WHEN: Saturday, December 4th
TIME: 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM (or a bit after…)
WHERE: Pranayoga: A Little Breathing Room (Next to Virgil’s Pizza)
1001 West 6th Street, Erie, Pennsylvania
WHAT: The (Un)bearable Lightness of Being: MOVING METTA
BRING: Pen, paper, water, anything that comforts you (blanket, crystals…)
NOTE: PLEASE BRING A SMALL CANDLE IN A CONTAINER.
REGISTRATION: $40 (If this is difficult for ANY REASON, please contact me and we’ll work something out.)
There are limited spaces available so please register as soon as you are able.
Also Note: this is a MOVEMENT workshop. It’s neither dance nor yoga. We’ll be using a lot of natural, primal movement, and very simple movement prompts supported by music.
WHAT THE HECK IS METTA?!?!
Very likely, you don’t know that I spent a lot of years studying Buddhism. I even helped bring a western Lama to Erie for the first time so many years ago.
I haven’t been studying it since I found Tantra Yoga but wow… they are related big time.
And after Peony’s death, it was actually Tibetan Buddhism that helped me in those initial dark hours, so perhaps I’ve started up again.
Regardless… metta… ((FOCUS!!))
Metta means loving kindness, goodwill, benevolence… It’s one of those concepts that doesn’t just have a one to one word translation equivalent in English.
Metta meditation is a way to turn our hearts toward loving kindness. We can aim that at ourselves or others. Ideally, both.
It’s a meditation that comes with scripts, like the one in that meme right there. But there are a lot of variations.
HOW WILL WE MOVE METTA??!?!
We will be bringing the ideas of metta to our movement practice. That might be the more correct way to look at it. Though I think it also works to think of moving the metta itself.
This idea came to me at least a year ago.
But I wasn’t sure exactly what it all meant.
Then Peony died and I renamed my movement arts practices after her.
Even before her death, though, the idea of delicacy and gentleness had started entering my teacher vocabulary in new and kinda (to this teacher) startling ways.
I mean, I’ve always been pretty… assertive in my practices.
But then when Peony passed, something really truly surprising happened.
I got softer. I wasn’t expecting that, though many around me would say it had been happening especially since I met Craig and started to live a life in which I felt so very safe.
But what will we DO?!
Sorry… there’s so much to cover!
We’ll be learning a bit more about metta itself and its place in the four Buddhist immeasurables (and what the heck they are).
THEN we’ll start to explore moving in ways that are consistent with those ideas. This movement won’t look like DANCE so don’t be afraid. It will even include simple things like super slow walking.
We’ll then increase the reach of the ideas by working in partnerships and as a group.
As usual with my work, there will be a BIG emphasis on breath, and we’ll be creating ritual together. Duh… that’s what all my stuff comes to. ((ha))
If you still have questions, as always, just ask.