Latest / Vox Novus with Victor Fuhrman / Radha Metro-Midkiff - The Healing Power of Chanting and Mantra

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Radha Metro-Midkiff - The Healing Power of Chanting and Mantra · Vox Novus with Victor Fuhrman

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Vox Novus, the New Voice, Vox Novus, the new Dimension. Vox
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Novus thought and movement leaders who will share from their experience and offer tools to
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help us navigate our rapidly changing world. My name is Victor Ferman. Welcome
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to Vox Novas, the New Voice. Many of us practice Hafa yoga combined
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with meditation. For some, the practice includes the chanting of mantras. How
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may chanting and mantras improve both our spiritual and emotional health. My guest this
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week on Vax Novus, Rata Metro Midkiff, is the executive director for the
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Integral Yoga Institute of New York. She embodies a lifetime of rich and diverse
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experience in both the realms of yoga and business. Her upbringing in yoga began
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at an early age, having been raised under the tutelage of Shri Swamy Sachadananda
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at Yogaville. At the young age of eighteen, Rata was already certified as
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both a Hafa Yoga and Raja Yoga instructor. Furthermore, she was among a
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select group of four individuals to receive the direct blessings of Dharma confirmation from Swamy
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Sachadananda, a rare and highly coveted honor. The website for the Integral Yoga
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Institute of New York is i yi ny dot org, and Rata joins me
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this week to share her path, wisdom and the healing power of chanting and
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mantra. Please join me in welcoming to box Novis Rata Metro Midkiff, Welcome,
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Rata. Yeah, thank you so much, Victor for having me.
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Wonderful to have you with us today. And we're going to be talking about
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all the wonderful work that you and Integral Yoga and Yoga will do. So
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let's begin by sharing with us your early life and upbringing with your five siblings
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by your parents Integral Yoga ministers Baga Van and Beavani Metro. Okay, so
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I haven't a great fortune of having parents that really get interested in yoga.
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Early on, they started meditating actually with Eknatha Sharin and wanted to join his
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community out in California, and he said no, no, I'm not your
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guru, I'm not your teacher. Keep looking. They were a little devastated,
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but within about a year they came across a lecture by Swami Sacha Ananda
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and it completely changed their lives. So at that time I was about one
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year old, and my parents by that time we're vegetarian and again meditating and
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doing yoga. But really the moment me and my old their siblings met Swami
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Sachadananda, it was like love at first sight. He put us on his
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lap, and I have these incredible, incredible photos of me really early on
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sitting on the lap of this really amazing teacher. Grew person who really changed
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the face of yoga and interfaith work in the United States and really in the
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West. So my parents got so excited about this in the community and the
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way that particularly treated their children that they decided they wanted to move to the
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ashram in Connecticut, where there is a yoga school or was a yoga school.
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They really felt passionate about their children being able to be raised in the
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yoga school. At that time, there were maybe maybe two three yoga schools
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at the most in the United States, and we had one through intergra Yoga.
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So we moved to Connecticut and I started school there at six years old,
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and then we ended up moving to Virginia where the Yogaville Ashram was founded
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and where we you know, built the whole community, and I continued on
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in school there through high school and graduated from the Yogaville Fidelian there. So
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I had twelve years a very intensive daily training in yoga and yoga practices everything
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from you know, even at the time we were sex, we were meditating
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and doing the yoga postures and chanting and learning these ancient slokas every single day.
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And as we got older, they really they really delved into they really
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developed a way where they could teach us deeper and deeper interpretations of the teachings
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of yoga. So you know, obviously what I was learning at six was
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very different than what I was absorbing at sixteen, so it was very experimental.
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Swami Sacha Denanda was very hands on in our training, and Rabbi Gelberman
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we were talking a little bit before the show about the work that they did
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together. And so we got this opportunity to have all of these great leaders
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and spiritual masters and gurus and teachers from all around the world come to visit
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Yogaville and ce us in school. So it's not even that I've just got
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to be exposed to this wonderful experience with Swami Sata Denanda. But really so
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many amazing, really extraordinary teachers that were around, particularly in the eighties and
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nineties. And you had mentioned our pre conversation about Rabbi Gelberman. Rabbi Gelderman
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for those who listeners who do not know, was founder of the New Seminary
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of New York, along with Swami Sata Denanda and many interfaith luminaries, the
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first interfaith seminary in the world. Actually, And one of the things that
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I recall is there's a wonderful video of Rabbi Galberman and Swamy Sachadda at Yogaville.
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It's called the Swami and the Rabbi. For those who'd like to see
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that, it's on YouTube. You can find it on YouTube. It's just
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a wonderful The exchange between the two men's just absolutely breathtaking and beautiful. So
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please share with us some of the early recollections of your learnings with Swamy Sachadananda.
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So, you know, it's interesting, there's a much different experience that
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our parents had as opposed to what we had as children. I feel like
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our parents were already they sort of developed, and so they needed a different
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kind of teaching and discipline and we needed as kids. So Swami Sachadananda really
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just he taught us by demonstrating how he lives and how I should say lived.
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I guess how he lived, how he interact acted with everything around him.
