Elephant Talks with Sarah Powers at Shambhala Mountain Center

elephant* talk sarah powers by Waylon H. Lewis with Dave Platter, Rose Taylor & Meg Elsworth on themat, on thecushion elephant talks with Sarah Powers at Shambhala Mountain Center Sarah, with Tias Little and Jill Satterfield, could reeducate me into getting to know my own psychological world led last summer’s Embodied Mind retreat where there were some essential elements that I hadn’t become at Shambhala Mountain, a retreat in the acquainted with. Many of my yoga teachers Colorado Rockies. Along with Cyndi Lee of were meditators, so I was used to sitting for 15–20 minutes after my NYC’s Om Yoga, they represent a core of practice, when the inner environ- ment is naturally conducive to preeminent yoga teachers who are bridging being spacious and at peace. But I didn’t know how to cultivate that the ancient Indian traditions of yoga and place without coming directly out of my yoga practice. There was a buddhadharma –ed. pitfall in needing my yoga practice to feel at peace instead of seeing Waylon H. Lewis, for elephant: yoga as a tool to cleanse restless- Were you Buddhist first, yogi first..? ness and fatigue so that I could Sarah Powers: I was introduced to the actually be with myself and others tenets and psychology of Buddhism in my in any circumstance, and recognize Masters program. I read a lot and was that what I called my ‘self’ was looking at the nature of reality through dif- simply layers of conditioning. By ferent lenses. When I found yoga, I found looking at the nature of mind I saw brian spielmann a place to root those practices in my body. how many places there was dis- Sarah, Tias Little & Jill Satterfield in front of Marpa Point, the mountain at the heart of Shambhala Mountain’s 600-acre campus. I tried to meditate in my early 20’s, [but] it content or an inability to connect just wasn’t available to me because of my with my immediate experience. There’s a understanding of love and compassion strong creative, restless nature. It took a stream of fear-based living from ego identi- and insight into wisdom. When I viewed number of years of yoga for me to calm fication in all of us, until there’s the point- the Buddhist community and went to down enough so that I could utilize the ing-out of the nature of mind [a preliminary some talks, there were so many people incredible tools of the Buddhist practices. Buddhist teaching] and we learn to recog- who were not necessarily liberated, but So, I came back around to what I’d been nize it within ourselves. Working with were living from a place of authentic reading long before I’d started yoga prac- these conditioned patterns is an ongoing inquiry, humbleness and true insight in tice, but couldn’t root in my own experi- process, but I no longer feel like they are their ability to translate what they had ence until there was a level of ease to the the essence of who I am. They’re aspects learned personally into those teachings. nervous system that yoga provided for me. of experience—and they become door- So I thought, “Okay…here are some great I wanted to go further than just doing ways. So, yoga practice in and of itself mentors.” the postures. I’d heard a lot about medita- readies us because of the way it elicits ele: At the time there weren’t well-known tion in my yoga courses and trainings, but heightened, yet smoothed-out energy. But crossover teachers, though it’s always we only practiced it for short periods. I’d if we don’t channel that energy into recog- been done in a grassroots way: Richard heard that if you really wanted to [medi- nizing what the obstacles to presence are, Freeman [Yoga Rockies’ Autumn] was tate], the Buddhists were really practicing. then we are left with the potential to culti- talking about how folks have been going There would be no way around getting to vate more a sense of egocentrism and ‘under the wall’ between these traditions know your own mind. You couldn’t get up more of a sense of ‘me and my wonderful- forever. And that more of that needs to in 15 minutes and be done for the day. You ly-enhanced, strong body.’ continue to happen. Yogis might seek would actually look, and look again, all So who did I want to model my prac- meditation instruction within Buddhism or day on retreats. 