Welcome to Planet Earth

Dearest Sangha,

My friend Don Ricardo told me an old Native American story the other day. It tells of beings of immense beauty and power that lived on the earth a long time ago. Then, one day, when humans prepared to come live on Planet Earth too, the beings were worried that they would scare the fragile and impressionable humans with their beauty and power. So they cloaked themselves and became the shapes and forms of our natural world. Into trees they hid, and mountains, and all kinds of plants. They cloaked themselves in the shapes of animals so they could display their gifts without frightening the humans to death.

We get hints of that power when we look at an animal in its natural environment, or understand the healing power of a plant. Or, when we are outside and still, and feel the beauty and serenity present in nature. I love this story; it rings true to me on so many levels.

Lately, I have been pondering the statement that “man is the crown of creation.” I don’t really see much evidence of that, unfortunately. Nor do I agree with the idea that we have a divine-given right to treat animals and our world the way we have and do.

Over the years, I have heard theories that our planet is the “lowest” of all the planets or realms; or that those who come here are sentenced to some kind of prison camp.

But what if it is actually the other way around, and this planet is actually the “highest” planet there is?

It is the highest place because this is where you can learn about the true power of love.

Imagine that you have worked hard to deserve to come here. It is all the more challenging because you can so easily forget who you really are. The ante is high and you agreed to the challenge.

All the beings you encounter are there to remind you that you are really a Buddha in disguise. According to my teacher Jack Kornfield: All the beings are doing exactly what they are supposed to do in order to awaken us. Everything and everyone is already enlightened, except of course ourselves!

But because most of us have forgotten who we are, we have gone a bit crazy out of the pain of that forgetfulness.

To this I say: Congratulations! You have graduated and earned the opportunity to come to this planet and remember. This is your chance to pass the highest test on how to love.

And in passing the test, we can finally become the custodians of this beautiful world that we were meant to be. We are the Ones we have been waiting for.

I wish you a blessed and rich summer.

With love

Radiant Woman

By Milena Moser (translated from German to English by Katchie Ananda)

You can read the original German version here.

Katchie extraordinaire

Together they do seminars on yoga and writing and they inspire each other. Writer Milena Moser and yoga teacher Katchie Ananda. And when the writer tells the story about her girlfriend the yoga teacher, we get the iridescent portrait of a woman who not only has her own style, but guides her students with love and understanding.

Katchie Ananda doesn’t need to be introduced, not in Switzerland or elsewhere. She is one of the most important and charismatic representative of western yoga. So much is clear. But the best part: She is not aware of it. “I still see myself primarily as a yoga student” she told the German Magazin Yoga Aktuell in an interview.

My first yoga class with Katchie happened 10 or 11 years ago. At that time I lived in San Francisco and because I heard about this special yoga teacher, I drove over the bridge to Berkeley just to take her class. Two things stood out to me: She singled me out in shoulderstand in the middle of a big size class because she recognized my (very slight) scoliosis and gave me an easier variation to perform. This had never happened to me before. And, as she performed a spectacular pose, she told the students “yeah, yeah, I can do this because I don’t have a life outside my yoga practice” as she dissolved the pose with a big smile. She said that there was no need for them to perform such a pose, no advantage. That too was new to me. That a yoga teacher would question the motive of performing difficult poses as the ultimate goal.

Friends because of "Schlampenyoga"

Hmmm, I thought, she is good! And then I promptly forgot her and went on with my life. One or two years later the phone rang at my house in San Francisco. It was Katchie. In broad, slightly out of style “Berndeutsch” a dialect from Bern in Switzerland, she explained to me that she had just red my book “Schlampenyoga” and she was emphatic that her classes would be just right for me. I didn’t tell her then that I had already been to her class once and immediately booked a class with her the next Saturday. At that point, she taught out of her own studio, in the trendy mission district, that she later sold.

In the meantime her class size had exploded, but still, she greeted all the students with her radiant smile, which is her trademark. Nobody has a bigger smile then Katchie. It fills the whole space and still touches each person personally. In the same way, her teachings touches each student personally. I noticed this right away. She would remember names, exam dates, vacation plans. Students would bring their mothers who were visiting and attended class in their stockings. They fit in to her class just as well as the Gumby-like students that were in training to become teachers.

