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Tag: Ted Grand

Michael Stone’s passing: A letter to our community

Posted on by intladmin

I just finished teaching a class at the 2008 Toronto Modo Yoga teacher training and was almost brought to tears a few times.

Once was during bridge pose as I was remembering Michael Stone, a long time lecturer who recently passed away. He had taught us the cue I was saying.

Then, I was talking about relaxing the roof of the mouth, another Michael cue.

Finally, I was talking about following the exhale all the way to the end (and further), another Michael Stone gem.

And to think that I never really thought of him foremost as an asana teacher.

The last week has been spent revisiting lots of great memories of Michael, and through doing that I have deeply felt the influence he had on my life and this community.

I remember at the first Modo Yoga teacher training, walking through the park with him while he spoke about the various psychological traps that many teachers fall into.

I remember having dinner with him and we spoke of the massive potential to affect political discourse through our community.

I remember him staying at our place in Saltspring, B.C., talking about how his suffering had grown and how he was having a tough time with it.

His awareness was deep and skillful and that is a rare and special thing, but what was profoundly special about him was his ability to synthesize old stories and themes in Buddhism and yoga and make them relatable and relevant in the modern world.

He did so in a way that brought to life environmental and social justice themes, and made us all want to try a little harder to see how intimately we are connected to all things.

The truth is that I can’t really grasp the totality of this loss.

It doesn’t make sense that a figure like that is now gone, and his existence only remains in memories, his children, his family, and in the influence that he had on many of us — and by extension, an impact on many more.

But such is life.

It passes quickly, and then it transforms into something else. I mourn the man that I knew and loved, and I simultaneously hold dear to what he shared with me and so many others.

This is not to say that I think he was a saint or anything. The last thing he would want is for people to deify him and see him as something different than what he was — human, fragile, intuitive, flawed and gifted.

He was a comet that burned bright and lit up a lot of people’s hearts and minds, but he was also someone that burned internally, and it could — at times — burn him and the people around him.

I suspect that is part of his legacy and what his family is trying to illustrate in the beautiful and achingly transparent messages that they have sent out publicly and personally.

Michael suffered greatly and we need to be OK with that being the person as opposed to the figure.

We also need to see that that is not unique and that mental illness is a very real thing in the world and is wildly pervasive in the lives of many of our teachers and students.

Just the other day I was out to dinner with my wife, Tara, in Prince Edward Island.

The waitress asked me if I was “Ted Grand from Modo Yoga.” I said, “yes.”

She teared up and told me that Modo Yoga had saved her life. She was ready to give up after years of suffering with bipolar disorder.

She had gone to the Charlottetown Modo Yoga studio and, through the tools she learned in there, found a sense of relative stability and adaptability in the world.

She is still using medication and can now maintain relationships, hold a job, and see things in context, when before it was all out of control most of the time.

I say this not to make any bold claim that anyone suffering with mental illness just needs to practice yoga with us, but rather to remind you all that you are helping people on a much more profound level than you might know.

We all spend a lot of time dancing with this idea of what success is.

We see other studios that have packed classes, and we might feel like there is something wrong with our own.

We see studios that have great social media, and we feel like we can’t even remember our password.

We see studio owners with steady gazes and relaxed temperaments, and we might feel like we are a yoga impostor.

We see other studios have great relationships with their teachers and contemporaries, while we may feel like we are in constant conflict.

It is a tough ride being a studio owner, and sometimes it is hard to see the healthy forest through the clearcut.

I do hope however, that you can see that the story of the woman above is being played out in your studio every single day.

You are creating space for people that are struggling with mental illness, with addiction, with behavioural problems, and with the general anxiety that comes with living in the modern world.

Have you noticed that much of social media these days seems to be a series of impassioned rants about what is wrong with the world?

Many people are struggling, and it is the salve of simple breath awareness, body awareness, and community awareness that is providing some relief against so much suffering.

Perhaps some of your students even feel a sense of gratitude or reverence for things that they took for granted by living in the rat race. How wonderful.

So, thank you, Modo Yoga studio owners.

Thank you for reflecting the teachings of a truly gifted friend and mentor in this community, who we will miss greatly.

Thank you for creating space for people who are struggling. Thank you for taking the time to care for yourself and be more of a light in the world.

I am not going to say that the world is a dark place and it needs your light, but I will say that there are a lot of people suffering that need your strength, your vulnerability and your caring.

You do good work in the world and are making a difference. You are a success in the deepest meaning of the word.

— Deep bows, Ted

We are all ‘one’ and this is why

Posted on by intladmin

We are all one, right?  This is what we have learned in this yoga matrix, this is what we teach, and this is what makes sense from both a scientific and spiritual viewpoint.

But what does it mean to really feel or be this sense of oneness?

I remember studying with the amazing Georg Feurstein, and we spent a whole day once talking about the concept of purusha.

It is more than just a great name for a cat, it is central to Vedic teaching, and the underpinning for a lot of what modern yoga is.

