August 14th – August 19th

Crestone Mountain Zen Center
Crestone, Colorado

Calling All Yoginis

Come and celebrate 11 years of “letting your hair down” yogini-style! Through worldly difficulties, logistical ordeals and massive doses of intuition and faith, over 500 women of multifarious lifestyles and origins have made the pilgrimage to the Crestone Mountain Zen Center for this yearly retreat of great company, deep purification, resounding practice and huge doses of magic flowered on the extraordinary strength of Woman.

“The Goddess” has never failed to show a radical and unique face as each circle of women that has gathered for this week of transformative love, silence, and practice. Its time to celebrate! Though the times are challenging, the luminosity of the love-wisdom held in women’s bodies has never been stronger or more necessary to celebrate. This year we will aim our practice toward ingeniously celebrating each other relentlessly, as well as live this retreat as a puja or ceremonious offering to the inherent generosity of feminine wisdom appearing in our lives, our Earth, our lineages and our unstoppable inspirations.

Not Your Normal Yoga Retreat

It has been the experience of those of us that hold the space for this retreat, that it has always been bigger than those of us attending. It has a great and delicious life of its own as a gratitude-filled return to the source of True Beauty and Love.

Come and allow exactly who you are to be deeply fed as well as nourish this call for celebration! Our world will thank us, our bodies will Re-member what is most important and our hearts will dance rather than struggle with all the faces of adversity we may need to meet in the coming year.

This 6-day annual retreat will combine asana, movement, breathwork and a series of practices that communicate Sofia’s unique understanding of the yoga of feeling. Participants will learn to integrate breath, yoga posture, and heart feeling to strengthen the body, release constricting emotions, and ground the whole being in happiness.

What Others are Saying…

“This sacred retreat ignites the power of transformation. Sofia holds a container that is so strong during these retreats, I find myself mining depths of my being that are not possible under most circumstances. I have done this retreat seven times – and each time is exquisitely different. Through a cast of ritual, practice and presence, Sofia shines her particular genius for noticing the deepest of points of avoidance, resistance and/or emotional muck within her students. She literally lays a path for opening and growth, which it is up to us to explore. The experience of a retreat with Sofia at the Crestone Mountain Zen Center carries the potent of magic.” – Nikki Dunas, Crestone, CO

“Being with Sofia and the work she entices out of our depths is such a nourishing experience, shared with the loving presence and process of all the women that come together in Crestone under the magical dome of poetic devotion to life.” – Una Laffan, United Kingdom

“I most cherish Sofia. She is a living diety, a fierce heart and gentle soul who meets whomever she is interacting with every cell alert and alive. She inspires me every day to do yoga. I can’t wait to see her and the other women again.” – Susan Black, MC Kean, PA

“It’s amazing what Sofia can do. It’s what she constantly does with opposites…she’s one of the few spiritual teachers who incorporates the downsides of life with the upsides, who doesn’t do inter-spiritual Kumba Ya, who combines strength with ethics, who doesn’t hide but is present and real. I need a booster shot.” – Joanne Rubin, NY, NY

Schedule

Crestone Mountain Zen Center is a Zen Buddhist monastery and retreat center located in the mountains of southwest Colorado. CMZC was founded in 1988 by Zentatsu Baker Roshi, Dharma Heir of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and Head Teacher of Dharma Sangha.

About Crestone

In Crestone, the stillness and vibrancy of nature becomes as obvious as the nature of our bodies. Crestone is situated in a very sacred valley at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains honored by the Native Americans indigenous to this area. It is home to many spiritual centers, and is a very powerful place for healing, transformation & regeneration. At the elevation of eight thousand feet, the air is thinner & the sun brighter with occasional afternoon showers.

About Sofia Diaz

Sofia Diaz is a hatha yoga master, a lineage holder in the Balasaraswati lineage of the South Indian temple arts and a recipient of numerous meditation empowerments in both Tibetan and Shakta Tantric traditions . She turns the body wisdom practices she is empowered in into accessible teachings and practices for the modern western mind. Being an inspired woman practitioner, the rigors of her practice have resulted in great clarity and expertise in the domain of Feminine Spiritual practice, which she has been generously teaching for 27 years. She has published writings on yoga and sacred movement in both academic and popular journals and travels frequently, teaching women’s yoga intensives throughout the world.

Registration

The doctor is in! Sofia also has a few available spots for private sessions on Monday evening (Jan. 30th) and Tuesday morning (Jan. 31st).

Check out the full schedule below for more details.

