CYNDI LEE & DAVID NICHTERN
(www.omyoga.com)

Cyndi Lee is the founder of  OM yoga with centers in New York City and East Hampton, NY.  Her first yoga class was in college in 1972.  After completing her graduate thesis on Women, Spirituality and Indian Dance at UC, Irvine,  Cyndi arrived in New York as a recipient of an Art History Fellowship to the Whitney Museum of American Art and began teaching yoga in Greenwich Village.  Shortly thereafter, Cyndi became a fixture in NYC’s downtown modern dance scene, choreographing and performing primarily in XXY Dance/Music and Cyndi Lee Dance Company/Big Moves, Inc. Cyndi also choreographed over 20 music videos for Rick James, Simple Minds, Appolonia, Dirty Dancing soundtrack, and many more including Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which won the 1983 MTV Best Female Video of the Year award.

After meeting her root guru, Gelek Rinpoche, in the late 1980s, Cyndi’s practice of yoga and Buddhism merged with her choreography.  In 1994, "Dharma Dances" was her last concert, which featured Allen Ginsberg singing his own songs and accompanying himself on harmonium. 

Cyndi began OM yoga in 1998.  As well as teaching classes and teacher trainings at home, she is frequently invited to teach worldwide – everywhere from Berlin to Memphis, Costa Rica to Canada, Utah to the Turks and Caicos.  Cyndi is the author and artist of Yoga Body, Buddha Mind; OM yoga, A Guide to Daily Practice; OM yoga Today; OM at Home, A Yoga Journal; and the OM yoga in a Box series and a contributor to the Kripalu book Will Yoga and Meditation Change My Life?  Other current projects include the OM yoga Mix CD series and the OM yoga DVD series.  Cyndi has written for Tricycle, Dance Magazine, BalletTanz, Cooking Light, SpaFinder and the yoga column in the Shambhala Sun from 2000-2003.  She currently writes the Vinyasa/Home Practice column for Yoga Journal magazine.

David Nichtern is a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior), Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche (Turning the Mind Into an Ally) and Pema Chodron (The Wisdom of No Escape).  David is Director of Buddhist Studies and Practice at OM Yoga Center and leads joint yoga/meditation retreats with Cyndi Lee around the world. He is a former director of Karme Choling Meditation Center in Vermont and is currently Director of Expansion for Shambhala Training International, a program directed toward the interweaving of spiritual practice and "real" life.  In his "real" life, David is the founder of Dharma Moon records, a Grammy/Emmy award winning composer/guitarist/producer, and creator of the hit song "Midnight at the Oasis". He is also co-founder of the world/fusion band Drala, which is widely known in the yoga community.

WEEKLONG INTENSIVE

Yoga Body, Buddha Mind: Joining Heaven and Earth

Heaven refers to the mind realm and earth to the body realm.  The quality of heaven is vastness, open possibilities, imagination, unobstructed vision, and earth is related to practicality, method, details, obstacles, and being grounded.  Joining Heaven and Earth is the essence of enlightenment and it can happen on both an individual level by synchronizing mind and body, and a societal level by harmonizing our vision and our ability to manifest.  

Synchronizing mind and body is the Buddhist notion of freedom.  One of the obstacles is the confusion that occurs when the mind and body are in two different places, such as when we have either a painful notion of where we are or when we are grasping after an idealized notion of how we wish we were.  Freedom is the release of these notions and the ability to coordinate mind and body, heaven and earth, no matter where we are or what we are doing.

Daily classes will include meditation instruction and practice, both sitting and walking, to develop stability of attention, friendly attitude toward oneself and the entire situation, patience, and confidence.

We will incorporate meditative awareness and curiosity into our yoga practice which cultivates physical strength and fluidity, balance, sensitivity, playfulness and daring.  

Cultivating stability in the mind and vitality in the body can be a powerful first step on the path to freedom.  Each day’s dharma talk will offer a progression of approaches -- not too tight, not too loose; dynamic equanimity; making friends with yourself --  to fully develop those qualities and  give you reference points for taking them into your home and workplace.

TRACK 1

Awakened Union

Let the multiple layers of practice unfold as we wake up to the wholeness of body, breath and mind.  Through pranayama, meditation and some light asanas we will both create the conditions for opening to happen and cultivate a strong container for whatever arises today.

TRACK 2

Mindful Body: Opening Even When It’s Scary

A full-on vinyasa class that moves in all directions with clarity and mindfulness .   Explore the relationship between your mental thought habits and your sensory experience of asanas even while approaching poses that might be scary or unknown.  Let the refuge of breath, intelligence of alignment and a little dash of courage be the combo platter that leads you to a new experience of yoga!

TRACK 3

Juicy OM

Outrageousness, curiosity, fun and smarts are the ground for unusual yet logical vinyasa sequencing that help develop understanding of the interconnections of asanas.  We will cultivate a sense of meditative awareness within big, sweaty movements as they evolve from small movement seeds; sitting to standing to flowing to turning upside down and inside out and the bravest of all, letting go and resting with things as they are.

KEYNOTE

Joining Heaven and Earth

Joining Heaven and Earth is the path to connecting our vision with our actual manifestation.  In a festival of impermanence we can develop the confidence to ride each moment with open heart, clear mind and a strong body.  The Buddhist path offers a variety of skillful means to develop a deeper understanding of things as they are, while our yoga practice can give us the sensuous experiences that keep us grounded and immediate.  The talk will be an interweaving of these two disciplines and how they can work together to bring greater freedom, clarity and a sense of celebration into our ordinary lives.