A Nibble of chocolate

She had recently come back from Switzerland, and had stocked up on Swiss chocolate. Sitting in lotus seat in front of her harmonium, she nibbled on her chocolate without any self-consciousness. An attitude that might be perfectly normal in Switzerland, but is frowned upon in an almost fanatically health conscious Northern California. It was almost as if she had smoked a cigarette before class. And indeed I saw some students looking shocked. But Katchie didn’t mind. “I need chocolate”, she said happily. “It’s in my genes!” For the same reason, she had painted the ceiling of her studio a chocolate brown. When we laid on our backs during class, we saw the sky as a gigantic chocolate bar. I resonated with that very much. Here, I was at home, both physically as well as spiritually.

No Time for Small talk

She is good, I thought again, and this time I didn’t forget. After class, we went for a coffee across the street and promptly forgot the time. 4 hours later the phone rang “where are you?” This was the beginning of a very special friendship, which, because of my impending return to Switzerland, took on an urgent quality. After every yoga class, we went for coffee and 2 hours went by without either of us noticing. There were parking tickets on the windshield of the car, cellphones squeaking reproachfully. We became the kind of friends that do not have time for small talk. When we get together, it is always about the heart of the matter. It didn’t’ take long for us to realize that we had very similar approaches in our very different professions. We don’t believe it’s about being perfect, or striving towards an ideal. What matters to both of us, and what we teach, is to find our unique and authentic expression, on the mat as well as on paper. With this insight we created the yoga and writing workshops, and with a wink, we call them “chilli and chocolate”. We also made a special pact: I would help Katchie to write her book, and she promised to help remove my fear of handstands…..more about that later.

Katchie was raised near Bern and was educated at a Rudolf Steiner School. Their special teaching style deeply informed her as did the wisdom and love of her late mother. Katchie even dedicated her first training manual to her. Katchie was a physically weak child who fought for survival during her early years. I suspect that this sharpened her incomparable instincts as to the processes in her body. “I am dependent to listen to my body” she says, “I simply can’t afford to ignore it”. When she was 20 years old, Katchie left the tiny country of Switzerland and lived in Brazil and then in the US. Even though she practiced Shivananda yoga in Switzerland, the trained dancer had her first serious encounter with yoga in New York City. She studied Jivamukti yoga with Sharon Gannon and David Life, Ashtanga yoga with Richard Freeman in Boulder and Anusara yoga with John Friend. She was an influential representative in each of these different schools, in some she was even treated as a potential heir – before she moved on and turned towards something else. In her first training manual she thanks all her teachers for disappointing her at some point. “In the beginning I had a hard time accepting the fact that my teachers are people like you and me, and are not perfect. And without the disappointment, I would have never claimed the essence of the teachings for myself”.

Distinctive Yoga style

Elements from all those different schools are present in her very personable and unmistakable style of teaching. The biggest impact on her evolution was perhaps the well-known Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield with whom she studied vipassana, or mindfulness mediation for many years.

Katchie’s method, which I call simply “the Katchie-method”, combines elements of yoga and dharma. On her home page, she introduces herself as a yoga and dharma teacher. If you are familiar with Metta, or loving kindness practice, in Katchie’s class you will recognize immediately that she rains loving kindness onto her students, until each and every cell is saturated. “Yoga is a tool for every day, not some new age philosophy, or a striving towards an ideal”. Yoga with Katchie is metta-in-motion.

Her own yoga practice influences her teaching style. She reacts to changes and pain because even a super yogini like Katchie experiences back aches, or is getting older. She shares her experience generously with her students. She is an example on the journey, a journey that doesn’t lead to conquering the poor body, or to a fleeting perfection, but to a more lenient and kinder treatment of ourselves. Katchie knows that the most difficult exercise for many students, is to love themselves. More difficult than standing on your hands, or crossing your feet behind your neck. Sometimes she starts a class by rubbing her hands over her (admittedly not exactly bulging) stomach and smile her irresistible smile. “Yuuuummmmm” she says, and it sounds exactly as if she just stumbled onto a box of Spruengli truffle chocolates. “Come on, everybody, yuuuummmm!” A little while ago, in one of her workshops in Zurich, she found out that there was a fair amount of new people in attendance. “Oh, wow” she cried. “I’m not sure if I should congratulate you or feel sorry for you! Forget everything you think you know about yoga – welcome on the journey!” And like with every class I’ve ever taken from Katchie, I felt personally addressed and taken care of. Yuummm.