Inspiration Injection Class Schedule

Monday, January 30th at the Integral Center (2805 Broadway, Boulder, CO)

6:45-8:45am: COED Yoga- $21

9-11am: Women’s Yoga – $21

1-3pm:  COED Yoga – $21

6-7:15pm: Real Yoga Town Hall Meeting – $13
(Community question, answer, and discussion period)

Hardcore Practitioner Bundle: $50 for 2 classes and Town Hall Meeting

*Private sessions available Monday evening and Tuesday morning (Jan. 31st). To schedule a private session, please email kelly[at]blackplumproductions[dot]org.

Sofia Diaz is a hatha yoga master, a lineage holder in the Balasaraswati lineage of the South Indian temple arts and a recipient of numerous meditation empowerments in both Tibetan and Shakta Tantric traditions . She turns the body wisdom practices she is empowered in into accessible teachings and practices for the modern western mind. Being an inspired woman practitioner, the rigors of her practice have resulted in great clarity and expertise in the domain of Feminine Spiritual practice, which she has been generously teaching for 27 years. She has published writings on yoga and sacred movement in both academic and popular journals and travels frequently, teaching women’s yoga intensives throughout the world.

About the DJ:

Kelly Sosan Bearer is a social entrepreneur specializing in multimedia platform development to disseminate spiritual wisdom teachings both online and off. She currently serves as Executive Producer for Sofia Diaz and Producer at Buddhist Geeks. Kelly is also the Executive Producer and Co-founder of Integral Chicks. She goes by the alter ego DJ Sosan and has been dropping beats for the Integral scene since 2005. An ordained Zen monk, Kelly completed her MA in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology at Naropa University. She’s a published author in the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice and is currently exploring the application of Integral theory to Zen Buddhism.

A 7-Week Digital Yoga Practice with Sofia Diaz

January 26th – March 8th, 2012

Thursdays • 5-7pm PT • 6-8pm MT • 7-9pm CT • 8-10pm ET

Find your timezone here!

Please note, this entire series is audio only. There are no videos for this course.

*You can participate live or engage the practice recordings later, at any time, from anywhere in the world.

In the Zen tradition it is noted that “sitting, standing and walking” are the greatest tests of one’s true awareness or awakeness. This seven-week digital yoga series will unfold out of the heart of this understanding. The beginning, middle and end of every practice will unmistakeably be founded in “adamantine truth” (i.e. strong bodily establishment in ‘Buddha Nature’ or ‘Christ Heart’ or ‘non-dual Love-Bliss’- simple yet Large, just like true bodily engagement of any kind).

The Hatha Yoga will progress through a fabulous series of asana and pranayama practices all centered in a strongly concentrated state, designed to serve the bodily freedoms to “sit, stand and walk” purrrrfectly!!!

Get a Taste of Digital Yoga with Sofia Diaz

Sofia Diaz is a hatha yoga master, a lineage holder in the Balasaraswati lineage of the South Indian temple arts and a recipient of numerous meditation empowerments in both Tibetan and Shakta Tantric traditions . She turns the body wisdom practices she is empowered in into accessible teachings and practices for the modern western mind. Being an inspired woman practitioner, the rigors of her practice have resulted in great clarity and expertise in the domain of Feminine Spiritual practice, which she has been generously teaching for 27 years. She has published writings on yoga and sacred movement in both academic and popular journals and travels frequently, teaching women’s yoga intensives throughout the world.

What You’ll Learn…

Week 1: Experientially defining ‘sit’, opening the nadi’s (energetic nodes) of the pelvis and legs aimed toward Rajasana (the royal pose) – which is being able to sit supported by the cosmos in all our parts, allowing ourselves to Be the cosmos simultaneously.

Week 2: Lengthening the spine using the support of opened pelvis and legs to transform bodily perspective from stillness to potentiated Freedom (i.e. to Stand). The freedom to bodily stand is fundamentally, outrageously ecstatic! In this ‘week 2’ of practice we will locate and make use of spinal extensions and gentle inversions while remaining rooted in the thick openness of the legs and pelvis.

Week 3: Engaging all participant’s experience, we will practice the most necessary and the most delightful aspects of the practices given thus far in order to deepen liberating personal choices (vs. constricting avoidance strategies), thus empowering doubtless discrimination over tepid bodily fears in lawfully choosing what to practice. (This is a clarification and expansion upon Touchstone #1 from Real Yoga 1).

Week 4: Emotions and Will practice week. Deeply and lengthily practiced asanas to purify or bring awareness to blocks in conscious forward (guidance) and backward (healthy surrender) gestures – the beginning of ‘wake-full walking’ and the exaggerated noticing of pleasure in the power to move.

Week 5: The Rainbow of Spinal Choices week. This week of practice is designed to flesh out the conscious choice of where we walk from in our deepest bodily motives to move. This will be a week of great emphasis on vinyasa (breath-moved asana series) and choosing one’s favorite and most challenging Surya Namaskaram Vinayasa (Light-bowed-whole-body-breath-offered-cycle).