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He taught us that every single object has an energy, and we are
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one with everything in the universe. So even if you had a notebook,
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you don't want to slam your notebook down on your table. You want to
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gently put the notebook down because there is energy and source and creation and everything
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around us. And so the way that we treat anything is you know,
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indicative of how we treat everything. So that was one of the first sort
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of lessons and memories that I have, is really just how to walk through
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our life having great respect and honoring not just living creatures but also inanimate objects
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and everything he would do, from the way he would walk and move through
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a space to the way he would take off a shoe where he would eat,
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always felt so intentional and careful. Now I am not nearly to the
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point where he was. I saw if you saw my desk, you would
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know that I'm not nearly at the point where he is. But it was
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a great foundation for understanding that there is no separation between me and everything around
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me, And I think that was one of the most powerful early lessons that
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I learned from him. You mentioned going to school at Yogaville and learning meditation
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and hafa yoga when you were very young. How else did the teaching of
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Yogaville differ from a traditional high school or school experience. Oh, that's a
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great question. So one of the things that they were very intentional about was
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framing everything that we were doing to integrate the Yogic teachings, like the teachings
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of the yoga sutras, and so it didn't matter whether we were learning math
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or we were learning reading or write. So even when we were writing,
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often as we were learning how to write, we weren't just writing letters.
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We were often writing mantras, right, which is like a form of liquet
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jappa that's taught in yoga. If we were, you know, learning math,
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they would use some sort of practical application and talk to us about the
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numbers but also the care right, So everything was integrated in Like you know,
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if you just submitted like a messy, messy assignment, they'd be like,
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no, that wasn't done with care and thought and intention, So go
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back and let's rewrite it in a way that is very thoughtful. And so
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everything that we were taught, we still had to do like the traditional classes
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that you would do in any school, but it was all taught with this
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underlying awareness that yo is not something you do on a mat. Yoga is
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something that you live and breathe every single day of your life and how you
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interact with everything and everyone around you. So even when we would read stories,
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like when we were young, we would cook our own lunch, so
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we had brown rice tofu and broccoli like every single day for lunch. So
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at that time, we had a mono diet and we would cook our lunch
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and then we'd eat lunch, and then after lunch we'd have like a little
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rest period. Well during the rest period, they would read us the Mahabarata
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or the Ramayana or these ancient you know texts of stories, or they'd read
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us about the life of Buddha or you know, Durananak or whatever it was.
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So everything that we did throughout the day came back to the same idea
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of how do we integrate and teach them about yoga. And then of course,
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you know, both Webbi Gelberman and SwMI sacha Ananda we're very dedicated to
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inter faith work, so it was also important to them that we were learning
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about all the major world religions. And at first it was just like you
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know, when we were little, we'd maybe draw a picture that represented something
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of that religion. But as we got older, we would delve deeper and
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deeper, and then we'd write book reports about different things. And so by
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the time I was in high school, we were really in depth studying and
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discussing, you know, these ancient texts from all around the world. Absolutely,
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her listeners who may be unaware of Swami and his legacy, please tell
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us about his life and founding of both Integral Yoga and Yoga Bill. So
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he started off in India. He actually had a pretty normal life. He
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grew up in a very spiritual family. But he got married and he had
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two children, and then the story goes that his wife either left him or
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died somehow. In the Indian culture, it's unclear which one actually happened,
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because if he left, she left, he would they would have considered her
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dead. So the story was always that she died and then later on it
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came to light, but maybe there was a little bit more complexity either way.
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At this point in his life, it was a huge It had a
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huge impact on him and he realized that this life and this path that he
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was going along, like he worked in the movies, and he'd worked in
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manufacturing and automobiles, and he just realized that there was like no point kind
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of he got to that awareness that life is suffering. And so he went
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on this incredible journey to study with masters all around India, great gurus and
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teachers, and pretty much most of the great teachers, especially in the earlier
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part of the century, like twenties, thirties, forties, he had an
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opportunity to go study with and so after he traveled around, he also went
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up to the Himalayas, and that's where he had what we considered to be
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his self realization. And self realization is really, or somebody is this awareness
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that you are one with the universe and your peace is inside of you and
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nothing can ever disturb that peace, and you just are able to operate and
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move through the world. And many of the great teachers and groups that we
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have from the West, we consider to have achieved that state of somebody.
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So then he's still traveling around studying with all these teachers and he finds Master
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Shivenanda and that is where he takes sennas, which is sort of for those
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of you who don't know, it's sort of like becoming a priest or a
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nun. So he took thous of you know, siennas with Master Shivenanda,
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so we actually consider our lineage to be through Master Shivenanda. However, he
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was definitely influenced by the different places he traveled and the people he studied with,
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as well as of the texts. He was from southern India. Master
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Shivnanda was from northern India, so things like the Tudu Good all Tumil text
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like that he was definitely influenced by. So he works, he goes to
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his Divine Life society and he's with Master Shivenada, but not even for that
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long. I think he was only with Master Shivenanda maybe five or six years
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at the most. And Master Shivananda starts sending him around because he's a great
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speaker and he's very dynamic. And as he's traveling, he ends up in
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Hong Kong, where he meets this filmmaker Conrad Brooks, and Conrad Brooks his
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buddies with Peter Max, the artist, and they come up with this idea
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that they need to get Swami Sachanananda to come to New York. So he
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comes to New York City just for a visit to visit, and they get
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together this huge group of people and the story goes, you know, the
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I don't know what a spiritual teacher is or anything like that, and so
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the story goes they're all just sitting around, like smoking cigarettes, lounging around,
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blowing smoke in his face, being like, hey, Swami, tell
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us about this yoga. But he makes such a huge impact on them that
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they begged him to stay in the United States. So he ends up staying
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much longer than he expected in New York. He goes home just for me
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maybe a few months, and then he comes back and basically he doesn't leave.
