AERIANE COHEN

Yoga, yo- gha-, inhale and exhale, the sun and the moon, active and passive, black and white, you and me.

Yoga became an essential part of our daily lives and our culture. People all over the world doing yoga, inventing new styles and techniques, mixing with other activities and overall experimenting as much as they can imagine. It's popularity spreads as to calm and peaceful rural areas as to towns and busy cities.

And so. Living in a big multi-million city such as Big Apple is off the question exciting, fascinating, thrilling and like head&shoulders Three-in-one. You are in the heart of everything, like on the busy crossroad, and there are a million chances you will reach your dream life! In fact, you just need to meet as many new people as you can, attend to as many meetups as you physically able, and there is no time for less. Your daily To- Do list is longer then intro to the Star Wars movie and the last article that caught your glance was "Never Forget the name again" on Psychology Today. Attention and focus meanwhile are spreading on an enormous quantity of the things and in a year or two living life like this, you more often think about trying yoga or even visiting some retreat. And this is a good idea! But not every weekend you have a chance to go out of the city to reload your system. And luckily there are the bunch of events inside of the city where you can come to setup your state of mind and adjust your inner guidance. And you can find approval to this putting in search Yoga Events. And that is how I have learned about such an interesting thing as Yoga in Museum.

Once I already attend to Yoga class in Brooklyn museum, but it was too crowded, I was with friends and then after yoga class, we were in the rush as they took me to some roof party. So overall that experience was not so special and was a little bit smudged.

I decided to give it another try. This time, the event was in Rubin Museum, the peaceful place between Meatpacking District and Union Square. Once you are in, relaxed energy is surrounding you. There are three floors of art from Tibetan plateau, with examples from related surrounding regions including Nepal, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Afganistan, China, and Mongolia.

The first impression was very nice. The organization arranged very warm welcoming Indian Flute live meditational music right on the main floor near the entrance that immediately immersed other guests and me into the peaceful state of mind. I came there and hour or so earlier to have a chance go through the collections and temporary expositions. Museum's managers kindly suggested complimentary breef observance with a specialist in Buddhist Culture. I already have learned much about Buddhist culture and Hinduism before in my life but still, could learn something new. Also, it was right –in –time reminder about the essence of the meditation and the nature of Boddhisatvas as I just finished my first 10-day Silent meditation retreat Vipassana in tradition by Goenka. After that retreat, my reflection process changed dramatically, and I increased my meditation to twice a day. And the reminder was very straightforward as an essence of meditation as well: give the vow to dedicate your daily practice for the peace and love to the world. And this is an essential part of meditation. You are doing this not for yourself or your benefits. But you are doing this and maintaining your practice for the whole Earth and the entire humanity. And that configuration has changed all my personal practice.

And so I was inspired by this idea and decided to dedicate my upcoming yoga flow class with live music for bringing more peace and love to our world.

Going to an event like this I was apriori expecting something more then just regular yoga practice, I was expecting to get more insights and more meditation time. And what they say about expectations? Yes, right. We should not have them and be open minded and open armed to everything that comes with the flow. The practice has started, space was not huge, and it was about 30 people who felt very comfortable. The teacher Ali Cramer from one of the busiest yoga studios in New York has begun the flow, and the magical music started to play by musician Morley Kamen. But let me tell you something. What is the best recipe or algorithm for a successful concert? It is first, Prelude, second, culmination and, finally, third, the ending. The first part was very encouraging and third part was smooth and relaxing. Probably the yoga instructor and the singer did not have enough time for rehearsal, so the culmination part has been missed in my opinion. But I think they could squeeze a little bit more juice into the whole thing. I was listening later on other compositions by Morley and it is very deep and right music for yoga practice. And I have attended several times to Ali's yoga classes and it was always good experience.

Here to be honest it was not enough time or energy putted for preparation. It was like tasting, but not the whole dinner.

 If i would have chance to organize similar event, it will be at least half day workshop with qualify time preparing for the practice, with slow, deep and mindfull process of  the exact class and with the deep yoga nidra as a final accord to the yoga symphony.  

I don't realy like sound critical but in this case, I see much more potential in the idea of yoga in Museum and lack of preparation and thoughts putting inside of this exact project.

But hey! I was honestly dedicating my practice to the Mother Earth! And in this sense, it does not truly matter where you are, what kind of music you are listening and what you think about organization and space, etc. 

"All is within,"- my favorite 77 years old teacher Dharma Mittra used to say. 

Om, Namaste, Shanti Shanti Shanti.