Week 6: The week of Celebration and review of dynamic stillness, ecstatic freedom and bliss-full sacrifice/offering as the heart-engaged bodily sensations of liberated sitting, standing and walking.

Week 7: “The Great Choice” week (or lifetime!) of practice. We will end the series highlighting the Unique Shape of all of our yogic choices – conscious and unconscious – as we feelingly sit, stand and walk alone, back into our individual lives and make choices about what is the most important, delicious and clarifying thing/things to practice moving forward from this series.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can’t Make the Call?

No problem… If for any reason you can’t attend the live call, you can download a recording of the call and listen to it whenever you like. This includes seven 120-minute MP3′s for you to keep and review and practice with, over and over. We will post the recording from each class as soon as possible for you to engage.

What Do I Need to Participate?

If you have a phone line and a computer with an internet connection, you’re ready to engage Real Yoga 3 from the comfort of your own home. Just dial into the weekly class via phone or listen online over the webcast. After you register, you’ll receive an email with access codes for our first session on Thursday, February 24th. After that, you’ll receive an email each week with new access codes to attend the live sessions.

What You’ll Receive

• Seven 120-minute teaching sessions with Sofia Diaz, including dharma talks, yoga practices, and Q&A periods.
• Access to all seven recorded class sessions available via MP3 download to listen to on your computer or iPod.
• Each two-hour practice will alternate weeks between: dharma/theory introduction, followed by physical asana practice and Q&A sessions, followed by physical asana practice

Buddhayana Yoga: The Yogic Art of Sitting, Standing & Walking

A 7-Week Digital Yoga Practice with Sofia Diaz

January 26th – March 8th, 2012

Thursdays, 5-7pm PT • 6-8pm MT • 7-9pm CT • 8-10pm ET

Find your timezone here!

Investment: $285

Please note, this entire series is audio only. There are no videos for this course.

*You can participate live or engage the practice recordings later, at any time, from anywhere in the world.

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About twelve or so years ago, a most beautiful, radically intuitive, organizationally gifted and God-Service-Moved Persian Princess approached me time and again about doing a women’s yoga retreat in Crestone Colorado. She said she knew of the perfect place and had a ‘strong feeling’ it would be really good for me to do a retreat there – with a huge emphasis on really. Overwhelm being a tendency I have yet to outgrow and with Prasad (Yoga School founded with Satchi Royers in Boulder, CO) in full force, I danced (or rather, frittered) around the request.

I can’t remember how, but the ever gracious Mersedeh Kheradmand, who many of you know as the great mentor and master-in-her-own-right, persisted with me into the concrete agreement that if she took the organizational end on entirely, I would do it. Like the most beautiful, joyful whispers of the wind in Aspen trees, I remember her saying time and again, with great mirth behind her words, “I think you’re really going to like this place.” All I thought of at the time was relative to ‘the kids’, the students/beings who might attend, but couldn’t help notice that her emphasis was personally aimed toward ‘me’ liking ‘this place’, mostly I thought it was the legendary ‘Crestone’ but Mersedeh’s mysterious inference was relative to the retreat center itself.

Mersedeh is what I call ‘a kick-ass practitioner’,  she is more beautiful and gracious as she is ferocious about her spiritual health and growth and had recently done some serious practice in the Zen tradition, amongst others. Our meeting in Boulder was not social, so she had no way of knowing my leanings in terms of zealous love and respect of great teachers, and in the fore was Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. The likes of him is always more than drive-by inspiration, you touch a field of his wisdom and practice by reading his teachings that can save your life or your very practice within your own tradition. I had recently, for my own pleasure, read and relished every shred any of his students had ever written about him or his community, so you might say I was a sort of private groupie of his legacy.

The Crestone Mountain Zen Center, the retreat center Mersedeh was so certain should host this women’s retreat and that she was so excited about me personally being introduced to was established by Zentatsu Richard Baker Roshi, the formal dharma heir of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and a man I had hoped to meet someday only out of deep appreciation for all he had done and endured for true Zen in America.

I have this curious Meso-American-Dyed-in-Old-India tendency to become ecstaticly related to the legacies and retreat centers of great masters as their very body. So, Mersedeh was right! To walk into the Zendo of Crestone Mountain Zen Center was the gift of a lifetime. It is as endlessly beautiful in the physical as it is in the subtle, not to mention the opportunity to eat food that is the light of the practicing monk’s meditative awareness, much more to be invisibly held by the non-dogmatic generosity of deep silence from real practice, and even more, the stunning tolerance and warmth consistently offered in the midst of apparent chaos. Mersedeh was more than right. The practice community surrounding Baker Roshi’s teaching in Crestone gives one great reason to be a googlie-eyed, reverent groupie. The Buddha is alive and well and living as great care and patience, great enough to encompass and serve many an un-tamed yogini!