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They say, you know, New York, the West Americans, we
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really really really need these teachings that you're offering. So he ends up initially
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thinking it was just going to sort of be a extension of a Javan Life
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society center, but then pretty early on it becomes aware that in order to
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teach in the West, he was going to have to shift a little bit
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in the way that he was teaching, and so he ended up founding Introgo
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Yoga and Introgo Yoga. Really what makes it unique is we are not just
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an asina based practice. We actually practice all different branches of yoga. So
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we practice Hatha yoga which is the physical postures, Joppa yoga which is repetition
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of mantras, Bata yoga, which is really the like the worship of the
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divine or opening up your heart to be your connection with a higher source.
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We practice Yana yoga, which is the analytical yoga, really analyzing your mind
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and your thoughts and asking who am I. We also practice Raja yoga,
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which is the study of yoga in a more in depth way, and often
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that is through the yoga sutures of Patanjali, which Swami Sachitanda did a interpretation
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and commentary on the yoga sitras of Patanjali, which is still the most used
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book to teach raja yoga out of any book in the world still. And
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then so we have this like really integrated way of teaching yoga and really going
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back to the ancient science of yoga and realizing again it is not something you
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just practice on a mat like an hour day. It is something that you
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can weave into your daily life every single day. So then when he gets
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to the West, he starts meeting beautiful people like Rabbi Gelberman and brother David
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standel Rast and they start really having a passion and I would say they were
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very passionate about this of bringing people together in the name of religion as opposed
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to breaking people apart in the name of religion. And I suspect that Swami
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sacha Ananda having come from India at a time when you know, Seeks were
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fighting Hindus and Muslims and and Jane's were trying to figure out what to do,
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and you had all of these different religions that were shoved into a small
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space, and there was a lot of killing, even over religion. And
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he felt very passionately that we needed to shift that dynamic. So we first
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started an institute in New York. That's the one that we are currently still
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in and I'm talking to you from that institute on Thirteenth Street. We've been
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here since nineteen seventy and then we founded an asham in Connecticut that then moved
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to Virginia in Yogaville. And when we got to Yogaville in Virginia, we
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started work on the Lotus Temple. And the Lotus Temple is literally this temple
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you can google and it's really amazing. It's a temple that looks like a
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lotus flower. We have one in Virginia now we also have one in southern
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India. And inside the temple, on the first level, you have all
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of these cabinets that you can go look at. It's almost like a museum,
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and there's artifacts from each of the major religions and you really see the
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diversity and the differences in the religions. And then when you go upstairs,
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there's this beautiful meditation space where there's an altar with a quote about the light
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for each of the major religions. And then in the center is this beautiful
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light that bubbles up to the ceiling and branches out to all the altars.
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So that was really one of his main legacies was living leaving us this work
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that he did in inter faith. He was awarded the Utant Piece Award just
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before he passed away. That's award that's given out by the un for his
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piece work, and the lotus really is one of his main legacies in the
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interfaith work that we continue to do in his name and in the name of
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interroo yoga. Absolutely, we're going to be talking more about the various forms
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of yoga in our next segment, but just define a few terms right now.
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What is the root and meaning of Swammy's spiritual name? Said Ananda?
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Ah, that should ananda? Yes, So it actually means truth, knowledge,
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bliss. So if you hear a nanda, many Swammies have Ananda at
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the end of their name, and that actually means bliss. And so it
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is this blissful path of being a Swammy renouncing everything you so that you can
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achieve bliss. And the word Swammy itself. How would we compare that to
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other religious titles. It would be like father if you were thinking about like
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a Christian religion, so you would have you know, father, so and
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so in Catholicism, you would have rabbi right in Judaism. So it really
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is just a title for someone who has become a nunciate and taken on the
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vows of being a Swami. My guest is Rata Metro Midkiff, the executive
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director for the Integral Yoga Institute of New York. Rata, please share with
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our listeners where they can find out more about the institute and all that you
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offer. Oh wonderful. So our website is I why I in y dot
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org that stands for Integral Yoga Institute, New York. So I why i
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iny dot org and you can look us up. We have lots of online
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and in person offerings. And then Yogaville dot org is the site for our
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center down in Yogaville, where we have many different retreats and offerings and where
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you can also go visit the Lotus Temple. And my dear friend Ahamsa Judy
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Spagnola teaches cheer yoga for seniors by remote. Yes she does, and she's
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actually about ready to do a teacher training in adaptive yoga. So if you
22:03
have any yoga teachers listening, Baker look into that as well and come train
22:07
with Hompsa. Absolutely we'll be back with more of Rata after these words.
