Category: Octavio’s Articles

by Octavio Salvado.

Mahatma Gandhi said it perfectly, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world”. It starts with ourselves, and quite often the crusade is a silent one.

I remember when I first got into Yoga. I thought I needed to change the world one annoying speech at a time, but all I did was piss people off and lose friends. Not a very successful outcome given that what I really wanted was to help people find more freedom and joy in their lives.

We live and learn…. Hopefully.

My first genuine mentor put it in a way that I never forgot. If you enter a restaurant and notice that the guy sitting next to you is drinking water from a dirty glass, chances are that if you say to him, “mate, your glass is dirty,” you will either offend or embarrass him. If, on the other hand you simply order your own glass of water and position it on your table in a way that he can see it, then most likely, he will make his own comparison and call the waiter over to change his glass for a cleaner one.

In essence, what I’m getting at this. Often the best advice we can give is the advice not spoken, it’s the advice we embody. Put another way, shut your mouth and simply BE the radiant example. If people are inspired and compelled to change their ways based on who you are being, great. If not, also great! But serving up sermons when people don’t ask for them is asking for discord. Trust me, I was an expert once.

Leadership is an inside thing. It doesn’t need to justify or prove its worth because its value can be felt, just like peace can be felt if you’ve ever been fortunate enough to be in the same room as a true Master. The Master doesn’t need to say anything, you can feel their presence, you can sense who they are.

What is this silent, inside power that true leaders seem to accumulate and radiate outwards like the rays of the Sun? The Yoga Tradition calls it Prana, the pure creative potential that gives everything in the universe life. With the right practices and attitude, Prana can be generated and stored like a battery stores charge. The Yogis of old encoded the concept of Prana with the symbol of the Sun, the giver of life. Who is the giver of life? Woman gives life. Not man. Man is simply the witness.

Isn’t it fascinating that modern Yoga teaches the exact opposite – That Sun is masculine. It raises the question – ‘Where is modern, innovative yoga disconnected from tradition leading us’. Perhaps this is one reason why yoga has become a sex and ego infused billion-dollar commercial beast instead of its original function as a science, designed to guide people towards a deeper capacity to radiate the energy of love.

It is true that the ‘Sun’ refers to the dynamic principle in nature, but the ancient texts don’t talk about dynamic hips or hamstrings, or active muscles powering through vinyasa transitions. The Yoga Tradition is not interested in those things. It is interested in the dynamic power of energy. The energy that sustains us and allows us to function in the first place.

In Tantra, Prana is often anthropomorphized as different forms of the Goddess or ‘Shakti’. There is a wonderful story about the birth of Goddess Kali, a controversial and fierce Devi representing a strong expression of pranic movement. At first glance she is utterly terrifying! Holding high a bloody head freshly severed from the neck of an unlucky demon. Her tongue is out, lapping up the spilled blood, eyes blazing, bare breasted, adorned with a necklace of 50 skulls. Its easy to see why this Goddess is often associated with sexuality and violence, but that is only on the periphery. The true essence of Kali is love. Again, everything depends on how deep we want to dig. The same can be said for dynamic practices such as vinyasa, the external movements of the body are only the means to cultivate and connect with the energy within. Yet somehow, looking outwardly sexy and throwing limbs around violently has become the international status quo. It’s a shame, because the heart of this practice is the heart itself. The mission of movement is to sensitize ourselves to Prana, generate more of it and then direct it towards the heart. Because its not until we have enough Prana in the heart that we can genuinely hold our awareness there and live from that place. The battery has to charge before the lights can switch on.

Returning to the mythic narrative, Durga, the Mother and protector Goddess is doing battle with the demon, Mahisa. Durga becomes furious and her anger crystalizes into the dark Goddess, Kali who bursts out of her forehead. Kali, wild as lightning starts swinging her swords and taking off the heads of whoever is unlucky enough to be near her. She does away with the demon and his demon army but her blood lust cannot be contained. Kali rages on and even the Gods are powerless to calm her. Eventually the God’s pray to the Great God, Shiva – Lord of Yoga for help, who awakens from meditation and travels to Kali’s battleground. Seeing her state, Prana gone wild, Shiva lays his still body down on the earth and eventually, Kali in her frenzy stands on him. As soon as she feels Shiva’s steady frame under her feet, Kali immediately simmers down and returns to her loving, motherly form.

