The Dance of Forgiveness: Empowerment through Letting Go of Pain

Buddhist Studies
Series co-taught with Anya Porter, yogi/Buddhist/dancer extraordinaire!

What does it mean to forgive or to ask for forgiveness and how can these actions empower us and bring deep healing to our lives and the lives of others? Forgiveness is a practice and offering in many spiritual traditions, enabling us to move forward from the past, and to disengage in retribution, allowing the harm and violence that we have been dealt to stop with us; to do the work we need to do in order to not “pay it forward”. In this four-week series, we will explore the tender, complex, and ultimately liberating dance of grace and letting go in the three traditional paths or Yanas of Buddhist philosophy. Each week includes meditation, discussion and engaged activities to shine light on ways in which we can work with forgiveness.

Self-forgiveness and the Individual Path of Liberation.
We can often be the most judgmental and aggressive toward ourselves, resulting in resentment, shame and doubt in our intrinsic value. We start with ourselves, looking compassionately at the ways in which we have inflicted pain upon ourselves (including externally visible self-destructive behaviors or addictions, or the more internal and perhaps more subtle ways in which we simply do not treat ourselves kindly). Using methods in which we can shine the light of awareness on our own self-aggression and shame, we will work with the possibility of forgiveness of self as a path of personal liberation.

Weeks 2 and 3: The Path of the Compassionate Warrior

Asking For Forgiveness.
In the Mahayana or Compassionate Warrior’s path, we seek to heal our relationships with others in order to relieve mutual pain. We too have hurt people, and we have also been hurt, it is a part of the human condition. Asking for forgiveness is a powerfully liberating practice that allows us to heal old wounds in relationships and within ourselves, acknowledging the ways in which we have harmed others, sitting with that pain, and seeking forgiveness by skillfully engaging with those we have hurt. Within this session, we will also explore the differences between asking for forgiveness and apologizing.

Forgiving Others.
Perhaps one of the most difficult of all aspects of forgiveness, forgiving others who have hurt us, is another tool through which we can empower and liberate our relationships, as well as ourselves. Through this process, we can contemplate being with, and then letting go of resentment and anger, thus making room for the possibility of love and acceptance. In this session, special attention will be given to making space for pain and anger, and creating healthy boundaries with those we forgive.

Universal Forgiveness and the Indestructible Path.
What would it look like to work with forgiving the First Noble Truth, or the truth that suffering exists in the world? In the Vajrayana, or Indestructible path, there is a possibility that we can actually embrace that which causes pain as yet another avenue to awakening. Perhaps this world is not how we would have constructed it to be, and it contains discomfort, pain, and trauma, but is it possible to move towards the world, towards all beings, out of a more spacious understanding of the First Noble Truth? How can we relate to the reality that suffering permeates the human condition and how might we find the silver lining of this truth in order to heal our relationship with pain itself?

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Metta on the Mat 

This is a lovingkindness yoga practice to tune-up your loving! Beginning with a reading of the Metta Sutra, this workshop will involve Metta meditation, asana, discussion, and journaling. We will examine the incessant thought-patterns that diminish and demean ourselves and others, and consider whether these patterns are working for us. We will discuss the hindrances to practicing lovingkindness, or what comes up when we do (loving is hard work!). We will explore what it means to put lovingkindness into practice in our yoga postures, learning how to create ease and grace with each movement and in each moment of stillness. And we will sit with the full contents of our hearts, and learn how to hold our relationships and ourselves with softness and openness.

New Year’s Transition: clearing and growth 

Come to this yoga workshop that will involve vinyasa yoga practice, meditation, journaling, herbal tea to cleanse and nourish, and discussion. Take this time to think about your last year, how you have lived in alignment with who you want to be in the world. We will also take time to recognize and speak to the times when we each haven’t been in alignment with our truth, with compassion, patience, forgiveness, and other elements of our practice. We will sweat out the last year and make space for the year to come.

Please bring a journal and a mug for tea.

Gratitude Practice on Thanksgiving Day 

Before the feast, before the family, join for a yogic practice of giving thanks.

This is a practice that honors who we are, the blessings that have been bestowed upon us, and connecting us with all of life around us, without separation. To begin class, we will honor the people that originally inhabited Brooklyn, acknowledging the complicated history that underlies this holiday. We will confront jealousy with the warm practice of gratitude, creating a sense this morning that we all are, and we all have, enough. Come to this Thanksgiving Day class to connect with yourself and your deepest wisdom, joining with others on the path. This open-level class will involve asana, meditation, and breath work for yogis of all ages, all capacities.

Come and give thanks.

Queer and Trans Yoga 

Queer and Trans Yoga is a playful and nourishing yoga class specifically for the LGBT community that leaves heterosexism and transphobia outside the classroom and allows for you to be fully present and embodied. This class also recognizes the way that society’s homophobia, misogyny, and gender binary occupies our hearts and bodies, and that we need a safe space to be with that pain in order to dissolve and transform it. This class builds and celebrates community as we create space for each other and all of our different bodies and genders. This is a yoga class to bring your whole queer self to-your tears, your snaps, your winks, your laughter.

Blissful Boo: Partner Yoga 

This workshop is specifically designed for couples – partners, friends, boyfriends, buddies, siblings, and girlfriends, who want to explore new ways of practicing together.

This workshop will involve grounding yourself, and then turning toward your partner. Lezlie and Jacoby with guide you in a series of flows that will help cultivate receptivity and mutual support in your partnership. We will practice meditations, postures, and give each other massages and adjustments. Both partners will have an opportunity to give and receive during the session, and will be guided through the sequence step-by-step.

No prior yoga or massage experience necessary. Comfortable clothes recommended. Bring your partner, or a dear friend.

Yoga for Survivors 

The intention of this class for survivors of sexual or physical trauma, violence, and abuse is to invite ourselves back into our bodies and hearts, which may have become dangerous or undesirable places due to trauma. Building trust together, we will move into any emotions or thoughts that arise, using the tools of posture, meditation, and breath to explore the possibility of healing.