22:11
On the om Times Radio Network, the best of the holistic, spiritual and
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box Nobus. My guests this week is Rata Metro Midkiff, the executive director
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for the Integral Yoga Institute of New York. Rata, let's talk about some
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more Sanskrit words and their definitions as it applies to what we're talking about here
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today. Please tell us about the origin of the word chakras and share with
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our listeners a little about each of them and how they come to play on
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physical, mental, and spiritual levels. Oh my gosh, okay. So
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chakra and Sanskrit means real and it refers to like these different energy points that
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we have in our body. We have seven of them throughout our body,
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and the idea is that they're these sort of like almost like spinning disks of
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energy. They each have certain qualities to them that they hold. So if
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you go through the different chakras, we start with like the base chakra,
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and the base chakra is really at the it's literally called the root chakra,
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and it's all about like your security, your stability, your feeling of you
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know, you know, like Maslow's hierarchy of needs. I'm sure many people
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are familiar with that. It's sort of that base level of like do I
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have food, do I have a you know, shelter over my head?
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Can I pay my bills? All that stuff happens in your root chakra.
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Now, each of these chakras also have colors that are associated with them,
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and that's kind of important because as you get into things like color therapy,
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you start to recognize that utilizing different colors can help also balancing the chakras.
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So the next one, usual saycle chakra is just sort of a below the
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belly button and above the pubic bone, and this one is orange, and
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it's all about creativity, pleasure, obviously your sexuality. It's right there where
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all of those organs live. And this one also is is about your creativity,
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right, So if you're feeling like you're blocked creatively, this is a
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really important one to focus on because sexuality and creativity are so intermingled. That
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is sort of like some of the roots of tantra yoga is like this idea
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that you have to have this balance in that area in order to be able
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to fully express yourself. Then we have the solar practice chakra. This is
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one of my favorite. This one is yellow and it's in your upper abdomen
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or your stomach area, and it is really about self esteem and confidence.
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So often this is you know how people say, I have this feeling in
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my gut. That's your solar plexus chakra. And so you know, if
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you're feeling like you don't you don't know what's going on, or you can't
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make a decision, or you're really feeling stuck in something, then probably you
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need to do some work and clearing this particular chakra. Or one thing that
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comes up is is imposter syndrome. So many people suffer with imposter syndrome.
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Now, and your solar plexus chakra is so important for just clearing that out
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and saying I am confident, I am good enough all of those things.
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Then we have the heart chakra. Now in yoga we tend to try to
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operate mostly in the higher chakras. These lower chakras are important, but they're
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considered like the more base chakras, So they're the ones that are just like,
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Okay, this is survival techniques, right, like I just need to
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survive on this planet, in this world. The upper chakras are the ones
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that connect us with a more spiritual, divine energy. So the heart chakra
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is green. I always thought that was interesting, right. We always think
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of like red and pink or things like that with the heart, but actually
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that chakra is green in color, and it's really about love and compassion,
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opening your heart to people, being able to be I think really like open,
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authentic, and vulnerable. Your vulnerability definitely often happens from the heart chakra
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because our tendency is to contract and protect that area. We're so vulnerable in
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our heart, both emotionally and physically, so part of it is really opening
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that up and allowing that vulnerability to thrive. Then we have our throat chakra.
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It is located at the base of your throat and it's blue, and
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this is really about communication. This one, in my experience, gets blocked
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up more than almost anything. If you ever find yourself having a sore throat
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or something scratchy, or you just feel like a tightness in your throat,
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probably you are not speaking your truth. And it is incredibly import that we
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use our voices and we speak and be authentic about who we are. So
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anything that you feel like stuck in your throat, sometimes people their neck will
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go out. All sorts of things can happen because you're not clearing out that
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energy in your throat chakra. Then we have our third eye chakra. This
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is really between the eyes on your forehead, and it is really about intuition.
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Imagination is where we really start to connect with divine energy, and focusing
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on your third eye chakra when you're meditating can be a really powerful meditation of
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really just opening yourself up to the awareness of what is around you and having
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that really ability to tap into your intuition. Then we have the crown chakra,
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and this is at the top of the head. This is almost like
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a violet color, and it's about your awareness and intelligence and our direct connection
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to divine energy in the universe. So often there's many meditations that you do
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where you literally imagine bright white energy coming from the sky and coming down in
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through the crown chakra and through your entire body, and that can that meditation
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in it and of itself can be very cleansing and balancing in making sure that
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all your chakras stay really centered. So that is that's a brief overview of
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all the chakras and what they can do. But they're very important in yoga
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too, because again, so much of yoga is about balancing and opening up
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these chakras. So every pose we do, every chance we do, every
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practice we do. Even though in integral yoga we don't tend to focus on
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the chakras so much, every single thing we do has an effect on the
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chakras. So let's talk a little bit about some of the forms of yoga.
