VIRTUAL WORKSHOP — will be held on Zoom — join from home!
Ashtanga Nashville is honored to welcome Cory’s long-time friend and frequent spiritual advisor/encourager - Hari-kirtana das - to Nashville for a weekend immersion in how to take your yoga practice and turn it into one of SPIRITUAL ACTION!
Yoga is both a process of turning inward and a process of engaging with the world. As such, yoga offers us a set of principles for both personal and social action. The defense of dharma– truth, justice, and harmony with nature – is entirely in keeping with the tradition of yoga.
Spiritualizing our activism elevates our response to injustice to a level that harmonizes the fight for righteousness with the spiritual conception of equality upon which the American conception of justice is actually based. It also links the advancement of progressive values to the advancement of spiritual consciousness.
A satsang is a gathering of seekers of the truth who come together to discuss the nature of the truth and the means by which one makes progress in spiritual life. In this satsang I'll offer thoughts and ideas, based on the teachings of traditional yoga wisdom texts, about why spiritualizing our response to adharma– injustice and disharmony – is so important, how the values of yoga philosophy provide a solid foundation for progressive social action, and what we can do to imbue our actions with spiritual power.
We’ll also address a false dichotomy that creates obstacles for spiritualizing our activism and participate in brainstorming about how we can spiritualize both individual and a specific collective social activism project. Participants will acquire new insights into the nature spiritual activism, learn how their spiritual practice can energize their participation in progressive activism, and feel inspired to take their activism to a higher spiritual level.
SCHEDULE:
Friday
6:00 - 8:00 pm Satsang & kirtan (devotional singing)
Saturday
10:00 am - 12:30 pm Workshop 1: The Bhagavad Gita & Bhakti Yoga
1:30 - 3:00 pm Workshop 2: Spiritual Activism
*Spiritual Action Committee (SAC) to follow directly after Sat afternoon workshop. All are welcome to join as we strategize the shala’s activist mission.
INVESTMENT: $50 for all 3; or drop-ins available at $20 per session
REGISTER here through the “Schedule” page on the website or through MINDBODY app or website.
BIO: Hari-kirtana das is an E-RYT 500 yoga teacher and the author of In Search of the Highest Truth: Adventures in Yoga Philosophy. He's been practicing bhakti-yoga and other yogic disciplines for the better part of 40 years, has lived in devotional yoga ashrams and intentional spiritual communities, worked for Fortune 500 companies and Silicon Valley start-ups, and brings a wide range of spiritual knowledge and life experience to his classes, workshops, and presentations. Hari-kirtana is on the faculty of numerous Yoga Teacher Training programs and leads his own Advanced Yoga Teacher Training program in Washington, DC. You can learn more about Hari-kirtana on his website, hari-kirtana.com.