And be sure, Prana ‘can’ and ‘does’ go wild, just like sunlight can burn. To avoid this catastrophe, it is suggested (if you have a good teacher) that all pranic cultivation is to be done on a solid base of mental stability and calm. Notice what icon Shiva wears on his head – The Crescent Moon, representing Mind (Chitta). Yogis who focus only on dynamic practice without stabilizing their minds through meditation and self reflection first will have a very hard time sensing themselves as pranic beings. The focus will stay on the periphery and energy will continue to move along the paths of least resistance, empowering all of the pre-established tendencies and behavioral patterns, be they in service of growth or against it. Prana, like sunlight, does not discern.

Over the last 15 years I have heard many yoga teachers teach that the essential nature of the masculine is dynamic, when in actuality, the Yoga Tradition teaches the opposite. The pure masculine, according to Yoga is pure presence, consciousness, stillness, Shiva wearing the Moon. Yes, we men move rocks and build things and like to show off our muscles, but that is only on the periphery. The true power of man is deep inside a still and silent core. My guess is that any woman centered in her own authentic, love-infused power would agree – Real masculinity is about presence, and presence is a state of mind.

Perhaps this changes the way you approach your Sun Salutations?

Ha and Tha. Sun and Moon. Prana and Chitta. Energy and Mind. Woman and Man.

Sound a little different to what you’ve been told? The crux of it is this. Neither perspective is wrong. It simply depends on where you want to focus your attention – on the inside power or the outside power? We are always free to choose.

My take on it is this. You can take it or leave it. True leaders aren’t the ones who make the most noise, or have the most followers or headline the biggest festivals. True leaders are the ones who have taken up the inevitable silent crusade we eventually all must take, leading themselves first beneath the peripheral luster of what’s popular, deep into their own unique and essential core.

A good question for contemplation, I’ll place it where you can see it:

Where is your yoga leading you?

by Octavio Salvado.

Belonging is an essential part of being human, a fundamental thread that weaves together some of the sweetest moments of our strange little lives. It has taken me a long time to figure this out and even now, it terrifies me. Because being a soloist is so much easier, there is a lot more room to hide.

In my twenties and early thirties i used my practice as a means to sidestep facing up to the fear of being fully seen. I felt imperfect and unworthy of being accepted for my totality. After all, i was a yoga teacher! Weren’t they meant to be flawless?

So rather than risk the pain of humiliation, i hid inside meditation and mantra, early nights and internal judgements until i did a fairly remarkable job of building myself an impenetrable fortress. The only issue was that i accidentally built mirrors all along the interior walls, so every time i closed my eyes, all i saw was myself. Fantastic irony isn’t it? But thats the thing about meditation. It works.

The more i sat and truly looked, the more i saw how afraid i was, how much i desperately wanted more connection in my life, more community, more love and that secretly I longed to feel the deeper sense of belonging that exists below the shallow waters of just fitting in. Fitting in is easy. Belonging takes real courage.

I think what it comes down to for a lot of us, is shame. A feeling that our authentic, unrefined selves aren’t worthy of acceptance. So we hide, we Tweet, we Facebook, we touch up our photos and botox our faces. Shame is a big word. Its hard to vocalize, let alone claim. Yet almost paradoxically its in the vulnerable owning of it that the door to real connection unsticks and opens up.

There’s a beautiful (and brutal, as shame stories usually are) story from the Puranas that speaks about one man’s shame and his resulting public decapitation. Its a Shiva myth. A good one.

Daksha is the father of Goddess, Sati who has chosen the unconventional, yet completely authentic Lord Shiva as her husband. Shiva is like the girl at the party who’s wearing a t-shirt with fluorescent green geckos stitched all over it and for some reason is carrying a kettle. Although you’re unquestionably curious, surely its not going to go unnoticed by the hipsters if you strike up a conversation. So what do you do? You do nothing. You play it safe.

Thats exactly what Daksha does. Rather than risk his reputation, he hides the fact that his daughter has chosen to wed the long haired, mostly naked, ash-smeared, skull carrying yogi. Dear Lord! What would the Jones’s say? This is what we do whenever we pretend we’re not hurting when actually we are. When we say we’re fine but actually we’re falling apart and seriously need a hug, or when we have a drug problem or an eating disorder or some other skeleton in the closet that we’re too ashamed and afraid to speak up about.

The result is never good, particularly if what we’re actually craving is to connect and feel a genuine sense of being held and supported by a collective, by a community existing beyond the shores of the little island we’ve escaped to.