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First of all, most people are familiar with Hafa yoga, but there
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are many forms. What does yoga itself mean and how does it manifest in
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hafa yoga? So yoga itself means union. And it's very interesting that we're
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talking about this because one of the swamis that lives here at the Institute,
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Swamiya Yoga Nanda is also on the board of Yoga Alliance, and one of
30:26
the things that Yoga Alliance is really looking at now is what is yoga.
30:30
So up until now in the West, we've usually defined yoga, which means
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union as hafa yoga or the asana practice. Now, also in the West,
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they don't want people to get confused because there are people who use hatha
30:47
as a style of yoga. But Hafa is actually the word. It means
30:52
sun moon balancing the sun and the moon energies. Hafa is actually what we
30:56
refer to as all of the asana or the physical practices that people usually associate
31:03
with yoga. But actually Hafa is the term that is used in the ancient
31:08
scriptures like the Hatha Yoga Prodizica, that actually talk about the physical pastors and
31:14
how we do them and how does Hatha yoga prepare us for meditation m M.
31:19
Hatha yoga is literally developed basically only to prepare us for meditation. So
31:27
people think haffi yoga so you feel really like good in your body, or
31:30
you have more energy, you balance all this stuff out. But traditionally,
31:33
the whole entire purpose of Hatha yoga was so that we can sit comfortably in
31:40
our bodies for long periods of time and meditate and the extension of that if
31:47
the only purpose of meditation is so that we gain some sort of sense of
31:52
peace and quietness in our mind, so that we can get up off of
31:56
the meditation pillow and go out and serve in the world. So really the
32:00
ultimate goal in yoga is to be of service. But we need to do
32:05
the physical postures so that our body is healthy, neutral, strong enough to
32:10
sit in meditation. Then we need to do the meditation to work on our
32:15
mind and our peace so that when we go out and we interact in the
32:19
world nothing disturbs us. We are physically comfortable, strong, capable, healthy,
32:25
We are mentally peaceful, peaceful, kind to others because we don't have
32:31
any rowdy negative thoughts swirling around in our brain. Instead, when that stuff
32:37
comes up, we're able to just quiet it down and be peaceful, and
32:40
then we can go out and search humanity. Now, the opposite of getting
32:45
up off the pillow is yoga nidra. A front of mine teaches and practices
32:49
this. Please tell us about yoga nidra. Yeah, so, yoga nidra
32:52
is really important. We actually practice yoga neidra in our hatha practice itself,
32:58
so we believe that you know when you do a certain pose, you have
33:01
to come back into a state of neutrality. So we actually do like a
33:06
form of savasana or like a little miniature, you know, relaxation in between
33:12
each pose. But then at the end of the class we do yoga needra.
33:15
The importance of yoga needra and I really love this because it's almost like
33:20
also the meditation preparation. But in intogo yoga, the whole purpose of your
33:25
halfa class is so that you get into yoga nidra. And in yoga nedra,
33:30
we have a practice where we tense and relax all the muscles in the
33:35
body. Right, we start with the body and we tend to relax everything
33:38
until our bodies are completely in a state of relaxation. Then we observe the
33:44
breath, and observing the breath brings you into a state of mindfulness and the
33:47
present moment, you cannot watch the breath and be mindful of the breath and
33:52
be thinking of something else because the breath happens in real time, so it's
33:57
the quickest and fastest way to get into a state of mindfulness. Then we
34:00
forget about the breath and then we observe the thoughts, so we're not interacting
34:06
with the thoughts. We're not trying to control them, We're just letting them
34:07
pass by and just realizing that we have no attachment to them. They are
34:12
not who we are. They are just something that's like happening in our brain.
34:16
And then we forget about the thoughts and for a few, usually brief
34:22
moments, because very few of us are able to stay in this the space
34:27
long term. But for these few brief moments, we've forgotten about the body,
34:32
We've forgotten about the breath, we've forgotten about the mind, and we
34:36
are able to just experience our own true peace and that inner silence that exists
34:43
within us all the time. But because of all the what we call it
34:51
gritties, like these noisy thoughts or you know, the breath, you know
34:55
being ragged, or our body is being uncomfortable, we are not able to
35:00
experience this piece as we walk through the world. And so yoga nidra is
35:05
really important for us to be able to get to that place where we can
35:08
experience our true selves, our true peace, and our own in our nature.
35:15
Yoga offers a form called the Four Paths to Enlightenment. You touched upon
35:20
these briefly earlier. What are karma yoga, baka yoga, raja yoga,
35:24
and yama yoga. Yeah, so karma yoga. I don't think I talked
35:30
about karma yoga, which is hilarious because I've been talking about karma yoga as
35:36
I explained the purpose of yoga. So, karma yoga is selfless service.
35:44
Karma yoga is literally serving the world with no expectation from for any return,
35:52
now to thank you, to appreciation, not even an acknowledgement of the service
36:00
that you're doing. And karma yoga is a very important part of our path
36:04
and the path of yoga because as we go through life, you know,
36:09
we have certain actions that we take. Maybe we get angry at somebody,
36:15
Maybe we you know, accidentally this is this is gruesome. But maybe we
36:22
run over an animal while we're driving or whatever it is, any of these
36:27
negative things that we create. Karma is the idea that you have an equal
36:30
and opposite reaction for every single or an equal reaction to everything that you do.
