Come Visit the New WarriorFlow.com

We've launched an exciting new web site for Warrior Flow. The new site is very visual and social in nature, and gives you a real feeling for the rich variety of yoga and meditation classes, workshops, events and retreats Warrior Flow offers in Miami and around the world -- and the feeling of community at the heart of the brand. Please come check out the new WarriorFlow.com. While you're there, don't miss the latest blog posts on working with difficult emotions like grief and resentment.

With the new site live, we'll soon be phasing out this Blogger site, so be sure to come check out and follow the new Warrior Flow.

Civilization and Its Discontents

by Dennis Hunter

"People who are really happy with themselves are f***ing boring. The worst word in the world is content." — actor Kevin Spacey, who turned 56 last week

I think maybe I understand what Kevin Spacey meant by that statement. Drive and personal ambition are important American values. Always aiming higher, not settling for less. More, better, stronger, faster. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Spacey plays (so very, very well) one of the most evil, Machiavellian, greedy, power-obsessed characters on television, in the disturbingly good Netflix series “House of Cards,” which provides a devastating and hair-raising glimpse into American national politics.

But I disagree with Spacey’s statement. Because I think it’s actually incredibly, incredibly rare for human beings to experience true contentment. And contentment is one of the secret, neglected keys to spiritual awakening and self-realization.

Most of us live our lives chronically caught up in a pervasive feeling of what ancient yogis and Buddhists referred to as “dukkha,” a Sanskrit word that (unfortunately) is often translated as “suffering” but could be (more accurately) rendered as discontentment, dis-ease, imbalance, a sense of lack and insufficiency that plagues us and leaves us—no matter how much good stuff we get—always wanting more.

The ancient yogis and Buddhists said that on the flip side of this coin that is our human experience is the opposite of dukkha: sukha. Sukha, (again, unfortunately) is most often translated into English as “bliss,” which sounds like some kind of fuzzy, pleasurable state that is assumed to be the opposite of suffering. (By that definition, a junkie strung out on heroin could be experiencing sukha.) But there are much better choices for rendering “sukha” into English: contentment, for one, or a sense of ease and well-being, balance, things working smoothly and harmoniously according to the natural order.

Contentment is one of the magical, golden keys to a life well-lived. Without cultivating a basic sense of contentment and gratitude for what we have, we cannot unlock the doors that keep us trapped in our self-made prisons of resentment, jealousy, greed, and all the other afflictive emotional patterns that diminish and discolor our human experience. We don’t have to rest on our laurels and become doormats, but developing a greater sense of contentment and appreciation for what we already have is a really good place to start.

— Hunter

“Because one believes in oneself, one doesn't try to convince others.
Because one is content with oneself, one doesn't need others' approval.
Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.”
― Lao Tzu

“Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.”
― Lao Tzu

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.”
― Socrates

Freedom's Just Another Word

by Dennis Hunter

This weekend, as a nation, we celebrated Independence Day. This got me thinking about the notion of freedom, which was the theme of my meditation class last night.

Ordinarily when we talk about freedom we’re talking about something that comes from outside. It’s given to us, or we fight for it, or we earn it somehow. We often think of freedom as the right to do whatever we want (within reasonable limits imposed by law and society).

But the kind of freedom we talk about on the spiritual path doesn’t come from outside. It isn’t given to us by anyone else, and it doesn’t even really depend all that much on external circumstances. Freedom in a spiritual sense is an inside job. It’s less about being free to do what we want and more about setting ourselves free from all the forms of internal conditioning that keep us imprisoned in psychological and emotional suffering.

The spiritual teacher Adyashanti writes:

“Human beings have a drive for security and safety, which is often what fuels the spiritual search. This very drive for security and safety is what causes so much misery and confusion. Freedom is a state of complete and absolute insecurity and not knowing. So, in seeking security and safety, you actually distance yourself from the freedom you want. There is no security in freedom, at least not in the sense that we normally think of security. This is, of course, why it is so free: there's nothing there to grab hold of.

The Unknown is more vast, more open, more peaceful, and more freeing than you ever imagined it would be. If you don't experience it that way, it means you're not resting there; you're still trying to know. That will cause you to suffer because you're choosing security over Freedom. When you rest deeply in the Unknown without trying to escape, your experience becomes very vast.”

What happens when we drop down beneath our habitual drive for security and safety? We touch in with the vast, open Mystery that was always there, and in that Mystery there is a freedom that surpasses understanding. Imagine what this very moment would feel like if we could suddenly drop beneath our protective shell and taste that freedom right here, right now.

Imagine experiencing this very moment free from the mind’s obsessive thinking. What if we could drop into a natural stillness and silence in which the mind is aware and relaxed, without chatter, without commentary?

What about freedom from troubling emotions — greed, anger, jealousy, hatred, and so on? What would this moment feel like if the waters of the mind were not whipped into a frenzy of emotion?

Freedom from judgment — that’s a big one. Look at how we constantly judge and evaluate ourselves and others. What if, for one moment, we could just drop our compulsive need to be the judge of everything?