There’s many elements to this story, however i’ll jump right to the point. Sati, the feminine principle representing our prana, our vitality makes a rather dramatic statement and publicly throws herself on the sacrificial fire. This is the depletion of our energy, health issues, think exhaustion as a result of the supreme effort it takes to carry on an identity facade, particularly a public one. Shiva who is authenticity, but also the highest aspect of our awareness will only tolerate self deception and self sabotage for so long before stepping in. Im not sure if you noticed, but life is self correcting that way. One way or another it always moves towards balance. We can make the adjustments ourselves, or they will be made for us.

Daksha chooses to play his hand and hope for the best. It doesn’t end well. In fact, it ends with his head on a stake. It ends with a public and painful leveling. It ends, as it usually does – all coming to light in the bright, uncompromising, unflinching glow of unavoidable transparency.

The good news is, eventually Sati is reborn as the divine yogini, Parvati and once more unites with her Eternal Love, Shiva. Consciousness and energy, beliefs and vitality absent of shame and fear are once again free to fill the world with a love born of authentic connection. As it should be.

We say we want connection, we say we want community, but what are we willing to show for it? Because nothing less than everything will suffice. True belonging first requires radical authenticity, to ourselves and to others, otherwise the best we can do is fit in, and there’s no real love in that… only likes and follows.

The path of Yoga has taught me that. So have the honesty and often painful reflections of my friends and my amazing partner. That if we want it all, we have to be willing to risk it all. Before we can move outwards, we first have to move inwards.

In the dark little corners of our mind, real courage is born. Armed with that, we can reveal our totality – our ugliness, our fear, our imperfections as well as all of the ways we shine and contribute. We are never going to be perfect. Not perfect people, perfect partners, perfect parents or perfect yogis. But we are still worthy of love and belonging. We all still deserve community in our lives.

Nevertheless, community is not something we get for free. We have to earn it.

Im learning that.

Practicing with the right attitude, the right intention, getting humble enough to ask for the right kind of help, meeting others as we truly are – fear, shame, insecurities and all, are the first steps. Because even though it may seem the contrary, community, connection and love are not born and do not exist outside of ourselves.

Like everything else worth living for, the epicentre of belonging is deep inside.

by Octavio Salvado.

Life certainly looks complicated, just as physical reality certainly looks physical.

In both cases however, subscribing to these ideas simply indicates that Maya has you by the balls.

From the vantage point of Yoga, Maya is the concealing force that covers the truth of the way things are with an illusory veil. We don’t like to admit it, but most of the time it’s for our own damn good. Flashback to Arjuna, chapter 11 of the Bhagavad Gita who has his tender little mind blown after demanding that Krishna remove the curtain and gift him a vision of the Undifferentiated Absolute. It’s too much for Arjuna, far too much at once. So Maya is a shield as much as a sheath, a blessing as much as a covering.

Regardless, the point is, things are rarely as they appear. Reality, as science is now proving is vibratory in nature and notphysical like we once believed. Likewise, life isn’t, or doesn’t have to be that complex either. It’s just a case of simple mathematics, and whether we are talking about taking care of our health, nurturing our relationships or laying down the guiding principles to build a thriving business, there is only one meaningful equation to attend to and one final digit to arrive at – The number 9.

These are the secret teachings of the almost forgot science of Yantra Yoga. The peripheral science of Yantra deals with Mandalas and pretty pictures in sand, shimmering images on the backs of new-age T-shirts, yet underneath all that is a numerical code that holds the entire cosmos in place and governs every single aspect of our ordinary, everyday, absolutely incredible human lives.

Yantra is such a beautiful word, so potent in meaning. In Sanskrit, when a word ends in ‘tra’, as in man-tra, it is typically an indication that the thing itself has the capacity to protect. From one stand point, Mantra means ‘mind protection’, which is why it is considered a safe way to awaken our energy and peel back the layers of mind. Pranayama on the other hand, which does not end in ‘tra’, has a higher likelihood of disturbing the mind if not approached in the right way or facilitated by a skilled teacher.

Yantra is often translated as ‘Holding Device’, therefore, a holding device that protects reality from falling into chaos. Yantra is the mathematical blueprint behind everything, a combination of forces co-existing and inter-relating giving us the contextual field called life that allows us to play out our karmas and manifest our highest visions and sometimes our nightmares. When these forces are in balance, things naturally evolve towards the highest expression possible given the situation.

Personally, I am a product and student of Tradition. I love my teachers and likewise possess a deep gratitude for their teachers and the wisdom brought forward from some long-ago era of exquisite depth and understanding. The following is a map handed down to those who care to peer beyond the veil.

