News + Events + Classes
EVENT : March 1-3
The South Asian Studies Association 2024 Annual Conference. Order and Disorder in South Asia
At CIIS, San Francisco
And exhibition, March 2024: The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali – A Visual Meditation
CIIS in Namaste Hall, the main conference room
South Asian Studies Association 2024 Annual Conference
Attend Online Via Zoom or In-person at CIIS in San Francisco
Upcoming Workshop
Developing a Personal relationship with the yoga sutras
with Melissa Townsend
Workshop: The Tarot as a Tool for Guidance + Self Discovery
Friday January 20, 6:15-7:45
Love Story Yoga, Valencia
Life is hard. How can we move through it with something like grace? First of all, how are we even to understand the circumstances in which we find ourselves?Because without understanding the nature of the terrain, there is no mapping a way through! The Tarot can help.
The Tarot is more than just a divination tool. It is a means of communication betweenour rational mind and our deep, subconscious, intuitive self. The Tarot provides a bridge– a way to access our inner “knowing,” helping us to better understand the nature of the circumstances in which we find ourselves and guiding us in the direction of our heart’s deepest needs and desires. The Tarot can give deeply spiritual guidance, and it can also give supremely practical advice. It all depends upon what you need – and upon what you ask and how you do it!
Join Melissa Townsend as we use the Tarot to develop and deepen our connection to that part of us that knows all that we need to know.
In this workshop, we’ll spend some time looking at what the cards mean and why. We’ll look at The Major Arcana as a Spiritual Path – The Hero’s Journey, with attention on the important archetypes presented, and what it means when these powerful cards show up in your reading. We’ll also take a look more generally at the Minor Arcana, and what they indicate. And we’ll do readings, and talk about how you put it all together and make sense of what comes up.
5:00 pm - 7:00 PM ET
Online Event Via Zoom
When we engage with a text like the Yoga Sūtras in a personal and intuitive way, we open ourselves up for the transformative potential of the text to work on us – to up-end us, to scare us, to mess with us, to amaze and astound us, and to transform us – helping us to experience that we are so much, much more than anything we could say or think that we are.
Finding a creative point of entry to a spiritual text like the Yoga Sūtras is one way to develop and nurture this kind of personal relationship with the text and, thereby, with spiritual practice. It is a rich and joyous way to approach the material and to let the material find its own, tailored-to-you way to open your heart and soul.
The goal of this workshop is to work with the participants to develop this kind of personal and creative relationship with the Yoga Sūtras. Often the goal of a Yoga Sūtras class or workshop is to make it through the text in its entirety or through a significant portion of the text. Instead, our goal will be to savor the sūtras, to work very closely with a few of them, using both traditional methods such as chanting (with some translation and analysis of the Sanskrit text), as well as using creative exploration -- methods that allow us to explore personal creative avenues that offer intuitive access to the material.
Tuition : $40
Friday / January 15, 2021
Workshop
Working with the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali
5 - 7pm PST
Join Melissa Townsend to explore a beautiful and accessible way to work regularly with the Yoga Sūtras -- using her new meditation deck for Book One, The Yoga Sūtras Meditation Deck, Book One, Samādhi Pādah.
$30
Virtual -- Zoom link will be provided one hour before.
During the workshop, Melissa will talk about the deck, describe the features of the Meditation Deck, how to work with the color coding. We’ll look at some interesting ways of working with the sutra unique to the deck, to help bring the sūtras to life. We will look at groupings of cards/sutras and at working with sutras that are related to each other. Primarily, we’ll be working with a few specific cards/sutras, both chosen as a group and chosen individually. We’ll be talking about the sutra, what it means, talking about the image on the card, chanting the sutra, and then meditating on it, followed by journaling and discussing.
Needed for the workshop:
The Yoga Sutras Meditation Deck, Book One, Samādhi Pādah.
Journal or notebook
Pen or pencil
When you register for the workshop, you will receive a 10% discount code.
