BERYL BENDER BIRCH

Beryl Bender Birch is the founder and director of The Hard & The Soft Astanga Yoga Institute, in New York City (since l980) and East Hampton, New York.  Beryl’s first introduction to “yoga” came in l963 in a comparative religion course at Syracuse University where she majored in Philosophy and English.  Reading Huston Smith’s, The World Religions, she came across the “the path to God through psycho/physical exercise”, or the 8 limbed-path of astanga yoga.  She took her first yoga classes in California in l971 with Yogi Bhajan and Swami Vishnudevananda.  She was working as a biofeedback researcher in Los Angeles, studying the physiology of “meditation” with people like Gay Luce, Eric Peper, and Elmer and Alyce Greene.  California, at the time, was the “hotbed of the human potential movement,” (as Beryl calls it) and there were hippies and spiritually adventurous types all over.  In l970 she met Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in San Francisco on his first teaching tour of the US and Suzuki Roshi at the San Francisco Zen Center.  She hosted Munishree Chitrabhanu, the 1^st Jain monk to travel to the US at the invitation of Harvard Divinity School, on his first trip to California and first teaching tour of the U.S.  

It was a great time to be in California.  I learned Tibetan-style meditation from Rinpoche, Jain mantra meditation and the Jain teachings of anakantavada (relativity of thinking) from Chitrabhanu, biofeedback meditation from an EEG machine, and asana from Swami Vishnudevananda!  There was a lot going on!  Then I went to India for 5 or 6 months in l974 and met Ananda Maya Ma, Swami Muktananda, Swami Chidananda  Rajneesh, plus dozens of other yogis and swamis at the Kumbha Mehla in Hardwar that year.  After that I went up to Manali, in the foothills of the Himalayas and hung out with the Tibetan refugees for a month.  That took it over the top.

Beryl has been teaching yoga for 30 years and started, after her return from India, with her immediately popular “Yoga for Skiers” classes in Winter Park, Colorado.   In l980 she returned to the city of her birth, New York, New York, and started her Power Yoga/astanga yoga program at the New York Road Runners Club, where she is still the Wellness Director.  She is the author of the best selling books, Power Yoga and Beyond Power Yoga and the acclaimed DVD/video Power Yoga: The Practice.  She currently writes the asana column for Yoga Journal and lives in East Hampton, New York with her five racing Siberian huskies.   She travels internationally, year round, teaching yoga. 

WEEKLONG INTENSIVE

Mindful living:  Walking and Talking the Classical 8-Limbed Path of Astanga Yoga

We say we practice yoga.  What do we mean by “practice”?   Yoga practice is more than the struggle to get both feet behind your head.   Classically defined, practice is the “continuous struggle to stay firmly established in the stable state of the true self.” What does that mean?  In a slightly different translation, this 13^th sutra from Book I of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras tells us that practice means “effort towards steadiness of mind.”  That means that if you are making an effort to pay attention (at whatever you might be doing), it’s practice, otherwise, it’s just exercise. 

If you are working to cultivate the discipline of the yoga lifestyle, than practice can happen 24/7.  Sitting under the trees, doing asana, eating lunch, going to the bank, changing diapers, meditating, reading the sutras, or endlessly chanting the name of the divine - it can all be practice, or not.  Join Beryl for daily practice of the classical eight-limbed path of Astanga Yoga.  Luscious northwest summer afternoons of meditation and pranayama instruction and practice, chanting, ritual, group sutra study, walks to the beach, satsang, chopping wood, hauling water, and thoughtful group discussion on the theory of everything – all as practice!  Come and relax with what is, work hard to be present, breathe deep, celebrate impermanence, inspire compassion, laugh loud, experience hard and soft, and just go straight and only don’t know.

TRACK 1

Just Don’t Know: Moving Past Alignment

Step into the vinyasa method of the astanga asana system safely and slowly, with Beryl’s inimitable down to earth approach.  Learn a bit of yoga philosophy then move mindfully through the therapeutic benefits of this unique practice, while opening the heart and mind to greater levels of awareness

TRACK 2

Lean Into It! Balancing Sukha & Sthira

Asana practice is designed to direct the attention and lead the mind to focus. As we work through Primary Series, experience how concentration slowly moves from gross physical attention on musculature to the more subtle elements like ujjayi breathing and the bandhas.  Learn to develop strength and focus. 

TRACK 3

Flow with Focus: Dhyana in action 

Full on Vinyasa class with elements from both the first and second series of the astanga tradition. Work with drishti, ujjayi breathing, and bandhas to move through the practice of yoga - toward the true experience of yoga.  As we train the mind to be present and focused in asana and pranayama practice - through hard and soft, up and down, comfortable and uncomfortable - the skill of paying attention slowly trickles down to permeate all the constantly changing aspects of life

EVENING KEYNOTE

Coming Soon.