10 years into my yoga tice after? Those who had less attachment other traditions, and—as Jeff Waltcher, practice, I felt ready to find teachers who to asana, without giving it up, and more director of Shambhala Mountain put it 6. www.elephantelephant.com sarah powers talk elephant* [Yoga Rockies’ Summer]—many Buddhists And in the other direction, what the the yoga world and taught full-time for 10 have long been “closet yogis.” This ‘closet- Buddhist path has to offer the yogi—they years before I found a meditation teacher. ness’ has remained, until the past few both look at the nature of moksha, libera- ele: That’s how you got beyond or years, when the practices of Richard, Tias, tion, and the nature of dukha, suffering— beneath that conceptual level. other widely-respected yogis became bet- but the Buddhist path puts a microscopic Sarah: When I got to the [meditation] ter known. Coming from a Buddhist tradi- lens on how we suffer. In his incredible cushion it was, “I know this body, where tion, for years, I wouldn’t even think about ability to transmit his understanding, the there’s blockage and how to be with pain, doing yoga, mostly because of the scene. Buddha was able to peel away the psy- somewhat.” Meditation felt like advanced It was partly just my projection, but people chological realms and then create a door yoga. And I felt so sorry for people who seemed trippy. in for us, so many years later. A lot of yogis hadn’t done any yoga. I thought, “how can Sarah: Right. The messenger kills the were transcending and not coming back they be here? How difficult.” Many of message. and sharing those teachings, even though them left my first 10-day retreat. And those ele: And so what caused you to go they may have reached similar places of I spoke to at the end were dealing with so beyond such hesitation or projection and liberation through the ages. much pain and the acknowledgement of explore this ‘weird religion’: Buddhism? ele: Like the great Buddhist teachers having a body that they weren’t familiar Sarah: I’m interested in any wisdom tra- called forest yogis. Once they attained lib- with. They didn’t get to drop below that dition that looks at the nature of suffering eration they just roamed around in the for- physical hindrance. Had I not been so and waking up from that—and I have est and almost had to be caught by disci- familiar and respectful with my body, it been influenced by my husband, Ty, who I ples in order to receive teachings. But, would have been hard for me to just stay met at 18. So, it’s not a closed idea of ‘I going back: at college you were excited by seated and deal with things through mind. was a yogi and now I’m a Buddhist.’ I what you were reading about, but couldn’t ele: It would be helpful if more of that often tell people this when I teach, so that quite get it on some level. understanding is shared with meditators. they don’t feel like they are looking Sarah: It connected on a conceptual Things are still very much the way you through a particular lens, which if they level, which is a doorway. We have to described in Buddhist communities. don’t adopt themselves, we’re not going to have an intellectual understanding of Sarah: And rightfully so. That’s the pitfall be able to relate. It’s not the -ism of what the path is and where we’re going. I that’s so common in yoga—which you Buddhism that I’m interested in—the was involved in psychotherapy and were saying that you saw. Tsoknyi description of ‘Buddhism’ in relation to processes of looking at where my block- Rinpoche and I had a dialogue here at other religions is really quite new. It was ages were. Many the therapists had a nat- Shambhala Mountain, when I first always called the buddhadharma, the path ural transcendent quality. The program I became his student. I asked him, “what do of the truth. So, for me, I’m not interested was in, at the Institute of Transpersonal you think of doing hatha yoga as a prelim- in labels, because they become shackles. Psychology Transpersonal Psychology, inary practice? [In Tibetan Buddhism, one And most of the teachers I’ve gravitated blended Eastern traditions with Western begins with four set practices] I have a 10- toward have used the lens of Buddhism to psychology. We read Ken Wilber, Jack year [yoga] practice that takes two hours go beyond any idea of religion. Because a Kornfield, Roger Walsh, Francis Vaughn and if I’m going to adopt the Buddhist pre- liberated being is not a Buddhist, they’re and many people who were steeped in liminary practices and learn the teachings simply liberated. You know, the Buddha Buddhist tradition and viewing it through on the nature of mind and do dzogchen didn’t call himself a Buddhist, he called [advanced meditation] himself awake.

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