Hold on instead of letting go

With every year, Katchie becomes more radical and direct. Her concern and commitment to animals and the environment takes up more and more space in her life. “The concept of letting go is having way too much weight in spiritual teachings” she says. “It is dangerous and leads to easy replacements of people, animals and even things, when they no longer server our immediate needs. I say it’s the opposite, hold on and hang in there – with all your love. Only this way we truly evolve as people.” She immediately specifies – “of course there are situations and relationships where we need to let go – it could be fatal otherwise.” But once again, she inspires with a fresh and unusual take and gives students food for thought. So how does this attitude show in your daily life, I ask? “When I go for a walk in the Santa Fe river bed with my dog Leelou, I pick up trash. I like doing this because it feels like this river in front of my house is my river and my responsibility to take care of.” Again, she laughs loudly. After many years in the San Francisco Bay Area, she moved, with husband and dog, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The move has made her life more stable and calmer. She teaches less and writes more. Her first manual is almost done. Her “autobiography of a yognini” is sorted in colorful cards on the wall in her practice room and is waiting to be typed into the computer. And the handstand we will manage as well…….

Fall 2011 Newsletter

This summer while I was on tour in Europe. I had the opportunity to assist my teacher, John Friend. For the first time, his tour included Switzerland, where he taught a workshop and therapy training. Auspiciously, I was there at the same time and had the honor of assisting him. When I traveled to Barcelona to teach at a yoga conference held in July, John was there as well to teach his scheduled one-day intensive and again, he invited me to assist. It was wonderful to be with him, and I learned a lot.

Ever since, I have been thinking of my apprenticeship with him, and the gifts I received from being around him for a couple of weeks. Let me just say, John is truly one of the most brilliant people I have ever met. In my humble opinion, the system he created, Anusara, is the most sane and intelligent Yoga rubric that is available to practitioners today. The Anusara system's therapeutic implications are so profound that it creates healing in the body, much in the same way that the Dharma I have learned from Jack Kornfield, brings healing to the mind and heart. I have started to call Anusara: "Dharma for the body." I have also been reflecting on the qualities of these two teachers of mine, who, both brilliant, exhibit different qualities as individual teachers for me. I've been thinking about these qualities in terms of archetypes, specifically the "father and mother archetypes" and what this might mean to us, if we learn to embody them into our lives.

John represents the "father archetype". His assistants know that while performing the task of assistance, you have to be ready for him to call you by name and ask any question relating to the Anusara system. I found myself shaking in my boots sometimes; and I prayed in the morning that I would have the right answer to whatever question he would ask that day. Now it is important to understand that he is not putting you on the spot like that in order to humiliate you - not at all. But what he is asking you to do is: Step it up! Expand and be all that you can be!

Often, that entails venturing into the unknown and embracing insecurity and fear.

Jack on the other hand, embodies the "mother archetype" for me. He has the classic "glance of mercy," a quality of such deep compassion and empathy that nothing you could do would result in any kind of failure or deny you his deep and lasting love. Just like the ideal image we might have of a mother, who loves her child no matter what, through success or failure, and whether or not the child feels "worthy" of that love or not.

I truly believe that we need both of these archetypes in our lives. Ideally, we first internalize the mother principle. Meaning that we nurture a love for ourselves, so profound, that it provides us with a grounded sense of security that outlasts any success or failure we may experience. In Tantric Philosophy, for example, it is said that you can never slip past the Hindu goddess Kali. She is the ultimate safety net, catching you no matter how far you fall from grace.

Without that mother principle, no matter how high we reach, how much success we have, how many titles we accumulate. If the very ground we need to walk upon is missing from beneath our feet, none of it will ever be enough. In our personal spiritual practice, we are wise to cultivate the mother principle through the ancient Buddhist practice of Metta, or Loving-Kindness practice. Traditionally, until we sense this self-love has finally taken form, we direct Metta meditation at ourselves. Sometimes this takes years.

Once we have the mother principle internalized it is indeed time to work on the father principle. It is good to be uncomfortable at times, and feel not secure while reaching for the next step, as it usually requires a leap into the unknown. But the healthy respect of the father principle spurs us on to letting go of our comfort zone and stepping into the unknown, and eventually, embracing our courage. When we do this, we enable the larger versions of ourselves to come into being. When we approach these endeavors, supported by the secure and firm ground of self-affirmation, regardless of external success or failure, we are able to work toward our goals with intensity, but also with a lot of playfulness. Should we fail to reach our goals (or not know the answer to John's questions), we can have a sense of humor about it and try again the next time.

