Meet Cora Wen. We were unable to make a clear Skype connection, but I told her I’d catch up with her at some point and make that happen. Till then, enjoy the words of this sweet, very open and funny yoga teacher that I did not get to meet on my Yoga Road Trip. She is a very unique combination of flexible, strong, humble and full of life and I’m honored to share her with you.
SS: After looking at everything you are doing, I love your energy. What I think is amazing about you is you have a lovely balance of grace and purity and honesty mixed with a wicked sense of humor. Your sirsasana challenge is hilarious. I am going to submit to that for sure in the future! I do think you are someone with “less dust in their eyes” and I appreciate you being a part of this.
CW: Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to look at my stuff because I’ve got a lot of funny, funky stuff out there. I try to make stuff as accessible as possible – it’s a complicated system.
SS: I think there’s a great parallel in that with yoga about un-complicating things. Can you speak to that?
CW: Perhaps that ‘s because I come from a Buddhist background and took refuge in the Buddha as a child. In the Buddhist tradition we have lots of lists. I make fun of that. I have a list of lists. I like things in a very orderly fashion, so perhaps we take this complicated system of yoga and philosophy and serenity and inquiry and sometimes we make it more complicated. Sometimes its so complicated people can’t understand. So I’m wanted to give it in a way that is more relevant and accessible to people and I that there is a lot of yoga these days where people are trying to make it fancier. To be groovier or fancier wanting something. Everyone is wanting to somehow be different. Thinking “I am independent. I can be anything in this world” which I can in America. In an Asian background which I come from and which yoga comes from it’s more about tradition and paces and steps and waiting and delving inside.
I had a conversation with a student recently and she said, “I can’t make these connections you are talking about. What am I supposed to do now?” And I said, “I don’t know what you are supposed to do now. I am giving you some tools. I don’t want to lead you by the hand and give you a formula because I don’t know who you are really. I don’t know who I am really. That’s the inquiry. That’s the yoga.” So I can only say, “This is what I have learned. This is some things that have helped me. How does that feel for you? How does that yoga feel for you?” If I tell you about energy meridians and things that have had some proof, some evidence by either long-term history of many people doing it or by evidence based. There are things that are evidence based and things that are maybe not as proven. In yoga there are evidence based things like if you stretch muscles and gain mobility in a re-cooperative situation that it will help you. That is an evidence-based thing. But then there are non-evidence based things like you just generally feel happier. There is no evidence of that other than our lives.
SS: That’s where I find the magic in yoga, in the things that are so profound that they are unexplainable and that’s why I am in awe of this practice. Can you tell me how yoga has impacted you?
CW: I came to yoga for the meditation practice so for me I had come into the Buddhist practice in a very traditional Asian way and there’s not a lot of information. I was told to sit down, be quiet, be kind and there’s not a lot of instruction.
Westerners like a lot of information. The Eastern tradition is more vague. So as a child straddling the east and the west – I want to understand logical things in a Western way. Wondering, OK… it makes you feel great, but why? I can tell other people how they can feel better. We like a very evidence based process. In the East it’s more feeling. It’s looser. It’s more flowing. The answers, they always change. That’s why it’s always frustrating for a Westerner to deal with Asians in business because it’s not always so clear.
For me what I found in yoga is it really helped me access some of the teachings of the Buddha because I felt it physically in my body. I felt this connection. This Santosha (contentment). This absolute connection to something physically I could feel and I can access it.
For instance, the very first public class where I was with a teacher was with Rodney Yee. It was a very small class. It was in retreat, in the Redwoods of Northern California. It was my very first class and I went up in a backbend and I felt this amazing thrill of joy, this connection… and I felt Oh, peace is possible! Yes! But I also had thirty years of Buddhist practice – hearing things like, “make your bed.” So when you are ten and some Buddhist master says make your bed it’s very profound. There is a Chinese saying, “Eat your rice, wash your bowl.” I like that because it’s very simple.
Buddhist things are very simple. That order in my life translates into taking care of myself. Make my bed. Be responsible. Be responsible for your actions. Be responsible for where you stand and who you are. That was all great but it was laid in a bed of guilt and shame, as all religions tend to be. I had a lot of shame as an Asian woman. The most shame would happen when I would sit in mediation and nothing was happening. And I was uncomfortable in my body. I was uncomfortable sitting – my knees and elbows hurt. My lotus was really uncomfortable. So when I had this physical yoga connection in my body, it was like a light came on. So for me, always, the meditation practice has been the biggest – which is what I share with Erich Schiffmann.
Erich holds that in the highest. He gave me the permission in his teachings, in his being, that the meditation didn’t have to be so rigid. I was able to connect with much more that I was looking for but it didn’t mean I had to hold my arms a certain way. Sitting with the chest lifted a certain way… Not that that’s bad, it’s just that we can get caught up in the form. I had done form for a long time and I wasn’t able to access the content. When I changed the form to fit my physical body then I was able to access all the teachings.
SS: I want everyone to look closely at one of your upcoming trips. Magical Mystical Yoga in the Himalayas. I wish I could go with you on that one!
CW: It’s my heart. It’s going home. Back to the Hims. They are the sacred mountains, no one can mistake this.
SS: We have totally run out of time, and I want to save something for people to look for in the book. I’ve added a link to the Himalayan trip because it just sounds so fantastic! I’ve also included links to your teacher training, which looks unique and wonderful. Much love and I’ll see you on the next Yoga Road Trip. Namaste.Tweet