The discussion that day revolved around the concept of oneness, and how there really is no inherent “one” in oneness, as one implies opposition to something that is zero.

Georg was adamant that there was no “oneness” and that purusha was more of a non-dual ground reality, that is beyond all dimension or context.

You can imagine that had a lot of our heads spinning that day, but it was nonetheless so rich and relevant to our study.

I hadn’t thought about this too much until I became somewhat fixated on researching my family tree.

Similar to a yoga practice, it was a process of peeling away layer upon layer of identity and dismantling where and who I thought I came from.

We typically think of ourselves as coming from two lines, our mother’s and our father’s.

Maybe we will think back a couple of generations and get that we come from two or four streams.  But I was going back in some streams to the 1700s, some to the 1600s and one stream to the year 1500.

At that point I felt like I was spinning, simply because of the hundreds of streams that I could have followed if I were to take the time with each of my ancestors, particularly the women’s side.

At the end of it, that existential dizziness of not really belonging to a single/dual stream slowly shifted into a warm and contented feeling of belonging to the whole.

There are a trillion stories from a trillion streams, and they were all informing who I have come to be.

One illness or one accident at one time in any of those streams, and I would not exist.

One chance meeting missed, or one argument that went too far, and I would not exist. This all plays out with each one of us, and every creature.

None of this would exist if it were not from this immense and countless formation of rivers, streams and tributaries. I am glad we all made it to this one point in time — it has been a long journey.

So what is this all about anyway?  What I am trying to convey is that our life is a gift and there have been an infinite amount of variables that have conspired to make us.

It’s not just our human ancestors, but through the various iterations of upright primates. Through the various kinds of pre-primates.

All the way back through our oceanic ancestors and single-celled organisms; back through a collection of space dust that became earth, back through exploding stars, and so on and so on.

We are of a great stream of being that ultimately has no beginning and no end, for time is essentially a dualistic concept that humans have invented and embodied.

Ultimately, we are part of something that transcends oneness AND we get to be the embodied nervous system that reflects on it all.

This is what we explore in savasana, and sometimes, if a bunch of variables and circumstances collide and conspire, we experience that sense of transcendent knowing.

So what we do with this awareness? Do we check out of life and see it all as an illusion? Do we become super-peaceful and removed from stress, finally? Do we break at the bigness and nothingness of it all?

The answer, of course, is a big, fat ‘no’ to all of the above.

We are embodied nervous systems that are a fundamental part of the myriad life forms and structures that make up this planet.

We have the capacity for intelligence and wisdom, which naturally creates a love and responsibility to the planet and a relationship to it that our eyes and mind and body feel deeply.

The expansion and the unity that we receive in our practice is the fuel that tethers us to an engaged and active commitment to that which gives us life.

As well as the myriad creatures we share the planet with, particularly those that are oppressed or lacking in power.

Why is this the case?  Because it is the focus on goodness, community, sustainability and fair play that reaffirms the ground reality of no separation.

It is an echo of the common ancestor that we all share — some may call it God, some unity, but ultimately it is that ground reality that is beyond the nervous system and conscious thought.

When we act counter to this intimacy, we reaffirm and reinforce the construct of the ego and at times make our decisions solely based on how it affects us alone.

When I was a kid, about 12 years old, we used to take our boat home from the arcade on Saturday night, and sometimes we would stop in the middle of the lake and look up at the stars.

At a certain point I got too freaked out by the concept and the bigness of infinity, and so stopped doing it.

Yoga has allowed me to pick up that thread of observation and contemplation again and even try to feel it deep in my bones.

That is not to say that it is easy.

Most of us go into savasana and have a blissful, unified experience, and then when it ends or dissolves, we check out and return to the land of thinkingthinkingthinking.

But like most elements of our practice, our hope is to keep circling back to the start of the experience in order to peel away the layers of negotiation, reflection, and opinion.

Through this we find ourselves getting better at being at home in a transcendent and loving connection to all that is, even if it is for a brief few seconds.

And then we come out of it and go to work at making the world a better place.

May we all feel an intuitive and embodied sense of this connection to all that is, and within that recognize our connection to one another, because it is those connections that fuels our ability to make positive change in the world.

— Love, Ted

Modo Yoga supports Canada’s First Nations people

Posted on by intladmin

This year, we are super stoked to be supporting Pull-Together, a joint campaign by RAVEN Trust and Sierra Club BC) for our annual “Speak Your Peace” campaign.

Their goal (and ours) is to help ensure that First Nations rights are legally protected.

The reason the Pull-Together campaign exists is because the Canadian Government approved the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project without going through the appropriate approval process, which includes consulting the First Nations people.

Here’s the thing though; it is hard sometimes to have a resonance with a cause that is not at the forefront of general conversation or social media posts.

The fact is that industrial expansion has the full support of all levels of government, and we have been brainwashed to believe that we really need to support that expansion.

If we don’t, we are called anti-jobs. We are socialists. We are naive. We are tree huggers.