I feel incredibly lucky to have found both these qualities so strongly embodied by my teachers and to internalize them into my life and teachings.

I encourage you to reflect on these archetypes also - which one would you like to cultivate and develop, as you are taking your yoga of the mat and into your live?

The last bit of news I wanted to share:

At the end of September, after having come back from Switzerland, I will have a rather complicated foot surgery. The full recovery time will be 3 month to a year. Thankfully, I will still be able to teach, as my community stepped forward gracefully, to help with rides and assistance in my classes during the first portion of recovery.

Honestly I'm a bit scared and any good thoughts and prayers you can send my way, will be greatly appreciated!

Be well and many blessings for the approaching Fall,

Katchie Ananda

Spring 2011 Newsletter

Hey Everybody,

Here is an update about a few upcoming offerings and some reflections about my recent retreat.

I'm very excited about these two up-coming Series I'm offering, "Yoga and Dharma" starting next Friday at 7th Heaven and "Grace and Grit" starting in May at Yoga Kula SF.

I've really wanted to create an opportunity for folks who might be unable, financially or otherwise, to commit to a full-on immersion to be able to deepen their practices in a similar way. These are mini-immersions and are sure to deepen your practice on every level. If this appeals to you, I invite you to attend either one of these or both, especially because I will be gone so much this year and it will be a great opportunity to intensify and up your studies with me.

If you have any questions about them, contact me and I'll be happy to answer them. Also, please make sure to sign up in advance - in order make a commitment to the entire series. I made it financially viable to do so and if you are missing a weekend, I will give you the opportunity to make it up.

"Relaxing Get-Away" to Esalen this month! If you are in need of some inspiration and re-rejuvenation, consider joining John Robbins and me for a weekend of creative writing and yoga. This will be intimate and a lot of fun and you will come away with an open heart and new inspiration!

Yoga & Dharma Series Apr 15-Aug 12 7thheavenyoga.com Berkeley, CA
Apr 22 - 24 Creative Writing and Anusara Yoga Workshop w/ John Robbins esalen.org Big Sur, CA
May 14-Aug 27 Grace & Grit Series yogakula.com San Francisco, CA

Insights from my meditation retreat:

Dear Sangha,

I am back from a month-long silent retreat at Spirit Rock Mediation Center, under the guidance of my teacher Jack Kornfield. Just before I left, I spoke to my older brother, Bernie, in Switzerland. When I told him what I intended to do, he said that he couldn't be paid to do something like that, not even for a $100,000.

Well, I have had a month to contemplate just why anyone, indeed, would spend their time this way.

A silent retreat is intense -- no question about it. It consists of a very rigorous and strict schedule that begins at five o'clock a.m. and ends at nine-thirty p.m. An alternating regimen of sitting in mediation and mindful walking is interrupted only by meals; and nightly Dharma talks, which are instructional teachings on the practice of Theravada Buddhism. Aside from one's own thoughts, these evening sessions provide the only "entertainment" available. As, by participating in the retreat, one makes the commitment not to read, write, talk on the phone, or, yes, this too: not to check e-mails!

Every couple of days the participant meets with his or her teacher to ask questions, to make a progress report, and to receive tips on how to deal with stuff as it surfaces. This is the only talking that one does for the entire month.

It is a pressure cooker, no doubt, with no distractions or escape from oneself and one's habits. Jack tells the joke of a car on a desert highway, depicted in a cartoon he once saw. The illustration included a traffic sign with the following warning: "Your own tedious thoughts next 200 Miles!"

So why would I elect to undergo such an ordeal?

When I work on my computer, it occasionally gets stuck and freezes. Anyone working with computers is intimately familiar with this annoying glitch in modern technology. As my husband, Joshua, patiently explains to me, there is no need to panic. It is simply time to shut the computer down and then restart it. It almost always -- miraculously -- works!

The retreat serves in just the same way. It is like pushing the reset button, allowing us a pause during which time we take a look at our lives and see where we have gotten stuck or hung up.

To put it succinctly: It allows us to be fully present with both the blessings and the sorrows of our lives in a unique way. By making space within and around us in order to manage these aspects of ourselves, minus the powerful distractions of our daily lives, we can confront the issues we have been putting off, and revel in the marvel of trying to simply be.

There are so many blessings both in and around us. So much to celebrate and appreciate; especially what we normally take for granted or fail to notice when we are lost in thoughts or simply not paying attention. In retreat, we learn to receive the gift of every day blessings, fully, without hurry or worry of how long they might last.