Simply stated, this universe and everything in it is governed by 9 fundamental forces. These forces run through life in every conceivable way, from the unfolding of our bodies on their journey from seed to death, to the orbits of planets as they hurl themselves around the Sun. Even our thoughts becoming words and then manifested realities move through an energetic flow chart which can be tracked from its source to its destiny along 9 single points.

Six of these forces have specific pooling points along the human spinal column where the nervous system bundles together into clusters called nerve ganglia. Here, they directly affect the way we show up in the world because they impact our glandular system and therefore the chemicals that get released into our bodies. When these forces are in balance, we are in balance, our beliefs, our thoughts, our words, our actions, our health, our relationships, our finances, our endeavors, everything. The system is protected, allowing it to thrive.

Forces 7, 8 and 9 are subtler and less tangible than the other 6 and although the essence of each can be found in everything, they have more to do with the contextual field through which the other 6 operate and co-mingle. In the Science of Tantra Yoga, forces 7,8 and 9 are considered ‘higher’ universal energies that exist outside the body, creating the stadium where the game of life can be played out.

To bring it down to the personal, right here in this moment, I am perched on the cusp of opening a community center for yoga and evolutionary learning on the Island of the Gods, Bali. To say that my wildest dream is coming alive before my eyes is a radical understatement. The game is ON. Therefore, to keep things balanced and protected I repeatedly turn my attention to the wisdom of the 9 forces; what the ancient Mayans referred to as the 9 Lords of Time and the Tantrikas understood as the energies of the Chakras. In this way I give the project every opportunity to flourish and follow its natural course, becoming the fullest expression of what I know it is capable of becoming.

A few days ago my Business mentor, Carl asked me to develop the ‘Guiding Principles’ of the business, the things that ‘The Practice’ will live and breathe by, so naturally I went straight to the underlying map of everything to construct a game plan.

Here they are, the guiding principles of The Practice Bali numbers 1 – 9. The first 6 relate more to our everyday operations and motivations, the final 3 are loftier, grander intentions. We may not post these on Facebook or paste them on the studio walls, yet you can count on them being there, as a part of the environment, as a part of the atmosphere that we breathe together.

1) Integrity. You can have confidence in the integrity of what we offer. We are dependable. The yoga system from which The Practice springs is connected to a lineage unbroken for thousands of years. Everything we do, from teaching yoga to cleaning floors will be infused with this same integrity and respectfulness.

2) Community. We are open-minded and community spirited. Our doors are wide open to everyone. Look forward to free Community classes and regular events beyond the yoga schedule that bring people together to share ideas, laughter, music and more.

3) Leadership. We strive to be positive role models within the local and global communities. We are leaders in the field, risk takers, freedom lovers, doers that make shit happen. We want to contribute to raising the bar in regards to practice and teaching standards worldwide.

4) Service. The currents of compassion and generosity will carry us out into the world. We are here to serve. Community outreach programs and charity events will be a focus.

5) Studentship. We are progressive because we are always learning and growing, never satisfied that we have all the answers. We are humble truth seekers and transparent truth speakers, no bullshit, no fluff. We own our flaws and strive for growth in all areas.

6) Mindfulness. Bringing both perspective and awareness to everything we do. At all times we endeavor to respond from our highest place, where our hearts and our minds connect.

7) Harmony. Within our self, with each other, with the local Balinese community, with the environment, with the planet, we work towards sustainable, harmonic relationships in every way.

8) Gratitude. We recognize the incredible privilege that it is to be here – to have these bodies, to have these lives, these finances, the gift of yoga, all of our teachers and the opportunity to serve and make a difference in the world. Every moment we are giving thanks for these opportunities and gifts.

9) Universal Trust. We surrender. We trust that we are here for a purpose and that we are guided along the way. We trust in our own and each other’s capacities and when things get challenging, our trust in the universe will keep us positive, calm, grateful and in harmony with ourselves and all those around us.

These principles will be our measurements. They represent both our support beams and our guiding lights as we bring forth our vision into the world, keeping it safe as it blooms open towards fruition.

There is nothing new here, as Carl says, “No point reinventing the wheel,” because after all, there is only one system to govern everything, our business lives, our personal lives, our spiritual lives, everything. This is why you can affect your kidneys by pressing parts of your foot, or points on the lobes of your ears. Everything that exists in one place, must as a byproduct of reality, also exists and be accessible in all other places. Like a child’s ‘color by numbers’ activity book, all we have to do is learn the codes, grab the markers and create our own picture of beauty, because the reality is, life was always meant to be that way.

Beautiful.