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): If we can, then it will be lower cost or free for teachers and practitioners. If we don't get funding, we're gonna have to self fund it. So mean meaning folks pay, because otherwise, how do we pay the engineers right who are making how to play for the the cloud storage for hosting all the videos. So
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): so if I'll give you the scenario, because the one that I know for sure, right? If we get funding it'll be different. It could be different. But the idea is any Yoga teacher who is the first round. It'll be sort of like you sign up for a course. Take a course with me, and then you're like to to focus on
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): all of what we talk about like teaching in a in a way that's an integrity with your values. Trauma informs gender inclusive all of those things.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then not just that, but like, guided and supported with how you might want to clarify what you do, share
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): what you, what you teach your values and support you in kind of that visibility and messaging, utilizing the platform. Right? So it will be open. I think we'll do our first round just to Ycc. Folks and people who've been in ytt. I don't think it'll be open to the public, but I don't know for sure.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): we have a survey which I'm gonna drop in the chat.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Because if you are interested in
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): giving more input on this.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): then hope that works
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): this is a survey for Yoga teachers. We haven't shared it yet, so you all are the first folks who will get it. But at the end it's anonymous, and you can fill it out twice if you want to do one anonymously and one but there will be a focus group conversation just with Yoga teachers.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): We'll also have one for practitioners. But we're gonna focus on teachers first.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): where you can give your input for what you want for what would make this space work for you. Right? It's information. So really, we wanna I wanna hear from you. And we wanna hear from you as far shaping it. So I don't know if you so yeah, it is not a nonprofit. It's a for profit, mostly because my experience is a nonprofit.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Space is even more hampering than being able to do, you know, move a bit more agile. E, so we're seeking Grant type funding for for profits, tech investors, angel investors I would love to meet with an angel investor. I have a pitch tech, but I haven't. I've known to pitch to right because
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I don't have this kind of contacts. I'm a teacher from, you know, a background and education that's been my contact. So I don't know any people. And there's no like trust fund. You know what I mean like. It's so if you know any of that stuff, I'm I'm very
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): open, and and also I've come to piece with like, maybe we're just doing this ourselves, and it'll it'll kind of generate momentum and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and we'll create it as we go.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Okay. yes. Oh, I love this
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Karen
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): question about teaching the content of our monthly Yoga class curator. Course. Yeah. Do we share exactly as you taught with or without your audio, modify what you shared, create your own meditations that come to us as you practice other.
I would love for you to do whatever
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): feels sorry if you hear people yelling. There's people playing basketball now, I think, in the adjoining room.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): but you can do any of the above
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you can share exactly as I've taught, meaning. You could literally take the words. And that's why we have them for you to print out right and take and go and teach that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you can take your inspiration from the foundation. And my request is that you know you could say, inspired by
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): some of the teachings with Susanna Barkataki. And in this program, or whatever right? So
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): so please
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): take it and use it. However, best serves you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): That is the intention.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And okay. So yes. So the other thing that I'm really excited about is for folks who've been in Ycc. For the year, which is many of you here, and for those of you who are just started or came in a couple of months ago. Eventually this will apply for you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): We're coming to a close of that 12 year or 12 month container 12 year.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and I'm excited about re enrollment if it feels aligned. So there's certain things that stay the same like the foundational curriculum of the Himsa Satya, right the
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): those cycle back around, and we go deeper and deeper. And then there's things that are fresh and new, like the way we're applying it in the office hours in the pilgrimage and Pujes, there's some fresh bonuses and trainings that just recorded for you. And then also there's the year end
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): week, or a a part day like a half day. Mini retreat that we do, just for folks who are alumni that's really defining and connecting with the heart of Yoga for us, and setting our intention for the New Year. So there's and there'll be some other things that come through. And there's
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): there's a special email that just went out. And I think if you haven't gotten it, you can. You can also write to us at Hello, at
hello! At
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): well, and then
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): see if I can pull up the re enrollments. yeah. So we really
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): thought hard about this and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): worked on it with a lot of care. So I want to just kind of name that because
I'm not interested in
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): like, please, only we. So first of all, it's consent based. You don't get automatically re-enrolled. You have to
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): actually enroll
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): like a lot of kind of these type of spaces. You just get rambled. We didn't want to do it that way. That doesn't feel aligned or right.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I really believe in going deeper and deeper and deeper with the practices, with the same ethical foundations. And then
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I'm different, right every time, every month, every practice.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And the community is different. And the way that we're practicing and applying it. So there is the information on you're the class curator. Yeah, you're still welcome. We do believe that consent here. Yes.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): is the first place you see monthly issue. Oh, and then the other thing is for those who re enroll
cool.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): We're not gonna do where it like trips out again. Because again, it's like.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I feel like there's something around
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): like sovereignty to. As a student. You're kind of deeper now, and so you have all of the issues. They're all available to you for that year, and we're going month by month by month, right? And you can travel through that. But also you may make different choices month by month by month. Right? So
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So we wanted to hold that like that kind of satika like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): returning, deepening kind of moving towards that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): mastery of practitioner experience. So any other questions? Time for one question, yeah. Okay.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I'm interested in continuing enrolled in January, February. Yeah, you will.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): You'll be re-enrolling in probably January. You'll get the email
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): a year from now. Oh, it's not a year from now, year from when you hold
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): so, and that's how it will be for folks who come in cause. Folks kind of came in throughout. So whenever it's very personal. Whenever your year is complete, everyone
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): we'll get that that real moment. So you have no, no rush, nothing to do now
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): any other thoughts or questions
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): feel like we've traveled a whole world today in this.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): like theater gym, space that I am in, and I want to come back around full circle to, to.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to those synchronicities.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to the coincidences, to the themes that show up. And sometimes.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): even though we're kind of like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): floating on that river right and letting the themes come to us. Maybe there's the salsa, the clarity of saying like, I'm going to be
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): practicing, exploring and this theme
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and seeing how and where it shows up, and sure, maybe the divine, the world, nature, spirit, however you
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): conceive of it, will come in and say, Oh, no, no! Here's this thing right now, but I'd love to close, just inviting us to take a moment and tune in.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Is there a theme that arises? Maybe one of the llama zoomas or another team in your life.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then, as we close, we can speak that aloud, type it in the chat.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): taking with you this theme, and we can unmute and speak it into the space together.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Mine is imagination.
Andrea @alovincoven: Mine is Brahmacharya.
Leaf (they/them): I'm thinking of.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Santosa, patience, Santosa, freedom and unity.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Rametaria. we can unmute and say goodbye. You could still speak yours into the space if you would like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): exploring and playing and practicing.
Janice @TheShiftIn (she/her): Hi, thank you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Bio.