36:36
So as we go through life and we can accumulate what we you know,
36:40
like to think of those good karma and bad karma. There is no
36:44
good karma. Bad karma there's just karma. But for the purposes of this
36:47
example, as we do karma yoga and the selfless service, it is literally
36:52
a way for us to clear out and neutralize anything that we have done in
36:57
the past, but it has to be done again with this awareness of I
37:01
am expecting nothing in return, I am just here to serve. And one
37:06
thing that's kind of unique to Integral Yoga Institute is we actually don't pay our
37:09
teachers. Our teachers all teach for free as a practice of karma yoga,
37:17
and so it's really beautiful and I do think that it affects the quality and
37:22
the nature of the teach the classes that you come to because they are doing
37:27
it just out of this love of service and that really comes through when you're
37:31
in the class. So then we have Bakta yoga, and Bakta yoga again
37:37
is the path of heart opening. So as we were talking about that heart
37:39
chakra, we want to just come into this state of love awareness. Bakta
37:45
yoga often comes with things like rituals. We might do a puja, which
37:51
is a worship service, or in other traditions it could be seen as you
37:54
know, any kind of ritual that you do that is meant to connect you
38:00
with a higher source and open up in that love space. Also, Bukta
38:05
yoga often includes chanting because chanting is a really great way to open up your
38:10
heart in a really quick way. And some say that Bakta yoga is the
38:16
fastest path to enlightenment or somebody because it doesn't require a lot of doing,
38:24
It just requires a way of being. However, that way of being is
38:30
like a complete path of love, trust and a higher source and an awareness
38:36
that, like everything that's being done is being led by some higher source.
38:44
Then we have yana yoga. Yana yoga is an interesting one and I think
38:51
it's a very it's the path that we often think of, Like I don't
38:55
know if you're familiar with this age Ramana Maharshy, but he was very analytical.
39:04
And one of the things I love about introgo yoga and yoga in general
39:07
is it doesn't matter like what kind of person you are, there is some
39:10
path for you that you can choose to help you achieve the same thing.
39:16
So with yana yoga, it's all about asking yourself questions, who am I?
39:21
Am I my body and my mind? Am I a woman? What
39:27
happens if I'm no longer a woman? What if I have a sex change?
39:30
Then who am I am? I? My name? Am I brought
39:35
up? What happens if I change my name and I call myself Jane?
39:39
Am I still the same? And so you go through and you really analyze
39:44
all of your thoughts, everything around you, and you come to this awareness
39:50
that there is no separation like you are so you know, like in the
39:54
Bible and it says I am or I am the fat. That's the awareness
40:00
that you come to through Yana yoga because after you ask yourself all these questions,
40:04
you just get to the point where you're like, ah, I am
40:07
something beyond all this. I'm not my body, I'm not my mind.
40:12
I am some sort of immortal force or self that exists in the universe.
40:17
Then I think the last one you mentioned was Rodgi yoga. Is that correct?
40:21
Yes? Yeah, So Rodgi yoga is actually the study of the science
40:24
of yoga and Raja yoga stems from studying the yoga suitors of Patanjali and that
40:31
has to do with this science, and yoga really is considered a science.
40:37
It's an ancient science that predates basically all religion, and it's this idea of
40:43
how do I do these certain things and these certain practices, and when I
40:47
do these things, I will have a consistent and predictable result from doing them,
40:52
and it walks you through the path of many of the things that we
40:55
were just talking about. The science of yoga incorporates all of these different practices,
41:01
ideas, beliefs, and most of it is laid out in the Yoga
41:06
sitts of potentially and so Reggi yoga would be the study of those and it's
41:10
considered the eightfold path. And it also includes like the Yamas and n Yamas,
41:15
which are very similar to the Chain Commandments. It's ways to live and
41:19
we used to be in your life. It has the four Locks and four
41:22
Keys, which is guidance on how to interact with people around you. So
41:29
there's they say that each person represents or each situation can be one of these
41:34
locks, and there's four keys that allow you to interact and deal with those
41:37
situations. And then it goes on to the meditation and concentration. So it's
41:45
really it's fascinating and one of the things that we we also got to really
41:52
study when we were in school growing up was this science of yoga through Raji
41:57
Yoga. My guest is Rata Metro Midkiff, the executive director for the Integral
42:02
Yoga Institute of New York. We'll be back with more after these words on
42:06
the Olden Times Radio Network. Humanity Healing International is a small nonprofit with a
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big drain. Since two thousand seven, HHI has been working tirelessly to bring
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help to communities with little or no oh. Our projects are not broad mandates,
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nor are they overnight solutions, but they bring the reassurance then no one
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is alone and that someone cares to learn more. Please visit Humanity Healing dot
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org. Humanity Healing is where your heart is. HI. This is Belmar.