Register: https://lovestoryyoga.com/events/working-with-the-yoga-sutras-of-patajali
Free Community Event:
The Yoga Sutras: A Conversation with Melissa + Stephanie
5 - 7pm PST
Friday / December 11
Friday / December 11 / Community Event
5 - 7pm PST
Join Melissa Townsend and Stephanie Snyder for a lively, entertaining, and enlightening discussion of all things Yoga Sutras – in honor of the release of Melissa Townsend’s new Yoga Sūtras Meditation Deck, Book One, Samādhi Pādah.
The starting point of their conversation will be Book One – the “Big Picture” overview of Yoga – The What, Why, and How of Yoga. Be prepared for a wide-ranging conversation, covering Melissa and Stephanie's personal experiences working with the sūtras, as well as insights into sūtras that they’ve found to be especially meaningful and into some of the ones that are more difficult to understand. Melissa and Steph share a passion for the sūtras and a deep commitment to working with them as part of their practice – and to encouraging others to find creative, personal ways to integrate them into daily life. Come to enjoy the community and participate in the conversation with these two passionate, engaged, and very down-to-earth, students of Yoga Philosophy.
The Meditation Deck features the beautifully reproduced (via off-set printing) cards of the 51 paintings for the 51 sūtras of Book One of the Yoga Sūtras, as seen in her book, The Yoga Sūtrasof Patañjali – A Visual Meditation. Book One, Samādhi Pādah, with updated translations and new commentary.
Friday, November 8, 2019
7 Pm - 9 PM
Show of the Paintings for The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali – A Visual Meditation: Book Two, Sadhana Padah
Enjoy an evening of art and conversation about the Yoga Sutras. Paintings from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali—A Visual Meditation: Book Two, Sadhana Padah will be on display, and the author and artist Melissa Townsend, together with Integral Yoga’s resident Yoga Sutra scholar and teacher Rev. Sam Rudra Schwartz, will lead the discussion, with plenty of time for Q & A.
Cost:
$35
Location:
Integral Yoga Institute
227 West 13th St.
New York, NY 10011
(between 7th Ave. and 8th Ave.)
Register at:
https://iyiny.org/workshops-and-events/calendar/experience-the-yoga-11297/
Previous Events
Friday, September 27, 2019
6:30 Pm - 9 PM
Show of the Paintings for The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali – A Visual Meditation: Book One, Samadhi Padah
THE EXPERIENCE: An Evening with Melissa Townsend and Stephanie Snyder – Yoga Sutras Discussion
Come experience the powerful energy and beauty of Book One of the Yoga Sutras, with a show of the paintings from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali – A Visual Meditation, BOOK ONE: Samadhi Padah. It will be an evening of art, community, socializing, refreshments, philosophy, and a discussion on the Yoga Sutras led by Melissa and Stephanie Snyder. Melissa will also be introducing her new Meditation deck that is inspired by Book One of the Yoga Sutras!
Location:
Love Story Yoga
473 Valencia St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
(between 15th and 16th St.)
Register at:
Friday, May 17, 2019
6 PM
Book Signing/Talk at Adobe Books
Location:
Adobe Books
3130 24th St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
(near Folsom)
Friday, December 14, 2018
7 Pm - 9 PM
The Book Launch and Show of the Paintings for The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali – A Visual Meditation: Book Two, Sadhana Padah
Location:
Love Story Yoga
473 Valencia St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
(between 15th and 16th St.)
Register at:
http://www.lovestoryyoga.com/events-calendar/2018/12/14/melissa-townsend-yoga-sutras
Saturday, October 21, 2018
1 PM - 6 PM
Teaching Sanskrit for Yoga Teachers
Location:
Laughing Lotus Yoga Center
3271 16th St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
December 2018
Practice Well
- YOGA JOURNAL
October/Nov. 2018
Practice Well
- YOGA JOURNAL
September, 2018
Practice Well
- YOGA JOURNAL
Artwork featured
- THE PARIS REVIEW
October/Nov. 2014
Sanskrit Paintings: The Siva Mahimna Stotram
- NAMARUPA
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