The first year 46 women, mostly straight from city life, descended upon a handful of unsuspecting but deeply practiced Zen monks, only one of them a woman (Ulrika, who we deeply love as a fellow yogini). Long story short, I must emphasize here the meeting of what you might say ‘opposite’ traditions (apparently), in an uncommonly tolerant way. Just to give and idea: feminine spiritual practice (not to mention any large group of devoted women) necessarily/consciously includes hysteria, drama and highly demonstrative energetics, Zen doesn’t.

Since this first year was an experiment, we kept checking on numbers of participants the Zen center could hold, they kept accommodating the increasing numbers. The extent they went to in their deep hospitality and the amount of sheer work, service and sacrifice of their personal space attested to the miraculous authenticity of their practice, as does their humor; Dan (now the head monk and a genius with food) once commented after all of us ladies took a day of silence; “ that was the loudest day of silence I’ve ever heard!” Like the old woman who lived in a shoe, eyes bugging out, hair a-flying hoping “the kids (and the hosts) were alright”, I was concerned we may never be invited back, but quite the contrary! Our energy was met, respectfully held, metabolized and ultimately appreciated! And here we are a decade later… (though we have all been chastened by experience and now keep the number down to the low twenties).

Three years into doing the retreat, Mersedeh had some life-changes come up that prevented her from taking it on. I was too worn and busy and was ready to cede into it not happening. I received two completely unexpected life-changing phone calls from women who I deeply respect and (smartly) consider senior practitioners to myself. They had both been participants at Crestone one of the years previous. One in her sixties, the other in her seventies, both without any knowledge of each other told me almost the exact same thing. My experience of their phone calls was more like them reaching thru the phone, grabbing me by the hair for my full attention and telling me that this Crestone women’s retreat HAD to keep happening. They both said that it was 1. important for the place of deep spiritual practice Crestone itself was destined to be, and 2. important energetically and symbolically for the sake of women’s practice everywhere, and 3. the acknowledgement of sanctuary and nurturing of the impulse to practice in the style of women was beyond important to support and serve, NOW!

Say no more, I picked myself up by my subtle boot-straps, didn’t know how but knew I would stake myself in it happening one more year. Within days of this one ‘touch and go’ moment, everything miraculously fell into place, including many last-minute attendees, again from all over the world. Right up to last year, strange challenges have been many but She always shines through with great love and humor to the tune of one of the best assistants I have ever had being my 5 lb. Chihuahua who unexpectedly had to make the journey with me last year!

This retreat is not mine or even ‘ours’, it is Her’s with a capital H! I am elated and honored to be on this train ten years later without even noticing the time!

All of Crestone is a miracle, mysteriously designed by the laws of nature for thinning the veils of Reality for deep evolutionary personal practice. Nestled high in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, flanked by The Great Sand Dunes and the largest high valley of its kind in the world, what is now Crestone is revered by native Americans, Jesuit Monks, Tibetan Lamas and Babaji Devotees alike. The modern version of the many sanctuaries that thrive there has come to pass largely from visions and huge leaps of faith, not to mention the mind-bending generosity of Hannah Strong and the Manitou Foundation (yet another story to tell). Several of the most revered currently living Tibetan masters have freely prophecied that Crestone is and will be the best place in the world to do serious spiritual practice in the coming decades.

Who knows? I do know that the weather and all of nature up there responds in spades regularly and obviously to our presence every year. I trust the momentum surrounding this retreat more than I can say. I trust the occurance of this retreat even more profoundly because it gives me cause to notice ahead of time how very much I trust each and every one of you that are on your way to arriving at the open gate of warmth and purification, amongst women, at the Crestone Mountain Zen Center. See you soon for more magic than we can stand!

On a final note, a quote from Marpa The Translator, Milarepa’s Guru (Milarepa was the Guru of the Premier Yogini Yeshe Tsogyal–more on her at this years retreat.

“When your numbers are many, use strategy; when your numbers are few, use Magic!”

Don’t know what will happen this year… Mark the dates if you’re moved, feel your heart and follow the signs.

With oodles of love,

Sofia Diaz

P.S. Click here for more information and to register for the Women’s Crestone Retreat, August 9th – 14th, in Crestone, Colorado. This retreat is limited to 26 women and will sell-out quickly. Reserve your spot today and celebrate 10 years of Great Women’s Practice with Sofia Diaz!

Listen here and engage a three-minute yogic meditation with Sofia Diaz.