42:38
I can find humor in almost anything, but one thing I never laugh
42:42
about is cruelty to animals. If you don't get the joke either, right,
42:46
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals five O one Front Street in Norfolk,
42:50
Virginia two three five one zero back on box novis My guests this week
43:05
Rata Metro Midkip. She's the executive director for the Integral Yoga Institute of New
43:10
York. So Rata, when I first began studying yoga, with my teacher
43:15
and dear friend, Hampsa Judy Spagnola. She introduced our class to chanting mantras.
43:20
You share that there are five ways that chanting and mantras will improve our
43:24
spiritual and mental health. The first is cultivating focus and concentration. Please explain.
43:32
Yeah. I love that we're talking about chanting because I think it's one
43:37
of the areas that they're just starting to study. So we have quite a
43:40
few studies that have been done on yoga, meditation. Now breathwork pranyama is
43:45
becoming very popular, but they're just starting to look at the effects of chanting.
43:52
So it's very cool because the chanting actually brings your energy and so it's
43:58
actually like we're talking about the shock, right, it's moving energy through your
44:00
body in a really specific way with sound, and sound has been shown to
44:07
have incredible, incredibly powerful effects. Right. They now actually can use sound
44:15
to cut through things. They can use sound vibrations to actually transform your nervous
44:21
system. So I have a I have a little device that I use on
44:25
my ankle. It's called an Apollo neuro and I love this device because it
44:30
uses sound that creates a vibration that then gets sent through your nervous system,
44:37
and they actually have different settings where they can use the different sounds and the
44:40
different vibrations to increase focus and concentration, to put you to sleep, to
44:47
wake you up, All of these things can happen. And there's a lot
44:52
of different studies that we're done with the apollo neuro that we're not necessarily doing
44:55
the chanting yet, but there's a lot of studies being done around the power
45:00
sound. So it's very interesting that different chance that you can do, particularly
45:05
just even chanting home, so repeating ome just very slowly and with purpose,
45:15
can actually bring your entire focus and concentration in and it can be a form
45:20
of meditation if you do it quietly, but if you do it allowed,
45:25
then it can also have this effect of vibrating through your entire body and creating
45:31
the actual energy that helps you focus and concentrate on what you're doing, which
45:37
is pretty amazing and really cool and again very groundbreaking as far as what they're
45:43
starting to study in Western science to back up this ancient science of yoga.
45:49
And the second benefit is the practice of awakening the inner self m So awakening
45:55
the inner self, like this is about really that the sound vibration actually can
46:01
create different energies in your body, and so it's getting you in tune.
46:07
Like again, an easy place to feel our innerself is in our heart chakra
46:10
and a lot of chanting because we're breathing right and we're actually moving our lungs,
46:17
it's actually stimulating that heart chakra as we're breathing and chanting. And one
46:23
of the easiest ways to get in touch with your innerself. Just like I
46:27
was saying, when you're doing yoganidra is to really be just like focusing on
46:30
your heart chakra. It's why bak Do yoga is one of the fastest ways
46:36
to achieve the state of self awareness or self realization. And so it's chanting
46:42
because it's stimulating that area so much. It really can just be a very
46:46
quick way to have that awareness and get to that space and the purification and
46:52
balance of our chakras. M Yeah. So just like we were talking about
46:58
the different sounds, so each chakra even has a sound that's associated with it,
47:01
and so as we're chanting. First of all, chanting really does work
47:06
all the way up and down your spine. So you know, we start
47:10
kind of in like this belly solar plexus area that actually creates some of the
47:17
energy that's going in. Again, remember I said, like a lot of
47:22
yoga practices are going to work with your upper chakras, not so much the
47:24
lower ones. But there are different practices and chanting where you also integrate it
47:30
with movement that can also work on all the different chakras. But in this
47:34
sense, it's really just vibrating through your solar plexus, your heart, your
47:39
throat, right, we're talking about how unimportant it is to clear that throat
47:44
chakra and then moving up through your third eye into your crown chakra, and
47:51
particularly the chant Hattie own does this really well. So it starts with haw
47:55
which starts in your solar plexus and then re starts to move up through your
48:00
heart into your throat, and then as you chant ome particularly if you kind
48:06
of close your teeth and allow it to vibrate in through your entire head,
48:09
you will actually feel the home vibrating up into your third eye and out through
48:15
the top of your head. How many chanting and mantras enhance our emotional well
48:21
being. So, like I was saying, as we know with like these
48:25
different sound devices that we can now wear on our skin. So they are
48:30
doing some studies with chanting that are showing how it affects our atomic nervous system,
48:37
so working with like the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous system and how it
48:44
can balance those out just by chanting OME. Again, most of the studies
48:50
that are being done right now are just on chanting ome. They haven't done
48:53
a lot of studies beyond that, but they do know that chanting om can
48:57
actually change the variability of our heart rate, it can calm our system down,
49:04
it can even cool down our skin, So the temperature of our skin
49:09
can be cooled by doing home chanting, and then it also lowers the blood
49:15
pressure, and they're even looking at how it can change the lipid profile of
49:20
hypertension. Right and we know that hypertension is caused by this repetitive stress on
49:24
our hearts, and so just this the practice of chanting home can actually start
49:31
to balance out all of these systems. So up until now, a yoga
49:35
we've been talking in a lot of yogic terms right of like chakras and energy
49:38
and all this stuff, But really what we're talking about right now chanting is
49:42
looking at it in more Western terms of what happens to our vagus nerve rate
49:46
that controls our sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous systems. How can calming all those down
49:53
affect our blood pressure, our lipid profiles, our hypertension, and all so
50:00
the variabilities at the heart rate. So there's just so many new studies that
50:05
are being done, but again it's really pretty new. Most of the studies
50:12
that I, you know, usually cite, most of them have actually been
50:15
done in the last like I would say, five years at the most.