And, instead of meeting our suffering with resistance and judgment, we learn to accept our difficulties with friendliness and compassion. The great Sufi poet, Rumi, said it well. In his poem, "The Guesthouse," he proclaimed the following: This being human is a guest house Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they are a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. Of course, it takes awhile to train the mind to stay in the moment and to greet each guest at the door, welcome or otherwise, with equanimity and grace. Anyone who has ever sat down and attempted to meditate knows the overwhelming urge - while seated and still - to continue planning, worrying, reminiscing and fantasizing; making us aware of how little we are present in the here and now.

Nevertheless, it is even more amazing that, relatively, it doesn't take that long to quiet the mind and open the heart. Even more good news: everyone can do it!

After having spent these past four weeks doing just so, I know it is possible and I know that it works.

In the afterglow, I am left with an almost unbearable sweetness of being, a simple gratitude of aliveness, different than I have ever known. I feel like a newborn, and can be moved to tears by just about everything.

The life I have is a precious gift and I am excited to re-enter it with all the insights and new tools gained during retreat.

Turns out that, if I had it, I would gladly pay a $100,000 to attend a retreat like that again!

 - Katchie

Fall 2009 Newsletter

My Dear Sangha,

I have just returned home from an amazing journey abroad. Returning to my homeland to offer the gifts I have learned over the last 20 years here in America was especially precious to me.

And, after 20 years, I have just become an American citizen! I aced my test last Monday and I will be sworn in some time next month.

Some of the highlights of this trip were my visit to Grindelwald, a small city located high in the Swiss Alps where I met up with Jack Kornfield, my teacher. Having made some loose plans to go paragliding before the Vipassana retreat in Beatenberg started, everything came together and we spent a most marvelous day in each other’s company. It was a beautiful day filled with hiking, eating fondue (only Americans eat fondue in the summer time), and flying through the skies together. During our flying adventure, we caught some amazing thermals (in paragliding speak that means columns of rising air). Spending almost an hour in the high up mountains, at some point I looked over to Jack and saw that he had caught a thermal and, literally, had his head in the clouds! My teacher with his head in the clouds – I laughed out loud.

Visiting my homeland with a foreign friend, I see things with different eyes. The familiar becomes special and I am able to appreciate everything anew. From that day with Jack, the theme of my trip was appreciation. It turned out to be a very appropriate theme, indeed.

The nine days spent teaching with Jack in Beatenberg was both wonderful and intense. Adjusting my skills as a yoga teacher to suit the silent tone of a Vipassana retreat proved to be a great learning experience, throughout which I felt touched by Jack’s confidence in me. The yoga classes I offered were very simple and quiet. It was great to see the power of yoga once again.

The next event in my Europe schedule was teaching an Anusara Immersion in Zurich, and I attempted to do so, in German no less. On the third day I hit a wall and said to my students that I would never speak another word in German again! I think it was very daring to try to convey such a complex and sophisticated system in a language that I haven’t really spoken in 20 years! Nevertheless we managed, in part because my assistant, Michael Thurnherr, a wonderful and mature teacher, helped out a lot. The immersion was packed and successful in that everyone moved through a week of personal transformation.

Following all of this good work, I enjoyed the pleasure of a 10-day vacation with my beloved friends Julia Butterfly, Alissa Hauser and Milena Fraccari. We traveled across Italy in a tightly packed car, from event to event. We had all been on the road for some time. Four girls and one car made for too much luggage. Every time we had to leave for a new destination, Julia chased us all away so she could get into the “zone” to pack the car. It was amazing that she managed to fit everything, including stuff that was given to us along the way.

I had an especially powerful time at a conscious community named Damanhur in northern Italy. I have never seen anything quite like the temples they constructed, by hand, into the heart of a mountain! For many years they built them in secret and once the authorities found out, they went there to shut them down. Instead, the Damanhurians invited the officials to view the temples who were so overwhelmed by their beauty that they couldn’t destroy these works of greatness and, thus, promptly granted them a permit! It has been called the ‘Eight Wonder of the World’.The official greeting of the Damanhurians is “Con te,” which means, “with you”.

In Florence I co-taught an event with Julia, which was organized by Damanhur. I know I will return to this industrious and sweet community very soon! If you want to check it out, here is their website: www.damanhur.info

I wish you all a wonderful and blessed Fall.