Sunday Afternoon Radio

Apparently I make a practice of driving somewhere on Sunday afternoons just when "Speaking of Faith" is broadcast on NPR.  I was in my car today and the radio was tuned to NPR, as it always is (because I don't listen to music anymore when I drive). Once again I forgot about this program, how interesting it is and once again I was astonished at what I heard and how I found another area of self-discovery.  Today's episode was originally broadcast in 2008.  It was an interview with Seane Corn (about whom I know nothing), a highly regarded contemporary yoga teacher. During the interview Seane explained the real physical and/or mental health benefits of yoga.  But here's what stopped my breath for a beat: She offers her yoga moves as a gift, as intention of energy that becomes an expression of an emotion (for example intention to heal, to forgive, to love).  She often offers her yoga movement as healing energy to her father, who is dying of cancer.  The idea sent me into waves of memory and recognition.  I do yoga -- not at a studio and not everyday -- but I do it at home several days a week to keep my spine flexible and release tension.  I do it with the expectation that the results will benefit my body -- and that's pretty much it.  The idea of doing yoga as a conduit to transform fear, disappointment, helplessness into a source of energy that issues outward to benefit others is profound and powerful.  


I remember the first time I took a yoga class.  During one of the difficult (for me) poses, I began to weep.  I didn't make a sound but tears began to roll from my eyes like a faucet not tightly closed.  I didn't know why it was happening but it was as if something was trying to seep out of me like sweat.  It was startling and I felt embarrassed until the teacher told me it almost always happens the first time someone does yoga.  "Oh." I thought.  "I must be doing it right."  What I realized from listening to this less-than one hour was how healing yoga is.  I suspect that no one listening to this episode will ever look at prostitutes the same way.  I know.  Non sequitur, right?   It's not.  I could write so much more but listen for yourself, generous reader, at the Speaking of Faith web site.  There are videos of Seane demonstrating body prayer yoga, plus a longer version of the interview than was broadcast today, and other links to this work.


Those who are into yoga will undoubtedly know much more about this person than I. I found her philosophy and the work she's done introducing yoga to many disenfranchised people, particularly to "Children of the Night" in Los Angeles and to prostitutes in Thailand be inspirational.