50:21
And finally, many of our listeners are seeking a deeper understanding of our connection
50:25
with the divine as we understand it in our various faiths and traditions. How
50:30
many chanting and mampras help us accomplish this. So chanting is so cool because
50:36
it's like this really great way. First of all, chanting can almost make
50:39
you feel high. So it's a great way like if you have struggled with
50:45
anything with addiction, either to alcohol or drugs or anything like that, that
50:52
you kind of crave that feeling of euphoria and that high that comes through you
50:58
know, being a using those different substances. I really love to suggest chanting
51:04
for people, because you really can get like almost this high euphoric state with
51:07
the breathing that we're doing and the vibrations of these different mantras that are changing
51:14
the vibrations in your body and balancing out the nerves in your brain and lighting
51:19
up different nerves sts in your head that actually are very similar to the ones
51:22
that get lit up when we do different drugs. So chanting is this great
51:30
way to have that state of euphoria and to have that opening both in the
51:36
heart and in the crown chakra that allows us to tap into those higher vibrations
51:42
and tap into that source or that creation, whether you call it God or
51:46
Mother Nature or source or whatever word you choose to use. Chanting is the
51:52
fastest way that we know to be able to tap into that without any knowledge.
51:59
It doesn't take you know, any training. It's basically like you can
52:02
just go in and start chanting and have this just feeling of euphoria. And
52:09
that is why I think, like, you know, people like krish Nadas
52:14
became like almost like these chanting rock stars around the world because people would get
52:17
in these big groups and they would start chanting and they would just get really
52:21
euphoric in the space and just be full of joy and happiness. And it's
52:25
all these great happy, happy chemicals that start flowing through your body just simply
52:31
by chanting. And how may all of these practices enable us to bring compassion,
52:37
understanding, and love to our sisters and brothers. So when we realize
52:44
that we are sourced, that there is no separation between us and everything around
52:51
us, it is easier to find kindness and compassion for the people around you,
52:58
because it is the other that causes us to feel anger and frustration and
53:02
hate, like they are something other than me. But when you start to
53:07
realize that you are part of this greater force that flows through everything around you,
53:15
then it becomes much easier to just connect with people and say, I
53:19
may not understand you, or you may look really different from me, or
53:22
our experiences on this level may seem very separate, but I know that I
53:29
am not my mind, I'm not my body, right, I am some
53:32
sort of immortal self. I am part of source. And so when you
53:38
realize that, not in like a heady way, but when you really start
53:43
to internalize it and feel it through achieving that sense of peace, through experiencing
53:49
that euphoria of being connected with divine Then when you look around you and you
53:53
see the people and the beings and everything in your world, it becomes so
54:00
much easier to just say we are one. I love you because we are
54:05
connected, we are of the same source. And so it really can have
54:09
a huge impact on your entire life. And it does not have to be
54:15
again, an hour and a half practice on a mat. It can be
54:17
really simple, like you know, just chanting home to yourself as you're on
54:22
your way to work. So that's the other thing I really love about yoga,
54:27
Victor, is it does not have to be complicated. It's almost in
54:30
the simplicity that we notice it's great power. The wisdom of Rata metro Medicif,
54:37
Executive director for the Integral Yoga Institute of New York, Rata one more
54:42
time, please share where our listeners what's happening at Yogaville and the institute and
54:46
how they can find out more about it. Wonderful. Yeah, So we
54:50
are here Integral Yoga Institute on thirteenth Street in New York between seventh and eighth
54:54
Avenue. We have everything from a weekly cretans which are chanting, to daily
55:00
free meditations and all sorts of half the classes. You can join us for
55:06
workshops and all the different topics we've been discussing. We have some soundbaths which
55:09
are actually instead of using chanting, we use gongs and bells and different things
55:15
like that to create sounds that have a similar reaction to chanting. And our
55:21
email, I mean, our our email is also info at IYI and y
55:24
dot org. But our website is I why I in y dot org.
55:32
And again our international headquarters is in Yogaville, Virginia, and that is Yogaville
55:37
dot org. And they have all sorts of wonderful programs too, where you
55:42
can go there for anything from a weekend retreat to doing their Living Yoga training
55:46
program where you go in and live for a month and really immerse yourself in
55:52
living and breathing the teachings of yoga. Rona, thank you so much for
55:58
joining us and sharing this wonderful information and your experience and wisdom. Thank you
56:02
Victor for having me. This is really delightful. As you can tell,
56:07
I love talking about yoga, and thank you for joining us on box Novis.
56:12
I'm a Victor the voice furmon. Have a wonderful week