For this assignment I went to the Arlington Center. Here I attended the class BREATH•FLOW•STILLNESS, a class of yoga and meditation. The class is taught by Cynthia Gramer. Cynthia tries to create classes that meet the needs of the students in each particular class, so each class is different depending on who her students are; in the case of my class, it was all people who were thirty and older besides myself and Jade, who joined me on the adventure. She also incorporates a mix of Anusara, Yin, Vinyasa, Restorative and Forrest yoga into her classes (Hartranft). In addition to Cynthia’s class, the Arlington Center offers a wide variety of classes ranging from Yoga for Children to Anusara inspired classes. It also hosts a plethora of events and other wellness activities such as Nia and spiritual counseling.
The Arlington Center is directed by Chip Hartranft. Author of The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali, Chip is dedicated to bringing the tradtions of yoga and Buddhist meditation to America. He has been around the Boston area since 1978 and practices Krishnamacharya traditions (Shambhala Publications 2011). He also created BodyMindConnection which is a healing program for people under stress to use the mind body connection to relive the body of stress (.
I wished that I had had more time to visit and observe the many events and classes the Arlington Center has. It amazes me the amount of programs it hosts and the age range the classes have. I also would have liked to have tried something other than yoga there. Their workshops in particular seemed interesting such as the Buddhist Psychology Lecture Series. The seminar focuses around themes between Buddhism and psychotherapy; two credits are even offered at the end for continuing workers in the human service field (Hartranft).
Before going to the class I had many expectations; most of them were contradictory. I was hoping for a class that would enlighten me and teach me something new and exciting. I was expecting a class full of old ladies and maybe a man or two. I was also expecting the class to be completely about breathing and meditation, with very little movement at all; I must have forgotten the flow part in the title.
My experience at the class may have been affected by the transportation getting there, which was very stressful. It started out that the shuttle I thought left from Brattle Campus at 8 actually left Doble Campus at 8, which would have meant that I would have been late to meeting Jade, so the morning started out with a power walk to get to the bus stop. Then the bus was late, extremely late. Both of us thought we were going to miss the class and didn’t know what we were going to do about it. Luckily we didn’t, but I came to class extremely stimulated which did not help with the meditation.
Cynthia opened the class with a theoretical question: do we really know anything? She spoke about awareness and really being there. I felt like most of the people in class found this insightful, but I found it rather repetitive since many of my classes at Lesley push the thought of mindfulness. The statements about mindfulness were also repeated throughout the entire class as well. Her statements were also conflicting with one another. One of her quotes was “You can never be you wrong” but then at the end of class she said something to the affect of at the end of meditation she realizes that she never really knows herself.
Hearing these contradicting thoughts sort of reminded me of Krishnamurti. When he says “And there can be order only where there is total self-denial, when the “me” has no importance what so ever” (Krishnamurti 1993 p. 22) reminds me of not really knowing oneself. But being you is still important to meditation because only you can decide what is right, no mentor or teacher or anyone else (Krishnamurti 1993 p. 19).
I’m not sure if my reaction to Cynthia was good or bad. Her contradictory statements did confuse me a bit. Also, it seemed as if the class was centered around her and her thoughts rather than on the breath. She also seemed to look down on me and Jade, as if she was better than us because she knew more about yoga than us. It might have only seemed that way because she assumed we were either sophomores or freshmen when we are both juniors. However, Cynthia was a very helpful and caring woman. One of the women in the class had bad knees so she helped to create a bed so that she would not have to lie on the floor and risk not being able to get up. She is also a hugger, a really big hugger. Before we left she hugged each and every one of us. Although it seemed a little weird I really appreciated the warmth that the hug meant.
The class is centered all around breathing while moving, although that is not a surprise. We worked on moving with each breath from position to position. Each movement was suppose to be natural to our breaths, although this was slightly difficult when we were learning what each movement was and had to control our breaths to be the same. This also reminded me of Krishnamurti. Krishnamurti says that if you must meditate you are forcing yourself to meditate and therefore are following some sort of system (1993 pg 19). Cynthia did not want us moving in unnatural ways for our bodies. She told us to take whatever we learned and to adapt it to our own needs. So rather than following someone, I was doing what felt right.
During the class I was very excited because she mentioned a more yogic word for breathing, although I do not remember the word she said. I thought that the class would use more yoga theory rather than the Americanized version. That was until she said to go into downward dog and child’s pose. It was a nice mix, but I was hoping for more non-Americanized yoga. One thing I was very excited about though was when she said the name of the alternate nostril breathing and deep relaxation and I recognized what it was (I still don’t know how to pronounce it though never mind spell it).
While in class I found my mind wandering more than usual. I think it had something to do with how much she was talking. Cynthia kept talking about letting go of thoughts and just bring the mind back to breathing, but that is rather hard when I was taught to listen to those who are talking to me; it was also hard to tune her out. There was also om’s being chanted in a background tape she had playing. If I had been in the right state of mind they probably would have been useful, but instead they were distracting. They also stopped randomly during our deep relaxation, so the sudden quietness seemed to be louder than the oms.
The best part about the deep relaxation was that she had us all grab blankets at the beginning of class in order to cover ourselves. I am always cold during the mediation so it was nice to have the blanket. However, I did not enjoy the end of the meditation. She had a gong, which was fine, but she also had a singing bowl. For some reason it really resonated horribly with me; my head felt like someone was pushing from the inside to get out. Normally singing bowls are relaxing to me, but this time it just seemed really wrong for my body.
I’m not sure if I had a positive or negative experience. The class, for me, was just another class. There was nothing really special about it. It was relaxing, which was nice, but it did not give me any feelings besides “well that was nice.” Talking it over with Jade did let me think deeper about the class, but nothing really resonated with me a lot. I was hoping for some big insight, and was disappointed to have found none. I also felt like I learned nothing new. Ninety-nine percent of what I did in that yoga class we have done in our class or I have done previously in the few yoga classes I attended in high school.
Reflecting back, there are a few things that I would have like to have been done different. I would have liked to class to have not been centered around her personal thoughts. Concepts are always nice to think about in the back of the mind, but the class seemed really centered around Cynthia. I also would have liked to have practiced more type of breathing. In the beginning of class ujjay breathing was mentioned, but it was more of a technique to focus on the breath rather than my thoughts. I would have rather learned more types or breathing instead of working on the flow of the breath which is stressed in a good chunk of yoga classes.
Besides having things different in the class, I also wish I had chosen a class that was not so parallel to our class. If I had taken a class with a new concept, it would have been a better learning experience. I also feel like I would have gotten my sense of “enlightenment” if I had attended a more different class
Work Cited
Krishnamurti, J. (1993). This light in oneself: True meditation. Boston: Shambhala.
Shambhala Publications. (2011). Chip Hartranft. Retrieved from http://www.shambhala.com/html/catalog/items/author/648.cfm
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