It is counter-cultural to speak out against the destruction of our planet and the oppression of the original people of this continent, and that sucks.

The fact is that this is a human rights issue, and not many people are really standing up to ensure that all parties have an active voice in how things unfold.

Well, Pull-Together is standing up and doing some kick-ass work to not only ensure that First Nations groups have proper legal representation, but that the culture, outlooks, and traditions of these people are given a voice in a world that is increasingly disposable and consumer-needs driven.

This is a voice that we want to help give attention to.

We do yoga for a lot of reasons, but at the end of the day there is a hope that within the effects of our practice, we are waking up.

As studio owners and teachers, we create a space for this waking up for many.

But here is the big challenge that we all face each day — it feels good to stay asleep.

It is way easier to not really concern ourselves with the injustices of the world.

It takes an incredibly powerful speaker to find the words that are required for us to stir from our slumber.

Think of Martin Luther King Jr. with his “I have a dream” speech.

What would it have been like to hear that speech at that time in history?

We don’t really have that in this modern world, as we are inundated with messages and images that distract us from connecting to the essence of our life.

This essence comes from the air we breathe, the water we drink, the earth we grow our food in, and the delicate balance of ecosystems.

This essence is being more and more diluted as the years pass, and the dominant culture is slumbering through this.

Many of the messages and stories that our First Nations relatives share are trying to wake us up to the need for change and action.

Pull-Together is helping to share these messages and stories in the hope that we wake up.

Here is what it comes down to; Arjuna was in the middle of the chaos in the Bhaghavad Gita, and he froze.

He did not know what to do, nor how to do it, and so he wanted to turn away from everything that was going on.

He wanted to hide from his dharma. Krishna shook him up, and forced him to wake up; to take action.

This is what brought him back into life, and what essentially saved his heart from ignorance. This is karma yoga — the yoga of action.

The Modo Yoga community, with all of its wonderful students, teachers and studio owners, is a strong one.

We are smart, compassionate and aligned with many who want to wake up.

Though sometimes we can all fall asleep and get focused on the things that distract us from the deeper work of making the world a better place, things like “Speak Your Peace” can act as flash-points for us all — moments in our year when we can remember to do something meaningful; to act on behalf of what we really care about.

So please, check out Raven Trust.

Educate yourselves about this group and the issues they are working for. Ask questions of those who are really familiar with this group if you need help.

Dedicate your practice to people and a planet that needs our help.

Thank you all for your participation. It means a lot that we take chances and stand up to speak for those who do not have a powerful voice and who, in fact, have their voices suppressed.

We are Arjuna – taking action – and we are helping to make the world a better place.

— Ted

How you can infuse gratitude into your yoga practice

Posted on by intladmin

Remember that time, back in 2015 when we were all so young, so full of life, ability and creativity?

Those were good times. I wish, looking back, that I had been more grateful for what I had around me.

I wish that I could have the abilities that I had back then – the clear eyesight, the ability to walk freely, the ability to drive, and the precious gift of watching my children grow.

I play a trick on myself sometimes to check-in and see if I am aware of how awesome things are in the present.

We all get caught up with what might be, and sometimes we create nostalgia for things as they were.

The fact is that things never were what we thought they were, nor will they be like we want them to be in the future.

All the more reason to deeply see and feel how awesome it is that we have our life right now.

That awareness is much bigger than any cliché or slogan, as it brings us back to the humility of being alive and awake.

There is one technique in savasana that is incredibly powerful, and perhaps we can all try it at some point this month.

When doing your body scan at the start of your savasana, take some time to infuse each body part with gratitude for what it does and what it allows us to do.

If there is anything that our yoga practice brings, it is insight into how amazing the human body is.

How to infuse gratitude into your yoga practice:

  • Infuse your arms with gratitude for hugging, writing, the ability to give high fives, carrying children, for reaching, for protecting yourself and for picking up things that have fallen.
  • Give thanks to your legs for walking, kicking, running, balancing, jumping and dancing.
  • Bring awareness to your senses and know that they have kept you alive, allowed you to eat chocolate, see a technicolour sunset, hear a powerful song, touch the skin of your lover and smell freshly-baked bread.
  • Be humbled by the greatness of the brain — its ability to process massive amounts of stimuli, the way in which it figures out how to solve a puzzle, how it stores precious memories and how it gives you ideas, dreams and visions.

You are filled with epic creations of a universe that has tested and tried out trillions of permutations of a few base elements, and has come to the conclusion that you are it’s finest creation yet, and so it has provided you with a million gifts and ways in which to connect with everything in the whole cosmos.

I hope for you great savasanas, where you feel yourself profoundly alive and present, because time passes swiftly and opportunity is lost.

Very soon you will be old and your children grown. Let yourself be filled with gratitude for what is, so that you do not find yourself wishing you had paid more attention when you were young.

Remember that time, back in 2015, when we were all so young, so full of life, ability and creativity?

— Sincerely, Ted Grand

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