And can we even imagine being free from caring what other people think? How much time do we spend trapped in worrying about other people’s opinions of us, and trying to manipulate perceptions to make a good impression? We don’t have to let ourselves go to seed and become the Crazy Cat Lady, but wouldn’t it be sort of glorious to experience, if only for this moment, the freedom of not being quite so concerned with everyone else’s opinions of us?

And our own opinions! How heavy are they? We seem to have opinions about everything under the sun, and we take our opinions so seriously, as if each one is the gospel truth. When we relate openly to the Mystery that underlies our experience, we start to see our own cloud of opinions as a cloud of biting insects, an irritating drain on our attention and a veil that obscures reality.

Lost in Translation

by Dennis Hunter

Yoga and meditation have taken American society by storm. Starting from a few transplanted Indian teachers and their ashrams, countless styles and schools of yoga have evolved to address every niche market and demographic: bootcamp-style hot power vinyasa classes; body-image oriented yoga for glutes and abs; traditional Bhakti devotional yoga done in front of murals and statues of Hindu deities with chanting and incense, wearing white clothing; corporate yoga done in front of computer screens or at office desks, wearing suits and dress socks; yoga for children; yoga for the elderly; yoga for overweight people; yoga for women; yoga for men; prenatal yoga; postnatal yoga; alignment-based yoga; Christian yoga; dance-based yoga; pilates-based yoga; yoga for sleep; yoga for sex; martial arts-based yoga; acro-yoga; aerial yoga; and, yes, even hot nude yoga.

In the realm of meditation, something similar is now taking place. Starting from a few Buddhist meditation centers established by teachers transplanted from various Asian countries, “mindfulness” (and a host of related practices) has grown into a cottage industry and a household word in mainstream society. Mindfulness is taught at Google and in Wall Street banks to help employees be less stressed and more productive; it’s taught in hospitals to help patients cope with pain and illness; it’s taught in classrooms to help students concentrate and perform better on tests; it’s taught in church basements to help addicts in recovery and in therapists’ offices to help patients regulate mood disorders; it’s taught in temples to help spiritual aspirants reach towards enlightenment and in boutique meditation centers to help busy urban professionals find a time to slow down and relax; it’s taught by the military to help soldiers cope with the stresses of warfare.

With yoga and meditation finding their way into so many corners of American society, and taking on so many new — and frequently materialistic — manifestations, it may be time to take a step back and assess whether something essential is being lost in the translation of these ancient Eastern traditions into American culture. 

Take Me on Vacation with You!

Guess what? Now I can go on vacation with you wherever you go. You can even take me on business trips. I don't discriminate. Warm weather, cold weather, northern hemisphere, southern hemisphere -- I'll happily go with you, no complaints. I fit perfectly on your mobile phone, iPad or laptop, and you can stop me if I talk too much!

Joking aside, my students have been requesting a recorded Warrior Flow audio class for YEARS. I finally have one available for download at iTunes and Amazon. Check the links below. (Download on a Wi-Fi connection since it's a 70-minute audio file.)

A big thank you to my producer Robert Gerding and my business partner and husband Dennis Hunter for making this happen. (Music "Sandcastles" and "Shimmer" by S. McCleery licensed by Ambient Music Garden. Music for healing, and background music.)

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/flow-strength-balance/id962208611?i=962208615

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Flow-Strength-Balance-Adrian-Molina/dp/B00SVSIZZK

More to come soon!

Namaste,
Adrian

Balance

My teacher had the lovely idea of starting class with what felt to me like the longest tree pose ever held in the history of yoga. It was so long that I found myself going through several phases….

Phase 1: I am a yoga God.

The first few breaths, I was good. I nailed it. I looked at the mirror and gave myself a mental wink and applause. Two thumbs up. A standing ovation. I glanced around to see all the little bonsais struggling to grow as tall and powerful as I was.

Prior to that, I had already checked that my hips were in line, and that I was engaging my legs. I looked at my reflection in the mirrors to make sure that I didn’t look too serious, that my gaze was soft, that overall I was ready for my killer Yoga Journal cover photo. I also checked my six-pack. I made a mental note: more core work tomorrow and no chocolate tonight before bedtime. I felt the ego-spotlight growing on me. The ego always whispers in your ears the things you want to hear. Makes you feel like you own it. Like you are the star of your own reality show. The ego disconnects you and separates you from reality. It creates an image in your mind, an illusion—a fake reality.

F@#$%g Worth It

Many years ago I began to change course, steering my ship toward spiritual books, yoga, meditation, and anything else that offered light at the end of the dark tunnel of confusion that was my life. Nothing was terribly wrong. Quite the opposite: I was an average, decent, good young man, I think. My life just lacked meaning. I was a salad with no dressing, a phone with poor reception. My personal relationships were difficult on all fronts, and I simply was not in a good place. Basically, life sucked.

I began to read, to explore, to do yoga, to meditate, and little by little, it became easier to handle my self-created “dramas.”

It’s been about thirteen years since then, and while I am more comfortable in my older, semi-permeable skin and I’m in a better and healthier place overall, I never feel like I have mastered any of the spiritual lessons that I have been working on. I never feel 100 percent satisfied with my learning curve or with myself. I am that dissatisfied customer in the store of my own life, bitching and making a scene at the cash register.